Farmers market.

By dennis

Marche and farmers market season has started again. Tomorrow, Sunday, Marche Sapporo will be at Hokkaido Jingu, in the beautiful Maruyama park.
A great location and it looks like we will be there for the whole summer season.

Because of the late start of our grow  season we don’t have a lot to sell yet. But we will bring some great fat leeks, oak leaf lettuce, snow preserved carrots, asparagus and potatoes. With some roast pork, it sounds like a great meal to me.
Come early, early birds, get it fresh.

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Goat morning.

By dennis

Goat morning from Niseko Green Farm. Our goats take a walk around the farm to scoop out the latest greens and also had a preview of the strawberries and next years purple asparagus. Here is the link for the you tube video.

Goat morning.

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Root down.

By dennis

This is a photo of a seed potato about  two weeks after planting. You can see the root system has already developed well and the white bean sprout like shoots are about to come out of the ground. This one is dug up so the shoots are blanched and white like white asparagus, but they will turn green as soon as they see sun light and leafs will form. A good root system is essential for a plant to establish well, so it is the first thing they develop when they grow to absorb water and nutrients for the growth of the plant and new potatoes.
Planting vegetables from root cuttings  is a safe way to get the exact same offspring as the mother plant, it’s like a clone. Planting from seed may result in cross pollination, but may create new varieties that could be staple food in the future.
Potatoes are almost always grown from a cutting or a piece of potato, but if you want to experiment and play with nature, save the seed of the berries that produce ofter flowering and seed them the year after. they will produce potatoes, but all with a new character. They may become your new favourite.

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Sort it out.

By dennis

We keep our potatoes stored at 4°C until the Hokkaido potato supply starts to run low. To put them on the market they have to be sorted by size and shape. Medium is 80-100 grams, medium-large 101-120 grams, large 121-190 grams, extra large 191-250 grams.  A bit hard to to this by hand, so we have this old potato sorting machine that does it all a lot quicker. Here is a you tube video of how it works.

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Strawberry countdown.

By dennis

21 Days.
From flower to harvest.
We are counting down the days until we van pick the seasons first fruit.

We grow these strawberries for their taste, not for their size. It’s not size that matters after all. Deep red all the way through and juicy, the way they should be.

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Spring awakening

By dennis

With the warm weather finally coming in, the trees also awake from hibernation and are keen to absorb some rays of light. Lots of deciduous trees in the Niseko area and it creates some quite stunning colours and views. This photo is taken from the Niseko Green Farm overlooking the river valley and the Hirafu ski resort in the back ground. There is still quite some snow on the top on the mountain.

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Allium sativum.

By dennis

A member of the onion family, garlic does well in cold climates and Hokkaido is ideal for growing it.
We have gathered some Hokkaido varieties and are working on a large enough supply. Sometimes this takes a few years. This year somewhere early August will harvest our first garlic for sale as well.
If you like it, just plant some separate cloves in september and dig them up again the next year in summer.

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