Home safe and sound

I guess the satellite imaging was wrong. It got so much worse. It was a long, slow drive home but here I am enjoying supper.

Drive safe:)

Snow Flying

We are still on our way. There are a few flurries here and I am not sure about in the HRM but I am coming along anyway. The satellite image shows that it will soon pass by.

See you soon!

Holiday time

We've had a great holiday.
I was not quite relaxed until I got groceries on Christmas Eve. Once I had the groceries, (none that we really needed, but ones that helped me feel festive) I was okay. Later on that day, once I had the centre piece on the table complete with fruit and nuts, I was happy and relaxed. I wanted to rush in the office to type an entry on this blog, expressing how all my holiday worries subsided once I had the food in place. It was just a moment of realization for me (once again) how important food is to comfort, happiness, survival, etc. It was also a moment of realizing that for the holiday season all I really need or want is to have great food and family/friends to share it with.

We have been eating for days now:)

Just to top off my focus on food, on Boxing day while Josh was starting the fire I was reading the paper. Did any of you notice the little text box somewhere in the paper, halfway down the page, on the left side informing us that a major pineapple company in Hawaii closed it doors and fields? They can make more money selling for development. They can produce pineapples cheaper elsewhere. Over 200 people laid of work.

I just shake my head.

I have pictures to upload of our work day on Boxing day. It was so fun!! Outside cutting down branches so we can have the walking trail reestablished. It felt so great to be out in the fresh air working hard towards our walking trail goal. Soon you can come and enjoy the trail. A bit more brush to move and it will be for the most part ready to go.

Have a great day with great food and great people!

Snow + Driving

If you don't want to drive please either call 542 3277 or email or leave a comment on this blog. I will place your share in the cooler for you to get sometime tomorrow OR you can double up next week. Please just let me know what will work best for you.

The deliveries, Wolfville pickup and Kentville Pickup will all still happen.

You can come early to the house if you like.

Yeah for snow!!!! Not fun for driving but lots of fun for kids!

Merry Christmas!

Rain on December 23rd

It is a drizzly day out there. The view out the window doesn't look so great for venturing out. It's great for the water cycle so I'll be thankful for that.

Today I will work on filling out a nomination form for Outstanding Young Farmers (OYF) Program. Josh and I were nominated, we accepted the nomination and now there is a 6 part document to fill out. There will be an event in February where we will present ourselves, be judged for the recognition of the 2010 Atlantic OYF. It is a national program, so if you win regionally then you go on to compete nationally. Last year the Atlantic Young Farmers won nationally. It is great recognition to our agricultural industry in the Atlantic region.

After I work on that for a bit I will begin putting the shares together for this week. Justine is going to head out at 3PM today to do the deliveries so she can have her evening with family.

I hear there is going to be some snow today. We'll just wait and see what happens. But if you feel uncomfortable to drive, I can place you share in the cooler until tomorrow for you.

Enjoy the drizzly day.

Solstice Soup and Superheroes

EGGS ARE BACK

The eggs are back on again. They are a bit smaller and will be for a few more weeks.

I'll bring them with me today.

Winter Solstice Wonderful Winter

We had a fantastic time on Sunday. We got ourselves down to Swallow's Nest at 9:30AM and started the fires. There are three fires to light. The fire place, the stove and the cook stove.

People started coming in around 11:30AM. There was a wonderful mix of CSA members and some friends and family throughout the day.

The kids ran around all day and the the adults mingled or followed little ones around.

We are looking forward to fulfilling the potential in this new place and land.

Thanks for coming! Happy Winter!

Planning for the party

Today Lydia made two soups and I made a chili. Nicole dropped of the rolls. We have everything ready for a nice time together with friends, CSA members and family.

I know the forecast isn't so great. Obviously, if it doesn't seem safe, then we'll plan to see you another time. Otherwise, we will be at 1702 Church Street even if we get 25 cm of snow. We can walk:) Also, if you feel like parking at the farm house (1736 Church St), you can walk down to Swallows Nest. Josh will be looking after the parking end, but if you don't mind the stroll that might keep things less congested.

I hope you have a lovely evening!

I am feeling festive, finally. Merry Christmas!

Grain Burner

What is the grain burner?

We use rye as a rotation crop for the vegetables. We harvest the rye, store it and then use it to fuel the grain burner that heats the green house for the greens and in the late winter the transplants. We also use one in Canard for the squash storage building. It needs to be kept warm until the squash is gone in February or March. Then it gets moved over to the greenhouse in Canard to heat it for transplants.

We sometimes use corn. Last year I purchased some from a farmer friend because our rye wasn't the best. This year hopefully it will be drier and cleaner and therefore burn better.

That is it. I don't yet have a good number on the value of the bags of greens that you get this time of year - Josh and I haven't done the hard pencil pushing yet. It is hard because the greens take so long to grow so in one week in the share a small bag has taken 4-5 weeks of heat. The greens at this point are more like a gift of green goodness versus an income stream :) But green goodness is worth it.

December 16th

The snow is falling down out my window. I was 23 bunches short of kale so Lydia was out picking this morning before the colder weather kicked in.

Last night Frank was up all night vomiting. It was every hour at least the pour little guy. Of the three, he is our vomitter. I will have the entry way sterilized, but he is fine now so I don't think there is a risk of spread. If you are concerned let me know and we can arrange something else for today.

Josh has been out this morning pulling parsnips so we have some in the weeks ahead for the shares. The forecast is cold, cold, cold.

Reference for you

http://www.localcanadianfood.com/

the value of the blog?

Last night I attended a gathering to celebrate the holidays. I was talking with a farmer about getting his story out, having a way to let people into the daily life he leads to get a final product out the door. I was arguing that people are interested and wanting to connect with "the farm". He didn't believe me. I have received so much feedback from this blog, I had no idea. His questions and doubt leads me to wonder, how many people do check into it, and what are the reasons for checking in on it, and do people really want to know and connect with what is happening on the farm or are the readers of this blog extra special because you are members in the CSA therefore you have an invested interest? So many questions. What do you think? Do you think that people would appreciate if farmers did more blogging type things? For me I want to provide a way for those of you who read it to see a bit into our world on the farm. It is hard to portray everything but it is a start. Anyway, last night as I was trying to fall asleep, I kept thinking that I want to ask you for your thoughts on this one. Many farmers tell me that people don't care. I say that they are wrong, people do care. What do you think? Care/Not Care, Blog/Not blog? Just a bit of pre Christmas dialogue:)

Friday burrrrr

As I look out the window right now at 3PM on Friday December 11, 2009 - Josh, Kinsley and Bolow are fixing the doors on the large spinach tunnel. The tunnels can not handle the weight of the snow or the wind during our winter storms so they will be taken down soon.

Today is the beginning of my birthday weekend. I love when my birthday falls on a weekend day because I will make Friday, Saturday and Sunday a celebration. Today's celebration will take place with my mother and sisters tonight for a visit. Also this afternoon I am playing hookie and taking Izaak to pick out paint colours for his bedroom.

Have a wonderful weekend.

Thursday Overcast

One of the records that we are asked to consider keeping as an certified organic grower is weather records. I have not started recording the weather yet. There is no reason except I haven't sorted out how to create a routine that work for me around recording. I am really bad at following through with routine activities. We need to go out and get a new thermometer so we know the temperature. Frank did a number of the one we've had. He pulled the wires apart.
Today is overcast, cool and a slight breeze. It feels like another storm is coming and if the weather forecast is correct, I think we are getting one.

I am off to run errands for the day (banking, post office, etc.) and go over the books before they go to the accountant. Hopefully they will be ready to go soon.

Last night the grain burner stopped working. It always happens just as we are falling asleep. Josh is great and gets up to fix it. He always frees me from the late night broken burner duty. Last year in February and March we would take turns because it would need to be checked almost every night. We are planning to get the propane burner fixed so that if in the night the grain burner has problems at least there would be some time to fix the problem before the greenhouse freezes. With only plastic the temperature changes quite quickly.

Enjoy your day.

For your viewing pleasure

http://www.cbc.ca/landandsea/2009/11/turning-a-green-leaf.html

December 20th Winter Solstice Celebration

On December 20^th you are invited to celebrate Winter Solstice with us at the new farm house. We are hosting a full day open house (11AM- 6PM) at Swallows Nest (1702 Church Street). We will have mulled cider and a pot of soup with biscuits for everyone. We invite you to come whenever you wish. We will go out for walks, enjoy story telling by Nicole's mother, listen to music, and just have the opportunity to be together. Please let me know if you'll be coming and feel free to bring others along too.

the view...

out my window is looking chilly. Since being away I have a large stack of papers to sort out on my desk. Bills to pay, taxes to file, and notices from school to read. One of today's tasks.
I woke up this morning worried about frozen water. Even though I know better, I am still a reactive person. I don't get the preventative stuff done and then I wake up worrying about if the water hose is ruined because of freezing. Everything is fine. Maybe some day I will establish a routine that boosts preventative measures. Josh is usually always looking out for that stuff, but I still feel worried because I haven't participated and then don't know. The greenhouse was set for 7 degrees last night, that is as cold as the thermostat in the greenhouse will go. The plants in there are fine at 0 degrees.

Last night I handed the chair position of the federation of agriculture in Kings County. Now I am ready to focus in on and farm and the Ag Land Review Committee for the winter.

Enjoy your day!

Monday Dec 6th

Here it is 10:31PM. I am catching up on the emails, the dishes are done and now it is time to write tomorrows newsletter. Ahhh, I will do it in the AM. I wanted to give the final report on our conference.
On Saturday morning I heard a presentation from a woman who owns a grain farm outside of New York (with her husband). She gave a great presentation on how to prepare and use grains and also her experience with self sufficiency. The local grocery store in their town closed down. At that point she and her family took on the challenge to feed themselves. I am all excited now to get a grain mill for the kitchen counter. The description of the corn meal muffins made with freshly ground corn meal sounded wonderful. I will post her list of food items needed for a year for a family of 4.
Overall the conference was a very good experience. I am glad we went. As with all things there were some contradictions. The focus wass about eco agriculture, treating the soil with respect and be conscious of our impact. But then our meals were offered in mountains of plastic (hotel service). And, in all of the places in the USA we were at - the airports there was no recycling or compost. Hard to really understand that things are so different just a few hours away. At our local organic conference, ACORN, there is great effort taken to ensure that the food is organic and that there is minimal waste. This conference was offered without meals, so it was up to us. It is hard to be thinking about great food - the production of it and then not have access to eating it. Anyway - all in all it was nice. Josh and I walked along the Mississippi river on Saturday afternoon. It looks like it is a lovely place in the summer. Many of the river boats were still in the water.

Night for now......

Sitting in a room

I am currently sitting in a room with about 300 people. We are listening to a presentation on the science of the gut, "The primary importance of the gut in all healing". We just finished watching the noontime film, Dirt. It you haven't seen it, I highly recommend it. I am actually thinking that it would be great to get the film into our communities, maybe via the schools as a family film night. We have watched, at noon, Fresh, Food Inc and Dirt. Throughout and at the end of these films I have felt tearful. The strong emotions of feeling helpless and empowered all at the same time.
Obviously I am not learning much right now as I am typing. I will sign off now to take in some of this science. It think that overall the point is, eat probiotics, raw milk and of course a great diet filled with fresh veggies, whole grains....but I will keep you posted.

Thinking of you all!
P

Last night Message - Raw Milk Raw Food

Last night was a reminder and a call to move forward. That we as farmers are societies health care. That we must continue to grow healthy nutritious food and we must work hard and differently in the marketplace to connect with consumers building relationships between ourselves & consumers that is based on health for the consumers and health for the farmers. He says that we, Farmers are the only ones that can do anything about. Go out there and provide people with excellent nutritious food, help them learn how to eat it, and this will keep them out of the depths of the health care system.



He spoke about how the FAA has a mandate to prevent disasters in the aviation world. They have multiple check points, multiple tests, years and years of preventative action before people are able to board an aircraft. And when there is an accident, the FAA researches until they find the error and work to correct it to further prevent such an incident from occurring again. He compared this degree of prevention to that of the FDA. That the FDA which operates on a reactive basis. Providing lists of drugs to cover-up, or fix a problem with the human body. There is no mention or recognition that by eating healthy raw foods we could prevent most of the health aliments that occur in our society.



Of course there was much more, but basically he called on us to not get discouraged, that this is a grass roots movement that we as farmers must carry out. We must do our work to correct the health of our nation.

Day one - Acres Conference

The first part of the day was organized for visiting the trade show. It is quite a large trade show with lots of booths promoting kelp products. There is also a large book sale available with a lot of the ACRES recognized books. We watched the film Fresh. It is a film with a message about choosing fresh food. Michael Pollen was in the film along with the farmer he follows in his book, Omnivores Dilemma, Mr. Nayor. It was worth watching.

We both took in 30 minutes of "Pigs on Pasture" with Dr. W. Winter. He raises Berkshire pigs on pasture. He talked about a lot of things but kept coming back to his pigs and the methods he uses to raise them.

Josh went to "Back to the Key Principles when the Eco Input isn't enough" by Gary Zimmer. Josh took in that he needs to make sure his Magnesium and Boron are plentiful as they are important minerals for plant health.

I tried to participate in a session on Fertilizer needs and costs, but I couldn't stick with so I went to the trade show and talked to the people at the biodynamics booth and then joined back up with Josh for the "Advanced Soil Ecology and the Soil Food Web" session.

Now we are on our way out for dinner and then back for the evening lecture on "Taking Back the American Food Chain".

This one is neat.

http://kalman.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/11/26/back-to-the-land/?th&emc=th

Cabbage and Turnip Harvest

On Thursday the last of the cabbage and brussels spouts were harvested and put into storage. We got 8 bins of cabbage and 3 bins of brussels sprout stalks. We also brought in 4 bins of turnips. The turnips are really huge. We will put one in the pre Christmas share in the event that you celebrate Christmas and in the event that you cook a meal with loads of veggies.

Live at 5

it is on tonight.

Nov 25th

It has been awhile since I checked in here. While at Windhorse Farm during the Art of Hosting training we did a lot of check in's. We'd form a circle and each take a turn "checking in". This is something that I will use here at home now and in my work too. It is so important for us to each take a turn speaking and have the opportunity if we wish to share ideas or thoughts or feelings. It was a great learning last week of taking the time to listen.

Today is an overcast day. Josh and I are both waiting right now for the Live At Five crew to show up as they have asked us to be a part of a feature on eating throughout the winter. I will let you know when it is suppose to be on. I am a bit nervous since I can not remember all of the variety names of the crops we grew.

These days we are cleaning up, getting our books finalized, feeding the chickens, watering the greenhouse and making lists of all the things there are to do. The list is long. I have also been spending time at the computer catching up on volunteer activies, getting things ready for 2010 season and planning in a calm manner for each weeks CSA.

Josh and I do spend a bit of energy calculating how long the storage crops will last. Since it is our first year we were uncertain if we planted enough. It is so hard to learn what the right about is. If we grow to much and it has to be composted that is too bad, but if we don't grow enough for everyone who wants it and has paid for it, that is no good either. I trust that with time and experience we will find the balance.

The Story of Food

The Story Of Food from USC Canada on Vimeo.

Moving the food movement forward

Today is the second day of my time at Windhorse Farm. There are 35 people here all with the focus of moving the food movement forward. Yesterday we participated in and learned various techniques for working with groups to create energy, excitement and learning. This place is so beautiful and the perfect place for us to come together to focus on food and personal growth. If you would like to follow along with the work here you can check out the http://nsfood.ning.com site for all of the harvest word we are doing.

I am thinking of all of you while I am here.

A warm Sunday in November

Can you believe the weather? Today was a slow day, a great day of rest. We worked away at various activities. Josh and the kids helped Lydia move wood to the new Swallow's Nest home that she is living in. I did loads of laundry and washed the dishes a few times. Izaak, Andrew (my father) and I chased the chickens into their coup and I sat in the hammock for a few minutes, in ah of the fact that it is mid November and it is warm.

Tonight we shared a wonderful meal with my grandparents, Avard and Sandy and cousin Katharine. I contributed a large apple crisp for dessert - so easy and a hit.

Enjoy your week!

final garlic planting

I am so excited. Josh and I just finished planting 3 rows 200 feet long of bulbils, the really small ones. Last week or the week before the guys planted rows of the larger bulbis, but these ones are so tiny. The potential is really fun and exciting. I still have more left over. And I planted them really heavy so we will need to thin them out in the spring. If things work out, one day there will be a lot of garlic.

Publish Post

planning for 2010

For the past number of weeks I have been mulling around the thoughts of how to plan for next year in terms of what will we do differently, what will be the same, do we want to expand our membership or not, etc. Today I am drafting up my ideas for next year and will start to work it down to a plan and then send it off to the designer to add into the materials for a 2010 registration form.

It is hard to believe that a year has past since we first started thinking about offering a CSA. It really was a year ago a couple of weeks ago that I travelled to the CSA conference in Orilla, ON. And now look, we are 34 weeks into our first year of CSA. It is great and it is really fun to think about changes for next year. I am just trying to sort out pickup locations. This is so hard to do because I am not on the receiving end. It is hard to sort out what is the best times, where is the most central and easy to access locations. Honestly, if you have thoughts and feedback please send it along. I am going to draft a quick survey to ask a few questions to help me out.

We have learned so much so far this year - it will be good to incorporate all the learning into next year.

Enjoy the sun!

Wonderful Birthday Weekend

This weekend was Lily's birthday weekend - she turned 4 years old on Sunday. We had two lovely parties on Sunday - one with young friends and family (aunts, grandparents, etc) and one with my grandparents, Lily's great grandparents. We had the most amazing cake that Katharine (cousin) made. A three layer, cream cheese icing, pink cake with purple icing and pink sprinkles. We needed to serve it on dinner plates the slices were so tall. It was very fun and great to celebrate with grammer and grampie.

Enjoy your week - we started ours off with lots of sugar and fun......

Oh - and in the greenhouse the mizuna is about 2 inches tall. The peas are sprouting and the other greens are coming along too. The farm was truly beautiful this weekend - the sun felt great and the air was fresh and warm.

Link to farmers

Check it out Farmers , a link my cousin sent to me.

Garlic update

Yesterday the final plantings of garlic took place. We have 15 rows of 700 ft of garlic planted 6 inches apart. If all goes well you will all get a good bunch of garlic next year. The other exciting event yesterday was planing the bulbils. We harvested quite a lot of mature scapes - they had formed bulbils (seeds). From our research, we think it will take 3 - 4 years until the bulbils will yield a mature and large garlic bulb - but we are willing to try. Kingsley and Boolow planted 10 rows about 25 ft long they are planted about 4 inches apart. They are planted at the end of the greenhouse so they can easily be watered on a regular basis. This will be a long term experiment and hopefully it will work - if it does - it will be a great increase in garlic volume with very little cash output. Yippy!!

Happy Trick or Treating everyone!

Wednesday Oct 28

I am in the office working on a presentation for Friday. I can hear the tractor outside and smell the tomatoes cooking downstairs. Valarie did a large batch of pickles yesterday so the whole house smelled of sweet sugar and vinegar. She will be doing a second batch today. Her goal is 100 for the shares one week - green tomatoes chow.

Josh and crew are planting the rest of the garlic today over on the tranistion land in Canard. The land here is too wet. Below is a picture of the garlic curing in the barn in Canard. It looks so cool this way. We will plant 6 times as much as we did last year - so next year you will get a good lot of garlic if all goes well - and a good lot of scapes too:) Have a good day!





Nicole taking out the compost ready tomatoes from the kitchen.

Kingsley and Bolo helping to bunch green onions.

Saturday morning

Good Morning - it is a chilly Saturday morning. I heard on CBC bright and early this morning a call for people to call in and tell their stories of making their way to the farmers market. I was still snuggled in bed and felt a strong sense of admiration for all the farmers and the people who were up and at it today making the local food movement happen this Saturday morning.

Today the celeriac will be harvested and put into storage for the cold winter months. We will have to pull out the soup recipes for this winter and I am sure by the end of it we will be expert stew makers:)

I am freezing egg plant this morning and canning ketchup. I hope I get it done before Lily's gymnastics - otherwise the day will be away from me and I won't get back to it again until tonight.

Enjoy your day!

garlic

It might be late - but yesterday and today we are planting garlic - finally!!!
It is mighty cold but in the ground

Bumper sticker

Please email me if you would like one. Send address to mail it to.

Land issues.....

My most recent unloading in case you are interested:)

Letter to the Editor:
In the past few weeks I've been reading the responses to the land challenges we face in Kings County. I feel it is very important for readers of this paper to understand that there are two separate issues here.

One issue is that the future of farms and farmers given the current climate (ie: low returns to the farm and a cheap food policy in Canada) is looking bleak. This situation is threatening our ability as farmers to meet our cost of production. It has happened as Mr. Caldwell referred to on October 15th issue of the Register with peas and beans, with pork and it isn't over unless something drastic occurs to shake up policy makers into implementing a way for farmers to recieve a fair share of the food dollar. The second issue, and the one that some citizens have organized themselves around is all about the agricultural land base – the resource. It is about having a resource base to grow crops on in the future.

There have been comments made on various occasions about the amount of land that is not being cropped and that until we start seeing these lands in production we ott to let farmers do what they want. I haven't seen any population models recently, but I assume that we can expect to see the popluation of this province increase in the next 100-200 years. With climate change, rising sea levels, and increasing costs for fuel we will be faced with a need to farm differently. Today we may see and hear about a decline in acres in production, but to allow our economic trends of today determine whether we have a food cropping land base for the future generations seems extremely short sighted and lacks vision.

How much land in Nova Scotia, in Atlantic Canada, in Canada, are we willing to lose before we decide we've lost enough? I do not think the answer to a farmers struggles today is to sell for development or rezone for development what needs to be reserved for food production in the future.

Oct 16th

We made it without the freeze - with the warm weather in the forecast maybe we will still be picking those tomatoes next week :)

Have a great weekend - I plan on canning whole tomatoes - we have a basement full of them. Yippy!

Also on Sunday the NS Food Summit is launching.

Have a great one!

Trish

Giving it up for Nature:)

Josh is reading to the kids and afterwards we are heading out to bring in the last of the tomatoes that were picked today. They are calling for -3 tonight which means the end of the tomatoes in the tunnels, the end of many things. It is kindof a stressful feeling - both Josh and I are walking around combing our hands through our hair today - and slowly exhaling. I often wonder if we'll get use to it, or if for the rest of our lives of farming we will feel a bit of anagnst at this juncture.
Tis the time for cold breezes and flurries - I was just hoping they'd come a few weeks later. Enjoy the night.

Another neat article.

About food and schools.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/30/dining/30school.html?_r=2&8dpc

Slow Food Film Festival

In the event that you are interested - here is the link.

http://www.slowmotionfilmfest.ca/

Our new adventure of video

Food, Books, and Pictures

The good people of St. James Anglican Church, Kentville, have published a cookbook featuring a whole range of heritage recipes, personal favourites, and local lore. The cookbook launch is this Friday, 6pm at St. James (Main & Prospect, Kentville). $5 at the door for samples of more than 30 recipes, $15 for the cookbook. All cookbook illustrations by Taproot Farms' Nicole Uzans!

October open house

Well, we had a great family day on Sunday. No CSA members showed up, but that wasn't surprising considering the rain. We had a great picnic with the kids in the greenhouse. Izaak decorated all of the tables. At the last minute we called my mother over to share a massive lunch with us. It was kind of funny really. Anyway - lucky that we made a big batch of easy to freeze tomato soup.

This week we are having turnip greens in the share. Calvin tells me that it is the best thing we've grown all year. Delicious turnip greens.

Lydia is planning for a couple weeks away to her home in Northern Ontario. Calvin and Gerald are getting ready to head home for the winter. And this week Izaak has hockey camp before his main season starts next week. I have started a new book. Eat, Pray, Love. I have managed to get to page 20 in the past week. I keep telling myself that I will read books again :)

We are well and happy and excited to hear about how you cook your pie pumpkin this week.

Take Care!

Changes on the farm

Here it is September 28th and change is in the air.

Yesterday Josh and I and the kids along with Lydia moved her cow and 8 chickens to the farm. It was a rather exciting event. The cow spent the night reminding us that she was here. Each time I smiled. She is a Jersey cow named Isabelle.

Today Lydia is watching the children while I catch up on the office work that gets so quickly piled up. I had a meeting for a bit the morning. When I arrived home Lydia had her first batch of butter made. She milks the cow each day, separates the cream, makes butter, the whole thing.

So for lunch I had a piece of brown bread that my cousin Katharine and my Grandmother made with homemade fresh butter.

I've been living local - but not this degree of local - it has been a very cool day.

Celebrating Communities

Today and yesterday I have had the privilege of participating in the celebrating communities conference in Truro. I was speaking with one participant this morning about the three day long conference (I wasn't here for Wednesday, share day:)). She was commenting about how the focus of this conference was very much about food. There was discssion around the capacity in communities to bring more awareness, learning/education and connectedness to each other and our culture through food and food production.

So often these days regardless of where I am, the topic is focused on food and food production. Not very often are these discussions happening with farmers in the room. This leads me to wonder if farmers realize how many people are focusing in on them and more importantly on the job they do. I am not suggesting that farmers need to be a part of all these events, they don't - but I do hope that farmers know that there are many people in many places and in many forums, talking about food security in this province.

Anyway - this posting really is me just needing to say how much I realize that the people living in this province are supportive and with more outreach, education and partnership - things will continue to improve.

I just want to say thank you for being a part of our CSA community. This community has certainly changed me. I have always believed in people, but now since the CSA started, I am overwhelmed by the sense of community I feel with all of you. Great things are happening! Thanks so much to each of you!

Canning Session #2

Today five of us gathered together for the 2nd and final canning workshop this year. We decided to make tomato sauce. The recipe yielded fewer pints than the salsa recipe - everyone went home with 6 jars of sauce. Thanks for coming. I really enjoy meeting you and learning more about everyones lives during these sessions. We will plan more for next year.

passion tea

I just got back from two days at the Nova Scotia Federation of Agriculture Council of Leaders meetings. I am currently the president of the Kings County Federation of Agriculture. All of the county presidents or representatives along with the commodity board representatives sit around the table to work towards moving the agricultural industry forward. I am usually quite frustrated by the time I get home because the challenges we have right now in this industry are so great. I do a lot of deep breathing, stretching and work hard to remain calm. This time I drank a lot of passion tea.

This was also the first time I think in the 26 weeks of our CSA together that I haven't been around on share day. That was a bit hard too.

Anyway - most of you who are reading this blog are in the grouping of people who care about what is happening with your food and I assume to some extent you are informed and concerned about the food system in general. Assuming where you are coming from, I feel rather safe in unloading a few things.

First off, I am not sure if you all know this or not, but I grew up on a farm. We have a medium sized farm here in Kings County - Noggins Corner Farm. Josh and I first purchased a farm 5 years ago that Josh farms in conjunction with the family farm. We are still very connected. But the Organic farm has been my focus and I am hoping to move more of our activity in this direction. Anyway - the reason I say this it that I feel like I can appreciate the large scale farmer issues along side the small scale farmer issues and have the benefit of really feeling the effects of both. (Benefit some years, not so much benefit others)

No matter which scale of farming we are talking things are tight. And I know that things are tight with many people in Nova Scotia. Right now is a very tight time.

First off - I think you should know that unless you have a free range connection or a small scale producer connection for turkey this year, you will NOT be able to find a Nova Scotia turkey anywhere for Christmas (maybe even Thanksgiving). AND most certainly nothing fresh. To my knowledge, and I have been known to be wrong, there are no more turkeys entering into turkey barns in this province unless there is an agreement with a processor outside the province. This is really serious.
Serious - very few pork farms remaining in this province. Beef farmers are continuously working to find ways to keep afloat. Vegetable farmers are dumping into their fields perfectly good produce. And we are not talking a few dozen like we harvest for the CSA, we are talking transport truck loads that go into our local grocery stores, if I can even call them local. Not to mention that when strawberry time was here the price for berries was good for a week but then they put some cheap imports on special and drove the price down.

You are all doing your part - you are making a serious effort to support yourselves in securing food that you know where it comes from and you are supporting our ability to carry on farming activity. Honestly, if it wasn't for this CSA we would not be able to get a return from the wholesale market that would cover our mortgage payments.

Here we are, a civilized nation and we have farms going out of business at an alarming rate. We have retailers that are having price wars, we have people who are starving, we have a consumer base that is wanting everything very cheap, including food, and we have a group of farmers, me included that is trying to sort out what to do and how to stay afloat throughout all this.

Somehow we need to get more people engaged in what they are eating. We need to have people demand local only at their grocery store. And, as all of you who are participating in the CSA know, that will require people to maybe sacrifice a few things. Like ease and variety. The other major issue is that we aren't asking people to pay more at the store for their products, we are asking that a more fair share of the amount you do pay gets back to the farm gate. (I should becareful when I say we - I am speaking only for myself here, making a few assumptions)

The Ecology Action Centre has been doing great work, they usually do :), on food miles. And on our consumption of food. Can you even believe that their stats show that we, Nova Scotians, of the food we eat, only 7.2% comes from this province. This is entirely unacceptable in terms of any sort of food security.

Here is where I ask you to help. Please - tell me, as a farmer, what should I do to bring change to this situation. What will people respond to? I read today in the paper that the farmers in Belgium are dumping millions of litres of milk. What do we need to do? Demonstrate? On the way home I was thinking as I stopped at the lights heading to the 102 near the Halifax shopping centre, what if people had signs walking that strip of grass, asking people where their supper tonight is coming from, would it make anyone think or do anything different.

I was talking with a friend about the turkey situation. With very rough calculating, if every household in this province purchased three turkeys in one year at a fair price to the farmers (which would be much less than the price in the grocery store these days) then the current production could carry on. The turkey situation is complicated, but it still comes down to retailers and consumers. Retailers have all the power these days because we as consumers are not taking the risks to make change.

So - there we have it. Add in an hour or two about biosolids and the environment and my two days at meetings are complete.

Sign off for tonight.

September Member Survey

Taproot Farm Survey Link

Please take a minute to complete the survey - it will help us get a sense of how things are going.

Thanks so much!

Patricia

September Member Survey

Taproot Farm Survey Link

Please take a minute to complete the survey - it will help us get a sense of how things are going.

Thanks so much!

Patricia

September 11

How can it be? I am sorry it has taken me so long to give you an update.

Today is Friday. It is quiet around the farm. Josh and I were both up last night at 4 AM wondering about frost. I was very supportive of him getting up and heading out to cover up and to spray water on the crops to prevent frost damage. We really don't want to loose the tomatoes and peppers that are planted outside - not yet anyway.

Nicole is working in the kitchen this afternoon making relish. We have a bunch of oversized cucumbers that we didn't want to loose to the compost so it seemed logical to make relish. She will get close to 60 jars done this afternoon. Something to look forward to in the winter.

The pac choi isn't injured from cold and is doing quite well in these cooler conditions.

I hope you have a great day!

Saturday September 5th

Today Calvin is planting spinach for the winter shares. He harvested some melons today. We are thinking that this week we will have melons ready. Yippy!
This picture was taken last week. Gerald is in front with the red hat and Calvin bringing up the rear.



Last night Josh and I had a few friends over for a full moon bonfire in the field. It was very nice. I was thinking I should have taken pictures, but I didn't. Earlier in the evening Izaak, Lily and Frank were helping to set up chairs. They were having fun in the alfalfa field and they looked so cute with the alfalfa up to their waists. Throughout the evening there were lots of kids running around, roasting marshmallows and just having fun. It is the kind of night that keeps me going for a long time.

Report on Canning session

We had 4 participants in the first ever Taproot canning session. We made a triple batch of salsa.
We used the recipe from the Simply in Season cookbook - I've used it before and liked it. Everything seemed to go very smoothly. I learned a bunch - timing and how to be organized etc. It takes 5 hours to do the whole thing but the woman were here for 4 hours. They went home with out the salsa because it was going to take an additional hour to process all the jars. Next time I might try to have a few canners on the go instead of just one. We did three cases of salsa in total. I will deliver a case to each participant on Tuesday - everyone came in from the city.


Peeling tomatoes - this takes time. We did 42 cups of diced tomatoes.


Chopping onions, garlic, peppers, and tomatoes.
The crew and the tomatoes. We had two great young helpers. After a while they joined in with our kids and went for a walk to the cheese house for a snack.

Here are the tomatoes we used. I had them harvested for the Incredible picnic. We harvested
the rest of the veggies from the garden.

The next canning day is set for Sept. 19th - if you are interested please let me know. We can decide closer to the date what we wish to can. Could be salsa, could be pickles, could be pasta sauce or it could be apple sauce. There are loads of options. We also talked about the price. The people who participated this time felt that between $25 and $30 was reasonable. We provided the jars, the produce, the space, the time and the lunch - the lunch was simple - sliced cheese, tomatoes, almonds, bread, etc.

Thanks for coming - it was fun!

Sunday night report

We got some welcomed rain, some wind, some blown over flowers, but no disasters.

Thankfully all of the tunnels are fine, the tomatoes inside them are fine, and we are relaxing tonight. (I haven't checked the outside peppers - I was worried about them.

There is some sweet corn that is flattened but hopefully the roots are still in tact and it can be harvested. It is a more painful harvest since you need to bend over. Below are some picture from the last few days.


Here where the onions were planted. They are all in the greenhouse now - getting ready for storage.

Here is Josh - returning from a farm check during the rain and wind on Sunday.
Franks was out with Josh to check on things during the "tropical storm" on Sunday late morning. He was really mad when I took is soaked suit and clothes off.

Calvin just finished harvesting onions and moving them into the greenhouse to cure.

Here is Nicole on Thursday cleaning up some onions for the road side stand.

Hurricane Bill

We have decided to take down two tunnels, tighten the ropes on the three tunnels covering all of the tomatoes and hope for the best. It has definitely been a very stressful few days of trying to decide what to do - of course two days ago the forecast was more intense than it was last night. The tunnels are able to sustain winds up to 90km/hr. In the past we have lost a tunnel from wind and we don't really want to push it. He has taken the plastic off of two in Canard. The challenge is that all of the tomatoes will be really damaged by the wind if we take them down.

Anyway - it is Sunday morning and we are just going to ride out the day. If the winds get too high Josh's plan of attack is to cut the ropes and then we can save the structure.

Take Care!

Freezer troubles

Yesterday the new freezer decided that it didn;t like all the heat. We had all the zucchini, loads of beans, pesto and cauliflower that at 10 PM were exposed to + 5 degrees. We were not happy. That was down from +12 a couple hours earlier. Anyway - we moved things to the almost full deep freeze upstairs and let the new freezer thaw.
Things seem to be ok now at -11.

Working in the Kitchen

Well we have the kitchen in working order.
Today Valarie (mom in law) and Kayla (next door neighbour + farm helper) and I froze shredded zucchini - we have missed some during picking and now they are massive - the best for baking. So in the winter for those of you who are 52 weeker's we will have zucchini. Also - Kayla spent hours today trimming beans. Later on tonight I will steam and freeze them.

Yippee - our family kitchen is free.

Enjoy the night.

August 10/11 newsletter

Hello All - I have had some comments, positive and not so positive about the newsletter this week, or more to the point the info in the newsletter.

FYI - by no means were my comments to be of concern to anyone in terms of security. It was simply for awareness and connectedness to what is happening on the farm.

I have now realized that not everyone is interested in all the details of what is happening and from now on I will offer info to those who request it.

So very sorry for any discomfort I may have caused you.

Things are great - the sun is shining, people are smiling, Calvin is back from his trip home to Newfoundland and the freezer is running in the kitchen AND the stove is hooked up. This means we will be freezing green and yellow beans today for the winter baskets.

Have a lovely week.

Visitors to Taproot

On Friday for about an hour I had the pleasure of meeting with a group of researchers from Ethiopia. We toured the farm and talked about various crops including garlic. The garlic that is left in the field will be forming bulbils that we will harvest, dry and plant in the fall. This will increase our garlic harvest in a few years and does not cost as much as purchasing mature bulbs from the seed or bulb company. We will see how it works.

Canning Days

Just wanting to touch base around the canning days.
August 29th and September 19th.

Please email to sign up for one of those days. If you have already indicated you are interested, please do so again just incase.

Also - Kids are welcome. We can accomdate help from little hands.

Valley Cloth Diaper

Valley Cloth diaper is a family owned small business specializing in wonderful diapers and other great items to care for your little ones.

Angela's business in just down the street from Taproot Farms and as a way to reach out she has provided us with 10 coupons to offer out to any of you.

I would be happy to provide you with a coupon if you are at all interested.

First email first serve:)

Organic Inspection

Wow - what an afternoon. The organic inspector was here today. It is so much work to do everything right. It is also a lot of work to not beat yourself up when you don't have it all right. I just want to have all the correct systems in place for tracking and recording and have it all come together.

During the inspection the inspector asks me to trace the carrots that were in your share last week. I have all the info of when they were picked, who planted them, when they were planted, but I don't know which variety they are out of the 4 we purchased. That is not cool. I need to know the seed. Of course it would happen with the one item that I knew I didn't know. I guess that is why we have these processes. We need to keep improving.

Have a good Monday.

Rain Rain Go Away

I try hard to not complain about the weather. I am usually happy with a bit of this and a bit of that. Even in winter I enjoy the days of endless snow storms. However - now that the soil is saturated with water, and now that it is causing us to lose crops and making it impossible to weed - now I am concerned. Below is what it should look like. This was taken this morning. It is right beside the picture below it that has been wet for weeks and we have not been able to access it. Kayla was weeding close to here one day and had to be pulled out because she was so far stuck in the mucky soil.



Above are rows of head lettuce. Some are beginning to bolt - but we haven't been able to work in here.

I thought you might find this compost tea brewer interesting. This is on the farm in Canard. Josh uses a lot of compost teas to help build the soil and produce healthy plants.


Here is Josh, yesterday watering the last planting of zucchini.

I couldn't resist adding this one. This is Frank. He is playing hide and seek with me at the table.

And of course - one evening meal of Taproot goodies.

Enjoy the week. The crew is here this morning and the harvest for Tuesday has started. Everyone is wearing rain gear :)

Monday July 27 - real summer

What a wonderfully hot day. Nicole and Lydia are here finishing off the beans. We had the "girl power" crew at it today. Sarah, Leah, Kayla, Lydia, Nicole and harvested a pile of beans. Purple, Green and Yellow. The yellow beans are not quite ready yet. The farm is beginning to feel the real weed pressure now. With all of the rain and the difficulty in cultivating with wet soil the weeds are catching up.

Gerald and Louise are just heading off for their break. Louise has been bunching radish and Gerald harvesting.
Today we have the plumber here to get the sink hooked up in the new kitchen. I can not wait to be down there cooking, canning, freezing away food for the winter. It will be so nice to get it out of my own kitchen.....last week we stewed 3 trays of sweet cherries that had split from the rain. I made 50 bottles of sweet cherry conserve and had double that left to do frozen in the freezer.

Other news - there is a lot happening here but no much to report on. The crops are growing well. The weather is good today and now I must focus and get a newsletter done for tomorrow.

Enjoy the day!

What a day......

Everything seemed to be getting done and everything was calm, until it started to get late and the onions weren't picked yet and the swiss chard was still coming in from the field. That was all doable, but then we ran out of boxes and the van broke (power steering problem), so we needed to sort out how to get the shares to the city. On top of all that we didn't have enough room in the boxes for both heads of lettuce (so much lettuce is ready that I wanted you to all share in the bounty of lettuce). Anyway - I am sure that some of you might be thankful for no extra lettuce.

With such a great crew: Louise, Lydia, Leah, Nicole, Nickle, Kayla, Sarah, Valarie, Jillian, Chris, Gerald and Josh - it all got done. Thanks to Nicole for taking a trip to the city. And so sorry to one new shareholder who didn't get a box because I didn't have my list correct. All in all, looking back today was a challenging one. What I do love about today is that such a wonderful crew of people were helping out, working together to provide the food. That feels just great!

Meal Planning for this week

As we eagerly walk through the gardens it is hard to decide what to put in the basket this week. There are some things that just can't wait another minute- like the head lettuces. And other things like the beets that can wait.

This posting is meant to prepare you for the large influx of greens. My hope is that you might want to take on the Taproot Farms salad challenge - two large salads per day - until you are clean out of greens.

See you soon!

Sunday July 12

Izaak used the camera this morning to take some photos of what is happening on the farm.


Josh watering.
The lavender that I harvested this morning
The Basil tunnel.
The honey bee in the lavender - I just love this lavender.
Izaak chilling in the hammock.
A lady bug thankfully feeding on the aphids. (all the black is aphids)
Our Cauliflower that we messed up on this year. It is about the size of the palm of my hand. Too bad. :( I understand that cauliflower is a heavy feeder and needs nitrogen - obviously it didn't get enough.
A bumble bee.

We had a great day together today - this evening we went for a walk and Izaak and I tried catching frogs in the pond. No catches - but great attempts.

What I Did When I Got Home

Considered the mountain of green stuff freshly deposited on the kitchen counter.
Poured a glass of red wine.
Chopped a handful of scapes and a couple of scallions, tossed them in a hot pot with olive oil and some hot pepper flakes.
Added a can of chopped tomatoes and half a can of water.
Added a swift pour of orzo (though any pasta would have done).
Added a heap of chopped kale when the pasta was nearly done.
Added a few chopped black olives.
Turned off the heat, added the whole bunch of parsley, chopped.
Sat down to soup in July, that seeming to suit these cool evening temperatures.
Field to table tastes so good.

July 5th Open House

On Sunday we had a nice crowd of picnickers. It turned out the be a wonderful day for strolling around the farm. In the picture below in the centre are my grandparents, Avard and Sandy Bishop. Being 80 doesn't slow them down. At the "home farm", Noggins Corner Farm, our Bishop family has been farming on the same land since 1760. My grandfather has lived their his entire life. It is a really neat feeling to have such a long history in one location. It is also really special to be creating a new "home farm" - Taproot. Maybe one of our great grand children will be saying the same sort of thing in 80 years.

The tunnel to the right is full of romaine lettuce and butter head lettuce.
The greenhouse in the back is where all the transplants are started. And the house in the back - the basement is the work space along with our office on the main floor that you can't see from this picture.

The kids loved the swing. At one point all the swings were going and I was a bit concerned about the top bar - it was put to the child test.

Nicole helped prepare and serve the yummy strawberry shortcake.

Thanks for coming!