Snapshots from "Homestead Camp"

This week we held our second annual Homestead Camp here at Little City Farm.  It was the idea of our daughter, to bring together other kids in the 8-12 year old range in a creative "farmstead" setting while sharing some of the projects that we like to do around here.  The outdoor day camp was held each morning, including co-operative games, garden harvested snacks (like herbal sun tea, pesto and a rainbow veggie platter, made by the kids), and a hands-on activity from the day's theme - including pollinators (making seedballs); natural plant dyes (tie-dying a favourite shirt), natural fibres (making a branch weaving, and felting a bar of soap); and finally wood-fired baking (making pizza in our outdoor oven)!  What fun!  We hope to do this again next year! 

For the fall, we have kids Waldorf-inspired art classes and mother-daughter herbal immersion classes coming up again; as well as our new line-up of family homesteading classes like cheesemaking, sourdough, kraut for kids, and more!  Registration will be open soon.

Here are some snapshots from our days at Homestead Camp this week:

WILD - Taproot Magazine now available!

We are so pleased to mention that we'll have an article featured in the upcoming Taproot Magazine, Issue 14::WILD.  We encourage you to check out this magazine if you have not already come across it.  It's a beautiful visual magazine, filled with lush photography, gorgeous unique artwork, delicious recipes, soulful articles, and practical hand skills, all along the themes of homesteading, homeschooling and community living.  We always eagerly look forward to getting our copy of this magazine in the mail and anticipate each new issue.  Our daughter looks forward to being the first to find it in the mailbox and peruse the photos and artwork, as well as asking me to read her the editorial "story".   Look for our article in this issue about making your own permaculture seedballs and "rewilding our landscape".

Seeds, Soil & Sourdough Event - April 18 from 10-12 noon

 

AT LITTLE CITY FARM, 508 dUKE sT w, kITCHENER

Sat, April 18 from 10-12 noon

an earth-day celebration!

 Drop by to find:

Seedballs: make your own clay seedballs to attract pollinators
Seeds: certified organic non-GMO seeds for sale to get your garden started!
Soil: bags of certified organic potting soil for sale for all your seedlings 
Seedling Tips: helpful advice on starting seedlings, planting charts

Sourdough: fresh sourdough bread, wood-fired baking demos
Soap: natural handmade herbal soaps & salves available
SAVOURY WOOD-FIRED CREPES: UNIQUE VEGGIE CREPES made over a wood fire!

Please try to walk or bike here

More info: www.littlecityfarm.ca

Spring Seeds, Soil & Sourdough Event at Little City Farm, April 18

Join us Sat, April 18 between 10-12 noon (free drop-in event) for our first ever Spring Seeds, Soil & Sourdough Event!

We invite you to celebrate the arrival of spring, earth-day, and all good growing things that come with sunshine and warmer weather!

You will find:

• Seedballs: hands-on DIY seedball making (make your own clay seedballs to take home, filled with seeds to attract pollinators to your garden) - a great activity for all ages
• Seeds: organic non-GMO seeds for sale to get your garden off to a great start
• Soil: bags of certified organic potting soil for sale for all your seed starting needs
• Seedling Tips: helpful advice on starting your own seedlings, planting charts to take home, garden magazine give-away, and more
• Sourdough: freshly baked sourdough bread available, and wood-fired baking demo in our outdoor cob oven
• Soap: natural handmade soaps for sale
• Sprouts: in our new greenhouse studio space (still under renovation but we'll give you a sneak preview)!

Please try to walk or bike to this event, in honour of earth-day and to minimize traffic on our street.

For questions - contact Karin or Greg at: info@littlecityfarm.ca
 

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Permaculture Seed Balls!

This may well be my favourite activity to do with kids in the spring.  We are aching to get our hands into the soil, so playing with clay and compost muck to shape seed balls is the perfect thing.  And this takes lots of hands to get it done, since the "recipe" makes a huge batch!  We made over 140 seed balls.  Our recipe was not exact - approx. equal parts clay and compost, and enough water to make a good sticky mix that holds a ball shape.  The wetter the mix, the longer it will take to firm up and dry fully.  Plus enough seed packages to get a large number of seeds distributed into each ball.  The idea is to fill the mix with seeds that are held in safe keeping until they have the right conditions to germinate - the clay protects the seeds, the compost is there to feed the seeds once the seed balls are tossed onto the ground and rained/watered to break them open.  We seeded our mix with a bird/bee/butterfly pollinator mix of perennial and annual seeds saved from our garden (bee balm/wild bergamot, poppies, new england asters, black eyed susan, purple coneflower, butterfly weed, borage, eastern columbine, forget-me-not, coreopsis, lemon mint, lupines, and more).