Hokkaido jingu market.

By dennis

We had some beautiful summer days at the marche at Hokkaido jingu.  Amazing how many people show up at 6 am in the morning for a stroll and a stretch. Driving back and forth  is definitely not good for my rest, but it is a nice place to be and to sell organic veggies.
With some great light coming in through the trees in the early morning it is perfect for taking some veggie shots. Here are some of them.
Thanks to anyone who came and supports!

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Beware of the broccoli.

By dennis

Our broccoli has grown to gigantic proportions this year. This specimen weighs 1085 grams! Saturday and Sunday we will be bringing lots of these monsters to the farmers market next to Hokkaido jingu in Sapporo. Better wake up early as the market starts at 06.30 in the morning.

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Sekka lunch.

By dennis

Kaoru Ohsumi from herb & natural room Kina came over to Niseko Green Farm with some herb loving friends for a farm tour and some vegetable picking.
Kim and Kat from J-Sekka in Hirafu made us a special lunch with a lot of NGF and local produce.
As you can see we more than enjoyed it. Thanks guys!

life is good in 6 courses.

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Yotei morning.

By dennis

Here is a video of a morning at Niseko Green Farm. This was just before we hit by heavy rains and susuki grass took over and grew about 40 cm in 2 weeks. After that we lost quite a bit of produce that got swallowed up by the raging grass.
Having a fertile soil is great for your veggies, but also for the weeds.

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Bee my honey

By dennis

I always plant some aromatic herbs along the sides in the green house to attract bees for the pollination of the peppers, eggplants and tomatoes. Usually they self-pollinate, but on very hot days the pollen will not release well so they can use a little help. Not that we have had that problem recently, it has been very cool and more than adequate rain has come down upon us. There is no real need to fear these little insects as some do, as they are too busy collecting the nectar for their growing family. This wasp is collecting the nectar of some oregano.

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Waiting for the rain.

By dennis

We have had a bit of rain recently. On one of these days this frog was sitting on a fuki leaf waiting for the first drops to come down. Not using herbicides and pesticides greatly improves the frog population in your field. They are particularly sensitive to chemicals. They make some great insect munchers, so it is good to have them around.

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Perfect from now on.

By dennis

This little pumpkin here is already perfect. Its got a little fruit and some flowers. All it needs now is to grow to supply this halloween pumpkin to grow to about 50kg. That is alot of growing, but there is still a lot of time until the end of September when pumpkin life comes to an end.

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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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