Week 3 in photos

Dandelion seeds collected from the fields.

Lettuce and broccoli growing in the hoop house.

Miko chillin' in the sun.

Wonderful pollinators working hard on our chives.

WEEK 3: Home building, hot-weather cropping, and musical humour

So it's starting to feel an awful lot like home, we say. Construction is coming along, shingled roof on David's soon to be dwelling... he'll be out of the farm house and into the poshest spot on the intern block in no time (although the girls maintain that they would not give up their trailer/silo homes for the world). We are finally set up and cooking in the outdoor kitchen, and with the pool up now we're not so worried about the outdoor shower:)

Victoria Day: worked half a day and then took a bit of a holiday to Sydenham waterfalls, even bigger and more beautiful than Websters. We're on a mission! How many of Hamilton's many watery wonders can we visit in a season??

Hope you had a Happy Victoria Day!

The rest of the week was all about hot weather crops- prepping beds, mulching and mowing paths, and planting tomatoes, zucchini, beans and corn - while keeping on top of the weeds in the greens and the onions planted earlier this spring. Good news: the carrots and spinach (second planting) have decided to poke their scrawny little heads through the soil after all!

David (our official asparagus harvester) and the newly weeded asparagus patch. We'll see how long that lasts...

Andrea hoeing the weeds out of our very "nice" looking onion beds.

A farmer-intern meeting and a short field walk on Friday left us feeling fulfilled and rewarded after slugging through some rough work this week, and Meghan's birthday meant fajita deliciousness and a nice bonfire- setting the record for beers and bedtimes this season, by far (which really isn't saying a lot, trust us).

For focus day, Jocelyn and Meghan are doing their bread and dairy, and Andrea is in Dundas scribing (farm maps and records keep it together and make good resources for future farming), blogging, and getting together some ideas and information for the upcoming Locke Street Farmer's Market. It's a new project, run by the 5 participating farms and supported by Hamilton Eat Local, and we are gearing up for a grand success. David is off to Vermont to visit sweetheart and friends this weekend, and we missed him so much we reinvented O Canada a la australian at beer 2 of the bonfire:)

Jocelynn's working on a sweet farmer's tan (as we all are). She's determined to win the best tan line trophy at the end of the season.

Technical term of the week: ripping: tearing up that soil to form a bed before rototilling and planting (corn, in this case).

Lessons learned this week: Look forward to planting but keep an eye behind on the weeds- they can get away from you if you leave them till all your crops are in; interns love some fun in the sun but market tents keep interns alive at breaktime on record hot days; 6 rows in a bed is toooo many; interns need to ask questions and take notes, and generally contribute to making their education happen; market managers want bounty, market farmers want to sell out... what do you do when you play both roles at the same time?

Barefoot in the fields. Does is get any better?

As we reinvent the world without Monsanto, friendships, inside jokes, and a new music genre we call parody folk anthems flourish... resistance is fertile!

First 2 weeks photos

Trish, our ever so wonderful producer of milk.

Tomato plants getting ready for planting.

The manure pile before and...

after.

Lunch break with the team. Chris, our mentor and farmer, sitting at the back with a spoonful of food. Denise, his wife, beside him and Naomi, their daughter, at bottom left. A fantastic loving and generous family.

Freshly pricked lettuce, eager to grow.

Broccoli growing in our hoop house.

Keisha, Chris and Denise's third daughter practicing her riding in the back yard.

Double dug beds and freshly planted broccoli.

WEEK 2: Home and garden a-making we will go