This little piggy went to market

It’s currently 7am Sunday morning while I am writing this, in the kitchen with a big cup of Earl Grey at my side and the barn cats scampering around my feet.

Another working week has drawn to a close. I can’t believe I’ve only been here for a little over two weeks now, it feels like so much longer; the days go by so quickly.

Yesterday I went to my first market in a small town called Carp just outside Ottawa.  As it’s early in the season we don’t have a huge variety for sale right now, but there was still an abundance of produce.  I think we did pretty well, though Kylah said it wasn’t as busy as last week, but then it was a bank holiday weekend last week, so more people could have been out for that.  This week we were selling oak leaf lettuce mix, spinach, arugula (rocket to us British folk), radish, wet garlic(young garlic), and leeks.  So many people were surprised that everything was grown outside, commenting that veggies in their own gardens weren’t so far ahead.  That’s part of the game in growing organic veggies, getting to market with firsts of the season which fetch a higher price. The early bird catches the worm and all that…

 Our market stall

The market was fun and was nice to have a working day that was different to being on the farm itself, plus I got to browse the stalls and admire the beautiful things for sale.  There was a lady who made jewellery from vintage silver cutlery, sounds a bit odd, but her stuff was beautiful.  Plus another lady who had some absolutely gorgeous hand-woven pashminas and shrug type garments, with pretty prices too around $180! I may have to save up for one.  There was a lady selling herbs, and as ever I cannot resist buying herbs; so I bought myself a lemon verbena (one of my all-time favourites) and also a peach scented sage.  They will grace the deck of my little cabin once we move up to the farm at the beginning of July.  Hopefully someone will look after them when I’ve gone.  The cabins are not far from being finished now, all three have their basic structure up, they just need the siding put in place, doors and windows to be installed and the decks to be built.  They look pretty funny, being tall and narrow, we are now referring to them as the Elf Cabins.  I’m really excited about getting to move into one, though I am still enjoying living in the tent. Leah and I were sharing up until Tuesday as her tent broke on the first night! So I have the tent to myself now, and it is so big without another person in there!  I’m glad I wont be in there when we get into autumn however, as I think It will just be too cold for me to be comfortable in a tent.  We’ve had one night in May that was around 2˚C and that was blimmin’ cold, I don’t want to even imagine what it would be like when the temperature dips below freezing.  I think the cabins will be a lot warmer!

 Sleeping under an apple tree.

 My palacial pad

What’s been happening on the farm this week? 

As ever there has been a bucket load of weeding, mostly carrots and beetroot which need delicate hand weeding.  It’s so disheartening to spend a whole day hand weeding a bed of carrots and then looking at it a few days later and seeing that it needs doing again.  I don’t mind weeding at all, it just feels a bit futile at times  and the amount of man-hours needed to complete the task is staggering.  It feels like we are playing catch up a lot right now as there is so much to do.  Other than weeding we have been doing some more transplanting; this week we planted spring onions, parsley, Jerusalem artichokes and watermelons; I am SO excited for the watermelons.  We also direct sowed more squash and I seeded lots of kale and chard in modules.

Things in general are growing well on the farm, there are the first flowers on the tomatoes, the garlic is growing tall and the salad crops are growing at an amazing speed. We do need more rain however, and the agriculture information body in Canada have given severe drought predictions for this summer which is worrying.  Zach said he has seen it get drier every year he has farmed here in the last six years, and Bob who owns the beef farm where we are living at the moment said last year was the driest he’s seen and he’s been farming for sixty years!  Zach and Kylah have invested in an irrigation system which has just been installed, it consists of a drip hose system to water the cucurbit (cucumber family) beds and the poly tunnels and sprinkler systems for the fields.  

Talking of water we did have some rain on Tuesday after the loudest thunder storm I have ever heard! And that was only a mild mini storm, apparently they get a lot bigger and a lot louder, it probably sounds like the world is going to end if they get any louder than the other day.  It was impressive, I love thunder storms; crazy moments of physics going on in the sky.  It would be amazing to capture some lightening on camera, but it’s notoriously difficult to photograph. I may give it a go if the chance arises again.

Animal encounters

This week I saw a groundhog while out exploring the farm pastures and watching the sunset.  At first I thought I was one of the farm cats as I could see something moving through the tall grass about 20 metres or so away, but then it popped it’s head up and it wasn’t a cat, it was a groundhog!

 The sunset I was watching when I saw the groundhog

On Friday lunchtime as Leah, Jackson and I sat beneath a big old oak tree, we watched a Northern Harrier gracefully ride the wind as it scoured the grassland below for small rodents. Earlier in the week I also saw two huge vultures swooping through the sky, riding the thermals. I want to come back as a bird in another life.

 I've finally managed to snap one of the beautiful butterflies here too.

Well I think I’ve rambled enough, so until next week…

Much love

Becky

welcome to the good life

My body has been aching for most of the week, the physical nature of working on the farm is relentless, but I am starting to get used to it and I ache less and less as the days go by. I can actually walk properly again after what will forever be known as the infamous ‘Onion Day’!!   

The adaptability of the human body is amazing though, I felt totally broken after day one, but this weekend I spent three hours straight bent over picking radish and I was fine.

I’m really enjoying my time here, apart from the mosquitos – I have been eaten alive. They thirst for my exotic British blood!  The bites are brutal, some coming up in huge raised welts, not pretty; and the itching is maddening.

This week the days have continued to be hot and beautifully sunny, this weekend the temperatures have been in the 30’s (I'm not trying to make you jealous, honest!); while some nights have been distinctly chilly. Full thermals, three blankets and a hot water bottle makes things pretty snug though.  Despite the long working days and the heat I feel really good; waking up with the birds and the dawn and going to bed with the sun is a beautiful rhythm, which allows me to feel and function at my best. I love making a cup of tea and then going to sit on a big boulder and watch the sunrise.  It is so deeply and satisfyingly peaceful.

On the farm this week we have been planting courgettes, cucumbers and sowing heritage squash, all outside into a black plastic mulch.  We also transplanted the rest of the leeks and a couple of beds of romaine lettuce; and peppers and tomatoes were planted up in the polytunnel. Heritage potatoes went into the ground this week too.  We’ve all been dreaming about eating the veggies as we plant them, imagining delicious ripe tomatoes, plentiful courgettes and juicy cool cucumbers. We are all so excited for the summer.  It’s great to be living and working with a bunch of foodies!

 The potato field

Weeding has been and will be an on-going task at the farm as any organic vegetable grower knows!!  Fat Hen (known as Lambs Quarter here) is a big problem, in many instances it looks like a row of Fat Hen has been seeded instead of say carrots or beetroot! Hand weeding is a big job here, particularly for the carrots. It takes hours and hours as the beds are very long (up to 300m) and there are four rows to a bed; it really makes it apparent just how much labour goes into producing organic veg.

This week saw the first harvest of some crops for the beginning of market season.  We go to market at two different locations – just outside Ottawa on Saturdays and downtown Ottawa on Sundays.  We harvested rainbow radish, some as big as golf balls and so deliciously crisp and peppery. Red and green oak left lettuce, spinach and small white turnips, along with a few over wintered leeks.  Bunching radish is a bit of an art form and harvesting anything at speed is definitely a learned skill.  Kylah and Zach are big on work efficiency; reiterating that each task should be done with the minimum amount of body movements to keep up speed.  It can be a bit daunting when you’re told that at peak efficiency you should be able to pick two bunches of radishes a minute, when in fact it takes you a whole minute to do just one.  Like I said it’s a learned skill and something to perfect over the season.

Even at this time of year we are eating well at the farm and drinking great tasting untreated well water. We have lots of staples like rice, lentils, pasta, quinoa etc and then there are beetroot, carrots, potatoes, cabbage, onions, garlic and a few squash which have all been stored over winter in the amazing cold store they have built.  It keeps at around 4˚C without any use of electricity.  It’s a big concrete structure that has pretty much been buried underground and filling half of the back wall is a huge amount of ice that was made in the winter.  Zach wants to fill the entire back wall with ice this winter to hopefully keep the temperature to around the 4˚C mark in the summer as I think he said it gets to about 9˚C in the summer at the moment.  Still it amazes me how good quality the vegetables are that are kept in the store.  The carrots are juicy and flavourful as if freshly picked, the potatoes still firm and good.  Now we have some of the fresh produce coming in too and it’s only going to get so much more abundant.  I am dreaming of baked aubergines…

Animal encounters

As a bit of a wildlife lover it’s exciting coming to a different continent and seeing the wildlife here.  I was in the kitchen the other day and in popped a racoon! I know they are a bit of a pest here and he was obviously looking for a tasty morsel or two to nibble, but I was like WOW! I have never seen one before. Once he clocked me he soon made a run for it, but I saw him again a couple of days later so I watched him for a while walking through the long grass by the kitchen, every few steps coming up on to his hind legs meerkat style to look over the grass. 

There are a couple of really cute little chipmunks I’ve been watching run around at the farm, I want to try and get a picture, but they are so quick!  I’ve seen some gorgeous butterflies too, big with beautiful colours and a couple of tiny sapphire blue ones.  I’m pretty sure I saw an eagle fly over the farm the other day, it was definitely something big! I watched it swoop it’s way over the thermals and into the distance. 

Around the farm

I took some photos of what Zach calls the 'Sacred Maple Bush'  it's a beautiful grove of old maple trees, some are so old they are knarled and half fallen down. (click on the photos for a larger view)

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 These are roots from dead maples which have been placed to form a sort of fence.

  This is the view from the western slope of the farm, there has been a big planting of native trees on the slope.  The skies are so massively endless here.

Despite the constant busyness on the farm, I still find the work peaceful and my mind is very quiet which is a welcome state for me. I guess it’s due to living more closely in tune with nature, living outside and working outside, it’s like food for my spirit (sorry for getting all hippy on you all!!)

Oh, and the stars at night here are incredible, so so bright and gracing the sky in their millions, it’s an awesome sight, and I mean awesome in the true sense of the word.

Much love always

Becky xx

Hello from Canada!

This is just a shortish update, as I’ve only been here a couple of days and there isn’t a huge amount to write about just yet.

The flight over on Friday was fine, and a lovely guy named Dave was sitting next to me.  He was a geologist and was travelling to Canada for a work trip. Turns out he was staying at the same hostel as me in Ottawa, and he very chivalrously helped carry my bags up the ridiculous amount of steps in the hostel (no lift!). Such a sweetheart.  The hostel itself was really quirky, an old converted prison and my room was an actual cell, the whole place had tonnes of character. I've never seen a hostel quite like it.

Saturday morning Dave and I walked around Ottawa for a few hours, the weather was so gorgeous, temperature in the late 20’s and perfect blue skies.

I got picked up in the afternoon and arrived at the farm early evening.  Kylah and Zach who own the farm are currently living at kylah’s dad’s farm.  They bought 50 acres from Kylah’s dad (Bob) around 5 years ago to start the veg farm, and are currently in the process of getting stuff ready to move up to their site. They will be living in a yurt, which is nearly finished, so they estimate to be moving up to their farm this summer.  So us interns are also pitched up at Bob’s farm; it’s 200 acres with grass fed beef, a goat and two kids and tomorrow around 150 chicks will be arriving also. There are also two dogs and a bunch of farm cats, one of which has befriended me. I call her nipper as she likes to play bite everyone!  We are around  5 miles from the nearest town, Cobden, which is tiny having only a population of 1,000 people.

 the very pretty Nipper!

So Saturday evening we had a big welcome group dinner. There are four interns here; Matt an intern veteran, this is his third season at the farm. Jackson a local boy who was a member of the farm’s CSA last year. Leah who is from Nova Scotia and has just completed a nutrition degree, and of course me, the random Brit.  After dinner we spent the evening chatting and drinking Jackson’s home brewed dandelion beer which is really good!  I went to bed early as having gotten about 6 hours sleep in the past 2 days was really starting to catch up with me.  All the new noises of the countryside were interesting. I heard Coyotes and wild turkey – I had no idea they had wild turkey around here until I said the next morning – ‘I think I heard a turkey last night??’ and Zach said there were wild ones.

I woke up to an incredible dawn chorus just before 5am on Sunday and went and watched the sunrise with a much needed cup of Earl Grey. We all had pancakes for breakfast together before heading off to the farm. Zach gave us a tour in the morning, explaining about all the construction and development that has been (and still is) going on and the philosophy and long term vision for the farm. (I’ll write about this more another time).  In the next couple of weeks they are having log cabins built for us interns and hopefully we will move up in June.

The afternoon saw the beginning of the hard graft – transplanting 8,000 onion and leek seedlings in around 30˚c heat!  It’s been a while since I’ve done any intense physical work like that, and after 5 and a half hours, I felt totally broken.  Zach said transplanting the onions is one of the hardest jobs; talk about been thrown in at the deep end! I crashed at around 8pm and slept like the dead until being woken up by the birds at five. Good work = good sleep.

Today (Monday) is everyone’s day off so we went into Pembroke which is the nearest city about 20 miles away to do a little shopping.  This afternoon I’ve just been relaxing and wondering around the farm as I ache so much from yesterday!  The weather is absolutely gorgeous, I really wasn’t expecting it to be so warm already. Tonight I’m going to do some star gazing, as with zero light pollution the night sky must be amazing out here.

Here’s to the week ahead

Much love

Becky xxx

So, it's actually happening...

So Friday is The Big Day; a mere 55ish hours from now I shall be jetting off  to the land of maple syrup and Mounties! Oh, has it been a long time coming.  The last three months have been some of the most stressful of my life; the agonising wait for my visa was a torture I wouldn't wish on anyone. The endless delays left my nerves a little frayed, and it got to the point a couple of weeks ago where I'd completely given up and had pretty much decided I wasn't going to go, I just couldn't take the stress anymore. I should have left on the last weekend of April, but no visa meant it was a no go.  However, finally after twelve nail biting weeks of waiting, my visa came through last week. So it's all worked out in the end.

The past week has been a bit of a mental rush to get everything sorted, but I'm pretty much done now.  All that's left to do is to somehow employ a modicum of military precision in order to get everything I need for the duration of my stay into a couple of suitcases.  I am not good at travelling light.  I'm the sort of person who thinks 'I might need that, better take it', and while I will need clothes/gear for three seasons I cannot take everything including the proverbial kitchen sink! Sigh.
I'll figure it out somehow.

So this is what it's all about The Rainbow Heritage Garden, my home for the next seven months. It's going to be an adventure, and I'm looking forward to sharing it will you all!

xx