Deep River Farmers' Market

Wow, we had such a fabulous day yesterday at the First Deep River Farmers' Market.  It was so crazy that I didn't even get a chance to take any pictures!  Luckily there were some great photographers on hand.

It was really nice because they have lots of volunteers, so some weeks if I have to go by myself I know there will be help.  This was just before opening at 10.

This was about 5 minutes later.  We brought nearly twice as much meat as we usually do to Renfrew and were basically sold out in an hour!  How amazing is that?!  I actually phoned Grandma in Beachburg and she and Ella went by the house to grab the bit of pork left there and brought it up to us.  It was like tracking Santa's sleigh, customers kept coming by and checking her progress  :) We then sold just about everything Grandma brought up too.  I even sold my smocked sundress -in fact I could have sold it twice.

It was such an amazing day (well 3 1/2 hrs).  We had a better day than even the Taste of the Valley in Cobden, which I didn't think we could top.

In light of the day we had yesterday, we are updating our farmers' market schedule as follows:

June: 2 -Renfrew Market -new location at the Fair Grounds

            9 -Deep River Market

            16 -Renfrew Market

             23 -Deep River Market

July:  7 -Deep River Market

             14 -Renfrew Market

             21 -Deep River Market

            28 -Renfrew Market

August:  4 -Deep River Market

                  11 -Renfrew Market

                  18 -Taste of the Valley -Renfrew Armouries

                  25 -Renfrew Market

September:  1 -Deep River Market

                         8 -Renfrew Market

                         15 -Deep River Market

                         22 -Renfrew Market

                         29 -Deep River Market

October:    6 -Renfrew Market

                       13 -Taste of the Valley -Cobden

Holy Watermelon

The first of Colin's watermelon harvest.  This bad boy weighs in at 50lbs.  I'm not sure why he grew this kind, he's the only one to eat watermelon.  He's got 8 more, nearly as big!  Watermelon anyone??

One Million Pounds

Colin and I used to be on the Board of Directors for the Ottawa Valley Food Co-op.  You would not believe the hours wasted at each and every board meeting while discussing 'organics'.   Now don't get me wrong, I believe in true organics and am all for educating people (most Board members weren't farmers).  But these conversations never had anything to do with the agenda and only made the meetings drag on for 5+ hours -you can tell the others weren't farmers, farmers don't have that kind of time to waste 'talking'.  But I digress...

At these board meetings there was a 'farmer' that the others considered the be all and end all when it came to 'organics'.  He was always fear mongering and telling them that it was nearly impossible to find crop seeds that weren't Genetically Modified.  This drove me crazy.  There are plenty of seed options out there if you bother to look.   Which is what brings me to the point of this post.

You will likely recall that Colin started another business last year in attempts to actually make a living farming.  He built a mobile seed cleaner and has been going around cleaning seeds for farmers.  This way they can keep their own seeds.  We've been doing this personally for years.  You can only do this with non-GMO seeds!
Well, here is Colin cleaning his 1 millionth pound of seeds!!  That means there are a lot of farmers out there growing non-GMO crops.  There are even more out there that do it without cleaning their seeds first.  Not bad when you consider the relatively small number of farmers there are in Renfrew County!

This and That

Ella and her babies having a tea party.  It's Lucy's birthday.

Daddy finishing up the no-till soy beans.  They are now finished all the field cropping.  Hurray!!

They have been busy this week resurfacing the highway in front of our farm.  This train of equipment was chewing up pavement at one end and then putting it back down as new pavement at the other end.  Made getting up the highway to the other field fun -not!

I'm a bad blog owner.  I completely forgot to take a picture yesterday for World Wide Knit in Public day.  Grandma and I were knitting away at market.  And then I forgot to bring the camera with me today for our time at Expo 150.   There was a good turn out, but we didn't get to see anything except the animal tent.  Had some really good conversations with the general public.  Answered some really bizarre questions.  I wish the people who watch "Food Inc" would realize that it isn't 'gospel' and was produced to further a certain agenda.  They also need to remember that we live in Canada and have much different (and stricter) rules than the Americans.  And we raise our animals differently.

Renfrew Farmers' Market

We were at the Renfrew Farmers' Market again today.  This was our second week (we missed the last week for the dance recital).  It was nice to see a few more new vendors out.  Grandma comes along to help set up the tent and help keep an eye on Ella.  The other ladies at the market are great too.  They all love to have Ella around and are always telling me that she isn't driving them crazy  :)  It's always nice to have another adult along on Market days.  Sometimes things can get crazy or even just so you can take a bathroom break.



  The Renfrew Market is Saturdays from 7-12.  This makes for a very early day for us.  I'm up at 5am to get all the pork loaded into the coolers.  It's about 30 minutes from our house to Renfrew.  I try to have the coolers ready by 6 when Colin gets up because he will load them onto the truck for me.  They get terribly heavy when full.  As you can see, Renfrew closes off a side street downtown.  We're right between Town Hall and the Library.  Ella was very happy to discover that Renfrew doesn't charge children for a library card.
We're not at the Petawawa Farmers' Market this year.  For some reason, no one seems to know if it's even happening.  I know I sent an email a while ago and they hadn't decided on anything.  When the invitation came for the Renfrew market we decided to try there.  The Petawawa market was on Fridays and finished before people were done work.  We have high hopes for the Renfrew Market since it is on Saturdays and right down town.

Farmgirl Friday -3 June 2011

Joining the Farmgirl fun this week.

Yesterday, I discovered that adrenalin does NOT over power asthma (at least not in a minor type of situation).  The Canada geese were in this field eating the Indian corn that Ella and Grandpa had just planted this morning.  So I told Ella to run out in the field being as loud and crazy as she wanted  to chase off the geese.  I guess I should have told her to only go so far.  The geese wouldn't fly away, only moved further down the field.  So of course, Ella kept going.  It was so windy yesterday that she couldn't hear me screaming shouting for her to stop.  So I had to try to run after her (she's half way across a 50 acre field by now).  I thought I was never going to get her stopped in time and had visions of her falling in the river (still full and deep) or disappearing into the swamp (has happened to cows) before I could catch her.  Finally the wind stopped for a moment and she heard me.  As I sat on the ground wheezing, we had a good chat about the dangers of the river and not going so far from home.






Inspired by my friend over at Heritage Farmgirl and due to dress desperation (aka nothing suitable for in public).  I've been making some new dresses.  The first 2 are a combination of 2 Simplicity patterns.  I really like them and Colin loves them.  The last is a Vogue and it is beautifully designed (fully lined and everything).  Vogue sure knows how to make a pattern.  I'm just home from Knit Night and Colin was sleeping on the chesterfield, so the pictures are a funny kind of angle.




We have a wedding to attend in June, so this was the first dress I made.  I had absolutely nothing to wear to a wedding.  I found this material on sale at Fabricland for $2.50 a metre -unheard of price these days.  I got enough to make Ella a matching dress too.  Once I finish it and the pins are out, I'll get a picture of her too.  This is the style that Colin really likes.  I like it too, though I think I look better in my head than in pictures  :)









This is just an everyday kind of dress.  Good for groceries or just hanging around doing stuff  :)  The material came from the Mennonite store in Floradale.  I love that store.  They have such a great selection of cotton floral prints.  The fabric is great quality and very reasonable prices.  The staff is lovely too (which is more than can be said for the Pembroke Fabricland most days).  I have been known to make trips to the St. Jacob's area just to be able to go there.  Luckily it's only 1 1/2 hours from Toronto, so it makes a nice day trip when we are visiting my sister.  Of course we hit the market too.






This is the Vogue dress and I'm just not sure.  Like I said, the pattern is beautiful and went together well.  But then I put it on...


  I thought the pattern had a 20's farm house dress kind of vibe and had high hopes for it.


Please be completely honest.  If you think it looks terrible say so.  It's hard to get an honest opinion around here because Colin and Ella think I look beautiful in everything.


  My friends on Facebook have been sharing this old Body Shop ad and I thought this was a great place to share it too.  Obviously from this post it's easy to see how true this really is.  Though I don't want a super model's body (child-like) I really would like the body I had when Colin and I met.  The size someone who's only 5 ft, on a good day, should have.  Sorry I can't make it bigger.  It says "there are 3 billion women who don't look like supermodels and only 8 who do"  Too bad Mattel made them stop the ad campaign.

Farmgirl Friday

There doesn't seem to be a Farmgirl Friday link post today.  So I'll do my own  :)

Colin and Dad are busy out in the fields this week.  First Colin applied our 'organic soil conditioner' a.k.a. piggy poo.  The last few days they have been busy with the cultivator and the planter.  As of 9:30 last night, when Colin came in for SUPPER!, they had about 30 of the 50 acres of wheat planted.  They have been hard at it today too, so should be able to finish the wheat -if the rain holds off long enough.  Then it's on to corn.   Colin has the first lot of sweet corn planted and hopes to plant the second lot Tuesday or Wednesday.  We don't see much of Daddy these days.  At least he breaks for lunch, some farmers don't and their kids don't see them for days.   It really doesn't slow you down that much to take a 1/2 hour to eat and see your family -they are the reason you're out there slugging away.

The greenhouse continues to do great things.  We really need the May 2-4 to arrive so we can move things out into the garden.   I've never seen the cucumbers grow so much in the greenhouse.

The wild plums are flowering now, hopefully they have waited long enough and won't get their annual frost.  I would love to get some wild plums.  Colin's Dad talks about the plum preserves his Mom made with them.  I would love to give it a try for Dad.  My violets are flowering now too.  My garden will soon be a sea of purple.  Spring has finally arrived.

Blogger is up and running again.  Check out the other Farmgirl Friday posts.

Yarn Along -11 May 2011

This week's Yarn Along isn't a project on my needles.  I have to do some sewing before I can get back to the knitting part.  The purse is coming along nicely.  I found that I can knit all 4 parts of each square on double-pointed needles -instead of making 4 pieces and sewing them to make a square.  I did change the last few rows though.  The moss stitch in the pattern was much too tight, so I put in a couple of rows of yo, p2tog.  I'll have to make notes on my Ravelry page.

I'm 'reading' Sewing Clothes Kids Love: Sewing Patterns and Instructions for Boys' and Girls' Outfits .  Wow, it has some really cool clothes.  I'll have to get some basic clothes finished for Ella before I make any of these.  Though I'm sure the patterns will look just as nice without all the embellishment.  I like the shapes of the dresses.  I also like that the book goes to size 12, so many books stop about 6.


Looks like we finally have a barn cat that's good at caring for her kittens not just good at having kittens. Midnight is taking good care of her babies.

The kittens are getting so big.  They fit easily in my hand the last time we were out for a visit.  Now at 2 weeks they are looking great.  Midnight seemed a little bothered by us this day, so I snapped a couple of quick pictures and we put the babies back.

Farmgirl Friday

Home from the laundromat and found Colin in the yard getting the corn planter ready.  It was starting to spit rain, but he's hoping to get out in the fields soon.

We actually do have one crop in the ground and growing.  The garlic is springing up and looking great.  It's nice to see something actually growing.

Daddy has been working on a project the last few days.  I think it's wishful thinking:

 

Even with the solar heater, I think it's going to be a while before we are swimming.
And just a bit of sunshine to end today's post -my first daffodils of the year.  The daffodils usually flower around Easter, but they were barely through the ground this year even with Easter being late.

Go check out the other Farmgirl posts over at Deborah Jean's Dandelion House.

Seed Cleaning Pictures

It has been another busy season so far cleaning seed for  local farmers.

In this picture, I am at the local feed and seed dealer cleaning a 20 tonne trailer load of oats. They were very good quality oats and cleaned well in just over 10 hours.

I'm looking forward to cleaning a trailer load of soybeans for another customer soon. Beans clean much fast than oats. It should take me only 6 hours to clean 30 tonne of beans.

Here is a picture of the oats traveling over the top screen. This screen removes larger pieces of chaff and straw. These screenings slide down the chute to the right which I collect in a pail than discarded.

The grain falls through the openings in the screen down into the cleaner where the grain passes over 2 smaller screens separating the grain seed from weed seed.

This picture shows just how much weed seed and chaff the cleaner can remove. This day I cleaned 14 tonne consisting of  wheat, barley, oats, and soybeans. The pails and bags are full of chaff,weed seeds and light immature kernels of grain.



The chaff and light seeds on the ground are what the fan blows out. Fortunately cleanup is the responsibility of the customer. I try my best not to make too big  of a mess.     Colin

And So It Begins...

Last night Ella and Daddy got out the new seeds and all bits and pieces needed to start seeds.  Last year Daddy let Ella help (at the end and just to humour her) and realized that her little fingers were actually very good at planting the tiny tomato seeds.  This year, Daddy did the sorting and Ella did all the planting.  I think they planted about half of the tomatoes.  We have 4 or 5 different kinds (mostly heirloom) of tomatoes this year.  If you knew how much Colin hates tomatoes, you'd know how funny that is.  But our market garden customers love our selection. I like having a variety to choose from too.

We have a grow light set up in the cellar since that is the warmest place in the house.  After the seedlings get started they move over to Colin's mom's kitchen.  She has the perfect kitchen for starting seeds.  She'll babysit the plants until it's warm enough to put them in the greenhouse.  Our greenhouse is nice and warm during the day right now, but still goes past freezing overnight.

We'll have lots more to plant in the coming weeks and months.

End of an Era

Order week started at the Ottawa Valley Food Co-op yesterday and for the first time in 3 years we aren't involved.  It all feels very strange.  We've been thinking about this for a long time and it wasn't a decision that was made lightly.  We've had to make some changes that are the best for our farm and our family.

We've decided to stop selling our pork through the OVFC.  When we added up all the cost, i.e., the 10% fee (gross) that goes to the Co-op, costs to deliver to Pembroke, cost to raise the pork, it just didn't make cents sense anymore.  For example take our bacon, price is $4.20 therefore OVFC gets $0.42 on every pound we sell, minus the cost of smoking the bacon, minus the cost of the pig and minus the extra packaging required for OVFC delivery.  When all was said and done we netted about $0.01 per pound and that's not taking anything for my time.  On top of all that is the extra time that it takes to run a second supply of pork and all the extra weighing and sorting and labeling.  On OVFC delivery weeks poor Ella ends up basically ignored for two days while Grandma and I weigh and sort and label and try to keep everything organized.

We appreciate our customers who have said we should increase the price to cover the commission.  But this would require us to run 2 price lists and would cause even more work because we would have to have a separate freezer with pork labeled with OVFC prices.  Also, increasing the price would increase the amount paid to the OVFC.  It becomes a vicious circle.  I may continue to sell my preserves and hand work as they have a bigger profit margin than food stuffs.


But do not fear!!!  We are NOT going out of business.  We will still be selling our natural pork from both our farm locations.  We also will be returning to the Petawawa Farmers' Market.  The folks in Deep River are talking about a special once a month Farmers' Market where we would love to go as well.  Also, we'll be at various Taste of the Valley events this summer/fall.

There is a bonus to coming to see us in person -same great quality meat but even more affordable as there is NO COMMISSION.  Our customers don't have to pay the extra 5% as charged by OVFC.  

So please, come out to the farm or see us at the Market, we love meeting our customers face to face.  We're open daily 9-8 but don't forget we are a working farm, so if you are making a special trip or coming from a distance please call and I'll make sure someone is home for you. 

Don't forget that you can get natural, cage-free eggs from the farm stand location too.  Our chickens are fed home grown corn.   If you've only ever bought store eggs, you won't believe the taste difference in truly fresh eggs.

Rats

Well, mice and moles actually.  I am lucky and the rats seem to stay out in the barn.  I went to get Ella's playdoh out the other day and found this.  That's right the bleep, bleep mice have eaten through the lid, eaten a chunk of playdoh and left a pile of poo.  Needless to say, Ella was less than happy.

We are being over-run by rodents this year.  It didn't help that we lost all the barn cats to distemper last winter.  It gave them a foothold.  We have gone through so much poison.  Before I get flooded with emails please stop and think.  We have 1000s of rats in the barn, Colin has actually been attacked while walking through the barns.  I have to wash and disinfect my frying pans before I can fry anything.  And I have to keep my tupperware IN tupperware to keep the poop out of them.  The mice also keep us up at night running in the walls and floors.  Not to mention the things that get too contaminated that I won't/can't clean and need thrown out and replaced.  Luckily, with the poison in the right places, we can keep most of the mice out of the house.  Traps don't do that!

Taste of the Valley in Cobden

Every year Renfrew County puts on a number of events called Taste of the Valley.  We don't participate in many of them because it's during the busy summer season.  But we never miss the October Cobden Taste of the Valley.  We have been a part of the Taste since the beginning.  The first year they were hoping for 500 people, there were 2000!  The last two years there has been closer to 7000.  It's just one long crazy day!  Luckily we get great help from Colin's sister Elizabeth and his mom.  A neighbour lady came this year too as well as Elizabeth's daughter Brittany.  It's great having Brittany along, she runs errands for us when we just can't get away from the tables.

We were able to set up most things last night, so today we only had to pack the eleven coolers of pork.  We must have had about 3 pigs worth of pork with us this year.  This picture is about 8:30 before many people had arrived.  We had just got the bacon started on the griddle, making the hall smell yummy.


This one is from about 1:00 when there was a bit of a lull so Colin could take the time to get a picture.

It is such a long and crazy day.  But very worth while.  We sold out of bacon (150lb) by noon and were out of just about everything by 2.  We brought home only 1 1/2 coolers of pork.  A very good day.  Our brains are fried, throats sore from talking and legs exhausted.  Colin had to come home and chore, hopefully he will be in soon so he can relax.  I picked up subs on the way home because I'm not cooking tonight.  I'm not even sure if I'm doing dishes later!
It's a wonderful day and we meet so many potential customers, but I'm also very glad it's once a year  :)

Bus Tour

Momma and Daddy actually got away for a day on Tuesday.  The Renfrew County Community Futures Development Corp. and the County of Renfrew organized a bus tour to Prince Edward County.  It was supposed to be a tour of 10 vendors that sell local food at high volumes.   We had hoped to get lots of ideas for our farm gate/market sales.

It was a very nice drive and it was a good mix of people on the bus.  There were many familiar faces from the Market and OVFC.  The rain held off until 1ish and never did get very heavy, so we can't complain there.

I saw the original list of sites that we were supposed to see and it seemed quite interesting.  It seems that the organizers conferred with the Taste! folks from Picton.  Normally, this would be a good thing since they would know the local hot spots.  But it didn't work this time, most of the sites we visited were very 'arty' and obviously aimed at the 'Toronto' folks that come and spend their money in PE County.  We only saw one farm with farm gate sales.  Colin did get a couple of ideas from road side stands.    This picture is from the cider tasting stop.  Needless to say, Colin and I spent that stop wandering around bored.   But it was a prime example of what wouldn't work up here.

We spent the lunch hour in Picton.  I found the local yarn shop.  They called themselves a farm store, but most of the wool was stuff I could have bought at Tina's.  I'm assuming the handmade products on the right side of the store were local made.  I found the store rather annoying as almost nothing I picked up had a price.  You know what it means when a store doesn't price their products -way too expensive.   I did find a ball of Misti Alpaca sock wool to buy, I didn't want to come home empty-handed.

We may not have found much for our farm gate sales, but we did have a nice day out together.  The price for the trip was right as it included lunch and supper.  Though I was disappointed with the restaurant for supper.  We went to the Waring House.  It was obvious from the start that our group wasn't wanted (guess they figured out we were mostly real farmers).  They hurried us in and were nearly tripping over themselves to get us our meal.  All while we were supposed to be having a discussion with their marketing person.  It was also a little disappointed to read between the lines and realize that they really don't use a lot of local produce.  Mostly only when they have special events.   Only buying local products once or twice a year won't keep local producers in business.  We need every day business.  Oh well, at least supper tasted good and didn't have any wine in it (always a fear at 'fancy' restaurants).

 The best part of the trip?  I got the top half of my new sweater done  :)

Deep River

We had a wonderful day in Deep River yesterday.  They had a one day farmers' market.  Oh my, we were sold out of bacon by 10:30 (market opened at 10)!!!  We had customers lined up 5 deep, in two lines.  We have never had such a day.  We sold completely out of pork by noon.  Luckily we had plenty of pumpkins too or we would have had to go home.  We also got to meet a number of our Deep River OVFC customers.  It's always nice to put a face to the name. 

  This was the scenery behind us.  It's the Ottawa River and the Laurentian mountains (Quebec).  I'm always amazed when I see the mountains.  When I was in school and we had to draw maps, the teacher always expected us to mark on the Laurentian mountains.  It's just kind of neat that something that was just a mark on the map is now in my 'back yard' - I know, I'm a geek  :)


Fall is in full swing in Renfrew County.  It was a very enjoyable hour drive to Deep River.

First Day of Autumn

Today is the first full day of fall.  One of my favourite times of the year.  The humidity is gone, there is a cool edge to the breeze, it's sweater weather, the pollen/ragweed is gone, just everything to make Momma happy.  I just saw the weather for today and we actually have windchill!!!  It is 14C but feels like 11C.  Wow, didn't expect that.  We actually might get frost tonight or tomorrow. 

My Worst Fear (well, one of them)

See this beautiful field of grain corn?  It's drying nicely, in fact it's drier now than last year's crop was in December.  I bet you are asking yourself how on earth this picture could be scary??
Look at the picture again.  Do you see Ella standing there in her bright pink raincoat?  No, you can't - and she's only 3 rows in!!!

  Every year I hear about children getting lost in cornfields.  And not every story has a happy ending.  They often get lost this time of year.  It gets cold and damp overnight and they are such little people and usually dressed for day play.   This is why I insist that anyone who watches Ella does so constantly.  No naps, no long chats in another part of the yard.  Yes, give Ella freedom to run around and play, but make sure she's always in view.  Not too much to ask, right?

This time of year is so noisy in the cornfields.  It's actually dangerous for farmers wandering in the field checking on the corn.  A farmer can actually sneak up on a bear in a cornfield in the fall.  You can imagine how bad a scenario that is, bears don't like to be surprised.  The leaves rustle so much you can't even really hear people calling.

I don't think Colin realizes just what would happen if Ella wandered into the cornfield.  I would find her, come hell or high water.  And if I had to knock down every stalk of corn in the field to do it, I would.   I don't care if it would cost thousands for Colin to buy corn all winter for the pigs.  No corn would be safe until my baby was too.

Old Faithful

Well, I guess they aren't too faithful anymore or else Colin's Dad wouldn't have bought the 'new' combine.   I thought I'd post a couple pictures of the old combines.  They had bought the red combine for parts, but it turned out to be in better shape than the old one.  They had one set up to do corn and one to do soy beans.  It was handy having the two of them as corn and soy bean season can overlap.


This is a Cockshutt 545.  It is 35 years old, or so. It has the corn head on in the picture on the right.

This one is an Oliver 545.   It is the predecessor to the Cockshutt.  It’s closer to 40 years old.  It’s got the soy bean head on in the picture.







They put in long years of service.  They've owned them for about 25 years.  The last few years though Colin and Dad were spending more time 'fixing' the combines than harvesting with them.  They were a huge source of aggravation at a time of year when tempers are already short.   Even fixing the combines was becoming harder and harder.  Manufacturers  aren't making the parts anymore and new parts don't fit the old machines.  The old machines are also a little small for the acreage we crop now.

All that being said, the combines aren't going to the scrap heap.  Colin sold them to Tim, one of his Mennonite friends (and fellow pork producer).  His combine is about the same vintage and he should be able to salvage pieces to keep his old machine going for a few more years.  Hopefully by then prices will turn around and we'll all be making a living again.

Tim brought his two oldest children with him, he often does.  The Big Sister is 5 and the Little Brother is 3.  Ella had so much fun playing with them in her play yard.  The only problem is they don't speak English.  Mennonites don't teach their children English until they start school.  But children speak a universal language, play.  There was only one moment of communication breakdown -Ella took a ball to the eye because she didn't understand what was said.  She's ok, not even black.  Boy, Mennonite children sure are well behaved.  They knew they were going home with Daddy in the combine.  As soon as the combine started up Big Sister took Little Brother by the hand and off they went.  No fuss, no begging to stay, just 'time's up let's go'.  I wish I could remember more of my university German.  Although they speak a dialect, it would helpful.  I was able to pick out a few words to help the afternoon along. I like when Tim's over with the children, Ella gets to see that she's not the only little girl who wears dresses and actually acts like a little girl.

Summer's Bounty

  The gardens have been doing really well this year.  Most things are early.  Our tomatoes and cucumbers are maturing too early, but that's because we haven't had enough rain.  The tomatoes have been splitting from uneven rain.  I'm going to have to make some tomato sauce to can and use up the extra tomatoes.  We have corn coming out our ears  :)  Colin will likely have corn well into September.  Right now he's supplying our local Freshmart grocery store.  We've had lots of vegetables to sell at our table at the Petawawa Farmers' Market.  They sure make our table look great.


Ella and Daddy were out last night picking the last of the cucumbers.  Daddy has a big box of tomatoes for the farm stand.  Ella is such a help with her little wheelbarrow.




  I love, love, love our new camera.  I took this picture of Ella at her garden.  I'm sitting on the front steps, at least 50 feet away.  The camera has amazing zoom and a really good anti-shake.  It even has a button that takes 30 shots per second.  I should be able to get a good picture of Ella with that!




Ella picked a couple of carrots from her garden.  She brought me a couple of cherry tomatoes too.  Her garden has done really well.  Daddy made sure it was well watered in the spring so that the seeds would come up.  The 'experts' say children will eat vegetables if you let them help grow/prepare them.  I guess these 'experts' never met Ella   :)  I can usually get her to at least take a bit of her vegetables, but she certainly doesn't dive into them and clean her plate.