The Weblog
This page contains news, event information, and other items added by Ian and Adam, the resident farmers at Old 99. We send out a message every week, but most are set with a delete date about two weeks later. I archive some of the posts if they have content other than weekly availability of produce and meat.
You can send me questions too, which if they are of a general nature, I can post to this Old99 blog.
April 1st 2022 we're back
After a couple of weeks off while the new crops germinate and size up, we’re back.
We had Strathcona Market owners here for a visit this week to check us out. Here’s a reel on instagram
We’ve got some crops now ready for harvest. The spring 2022 greenhouse crops are: lettuce, arugula, mizuna, parsley, kale, collards, spinach, chard, tatsoi and special salad green called Tokyo Bekana. Coming soon: baby salad mix, Tong Ho (what’s that you say?), claytonia, cilantro and baby carrots. We have a few winter storage selections: potatoes, turnips, beets, rutabaga.
Our orchard produces apples, peaches, raspberries, blackberries, aronia berries, mulberries, asian and european pears, currants and juice grapes in season.
Be careful, don’t all stampede back in here! We’ll offer fresh picked to first come.
The Spring Harvest Basket program is ready for sign-ups, notice some innovative ideas we learned from LaFamilleFermiere, a collective effort in Quebec to get farm fresh food to families and strengthen local agriculture.
We simplified to one basket size, available weekly or biweekly. If you order weekly you get a discount on top of the discounted price of the contents. Price is $32.45 per week for 6 to 8 vegetable items. You get alternatives to choose from and an exchange table for pick-one,leave-on. Season starts when you sign and runs for 10 weeks. You can pay 50% up front and balance at mid season. Our basket typically contains 6 to 8 different organic vegetables that are freshly harvested and in season.
You can choose to pick it up every week or every 2 weeks (bi-weekly. With the bi-weekly basket you will get 5 pickups/deliveries, scheduled on alternative weeks. Delivery is new for us, beta-testing so to speak. We think we can do it for $15 a week within 10km radius from the farm. If you want delivery, add $15 to the basket x number of weeks (5 or 10) by picking the Spring 10 delivered option on the menu. Likewise for Spring 5 Delivered.
Another change for this year: vegetables are not pre-boxed. Members make up their own basket by following a blackboard list with the basket contents, and making their choices. We also provide an exchange box where you can trade unwanted items.
Please bring your own bags or boxes! We use very little packaging, our vegetable basket is a great way to reduce packaging and waste!
Please go to the market page for examples of what the baskets might look like at different times during the summer season. The spring basket will be more limited.