RJR 100 Acre Farm

We made several batches of salsa and then we had so many green tomatoes we made a few batches of green tomato chile sauce. We ate the extra salsa still hot yummy.

We always like to make multiple batches of this to keep us through the year. Tomorrow we're going to try out some green tomato recipes.
RJR's Salsa
First chop all of the vegetables
7 cups of tomatoes chopped 2 cups of onions chopped 1-2 cups of green peppers chopped 1/2 cup of cilantro chopped OPTIONAL 6 Hot peppers - chopped

Combine all of the chopped ingredients in a large cooking pot and add the following. 1 Tablespoon of coarse salt 1 Teaspoon of ground cumin 1 can of (156 ml ) tomato paste 3/4 cup of white vinegar
Cook for 1 1/2 to 2 hours at a low simmer. Taste and adjust seasonings, we like granulated garlic and freshly ground black pepper. Pour into sterilized jars.
If you like a smoother salsa chop finely or after cooking pulse in a food processor if you like a chunky salsa rough chop the vegetables.

We have cucumbers. If we get rain this week we will have a lot of cucumbers. Our favourite types of cucumbers are Marketmore and Poona Kheera they are both tasty and make great pickles. Poona Kheera also can be used in stir-fries and chutneys. It is an unusual cucumber it has a white to yellow skin that changes to brownish red as it matures. Eat it as you would any other cucumber. A little grand-daughter of one sharer loves Poona Kheera so much at three years old she would gobble down a whole cucumber. Here is a recipe that we use:

Aunt Anna’s Mustard Pickles
10 cups cucumbers peel, remove the seeds and chop into roughly 1/2 inch chunks (7-9 cucumbers)
1-quart onions diced (6-8 white onions)
1-quart celery and cauliflower diced (2 cups of each)
1 red pepper diced (2 if you want more colour)
4 tablespoons pickling salt
Cover with 4 tablespoons pickling salt and water. Leave overnight. Drain well.
Sauce
4 cups vinegar
6 cups sugar
4 tablespoons dry mustard
1 cup flour
1 teaspoons turmer…

We have two girl calves and four boy calves. (heifer and bull calf) They need names. Take a look at the photos start thinking of names please.

Spring is here! Just a few of the resources that we use for our CSA planning. Some seeds ordered and ordering, some plants started, itching to get into our gardens. Waiting for the snow to leave and the soil to be ready to grow our tasty vegetables.

To make chive blossom vinegar we trim off the flowers from chives and soak them in vinegar for a couple weeks. The chive flowers infuse the vinegar with a garlicky flavour and a beautiful pink hue. This can be used as a flavoured vinegar for salad dressings, dips, to sprinkle on fish or fries, or for a bowl of cucumber slices.


A ready batch.


Clean jars.


The light shining through the pink vinegar. So pretty.

Here's a recipe for a vinaigrette made with chive blossom vinegar.

We're expecting to have extra berries after our CSA sharers have gotten theirs. If you would like a crate or two for making jam, or maybe just a couple boxes for snacking, please give us a call. They are $4.50/box, $54/crate.

We are very excited for this year we have a lot of different vegetables that we have selected for their nutritional value, flavour, antioxidants, and colours.  See a full list below of what we have planned for 2018.

 We now have an egg CSA $5.00 for a dozen eggs ($80 for 16 weeks), if you want a half dozen $2.50.00 ($40 for 16 weeks).


We still have spots left in our CSA. Sign up here. We accept many forms of payment and you can discuss payment plans with us. We also introduced new CSA sizing we now have

1/4 Share (1 person) ($320 for 16 weeks - value of $20/wk). Includes an average of 3-5 items.


1/2 Share (1-2 people) ($480 for 16 weeks - value of $30/wk). Includes an average of 5-8 items.


Don't forget you can order extra vegetablesfor canning, freezing or when the kids come home from school!

We can deliver to your door or neighbourhood, if you get a group together we can do a drop off at an office, school, or other location.


Four types of snap beansred, yellow, and white beetswhite …

2015 was definitely an interesting year. We as a family, as a farm, and in our CSA community faced a number of challenges. We had chicken thefts (darn foxes), infestations, seed failures, a late Spring and thus late start to the season, some family illnesses, back injuries, and the like.

Despite our challenges we have had a number of successes in 2015 too. We got to meet new CSA sharers, new people at market, and maintain a relationship with many wonderful people. We grew delicious beets, better kale, more herbs - not to mention a crazy amount of dill and beans. We also had our first beautiful crop of strawberries come in.



 Every year comes with its ups and downs. We are looking forward to the year 2016 and have begun our planning and preparations. The fields were prepared this fall so we have a jump-start come this spring. With our review of what worked and didn't work last year we are doing up our wish-list of seeds to buy

Our registration for 2016 CSA is open. Now is the time …

We have some quantities of the following available for purchase this fall. This is subject to availability/weather. Give us a call to order! 902- 892- 8575

Apples (Cox's Orange Pippin)-$2.00/lb

Cilantro-$2.00/bunch

Dill-$2.00/bunch

Parsley-$2.00/bunch

Beets-$3.00/lb

Baby Carrots-$2.00/lb

Cabbage (red or green)-$1.00/lb

Corn-$6.00/doz

Garlic-$10.00/lb

Lettuce (mixed)-$4.00/8oz

Romaine (red&green)-$3.00/hd

Kale-$3.00/Bunch

Parsnips-$2.00/lb

Potatoes-$1.00/lb

Snow Peas-$6.00/lb

Spinach-$5.00/8oz

Swiss Chard (red)-$4.00/bunch

Eggs (ungraded)-$4.00/doz

The chicks are getting big are almost full chickens now and are excited to be in amongst the older hens.

Random vegetables in the fridge? Check. More dill than a normal person would ever really use (though we're not really normal here are we)? Check. Leftover rice? Check. 
Throw it in a buttered pan, add  scrambled eggs (2 per 1 cup of rice roughly?) and soy sauce, voila. You have egg-fried rice!


 So... we really planted a lot of dill this year. Just put it in everything. You'll be fine!
Whoosh.
Delicious!

We have some pretty big beets out there... bigger than my fist!

Newly hatched ducklings, our little brown Mommy duck is very protective, so we are not sure how many we have but they sure look cute.

We are offering work shares for the remainder of this season and will likely be looking for a couple for next year as well. We are looking for a few extra hands who can help out a couple hours a week (3 or more), Thursdays or Fridays for harvesting and packaging. In exchange you will be provided with a share of the CSA. Hours and size of share will be negotiated individually. For next season we'll need help with weeding, planting, harvesting, packaging, and possibly other odd jobs that might need to be done.

We're looking for people who have some experience in gardening, and who can physically do the bending and crouching required for field work. Own transportation required.

Please e-mail csa@rjrfarm.ca if interested with a little bit of background on experience and your availability.

It's so great to be able to take fresh veggies out of your fridge and throw them all in a stir-fry. There's really not much limit to the variations you can create. Lettuce might be the only thing I wouldn't recommend stir-frying. Even beets can go in!

Here's a delicious stir-fry we made today...


First we browned some sliced mild Italian sausage. Then put in a large diced onion, then sliced 1/2 green cabbage (unused from a stir-fry I made last week), then a whole bag of de-stemmed and chopped kale, then chopped sweet pepper, then chopped broccoli, then quartered and sliced yellow zucchini. Almost everything from RJR Farm. I could have put Swiss chard and beets but I didn't want to go overboard, the pan was getting pretty full even after the greens cooked down. I try to guess the longest cooking ingredients to the fastest cooking and put them in that order (eg. mushrooms always last).

For the sauce I made my mother's specialty, and my favourite. Take a couple spo…

Our strawberries that were planted have been coming in over the past couple weeks. Despite the tropical storm we seem to be getting a good harvest of some beautiful juicy berries.

Sometimes the chickens like to help....



If you want a quart of strawberries, make sure to come early to the market. $4.50 per quart. They sold out very quickly last week. If you want a crate for making jam, we'll negotiate a price. We would also welcome a phone call if you want us to make sure to set some aside for you.

Several environmental and watershed groups around PEI are creating Monarch Waystations as a way to help the endangered butterfly species. They include the Bedeque Bay Environmental Management Association, Wheatley River Improvement Group, the Hunter-Clyde Watershed Group, and the Cornwall Area Watershed Group.

We had their crew out July 8th planting trees and flowers in an unused piece of land at the farm as a way-station for the butterflies. We'll have a visit again later for some some butterflies in various stages of development to be put in.



James helped transport some of the transplants as they had hundreds and it was quite a hike.





 An old stream bed runs across the farm, they planted trees throughout this.

The group with Rita and Marylynn holding our way-station sign. The crew included: Donnie Sonier, Max Hammer, Brittany MacLean, Jerrica Cormier, Jiselle Bakkar, Ben McCarvill, Jason McNeil, Chad Curtis, Dave Allen, Chris Newell, and Michaella Donovan.

We got help from the PEI Association for Newcomers to Canada. Thank you Alex

RJR 百亩农场

We haveFree-range hens
走地母鸡
Vegetables 蔬菜
Spent hens 老母鸡 Pork from Berkshire hogs 巴克夏猪肉 Grass-fed beef 食草牛肉 Egg 鸡蛋 Chicken 鸡肉

We have some great news! Based on feedback we've received from our sharers, we would like to offer a smaller share option. We will now have a "Quarter" sized share. The total cost will be $225 for the full 16 weeks, which will be valued at $14 per week. This size would be ideal for 1-2 people.