This summer, Luke Callahan invited me on to Small Farm Academy and we chatted about seeds. A good chunk of the interview was about how we run our seed rack program.
You can listen find more detail about the episode by clicking here!
Hope you’re having a great season!
Posted in Uncategorized
The third biennial ECOSGN (Eastern Canadian Organic Seed Growers Network) Seed Conference is coming!
This year ECOSGN has teamed up with ACORN (the Atlantic Canadian Organic Regional Network) to have the ECOSGN conference at the ACORN fall conference.
Where: Moncton, NB at the Delta Beauséjour
When: November 28–30, 2016
How to register: Click here to register before November 18
This is a bilingual event with sessions in English translated to French and sessions in French translated in English
Day 1 Seed Perspective Plenary
I’ll be speaking on day 1 about Cover Crops & Rotations in Seed Production.
In addition to the the seed stream, there are 3 other farming streams on Day 1 & 2. And on day 3, though there are no seed streams (beyond a seed swap) there are still 4 farming streams. Here’s the program for the whole ACORN conference
Emily will also be speaking at the conference in the following sessions: Post Harvest Handling at Tourne-sol Farm & Opening Plenary: The Changing Face of Farming
You can register here The deadline to register is November 18.
Posted in Events, Seed Growers, Seed Workshop, Seedy Saturdays
We are happy to announce that OSA, in partnership with eOrganic, will be offering a number of the conference workshops via webinar!
You can register for the webinars here.
Below is a quick list of the webinar topics and times and you can find a more detailed list here.
I’m excited to be part of a seed webinar this afternoon at 4PM Eastern. I’ll be talking about how we approach selecting seed plants on our farm. I’ve got some pictures lined up!
If you’re interested in listening in all the details are below. (Or you can just register here: http://rsvp.momentumconferencing.com/RSVP/event/1243) There is no fee to participate.
Hosted by: The Bauta Family Initiative on Canadian Seed Security
WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 2, FROM 4:00 PM TO 5:30 PM ET
Designed according to feedback collected from across Canada, the webinar will start with a presentation on “On-farm Roguing, Selection, and Adaptation” by Dan Brisebois of Tourne-Sol Farm (QC). Part 2 of the webinar will feature a seed panel of experts from across the country who will address YOUR most important questions about seed. The panel will speak to both pre-submitted questions and live questions from webinar participants. Please come prepared to engage!
You can get more info and register here: http://rsvp.momentumconferencing.com/RSVP/event/1243
This weekend is the Ste-Anne-de-Bellevue garlic festival.
I’m always excited about the festival but I’m extra excited for this one because we’ve got two new workshops on the slate.
One of those workshops is all about Black Garlic with Andrew Craig from Major Craig’s. What is Black Garlic? Well come on out to the workshop to find out!
The second new workshop is a garlic tasting I’m leading. During the session I will introduce and describe a number of different garlic horticultural groups. We will sample 4 groups raw and 3 groups roasted. I’ve chosen groups that are quite distinct one from the other to really highlight the differences.
You can get all the details about the festival here: http://steannegarlicfestival.wordpress.com/ or on Facebook
If you plan on coming and want to invite your friends, you can share our Facebook event.
Now I’ve got to get back to my garlic toothbrush and keep cleaning!
In the last 3 years, Golden Purslane has become an on farm favorite salad green. It has a juicy refreshing taste with a sour edge that livens up a salad.
Last year we also grew a seed crop.
Golden Purslane produces small yellow flowers that only last a short time. (I have yet to catch them in picture.) They then form a small green fruit in the center of the leaves. After a bit you can peel off the cap of this fruit to find some small black seed.
I was told that this is the perfect time to pull purslane plants for seed. So we did.
We cut the whole plants and packed them into bins to bring them back to the barn.
The succulent plants were still juicy and delicious at this point.
We spread the plants out in a single layer on a tarp and added a few fans for ventilation.
Over the next month the fruit dried up and opened to reveal thousands of small shiny black seeds.
The plants stayed succulent for quite a while. After 4-5 weeks the stems started to shrivel. Around that time most of the fruit had opened.
We took the plants outside and shook them over a big tarp. The seed easily shattered. We tossed the green plants aside and collected the dried chaff and seeds.
At this point we proceeded as normal to clean the seed with screens and fans. These plants were full of seed! (Such as we did with this Brassica seed.)
Thanks to Frank Morton and Tom Stearns who told me I should pull these plants. They were right.
Posted in 1. Seed Stories, Drying, Purslane, Threshing
Tagged Golden Purslane, Organic Open-Pollinated Seeds, Succulent Seeds
There's a soft spot in my heart for Brassica rapas, hot peppers and anything crossed up. But I'll grow anything to seed at least once.
