This is the tenth week of harvest which means that we are just over half way through this year's CSA. Still slim pickings this week but the zucchini is flowering like crazy and I've seen the bees doing their best to pollinate them. The boxes will hopefully be jam packed soon! The beans and tomatoes are producing more every week. I have more lettuce, radish, carrots, beets, broccoli, cauliflower and turnips planted and they are growing as fast as they can. I wonder what kind of music they like. Maybe they would move a little faster with a good beat going. Though we haven't been as successful as I wanted to be I am still quite proud of the work that we've done and the garden that we have created. Permaculture I recently attended the third weekend of a Permaculture Design Course that I'm taking. It was so hard to leave and spend 3 days away from the farm and my family. Usually when I do workshops away from home I'm quite relieved to get away for a little while. Not this weekend. I love being at the farm and it is a lot of work and takes up a lot of my time so I don't get to spend as much time as I'd like with my sons and husband. I thought the course would be a good idea to help me through my first year. In retrospect, not such a good idea. The appeal for this weekend was a field trip to another CSA farm. It was interesting and I took loads of pictures. They are a whole lot bigger than I ever want to be but it was interesting. They use draft horses to cultivate their fields and they are experimenting with some no-till fields. I can't wait to find out how that goes. One of the great things about this course is that it's helping me to get a better picture of what I'd like to plant. Permaculture is a wholistic approach to designing gardens, communities and homesteads. The approach takes into account the human's needs while also making sure that it's ecologically sustainable, efficient and diverse. I've been studying it for a few years now but this course is really giving me some key points to focus on when I'm designing my market garden as well as my home garden. Looks like we need to start again... So my dad and I found out last week that we won't be able to continue our project at our current location next year. The reasons are various and unfortunate. Maybe I'll tell you about it sometime. Right now I'm very disappointed but I'm staying optimistic and looking for somewhere else to establish ourselves. We've learned so much this year and though it will be hard to start again we agree that it won't be from scratch because of all the knowledge we've gained in our first year. Stay tuned as we continue this adventure. Thanks so much for your support! Jackie and Jake Ps. If you know of anyone with 1/2 acre or more of land that they would be willing to rent out for money or a land tax break. We will have a farm business number next year which will allow the land owner to claim farm status.
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JackieI'm a garden farmer, herbal enthusiast, motherwifesisterfriend and Archives
April 2022
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