Meet the Penners

Amanda holding a silkie chicken and T.J. holding Mozart.  Amanda has done all the painting around the Forest and does the faces on the Scarecrows.  She is extremely artistic and an amazing painter.  She works full-time for the Southern Regional Health Authority.  T.J. does all the manual labor around the Forest.  If Shirley and Lorissa can't do something we call T.J. to do it.  He has helped install the zip line, fences, rope maze, the paint ball target, etc.  He is currently going to school full-time to be a Youth Worker.

Shirley the Jill-of-all-trades.  She answers the phone, books in groups, feeds the animals, manages the Forest, helps with the garden, helps with the farmers' market, and does whatever else needs to get done.  If she can find time she loves to read.

Lorissa with Hepzee.  I help out in the greenhouse, garden, and gift shop.  When I'm not helping with those three things I work as a nurse.  I also maintain the blog and Penner Pumpkins facebook page.  I also love crafting a variety of things (you can check out what I make at Lora's Treasures).

Donna Marie designed our website: Penner Pumpkins (which is now maintained by my cousin Conrad) and she designs our promotional material.  She owns two dogs and a cat.  She loves taking pictures and is a very good photographer.

John the tractor train ride conductor.  He also tills our 5 acre garden and makes sure the rows are super straight.  He loves chatting with people and talking about the history of the Forest.  When he is not working at the Forest or with the pumpkins, he works at Steinbach Trailers.

Lorissa and Shirley at the Pineridge Farmers' Market.

John, Shirley, Lorissa, T.J., and Amanda

The family consists of John and Shirley Penner, Donna Maire, Lorissa, and T.J. and Amanda Penner.

Lorissa

Where is Spring??

Here in Manitoba winter seems to be stretching on forever.  Where's Spring?

This is our small garden April 11, 2013.  Last year we were working in our garden April 18th, 2012.  We are hoping to be in it at the beginning of May and the latest middle of May.

 

 

 

 

Allen taking refuge from the snow.

Our greenhouse is a lovely place to be.  It's nice and warm.  These are our greenhouse tomato plants.  If you look closely you can see that the tomato plants are starting to flower.  Usually we plant some of them in the greenhouse beds end of March and all of them by the middle of April.  This year it has been too cold to plant them in the beds.

Lettuce growing in our greenhouse.  Much better than store bought lettuce.

An Americauna rooster taking refuge from the snow.

Our greenhouse.

If you take a look at this weather table you can see that we are below average temperatures.  April 23 looks lovely, but that is 12 days away and weather always changes.  As long as the snow is gone by the first weekend of June I'll survive (that is when we plant out our pumpkins).  Also I'm thankful that we aren't having storms.  The weather in the USA and Eastern Canada sounds scary. 

Lorissa

Vegetables and Jello

I am an avid reader and I like surfing around on the Internet.  The other day I came across this: "In the 1950s, Jell-O tried to sell savoury flavours, including celery, Italian salad, mixed vegetable, and tomato".  Can you imagine someone giving you a tomato jello mold with chunks of tomatoes floating in it?  I think there are better ways of getting someone to eat their vegetables.

The Canada Food Guide recommends eating 7-10 servings of fruits and vegetables.  That sounds like a lot but serving sizes are 1/2 cup of chopped vegetables or fruits, 1 cup of salad, or 1/2 cup of fruit or vegetable juice.  For more information on the Canada Food Guide check out: Canada's Food Guide.

One way of getting enough vegetables is disguising vegetables in food.  An idea is putting spinach in lasagna or making my Sunshine Squash Muffins.  If you search around on the Internet you can find a ton of recipes that show how you can disguise vegetables in various dishes.


Of course eating fresh vegetables from the garden is best.  I love toasted tomato sandwiches and creamy cucumber salad in summer.  In winter, in Manitoba, eating tasteless store bought vegetables is hard and hence disguising them is a good idea.

Getting back to vegetables and jello, I think this idea is just plain weird and from looking at store shelves this idea never took off.  I think Jello should say with fruit flavors.

 Lorissa Penner

Pregnant Goats?

I have been doing a lot of reading on goats lately.  I'm thinking my female goat and my dad's female goat may be pregnant.  I really don't know as I just got we got the female goats last year.  Jack, the male goat, wasn't a very willing participant so it's hard to know.  The other problem is that Besty has always been fat.  When people see her they always ask when she is due and during the summer and fall I would always tell people "she is just fat".  I am thinking Besty may be due at the end of April and Chloe will be due at the end of May.  Time will tell.  Some interesting facts about goats:

• Goats are pregnant for about 142 to 152 days.
• Twins is the most common, 1 and 3 kids the second most common scenario, and 4-6 being quite rare. 
• A baby goat is called a kid.
•  You can train goats to do tricks.
• Goats have no upper front teeth

Chloe and Besty.

 Lorissa

Jack who will be the father if Chloe and Besty have kids.

The Scarecrow Forest History

The Scarecrow Forest was started because people wanted to do more than just pick out pumpkins at our place in the fall.  We had 10 acres of land and a couple of buildings so we knew we could provide something for people to do.  Shirley came up with the idea of putting Scarecrows in the forest and our first year was in 2009.  Every year since then we had added something new or improved an existing feature.  We have a zip line, a paintball target, pump duck races, a tractor train ride, and much more.  The Snack Shack was my grandpa’s workshop when he moved onto the property in 1976 and the barn housed cows back then.  The barn now houses the giant corn box and a big straw pile to jump into.  The building behind the barn was where John had his trailer company and is now used as a barn room rental for groups of up to 150 people.  The room is used for weddings, corporate parties, and birthday parties.  Another interesting fact is before 2009 the only animals on our yard was cats and a dog.  We now have 6 goats, 3 mini horses, 4 sheep, one pot belly pig, Silkie chickens, Americauna roosters, two rabbits,10 friendly cats, and one dog.  Every year we have different scarecrow scenes in the Forest.  Last year we did a nursery rhyme and fairy tale theme.  The day cares that came to our place loved the theme so we are going to be doing the same theme this year.  We are hoping to have a humpty dumpty in our Forest this year.  For more information check out our facebook page at:  https://www.facebook.com/?ref=tn_tnmn#!/pages/Penner-Pumpkins-and-the-Scarecrow-Forest/127916470555020 or website at: www.pennerpumpkins.com.

 

Also on our site is a gift shop.  We sell honey, Sweet Cucumber Relish, Sweet Zucchini Relish, a variety of jellies ( a really popular one is my Cherry Bomb Jelly), toques, handmade cards, a very unique box (you have to come and check it out), play dough and a variety of other things.  This year Shirley and I are hoping to make Strawberry Jam and Strawberry Rhubarb jam.  If there is anything else you would like to see in the gift shop let me know.  You can check out what is for sale at:  https://www.facebook.com/?ref=tn_tnmn#!/pages/Loras-Treasures/271678282877145

Lorissa Penner

History of Penner Pumpkins and the Scarecrow Forest Part 1

The Scarecrow Forest is turning 5 this year.  The Scarecrow Forest opened its doors in 2009.  Penner Pumpkins, on the other hand, we aren’t sure when it started.

Penner Pumpkins started off as a hobby.  It was a way for three girls (Donna, Lorissa, and Brendalee) to make a little money.  I stay it started in 1990 because that is when we moved to our current location.  John, on the other hand, says it started a couple of years before 1990. So I guess  Penner Pumpkins is 20 and some odd years old.  Us girls would sell pumpkins at the end of the driveway and at Highway 12.  As we grew older TJ and Shirley took over.  In 2005 John, Shirley, and TJ went to St. Norbert’s Farmers’ Market.  When the director of the market came by and asked for their business name the three of them looked at each other and TJ blurted out “Penner Pumpkins”.  We went to St. Norbert’s Farmers’ Market for a few years and then stopped because it just got too busy for us. 

Lorissa transplanting.

 In 2008 we put up a 20 foot by 80 foot greenhouse.  We use the greenhouse to get a head start with our vegetables and use it to grow tomatoes and cucumbers.  We now grow an acre of vegetables, but our  main crop is still pumpkins, gourds, and Indian Corn.  Last year (2012) we expanded our acreage and now have 4-5 acres of pumpkins, gourds, and Indian Corn and still one acre of vegetables.  We sell our vegetables at Pineridge Hollow’s Farmers’ Market on Saturdays and on our home yard.  For more information on what vegetables are available and our hours please check our facebook page at:  https://www.facebook.com/?ref=tn_tnmn#!/PennerPumpkins.

Lorissa and Shirley at Pineridge Hollow Farmers' Market.

 Lorissa Penner

We all can learn something new.

On Thursday John, Shirley, and Lorissa went to the Manitoba Direct Farm Marketing Conference in Dauphin.  The ride in was really interesting.  Between Headingly and Portage La Prairie we saw three cars in the ditch and after Neepawa we drove in a snow storm.  We arrived safe and had an enjoyable conference.

Three things I learned or enjoyed were:

1.  I learned a new word: Agri-tainment.  I have always heard of Agri-tourism and that word never seemed to fit with what Penner Pumpkins and the Scarecrow Forest is doing.  We are looking for new customers, but we mostly rely on our repeat customers.  For more information on what agri-tainment is check out this link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agri-tainment.

2. On Friday evening we got to experience Ukrainian culture.  We learned about the historic Ukrainian Catholic Church of the Resurrection.  I love history so I found this really interesting.  We also learned an Ukrainian Polka.  I have two left feet and I still have two left feet, but it was fun anyways.  We than go to decorate bread.  Afterwards we had a delicious Ukrainian feast.  This experience is available for groups.  For more information phone Tourism Dauphin at 204-622-3216.

3.  We need to be fluid and change, if change is necessary.  If something is not working than we need to change what is not working.  A lot of times we resist change, even though change is necessary.


Lorissa Penner