Tuesday, August 4, 2020

A New-to-us Country Road

We drove down an interesting country road west from Clarksburg the other day, and got some sweet corn, the first of the season.  We had been over to Zwart's landscape supplies to look at rocks, gravel and mulch that we need to finish off around the patio, but instead of just coming back the highway we drove straight through Clarksburg over the new bridge and onward.

The old bowstring bridge was replaced 2 or 3 years ago, but they retained the same style which was nice.

Looking through the railing we could see the Beaver River headed downstream to the harbour in Thornbury.

Immediately out of the village we came upon enormous orchards of Red Prince apples on both sides of the road.  This is apple growing on an unprecedented scale around here!

These are entirely the new high density orchards with both trees and rows very closwe together, but these trees are old enough to be producing lots of apples.

In this picture you can see both the bulges in the trunks where the original grafting of the trees onto dwarf rootstock was done, and the drip irrigation down each row.

It looked like it would be a good crop.

Further down the road was a farm selling sweet corn, the first we've seen this year.  Of course we pulled in and bought some, and found they had beets and potatoes for sale too, so we got some of those.  I expect those patches of green in the field behind the rows of sweet corn are pumpkins which will spread out widely over the next two months before Hallowe'en.

These are the 4 rows of sweet corn, a typical way farmers grow it for some local sales.

A friendly rooster and his small flock of hens came scurrying over to see who we were.

The rooster was particularly bold, coming right up under the car window, but his three hens were close behind.  Unfortunately they were out of luck with us.

And we got corn on the cob for dinner, along with some of our own new yellow tomatoes!







14 comments:

  1. Hello,
    The corn and tomatoes look yummy. I have not tried the sweet corn yet. Pretty views from the car ride. The bridge does look nice! Take care, enjoy your day!

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  2. Loved tagging along with you as you drove, and I have to say that dinner looks incredibly delicious! Wow!

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  3. We are having corn tonight - from Loblaws but locally grown they say!

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  4. Neat that the birds are that inquisitive.

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  5. Corn straight from the paddock to your plate, that's the best way. Looks like the land there is very fertile, and flat and so easy to plant and harvest any crop. Guess there will be another visit to get some pumpkins for winter soup.

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  6. What a nice looking bridge and now that it is new, safe too.
    You know, there is probably a study about how you can tell a lot about a person by the way they eat corn on the cob. :D
    We haven't had local yet but I'm craving it! The US stuff I get at Foodland (2 ears at a time) is okay but not fresh.

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  7. We try to take side roads instead of the freeway whenever we're not in any hurry. It's so much more interesting and less stressful than sharing the road with enormous trucks. We're looking forward to fresh corn from local stands, hopefully that will be soon.

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  8. That bridge is lovely. Most of the bridge construction around our area has a sold barrier so you can't see the water below at all. :(

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  9. I like the look of the bridge.

    All the best Jan

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  10. Neat looking bridge. The corn looks delicious. I like it but hate how it all gets stuck in your teeth!!
    The corn the farmers grow where I walk are for feed.

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  11. Always new things to see and experience on new roads explored. I love when that happens. So rare to see free ranging chickens anymore. That farm was a good find for you today.

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  12. Impressive orchard. An acquaintance who had an orchard once told me that for every step a picker had to go up a ladder he lost 10% of the crop. Hence, he, like most other apple growers was switching to dwarf trees on wire to maximize the yield.
    Looks like you eat corn around the cop rather than lengthwise. We recently took a survey in our family and most, but not me, eat the kernels from the cob in long rows -- I prefer going around.

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  13. How I would love to see that orchard...specially when the apples are being picked. The little orchard I worked at for so long was only about 10 acres. North of us there is one that is 600 acres...my jaw just dropped when we ran across it. But I have yet to time it right to see it in full bloom or when they are actually picking.

    Anyway, really enjoyed this post.

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  14. What a lovely trip!
    I'd like corn, but hubby cannot eat it. So sad!
    He's reminded me 4 or 5 times we could go for a drive. I've yet the urge to go out!

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