Spring Chickens

They really are happy in the spring, these chickens (and children)!

Enjoying the frost

We spent the early waking moments of this morning enjoying the frost.  It's nearly November and it felt good to see the frost come - it's time for a change of season.  We've done our canning and preserving; had our last CSA vegetable pick-up day; we have pulled our zucchini, beans and tomatoes, planted garlic, put in flower bulbs for the spring; we have green tomatoes ripening on our window ledge and new fresh green shoots coming up in the greenhouse (including a few rows of french beans, which our 3 year old absolutely wanted to plant but that will likely not make it in a winter garden!); we've stacked our wood on the porch (even though a new woodshed is still in progress) and are feeling ready to enjoy the coming winter.  "What does frost taste like?" our 3 year old wanted to know, so she painstakingly picked frozen water droplets off the kale leaves and tasted them (frost tastes delicious by the way) - and this offered a great chance for a conversation about the water cycle!

Around our little farm these days...

A nice family weekend around the farm...I love the feeling of everyone working away at their own task somewhere on the property, checking in with each other now and again for some help, or meeting up for a picnic lunch or cool drink in the shade.  Right now the garden feels a bit overwhelming, such dry soil and weeds galore, plus plenty to harvest and lots of planting to do for fall, herbs to dry and put away, garlic still needs to be hung up to cure...Then most of the weekend went to working on the new greywater system, which will be an expansion of our old wetland pond system and now will include a river and second larger pond for better filtration of our laundry and bath water.  Water has definitely been a theme around here the past many weeks - while the greywater system has been under construction we've been carrying out our bath water since the rain barrels were empty.   Finally this weekend we had rain, just a little rain, but enough to fill up our pond and rain barrels again for a few days of use.

Greening of Detroit

We had guests staying at our B&B this past weekend who were taking a short respite from their active community work.  As we asked them a little more about their work, it turned out they are heavily involved in community gardening and urban agriculture in Detroit, part of an amazing story of a city that is slowly regenerating itself through vast numbers of volunteers and community members tackling the job of greening vacant lots, turning them into food producing gardens.  There are over 1200 community gardens in Detroit, food being grown for homes, soup kitchens, and for sale at local farmers markets.  There are educational workshops, free soil samples (testing for lead, heavy metals, and other soil conditions), help on building raised beds, seed and seedling distribution, and many other resources available to get new urban farmers off to a positive start!  This is probably the largest urban agriculture program in any one city in North America.  We were honoured to host our guests, hear more about these initiatives, and watch a beautiful photo slideshow of the gardens and farmers markets that have been established.  For more details on this major urban agriculture movement see Greening of Detroit.

Organic Conference & new seeds!

We attended the annual organic conference in Guelph this past weekend! It's been an annual end of January tradition and highlight for us for the past 10 years, and each time we look forward to reacquainting with so many friends and familiar faces in the Ontario organic growers community. We also love touring all the booths selling seeds, as this is THE source for purchasing heirloom and organic seeds if you want to meet the growers in person. As usual, we came away with no less than a dozen new packs of heirloom tomatoes, our pockets filled with brochures about intriguing organic projects and organizations we want to follow up on, and our heads swirling with new ideas for garden ventures and community initiatives!

Dispite this being an organic farming conference with the emphasis on rural farm production, we were surprised by the number of conversations we had with urban farmers. We seem to be a growing sector of the organic farming movement in Ontario! From small-scale homesteaders like ourselves, urban SPIN-farming market gardeners, rooftop gardeners, city wildharvesters, urban-based seed saving businesses (like Urban Harvest in Toronto - www.uharvest.ca), urban hen keepers networks, beekeepers, community gardeners and food educators, city folks are trying to find a meaningful place for themselves in the sustainable food movement - creative, innovative, exciting! There are so many directions to take urban agriculture/urban sustainability, and we are always inspired by the varied projects we see out there.

Of note, we met a couple who have a new project called "All Sorts Acre" ("real food, real life, real small" - nice slogan, that says it all!), who have one acre just outside of Guelph and are beginning to see themselves as a resource for others in their neighbourhood and city! There was also Sustain Ontario ("the alliance for healthy food & farming"), who are a cross-sectoral provincial alliance in Ontario working for a sustainable food system that is ecological, equitable and financially viable (quote from their brochure). They are organizing a large conference in Kitchener in early March, called "Bringing Food Home", to connect Ontario farms and food networks (farmers, growers, consumers, producers, etc). More details at: www.sustainontario.com

Then there was FarmStart, and FarmLink - a booth we have stopped by in other years. The idea of FarmLink is a "match-making" system to link potential farmers with those who have available land, through on online database (www.farmlinkontario.ca) FarmStart is also teaching a 4-session course across the province related to "exploring your new farm dream", looking at opportunities and realities of starting a farm business. Our friend Angie from Fertile Ground CSA will be teaching the course here locally (www.FarmStart.ca).

We dropped by Mycosource, a gourmet mushroom cultivation supplier, from whom we had purchasedour shiitake logs last year. He gave some helpful advice on how to promote bountiful fruiting of the logs, which seemed to have slowed down last season (they are supposed to fruit for several seasons). He suggested they had possibly gotten too wet - they need soaking to get started initially, but should be stored in a partially covered area to prevent too much rain from continuously soaking them. We are very keen on harvesting more mushrooms this season... (www.mycosource.com)

As for seeds, we always stop at Greta's Organic Gardens first (www.seeds-organic.com). Her booth, in the farthest back corner of the exhibition hall, has the widest selection of heirloom tomato varieties and we have our favourites that we go back for every few years (when we haven't been able to save our own - a limitation of our city property). Tomatoes we'll be starting soon from Greta's seeds include: Yukon Red, Green Zebra, Green Tomatillo, Stupice, Gold Nugget Cherry, Yellow Pear, Manitoba Red, Sub-Arctic Cherry, Cherokee Purple, Brandywine, Old Flame Bi-Colour, and Gardener's Delight Red Cherry...all of these will be available as seedlings at our annual Seedling Sale in May!

Woolen Farm Kitty

Our daughter loves cats, and can't get enough of spotting them streaking across the street or lounging on front porches during every outing in our neighbourhood. So, we thought, given that every self-respecting farm and garden (urban or rural) needs it's own farm cat, we would try out hand at making our own. Today's quick crafting creation was a woolen farm kitty made from 100% recycled wool, stuffed with sheep's wool from a nearby farm (thanks to Michelle and Erin who taught me how to card it) and embroidered with cotton on an organic cotton face.

More woolen farm kittys and barn owls to come...(available on our etsy store too, where the farm kittys come with a packet of organic catnip tea from our garden, so kids can enjoy a cup a warm welcoming tea with their new feline friend!).
www.homesteadherbal.etsy.com

Urban Farming segment on CBC's Fresh Air Today!

Our friend Angie Koch (of Fertile Ground CSA) was interviewed today on CBC radio's Fresh Air program. The segment featured a story about urban farmers and Angie is an excellent example of someone who did not grow up on a farm, but believes in quality food, sustainable agriculture, and community - and now, though living in a city (Kitchener) she is farming on the outskirts and bringing her produce back downtown to her loyal and growing customer base. Here's the link to the CBC feature: http://www.cbc.ca/freshair/ (go to March 7, 2009). Angie was also recently featured with an article in Briar Patch magazine, a "fiercely independent" magazine (whose byline is "fighting the war on error"!) based out of Saskatchewan. This was a food/farming issue, and Angie again speaking on the topic of this new breed of "urban farmers". www.briarpatchmagazine.com