Did We Celebrate!

Our Celebration of Spring was a busy one. We had beautiful weather Saturday and a good number of families enjoyed the bubbles, the animals, Dairy Farmers of Canada cow Moonica, walks in our Enchanted Forest and more.

• The animals had a wonderful time visiting with everyone and eating lots of treats. Our sheep were sheared and both the sheep and the goats had pedicures, now they're prancing.



• New baby goats born last Tuesday are doing well. One who just liked its mom's armpit has finally found her udder and bottle feeding is not as important for it's survival.



• Sunday and Monday with the unsettled weather offered challenges to our visitors. They were rewarded with seeing the birth of 2 sets of twin goats. One pair was born on Sunday and the other Monday. Thanks to Adam who took the pictures today, you can see some of the action.



• Lisa at Things to do York Region came Saturday and took pictures. Check out her site for lots of info on activities happening in York Region.

Strawberries will be in about 3 weeks. We have blossoms on our plants now in Greenbank. So far it looks like it will be a good berry season.

Can someone turn off this rain?

Sheep Shearing on Saturday

My shearer has been booked to come Saturday around 11:00am to shear our sheep as part of our Celebrate Spring event in Markham.
Looks like the weather will co operate and give us some sunshine.

Celebrate Spring Victoria Day Weekend

We just may see some sun, the forecast sounds better for Saturday than it will all week. We've been getting lots of rain so wear your boots even if it is sunny.

We've got lots of fun planned for this weekend.
This will be our first ever Celebrate Spring event and we've been planning for weeks.

• Dairy Farmers of Canada will be visiting with Moonica for Saturday and Sunday. They've got some fun activities and you can even milk Moonica. Very realistic without the hazard of getting kicked.


• Start thinking about clearing out your freezer to make way for the new harvest. We'll be have jam making demos throughout the weekend. Asparagus is now here, the rhubarb is coming on strong and before you know it strawberries will be here. So much to do, so little time.


• The wind is wonderful at our farm in the spring, just great for kite flying. Our Barnyard Adventure area has no trees or overhead wires, perfect for kites.


• Be creative and make your own bugs.


• Celebrate the sun and plant a sunflower


• Visit our new babies

These activities and more are available at our regular weekend admission price of $6.50+HST/person 2 yrs +.

Don't forget to sign up for our Pumpkin's Journey (details in the market)

Hope to see you this weekend.

Celebrate Mothers Day with our Moms

Hurray, the sun shone for us on opening day. We were blessed to have some triplets born Friday night just in time for the kids to visit on Saturday. A single lamb was born to another mom Friday morning, it needs some bottle feeding to help it along as mom isn't too keen on feeding him. Today we had another set of twin lambs born and mom and babies are doing fine.

Celebrate Mothers Day with our moms. Admission is free on Mother's Day to all Mom's(Grandmas to) who come accompanied by their children. Our ewes would love to see you. Maybe we'll have some newborn goats too, one nanny goat looks really ready.

See you this weekend.

Season opening Saturday April 30th

The date is quickly approaching and we're busy getting ready. The animal pens are cleaned out, the playareas are getting freshened up and Lynda and Eileen are busy getting the market ready. The last few days of sunshine have been a help. Myrna has been busy booking the school tours. We've still got some openings but they're filling up fast. England Trip James, Dan and I have just returned from a week long farm market tour in England. We explored the countryside with fellow Ontario Farm Fresh Marketers visiting farm shops from York south to London. Spring is about a month ahead there; the daffodils, cherry and apple trees along with the spring flowers were all in bloom. The weather was warmer than usual and we had lot's of sun. Denure Tours from Lindsay Ontario organised the logistics of the tour and Cathy, our fearless executive director of Ontario Farm Fresh Marketing Association researched and chose our stops. We enjoyed lots of sausage, some mushy peas, fish and chips and cornish pastries. With a morning tour of the city of York we were steeped in the history of the land. So many stone fences and hedgerows, lots of sheep and cattle grazing. The Yorkshire landscape was my favorite. We'll have pictures posted on facebook for you to see. What can we apply to our farm? First off you'll see more colour and more gardens. We'll add a few more activities through the season. It will take time to absorb and put into effect all we saw and want to do. One of the best things was getting to know our fellow Ontario marketers better. 4 New Kids in the Pens We've had 2 sets of twins born this week. Mom's and babies are doing well. They'll be in Markham for you to see them. Try to catch the babies springing about their pen. The energy of youth is very evident in the kids. Mother's Day Celebrate Mom's and bring her to the farm for a relaxing outing. Come visit our moms. Remember on her special day we give free admission to Moms when they come with their kids, old and young. Victoria Day Weekend James is organizing special activities this weekend for us to Celebrate Spring. Bring your kites, our barnyard adventure area is great for kite flying with no trees or overhead wires. We usually have a great breeze blowing especially in the spring. See you all soon.

SPRING IS HERE

Winter didn't seem to take too long this year, it was a busy one. Check out our website for some new stuff. We are currently developing our birthday party program and there is a page for that. You can email us an inquiry and we'll send you out the information as soon as it is ready. CELEBRATE SPRING NEWSLETTER is on our website as well filled with lot's of information on our farm. Print it off and keep it handy for our produce availability guide and our events calendar. Try the yummy recipe. There is a link to our newsletter on the home page. JAMES IS JOINING US Our son James is now working on the farm with us. He is in charge of our social media and keeping us up to date on twitter and facebook. Are you our friend yet? As well he is persuing some independant enterprises raising some pastured poultry and a couple acres of crops including tomatoes. These will all be available when ready in our Markham market. James is also planning 2 events this season - Celebrate Spring on Victoria Day weekend with kite flying and more as well as Celebrate Honey Monday August 1st. We'll keep you posted about exact details. WE'RE OFF TO ENGLAND Farmer Jim will be holding down things here on the farm while I and the boys are off on a market tour in England. It will be exciting to see how the Brits do things and we hope to come home with loads of ideas. See you soon. We're opening Saturday April 30th.

Spring is coming

A sure sign the winter is coming to an end - the birth of lambs. So far we have had 2 sets of twins and a single born to our ewes and there are more to come.
All babies are doing fine and holding their own in the flock.

Horse Crazy
It has all started with our son's girlfriends. They themselves would have nothing to do with horses, even been given the chance to have one. Their girlfriends are different. They love them.
So guess who arrived in our barns today-two Arabians. They are a mom/daughter team called at this time Monet and Lily. I have been assured that they are of lovely temperament. My son concurs as he feels he risked his life helping to load them for transport home.
He still has a healthy dose of fear (slowly turning to respect) for the animals.
Oh what they do for love.

Lily and Monet will star in our birthday party program called Crazy for Horses. We are currently developing a comprehensive birthday party program for our Greenbank farm that will allow people to enjoy our farm while celebrating their child's birthday. Be on the look out - more details to follow.

This winter has been a busy one with conferences and workshops attended in the USA and Ontario. I and 3 of my staff just completed one on birthday parties, we're saturated with amazing ideas. It is an exciting time to set forth on a new venture and we're looking forward to presenting it to you.