oh
so
all right hey everyone welcome back to the show
hope you guys had a good winter uh i sure did i took a few weeks off and now we're
fully back in action at the farm here it's early spring and come inside check it out
so we had a great winter at the farm there's a lot of vegetables that we overwinter and i wanted
to show you the greenhouse let you know what's up so come on we'll show you what's going on
so we're about last week of march and last week we transplanted our tomatoes and so these will
be in for the whole year you can really see their technique here we grow them on it's one plant with
two heads growing on a string they're at really really early stage here but they're looking really
good and this is really what's exciting these are the celeries that we grow here at the farm and
celeries are an amazing amazing winter crop they overwintered all year long we transplanted them
it was early september i think late late august and we harvested a lot before christmas
and then january and february there wasn't much growth happening but since march they've just been
kind of booming and the technique is fairly simple we harvest a couple of branches every week on each
of the on each of the plants and then we bunch them and you know they're really really amazing
celery is just these crops that they're real money makers there's a lot of tricks to learn how to
grow them well but one thing about them is that they're not so susceptible to the the light the
low light conditions of the winter they kind of keep growing uh but they kind of need to be above
frost so they were you know the thermostat here is set just above frost level so we have cold nights
hotter night warmer nights hot days but you know they look great they look super good
there's about 12 vegetables that we grow during the winter
but there's up to about 30 that we could grow we choose some that are our chefs like most
celery is one of them another one that people don't know as much is
claytonia miner's lettuce some people call it this is a definite workhorse of winter farming
it's an amazing little green it's really tender it's really sweet
and it's really beautiful these are kind of going to seed now because we're heating the house for
the tomatoes but we had you know four harvests ever since they were planted in in early september
and so this crop is just amazing chefs love it and it's not that complicated
to grow and it gives a lot of yield so this is one crop that we really really
really like this is going to be one final harvest probably tomorrow and that's going
to be it we're going to rip it out and we're going to put something else in you can see
that our strategy growing tomatoes they're indeterminate plants it's one plant with two heads
so that saves a lot of the costs because these seeds are quite expensive it could be up to a
dollar a seed and eventually you know they'll take up the whole space and so we plant one out of two
beds with the tomatoes and that's the spacing that we use here and there's two real reasons for that
first of all it gives enough space for the plants to really grow with both heads and leaves enough
space for a small pathways but it also gives us one free bed early spring or in the winter
to grow between between the pa on the path and so that's how we maximize space
so intercropping is a big part of our program here we want to have like these were radishes
that were just harvested last week and these again were planted probably late october
they didn't do much during december january and february but boom
early march they started to grow and then you know three weeks later we're harvesting them
and then we're always the first for the chefs that we cater to we bring them super amazing
fresh vegetables that they don't they don't have otherwise and that's a big part of our strategy
for winter farming trying to fill the niche the gap that's not filled in the winter months
and you see here we farm i farm in in quebec so quebec is like just
north of the vermont border it's pretty cold so this is the last week of march here it's still
there's still some snow the ground is still frozen and those greenhouses are really what makes it
happen you know in the big houses we grow tomatoes eggplants bell peppers during the spring summer
months and in fall and in winter we want to put some frost hearty crops because we either don't
heat those houses at all or we heat them minimally so it's a fine balance there's a lot to know
so this is another one of our houses at fqt farm here we had spinach all winter these
are kind of on their their last miles but now we planted some pole beans and you can still see the
bok choy that we're harvesting this week and next week
you know the heat was not on all winter but when we put the beans on then we turned up the heat and
it's that's that's the transition between having houses in the winter that are not heated but that
are heated in the spring and time for heat loving crops and for a lot of people that's kind of weird
that we heat in the summer and we don't heat in the winter but that's really how we maximize
production and profits that's a big part of when you do the math it's a lot more advantages to put
the heat in the win in the summer when you can really get more yield and in the winter months
because it's so cold we we bank on frost hearty crops that can take frost that can
take low light conditions and that can really grow there's one other crop i want to show you
so this was this house were late greens that were just harvested and then the beds were flipped and
now we're putting early early squash in we want to be the first at market with a big load of squashes
with different colors it's amazing at the market
and we also seeded potatoes so you see our potatoes here they're looking really good
these all these will be giving us really early fingerling potatoes that will sell at
a really really good price to chefs and will be early june with some really nice potatoes here
and so all in all you know the greenhouses are used for season long 12 months out of the year
and a big part of our program is applying a lot of the principles of winter farming
some that i've learned from others like elliot and others that are really in that space but a
lot of things that we've developed here also at ftt farm that we've been testing and trialing
over over many seasons so it's really interesting and that's where that's what we're up to
so this is it for this week's video i'm super stoked to be back and i hope you liked it it
was a little tip off of what's going on here at the farm winter farming is such an amazing thing
if you guys want to learn more about winter farming there's a little cheat sheet that you
can get at the by connecting with us you'll see the informations at the bottom of this youtube
otherwise this is the kickoff to a brand new season a lot to show
we'll be showing you weekly what's going on here at the farm people that i meet and and some of my
universe and so hope you guys are into it make sure to subscribe to the channel it gives us
the signal that you guys are into it and it gives me the motivation to share some of my world views
and some of my knowledge which is really what i'm passionate about i hope you guys are well
i hope it'll get warm here soon and if anything i'll see you next week jm out
you