Dougs Blog

Asparagus festival 2011 Saturday

2011-05-29T07:20:00.000-07:00

Well after a full week of rain the sun finally came out for our Asparagus Festival. The yard was still muddy and the road to the field was soft but at least it wasn't raining. On Saturday we had lots of people show up and enjoy all the things to do. We had our petting zoo, a bale fort, an large sand box filled with dry peas a lots of toys. We had hand water pump duck races for adults and the kids. At the children's area there was story time, coloring, and they could even plant a bean to take home. In the adult education area you could look over a large grain combine, look taste, and feel different kinds of grain, hay, straw, and silage. You could even taste some malted barley that was ready to go to the brewery to be made into beer. They also had a lot of samples of good from the grocery store that were made with commodities made on the farm (for example" Smarties") We had the head chef Andrew and his wife Jen from River Cafe in Calgary cooking Asparagus on an open wood fire. We also had several different artisan booths selling every thing from wooden bowls, paintings, ceramics and even homemade perogies. You could watch the asparagus being sorted, bundled, and washed in the processing shed. The Bowden Sunmaze had a bale maze for the kids to play in. The wagon ride was a popular event and allowed everyone to go to the field, watch the asparagus being picked. You could also bend pick and eat a fresh asparagus spear right from the field.

Calving season

2011-03-07T07:54:00.000-08:00

Wow what a cold calving season!!!
I can never remember such a cold calving season in the last 36 years of doing this job. Even when we calved in January we would get the odd warm spell to let us catch our breath and catch up. This year it just doesn't seem to want to warm up.

We have been calving for about the last 2 weeks and have about 45 calves. We have 130 cows to calve so we still have a ways to go yet.

When the weather is cold we check our cows about every hour in the daytime and every 2 hours, at night. If it is warm we only have to get up once in the night at about 3:00 AM after checking them at 11:00 PM and then again at 6:00 AM. We have not had that luxury this year. All things considered everyone in our family still seems to be in good spirits even while running on very little sleep.

We have had very good luck with hardly any problems other than the odd calf that gets a chill and we have to them in our "hot box" to warm them up. This box is an home made box with a large hot air blower on the bottom to warm them up and dry them off and an infrared heater shinning down from the top to allow the calf to bask in the warm heat rays. An hour in the box and the little guys are warm as toast and ready to go back with their mothers.

The temperature and the wind chill have been so cold that we have had to put "ear muffs" on our little guys for the first few days or up till an week of age. If we don't these young calves just can't seem to be able to keep warm enough. Elna and Keri have made a lot of these ear muffs and we have been very pleased with how good they work.

We do have room in our heated barn for 4 cow calf pairs and for about 7 pairs in the unheated part of the barn. After that they then go to outside pens with open front sheds for the calves.

The new Calgary Farmers Market

2011-01-19T20:14:00.000-08:00

Tonight was Elna and my first look at the new Calgary Farmers Market building and our stall. After listening to all the naysayers about how bad every thing was about this new market we were really impressed with the whole thing. It has a lower ceiling than the old building which gives it a different look, but as with anything when you get to do things a second time you certainly improve on the old one.

Our booth is right across from a large coffee booth and is right around the corner from the food court. There will be at 2 main entrances and we are quite close to the south one. We still have three stalls as before but they are each a bit larger so we will more space in our new booth. We also have a small garage door on the back side of our booth that opens up onto a patio outside to display even more product when the weather is nice in the summer.

One of the concerns has been parking and access to the market. The manager of the market told us this evening that they have 644 paved parking spots on site and another 200 within a half of a block of the market. They also have secured summer parking for the vendors at a school parking lot right next door. The market as part of their development permit with the city has had to put in a new right turn lane on the street leaving the market and the city will also be changing one of the access roads to one way to improve traffic flow. Hopefully they know what they are doing but so far it sounds like they are the right track.

We see a lot of the old vendors are at this market with many of them expanding their stalls. Also we see some new vendors coming in adding more excitement to the market.

The plan is to open on February 4th if every thing falls into place. Presently there is some issues about getting some parts for the electrical service, but if that comes through every thing should open on time. If the parts are delayed there could be a delay in the opening date, but right now everyone has their fingers crossed. We all would like to be back at the market taking in money rather than spending money as we are now.

Coaching Session

2011-01-18T08:27:00.000-08:00

Today we are in Leduc doing a coaching session for Alberta Agriculture. We are doing one on one mentoring with individual entrepreneurs about Internet marketing and on farm sales.
Pictured is Pierre Roy from Edson in our first session of the day. We took this picture and posted this post to demonstrate how we do our blog.
This was quite a challenge for us as we had a wide range of people all the way from the ones who just got their first computer this Christmas all the way up to operations that are exporting product to China.
This was a great challenge for Elna and I and we always grow and learn from these experiences.

End of an Era

2010-12-24T09:22:00.000-08:00

On December 23, with bittersweet feelings, after the last market at The

Calgary Farmers Market at Currie Barracks, all of us Innisfail Growers took down our booth after vending at the Currie Barracks since it opened. Picture to the left was taken in our booth after we finished removing all of our bunkers, etc.

As always, we are very aware of the environment so are now busy rebuilding our bunkers and display units to reuse in our new stall. We are also constructing some new ones as required.

Posing L-R John,Corry,Blaine,Carmen,Jose,Shelly,Rod,Elna,Doug.

We are very excited about the move to the new market

and are really looking forward to our new location at Blackfoot and Heritage. Our booth will be a lot more spacious and will have lots more checkout space for quicker processing of your purchases.

The parking is going to be much larger and more convenient to the building. There is much easier access right off of Blackfoot Trail.

Red Deer Advocate - Asparagus harvesters

2010-05-31T11:53:00.000-07:00

Check out the Red Deer Advocate newspapers video of our festival this last weekend

Red Deer Advocate - Asparagus harvesters

River Cafe and off to the Airport

2010-04-12T07:30:00.000-07:00

Our daughter Angela was home for the last few days. She and her husband Steve drove down to Edmonton where we picked her last Sunday.

She was to fly back home on Thursday evening when out of nowhere we had a violent spring snow storm. They closed the highway to the airport that evening so she had to reschedule her flight for Friday. We drove to Calgary Friday and saw her off just outside of the security doors. We hadn't even got back to the highway when she called on the cell phone to say her flight was canceled because the plane wouldn't be able to land in Fort McMurray. She then booked a flight on the next available plane on Sunday afternoon.

It was unfortunate she missed her flights as she missed both her baby doctor specialist appointment and the start of her pre-natal course. It will be another 2 weeks before she can reschedule her doctors appointment so she has to go back to her regular doctor for her checkup.

On the plus side we had time to go to River Cafe for lunch before going to the airport on Sunday. This is by far our favorite restaurant in Calgary. For anyone that hasn't been to River Cafe it's a great place that actually cooks your food not just reheating processed food like a lot of the places do. The service is great, the staff all enjoy your company and really make you feel welcome. It was the first time for Angie at River Cafe. She has travelled a lot all over the world in her 30 plus years but had never seen a waiter come and refold my cloth napkin when I went to the washroom. She commented on how great the food tasted, how clean and shinny the glasses were and all the other little things that they do. It's so nice that when you taste your food it actually has flavor, along with the excellent presentation and ambiance.

We then dropped Angie off at the airport and drove home. Once we got home Angie phoned from the Fort McMurray airport letting us know she arrived safely.

Learning how to make buns

2010-04-08T16:53:00.000-07:00

Today was bun making day at our house. Grandma Huntly is definitely an expert at this and both of our daughters wanted to learn this art. At about 9:00 AM Grandma and showed up with all her ingredients to make buns. She has to have her own special four, vegetable oil. She did use our cookie sheets but she did comment that they weren't as good as hers (and not as old either).

Making buns is an all day affair, Shortly after arriving she started organizing her ingredients. Angie was the head note taker and took two pages of notes to share with her sister and mother.

One of the big challenges was getting the measurements of all the ingredients as Grandma doesn't measure, she just pours and mixes. During the day they had to stop Grandma and get her to measure each ingredient and then document it and make a real recipe.

After all this at at about 4:00 pm the first batch was ready and I had to be on hand for the taste testing. Of course they we just as good as always.

We had fresh buns for Angie's birthday supper along with all the other great food.

Getting Ready for Spring

2010-04-05T07:12:00.000-07:00

With the warmer weather lately we have been able to work out side and get some maintenance done for spring. Several years ago I built a machine to drag across the hay fields to level out the humps and bumps caused by moles, a small rodent that lives in the fields. This machine has worked very well, but has become worn quite badly. Last Friday my nephew Kyle a journeyman welder was out to weld new plates on the bottom of this machine. Pictured here is Kyle in the middle of welding the plates on. Also while he was doing that outside I was in the shop working on welding on a hitch on our manure spreader.

Working the Fields

2010-04-03T22:30:00.000-07:00

Today I was discing the field where some of our garden peas will be planted this year. I disced the field twice with the tractor used for our grain farming and then Elna was out in the afternoon with her seed drill planting peas.

Discing is not practice that we do on our grain farm. With the advances in seeding equipment we direct seed most all of our field crops. For the garden peas discing warms the soil and will help kill the weeds in the garden.

This is the second planting of the season as we planted on row last November 8 just to see if fall planting of peas would work. So far they look good but it is still too cold for them to germinate.

In the afternoon I harrowed the other field where our garden peas will be planted this year. This field can be quite wet some years, but this year it very dry meaning we are about a month earlier getting on the field compared to normal. Not good as we need moisture!!

Calving Season is here.

2010-03-14T12:09:00.001-07:00

March is when we like to calve our cows. We actually start about the 20th of February and finish hopefully before the end of April. It seems that by March the weather is starting to warm up, but the mud puddles haven't got too big yet.

We have to spend a lot of time in the pen with our cows, just checking on things and being there if there are any issues. The cows get quite used to us being around and after a wile almost ignore us as we walk through the pen. They do seem annoyed when I walk through the pen at 3:00 am and shine the flashlight in their eyes.

The grand kids get quite used to being there when a new born calf opens his eyes for the first time, looks around in bewilderment and wonders what all those things are he is seeing for the first time. It seems an amazing act of mother nature to watch him learn to stand and learn to drink milk all in his first 15 minutes of his life.

The grand kids do enjoy going out to the barnyard for fresh air and to get out of the house. They do like to go feed the horses. Our old white horse named Blaze just had his 31st. birthday. In the picture you can see he is getting his mane braided.

Keri's Birthday

2010-03-10T12:01:00.000-08:00

Keri celebrated another birthday the other day. We invited her and her family over for a family meal and celebration. We were also fortunate to have my sister Vicki and her husband come for supper and a visit. They only live about 30 minutes away but it seems we never get to see them so it was great to catch up on what was happening in their lives.

Farm Marketer of the Year

2010-03-07T08:11:00.000-08:00

On February 24 and 25 we attended the Alberta Farm Fresh Producers Associations annual Berry and Vegetable school. It moves around throughout the province each year and we were fortunate that this year it was in Red Deer which is only an 1/2 drive away.

This is always a very informative couple of days with lots of great speakers all with a wealth of knowledge. We also like all the networking that happens in the classrooms and in the hallways with other growers from throughout the province.

Each year the executive of the association chooses one operation to be their "FARM MARKETER OF THE YEAR". This year Edgar Farms was chosen with this prestigious award. Jim Hill a grower from Sylvan Lake made the presentation at the noon luncheon. He spoke of what we had done on the farm and needless to say our heads got quite swollen from all the good things he said.

We received a lot of good press with this award with a large articles in the Red Deer, and Innisfail papers. We were also interviewed on the radio on the farm news section.

An email from Carlos in Chile

2010-03-04T07:54:00.000-08:00

As you may know this last January we toured Chile. One of the memorable stops was at Carlos Crovettos farm. He was the fellow that treated everyone as his best friend and taught the no till school.

Last night we received a forwarded email from him. I have attached it below. He speaks of an earthen damn that he has for irrigation water and he has opened the underwater drain to lower the water level

Pictured here is a view of his irrigation lagoon and a picture of a building that had toppled over in Concepion that I copied from "The Hindu" magazine on line.

Dated March 03, 2010 11:03 PM.
Quoting Calos

"Dear Friends:

Since few minutes ago the cell and internet communication arrive.

My family, closer friends and myself are fine. We are in the fifth day but still we do not have electricity. In the farm we have had little damage. the main one looks to be 60 meters crack in the main dam but it does not have seepage we have open underground pipe for water release. Soon an engineer is coming to check damage.

We have electric generator to produce energy in vital service like, water, light energy for 70 thousand birds, mash food, communication through satellite with CNN and national at Santiago TV.

Our apartment in Concepcion is 3 years old, fortunatelyr Saturday early morning 3.30 hours we were not in there, we were at the farm. The building has 13 floor. Monday we could enter, the building is severe damaged inside the twin towers is 25 cm lay down ay the level of our floor, has to be demolished as well as many others. In Concepcion one new one fall down with 15 floors. Rescue came from Santiago, many people is death, they have to open concret walls with electric machine to get in and rescue some alive people. This is unbelievable, how could fall down,maybe the question is why remain stand up many others tall buildings?

The earhtquake was 8.8 Ritcher scale and last more than two minutes. Unbelievable, Never feel in Chile something like that. I remember the 1939 earthquake, I was six fortunately our house was very solid concret. This one killed 10.00 people. Most of the houses were adobe brick. To day the situation is completely different. During the movement I thought that was the end of our life, every furniture was move about three meters, some fall down, many windows were broken.

Right now we have a big one............... we have had more than one hundred. Doris panic is out of control. I do not know what to do.

In Concepcion bad people is destroying every thing, some looking for something to eat and water, but many of them are taking out every thing from the super markets malls and others.. Fortunately since yesterday the army close to the police are working for better citizen control.

The central south of our country is paralyzed, the people is suffering, no food and water, oil is difficult to get. We can not send eggs to Concepcion and we are in severe danger in the farm. We have locked the two access road to the farm.

When we receive your emails we feel much better. We have had more than 120 earthquake and only today the internet is open. We loved your messagge, it is wonderfulto have we have good friends that really love us is Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay, USA, Canada, Ukraine, Germany, England, Spain, Australia, Canada, Mexico and France.

I would like to know better English and tell and explain in a better way every thing about us. Please receive everyone of your warmest appreciation for your worries about us. It is a great help for our life.

Carlos Crovetto Doris Arrau"

Off to see Angie in Fort Mac.

2010-02-15T20:01:00.000-08:00

This weekend some of our family flew out of Edmonton to see our daughter Angie and her husband Steve.

Angie is due to have her first baby this May so Elna has been missing not being closer to her, although I am sure when the big day comes she will up there in a flash.

Their was no school on Friday so Elna and her 2 granddaughters and their mother all went to see Angie and Steve. Randy and I stayed home to look after things on the farm. This was not the first time any of them had flown but while waiting to board the plane when they announce that families with small children could board first they did. They were really impressed when the Air Canada pilot saw them coming across the tarmac and with the flight attendant taking their picture in front of the plane, he offered them his hat for the picture but Elna insisted that he be in the picture.

Argentina Cattle

2010-01-25T12:15:00.000-08:00

Argentina is big into beef production. We had the opportunity to be at a beef producers place to watch him work some of his Red Angus cattle through the chute. He was applying an insecticide to cattle for the treatment of insects. After we were done we then went to his ranch house for a delicious meal and an after lunch rest in a shady hammock.

We also toured the largest cattle auction in Argentina. The day we were there they were selling 270 kg. grass fattened steers ready for slaughter. They slaughter their animals a lot smaller than we do because of the lack of feed and if they grew them out to full size you would not be able to chew the meat. Our calves are heavier than that in the fall when we wean them from the cow and then we feed them to a market weight of 500-600 kg. Because we give our cattle lots of good feed they grow faster and are more tender.

We also visited a leather coat factory that made real nice custom leather coats. Elna and her friend Evelyn both bought new jackets. We stopped at the factory at about 6:30 Saturday eve. at which time they measured everyone purchasing jackets. At 2:00 pm. Monday afternoon they arrived a our hotel with about 25 new hand made jackets custom fit for people on our tour. Considering that they don't work on Sunday and that we were not the only group buying coats that evening that seemed to be an impressive feat. Shelley also ordered one but they got the measurements wrong and immediately refunded her money back to her. If it wasn't that we were heading off to the airport in about an hour they would of just made her a new one that same day.

Argentina Soybeans

2010-01-23T08:19:00.000-08:00

Soybeans are the biggest field crop in Argentina. One of reasons for this is the Argentinian government has a "cheap food policy" and politically forces down the price of any crop grown for human or cattle feed. This means if they grow wheat they don't get paid much, probably near or below the cost of production.

Soybeans are an export crop so they are sold on the Chicago Stock exchange at the world price. The government does tax the farmer 35% of his crop before regular taxes. Even so they still grow soybeans. These beans are all GMO soybeans and also require fewer crop inputs than other crops. This cheap food policy is why they have no feed for their cattle as they can't make money growing feed grain.

The downside with this whole program is it skews the supply and demand cycle and even though there is demand for wheat hardly anyone grows wheat.

Also they ending up flooding the world market with cheap soybeans especially during their harvest period when all the farmers are selling as they need the money.

Concepcion to Santiago

2010-01-21T11:36:00.000-08:00

After our day at the No Till School we loaded on our tour bus and head back to Santiago the capital city of Chile.

After leaving Carlo's farm yesterday we drove by a grain field that was cut and put into stooks similar to what my Great Grandfather did in the early 1900's. The only difference was these were all done by hand and my Great Grandfather had a binder that was pulled by a team of horses. This field had recently been taken out of the forest and still had 2 foot tree stumps spread throughout the field so I am sure this was why everything was done by hand. It is interesting to see the vast differences in production methods in this country.

On our way back we stopped at a John Deere dealership. It was quite a change to see nice new shiny tractors, as we sure hadn't seen any in the country. The one thing we noticed was the lack of used equipment at the dealership meaning once they sell an item it goes to the farm and stays there.

No Till School

2010-01-20T08:18:00.000-08:00

After some long days on the bus today we have a short one hour drive to a farm operated by Carlos Crovetto and his brother. Carlos has been a very strong advocate of no till farming. He has spoken all over the world and was in Edmonton just a couple of years ago. He even has a classroom set up right on his farm complete with thank you plaques from no-till associations all over the world.

Upon arrival Carlos insisted on meeting each one of us individually and introducing himself to us.

We spent the entire day on the farm in the classroom and in the field. We even took our brand new bus out to the field much to the drivers dismay.

One of stops was at his brothers farm who has a collection of Mercedes Benz cars. He probably has 20 or 30 of all vintages and styles, all stored in a beautiful building.

We went to one of his other farms where they were combining. We even got a chance to get grain dust down our necks while watching the combines work.

After the tour we went to Concepcion for the night, before the long drive the next day back to Santiago.

Santiago to Chilean

2010-01-19T20:08:00.000-08:00

Up at 6:15 and drove all day with the exception of a few rest stops on the way to Chilean. Finally got to our hotel by 9:00 PM. After getting into our hotel decided to go to a grocery store, check out the produce and buy some bottled water. We had not eaten dinner yet so we went to the local pizzeria. The place was right full of customers and we were tired so the 6 of us just ordered the pizza to go and ate it in one of our rooms.

When visiting with other people in our group they were asking if we had felt the earthquake tremor of about 4.5. We were in the grocery store at the time and hadn't felt a thing. The locals were unconcerned but for an Alberta boy this was something new.

**Note. This is the same town that the on the 27 of February, 2010 had a very devastating 8.8 earthquake that has killed 700+ people. We also stayed a night in the city of Concepcion, toured the port of Valparaiso and spent a few nights in Santiago. All these places were badly effected by this earthquake. So tragic for all those people and their families.

National Election day in Chile

2010-01-17T19:50:00.000-08:00

National election day in Chile today. Every person of eligible voting age is required to vote in this country or you are assessed a monetary fine. If you don't pay your fine you can't cash your pay check, register your car, renew your drivers license, or a myriad of other inconveniences. Needless to say every one that is registered has to vote, although there are a few unregistered citizens. Can you imagine how that system would be in Canada or the United States.

Today we did a city bus tour and then we walked down to a local park for a while. Because of the election all the stores were closed, a lot of the town square was closed and as a result the city was quite quiet.

This evening we went to a fancy restaurant for dinner. On election day no alcohol can be sold or served, but because this was a private function and we are not Chilean citizens we were allowed to have wine with our dinner. Weren't we lucky!!

Planes Trains and Automobiles Today

2010-01-16T18:32:00.000-08:00

Got to sleep in till 6:15 today as we have another overnight flight to Chile tonight. Caught the train for breakfast and a nice 2 hour ride down the Sacred Valley to the nearest road that a tour bus could navigate.

We then bused up to the top of the valley (12,300 feet elevation) and drove through highland agriculture fields. Most everything is done by hand or oxen although there are a few small tractors, which are not common.

We saw a lot of animals on our trip with most of them being tethered rather than having the expense of a fence. As we drove by a dairy farm the farmer and his family were out in the pasture milking cows by hand with pails and stools.

After our bus ride back to Cuzco we caught an evening flight back to Lima. We then caught a night flight to Santiago, Chile. After a grueling immigration (I don't think they like tourists) we arrived at our hotel at 4:20 AM. Thank goodness our wake up call isn't till 10:30 AM.

**Note: Just 1 week after we did our train ride in and out of Machu Picchu the rain came down and the mud slides started which washed out the train tracks. The Military had to use helicopters to fly food in and some 2000+ stranded people out of Machu Picchu. Weren't we lucky!!!

Machu Picchu

2010-01-15T18:23:00.000-08:00

Up at 5:30 AM, after breakfast took a 3 hour train ride down the river valley to Machu Picchu
Spent the day touring this 14 th century site. It is hard to believe what they did back then without any equipment, only their bare hands and a few crude tools.

It is interesting that the reason they built this huge infrastructure was to feed themselves as it rained up in the mountains but not down at the coast. On top of each of the terraces was soil brought in from somewhere as there is no soil like this anywhere close. Today the only way in is by train, back then they had to hike up the mountain trails with a basket of soil on their back.

Cusco and John's Birthday

2010-01-14T17:58:00.000-08:00

After a long drive yesterday, a late night last night and an early wake up call at 5:15, breakfast,bags packed, and on the bus by 6:45. Today we head back to the airport for a short flight to Cusco.

We have been taking altitude sickness pills for a couple of days as it is very high here 11,500 feet.
Once in Cusco we arrive at our hotel for a local Inca traditional show while waiting for our rooms to be ready. The altitude sure makes you feel weak so we rested before our afternoon of touring the city.

I spoke to the tour director and asked him if he could do something for John's birthday. That evening we went to a lovely buffet meal that served all sorts of local delicacies. There was a live band singing and playing local instruments. Between songs they announced that it was Johns birthday and the waiters brought him a large birthday cake to share with everyone on the tour (41 of us). They have a custom in Peru that at the end of the happy birthday song the waiter drops 4 or 5 metal pizza plates on the floor right behind John. Needless to say it scared the tar out of him.

Touring Peru Asparagus Fields

2010-01-13T15:24:00.000-08:00

Up this morning for breakfast at the hotel. On the bus at 7:45 and off to tour the countryside.

The big reason for Elna and I going on this tour was that we were going to tour an asparagus farm and today was our lucky day.

After a few hours of driving we finally got to the farm. The farm is surrounded by a tall wall and a thorny hedge row to keep people out. After waiting at the gate for a short while, a vehicle escort lead us through the fields up to the owners residence.

The owner pictured with us above was the former Minister of Agriculture of Peru. He was very well spoken with very good English, which is much better than getting the interpreter's version of the question or answer.

The owners met us as we arrived and were very cordial and invited us in to their yard by the pool which sits just outside a large and very nice home. They offered us cool Peruvian drinks and appetisers. The owner then spoke about his farm. He soon figured out that we were asparagus growers from Canada and was very forthcoming with information of how they produce their asparagus.

We did ask him a lot of questions and received a lot of answers. Some of the interesting facts were that they harvest 3 times in 2 years, the wages they pay their staff are $8.00 to $10.00 for a long day of work.

They do air freight some asparagus to Los Angeles, but because of the cost they usually ship by boat. He was quite pleased with the fact that he could get his product from the packing plant to Los Angeles in 13 to 14 days. After that it is trucked to the final destination even if it is Calgary Alberta. Certainly different than on our farm, if our product is 3 days old we are panicking and making it into pickles, soup or some other way of preserving the crop.

The climate in Peru is quite warm, but it hardly ever rains so all the water, fertilizer, and even pesticides are fed to the plant through the irrigation. The other thing is they have warm nights which allows the asparagus to grow all night where ours stops growing in the cool nights and instead forms sugars in the plants, hence a sweeter product.

During our stay in Peru we did have asparagus at several of our meals (even asparagus pizza), but maybe we are biased but we felt ours was much superior.

We did learn a lot, now we know why ours is better.

This farm among other crops produces table grapes. There was a crew doing a final picking or cleanup of the vineyard and we did get a chance to pick and eat fresh table grapes and I have to admit they were better than the ones transported to Canada from Peru.

Arriving in Peru

2010-01-12T14:38:00.000-08:00

Very nice flight on LAN airlines. It was certainly a change from the US airline we last flew on. We were allowed carry-ons, were served an evening meal and breakfast. Complementary wine in a glass wine glass. The cutlery was real metal, not cheap plastic, and a very accommodating staff. Even all our bags made it to Peru with us.

We arrived in Lima Peru at 5:30 AM, got our bags, went through immigration, and loaded on our tour bus. This was a brand new bus with only 2000 or 3000 km. on it, it even still smelled new.

We then did a city tour, went for a nice buffet breakfast, before getting to our hotel at 11:30 AM.
Our rooms weren't ready so they were offering complimentary drinks while we waited. Once we got our rooms we could freshen up. We then caught our bus for the ride to the National University. This university has an extensive agriculture program so we were lectured on potatoes, grain crops and assorted other ag. topics.

Once leaving the university we went one of the most prestigious Gastronomy schools in South America for a short cooking class, a tour of the facilities, and for a dinner cooked by the chefs and students of the school.

Back to the hotel by 11:15. Wake up call tomorrow at 6:15, so off to bed we go.

Touring Florida

2010-01-11T14:01:00.000-08:00

Up early this morn for the continental breakfast at the hotel.

The big news on the television this morning was the freezing temperatures they were experiencing in Florida. It was freezing the citrus crops, and many of the vegetables.

Our plane doesn't leave till 11:30 tonight, so we plan on seeing the state of Florida today. (should be no problem as it's not near as big as Alberta)

After breakfast the 6 of us drove west of the city into the everglades where we took a 45 minute everglade tour on an air boat. It was a little cool but we were used to it.

We then drove around the outskirts of Miami till we found a fruit stand, U-pick operation. We stopped bought some fruit, picked some frozen strawberries, and toured other vegetable crops.

Next we drove down to the Florida keys to see what they we all about. We stopped at a seafood restaurant for late lunch and then headed back to the city. Elna and I knew of a neat fruit stand out in the country that we found last year, so we stopped there on the way back. They were doing a live TV report about the frost when we got there.

We then headed back to the hotel for our bags as we had checked out before we left this morn. We then drove to a Mexican restaurant where we met a friend of Rod and Shelly's for supper.

Then off to the airport to pick up my suitcase, which had just came in from Houston. I opened it to get a few things out of it, including my laptop and my carry on bag. (See yesterdays picture)

We then checked in and met up with the rest of our new friends.

Our flight leaves at 11:30 PM tonight, so if we want to sleep tonight it has to be on the plane.

Off to South America

2010-01-10T13:19:00.000-08:00

Today we left for our 2 week farm tour to South America. At 9 AM our neighbors and good friends Rod and Shelly Bradshaw stopped by the farm to give a ride to the airport. They are 2 of the 6 of us from Innisfail that are going to tour South America for the next 2 weeks. Also touring with us were our friends and neighbors John and Corry Buyks.

With the recent bomb scares happening down east airport security was extremely tight. This meant no carry on bags. They even refused Shelley to board the plane because her purse was too big. Luckily she had a large wallet that could serve as a purse and she was allowed to put her purse in her suitcase. Elna had a small purse and had no trouble. Rod and John had small little packs (razor case and small bag) that they took. I thought I was smarter than the rest and checked everything in my suitcase.

We eventually left Calgary and after a quick connection in Houston Texas we arrived in Miami at 10:30 PM. This is great, grab our suitcases, go to the rental car agency to get our car, drive to the hotel, have supper and the day will be done.

Only one small detail, my suitcase was still in Houston, and I was in Miami. The airline promised me it would arrive around noon tomorrow. The joke was I was going to have to borrow Elna's toothbrush and sleep in the nude.

After getting the rental car and getting to the Hotel we were checking in and right in front of us was our friends from Edmonton that we knew were coming on the tour but didn't know where they were staying or when where they were staying. What a small world!!

After going for supper and back to the hotel for bed at 2:00 AM. Miami time.

Watering Cows with a solar waterer

2009-12-27T10:04:00.000-08:00

We don't keep our cows up in our yard for the winter as exercise makes for healthier cows. The problem with this is they need water when they are out in the field. We solved this problem some 10 or 15 years ago by building a solar water that works all year round. Our local county had a field tour to some other farms in the area. One of these farms had a system similar to this ours. We took these ideas and build our own system. Back then there was hardly any of these systems around and the commercial systems were few and far between and not yet very refined. This system will water cows at 40 below with no problem, and has been very reliable, although when we first built it we had to get all the kinks out of it. So far we have only had it give trouble once this year when the switch on the door became misaligned. Some years during the shortest days of the year we run short of power because of cloudy days, but this year has been very good.
The system consists of an old kitchen sink mounted on top of a 24" culvert standing vertical in about 3 1/2 meters of ground, down below frost level. The culvert is insulated with Styrofoam to keep the water reservoir in the bottom from freezing. The water comes from a dugout located about 7 meters away. The reservoir is kept full by a horizontal pipe buried below the frost line from the dug-out to the culvert.
For the cows to drink they push their nose on the door above the sink which in turn moves a switch that turns on a small pump located in the bottom of the culvert. The water is then pumped up to the drain in the sink where the cowthen drinks to her hearts content. When she is finished drinking she backs away from the sink, the door falls closed, moving the switch which shuts off the pump. When the pumps shuts off, the water then drains from the sink back below the frost line in the same pipe it came up.
With a system such as this we are able to completely fence our dug-outs to keeps the cows out which allows for a healthy riparian area for the wild animals and birds. A healthy riparian area keeps the water quality much better.

Feeding Cows

2009-12-27T09:33:00.000-08:00

One of the daily rituals on the farm is feeding our herd of 125 cows. Pictured to the right is our cows on Boxing day (Dec 26). I actually took a picture on Christmas morning but it didn't turn out as it was still too dark in the morning when I took the picture. Each day we either take out 3 bales of hay or pea straw or a load of silage, depending on how cold it is out, and what the cows requirements are. As you can see we have lots of snow on the ground now. Our cows get lots of exercise the days walking through the snow, this keeps them in good shape in the winter so they are ready for calving season. It seems that cows that have had lots of exercise have less problems at calving season. Usually our son-in-law Randy does the feeding but I volunteered for a couple of days so he could be with his family for Christmas.

Getting ready for Christmas

2009-12-12T08:36:00.000-08:00

Yesterday afternoon we went for our Christmas tree. We went over to Elna's mothers place for our tree. She lives about 6 miles from home and has lots of spruce trees in her pasture. This is one of the pastures that we keep our cows at in the summer. There was lots of snow in the pasture this year, so Randy took the tractor over to plow snow ahead of the truck. Keri, Elna. Megan, Makayla and I went over in the truck.

After we got our trees home we loaded up the grand kids and went to our local Church for their annual Christmas craft evening with supper and then making ginger bread houses, lots of other crafts, and even a scavenger hunt to end the evening.

Terra Madre Day

2009-12-11T09:04:00.000-08:00

To celebrate Terra Madre Day Elna has been working hard to prepare a feast with locally grown food. She has been busy trying to perfect her recipes so she could get every thing just right. Just a few of the local suppliers were Eagle Creek Garlic and Potatoes, Chinook Honey and Meadery, Hamilton's barley flour, Nixon's Honey, Beck Farms Vegetables, Sylvan Star Cheese, Flavour of the Foothills BBQ sauce, Highwood Crossing wheat flour, HolmeHus Eggs, and of course Edgar Farms.

We had our good friends Stan and Liz over, along with their son John Mills who went to Tara Madre last year. Our son in law Randy was quite disappointed that he had to miss this meal as he stayed home with a sick daughter although Keri and our grandaughter did get to enjoy the evening. John was a bit late getting here as he had gone to Calgary with a truck load of Innisfail Growers produce to the market. Pictured here is a picture of him sampling his home grown garlic that Elna slow roasted and placed on her home made crackers . Also John's friend Rayell missed out because of other commitments. All in all it was a great feast and was enjoyed by all.

Preg. Checking our Cows

2009-12-04T07:41:00.000-08:00

Yesterday we had our local veterinarian out to the farm for our cows annual check-up. He checks each cow to see if she is in calf, and for any other health issues. It was minus 21 degrees Celsius at 8:00 AM when we started with the cows so we had lots of clothes on. We ran 125 cows through the chute. If you look behind us we even had our patio heater set up to provide a little heat right by the chute, but the best way to keep warm was just to keep moving.

Tourism Alberta Alta Awards

2009-10-26T10:54:00.000-07:00

Wow what a surprise!!! We were selected as one of the finalist for the Tourism Alberta Alto Award. This particular award recognises "Creative Marketing that encourages travel in Alberta" The category we were selected as finalist for was "Marketing Excellence with a budget of under $5000" This was for our Asparagus festival. A lot of our advertising was hand delivered promotional cards, meaning our total cost for the event was $1100. We hosted over 1500 people on our farm to see our operation first hand.
There were three finalists in the under $5000 category, with the others being the Ukrainian Cultural Heritage Village from Edmonton and Radar DDB for Banff Lake Louise Tourism.
Although we didn't win, just to be recognized with other such prestigious tourism groups was such an honor. After all we just wanted to invite our friends to the farm to see how we do things, not to be a tourism destination.

CKGY and KFC Meals in the field.

2009-09-24T22:06:00.000-07:00

Our neighbor and good friend Brad Dallas happened to win the "meal in the field" draw for our local radio station CKGY and Kentucky Fried Chicken. As it happened he was helping one of our neighbors combine the day they brought lunch out to the field. Luckily we were also in the same field helping combine, so Brad says, come and enjoy lunch on CKGY with the morning hosts Greg and Tara Lee.
The DJ's even got to drive the combines and do a live report from the combine cab. I'm thinking they were suitably impressed with 4 combines, 3 semi-trailer trucks, and 3 reg. grain trucks.
Pictured above is Greg driving our combine, Tara Lee also got to drive Brads combine.

Canada Malt and Molsen Brewery tours the farm

2009-09-04T08:54:00.000-07:00

Last week we had an unexpected group of 20 or 30 people from Canada Malt and Molsen Brewery drop in to the farm. Elna was combining peas. I was hauling them home from the combine. I was also drying our malt barley. Ryan Dodd the country operations manager for Canada Malt was touring these people around. At the last minute he thought he would just stop at the farm and see if we were doing anything with malt barley. He was in luck as we were drying our barley. Keri and Randy were at the farm working with the vegetables when they arrived. They toured the group around the grain bins and showed them how we handle our crops. This was very interesting for the processors of the barley we grow as they don't get a chance like this very often. There was people from western and eastern Canada and from the United States. After the tour of our facilities they wanted to shop for veggies and preserves in our farm store which was a plus for us. Talking with Ryan the next day he claimed this stop was a big hit especially for the brewers.

Combining Dry Field Peas

2009-09-04T08:19:00.000-07:00

We have been combining for the last several days. We finished Elna's mothers place on Tuesday. We had malt barley there that was badly hailed, about 60%. We hauled it home and dried it as was still tough but starting to shell out and fall on the ground. We then moved to our yellow pea field and did that. These peas yielded quite good and they were dry so we could put them straight in the bin. These peas will be sold for split pea soup and may even be exported out of Canada as peas are great source of protein in many countries around the world. Pictured is Elna, standing in front of her combine just before finishing the field.

Getting Firewood for winter

2009-09-03T07:43:00.000-07:00

A couple of weeks ago, we went out west of Caroline for our winter firewood. We stopped at Caroline Supplies to pick up our permits that allows us to cut dead spruce trees for fire wood for ourselves. We then drove to a small fire burnt area that we new of. We then proceeded to fell dead trees, block and spit firewood. It was then stacked neatly inside our cattle stock trailer. We made a full day of it meaning we needed lunch. Elna packed a picnic lunch complete with hamburgers and lots of veggies to eat. We even brought along our portable BBQ to cook the hamburgers. They were Edgar Farms hamburger patties of course. With our lawn chairs to sit on it was a wonderful lunch indeed. As with any job "many hands make light work" so with 7 of us it went very well getting enough fire wood to last more than a year.

Video: Witching Stick Water Finder

2009-08-30T07:06:00.001-07:00

The other day a photographer from the Edmonton Journal newspaper called. His first comment was that it "was a slow news day" and he wanted to do some photo's on witching water wells. When he was out at the farm a couple of years ago, we were telling him that Keri and Randy had just drilled a water well that they had witched. We had also successfully witched the last water well that we drilled on the farm. This photographer lives on an acreage outside of Edmonton and struggles getting enough water at his home, so maybe that's why he remembers the conversation. Being a good delegater, I thought who best but Keri and Randy to do this, so I just gave him their phone number. He came down on Thursday took lots of pictures, several videos, and we showed him how to witch his own well. Keri's picture was in Saturdays journal with a link to the video. Check out the video.

Video: Witching Stick Water Finder

A close call for a local landmark

2009-08-29T19:59:00.000-07:00

We were very fortunate to have not lost out local community hall this month. It all started when a couple of kids decided to do some camping out under the spruce trees by our local hall. They lit a fire under the shelter of the spruce trees to keep warm. We think that they put the fire out when they left but didn't realize that the fire had gone into the roots of the trees. After about one week of smoldering and traveling along under the trees the wind came up fanning the flames creating an intense grass fire. Luckily one of our neighbors Mark Mountain was driving by, noticed the flames. If he hadn't noticed it then in about 5 minutes the grass fire would have travelled the 50 feet and reached the 113 year old school house and the rest would have been history. This hall has many special memories for me as the spruce trees were planted in part by my Grandfather Wilfred Edgar under the supervision of my Greatgrandfather William. Wilfrid took all his schooling there, as did my father, my aunt, and all my uncles as well as many of the people in the community. They closed this school in the spring of 1958 and I started school in the fall of 1958, so I just missed going to school there. After closing the school this building was then turned into a community hall, a gathering place for many seasonal functions such as the Christmas Concert. This was the place where I first met Santa Clause In those days we only saw him once per year so it was indeed a memorable time. Not like now where he is in every mall and on every street corner.

Covering the Silage Pit

2009-08-27T17:36:00.000-07:00

Today we covered our silage pit with plastic and tires. To keep the air out of our silage we have to cover the pile with heavy plastic. We then place old used tires on top of the plastic to keep the plastic tight to the silage and to keep the plastic from blowing away or whipping in the wind and tearing. We carry the tires to the edge of the plastic with the tractor and then hand place them on plastic. We then unroll more plastic, place more tires until the job is done. We then place a couple of rows of round bales at the base of the pit to keep everything in place. This little job only took an hour and a 1/2 . As long as the wind doesn't blow and with enough people it goes quite easy.

Cutting Silage

2009-08-26T19:02:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was silage day at Edgar Farms. We hire a silage cutter, and a couple of extra trucks for the day to put up our silage. In one day we we put up close to 1000 tons of silage. After the crop is swathed into windrows, left to dry down for a day we then go through the field with a silage chopper that cuts the plants into approx. 1-2 inch long pieces. The machine then blows these pieces (silage) into the the truck travelling along side the chopper. The truck then travels back to the farm yard where the silage is then dumped into a pile in front of a large concrete storage facility called a silage bunker. We then push the silage with a large tractor up into the bunker spreading it out evenly. We then drive the tractor back and forth over the silage to squeeze the air out of it so the silage will ferment and not spoil. Similar to fine wine. Once the bunker is full and completely packed we then completely cover it with heavy plastic to keep out the air. We eat our noon lunch on the go in our vehicles and our daughter Keri made us a great meal for a sit down supper before returning to the field. Doug's job is to drive the push/packer tractor and Elna drives the tandem truck picking up silage and bringing it home. This is an older truck that we bought new years ago but is still in very good shape. The problem with this truck is it has the old style transmissions in it which makes it difficult to drive. It has a 5 and 4 transmission meaning it has 2 transmissions giving you 20 forward gears. There is a complicated series of combinations of gears between the two transmissions to shift to operate this truck. Elna does very well shifting these manual transmissions even sometimes not having to use the clutch on certain shifts. I tell her it was my good teaching ability that allows her to do so well.

Swathing Silage

2009-08-26T18:26:00.000-07:00

My father used to say "the problem with this country is, there is 6 months of winter and 6 months of getting ready for winter". Sometimes I wonder if maybe there was some merit in what he was saying. For the last week or two we have been putting up silage (a form of cattle feed) for ourselves and other neighbors around here. This is a picture taken on the 2nd. day of swathing silage for our neighbor who farms just east of Innisfail. He had a great crop of barley and silage peas. It was some of the worst cutting I have done in a while, but I did persevere and did finally get it finished. We also had to drive this swather down the Cottonwood Road to Innisfail, across the overpass and down a gravel road to his place. The problem is that this unit is approximately 27 feet wide, so it does take up the whole road. Fortunately I can pull over, put two of the wheels in the ditch, stop and wait for the traffic to pass, although it does seem like you're stopped a lot of the time. After we moved home from these fields we did some of our own, and it went extremely easy compared to the peas and barley mix of our neighbors.

Elna's Birthday

2009-08-26T16:52:00.000-07:00

Today is Elna's birthday. Her day starts as normal just before 6:30 getting the pea picking staff started for the day, finding the right spot in the field for everyone, gathering up containers from the market etc. and it's only 8:00 AM yet.
Her busy day continues till 4:00 when her granddaughter gets home on the school bus and she has to have a family birthday party for her Grandma. At Elna's birthday party her mother came over with a present and to share a piece of cake. We opened her presents from everyone and she blew out her birthday candles (only 5 of them) A present from our daughter Angie even arrived today in the mail just in time along with my e-bay present for her that came just in time. Right after we were done opening birthday presents and eating cake she had a phone call from a Cheryl, a very close friend of hers from Chilliwak B.C. just to wish her happy birthday and try and find a time they can get together a visit. The day will then continue by her delivering peas to Innisfail growers, then attending a weekly Innisfail Growers meeting and then hope full home by 10:00. Just another day on the farm.

Hand Picking Beans

2009-08-22T07:48:00.000-07:00

For the last while we have been picking beans. ALL OUR BEANS ARE HAND PICKED. Right now we have lots of green and yellow beans. We only pick them in the afternoon after the dew has dried off. If we pick them when they are wet they get rust marks on them. These marks don't hurt anything but they sure don't look appealing. If we don't have them at a particular market, it was probably to wet to pick because of a rain shower or a heavy dew. We also have our favorite, french fillet beans which are a small tender bean. Due the freezing temperatures on the night of July 1 these plants have been suffering all summer. We will have a limited supply.

New Pavement to Edgar Farms

2009-08-19T07:42:00.000-07:00

Over the last few days the County of Red Deer has been putting 2 new lifts of hot mix payment on the Cottonwood Road which goes from the QEII highway to Edgar Farms. This will be a big improvement for our road. Yesterday the crew was doing one of their passes right in front of our gate and Elna took this picture.

Keeping things running

2009-08-16T14:36:00.000-07:00

Lately we have been just going along keeping things going, getting ready for silaging and harvest as well as picking peas and beans. Yesterday as we were servicing some equipment my cell phone rang, with Shelly B. on the other end letting me know that one of our cube vans wouldn't start. Luckily the van was only 2 miles away and finished for the day. This van had just came back from Millerville near Calgary and previously was at Sherwood Park near Edmonton and was slated to go to Calgary the next day. How lucky can we get that it broke down at the end of the day back at home, rather than stranding us in Edmonton or Calgary.
Randy and I jumped in the service truck and went over to have a look. After some investigation, we found a faulty solenoid that was hard to see because it was buried down underneath (as per usual). On Sunday we will be sending a different truck to Calgary and on Monday we have to try and find some parts to get this truck back on the road again. Monday is the only day of the week that we don't go to markets and we usually wash and service our trucks then.

Picking Peas in the Rain

2009-08-05T17:50:00.000-07:00

The last few days we have received quite a bit of rain and it has made the field very muddy. Even though it is raining we still keep on picking. The only way we can get to the field is with our quads or our old John Deere AMT that has to be about 25 years old and still going. We don't use it a lot but in this weather it works perfect.
This morning it was +10 degrees at 8:00 when they started work and warmed up to +11 for a high of the day. Our loyal employees just put on more clothes, complete with thin cotton gloves with plastic gloves over top for their hands, then pull up their hood and get to work. What a difference a week makes compared to +30 last week.
Pictured above is Cheri with a big smile for the camera picking peas, and Valente and Martin heading back to the field with some empty containers to fill with more peas.

First Day of School

2009-08-04T10:00:00.000-07:00

Today was our oldest granddaughter's first day of school. Grade one this year.
In Innisfail they are fortunate to have what they call "Year Round Schooling" This means a different school calendar than the traditional one. They still attend school the same number of days per year, but summer holidays are only for the month of July, then back to school before they forget everything learned last June. Thanksgiving, Christmas, Easter holidays are all about 3 weeks each giving the students longer breaks throughout the year

The other picture is of her graduation from kindergarten. I never got to go to kindergarten but I am sure the kids that did, didn't get a cap and gown for their graduation picture, if they even got a grad picture.

Edgar Farms Open House

2009-08-02T18:37:00.000-07:00

This weekend we hosted our open house at the farm. On Saturday we hosted both Innisfail Growers Customer Appreciation Day and Country Drive.ca guests to our farm. On Sunday we hosted Country Drive guests. We set out an sample table so you could taste some of our products we grow on our farm. We had our Asparagus relish with cream cheese on a cracker, Sugar Snap peas that to eat you just pop in your mouth pod and all, Beef jerky from our butcher who just won the best in Alberta award for his beef jerky, Asparagus pickles, and our newest product, an Asparagus dip similar to guacamole but much better.
We had the petting zoo for the children and the adults alike. One nice lady from Calgary told me she got to pet a frog and a chicken in the same day, something you can't do in the city. We had free kittens to give away. There was the same bale fort that we had in the spring as well as the Edgar Farms temporary tattoos for the kids and grandma's alike. Tours to the bagging shed were available to show people how we package and chill our peas. On Saturday we had tours to the field with everyone in their vehicles following one of our quads to the asparagus field for a look at the fern and then off to pea field to pick some peas. On Saturday evening we had 4 tenths of an inch of rain so on Sunday we set up a hay ride behind the tractor and did the same tour.

Picking Garden Peas in the heat

2009-07-24T21:39:00.000-07:00

We are picking peas full speed these days as with the hot weather they are coming on too fast. Here is a picture of 2 of our pea team picking team sitting under their umbrellas to keep out of the hot sun. We have had these umbrellas for many years and some years we seldom use them, but this year they are getting lots of use. We usually start picking at 8 am but then we started picking earlier at 7am because of the heat. We are now starting at 6am just to take advantage of the cool temperatures. We also find that peas picked at a lower temperature are sweeter. This heat is also hurting the upcoming crop, a couple weeks from now because there will be fewer pods with less peas in them.

Pictured above is Cheri and Helen. Cheri is attending university in the winter months and trying to make and save money in the summer months. She has been working extremely hard for us this year working all the hours she can get so she can buy another text book or reduce her student loan. Helen besides working hard picking peas also works the farmers market for Innisfail Growers selling our peas. Her daughter Sam also works with her at the farmers market.

Baling Hay

2009-07-22T19:32:00.000-07:00

Today we were baling hay. It was +30 degrees today so I was lucky to be able to be in a air conditioned cab while I baled hay. At about 6 this evening Elna brought the camera down to the field and we took some pictures using the tripod and the self timer. The picture to the left is one of the ones we took. It sure was nice to get back in the cool tractor after being outside.

The hay crop yield was not that great, but the quality was very good as it was nice fine short hay with no rain on it, and baled totally dry. Some years we have lots of hay, but it always gets rained on before we get it up and some times we have to put it up a bit damp as it will get rained on again if we don't.

Asparagus Staff Appreciation Evening

2009-07-13T11:45:00.000-07:00

Last Saturday evening we had our staff appreciation evening. With over 40 people on the payroll this was a big evening. Not all of our staff and spouses were able to attend but with almost ideal weather conditions it turned out to be a very nice evening for both us and our staff.

Pictured is Keri putting on BBQ sauce on the steaks and Randy holding up a cooked steak.

We borrowed 4 extra picnic tables from John at the Bowden Sun Maze, and along with our own tables everyone had room to sit and enjoy the evening.

Picking Garden Peas

2009-07-11T07:15:00.001-07:00

Last Wednesday was the first day that we picked peas for the season. We only got a few peas off of the hill tops that happened to ripen earlier than the rest. On Friday we picked a few more for our store and a few for some of the markets. We probably won't pick again until maybe Tuesday.

Pictured here are our granddaughters out checking out the pea field and having their first taste of the season.

End of Asparagus season

2009-07-07T07:52:00.000-07:00

Putting our asparagus to bed for the summer. Saturday was the day we cleaned up our field to get rid of all the weeds that have grown since spring. We mowed all the rows with our flail mower, then shallowly tilled the field to kill the weeds. This was a full day job starting at 8 o'clock and finishing by 10 p.m. The mowing didn't take so long but the roto-tilling goes really slow.

Interesting Guests last Sunday

2009-07-04T20:29:00.000-07:00

We had some interesting guests last Sunday. They emailed me their newsletter of their story of coming to the farm. I attached part of their story plus a couple of similar pictures that they had included.

QUOTING:

"BS Lunch 5
The continuing Sunday lunch adventures of the intrepid old bikers.
Sunday June 28 .........
.............. we saddled up for the 10 km ride to Edgar Farms. Upon arrival, we were met by Elna Edgar who gave us a tour of their asparagus operations and the story of how they got involved in the business, she described it as an overnight success that took 20 years. While we were perusing the offerings in their store, Doug Edgar came by to say hi. Of course he was curious where we were all from and why we chose to come to their farm. We explained that we decided to do a motorbike ride every Sunday for lunch but also to have a purpose to our ride and had chosen their farm based on an article in one of the local papers. Doug indicated that he also had a motorcycle, and when pressed, he admitted it was a Honda 90. With a bit more encouragement, (actually it didn’t take much) he offered to show it to us. Upon see it, I thought this is the same as my first bike. I turns out Doug bought this bike in the summer of ’68 when he was 15, (I also bought mine in the summer of ’68 when I was 15) and it was the exact same model and color as mine, a Candy Apple Red Honda CL90 Scrambler. When he learned this, he offered to put a bit of fuel in it (he said purple gas is the only thing it has ever seen) and let me take it for a putt. Having put a bit of gas in it, we push started it (reminiscent of my old 90) and away I went for a putt around their farm yard. I roared up to the store area where everyone else was still shopping (Ok not much of a roar) tooted the horn and offered Rhonda a ride, now this was true reminiscing. Somehow, the bike seemed a lot smaller than we remember, and Doug suggest we swing by the shop and put a bit more air in the tires (what’s he really saying). With topped up tires and fuel, off we went for a tour of the farm yard, around the machinery sheds and grain silos and back to the parking lot. Obviously there was whole host of photo ops in this visit.
Not only was the Edgar Farms the most entertaining of our Sunday rides to date, the added feature of taking a ride on a vintage Honda CL90 was an unexpected bonus. If you are ever within a 100 miles of Innisfail, we’d highly recommend a detour to Edgar Farms and meet Elna and Doug. This is definitely worth a repeat visit.
The ride home was anticlimactic but had it’s moments with very gusty winds to keep you alert.
Ron, Sue, Elna, Doug, Rhonda, Lynn, Ron"

END OF QUOTE

Nearing the end of Asparagus season

2009-07-02T18:47:00.000-07:00

Weeds even grow in a drought. This is a picture of our asparagus field on the 2nd of July. Notice all the weeds. We don't spray anything on the asparagus to kill the weeds so this is the result. The major weed is red root pigweed. Our Mexican help like to eat this weed in salads or cook it up for a dish something like cooked spinach.

Tomorrow is the last day of picking for 2009. We will then totally work the field to kill all the weeds.

Adopt-A-Road

2009-07-02T16:44:00.000-07:00

The County of Red Deer has a new program this year called adopt a road. We chose to adopt the 2 miles of Cottowood road (4 miles of ditch) in front of our farm from Range road 13 to Range road 15. We then clean the garbage from the ditches a minimum of 3 times a year for a minimum of 3 years. In return the county posts a sign at each end of the section of road. The county would if we asked supply saftey vests, garbage bags and collect the garbage if we requested, but it is just easier to use our own vests, and garbage bags. We then just put the garbage in our own dumpster for disposal after removing the recyclables.

Today they erected our signs at the ends of road so we had to pose for a picture.

A day off the farm

2009-07-02T16:18:00.000-07:00

Wow, a day off the farm (almost 2 days). Some time ago we received an invitation from our bull supplier, Soderglen Ranches for tickets to the chuck wagon races and the stage show at the Ponoka Stampede. But with as busy a schedule as we have we had to decline the invitation. We did however keep the date in mind as midweek is probably our best time to get away. At the last minute we managed to get all our ducks in a row, grab some last minute seats, and with Keri and Randy looking after the farm we snuck away to both the Rodeo performance ,the stage show with Neal McCoy, and the fireworks on Tuesday evening. We then stayed overnight on the stampede grounds in our trailer (first time in 2 years). After enjoying the evening performance we purchased some tickets for the afternoon performance the next day. We then packed up and arrived home that evening feeling at least a little bit more relaxed than when we left. Even though when we got home at 8:30 in the evening the pickling crew was still hard at work making pickles. Even though we were gone our dedicated staff still goes the extra mile to get things done. Keri and Randy did an excellent job of keeping things running smoothly, although I think they almost had to move into our house just to be here with all the things happening on the farm and 2 little girls to keep track of.

Farm to Fork Meal at Forage Restaurant

2009-06-29T19:18:00.001-07:00

Last week we were fortunate to be able to attend Forage restaurant/ Infuse Caterings "FARM TO FORK" meal. This meal was at the Forage restaurant in Calgary. What made this meal even more special was that Chef Wade used several of our Edgar Farms products to prepare this meal. We had fresh asparagus of course, also some of our pea tendrils (baby pea plants) in the potato salad with potatoes from our neighbors. For desert we had rhubarb upside down cake with Edgar Farms rhubarb. Also we had fresh flown in Atlantic Lobster, but that wasn't from our farm. Even the menu was special because Chef Wade came to our table and gave a verbal menu of what we would be having with a little story about each major ingredient

The picture is of Elna and I standing in front of the display case at Forage restaurant. If you notice behind us he has for sale, our home made beet pickles, asparagus pickles, asparagus relish, and fresh asparagus in the cooler to our left.

Weeding the vegetables

2009-06-27T18:27:00.000-07:00

This a picture of some of our garden peas that have been cultivated between the rows with the cultivator and now we are hand weeding with hoes some of the major weeds. With the asparagus slowing down and nearing the end of this years season we now have time to do these jobs. Pictured are Martin, Roberto, Domingo, Epifanio, Ventura, and Valente. These guys are trilled to go and weed the fields because every nickle they make really makes a difference to them when they get back to Mexico.

Fixing Again

2009-06-19T12:26:00.001-07:00

One of the things that I (Doug) do around the farm is fix things. This week I noticed a bad spot on one of the tires on our Asparagus trailer, also upon closer inspection I noticed that the wires for the brakes were in bad shape and would require some maintenance. On Tuesday I took the trailer to town for 4 brand new tires. Of course they didn't have the right size but a larger size was available for less money so the decision was easy.

After getting the new tires on I came home, and removed the wheels and proceeded to fix the brake wires and repack the wheel bearing. But once again, upon closer inspection I find that the suspension was worn quite badly. This seemed unusual especially since this trailer is not that old. So off to Red Deer for new Pins, bushings, links, U bolts, and new springs (stronger ones this time). Also if we are fixing it we might as well put in new wheel bearings, and seals, requiring another stop at the bearing supply store. I worked on this project on and off Wednesday between other jobs. Randy and I finally finished it that night even though we had to quit at about 9:30 pm to go put a pen of cows back in because a strong wind blew a tree over the fence.

Saturday mornings at Edgar Farms

2009-06-15T07:27:00.000-07:00

For the months of May and June, Saturdays start at 4:00 AM by loading asparagus for the Edmonton markets. These pictures were taken after loading the truck with daylight just beginning. Even though we are almost at the longest day of the year we still seem to end up working in the dark. It takes 5 people to man (woman) the markets for the day. They stop at the neighbors and pick up Helen, then off to Innisfail or Penhold where they pick up either Brenda or Janice. Once they get to Strathcona market where they meet either Dianne or Christina they unload the truck, set up the tables, then Elna and Keri and one other person travel downtown to the 104 street market. They then unload and set up more tables. Elna then returns to the Strathcona market. When the Strathcona market finishes they clean up their tables and then back down town to pick up Keri and her tables. Then finally they can head home. Usually they get home by 6:30 PM in time to unload and then reload to ship to Innisfail Growers for the Sunday markets. Some where in there we get an 1/2 hour break for supper. All said and done we are usually done by 10:00 PM. No sleeping in the next day though as the crews start at 8:00 Sunday morn.

Touring the Asparagus field

2009-06-14T07:18:00.000-07:00

Touring the asparagus field. We were very honored to have Chef Wade and a group of students from the Calgary school of nutrition touring our farm yesterday. They really seemed to want to learn what it takes to get their food to them. Chef Wade is one of those people that "Gets-it" when it comes to producing food. It was so nice to be appreciated by the Wade and the students for what we do.

Moving cows to greener pastures

2009-06-12T12:35:00.000-07:00

This last week we have moved several of our groups of cows out to pasture. Some we just have to open the gate, other groups we had to haul in stock trailers. We also have several pastures that have bulls quite close to each other so we have to build electric fences to keeps the bulls with their own cows and not over checking out another group.

Grade 5 School tours

2009-06-11T07:54:00.000-07:00

Tuesday was devoted to the grade 5 classes of the Innisfail school. This is the 5th. year we have hosted the grade 5 classes to our farm to show them the workings of a farm. It always surprises us how much these children don't know about a farm even though they live in a farming community. This is a great opportunity to show them how a working farm runs. We look at the tractors, combine, seed drill, grain elevator, etc.
They went on a hay ride to the pea field, asparagus field and the cow pasture. We even take them down to a dugout that has been fenced off from the cows and a solar watering system added to the cows can drink fresh water without walking into the water. They always stop the hay ride a listen to the birds and other water species that sing or croak while enjoying life at the dugout.

Rainy days on the farm

2009-06-06T19:35:00.001-07:00

What happens on the farm on rainy days? Well, the first rain day (Friday) we still picked asparagus even though it was freezing cold. Because there wasn't a lot of asparagus we only had 6 people (2 machines) working in the field. We then had 1 crew and our shed crew busy in our commercial kitchen making asparagus soup and do a first run on a new product we are developing. The new product is an asparagus chip dip. We have spent the last while taste testing, and running to the grocery store for more ingredients.

Anyway back to the second rainy day Saturday. Randy was feeding cows for part of the day even though he has a 3 year and a 5 year old in tow. Keri and Elna and all their helpers are off to the Edmonton markets (bright and early at 4:00AM). The rest of the staff got a well deserved day off. Our Mexican workers got to sleep in, a first for a long time. They then asked me if they could go shopping in Red Deer. After fully stocking the farm store the 6 of us packed in the family car and off to R.D. First stop the Chinese all you can eat buffet (after all you shouldn't shop on an empty stomach). Then off to some assorted stores and lastly to the grocery store to stock up on food.

A great benefit of shopping in rural Alberta on a rainy day is you get to see lots of friends and neighbors. Pictured above is Mike and Kathlenna and their 2 daughters. Mike worked for us for several years and it is always great to keep in touch. Even Domingo, Valente, and Epiphanio were happy to visit with them as they haven't seen them since last year.

Wonderfull rain

2009-06-06T11:01:00.001-07:00

We have had 6 tenths of an inch of rain in the last 2 days. This was a much needed rain as the last moisture we had was the snow in mid may. Most of the crops were just holding there own, but now they should really start to grow and make up for lost time. Also the weeds will be happy now. Even the asparagus is happy with the rain but it will have to warm up for it to flourish.

Asparagus festival door prize winner

2009-06-05T12:27:00.000-07:00

Shirley Charlton of Innisfail was our lucky winner of the door prize at our Asparagus Festival this year. She received a gift basket full of preserves, our cookbook, some fresh asparagus and some of our certified Angus beef hamburger. She was out to the farm today to pick up her prize. It was only 5 degrees outside when this picture was taken which is not good for growing asparagus but the 3 tenths of an inch of rain over night will do a world of good, but lots more rain is needed for the crops and pasture for the livestock.

Busy days on the farm

2009-06-04T17:59:00.000-07:00

Even the asparagus was tired after the festival as production slowed down with the cool nights on Monday, and Tuesday. Then the warm days and warm nights came again and we were very busy. Pictured here is Elna and Keri and our 2 grand daughters helping bundle. The grandkids really enjoy bundling for a while but get tired after a bit. They then can just go and play while Mom and Grandma still work. Oh to be a kid again!

Seeding garden peas

2009-06-03T06:37:00.000-07:00

Yesterday Elna planted another planting of garden peas along with all the other things she does in a day. This a picture of her standing behind our "Matermac" precision vacuum planter mounted on our John Deere tractor. You can tell by the shadows it was late in the evening when this picture was taken. She plants a planting of peas each week starting about mid April through to mid June. Starting mid May we also plant some beans. We will end up with about 25 acres of peas and a couple acres of beans that will be all picked by hand.

Asparagus festival pictures

2009-06-02T11:55:00.000-07:00

More pictures at our flickr website http://www.flickr.com/photos/37363547@N03/

A sucessful weekend

2009-05-31T20:54:00.000-07:00

Wow what a success, Great weather, great attendance and response for all our friends in the city and country alike. We were very happy with the whole weekend. Thank you everyone comming to our farm. Hope you all come back next year.

The calm before the storm

2009-05-30T06:28:00.000-07:00

A picture of our yard at 7:30 this morn. It looks empty right now but soon it will be a busling busy place

Getting ready for this weekends festival

2009-05-29T21:44:00.000-07:00

We are busy getting ready for our own asparagus festival. This is a picture from just over a year ago when we checked out the Stockton California Asparagus festival. We were 2 of some 40,000 people. I'm thinking our turnout won't be that big, but it's nice to see what other people do and get some ideas for our own.

I didn't have a picture from today so this one will have to do.

The start of our bale fort.

2009-05-28T17:57:00.000-07:00

Getting ready for the asparagus festival. Doug and Randy building a bale fort for the kids at our festival. It seems so many children don't get the opportunity to do simple things like play in a bale in a fort, or pet some new baby chicks, or maybe even play with some baby goats (kids). That is just some of the things the children can see and do this weekend.

Washing asparagus

2009-05-28T12:12:00.000-07:00

All our asparagus is washed thoroughly before it is chilled in the cold water. This is a picture of some soaking in the water and some on the drain tray ready to be hosed down.

What to do with asparagus seconds?

2009-05-27T17:25:00.000-07:00

Asparagus seconds. What to do with all those seconds due to the cold windy weather? Well we just turn them into relish and soup. Just what we need to be doing when the weather is good for picking is try to find a crew to work in our commercial kitchen. Pictured is one of our dedicated workers Edna (not Elna) washing some of our asparagus before we finely chop it for asparagus relish.

Jackie bundling asparagus

2009-05-27T13:27:00.000-07:00

Jackie bundling asparagus. This picture was taken today and Jackie begged me to take this picture. With at least 18 different people busily working around here and she wants to be the star!

Picking Asparagus

2009-05-27T13:14:00.000-07:00

We are picking asparagus this week. The picking has been very good the last couple of days. The first of the week we were busy picking the wind damaged asparagus and sorting it out for soup and relish, but now the quality is much better. This is last years picture of Jackie, Lisa, and Joanie riding on one of our 3 harvesters that crawl slowly down the field. As the machine goes down the field the persons riding snap off the asparagus at the appropriate length, then place them in the basket to be transported to the bundling shed.

Chef Wade comes to the farm for asparagus.

2009-05-27T12:49:00.000-07:00

Chef Wade Sirois out in the field checking the asparagus in the field. Wade made a special trip to the farm from Calgary last evening to pick up some fresh asparagus for his restaurant named forage. Wade will be back on Sunday for our Asparagus festival doing cooking demos with asparagus.

Our granddaughter is in the foreground.

Doug and Domingo out in the asparagus field.

2009-05-24T21:01:00.000-07:00

Checking the asparagus this evening at about 7:30 p.m. They have been picking since first thing this morn. They got over the field today and almost got it all bundled. They didn't get a large amount but we got the field cleaned up from all the wind and snow.

Last week we cleaned out the back of our quonset, and in the back was my old motorcycle that I bought brand new when I was 15 years old. This bike hasn't run for the last 10 years, so I charged the battery, added fuel, gave it a few kicks on the kick-starter and we were up and running. It ran like a top so I made a tour out to the field before parking it again, hopefully not 10 years again. This bike has just over 2700 miles on it which is not a lot for a 1967 model.

We are also on Facebook

2009-05-23T15:55:00.000-07:00

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1646005197#

Check us out on facebook or check out http://www.edgarfarms.com/ for more info on our farm

Country Drive open house- Media launch

2009-05-21T20:12:00.000-07:00

Country Drive open house-Media launch

Today was Country Drive's media launch at our farm. We had media from most all of the major radio stations, TV, and newspapers from Red Deer to Calgary at our farm today. There was also over 20 Country Drive booths representing most all of the members in attendance also. They were all demonstrating their wares. We had live goats with 10 day old kids, a bale maze, special teas, bluebird, bat, and bumblebee houses, specialty clothing. antiques etc. etc. We even had a team of horses doing wagon rides to the field, so the media and their families could tour the farm.

Pictured above is John Mills chairman of Country Drive addressing the media after supper. Another picture of our local county councilor Dave Hoar addressing the crowd. The picture of the little fellow is a reporters son from Calgary. He is showing off his very first temporary tattoo (an Edgar Farms Logo) This was one happy little fellow.

Picking Asparagus in the snow

2009-05-18T12:21:00.000-07:00

Picking aspargus today. This is the 3rd day we have picked this year. The weather has not been good at all. It has been too dry and too cold for the aspargus. We were hoping for moisture but not this kind. We picked yesterday in a dust storm with winds of 70 km. per hour and I don't know if it was any better than today.

The start of our blog

2009-04-08T12:16:00.000-07:00

Welcome to our new blog. I am just trying it out and feeling my way along. This picture was taken in Italy in the fall of 2008 when we went to the slow food conference in Turin. After the conference we grabbed the train and went to Milan to see the sights with the highlight being the painting of the last supper by Leonardo Da vinci. We then went to Pisa (with the rest of the tourists) to see the leaning tower. Then we took the train to Rome to pick up a Trafager bus tour of northern Italy. Saw many things on the tour but Venice was probably the neatest. Too bad it's so far away as we probably won't be back for a while.