We’ve rolled into June, and this past weekend just gone sees
the end of my forth week here. I can’t believe how quickly the time has gone,
it doesn’t feel like I’ve been here for a month already; but at the same time
it feels like I’ve been here for a lot longer in the sense that I feel at home,
I feel settled and content.
We have been super busy on and off the farm the last couple
of weeks, hence why I haven’t written for a while. Summer brings long working days and an almost
endless list of tasks to complete and the days fly by in a flurry of activity.
On the farm over the last fortnight as ever the
weeding has continued. Other things we have been doing are planting Jerusalem
artichokes, making fences for peas to grow up, stringing up tomatoes and side-shooting
them, planting strawberries and of course harvesting. this friday we had our first harvest of kale and chard!
Last week was a bit pest control centred; Leah and I
spent many an hour scouring the garlic for leek moth larvae, hunting down and
squishing potato beetles and annihilating cucumber beetles. It’s interesting to see the different pests
they have here, I’ve not encountered or heard of potato beetle or cucumber
beetle in the UK, which is a good thing as they do a lot of damage to their
associated crops, decimating the leaves and seriously hindering growth. While it’s a pretty disgusting job squishing
said bugs, particularly potato beetles which have bright orange guts which tend
to squirt out and delightfully stain your clothes; I’d much rather that than
the alternative which is to spray crops with Rotenone. While, up until recently, an organic
approved insecticide, in my eyes Rotenone or any pesticide for that matter
should always be a last resort. Rotenone
has now been banned from use in organic production here in Canada, and rightly
so I feel. Even though it is made from
natural sources – certain tropical roots; it’s still a toxic chemical, and
after doing a little research it’s bad
news if it makes it’s way into water ways as it is highly toxic to aquatic life
and can stay in the water for up to six months.
It’s also mildly toxic to humans, so even though produce may be organic,
it doesn’t necessarily mean that it hasn’t been sprayed with insecticide.
So now that Rotenone has been disallowed in organic use,
Kylah has been researching alternatives and they want to start using Pyrethrum
which is made from a plant in the chrysanthemum family, but she is having
difficulty finding a Canadian supplier. While I'm not keen on insecticides, organic or otherwise, I can understand why they are used as combating some pests by hand just isn't possible.
Talking of bugs, we have started a long term project of
creating an insectarium – collecting specimens of insects found on the farm from
the pests, to the beneficial and everything in between. We have a small collection so far where we
have pinned specimens to a cork board and we hope to identify and research a
little about each creature. It’s really interesting to find new insects and
learn more about the farms biodiversity, I’m thinking of doing a little
personal project of documenting the wild flowers on the farm which gives me a
good excuse to take lots of photos of flowers.
Another big task that started the week before last and is
in continuation is sorting the produce in the root cellar and running it
through the shiny new root washer Jackson and Matt put together. The root cellar has been in desperate need of
organising and Leah has been itching to get in there and sort it out, she loves
organising things. So we’ve been sorting
through the carrots and potatoes that have been stored over winter, running
them through the root washer and then grading them out. In the case of carrots,
grading them either fit for market (of which there were very few), for us to
eat, or lastly compost. They seem to
have had a bit of a problem with wireworm last year which burrows into the
carrot and makes it look rather unappetising, especially after the roots have
been stored and the burrows turn black.
Still there are plenty for us to eat, far too many actually, I feel that
the carrots should have been better sorted in the autumn and perhaps a
percentage given away to family and friends to eat as I think a lot of those
that we sorted will end up being composted; which isn’t necessarily wasteful as
it goes back into the ground, but they were grown to be eaten not composted.
Carrots going through the shiny new root washer! The long wood barrel turns so the roots go in at one end and then get washes by jets of water as they make their way to the other end.
It’s a similar story with the potatoes, there are bags
and bags of them that have been stored over winter and are now sprouting. We
have been sorting through them to grade out suitable seed potatoes for
planting, many of them have contracted a black scurf which is a fungal disease
that leaves the skin on the potatoes mottled with black spots, so we have been
picking out those which don’t have the scurf to use for potato seed. Some are beyond saving however, bags of them
just being sprouted masses which are impossible to sort. We have made our way through a good
percentage though and now we have tonnes of potatoes for eating, again far too
many, so there are plans in the works to make some vodka!
Sunday 3rd I went to my first market in
Ottawa, It’s an early start of 5:30 since Ottawa is an hour and a half away,
and it was nice to sit in the truck and watch the sun rising as we drove along
the highway. As we approached
Ottawa the distant skyline was very
beautiful in the early morning light
festooned with low lying clouds.
We didn’t have a good turnout for market due to the rainy
weather report and we came back with quite a bit of produce. It was still a good day, albeit long, finally
getting home at 5pm. It’s nice to browse
the other stalls and buy some treats, and I like the full circle experience of
growing the food and then having direct contact with the consumer and sharing
enthusiasm about the produce.
One of the
most popular vegetables we are selling right now at market are Hakurei turnips,
a small
white
turnip about the side of a radish which is delicious raw with a very mild
radish flavour but with
a sweet
crispness. They are delicious and the
customers know it too, always coming back for more
and saying
how good they are. I’ve never heard of
them before coming here and they are definitely
something I’m going to be growing back at home.
Leah and Jackson harvesting hakurei turnips
Last Monday all of us went to visit another small farm
owned by a lady who interned at Rainbow in 2010. Her name is Sheila and she cultivates around
two and a half acres and has around 25 CSA shares. She is only in her second
official year and it was nice to see a very young project. She also kept quite
a few chickens and the day before bought six piglets which she is going to use
to ‘plough’ up areas of land for cultivation.
She also ingeniously uses her chickens for weeding, placing them in a ‘chicken
tractor’ which is moved along a bed or a path and the chickens inside will
scratch up the weeds and at the same time fertilise the ground with their
droppings.
Chicken tractor!
Piggies!
This past week Zach has worked alongside us a lot more,
as previously he has had a lot of other things to sort out on the farm such as
building construction and generally getting things ready for us to all move up
there in July. I’ve really enjoyed
working with him more and having the opportunity to chat to him and just
generally have a giggle. We all get on really well here and laugh together a
lot, the people make the work even more enjoyable.
The weather has been unsettled in the last couple of
weeks. On the last Monday of May we had
a crazy lightning storm overnight, there was very little thunder, but lightning
bolt after lightning bolt that went on for a solid hour or more. It was a bit worrisome being in the tent
lying next to a 3 metre tall metal post that has the potential to act as a
lightning rod!
We’ve had mostly fair days, though distinctly cooler
temperatures and some much needed rain to quench the dry earth. Late afternoon on Wednesday and Thursday thunderstorms
rolled in suddenly out of the blue, whipping up huge winds that saw me and Leah
running about trying to catch big sheets of Styrofoam insulation caught up in
the gusts!
Sunday and today have been back to very hot again, with a
high of 33˚c
today. Far too hot to be comfortable.
Leah and I went to a tiny little beach earlier today on the shore of
Lake Dore about ten minutes away. We didn’t
stay long, just had a little paddle in the clear water and then went into
Pembroke to do some shopping. It's good to know where the beach is now, and we plan to go back and spend some time their another day. It'll be nice to take a swim in the lake!
So I guess that's all for this time
Much love
Becky xx
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