A Cautionary Tale

First, I want to let everyone know that for the next two weeks we have free shipping on every order (within Canada only). For a short time you don’t have to order above $100 to get the discount. We still have lots of seeds, but sales are brisk and I know from previous years that we always sell out of many varieties.

Now, to the cautionary tale. Last February I did a blog post on what to plant now and I suggested that you could plant your onions, leeks, and some early greens— with some caveats. For example, it helps to have some indoor lights, and a cold frame or greenhouse to transplant into for the early greens, etc.

This is good advice, but I should have added the following: If you take your lovely, well-cared-for seedlings and transplant them outside, even after hardening them off in a cold frame or greenhouse, and then it stays cold, and rains, then keeps raining and staying cold for three or four more months, your poor seedlings will succumb to rot, slugs, and other pests.

Of course it’s pretty hard to plan for everything, but I sure wasn’t prepared for the Spring we had last year. Taking my own advice, I transplanted a couple of thousand onion seedlings into my field sometime in March, and even though it was cold and wet, I figured it would be okay. After all, I do this every year more or less at the same time. (In case you’re wondering how I prepared the beds so early with the ground being so wet, what I do with early crops is tarp the beds in October/November to smother any weeds or old plants. Then just before planting I pull it up and loosen with a broad fork and spread compost.)

If the weather had warmed my onions would have been fine, but they mostly rotted or failed to size up like they should have. In the end I had enough to grow out a seed crop, but none for sale or winter eating.

So this is my cautionary tale folks. Everyone screws up from time to time. Take my advice—anyone’s advice!— with a grain of salt. This year, and every year from now on, I am going to be a mite more cautious about pushing the limits of production. Realistically, the veggies you plant a few weeks later will mostly catch up with the earlier planted ones, especially if the weather has been poor.

And by the way, I have been hearing from lots of people at the Seedy Saturdays I have attended this year (see below) that I wasn’t the only one that had a tough time of it. Last year was tough on gardeners, so take heart if you had some failures, you weren't the only one. And If you had stellar harvests all last year, I bow my head to you. Way to go!

Finally, do you know what Seedy Saturdays are? They are a uniquely Canadian event, held in the winter/early spring in communities across Canada. They started over twenty years ago as a way to encourage and support small scale seed producers. We know that it is important to support local farmers at the Farmer’s Markets, but these events are about supporting local seed producers. “You can’t grow food without growing seeds first”. Or, “No seeds, no food.” You get it.

Anyway, I encourage all of you to head to a Seedy Saturday near you and poke about. If you have seeds to trade, there is always a seed swap table, and it is fun to see what your local seed growers have got for sale. You can find a Canada-wide listing here:

We will be the Qualicum Beach Seedy Saturday tomorrow, February 4th, at the Qualicum Beach Civic Centre from 10-3. If you’re in the area stop in and say hi! For the rest of you, take care and let’s hope for better Spring weather this year.

Finally, finally, I laughed out loud when I saw this.

Spotlight on: Leeks!

Leeks are the quintessential winter food. They are super winter hardy, and they are a more dependable allium crop than onions. Many people have a difficult time growing onions, but other than needing a long growing season to size up, leeks are pretty easy to grow.

How does one grow leeks? I’ll relate how we grow leeks at Sweet Rock, and we are pretty successful this way. I’m sure there are other good ways too. First, look at variety. Leek seeds are usually sold as “summer”, “fall”, or “winter” leeks. Summer leeks have been bred to be faster growing to get a harvest in late summer, but are not winter hardy, and usually turn to mush if you try to overwinter them in any but the warmest areas.

Winter leeks are at the other end of the spectrum: slower growing but supremely winter hardy, and in my opinion, better tasting because the frosts make the leeks sweeter. And of course you can eat them at any time, if they are at a size you desire. Fall leeks are in-betweeners, and are hit and miss with hardiness. At Sweet Rock we grow a variety called Tadorna, which is a winter hardy, beautiful blue-green coloured leek.

Next is sowing time. We sow ours in early February (which is almost here!) inside and allow for a long growing period in spring to size up. If you live in a colder area where there is a real Canadian winter and spring doesn’t come until May, then you can still grow them. Just provide more fertility and water and they will grow faster and catch up. The first picture below is a bed of leeks that was planted in May from leftovers in the tray, and they did just as well as the leeks transplanted into the field two months earlier. I just heaped a ton of fertile compost into the bed first and planted into it.

The leeks in the second photo were field planted with less fertility two months earlier, but still sized up well. They just took longer. Both plantings, by the way, have weathered an 18” dump of snow, and multiple frost/thaw cycles which are very hard on winter crops. They are quite fine, which shows they are a real hardy winter crop.

When you are ready to sow your seeds, fill a tray with potting mix and layer the seeds on top trying to space them apart about an inch or so from each other. Gently press them in then and sprinkle another 1/4” of mix on top. Water them in and place in a warm (not hot) space. They should start coming up in a few days to a week.

If you have lights, perfect, but if you don’t then place them in the brightest window you have. If you have a cold frame or greenhouse they can go in there, but make sure you have a cover for the tray, or mice will find them and eat them. Keep them well watered and when they are 6” or so in height they can be transplanted into the garden about 6-8” apart. If it is still too nasty to get in the garden and the leeks are getting lanky, just trim the top couple of inches off of the leeks. They’ll be fine.

Leeks like a fertile soil. They are heavy feeders, so any extra compost can be put in their bed. They will survive in most any soil, but if it is lacking in nutrients they won’t size up. You’ll have skinny leeks (which isn’t the worst thing in the world). They also like water, but again, will grow just fine with only a moderate amount of water.

Finally, if you want long white shanks on your leeks, all you need to do is hill up soil around the base a few inches high and that will blanch the shank. Or you can plant them extra deep so only the growing tip is protruding from the soil. This works too. Harvest when they are ready; that is, when they are big enough for you to eat. That’s it!

Spotlight on a Different Winter Green

Hi folks, Happy New Year to all, and best wishes for a bountiful gardening year. To assist in this, we are going to highlight some of our varieties that shine at certain times of the year.

For example, right now in the garden there is a green that is just crushing it! No, it is not kale— although it is doing well and we harvest it regularly. What I would like to showcase here is a variety of Chinese Cabbage called China Choy— a large type of Boy Choy that we grow all through the year for its great taste, quick growth, and stellar hardiness. Here is a quick pic from our website, but I will show a video at the end with plants in the field right now.

As you can see, it is very pretty. It is also super versatile in the kitchen too. We use it in all kinds of stir fries. The stems are sweet and crunchy and can be eaten raw like celery, but the greens benefit from a bit of cooking. I know some people eat it raw, but we don’t.

Another way we eat China Choy is made into Kimchi. What is Kimchi? It is a traditional Korean dish made usually from Napa Cabbage and other vegetables. China Choy is a great substitute: It is waaaay easier to grow, and tastes great in kimchi. And the great thing is, there are literally hundreds of ways to make it, which means there is no right way. I made a perfectly tasty version my very first time (meaning my kids ate it, who have plenty of experience with my experiments and don’t eat anything funky).

As for growing China Choy, if you can grow kale or turnips you can grow this. We start it inside and transplant it out, either in a greenhouse or in the field, depending on the time of year. So many critters like to eat baby brassicas that we have found the best success with transplanting over direct seeding. Once transplanted (at a couple of inches high), we usually cover them with row cover— again, to keep away pests— until they are several inches high and can fend off any predation. This may not be necessary where you live, I don’t know.

They can be eaten at any stage by snipping off leaves as needed, or you can harvest the whole plant at once, when it’s full sized. Here is a short video of plants growing outside now but under under a cover (we often grow our winter veggies like this, under some sort of cover. It doesn’t need to be grandiose either Anything that sheds the snow will do. They will survive without it, but they end up with much more damage from the snow.)

I hope you have a better idea of the potential of China Choy in your garden. It is also equally at home in the summer garden.

Until next time, all the best.

Sal from Sweet Rock Farm Seeds

Seed Growing in a Weird Climate

I get asked all of the time what its like to “grow seeds”, and lately, what it is like to grow seeds with all of the weird weather we have been getting.

The short answer is, increasingly difficult. It seems like every year we get some kind of record breaking weather event. Just in the last 18 months we have had a heat dome, and then a record breaking flood event last November. We followed with a long, wet, cold winter/spring that didn’t warm up until early July. And most recently, the warmest, driest October on record.

I know these weather events are hard on all farmers, whether he/she is a grape grower for wine, a Farmer’s Market vegetable grower (which we also do), or a cattle farmer.

Remember when the heat dome hit us in June 2021? In the course of one day it went from the low twenty’s to the high thirty’s, and over four days got to 40 degrees celsius! I had about two acres of seed crops and vegetables for the market growing and it was very interesting to see what was affected and what soldiered through.

Without exception, all of our “temperate” crops suffered and some failed to give a harvest at all. For example, I had a large planting of beets being grown out for seed, and the sun literally cooked the seeds black on the plants. I wish I had a picture to show but I don’t. Some of the seeds still looked good, so it became a real chore to separate the “cooked” seeds out from the good seeds.

Our onions mostly failed to make large bulbs. They remained permanently shocked by the weather, as did our potatoes. We had a poor harvest of little spuds last year. If we had an unlimited supply of water we would have been able to cool the vegetables through the event, but here on the Gulf Islands water (lack of it) is constantly an issue from late Spring to late Fall. All of the lettuces, both for seed and for market just… quit. We planted more for the market and that was fine but it was too late to start lettuce for seed as it needs a long season to grow and ripen the seeds. Generally, the temperate crops either quit, or slowed way down. Either way, our seed harvests were really low from these crops.

The heat loving crops had various responses: the sweet potatoes loved it! We had a stellar crop of sweeties last year; in fact, the best ever. Believe it or not, this was from one sweet potato plant.

The tomatoes dropped all of their flowers in the heat, but pushed through and produced more flowers soon after and did well otherwise. Peppers were unaffected, likewise cucumbers. Our corn was tasselling during the heat wave and I think the pollen was affected by it because we had a less than stellar (crappy) harvest of corn.

What about that crazy atmospheric river that flooded out much of the lower province? At our place we were anywhere from ankle to knee deep in water, and it stayed that way for three weeks. Being November all of our crops were harvested, but we did have garlic, kale, and turnips in the fields. I thought they were doomed, but amazingly they all without exception did well. Go figure.

Rain in the winter is okay for us, but rain during the growing season— too much at least— is terrible. That is what we endured this Spring. We had January/February weather all the way until July. I thought the seed growing year was going to be a washout and I didn’t even plant some crops. Dried beans, a staple of my business and our household didn’t get planted this year because I thought there wouldn’t be enough time to grow them out and get them to the drying stage before the fall rains started. If only I had a looking glass into the future and saw that we would have the hottest, driest October ever I would have sowed them for sure, but alas!

This is what it is like now. I find myself wondering if we will be on the receiving end of some new record breaking weather event, and I try to plan for… something. We bought a new greenhouse to have more area that is “controllable”. We can plant a crop inside if the weather is too cold or wet and still get a harvest. Or, we can harvest an outside seed crop like dried beans if it looks like we are going to get a freaky rain event and finish drying them inside. Basically it gives us more control.

We also put in drainage around a field to help move the water better in case we get more rain events like last November.

Most of all, we are realizing that diversity is the key to dealing with wacky weather. Diversity is the Key. During these several weather events we had some losses, sure, but we also had successes too, and that is because we are growing dozens of varieties of fruits and vegetables. This super warm, dry October was the tail end of a four month drought, and I know that the forests and grasses, bugs and birds wanted rain, yet it was a blessing to many farmers who had seeds to dry, or squash to ripen, or grapes to ripen enough to use for wine. If not for the warm October, many of us farmers would have had a terrible year because of the late, cold spring.

I’m a glass half full kind of guy, or at least I try to be. This weird weather is making all of us farmers better at our jobs, because we have to be. The weather is gonna do what weather does and we will adapt. For several thousand years of farming, humans have dealt with all sorts of weather, and we are still here. That is something to chew on. Best of the day to you.

Fall Musings

Finally, I feel like things are starting to slow down at the farm. As usual, the year has been super busy and chaotic, starting with frenetic seed sales at the beginning of the year— online and at Seedy Saturdays. By late January, we were starting our first seedlings inside to transplant into our greenhouses and things just kept escalating from there.

Looking back, I don’t know how we managed. Honestly, this year was a special kind of nuts. In addition the usual farm stuff, we bought and erected a new 50’ greenhouse (love it!), started a kitchen reno (ongoing), painted the outside of the house, had the roof redone (not by me, out of my league), and built a root cellar!

Whew! Needless to say, I didn’t keep all of the balls juggling in the air all of the time. My roadside stand suffered some neglect and I didn’t manage to get to every Farmer’s Market. But you do the best you can do and that’s what we all did.

We had lots of successes too. Our late season warm spell was perfect for ripening the last of the seeds in our fields. In fact, all of the fall crops did superbly. It is a good omen for the upcoming seed selling season, I think. I will be sending out an email soon talking about our new seed varieties and a general Hey! Hi! that our website is all updated. If you haven’t signed up for our email list please do. Here’s a picture of our fall cabbages with a light dusting of snow.

All the best of the harvest season to you and yours,

Sal Dominelli

Sweet Rock Farm

Yes It is Time to Plant, Sort Of

When I say it is time to plant I’m saying this with conditions. First, you can start green onions, but not melons. This may be obvious to most of you, but for those of you who are brand new to the gardening world, and the local food movement in general, it is not a given that people know about seasonal eating and growing. I get enough odd questions at the farmer’s market to know this. Like, in mid-May someone will ask, “Do you have any acorn squash?”

Second, to start seeds successfully in early February it sure helps to have a space indoors to start your seeds and have some supplemental lighting unless you have a solarium or serious window light. Your seedlings will otherwise get leggy searching for more light. LED lights are really cheap and will go a long way to making your early gardening season successful. I use these because they can daisy-chain together and can be on the same time. They pay for themselves quickly. Each light will illuminate about 3’x3’.

Finally, a greenhouse or cold frame is needed to really get the seedlings growing well until they can be transplanted outside. They take away the wind and rain, and boost daytime temperatures so that the seedlings grow well. It can be as simple as four two-by-tens nailed into a square with some plastic stapled to the top, leaving some of it unfastened to allow access, or an expensive, full-on, four season greenhouse with roll up sides for ventilation and a door for access.

Why would anyone do this? Isn’t it way more work? Not really. Not much. And don’t you need another hobby anyways? Unless you plan on growing on a commercial scale you only need room for a few flats, about the space of a small table. With this, you can grow vegetables all year round on the West Coast by starting them inside and transplanting them out when they are past the fragile, seedling stage.

With inflation getting worse and driving food prices higher (and everything else!) and supply chain issues creating shortages, it makes sense to get started growing some of your food. Aside from peace of mind, you can’t beat home-grown vegetables for taste, as most of you know.

I have recently started lettuce, spinach, and kale, and will soon start onions, leeks, turnips, Chinese cabbage, radishes, and chard. They all get transplanted outside either to my greenhouse (which is unheated), or straight into prepared ground.

We still have lots of seeds available, with bulk sizes in many varieties, but they are selling fast. Free shipping is available for larger orders. Happy planting! Sweet Rock Farm Seeds Website

Sal Dominelli

Sweet Rock Farm

Seed Saving 101

Love this photo. I grabbed a clump of carrot tops last fall and came up with these beauties. Variety: St. Valery

I recently sat down with Donna Balzer for a conversation about saving seeds, the difference between hybrid and open-pollinated tomatoes, my journey into seed farming, and so much more. We get into best varieties to grow for the home gardener, and why seed saving is so important in these troubled times.

I haven’t done a lot of podcasts (only two), but I really like to listen to them while I am working. Often, while I am filling seed orders or starting seeds I put on a podcast and the work seems to go easier. I will admit that it was kind of weird to listen to my own voice for a change! I hope that this conversation makes whatever you’re doing hum along.. Check it out. https://donnabalzer.com/s2-episode-5-save-seeds-they-will-adapt/

On another note, if you haven’t already started your onions and leeks, now is the time. Onions start to make their bulbs when the summer solstice happens, regardless of their size and leeks take their own damn time to size up, growing slowly but surely through the season. So an earlier start is better for them. If you are motivated and you have the indoor space you can start lettuce, chard, kale, mustard greens, celery, and some others I’ve probably forgotten. It’s almost time to get your peppers and tomatoes going too; at least, if you have indoor lighting and a greenhouse to transplant them into. You will be eating your first tomatoes by late June then. Yum!

Happy planting folks,

Sal Dominelli

Sweet Rock Farm

What Should I Plant Right Now?

Yesterday I was working outside in a t-shirt. It was sunny, not a cloud in the sky, and I could actually feel the warmth of the sun on my face and arms. Today, the temperature will barely crawl above zero, and we had a hard frost last night. For the next several days it is supposed to go down several degrees below zero. This time of year we often get these “extremes”. I like to think that Winter and Spring are battling over who gets control of the weather. Not being a winter person I cheer wholeheartedly for Spring and revel in the warm days and curse when I have to wear layers of clothes to keep warm when I’m working outside.

So in answer to the question of what to plant right now, the answer is not much… unless you have an indoor heated space to start seedlings. Then you can get going with some early stuff. Most market growers will have started their earliest plantings of things like onions, leeks, lettuce greens, and other greens— mostly brassicas like Kale, or any of the mustards. There are a couple of other greens that you can plant early as well. Claytonia, also know as Miner’s Lettuce is great, Corn Salad, and of course, Spinach.

When you start your seedlings inside you also need lights or they will get leggy and fall over from not enough light. I just updated my indoor lighting setup a couple of weeks ago and am so stoked because it was simple and relatively cheap. For too many years I have used fluorescent lights to grow my seedlings, and while it works, I have found them awkward because they have to be placed close to the plants to provide enough light, which makes it difficult to water them properly. Plus, the cost of replacement bulbs has gotten out of control. This year I decided to check out LED lights as they have come down in price so much, and they are cheaper to run than flourescents.

A friend showed me his set up and I was sold (shout out to Grahame W.!). One of these grow lights is enough for a few seedling trays and can be placed high enough over the plants to make for easy watering. In fact, I have placed a layer of plastic down on the table and put a raised ring of wood around the edges of the table so I can bottom water. I recommend this once the seeds have germinated as its quick and the seedlings like it. I don’t need a huge, intensive space to get a head start on everything. Enough to get a dozen trays going is good for me. Then I transfer the cold hardy veg starts to an outdoor greenhouse to harden off until they go into the ground or into another greenhouse for early selling.

If I wasn’t a market grower, trying to be first to have that salad mix ready, or trying to have the biggest sweet onions I wouldn’t be so quick to start things. As a home grower there is not much advantage in being the first in your hood to have lettuce. It is a lot of extra effort and if you wait just a few weeks you can have greens almost as early.

I will say that an early start is almost essential for onions and leeks though. They grow slow and steady all through the cold wet spring and really appreciate the long growing period. After the summer Solstice they stop putting out leaves so much and concentrate on bulbing, so the bigger the plant by then, the bigger the bulb. Leeks just keep slowly growing all season long.

If you haven’t started your onions yet, for sure get them going. Even without indoor lights, you can put them on a bright windowsill until they can be transplanted outside. You will be rewarded with bigger bulbs come August.