Willow Creek Heirlooms
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October and Beyond...

October proved to be our busiest month of the year, as we pulled in the most bountiful harvests of the season. We made record-breaking sales at our markets and were able to offer more than twenty different items on the tables.

After the last Milton market it was time to clean things up and get the land ready for the winter. We coiled up all the irrigation we had set out, to be stored in the barn over the winter. We tilled up the fields one last time this season and planted winter wheat as a cover crop. We cleaned out our greenhouses and filled them with compost, and actually took the plastic off our hoop house to help cleanse all of the disease we had this wet season.

Once the ground stays frozen for 3 consecutive nights, we will cover our strawberry plants with hay that we got from John Feheley, a neighbour down the road from us (who grows incredible grass-fed beef!).

We have now moved to Guelph for the winter, working off-farm jobs, as the markets are finished for the season. This winter we have been accepted to take a farm business planning course called Farmers Growing Farmers to help us solidify our business dreams.

Jay and Clare have agreed to have us back again next year, (hooray!) so we will be spending our winter months planning again, amongst our homework and day jobs.

This season has been a nothing short of a dream come true for the two of us, having been able to learn so much in such a low-risk environment, with all the help and support we could possibly need. We would like to express our all our thanks to everyone who has taken the time and energy to help us this season, to all of our customer at the markets for sharing their love of food with us, and of course to Jay & Clare for taking a chance on a couple of strangers. We just couldn't have done it without them. Thank You! Thank You!!

Best wishes for a safe and warm winter, and we look forward to seeing you all in May for your Heirloom Tomato Seedlings!

Until the spring!

Thanks for reading,

Crystal Anderson & Kelly Gregory


September 21st 2008

Well! September has been a pretty crazy month so far. We have seen some sun, hurray! So we've had the pleasure of the company of some of our favourite hot crops finally showing through. Among them are watermelon, sweet peppers and okra, which graces us with that beautiful yellow flower!

But just in ordinary time, we've also begun to see some chillier nights, sometimes even hovering around the freezing mark, which is natural for this time of year. We were a little sad to see this happen, but it does help along those fall crops we love so much. There are a handful of things that get better when the nighttime temps get brisk, either sweeter in flavour or darker in colour. These include any roots (like our carrots and beets) or storing fruits like squash who get all their flavour after they've been touched with frost. Our fall greens and salad mix will deepen in colour with vibrant reds and bronzes at this time of year, too. So we're bringin' out the row cover and even the tarps to help protect our beloved in this dangerous time!

A few weeks ago, we ran a booth at this years Feast of Fields festival, along with the help of Kris Dimnik of Heartwood Farm CSA. It's always a fun time there with good friends and good food!

These days we are getting excited around here for the Erin Fall Fair coming just around the corner on Thanksgiving weekend. It will be the first time we are part of this time old tradition, but we are working with Home Grown Harvest, a group of local farmers in the Wellington region, to put together a display for the weekend. With all the contests, the music and the midway, it's sure to be a great time!

We are countin' down the markets now, not many to go. It's the hoarding time of year, so get the canning and the preserving going while the harvest is at it's best. Because before long, the snow will be a blowin'!

Don't forget to enjoy every day!!

Until next time, thanks for reading.
Crystal and Kelly




August 14th 2008

Hello friends, thanks for checking out our latest update.

The word of this month is rain! Over the last two months we have received well over 10 inches of rain. Despite the soggy conditions both of us have been keeping busy. Seven rows of early strawberries have been put in the ground ready to fruit for early next year. Our fall carrots, beets, collards, kale, are growing wonderfully. Soon enough we will have acorn squash, melons, and (if the rain lets up) lemon cucumbers! So here is hoping for a late summer! Our tomatoes are ripening at the rate of around 5-7 tomatoes a week, which is on the snail side of slow. We are also still battling the virus that is in our green house. We have started to give the plants a mixture of a kelp and compost water. We truly believe in making the plant stronger to help it fight the disease rather than just spraying the food that people are going to ingest.

We are now putting a call out to people who bought our tomato seedlings earlier this year: Please send us photos of your plants! We would love to put them up on the website. And as always, we welcome your comments and feedback. You are the reason we are still in this business, so keep em' coming!

Until next time, Happy Growing!

Crystal & Kelly


July 18th 2008

Hello folks,

The word of this update is AAAHHHHH!
The updates a coming slower than we would like, but with all the work we are doing here, it seems to be falling by the way side! So our apologies for that but this update will be a doosie!

Since we last wrote, we have run into some difficulties. Water has been in short supply so irrigation has been a major part of our day to day activities; which to be blunt is a big pain in the rear! Weeding is also an everyday activity which is improving as time goes on (providing we stick with it).

Our hot crops are flowering! Eggplant, peppers, zukes, cukes, tomatoes and melons! Kelly and I dug up our first harvest of new potatoes, an heirloom called All Red, as even the flesh is red!

Our friends Rebecca and Tim took a special visit up to the farm and helped us put in a row of sunflowers, thanks guys!!

We have recently discovered that we have a major case of early blight which is a disease that affects the nightshade family. It has infected our tomatoes, potatoes, eggplant, and for some reason our peas. It travels by wind-blown rain, the spores germinate on the leaves and totally eat away at the plant. We have had to go into our greenhouse and trim back all of the infected parts of the branches and leaves of our tomatoes. They now look like tomato trees!

Other than the little setbacks, which could be major but are not yet, the season is moving faster than imagined. Almost in August, we are starting our fall plantings of carrots, beets, kale, collards and we are going to be starting a salad mix for the Inglewood market.

Both the Milton and Inglewood markets are going great, everyone (including ourselves) are waiting for the arrival of our tomatoes and melons!

We had the pleasure of having a guest farmer come with us to the last Inglewood market. Kris Dimnik from Heartwood Farm brought her fresh and locally grown salad mixes and broccoli. It is great to be working with other local producers in the area to bring the greatest diversity of fresh food to the people in our neighbourhood.

So that's about is for this installment.

Take care out there and happy growing!

Crystal and Kelly





June 1st 2008

The past couple of weeks at Milton market has been going great, with a beautiful group of regulars we love to see each week, amongst all the interested new faces. We've had to pickup a second fridge to store our harvest in overnight, just to keep up with demand!

With the skillful help of Evelyn Lurz, we have been able to trellis our peas and plant all of our hot crops; peppers, eggplant, basil, ground cherries, zukes and cukes and of course, tomatoes! (Can you tell which is which?). Our potatoes have popped up and the calendula are in bloom!

We have been working a lot these days on irrigation to keep our veggies growing. On account of all this hot hot weather, we have had to really work to keep our leafy greens happy. Our new hot crops however, are loving it!

Recently, we have been asked to participate in the brand new Inglewood farmers' market, not fifteen minutes down the road from the farm. It starts this Wednesday June 11th and kicks off with a BBQ and live music! It runs from 4PM to 7PM, with a nice variety of local treats. The perfect time to pick up something fresh for dinner! Have you ever been able to enjoy fresh food that has been picked that same day? If so, you'll know that it can't compare to what any grocery store can offer. (Ever tried raw asparagus from the garden??) If no, you gotta taste what you're missing!

Hope to see you there!!
Until next time!

Crystal & Kelly




May 15th 2008

On the 5th, we had an extremely successful seedling sale, thanks to all the wonderful people of Guelph. That Saturday morning, we had people waiting for us before the store even opened! They helped us carry our bread trays loaded with tomato plants from the truck to the store. And then proceeded to search for all the anticipated names on their lists. Even with the constant pouring rain we were able to sell 90% of what we brought.

The word for the past two weeks is: rain. We've been anxiously waiting for the fields to dry enough to take the tractor in to work the land. We've resorted to packing our hoophouse with all the transplants can muster. And any brief dry spell we've gotten, we've been in the beds with the disker so that it will help speed up any future drainage.

In the hoophouse we've transplanted Tennis Ball lettuce, Blue Scotch kale, Tat Soi Mustard, Longstanding Bloomsdale spinach, and Rainbow chard. We've also seeded some Siberian kale and some Grampa Admire's lettuce (which decided not to germinate!).

Beets, carrots, peas and radish are all coming up well in the front plot. The trick now is to keep the tender little ones alive. Not an easy task with such unpredictable spring weather. But here goes nothin?! Milton market starts this Saturday May 17th come and join us for some good food and great company! If you can't make it, we will be there every Saturday until Thanksgiving weekend.

Hope to see you soon!


May 1st 2008

Well a lot has happened in the last month. Let's see if we can cram it all into this tiny space! Since the last update, we decided that instead of repairing the broken hoop house, it would be best to tear it down completely and start anew. There were simply too many injuries suffered to salvage what was left. This also enabled us to relocate the house to fresh ground that has not seen anything but clover for a few years now.

Soon after, it became time to move the tomato plants from our basement in Guelph to the farm in Erin. They finally out grew their blocks and they needed more room to spread their bushy leaves and stretch out their roots. So we drove them gingerly to the farm where we potted them on (all 650 of them!) and relocated them into the sunny green house under cold frames. This new home has allowed them to adjust to the change in temperatures nice and gradually, a process known as hardening off. We have also used shade cloth to give them relief from the strong sun, to which they have never been exposed! By the end of the week they will be able to sit under direct full sun and bask in the heat all day long.

With all this unusual weather we've gotten, the soil dried enough that we could till up some land. Hurray! So we have been able to direct seed peas, carrots, beets and radish, as well as put some transplants in the ground; lettuce and collards. We just need to do some protecting with row cover in the coming days as they are calling for snow in Erin next week, a much more seasonal reality.

Last week we attended a Seedy Saturday event for the Hillsburg area. It was a very successful first market of the year. We could barely keep the plants on the table throughout the day and we surpassed our predicted sales goal. Thank you to everyone that came out and supported us. We truly appreciate it!

Next weekend we are going to be having another seedling sale, this one in downtown Guelph. Here's your chance to pick from over 30 varieties of heirloom tomato plants. And what a great Mother's Day gift they would make! (That's my plan! Sorry to spoil the surprise, Mom!) The sale will be at Harmony Gifts, 55 Wyndham St., from 10 AM until 4 PM. Come early for the best selection! We'll be there exchanging tomato tips and giving out variety advice. We hope to see you there! Until next time -- take care!

Crystal & Kelly


April 1st 2008

The tomatoes are growing strong! We ended up with about 650 seedlings due to unsuccessful germination. But that's to be expected with heirloom seeds. They're rarely as vigorous as most modern-day hybrids.

We've been doing lots of potting on these days. We recently learned how useful the 1/2" blocker can be in saving preciously limited space under the lights. As soon as the little sprouts pop up, we pot them on into the bigger 2" blocks. If we were to start off with the 2" blocks and only had 60% germination, all those 2 inches of wasted space quickly begin to add up.

The next set of seedlings are sown and germinating well in their warm beds kept on heating pads. We also have some lettuce and collards on the go for the hoophouse. (Resurrecting the hoophouse is next weekend's project!)

Water has been another challenge for us here while we're taking up residence in the city. Guelph's tap water is heavily chlorinated, and is quite high in heavy minerals as well. And as such, we've been very concerned about using it to water our oh-so-sensitive seedlings. Here at the house we purchase city water that's gone through reverse osmosis for our personal use, but it's far too expensive for our operation. So, as an alternative to these two options, we've been using an extremely abundant and free source of water: Snow! It's only downfall is the time it requires to melt. But we're honing our system and set up down to an art. And the seedlings really love to be bottom watered with warm, natural water. And we can't argue with that!


March 14th 2008
We now have 1000 seeds on their way to becoming beautiful heirloom tomato plants. Last weekend we started our tomato seedlings that will be for sale in the next coming months. We are keeping them warm and nestled in our basement in Guelph until we move out to the farm in May.

We've also been establishing relationships with other local farmers who have expressed interest in buying our produce from us. We've felt nothing but support and encouragement from other farmers in the community. For that, we are truly grateful.

We recently made a few trips up to the farm to pick up buckets of compost for the soil blocks and set up the greenhouse. This is when we noticed the effects of the relentless, heavy-hitting winter we've had this year. These are images of the hoop house half buried under snow. The weight of the snow actually snapped several metal support bars and wooden framing pieces as well, tearing the plastic significantly. We took a moment of silence out there as we stood in knee deep snow; we had planned to direct seed some carrots and beets halfway through March in there. But alas, these are the days of our lives. All of these things are repairable. And it was kind of a reality check for our plans! We must all surrender to Mother Nature's design, even if we hadn't planned on it.

These are images of the greenhouse preparations. We have fertilized the beds with Jay's nutritious three-year-old cured compost and fitted the middle bed with cold frames to protect the young plants and help them adjust out of their cozy basement life.


March 1st 2008



It is official! The season has begun with fifty heirloom tomato seeds being sown. These glorious fruits will be the first crops to be housed in the greenhouse for the 2008 growing season. These photos are glimpses of our process. This is the first time we've ever made soil blocks. In the past, we've used the more familiar six-packs that you simply fill with potting soil and pop in a seed. But since this is a season for learning, we thought we'd try something new. Making blocks with the soil blocker is more time consuming, however it ensures the least amount of disruption to a plant during the transplanting stage.

Instead of the roots running circles inside a plastic container, they stop growing when they reach the air and send out more roots to fill in the rest of the block. This creates a very strong and stable block that can simply be planted into a hole in the ground. Voila!
Now we're spending most of our time watching our thermometer to make sure those seeds have exactly the environment they need to germinate. In a few weeks we will be starting a big batch of seedlings that will be sold at Hillsburg's Seedy Saturday, taking place at the Everdale Learning Centre, just fifteen minutes west of us. We're excited to get out and share the spring time anticipation with everyone! And that will create a very important source of income to get us through the next few months before the market starts up.

Well that's it in a nutshell! We'll have more for you in two weeks!

Until then!

Crystal & Kelly



February 12th, 2008

We are just adding the last of our crops to our seedling, planting and harvesting calendars. (Yes there's one for each, as well as one with a combination of everything, so we can see it all at once! Just to make our heads spin.)

We just ordered the bulk of our organic potting soil. It's been a real challenge this time of year to find certified organic soil. It's a little out of season. Actually, it's extremely out of season! But if we are going to start our plants as seedlings indoors, (in order to get a head start on our short growing season) the most reliable way is to purchase pre-made soil. Ideally, if this was our farm, we would have been perfecting the craft of preparing our own mix for years now (as it can take years to really figure it out), but given our unique situation, we'll have to purchase this input into our farm cycle.

Another (somewhat costly) purchase we've decided to make is row cover for our season extension. Row cover is a very thin woven cloth that insulates crops on chilly nights. Sort of like the sheets on a bed. Different kind of bed here, though. We bought 10ft x 500ft for $150. Not cheap, but the greens in April will be glorious!

I just called Terra Edibles about our last order of seeds that have been coming in the mail for the last three weeks now… here's hoping they're not lost. I love Canada Post. But the very friendly and understanding seed company has said that if it doesn't reach us in one more week, they'd send out another shipment. Which would have it arriving just as we are about to plant them!