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.