Christmas Trees are here!

Today, Christmas trees have now replaced the pumpkins.  We've just created our own little forest of fresh cut fraser fir, balsam, spruce and pine.  Oh, the smell of evergreens, I love them all.  The cool, wet summer everyone lamented has given us gorgeous, lush Christmas trees.  They thrived this past season.

We do try to keep the fall here on the farm till the American Thanksgiving is over, it can be such a short season with the excitement of Christmas pushing itself into our lives.  Last weeks snow storm showed us the merits of not delaying for too long.  We were still feeding the left over pumpkins to our animals, a treat for them, when last weeks freeze descended upon us.

Monday's warm temperature was a welcome relief, the snow melted and the last of the pumpkins were scooped up and deposited out on the fields.  We got the rest of our beets harvested and James got his garlic planted. Jim has been out plowing the fields before he needs to plow anymore snow.  Amazing how fast you can move when you see how quickly winter weather can come.  Can't complain, we're not in Buffalo.

With our winter urn workshop successfully behind us we look forward to getting ready for the Coming of Christmas.  Along with decorating winter urns and wreathes, we're baking our Christmas cookies, the market is lighting up with colour, and Fairy Tale Lane and our forest trail are becoming enchanted.  The farm is buzzing with the anticipation of a very Creative Country Christmas.

Come join us in our celebrations.  Check out our events page for full details of all that is happening on the farm this December.

We're opening daily beginning Saturday November 29th.
Looking forward to seeing you.

Winter Urn Workshop Sunday November 23rd

Add cheer to your outdoor décor making your home just as welcoming outside as it is inside.  Create your own winter urn.

Cathy Bartolic of Ontario Farm Fresh Marketing Association will guide you through the art of making a personal and professional looking winter urn that you can enjoy all season. 

Participants will use a variety of fresh evergreen boughs, natural elements, and a selection of accessories to create a beautiful arrangement in a 12” pot that can stand alone or be used as an urn insert.

All materials are included.  You leave with the urn you create.  Bring along a sharp pair of pruning shears and gardening gloves if you have them. 

Hot apple cider and snacks are provided.

Come and have fun.  Be creative.  Take home a beautiful urn and leave the mess with us.

Sunday November 23^rd

1:30 till 3:00

$65.00 (HST included)

Bring a friend and save $5.00 each.

Space is limited.  Advance registration is advised. 

Call 905-985-6749 or e mail forsythefamilyfarms@gmail.com   

Halloween is right around the corner!!!

The excitement builds as Halloween is less than a week away.  Kids have been having a great time in the corn maze and pick your own pumpkin patch, barnyard adventure area.....

Finally the weather is co-operating.

This is our last weekend for our Harvest Festival and each day has a special event.  Saturday meet Sandra from Mom's Cookie Jar.  You've been enjoying their gingerbread cookies for years.  She is here Saturday to lead you through cookie decorating.  For a small charge you can choose and decorate your own cookie to take home... mmmmm  sweet memories

Sunday-  Join us as the Geissberger brothers press our apples into cider from 10 till 2.  Their process is bag in the box packaging where the cider keeps for a year, unrefrigerated and 3 months once you open it.  Their trailer has won the Ontario Innovation award and was also featured on Dragons Den.

Sample and you couldn't resist taking home the fruits of their labour.

Come on out and enjoy the farm.  We've got some delicious specials in our market,   The air is fresh and the view is beautiful.  A great way to relax.

Pumpkins, Apples, Food and Fun equals Fall

Fall is not only beautiful with the leaves changing colour, it is fun and delicious.  The colours are at their peek and driving down our lane takes you back to the beauty of the country.  Traffic and worries can be left behind.

The apple and pumpkin crops have been good this year.  The Mutsu and Fugi apples are now available, fresh picked, in our market making for over 7 varieties to choose from.  These two varieties are my favorites and well worth the wait.  The Mutsu also make a fantastic apple pie.

Time to stock up on Honeycrisp apples, we have them on special for $1.95/lb.  They are one of our most popular varieties - juicy and sweet.

Our Harvest Festival continues.  We've had great reviews about our home farm.  "It feels like a farm and is beautiful".  Enjoy time with family and friends.  Take a breath of fresh air and relax.

Come for some fun and good food!

Giving Thanks for the Harvest

Each season has it's own special crops that we look forward to with eager anticipation.  Nothing quite compares to the fall.  

The cooler weather stimulates our appetite and we look forward to cooking all our comfort foods once again.  The gleam is evident in children's eyes when they see the pumpkins in the patch and around the barns.  Decorating is so easy with all the colours found in the gourds, Indian corn, garden mums and squash.   

Who wouldn't like the fall. 

Our Thanksgiving holiday gives us the opportunity to reflect back on the year, to celebrate the successes and put the failures behind us.  It's an opportunity to gather with family and friends enjoying the many traditions developed over the years.  

Here on the farm, our traditions are helping us stay focused in our transition from Markham to Greenbank.  You'll find some changes but there is still a lot that is the same including most of our staff. We're working hard to keep the well loved activities and fit them in to new surroundings so familiar traditions will continue.  We've been told we're off to a good start.

The farm and countryside up here is really beautiful and relaxing.  We've got space and fresh air.   

Come for a visit.  We are open daily in October including Thanksgiving Monday.  

Check our Harvest Festival page for detailed information on our hours open and activities available.

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

Farm to Fork - This little piggy went to market...

Our pigs in the barn are for the kids to watch them grow and grow they did -  big enough to go to market. We've now got them back and in our market as bacon, sausage, hams, chops and roasts.  They were grain fed with no animal byproducts added as well as no added hormones or antibiotics.  Our sausage is also gluten free.  Just had some pork chops for dinner - yum.

We have fresh chickens raised by us as well out on pasture.  We start them as chicks as many of you have seen when you've come for a visit.  If you don't have a chance to come to the farm this weekend and pick them up fresh, dressed and ready to cook, you can find them in our freezers.

You would be impressed with their flavour.

Summer - Where has it gone?

This summer may have been not have been the warmest but for us it has been the fastest.  I don't wish time away, each year it just seems to be speeding up.  Now we are at Labour Day weekend and planning for the fall season.  Our Harvest Festival will be happening each weekend in October.  Our pumpkin crop is looking great.

Our farm is open Saturday, Sunday and Labour Day Monday.

Our corn maze opens this weekend, a tradition that goes back over 20 years.  Come and get lost.  The corn is at least 10 feet tall.  Wagon rides to our Fairy Tale Lane and Forest Trail will be available Labour Day Monday from 11 till 4

The cool and occasionally(like almost every Tuesday) wet summer days have been comfortable to work in and have had good and not so good effects on our crops.  It benefited our strawberry crop, extending it into late July but has destroyed our tomato crop - blight has turned our tomato plants black.  This happens on the first year we were planning our first annual Celebrate Tomatoes weekend, September 6th and 7th.  We won't have pick your own this year but we will still have some tomatoes, thanks to the southwestern Ontario weather being more co-operative.  Look for some of our favorite recipes using them.

Come on out for a visit.  There is always lot's of fun on the farm.  We are open weekends in September - Saturdays 9-5, Sundays 10-6, and this Labour Day Monday 9-5.

Admission Saturday and Sunday $3.50/person 2 years plus, Labour Day Monday $5.50 + HST includes the wagon ride and trails.