What a Corn Year!

2016 is definitely going down in our books as a year to remember!

If you've been following our blog, Facebook page or Tweets, you'll know that the dry conditions have wreaked havoc with our regular sweet corn crop.  We've learned from the generations of farmers that we're descendants of that there are sometimes great years, challenging years and difficult times.

Thanks to the Doris, Fitzgerald, Leahy, Condon, Wren, Gibbons, Pettigrew and McGaghran families (that's a who's who of farm families of both Peterborough and Renfrew Counties!) for persevering and passing along a love of the land and a lifestyle that combines family, faith, farming and friends.





Corn season is definitely winding down but we're enjoying a lovely last few varieties of sweet corn. We'll be open all Labour Day Weekend but not likely for much longer after that.  So please do stop in and get your last feeds of Dorisdale Sweet Corn of the 2016 vintage!

Thanks to all our patient customers this year as we dealt with smaller produce and sporadic openings. We're looking forward to 2017!

Reminiscing About 2001

Thanks to all our wonderful customers, neighbours, friends and family for your patience in this hot, dry season.  We appreciate your visits, calls, messages, emails and advance orders this corn season.

As mentioned in previous posts, we're estimating that we've lost between 60 and 70% of our 2016 sweet corn crop.  Not only have the days with corn on the table been few and far between, our family is seriously behind in our corn quota!  We usually eat corn twice a day (at least) throughout the season since we live by Grandma Bernadette's philosophy of you don't sell anything you haven't eaten yourself! We can count on one hand how many times we've only managed sweet corn on our own dinner plates.  (Must admit we did have a delicious yellow for breakfast though yesterday!)

Today our daughter Maggie turns 15 and that has us reminiscing about the dry summer of 2001.  Our corn sales were cut short that year between a mixture of dry weather and the arrival of beautiful 2nd daughter!  Reflecting helps to remind us that there are good years and there are bad years. 2016 definitely falls into the bad category in terms of sweet corn productivity; family wise, this year and many others fall into the good category.

Maggie with big sister Claire - August 2001

From the looks of a sweaty Claire, the weather in summer of 2001 was hot too!














We thought we should share this picture of Maggie's 1st birthday dinner.  As a true Doris and corn lover, we couldn't get her to put her cob of corn down for pictures or birthday cake!  Poor Maggie didn't have corn for dinner tonight either.  For anyone who's met Maggie at the stand this year, it is really incredible how quickly our kids grow up isn't it!

Maggie, her corn cob and 1st birthday cake (with Claire) August 11, 2002

We're hoping to mange being back in the corn business either Friday or Saturday (it is, after all, a day-to-day business).  Stay tuned and watch for our signs.  And thanks again for your patience and love for locally grown food!