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It's only rained once in the last month. The little sprinkles that barely touch the ground don't count. Every time I look at the forecast rain is a week away. Right now it's calling for rain on Sunday but yesterday it was calling for it on Saturday. Last week it was predicting rain for yesterday. It's so frustrating! We planted broccoli, cauliflower and cabbage almost 2 weeks ago and it was supposed to rain after that weekend. Fortunately my dad has been working hard getting the irrigation set up and we've been using that to water our seeds and seedlings. I didn't even consider that we would need it so early. Trial by fire it seems. No point making the first year easy. Show me how it really is in this business. This is the reason that I love perennials so much, they don't need as much coddling as our annual veggie crops. I attended a Permaculture workshop this weekend at the lovely Living Centre in London. I'm taking their Permaculture Design course and it requires me to attend 4 weekend workshops throughout the year. It's one weekend a season so I have the opportunity to witness permaculture in action throughout the different seasons. This weekend was all about forest gardening. I'm pretty familiar with forest gardening and my home garden is not far off of a very small forest garden. The biggest thing that I take away from permaculture is to work with the environment you have and plant things that can thrive in it. And plant things that are useful and you can get a yield from. There are so many more sources of food from plants than we are even aware of and they don't require the work and inputs that our annual staple crops require. Unfortunately they also require some commitment. Commitment to the land by planting things that won't necessarily yield this year or next but when they do can continue yielding for even a hundred years. Commitment to educating ourselves and trying new things. Commitment can be a scary word but I think our culture needs a little more of it. Let the roots sink into the ground and see how we grow. CSA UpdateThe first week is zooming towards us. The week of June 8th is scheduled to be our first box and so far so good. Even with no rain things are growing. We should have LOTS of fresh lettuce, green onions and some rhubarb. Like I said in the last newsletter, the first few baskets may seem sparse. That's how it is in spring folks! In the next couple years as we get some asparagus in and we add a hoophouse there will be a bigger selection at this time of year. As the season moves on into summer the boxes may contain more than you can use at times. I'm doing the best I can to stagger things. Again, I appreciate you signing on this year and I am working hard to make it worth it for you. I'm also trying to be very up front about what you can expect. Feel free to send me any feedback, comments or questions.
So with the first box scheduled for the week of June 8th here are some reminders: Tuesday is the Lake Land Meats pick up Wednesday is Grimsby/Beamsville Thursday is Lowell Ave and Contact Niagara I have added a Friday pick up at Lake Land Meats. If anyone is interested in changing to this pick up day/place please let me know as soon as possible. There will be a limit on the number of people and you need to pick it up before 5pm. Remember to bring your own bags to pick up your produce. If anyone has any recipes they would like to share please feel free to send them to me or bring them to a pickup. Recipes for less familiar vegetables are especially welcome. This is part of the "Community" part of the Supported Agriculture. Some people may not have any idea how to use certain vegetables or may not know how good a certain vegetable can taste. If you have some knowledge then feel free to share it. I look forward to seeing you all in 2 weeks!! Jackie It's April and in my mind it's the beginning of the gardening season. The weather is my boss. I've tried to find excuses to be outside and puttering around. Part of our field is pretty dry and thawed. I was tempted the other day to plant the peas but I thought I would give it at least another week for the soil to warm up just a touch more. Dad and Jacob (my brother and business partner) were with me at the farm and so we decided to just get some beds and paths staked out. We put some black sheet mulch over the beds to help warm them up and protect them. The hardest part for us this year will be making the beds. I don't want to be tilling the soil unless absolutely needed so permanent beds are the plan. According to my current calculations we need to make up about 50 beds although I don't really think we will need that many if we shuffle things about and reuse some beds after the first crop has been harvested. Not much growing at the farm yet but look at all the action in my front garden! CSA Newsletter June feels like a long way away still but I'm sure it will be on us before we know it. This blog will serve as the newsletter for our CSA and those of you who didn't get to invest this year can also follow along and find out more about the work we're doing and maybe hear when we have surplus veggies. Our first weekly share will hopefully be ready at the beginning of June. Some of the vegetables you can look forward to are peas, lettuce, green onions/scallions and rhubarb. The first few shares may seem sparse but as the season rolls on you may find that you are getting more than you're prepared for. This is what it's like to eat seasonally. In the newsletters I will give you some advice on preserving your bounty as well as recipes for making fresh meals. It's not as hard as it seems to preserve the fresh food especially if you have only a little freezer space. I don't have a lot of spare time either so quick and easy is my favourite way of preserving. Stay tuned. BYOB So I've been doing a lot of pondering about the bins and how to minimize waste. Specifically the plastic. Plastic is a really useful material. We wouldn't use it if it wasn't so useful. However it's a terrible waste material that is difficult to just toss in a compost pile. I've bought bins that will serve as harvest bins and bins to separate and cart the shares. I don't want to have hundreds of them so you can't take them with you. If I let you do that then I'll have to keep track of it and you'll have to return it. It's just extra work for all of us. Please bring your own bags or boxes. Well duh right? I will have some recycled plastic bags handy if you forget. It will be like the grocery store except with less waste and fresher food. Pickup Days and Locations Tuesday at Lake Land Meats. I'm hoping you can pick it up between noon and 5pm. If for some reason this doesn't work for you then please let me know. Wednesday in Beamsville/Grimsby. The official pick up will be at 4427 Lincoln Ave, Beamsville between noon and 5pm. The unofficial pickup will be at Yoga Truly in Grimsby between 10:30am and 11am. Thursday on Lowell Ave. 19 Lowell Ave, St. Catharines This pickup will be after 3pm. Come and visit. Please feel free to visit the farm (located just behind Lake Land Meats) and if you see someone in the garden go and make sure they aren't stealing your vegetables. Although if someone is going to steal vegetables then let them take them. The garden is not much yet but as the season gets going then you will see the beauty of your food! To those of you reading this I thank you! To those people who have bought a vegetable box I thank you! From the bottom of my heart I want to thank my family and friends for encouraging me and listening to me drone on and on about this! My crop plans are almost done and I'm itching for the smell of the ground in spring. I'm so excited to take this project on! If you are in the neighbourhood in the spring and summer and want to check out the garden please feel free to stop by Lake Land Meats. If I'm there, I'll give you a tour.
As I'm planning I'm imagining the soft warm breezes of spring and summer. The smell of the earth. I have a lot of plants to move from my city garden out to the farm. Trying to make a list of all of them but I'm sure I'll find some I haven't written down when I start digging in the spring. I think a lot of my city plants will love to spread their roots! Here's my list so far: strawberries raspberries blueberries gooseberries berry bushes are great under the giant butternut I have. I wish I could move that tree out to the country. Poor thing! mint lavendar rhubarb asparagus elderberry comfrey horseradish (though I know that it grows as a weed in the ground now so I may not need to bring it :) valerian meadowsweet sage rose If they knew they would be excited to move too. More space, more sun. Though I think they'll like it if I crowd them up at first. I think it would be scary for them if they were too far from their neighbour. In my tiny little yard they're crowded together like sardines. I'm planning on planting those in between my vegetable beds to increase diversity and promote pest control. I've also got my crop list together for the veg boxes. Do you want a list? Ok I'll do it next blog post. I don't want too many lists in one post. Anyway, thanks again for all the ways each of you have supported, encouraged, taught and inspired! |
JackieI'm a garden farmer, herbal enthusiast, motherwifesisterfriend and Archives
April 2022
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