Plowing!

Hey - my dad taught me to plow. That's kinda cool!!

Mike Schreiner Visits

So on Thursday, Mike Schreiner - leader of the Provincial Green Party - came to the farm on a day touring KW. We had about an hour to chat and wander around. Mike seems to have lots of experience and history supporting local food systems and small-scale agriculture. I hadn't realized he even sat on the FarmStart board (the new farm support organization I teach courses for in the winter)!

I was really struck by Mike's genuine personability and understanding of agriculture and food system sustainability issues, as well as his focus on the importance of strengthening local communities. Mike pointed out that food and farming is the 2nd largest employer in Ontario.

Some highlights from our conversation and the provincial Green Farming & Agriculture platform:

• prioritizing sustainable, local agriculture
• improving small farm profitability
• providing tax credits for Ontario businesses who purchase Ontario grown food products, and to farmers who make food donations in their communities
• developing policies to get more local, organic food into public institutions including schools 
• supporting the re-development of local processing facilities
• offering public funding to support and expand farmers markets, farmer co-ops & other local food distribution systems
• changing key regulations and zoning to better support new farmers and small-scale farming needs (this is a very rare focus for politicians - I've never known any others to have such a solid knowledge of these needs and barriers!

These policies are not just sweeping generalities - they have lots of good legs on them. To be honest, I was really impressed. We have a by-election coming up in Kitchener-Waterloo shortly and I imagine I'll be giving the Greens my vote. I really encourage you to check out their platforms. The Food Platform is here. Thanks to CSA member Jason Hammond for setting up this visit!

10th Annual Heirloom Seedling Sale May 19

Don't miss this!! Little City Farm and I have been doing this sale for 10 years now and it's gotten bigger by the year. Tonnes of heirloom tomatoes and lots of other vegetables, herbs and flowers. Not everything is heirloom, but a lot is.

This year we've got live music lined up, an organic cafe, cob oven demos, garden tours...

RAIN OR SHINE!!

Comin' Up

THE FIRST SEEDS ARE SPROUTING IN THE FIELD!

GO PEAS!!!

 

...happy dance...

Blow-out

Went up to Hanover area yesterday to pick up some cover crop seed and fetch a row cover/drip tape reel that my farmer-friend Jeff at Cedar Down Farm built for me. About 20 mins into my drive home I heard an exciting noise & glanced in the rear view mirror to see something black flying out behind the trailer.

Pulled over to discover an entirely blown-out tire, with the trailer riding on the rim. Fortunately I'd thrown in a spare! Unfortunately, I could not for the life of me get the jack to work.

Instead, I unbolted the blown tire, lifted the trailer & kicked the old tire off, then lifted the trailer again to kick the spare on. It was trickier than it may sound, I assure you. I tried shoving a bag of oat seed under the axel to lift it a bit, but that didn't really work. Nonetheless...Success!! Until I realized the spare was flat. Grr.

Fortunately, I'd thrown in the air compressor. So I unhitched the trailer & backed the van up so the cord could reach. Unfortunately, the tire was so flat it didn't want to take air. Here's my situation:

Blocking a lane of traffic did not seem to generate enough interest or curiousity for any of the 10 people who drove past to pull over and offer a hand.

Until a nice farmer on a tractor came by and helped me identify that I had a tubeless tire which, at this degree of flatness, was never going to take air from my compressor. There goes the nice farmer taking my tire back to his shop to blow it up for me:

20 mins later, Helpful Farmer Man was back & lifted the trailer for me while I popped the tire back on. Of course, I'd figured out how to work the jack in the meantime...but I didn't tell *him* that! ;)

Seeds in the Ground

It's been dry and warm, and a bit of rain is actually called for (finally!) so I decided to try seeding a few things. If it works, there might be peas at one of the first CSA pick-ups and carrots by early July!

Here are the supplies:

And here I am with the 1st of the carrots, beets, peas and favas seeded. Garlic is coming up nicely through the straw mulch too.

New Toys!!

Went to a farm auction last weekend and scored a few new toys!

Got this wee wagon (the sides are removable to make a flat bed when preferable):

And this S-tine cultivator!!

Tried the cultivators out yesterday and they are SWEET! The rake at the back does a really good job of breaking up clods of dirt so weeds dry out faster. It also leaves a really smooth finish on the field surface. I'm pretty excited...

In other news, here's where the garlic is at now: