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