August on the Farm - More Enchanting than ever...

We had a great day with our Celebrate Honey Festival this past Monday. Thanks to all who came out and participated. The staff had a great time presenting activities about bees and bee keeping and the honey sampling was popular. We still have honey available to sample for the next week or so, check it out next time you're in the market.
James took a bunch of pictures and will be posting them on facebook.

Our honey from our Markham Farm hives has not been harvested yet, the spring was so cool and wet that early production was down. All who are on our honey list will be called once we get our honey harvested and into the market.
Spring Blossom honey from our Greenbank Farm hives is now available in the market in a limited supply.

The farm is transforming for August. The characters from our Enchanted Forest have escaped from the woods and are scattered about the farm. Come on out and see. Your visit will be all that more enchanting.

Sweet Corn is here

Ontario sweet corn has begun and is in our market. With this past months heat it is sweeeeet and delicious. We have a gourmet sweet variety of peaches and cream corn that gives you the long lasting sweetness of a super sweet corn but with a great corn flavour.

Summer is truly here.

The farm is enchanting

The farm is enchanting in so many ways - the beauty of the harvest, the space of the countryside and coming up the release of the enchantment from our forest.

So many things are happening this summer - right now we have fresh chicken available in our market and peas and beans fresh picked or pick your own. Mmmm... nothing like fresh from the field. Raspberries are also available fresh picked in our market and sweet corn will be here by next weekend.

August will be enchanting - CELEBRATE HONEY Monday August 1st when we have bee related activities and honey sampling. Bees are amazing and the honey so sweet.

The August long weekend is the last weekend for our Enchanted Forest walk for the month of August. We close it for the month so we can do some freshening up. DON'T DESPAIR! The farm is taking on an enchantment of its own. Our wagon rides are still happening each weekend in August and we have some great surprises for you. Watch our facebook page for updates.

Berries are Fantastic

The strawberry crop this year has been one of our best. The berry patch is loaded with berries and picking is quick, the flavour fantastic.
Fresh picked berries are available at our Markham farm and Greenbank, the pick your own in Greenbank only.

Sugar Snap peas are in the market for the first day. They taste great raw and with a dip but if you want to cook them just dip them in hot water. They are best tender crisp and can quickly overcook and go mushy.

Our Birthday Party program is taking shape and we are now officially booking parties. Check out our birthday party page and if you like what you see, give us a call.

Strawberries are here and Sweet Peas too

Well, we actually started picking a week ago and opened our pick your own here in Greenbank on the 21st. Getting the berries into the market and getting set up for pick your own wiped away any thought of blogging about them.
My apologies.

We have an amazing crop of strawberries this year. There was no late frost so we were able to harvest our Wendy variety. Today we started picking Jewels, a nice sweet berry with a bit lighter red colouring than the Cavendish.

The rainy weather has put a damper on the pick your own but we've been slogging through and remained open here in Greenbank in spite of the weather. Sunday looks like a good weather forecast so we expect to be busy. Our season will extend another week at least and possibly two more. These cool nights slow down the ripening so they're not all ready at once. That's a good thing.

We've got lot's of fresh picked berries in Markham.

The sweet peas are available for pick your own in Greenbank now and our patch in Markham will be starting by the long weekend. They're sweet, sweet, sweet ....

Let's hope that next week's weather will be kinder to the pickers. Hope to see you soon.

Bee Pictures from the Workshop

Chech out the C shaped larvae.

Getting stung and removing the stinger properly. Here's a drone, hold gently by the thorax. Opening and checking the hiveMelanie showing us a brood frame

These are some photos I took at the workshop

Introduction to Bees Workshop

We've had beehives producing honey on our farm for over 20 years and in this time I've managed to pick up a lot of info from our beekeeper David. Yesterday I had the opportunity to attend an Introduction to Beekeeping workshop held at Dancing Bee Apiaries and led by the Ontario Beekeepers Association Tech Transfer Team.
It was a fascinating day. They covered most of the information necessary to start up your own hives and I gleaned lots of details to fill in my knowledge gaps.
Some of the session was hands on and I say hats off (better keep that hats on) to Tammy, Les and Melanie as they opened up hives for us to find the queen, see the brood, pollen and honey. Melanie showed us how to be stung and properly remove the stinger with venom pump from your skin.
It must have been premonition but I bought a better veil hat before the workshop started. Glad I did as the bees were not too happy to be disturbed on a rainy morning. Nothing more distracting than trying to listen and have bees crawling across the screen of your veil hat. A bee got inside and as I tried not to panic outwardly in getting it out I still managed to get stung. Can't complain when I hear Melanie tell us how she gets stung on a regular basis, I guess you get used to it.
Here are some interesting tidbits I learned.

• All beehives in Ontario are registered and beekeepers have an amazing backup team of researchers, tech support and regulations to keep our honey source safe and flowing.



• Honey bees are not considered aggressive, they are defensive and will not sting you unless you are threatening their home or them personally. If you are stung without any provocation it won't be from a honey bee.



• I see the honey bees clustered around the rabbits water dish and now know they collect water to cool their hive by placing droplets around the inside and fanning for ventilation. Heat is absorbed with the evaporation. They don't drink the water, they get all the moisture they need from the nectar they collect.



• Honey bees are a social insect with a structured hierarchy and specific roles for the workers, drones and queen. The whole colony overwinters (except for the drones) so they produce a lot of honey, some of which we can have. Other honey producers such as the bumblebee only produce small amounts of honey as only the queen overwinters.



• There are many threats to the bees - disease, mites, insect infestation, predators such as mice or bears, climate change. You have to be passionate about beekeeping to work against the odds to keep healthy, thriving and productive hives.
  
  All in all it was a really interesting and informative day. I've always had respect for the efforts of the beekeepers and a fascination with the bees. Not sure if I have the courage yet to start my own.
  Next time you have a spoonful of honey thank the bees and the beekeeper!

STRAWBERRIES ARE LOOKING GOOD.

What goes better with honey than some strawberries. There are tiny fruit on some of the varieties and lots of blossoms. I could be a good year if the weather behaves. It won't be long before they're ready for picking - approx 1 - 2 weeks for the market, no more than 3 weeks for pick your own. Check around the 10th of June for fresh picked berries.