In our garden right now...

Happy chickens

Happy chickens getting lots of attention around here.  A few simple (and cheap) healthy hen diet additions we've made this year: we've planted a huge comfrey patch around the sides of their coop so they can munch these nutritious greens all day as they like; and we bake our all our used eggshells to dry them out, then crush them and add to the hen feed so they get extra calcium in their diet. 

Cob Oven Workshop

We are back into the swing of workshops now that the garden has been planted.  Little City Farm hosts several workshops each month, Saturday afternoons, on the topics of sustainability, homesteading skills, permaculture, natural building, organic gardening and more...

This weekend's workshop was on the topic of building with cob, and more specifically building a cob oven.  We have a wonderful little cob oven in our backyard that is absolutely delightful for an aspiring or professional baker - especially if you like fires and working outdoors.  We usually bake twice a week here, once to make bread and once for pizzas.  The cob oven can also be used for baking all kinds of other things (cookies, pies, etc), plus roasting vegetables, drying herbs, making yogurt, and so on. 

Cob is a mixture of sand, clay and straw (aprox 9 parts sand : 1 part clay and a little straw chopped into the mix for insulation value on one of the layers of the cob oven).  Cob building is a very intuitive process and has been done in all parts of the world (i.e. earth building) in various forms - adobe, mud huts, cob cottages, and so on.  It's an ancient building technique that anyone can easily learn.  We like to recommend making cob bricks or balls before you start a project, in order to test your cob mix.  There are only a few technical details to consider - the ratio of oven base to oven height; and the ratio of oven door height to height of dome.  There are great books that walk you through the process step-by-step: books like Build your own Earth Oven by Kiko Denzer; The Cob Builder's Handbook by Becky Bee (a pdf version is here), The Hand-Sculpted House by Ianto Evans, and The Cobber's Companion by Michael Smith.

And for further inspiration, here's a slideshow we found online of handbuilt cob houses, cottages, garden walls, sheds, sauna, and several bake ovens...

Here are a few pictures from our cob oven workshop (with some participants getting muddier than others!), and baking pita in the oven:

New Homesteading / Self-Reliance Skills Workshops open for registration!

We are excited to let you know that the new HOMESTEADING / SELF-RELIANCE SKILLS WORKSHOPS for this summer-fall 2013 at Little City Farm are now posted. 

We are taking registrations through our website via paypay here.

If you prefer not to pay using paypal please contact us directly to arrange another registration method. 

The Topics!

As usual, these down-to-earth, practical hands-on workshops are led by local facilitators (enthusiasts, not experts) - and are designed to help you "reskill" yourself in the arts of homesteading, organic gardening, permaculture and urban sustainability.  Topics this summer-fall include: building a cob oven; preserving sugar-free jams; edible landscaping & fruit tree care; DIY non-toxic household cleaners; fall wild edibles; bread baking; growing mushrooms; herbal winter remedies; soap making, and more!

Homesteading Skills Symposium - Sat, August 24

We are also very happy to announce the first ever "HOMESTEADING SKILLS SYMPOSIUM" at Little City Farm, Sat August 24 from 9 am - 4 pm.  This day-long skills & info sharing event features 10 mini workshops to choose from, a wood-fired organic pizza lunch, and lots of informal time to socialize with other urban homesteaders.  Topics for this day could include: making herbal salves; building a strawbale home; rainwater ponds; permaculture; chicken keeping; sprouting; wet felting; cob ovens; beekeeping; and more...

We are only taking 25 participants for this day, so register early to ensure your place.  The cost is $60, including workshops and lunch.  Registration is also here on our website.  Any questions please contact Karin at info@littlecityfarm.ca

This Moment

{This moment} - This moment - an end of week ritual, no words, just a special photo to remember, savour, enjoy.

Twig teepee

What child doesn't long for a tree fort?  Our yard doesn't have quite the right tree for a treehouse - so, instead we've constructed a twig teepee under our old apple tree.  This twig fort is used daily, with a table and seats made from stumps, and scarlet runner beans planted all around in order to provide extra shade during the hotter summer days.  During the seedling sale this teepee was just the right place for the kids to explore or retreat from the crowds.

We read that the David Suzuki Foundation is challenging Canadians to spend 30 minutes a day outdoors for the month of May - it's called the 30x30 challenge.  30 minutes outdoors for 30 days in a row.  30 minutes a day sure doesn't seem like much of a challenge for gardeners or homesteading families like us at this time of the year, when we want to spend every spare minute outdoors to work away at the long list of garden tasks that need to be done!  However, we realize the reality is that many people do not actively find time in their busy days to be outdoors.  This twig fort is just one way to encourage kids (and their parents) to enjoy the outdoors together engaged in collecting the twigs, building the fort, and enjoying their outdoor teepee...

Sun art

We finally had a stretch of beautiful sun today - just the right amount of time to try out a sun art project.  This kit was given to our daughter as a Christmas present, and she's been waiting patiently for the right day to try it out.  It uses cyanotype paper (a light-sensitive paper).   By laying out natural objects on the paper, then placing it in the sun under a special acrylic sheet, a shadow print (also known as sunprint, blueprint or sunlight print) is made.   What fun!  First spending time selecting an assortment of favourite leaves, flowers, feathers and stems from the yard, then arranging them in interesting compositions, and finally waiting outside with a timer to make sure they are exposed to the sun for the right amount of time.  A great nature project just right for the attention span of an eager almost-5 year old!  I think some of these are frame worthy.

Seedling Sale!

We have another exciting seedling sale this past weekend!  This was our 11th annual sale, held on the Saturday of the May long weekend each year.  Thanks to everyone who helped out - without all the great volunteers, vendors and musicians this day would not have been possible.  And what a wonderful crowd who attended - everywhere we looked people were enjoying themselves, meeting old friends, talking gardening, planning other community get-togethers.  It's inspiring to us to see such enthusiasm for gardening, homesteading and community each year when we hold this event. 

Here are a few photos taken of the day (taken by friends Jenn, Angie and Brenda)...