It looks like spring truly arrived. We removed plastic tarp and were delighted to see it kept our growing beds weed free! (though, we wonder how long it stays that way…). 

Compost and initial organic fertilizer were added and smoothed out. 

Swiss chard, Red Russan kale and Collard Green seedlings were transplanted.  They were not quite the desired size yet, but we moved them out of the tiny seedling plug trays into open outdoor soil anyway, so that their growth will not get stunted any longer. 

Growing healthy and robust seedlings indoor and transplanting them outside at the perfect time is still a mystery to me.  If it is too early, they seem to struggle to grow.  If it is too late, they might flower before reaching to their full size.  We try to determine the right timing by looking at the size, color and how their roots are growing inside the tray, but it is still a mystery.  We are waiting for our lettuce seedlings become a bit bigger so that we can plant them outside for our famous salad mix. We hope it happens soon!

For our baking, we try to use as much organic ingredients as possible. From last week we started to use organic true cinnamon with our cinnamon raisin loaves.  Being a novice spice user, I have always wondered what “true” cinnamon means when I visit our local health store, Nature Spirit and Earth Market.  It turned out there are different varieties of cinnamon!  According to King Arthur Baking Company’s website, cinnamon showed up in history in Egypt around 2,000 BCE.  In Asia and Middle East, it was used in cooking to keep foods from spoilage and for its flavour.  Cinnamon traveled to Europe when Portuguese conquered Sri Lanka and controlled the trade of its native Ceylon cinnamon, and eventually came to North America with European settlers.

There are mainly three varieties.  Ceylon, or “True” cinnamon grown in Sri Lanka, Cassia cinnamon grown mainly in China, and Saigon cinnamon grown in Vietnam.  Ceylon cinnamon has mild and sweet flavour, so it is best to be used when cinnamon does not play a main character.  Cassia and Saigon cinnamon, most commonly found in Big Box brand bottles, have spicy and a little bitter flavour, so a good fit if you want to showcase spicy cinnamon flavour in your cooking, like cinnamon rolls.  Since our Cinnamon Raisin loaf is a daily bread, I choose to use organic Ceylon cinnamon.  Please pick one up at the market, enjoy it and let me know how you like it!

One last thing.  The photo below is a pickled turnip (local turnip from Watercliff Farm) that I will eat with my dinner tonight.  In Japan there are variety of pickling methods and this one is done in fermented rice bran paste and called “Nukazuke”.  It is packed with vitamin B, minerals and other vitamins from rice bran.  It will help me finish all the farm work this week!

Our market schedule is as follows:

• Island Roots Farmers’ Market: Beban Park, 2300 Bowen Road, Nanaimo, 3 – 6pm on Wednesday
• AGI Market: AGI Hall, Gabriola, 10am – 1pm on Saturday

Thank you very much for reading our newsletter and have a wonderful week.