Notice................

We are busy digging the Red Norland potatoes. It is a big crop. Minimal losses due to rot. Thanks to God, it could have been a lot worse.
And by the way......... Caleb has posted a new blog. Just in case you want a new chapter story to read.
Greatings all, until next time, when i hope to have some pictures too.............

Open Farm Day results...........

Hi all,
Open Farm Day went very well. We had over a hundred people visit. It is a good way to meet the neighbors from across the road. And their new neighbors as well. They moved in about two months ago. I never knew. We had a model tractor for a doorprize.
There were 73 ballots left over, after we took all the doubles out first. Klaas phoned the happy winner shortly after six, and he came down right away to claim his new John Deere 8330.
There were lots of comments about our digger collection of steel.
Most people figured that the round object seated on the yellow pedestal was indeed a cannonball.
We will wait for some official say in this matter from our family expert.
Digging came to a halt today. All was going well until we started the Red Norlands this afternoon. The first load was fine, but when we topped the hill, the potatoes were skinning too much yet. And with a little bit of rot and blight in the field, we decided to wait until next Monday before we start again. So there is your update in that department. I hope you guys have a great week...........

Open Farm Day tomorrow.............

When you read this, it will likely be all over. We were asked this summer if we would consider hosting open farmday again. Since it was the year of the potato and they did not have a potato farm yet. So after some thinking, we decided to host this event for the second time. We did it two years ago as well. It is really enjoyable, but it takes a lot of work to get ready for it. I'll post some pictures on the next blog, maybe even tomorrow, so be warned, two blogs in a row.
We started digging a few headlands yesterday, the potatoes were still skinning a bit. The crew is coming in on Monday and hopefully we will be able to start digging the seedplots. I could put some archived pictures in for that, but I'll wait for the real ones. We had one interesting find however. Diggin right clos to the shop, we noticed a round iron object in between all the Gold nuggets. Yukon Gold that is. If you look at the pictures I would like you to tell me what you think it is.....

Roguing Seed Potatoes......

These days on Blue Bay Farms are mostly spend in the fields. Roguing seed potatoes is a very important job. The job consists of finding virus infected potato plants, and then remove them from the field.
The top picture shows the roguing crew. From left to right: Rebecca, Tineke, Pete, Marten and Klaas. The empty seat is mine.
These pictures were taken in the field in front of our house. The variety is Prospect. A processing variety.
And this is a picture that shows a Mosaic plant. A potato plant infected with PVY (potato virus Y). You can see how much smaller the plant is. It is going to have a small yield. Therefore it is not desirable to have these in a potato field. That is why we rogue them out.
The last picture shows Prospect on the left and Yukon Gold on the right. In the background you can see all the mussel buoys in the bay.

Hi to you all..

Or the few ones that are left. Summer has arrived on PEI. It is really warm, at least for us. It was around 30 degrees , and high humidity. You folks in Ontario and below that have our sympathies. Hope you stay cool.
The potatoes are growing fast. they could use a shower now. But the dry weather is keeping blight in check.
As most of you probably know, Sarah Terpstra is biking across the U.S. in the Sea To Sea Bike Tour. If you want to follow her progress, here is her blog address.
http://sarahterpstra.blogspot.com
They are at day ten.
All the best for now and have a great week........

Yippey......

We are done planting. Sorry, no pictures. But it is a great feeling to be done. We finished late yesterday afternoon. And today is dedicated to paperwork, cleaning, grading and putting equipment away. More later, we have to eat now........

Change of siding............

We finaly have our new back door in place. Got it late last fall,and then it sat in the barn for the winter. I wanted to finish it before planting. The top pictures shows you how nicely things are greening up here. The flowers are starting to grow as well. We certainly had enough rain lately.
Also put some new siding on the house, as you can see in these pictures. I kind of like the rustic wood look.
Planting has come to a standstill. Last Friday afternoon and Saturday we planted about thirty acres. And we have not turned a wheel since. It was nice yesterday, but is raining again right now.
Matt and Amanda are coming here tonight. We are all looking forward to that.
The stockcar races are starting again tomorrow. Weather permitting. It was cacelled on Monday because of the rain. The farm is sponsoring Walter again this year. I hope that he has fun, it is certainly entertaining for the crowd. Well folks, I hope everyone has a good weekend...........