Milky Way Farm, 484872 Sweaburg Road, Woodstock, ON (2026)

06/16/2026

New this week in the online store we have lots of broccoli, and some more cauliflower available. More heritage and red beefsteak and cherry tomatoes, our first shelling peas, and loads more sugar snap peas as our second succession comes on, and a few more peppers and zucchini available as well. Other things available include carrots, beets, radishes, hakurei, pac choi, cucumbers, fresh kohlrabi, kale, green onion, eggplant, arugula, spinach, spicy mix, salad mix, mini red & green lettuce, romaine, butterhead, rhubarb, chard, flat and curly parsley, cilantro, dill, lemon balm, chives, basil, and oregano.

We have a bit of an issue in our long red sweet peppers this year as there seem to be some random hot pepper plants mixed in our greenhouse bed. Our 4 year old discovered this after biting into one last Friday, and was quite distressed, as I imagine some of you might have been making the same discovery. We ordered new seeds this year, and did not plant any hot pepper seeds until several months after these had already germinated, so there is no way we could have mixed the seeds up ourselves. An off-type hot pepper can sometimes contaminate seed supplier stock when the sweet pepper seed crop is grown too close to hot peppers, and ends up cross pollinating the sweet pepper seed crop, rendering the next generation of peppers as hybrid hot types. At any rate, we are trying to flag and identify the culprit plants with fruit that look to be a bit skinnier, a bit curvier, thinner walled and brighter red in colour. Please let us know if you have received a hot pepper by mistake from us this season, so we know just how many plants we should be rooting out.

Our potato crop is up, and ready for the first hilling this week, and of course not far behind is our favourite summer pest; the potato beetle. We use a manual approach to controlling these flightless creatures, and opt to hand pick the adults, and eventually collect the larva. For now, the after dinner light angles help us to spot the neon coloured egg masses on the undersides of leaves for removal.

Our peas are in full swing now with the 4th and final succession now starting to cling

(Continued in comments)

06/03/2026

Cherry tomatoes and snap peas are here this week, and as of now, are already sold out. We also have the first of the sweet long red peppers, a few baby cauliflower, hakurei turnip bunches, and flat and curly parsley joining the harvest list. And again more long and Italian eggplant, carrot bunches, a fresh bed of cucumber variety, butterhead, romaine, red and green mini heads, red and mixed colour beet, red radish, rhubarb, asparagus, green onion, salad mix, spinach, arugula, baby kale, spicy mix, curly and toscano kale, kohlrabi bunches, chives, lemon balm, dill, cilantro, basil, (a bit of mint!), oregano, and thyme available. Fresh herbs are in their prime these days!

This week we again have a shocking number of beds to try to plant with our small crew. The total is currently standing at 31, but if our sweet potato slips that are grown in a warmer climate arrive this week (as they sometimes do by surprise), we will need to add another 25 beds to that list. We have already done much of the bed prep for these upcoming plantings, but sweet potatoes are fussy and need a bit of pampering in this climate, so there are many bed prep steps to follow before getting them safely into the ground. Other plantings include watermelon, cantaloupe, ground cherries, tomatillo, Brussels sprouts, more roma tomatoes, perennial herbs, annual herbs, and successions of kale, lettuce, salanova, spinach, herbs, green onions, celery, broccolini, zucchini. As well as direct seeding some more hakurei, mixed greens, and parsnip.

We are now in the longest days of the year when things really grow fast. We have had all of our earliest plantings covered in heavy row cover, and now need to replace this frost protection with a more breathable insect netting for the summer season. Because we follow organic practices, our pest management strategies mainly rely on excluding them from the crops using various types of netting or spun poly row cover laid over the beds, sometimes using wire hoops to hold them up over the crop, and weighed down with sand bags. This is a lot of work in addition to actually growing the crops, but ensuring no pesticide residue goes home with you is important to us.

05/26/2026

NEW in the online store this week we have carrot bunches, baby kohlrabi bunches, new spring Swiss chard bunches, curly and toscano kale, long and Italian eggplant, and some mixed colour beet bunches joining the lovely red beets from the greenhouse. We have Romaine, butterhead and mini red and green head lettuce, red radish, green onion, asparagus, rhubarb, 3 types of cucumber, baby kale, arugula, salad mix, spinach, basil, oregano, cilantro, dill, chives, lemon balm, and lovage.

Next week we will definitely have hakurei salad turnips ready, and snap pea pints and some cherry tomatoes available as both of these crops are entering their stride. Our kids love peas and tomatoes so much that the first week of each of these crops is purely devoted to snacking. We feel so lucky and grateful to be able to offer them this kind of after school snack, and it truly is one of the best perks of farm life.

One evening last week we had some friends and kids over to help with the potato planting. It is always so fun to see how fast kids get into the hard work of potato planting, and how motivated they are to fill their rows, and do the heavy work of raking them over too. We now have 25 beds of potatoes secured in the ground, and should see them start to poke through in about 3 weeks.

This week we have a squash block to prep, plant, drip line, fabric, and row cover. This is one of two squash field blocks, and both are part of Jesse's cover crop PAN (plant available nitrogen) research project this year, though the one planted this week is more of a no-till trial. We grew rye & vetch cover in this block over the winter/early spring, and have flailed it to terminate it. Half of this block will be tilled, and covered with landscape fabric (our standard practice), and half of it will not be tilled, but just covered with landscape fabric. Within each of these treatments, we will also add additional nitrogen (feather meal) to half of the beds to compare growth and harvest weights against the beds that do not have any additional nitrogen added.

Happy ordering!
Your farmers,
Meghan & Jesse

05/12/2026

This week in the online store we have more cucumbers available, as well as another sprinkling of asparagus, and lots of rhubarb. More mini romaine heads, pac choi, green onion, salad mix, spinach, baby kale, arugula, spicy mix, hakurei, basil, thyme, chives, sweet potato, and the last of our storage items. We sold the last of our winter storage carrots last week and we are so happy with the quantity and quality we were able to provide until the very end. Definitely the longest we have had carrots!

It is hard not to compare to previous seasons and assume that this year has been much colder than average. And while some of our perennial plants do show slowed growth, some are right on track. It does seem as though we have not had as much sun this spring, and our greenhouse crops are growing a bit slower as a result.

It has been another challenging spring on a personal front as I (farmer Meghan) have been diagnosed with a chronic illness called POTS (Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome). This has had a huge impact on my ability to work (both physically and mentally), parent, and contribute to our household, and will be an ongoing challenge for our family and business. We do our best to put forward a reliable service week after week, but as a small family farm we have to take care of ourselves first, and ask for some grace when we occasionally stumble.

Next week is the start of our SUMMER FARM SHARE, and Retail online store and wholesale customers will move to a Tuesday 9am to Friday 7am ordering schedule. Our Farm Share Members will have exclusive access to order on Mondays, getting the first pick of all of our new spring/summer crops, and a 5% discount on all produce. We still have a few spots open if you want in! Sign up through the link in our profile.

PICK OF THE WEEK: CUCUMBERS

05/05/2026

This week in the store we have lots of cucumbers joining the list. Slicers, long English and some bright green long ones called margarita are available starting this week. We also have rhubarb bunches, a few of the first asparagus bunches, some red and green mini Romaine head lettuce, lovage and oregano hitting the store this week. We have lots of salad mix, spicy mix, baby kale, arugula and fresh beds of spinach from the field as well as a beautiful bed of pac choi to pick from, along with hakurei, red radish, green onion, carrots, beets, parsnip, rutabaga, celeriac, kohlrabi, sweet potato and shallot.

This week Jesse will be demonstrating how to take a cover crop biomass sample for a video series that the EFAO (Ecological Farmers Association of Ontario) is putting together to help encourage other farmers to join an Ontario-wide network database of PAN (Plant Available Nitrogen) using cover crops. The data that Jesse, and other farms have been collecting as part of the Farmer-led-research trials over the past few years can be used to estimate the nitrogen contribution of various cover crop mixes, allowing farmers to apply less purchased nitrogen.

This week our third planting of peas is going out, along with more beets, broccoli, kohlrabi, and lettuce, and in the greenhouse we are starting our melons and the first round of winter squash. We will be chipping away at mulching our greenhouse beds with well composted leaf mulch as the early spring crops on the edges of the beds are coming out. Our over-wintered spinach has now run its course, and we will be flailing and tarping the beds to prepare for San Marzano tomatoes and sweet peppers to be planted in the hoophouse in a few weeks.

PICK OF THE WEEK: PAC CHOI AND CUCUMBERS

****Our Summer Farm Share starts in two weeks. There is still time to sign up!!****"

04/28/2026

In the online store this week we have lots of juicy hakurei salad turnips, red round radish, pac choi, some celery, green onion, lots of salad mix, spinach and new plantings of arugula and baby kale from the field, as well as chives, thyme, parsley, basil, carrots, beet, rutabaga, parsnip, celeriac, kohlrabi, sweet potato, shallot and the last of last years' garlic bulbs.

Coming up next week we have some very exciting things including rhubarb, cucumbers and asparagus if the weather is nice. Maaaaaybe even the first of our outdoor planted mini head lettuce, as things are looking really good out there! We planted out about a dozen beds of greens, and 8 beds of brassicas the 2nd week of April, and they have been hunkering down under row cover since then to protect them from the cold nights and high winds. We finally removed the covers this morning to foliar feed and w**d and they are looking fantastic!

Last week our crew was able to transplant all 16 beds of onions, and they received a nice rain to settle them in over the weekend. Our second huge job ticked off the list for the year (the first being our greenhouse transition week). Beside the tiny onions, our garlic is looking huge and lush and dark green, still protected with leaf mulch to make sure we don't have too much if any w**ding to do in this hardy crop. Onions on the other hand will require near-weekly w**ding to keep them happy. We start with a tine w**ding rake pulled directly down the bed lengths as soon as the onions have rooted into the ground (by early next week), followed by wire w**ding between rows, scuffle hoeing any larger w**ds, and many hours of hand w**ding in row.

This week we have some more successions of greens to plant out, another round of cabbage, more peas and beets, and the first zucchini planting going into the hoophouse. We will also be working to get a few weeks ahead on our bed prep now that our spring cover crops are in, and before our next full block prep and planting of potatoes in a few weeks.

PICK OF THE WEEK: HAKUREI SALAD TURNIPS

04/21/2026

New in the store this week we have some pac choi and hakurei salad turnip bunches from the bed sides in the greenhouse, and some spicy mix coming in hot from the first planting out in the field. We again have red round radish, basil, chives, garlic chives, green onion, celery, parsley, arugula, spinach, chard and lots more salad mix available, and carrot, beet, parsnip, rutabaga, celeriac, kohlrabi, sweet potato and garlic from storage.

The flowers appearing on the cherry tomatoes over the last two weeks have now been pollinated and are starting to form tiny fruits! Always an exciting sight to see when outside is still frosty. The tomato plants are now fully trellised up on twines to the Qlipr hooks that allow us to use the lower and lean trellising technique much more efficiently. They now require weekly pruning and suckering to keep their abundant growth in check, and to help steer the plants towards a good balance of growth/fruit production.

Out in the field this week we will hopefully be able to prep and plant the onion beds that were postponed last week due to rain. Planting out 8 beds=3200 onions by hand is always a big job and we are so grateful to have a former tree planter on our team to help with jobs like this! The other 8 beds are planted using our paperpot transplanter for smaller cooking onions and things like shallots, echalions and tropeas. These smaller types can be multi-sown and planted out in small clumps, instead of single large bulb onions.

These snap peas and carrots growing in our hoophouse look like they will be ready in about a month, just in time for the start of our SUMMER FARM SHARE PROGRAM. Unlike a traditional CSA program, we give you full choice over what goes into your orders, and how often you receive them. We load you up with store credit, and you use it as you please to order just what you like, when you need it. The Summer program starts May 18th, and runs to mid October. Small or Large Shares available. Don't miss out on your chance to secure local, organically grown fresh produce this season and ensure your food dollars go directly towards supporting a farmer family in your community.

04/13/2026

Salad mix is back this week in a limited supply from our greenhouse beds. This mix of salanova lettuce was put through some early challenges with a heavy aphid outbreak shortly after transplanting in February, but with help from some aphid predator bugs has made a comeback and is ready to eat this week. Also new this week are some chives, red radish bunches, the first light pick from the new spring celery and long green onions from the greenhouse. We have only a few kale rapini on offer this spring as we had a dismal survival rate over winter, but they are here this week and wont wait! Coming up next week will be fresh hakurei turnip and pac choi bunches, and more salad mix.

Things in the greenhouse are coming along nicely, with all fruiting crops now flowering. These early cucumbers named Corinto are just about 2 weeks away from first harvest and we are so excited for their return! Our kids are big cucumber fans so we expect the first dozen or so may be devoured by them before they hit the online store, but there are plenty on the way!

Last week about 17 beds were planted out with various cold hardy brassicas and greens either into beds that held (winter killed) cover crops last fall (the straw looking remains in the photo above), or into beds that were mostly prepped last fall, and just needed a top-up of early season nitrogen to get them going.

Unfortunately the heavy row cover did not stand up to the challenge of what appears to have been a cat fight(!?) occurring on the coldest night we had post planting, and there are several large rips in the new cover letting the cold and pests in.

The rest of the fields are in various states of readiness with our clover seeded path trials looking lush and alive, and rye and vetch covered areas beginning new growth again. This week we are trying to prep beds for planting onions, but the rainy weather in the forecast for the majority of the week may cause this job to be postponed. We are also pruning back and w**ding our perennial areas before they regrow, trying to seed some spring cover crops, setting up some new greenhouse irrigation automation, compost turning and some other rainy day jobs.

04/08/2026

This week in the store we have some more arugula, spinach, green onion, curly and Red Russian kale bags and Swiss chard available, as well as carrots, beets, rutabaga, parsnip, winter radish, celeriac, kohlrabi, sweet potato, onion and garlic, and some garlic chives returning in the outside perennial garden.

This is the time of year when our availability is at it's lowest as our storage crops grown last season begin to run out, and the new crops planted early this spring in the greenhouse are yet to mature. Coming up in the next week or two we will have a fresh batch of plentiful green onions, red radishes, lots more basil and finally some fresh spring salad mix, a new crop of celery, hakurei and pac choi. But for now we are grateful for our plentiful crop of storage carrots, still sweet and crisp after all this time.

We are excited to see the first flowers open on our tomato and cucumber plants, and even some tiny fruits forming on our long peppers. We will be doing some manual pollination support on our tomatoes during the first while to help these early fruits along. This involves shaking the trellis twine daily for a few seconds each to help the pollen disperse and settle on the flowers. Once they are a bit bigger and pulling hard enough on the trellis supports we can simply bang on the top rails to shake them all at once. We opt to grow only parthenocarpic cucumbers that don't require pollination to produce fruit resulting in a very reliable and earlier crop.

This week we will be planting out a huge round of seedlings including salad mix, lettuce, spinach, choi, herbs, green onions, chard, cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, kale, kohlrabi. Along with the few beds we already planted out last week this will add up to an entire field block for us, and a significant start to field season. All of it will be hooped and covered with row cover to protect the young crops from the cold and high winds we experience every spring, allowing it to reach maturity a bit sooner. This year we opted to increase the cell sizes of our earliest field plantings in order to get the transplants a bit larger, and prevent any stunting if we were delayed by weather.

03/25/2026

We are back this week after an extra-long March break. Our boys were both home with the flu the entire week before the break, and Jesse and I were taken out for most of the March break week, but my sisters came to help out and managed to plant the entire greenhouse into hot crops like tomatoes, peppers, eggplant and cucumbers, with some extra crops tucked into the bed edges to make use of the space before the main crops need it. In the coming weeks we will have new arugula, radishes, hakurei, basil, salanova, green onion and pac choi, but we have a bit more waiting to do until those crops mature. Our resident greenhouse toad has made himself a cozy new hole between tomato plants, and some aphid predators are hard at work fending off the larger than ideal swarms throughout the greenhouse now.

In the store this week we have a ton of sweet spring spinach, as well as some bags of Red Russian kale from the hoophouse available. We have more celery, Swiss chard and red radishes from the greenhouse, and another bag of rainbow carrots, as well as lots of orange carrots, red and coloured beets, parsnip, purple radish, celeriac, kohlrabi and rutabaga from cold storage, and onions, garlic and sweet potato from dry storage. And we still have a good selection of preserves to liven up the dinner plate while we wait for the season to begin in earnest. This week we plan to eat pickled sweet peppers on falafel wraps with sweet potato fries, while we watch the greenhouse peppers grow (first king flowers are out!!)

Our kids help out here and there occasionally on the farm, but "helping out" mainly means puddle inspection, worm rescue, and watching water flow down a greenhouse path when they leave the hose running. This year we got a few minutes of actual help laying out pepper plants, and seeding some peas. Any barefoot time they can spend out in the greenhouse at this time of year is a welcome boost to the immune system.

Our SUMMER FARM SHARE still had some open spots available to help add some fresh local veg to your table starting in May. Free choice as always on what goes into your box.

Happy ordering!
Your farmers,
Meghan & Jesse

Milky Way Farm

06/16/2026

06/03/2026

05/26/2026

05/12/2026

05/05/2026

04/28/2026

04/21/2026

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04/08/2026

03/25/2026

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