Two Roads Farm
1536 Northwest Rd. V0R 1T0 Denman Island, BC, Canada

Looking back a few weeks to our overwintering kale and chard on a beauty autumn day. Scroll right to see the same spot now with our portable caterpillar tunnel erected on top. Hoops bent with a #johnnysseeds hoop bender, on rebar stakes with hooks welded on to hold the paracord. The portable tunnel has peppers and eggplants in it through the main season. #greenhouse #moveablegreenhouse #caterpillartunnel #wintergreens #wintergrowing #eatlocal #denmanisland #comoxvalley

We took over the Farm Stand on a rainy evening to get the garlic broken up, ready for planting out in the sunny window forecast for this week. . . #garlic #seedgarlic #denmanisland #comoxvalley #eatlocal

When we cleared the latest area of the farm, we sold a lot of the wood, but kept back what we knew we needed and mulled it onsite. The deck is now done, next is to rebuild the staircase and finish the boys bedrooms with this awesome Douglas fir. Milled by Dana Baetz @danasmobilesawmill of www.mobilesawmill.ca back last year, finally getting to work with it!

Future food for the soil, steaming away. c.400 yds of compost for next year. We sell some to cover costs and use the rest. With another good rain it’ll be at about 60% moisture content, we’ll turn it once more then cover it up for the worst of the winter rains. #soil #stinkysteam

A few of the tasty things we delivered to our online shop customers today: Stir Fry greens, parsnips, kohlrabi and celeriac. The little guy usually does deliveries with us, and looks forward to snack breaks. Today was sushi snax on a sunny Cumberland bench. . . #greens #parsnips #kohlrabi #celeriac #deliveryday #onlineshop #fallveggies #fallfarming #eatlocal #Cumberland #denmanisland #comoxvalley

Mostly we got rained on harvesting today, but got this beauty moment as we were leaving the leased field. We are lucky to work in this beautiful place. . . #autumnharvest #localfood #eatlocal #seasonaleating #denmanisland #comoxvalley

We got on the bitter train this season, and planted a trial bed of radicchio and chicory varieties. We harvested the first ones for market this week; this is Sugarloaf Chicory. These greens grow well on the Pacific coast and can be harvested into the winter. We figure we should learn how to grow and eat them. But oh my word! They are tongue-numbingly bitter! How do you like to eat these strange and beautiful veggies? . . #chicory #sugarloafchicory #sugarloaf #bittervegetables #bitterisbetter #wintergreens #wintervegetables #eatlocal #denmanisland #comoxvalley

Absolute stunner of a day to start harvesting storage carrots. We’re doing a variety trial this year. This is Dolciva from @highmowingorganicseeds. Some real giants in there! To come, Bolero and Bangor. We’ll compare yields, storage, size, and of course, flavour. . . #carrots #storagecarrots #dolciva #varietytrials #fallfarming #harvest #denmanisland #comoxvalley

Blurry zoom shot, but just like that winter has landed on the mountains across the water.

Fall activities: soaking dogwood seeds from one of our native trees prior to cold stratifying them for 4 months. Hopefully a beautiful avenue of trees in a couple of decades!

Sometimes, making the farming omelette requires breaking a few eggs. Or at least moving a few thousand cubic yards of dirt. #bigboystoys #hitachiexcavator #climatechange #watersecurity

The cut for the pond expansion getting bigger. 5 year old home from first day at kindergarten for scale.

End of day one. Topsoil stripped. Next step in operation make a big-ass pond is excavate and expand the existing irrigation pond to +/1 million gallons. All spoil will spread out and capped with the native topsoil. Watch this space...

Some of life’s problems can be solved with diesel and raw horsepower. Next phase of the land clearing of a block we logged 3 years ago. Aiming to have it in production for summer 2022. #oldiron #denmanisland #landclearing

Home from market, packed up, laundry on and fired up the Gaggia to wake up a bit with an espresso from @lacontradingpost

The barn is full of garlic! It will cure for 6 weeks and then be available for sale. This year’s is looking . #garlic #piercyfarm #denmanisland #comoxvalley

The bees are avoiding the buckwheat on this blustery day. Perfect for flailmowing the cover crops. incorporating all this organic matter into the soil will boost the productivity next season. #bcs #smallfarm

The cherries are taking their sweet time to ripen this season, but the plants are looking good and there is plenty of fruit waiting in the wings. Here’s hoping for a warm fall to make up for the slow start to summer! #tomato #cherrytomato #greenhouse #denmanisland #comoxvalley

Pestooooo!!! Pucks of pesto are in the freezer in the farm stand. 3 pucks for $7 bucks, made with our basil and garlic scapes.

I’ve not been paying much attention to the onions lately. They’ve been quietly doing their thing, and doing crop walk while fixing the irrigation tonight I found a pile of beautiful Walla Walla sweet onions that will be at Denman Island market this long weekend.

Y’all know what this is, Denman Island! If this heat keeps up we’ll be sending super sweet melons to market before too much longer

We dug a few of our potato experiments today! They are beautiful. Very excited to share them at the Denman market tomorrow. . . #potatoes #newpotatoes #yukongold #sieglinde #chieftain #denmanisland #comoxvalley

The beet beds from a couple of posts ago, cleared, wheel hoed, raked, and ready to plant beans. Some would call this no till because we didn’t run a tractor and tiller over it. But since we did work the soil and I’m a bit of a pedant, we’ll call it low till. Soil health is one of the many things we think about as we strive to farm more sustainably. We think about our soil as a diverse ecosystem. As we get a handle on the weeds, we’re incorporating strategies to reduce tra...ctor passes and soil disturbance, and increase soil health and soil fauna diversity. . . #sustainablefarming #soilhealth #lowtill #notill #beans #jangseeder #sustainablefood #denmanisland #comoxvalley See more