Finishing Touches

With the weather turning once again bitterly cold and snowy, this week was time to complete some finishing touches inside the manor. Now that the paintings, mirrors and all light fixtures are up, the Tucker team (our local contractor) was keen to have a photographic record of their good work. So we had two days with a pro (local photographer Esther van Geest) meticulously staging our home. I have to admit the results look better than real life....or seem to. Perhaps we have grown a little too acquainted with our surroundings.

It was time for a pro (Esther van Geest) to record the inside of the manor

We hope to use these photos with a re-write of the manor's history. This we expect to post on our website this year.

To view the latest from Ridge Berry Farm visit our new blog and site!

Although there are a few things left to do, this year we will now be concentrating on the outside of the manor, including landscaping.

Last year we took the Winter months to begin work on our barn kitchen and store. This year we have started another phase of this work: the dining veranda. The objective is to make it a little more comfortable for our patrons. In effect, we hope to provide a little bit more shelter from the elements by replacing the old blinds....while still providing an eating environment with an "outdoor" feel.

Starting work on refinishing the veranda

We are also taking the time to replace the ceiling lattice work. Although this looked clean, it was the perfect place for bird and squirrel nests, which were rather unpleasant to remove.

On the farming front, it was time to prepare for Spring....and this means ordering our seeds and plants for the new year. To begin, we had to measure our new rows. It turns out that our measuring wheel was not accurate so we have reverted to a 200 foot tape measure (we should have done this a long time ago!).

Measuring our new rows.

With row lengths recorded and visions of large new raised beds in our heads, we were keen to scan the web for this year's seeds. I thought we went a little too far last year, but I think we really went overboard this year. We now have well over 50 different varieties of herbs and vegetables on order; we will also be introducing a new berry to our offering: the Haskap. We will also be increasing our inventory of raspberries (adding Black Raspberries to our fields) as well as Black Currants.

From a vegetable point of view, it will really be fascinating to see what works out now that we also have our Growing Dome greenhouse to get things started.

On the dome front, we are now ready to commit to a final internal configuration. Our hydroponic bed concept seems to work so we ordered another 16 beds from Northern Lights and took delivery of the majority this week.

With the hydroponic beds in...it's time for wood working.

Now it's time to do a massive amount of woodworking.

We will close this week with a special event announcement: Chef Ryan Beck will be a guest Chef at Oast House in Niagara-on-the-Lake every Sunday in February. So if you want a taste of Ridge Berry Farm....while the Tea Room is closed, a good venue to taste Ryan's cooking for the next month will be at this great local micro-brewery.