Off-Grid Life in YEG

Off-Grid Life in YEG We are a first-generation family farm delivering fresh veggies to our YEG neighbors and sharing our stories as we adapt to life totally off the grid!

We're trying Pac Choi this year - seen here in the middle row! It's an Asian green with a texture similar to Swiss Chard...
06/15/2026

We're trying Pac Choi this year - seen here in the middle row! It's an Asian green with a texture similar to Swiss Chard but with a milder flavor - close to Bok Choy but again - milder. Used in stir fry or raw baby leaves in salads it's a nutritional powerhouse like all dark leafy greens, but won't take over your dish. This plant is cold tolerant, pest tolerant and will go all year if we just harvest the leaves! I've planted it next to some radishes but I spotted a few holes in the leaves so under the mesh they go to keep out pests and keep in heat and moisture so the plants are loving it!

Radishes will be ready for our farm stand opening on June 19!!

Ahhh springtime ... an exercise in delayed gratification! 😅 After a long winter of planning in front of the fire and nur...
06/11/2026

Ahhh springtime ... an exercise in delayed gratification! 😅

After a long winter of planning in front of the fire and nursing seedlings to life, the springtime flurry of activity is both welcome and exhausting. Muscles we forgot we had over the winter are now sore and aching at the end of every long day. Skin is scratched, sunburned and mosquito bitten. We get all those seeds in the ground and then ... we wait. The weeds come up first and on our farm we don't use any herbicides so weeding is all by hand. We're fueled by determination and trust that it will pay off in beautiful food but it's hard to see until those first plants start to pop up.

And thank goodness they do! We have peas, beets, carrots, radishes, and lots of greens growing their hearts out. Rhubarb is back, and even a little bit of asparagus survived a tilling incident last fall. Seedlings are in the ground and loving the fresh air and sunshine! A month from now we will still be sore and sunburned but it feels a lot easier when it's from harvesting all that food!

05/28/2026

We put up a few cameras around the house to see what sort of night-time activity we have. We woke up to over 100 alerts of motion outside the garage and we caught the intruder on tape. I think the neighborhood is still safe ... 😉

This dog already misses the snow! Happy Spring Mud Season!
05/18/2026

This dog already misses the snow! Happy Spring Mud Season!

Killdeer update: There's another egg!! 😍We were going to let this garden rest until fall this year anyway but now tillin...
05/16/2026

Killdeer update: There's another egg!! 😍

We were going to let this garden rest until fall this year anyway but now tilling or covering with tarps aren't options until the birds are gone. Killdeer eggs can take 3 to 4 weeks to hatch because they're born running around and fully self-sufficient, so that will be cute. And you've probably noticed some bare soil and a few weeds popping up around last year's cucumber plants already. The enemy of the farmer is bare soil. It nearly killed us last year to keep weeds down without using chemicals. So now what? Enter the cover crop! We were going to try it this year anyway, so no time like the present.

Here's the mix of oats and peas that I planted all around the bird's nest. The oats will grow very fast covering the soil to choke out weeds, and preventing erosion. The peas will work with the bacteria, fungus and other organisms that have been preserved in our soil by avoiding tilling and they will produce nitrogen just like we would buy in a chemical fertilizer if we were into that kind of thing. 🙂 When the plants have matured but before going to seed we will mow it down and work it in as a mulch. This is so beneficial it's called "green manure" and will help our clay soil to become fluffy and nutritious. We get the benefits without spending money to import animal waste.

That's the theory anyway! Let's see how it works!

Look what I spotted when I was going through one of the gardens before tilling! This beautiful bird's nest full of eggs!...
05/11/2026

Look what I spotted when I was going through one of the gardens before tilling! This beautiful bird's nest full of eggs! It was just sitting out in the open but is so well hidden I almost stepped on it. I certainly would have tilled it under by mistake if I'd been using a big machine. Mama bird came and scolded me for getting close so planting is going to have to wait a couple of weeks until the babies are gone🥰

I'm no bird expert but I found a picture online of some eggs and I think this might be a Phalarope?? Does anyone else know birds? Obviously this picture is terrible. If I ever spot a sasquatch his secret will stay safe with my photography skills ...

I also found a bunch of tracks, hair and droppings which have been sent to my dad for identification. I'll spare you all those photos 😂 This farm is an even busier place than I realized!

Happy Mother's Day to all the moms and mom figures out there! 💐🌻Mom brag alert - this was my Mother's Day gift! My oldes...
05/11/2026

Happy Mother's Day to all the moms and mom figures out there! 💐🌻

Mom brag alert - this was my Mother's Day gift! My oldest child crocheted this pixel art chicken pillow for me! The kid's talent amazes me. You'll be able to see original art like this at our farm stand this summer and even buy some for yourself. Stay tuned!

I also got spoiled with the usual Mother's Day routine of no cooking or cleaning for one day. We've come a long way from dandelion bouquets and sliced cheese and apples on white bread ... but I miss those days too.

These little beauties are potato seedlings! I've always grown potatoes by planting the seed potatoes directly outdoors, ...
05/02/2026

These little beauties are potato seedlings! I've always grown potatoes by planting the seed potatoes directly outdoors, but West Coast Seeds is offering a potato seed this year. It's obviously a little more work as these were planted and have been growing under lights for a few weeks but they're way cheaper and we don't have to worry about frozen seed potatoes when they get shipped in this unpredictable weather!

The variety is called "Fancy Clancy" so if I get this right we can look forward to some rose and gold creamer-type potatoes mid-season. The seedlings are looking great so if my gardens dry out they'll be in the sunshine very soon! I did hedge my bet a little by also buying seed potatoes just in case ...

This is what happens when the dog comes in to eat dinner. I counted 9 deer peacefully grazing on our lawn! They hop over...
04/30/2026

This is what happens when the dog comes in to eat dinner. I counted 9 deer peacefully grazing on our lawn! They hop over the 4-foot dog fence like it isn't even there and we took down the 8-foot mesh fencing around the veggie gardens so I spotted a deer in each of them 😬 8-foot fencing is a must out here! We're going to use mesh for the veggies again this year but we're putting in a perennial garden for fruits and berries and will try a more substantial (and expensive) type of hard plastic fence with posts in concrete since it won't change after it's established. The projects are starting and the ground hasn't even thawed yet! 😅

Anybody else have whiplash? 😂Here's our yard April 20, April 24, and today. Wow.
04/29/2026

Anybody else have whiplash? 😂

Here's our yard April 20, April 24, and today. Wow.

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