Fertile Resistance

2010-11-22T07:56:00.000-08:00

rural ontario

2010-10-26T12:45:00.000-07:00

WEEKS 21-24: Working for a radical; other thoughts and news

2010-10-24T13:26:00.000-07:00

With the season winding down and the workforce dwindling, farmer Chris has been spending more time out in the fields with us- guaranteeing a stimulating dialogue. While mulching the garlic (10 000 cloves planted with the help of some able volunteers from the garlic-savvy Cutting Veg Organic Farm in Toronto) we got to talking about charity and "the system", and I realized I was working for a true radical. Having left a career in social work for charitable organizations to farm, Chris is convinced that charity is a feel-good formula for propagating the dysfunctional system we live in. He argues that "progressive" ideas that have farmers growing food directly for food banks are missing the mark, and adamantly opposes cheap food of any kind. Farmers need to make a good wage, allowing them to employ people locally, supporting a vibrant economy and community from the ground up, instead of trying to bandage it from the rich top down. Food for thought, that is...

Visitors, volunteers, and events around here have provided other food for thought. 20 Hamilton highschool students were here for a week of their Social Justice class, hearing farmers lecture, touring other farms, and working alongside us. Field time is a great occasion for disussing social justice in an informal setting, of course.
It was a lesson in youth management, which turns out to be quite a bit harder than just doing the work yourself... Despite some inefficiency, they got a lot more than we could have done, and a lot of the big fall tasks got crossed off the list: potato harvest; black mulch take-out; and tomato trellis take-down.

Chef Ken Lefebour came out twice to gratify us with his gourmet meals, once as a gift of gratitude from the farm family to the interns, and once to celebrate the bounty of the farm with our CSA members and the public. It was inspiring to see what he could produce with a bar-b-cue and a wood-fired oven.

Field trips have led us to some great farms, like the first Ontario C.R.A.F.T. farm that operates at the Ignatius Jesuit Centre and Retreat, neighbouring Fenwood Farms, a large scale organic poultry farm, and Richardson's Farm, a conventional but sustainably-minded fruit and vegetable farm outside of Dunville with lots of value-added products and promising touristic and educational components.

Members picked up their final veggie shares this past week, and our markets will wrap up this coming week. David is gone back to New York (and married! Congrats David and Marissa!) and Jocelyn left us just yesterday. Next weekend we aim to be closed down for the winter (although winter shares are likely on offer), and the farm family will have no more interns traipsing through the house until spring.

WEEK 20: Harvest evolution and season celebrations

2010-09-26T10:38:00.000-07:00

Again this week harvest took up most of our time, but the harvest is changing as we go. The tomatoes, decrepit and laying rotting on the ground (failed trellising disaster area) are slowing but still producing bushels, with the red roman stripes now dominating. The new timelines of bean and zucchini are finally producing sale-worthy fruit (in charmingly clean beds). Leek and parsnip and sweet potato and sunchoke (a sunflower relative, native to these parts, that produces delicious, water chestnutty/potato-like tubers) prove it's fall, and prove delicious in fall soups and roasts!

We hosted the CRAFT interns at Manorun last week, and it was reaffirming to see through their eyes how great our farm is and how beautiful the space is. It was heartening to see so many young people inspired and motivated and cooperative during our work-bee. A farmer panel on weeds and weather gave us some varied perspectives and ideas, and our pizza party potluck was delish.

Aside from harvesting and hosting, we managed to get some planting done (the hoophouse greens and turnips for a winter share), as well as some thinning and cultivating in the many carrot and beet beds planted a few weeks ago. We've applied a dose of boron, a micronutrient in which our soil is apparently deficient, to the beets. We put more good stuff away for the winter, making blueberry jam and roasting red peppers for the freezer. And we studied our planting maps and recorded rough yield impressions, reconsidering varieties (and other factors like location, soil and weather conditions, weed and pest pressure) for next year's planting.

As I write, away in New Jersey for a family event, my fellow interns are preparing to enjoy a traditional end-of-season gourmet thank you meal that Chris and Denise have hired chef Ken Lefebour to create in gratitude for our hard work and contributions to Manorun. Ken will be back next week for an even more elaborate farm dinner, tickets still available to the public. Check out
http://www.manorun.com/pdf/farm_dinner_2010.pdf for more information.

It's the countdown to the end, and while there's work to be done before we kick up our feet, we are all thinking back over the summer's work and play, and ahead to our varied winter plans... No doubt blog posts ahead will get more philosophical and big-picture...

WEEK 18: Harvest to weeding ratio improves

2010-09-12T17:58:00.000-07:00

A farming friend of mine once told me that you could measure the success of your farm by determining if you spend more time harvesting than weeding- if so, you're on your game. I'm not sure if that has been the case for us every week here at Manorun, but this past week it surely was. The weeds have backed off in the cooler weather, and our little half-crew spent the better part of the week getting the crops in for market and members. And it was bountiful! The tomatoes are gorgeous, our heirlooms catching the eyes of savvy foodies all week: the brandywines, red roman stripes, orange hearts, "Dundurn yellows" (Chris swiped the seeds from a tomato at the Dundurn Castle last year)... and many more I've forgotten already. The greens are great, the radish is back, the carrots (gnarly lovers and wrestlers) are actually quite large, and the sweet corn is ever so sweet (candy belly aches in the field if you eat too much of it!). The list goes on...

Friday we were treated to a tour of Dave and Keira's place, friends of Chris, who have a couple hives and allowed us to help do some honey extraction, in exchange for some information, some taste testing, and even some of the goldstuff to take home.

I'm curious to see what kind of a new harvest routine, if any, we will settle into- we are always in flux, it seems, and nothing ever stays the same. I guess that's the beauty of life, on display at it's finest here in the growing of things.

WEEK 17: Coasting into Fall

2010-09-06T12:14:00.000-07:00

Another breezy week of harvesting and processing (another 50 litres of tomato sauce; pickled beans; pickled peppers and strawberry jam on my own focus time) ended with a field trip to a beautiful organic sheep farm, Black Crow, which showed us the happy, pastured, unstressed alternative to the conventional sheep at Black Walnut. A bit of work digging up their potatoes and garlic in the rain, a good hearty lunch, and we were off to shake down some apples from the Sargeant's trees for cider.

The week to come brings big changes- the daughters gone to school, Meghan gone to her sugar testing job in Niagara, the chickens gone to slaughter, and a fall intern, Jen, joining us for the final stretch.

"When you kill a beast, say to him in your heart:

By the same power that slays you, I am too slain, and I too shall be consumed.

For the law that delivers you into my hand shall deliver me into a mightier hand.

Your blood and my blood is naught but the sap that feeds the tree of heaven."

Kahlil Gibran

WEEK 16: Winter will come...

2010-08-29T19:43:00.000-07:00

Maybe it was that bout of frisky fall-like weather that got us thinking about the cold winter months that lie ahead (or maybe it was the 100lbs of tomatoes sitting on the hay wagon ripening/rotting in the sun...), and preserving the bountiful summer crops made it onto the work board. The weeds have let up a little, and we've gotten pretty efficient with the harvesting, so Wednesday we spent the better part of a day producing 45L of tomato sauce, and this weekend I made peach jam with seconds from the Hamilton Mountain Farmer's market.

Chris and Denise celebrated their 20th wedding anniversary (hurrah!) and left on Thursday for a romantic Stratford getaway (A Winter's Tale, it so happens).
We had harvested everything from the Sargeants on Wednesday for Thursday's markets, so we were way ahead and actually left early to head into town with the truck and trailer loaded. The harvest is kick-ass, by the way: juicy watermelon and cantaloupe and sweeet sweet corn and beautiful long straight english cucumbers and cool stripy beets and purple haze carrots and fine fingerling potatoes and... no room for it all on the market tables!

Friday we hosted a dozen or so teenagers from a YMCA employment camp, and the interns did a pretty decent job at keeping them entertained and informed on our "cycle of the farm" tour of the main attractions here at Manorun (the veggies, the pasture/livestock, the hoophouse, and the compost pile:)
We are conducting an experiment with our young beets: one bed got sprinkled with boron, a micronutrient which our soil is lacking according to previous years' soil sampling (lesson: it's not all about the NPK folks); another bed got a good douse of compost tea. Will they turn out drastically different? Only time will tell...

We picked apples down the street at Myers after work, and Meghan returned refreshed from her week at the cottage right on time for David to take his vacation in New York. Next week we lose Meghan again to her sweet wine testing job, and all the farm daughters go back to school. Times they are a changin'.

WEEK 15: Sluggin' it

2010-08-21T11:30:00.000-07:00

While for some the heat of the dog days may make time seem to slow in a haze of lazy days, I discovered that the second cut of hay meant we had to slug it fast, and hard, to get the hay out of the field and into the barn before sun down, after a regular day of work. Having missed the first cut (which was way more hay), I was impressed with the might of my fellow workers, who were throwing bales around like kleenex boxes as I sweat and grunted and feared I might vomit. The hard work is compounded by the thrilling fear of trailing the hay wagon, whose wobbly wheels give it a nice weave from the shoulder to the oncoming lane as we travel the 4km from the rental property to the farmstead.
We made it though, and had pizza and beer to celebrate.
Busy market day on Thursday (I set up and ran the Locke Street stand alone, while Denise and Jocelyn stuck it out at the Dundas market with Cactus festival festivities blocking them in).
Friday was a sweet cruise to the week's finish line: we got several hundred of our fall brassica seedlings and the last of the storage crop seeds into the ground (rather late) and ended it all with an Oh to Grow session on farm implements. We also planned our YMCA adult camp visit, which the interns will head next week, as Chris and Denise will be gone celebrating their anniversary with a little Ontario foodie road trip.
This weekend, the trailer twins (Jocelyn and Meghan) are gone to their respective cottages, David is doing his usual work with Backyard Harvest in Hamilton, and I am finishing up some promo and educational material for Manorun to use at market, and hoping to do some tomato processing... the harvest is plentiful this year, with lots of sun and heat and regular- but not excessive- rainfall on our sandy loam soil.

WEEK 14: Dog Days of Summer

2010-08-16T17:10:00.000-07:00

Just back from a half day at the University of Guelph's Centre for Urban Organic Agriculture... David's debriefing comment sums it up best: nice, but there wasn't anything progressively urban about their 2 acres of hand-worked crops, although the touches of permaculture (perennials, companion planting, contour planting) were cool to see.
We are feeling the lull of regular summer-hot days, harvesting, weeding, and planting more for the fall. We will surely break out of it this week with some extra-long hay days (second cut). Soon enough, we will be losing much of our crew to school and other jobs, start cleaning up the fields, and bring out the layers to fight the fall chill at work...
OK. Enough. Whining, wistful, time to say goodnight. Goodnight!

quotes

2010-08-15T08:58:00.000-07:00

"Industrialized, chemical-intensive agriculture and our globalized system of distributing food and fiber are literally destroying the earth, driving two billion farmers off the land, and producing a product which is increasingly contaminated. That's why the wave of the future is organic and sustainable, not GMO."

— Ronnie Cummins, Organic Consumers Association

"We call them dumb animals, and so they are, for they cannot tell us how they feel, but they do not suffer less because they have no words."

— Anna Sewell, author of Black Beauty

"An estimated 70 percent of antibiotics and related drugs produced in this country are used for nontherapeutic purposes such as accelerating animal growth and compensating for overcrowded and unsanitary conditions on 'factory farms.' This translates to ... almost eight times the amount given to humans to treat disease."

— Union of Concerned Scientists

"Each one [of the Earth's 5 million invertebrate species] plays a role in its ecosystem. It's like we're tearing the cogs out of a great machine. The machine might work after you tear out ten cogs, but what happens when you tear out a hundred?"

— Scott Black, Xerces Society, quoted in Sierra

"A society is defined not only by what it creates, but by what it refuses to destroy."

— John Sawhill, former president/CEO of The Nature Conservancy

Only when the last tree has been cut down,

Only when the last river has been poisoned,

Only when the last fish has been caught,

Only then will you find that money cannot be eaten.

— Cree Indian Prophecy

"Man is not like other animals in the ways that are really significant: Animals have instincts, we have taxes."
— Erving Goffman
"One's stomach is one's internal environment."
— Samuel Butler

pictures galore!!

2010-08-14T10:01:00.000-07:00

WEEK 13: Picking beans, pulling weeds, and planting seeds

2010-08-08T10:14:00.000-07:00

We are definitely experiencing the harvest-weed-plant cycle of growing food. This week was another easy break: we got a holiday on Monday (an exception to the rule) and just had to put in a flexible 2 hours of bean harvest (can't keep ahead of'em... 2nd timeline coming on strong!); we had a CRAFT day on Wednesday at The New Farm www.thenewfarm.ca, who does some very cool stuff growing for restaurants and for The Stop, a progressive food bank in Toronto that offers cooking classes and community garden alongside charitable food donations; and on Friday we ended the day early for our usual Oh to Grow intern education session on pest management.

Between holiday, harvest, and education time we managed to liberate our carrots and parsnips from the grass-pigweed invasion, and planted our fall timelines of beet, carrot, turnip, radish, and greens.

The harvest gets better and better these days, with corn coming on strong (you can tell a ripe ear when it looks "swaaarthy" and feels plump... got it?)and the first few tomatoes, peppers, and eggplants coming off the plants. Cauliflower and cabbage also add some delectable diversity to the table.

WEEK 11: Trying and Tying Times

2010-07-25T10:05:00.000-07:00

This was a rough week here at Manorun. Both Andrea and David succumbed to a nasty stomach flu that seems to be going around, and missed work. This put a greater burden on the rest of the workforce, and Jocelyn gave way to fatigue as soon as the sickos rejoined the crew. The big job this week, aside from the regular three-day harvest, was to get the tomatoes back in line. That is to say, weeding the edge of the black mulch, pruning wildly overgrown suckers (a project we chose to abandon, under Chris's guidance, which made things move along much more quickly), and putting up new lines through which to weave the unruly beasts of plants. We got 'er done, and the next big job was to empty the big poop barrel from the outhouse. We got that done too, buried in a hole at the back of the property (nasty job but really not so bad... until the dog comes round at dinnertime having enjoyed a good roll-around in the new pit). Little field trip to William Dam to buy seeds for next week's planting, and some research to figure out our fall planting schedule. Pizza party Saturday night for CSA members and friends was a quiet but pleasant affair, and intern focus was redirected to cleaning up the farm and prepping food.

This here intern has developed a nasty rash and flu-like symptoms persist- so it's off to spend Sunday in a walk-in clinic:( See y'all next week!

july july!

2010-07-24T11:59:00.001-07:00

WEEK 10: Field Trips!

2010-07-17T10:01:00.001-07:00

After all the hard work lately the farm gods have cut us a break- we got to go on 2 field trips to other farms this week! After a bit of work Monday in the asparagus patch (read 150 bales of hay to mulch down some monster weeds)and a harvest day Tuesday, we had a C.R.A.F.T. day at Drumlin Farm up in Puslinch on Wednesday. There we learned about native and invasive species, helped pull some garlic mustard and European Buckthorn, and got the scoop on the merits (and dare I say bullshit gov't/corporate control mechanisms?) of traceability in Ontario- not yet required by legislation. We toured the quaint, human-scale beds and identified some common weeds.

Thursday was another harvest day (weeding and whatnot in the afternoons while some lucky folks go off to market), and Friday we went to Black Walnut Lane in Milgrove, a conventional sheep farm that sells lamb at our markets. Adele and Ron were great hosts, and shared a lot about their farm, the difficulties, the investments, the lessons they've learned. We were at the height of our glory catching lambs that needed to be weaned (the males are destined for market but the females will be kept to breed). We did a bit of pitch-fork work and called it day, returning home for our weekly Oh, to Grow session and field walk. We have solved the crop rotation problem definitively, both in terms of alternating heavy and light feeding crops on a given plot of land, and in terms of planting potatoes far from the previous year's location in an attempt to thwart the dreaded beetle infestation (the idea is avoid an early infestation as the pest searches for the crop).

All in all it is great to see other farms to witness other products, philosophies, and methods at work; and it's great to come back and contribute to the farm we call home.

Today: Bread baking, backyard gardening, number crunching, and horse competition photography. Tonight: potluck at Simpler Thyme. Tomorrow: Long Point beach. Who could ask for a better week?

Photo post

2010-07-11T09:31:00.000-07:00

Rainy day craft day!

Some down time in the evening. He shoots, he scores!!!

It's official, 200..make that 199 free range chickens.

Team Vegetable.

Team Pizza

Jocelyn making her now farm famous very berry, rhubarb, minty pies. Deee-licious!

Team Pie

WEEK 9: No quitters here

2010-07-11T09:16:00.000-07:00

If we can get through this, we can do anything. I mean, this week we survived torrid heat and torrential downpours, we fought potato beetle reinfestation in what appears to be a losing battle, we tore jungles of weeds out of overwhelmed lettuce, and we seem to have got through the "window"- that scary time when the cold weather crops give out before the hot weather crops kick in, and the harvest is tight. Abundance and good humour don't always come easy. But challenges build determination, and we the interns are in it for the long haul.

The dreaded COLORADO POTATO BEETLE.

Step 1. Locate.

Step 2. Capture.

Step 3. Kill

This coming from me, the one who escaped to Ottawa for a week (hence last week's missed blog)and missed the crazy days of hay and much of the beetlemania and the scarcity window. An aside- when I say scarcity I mean that CSA members may not get to choose from as vast an array of veggies as they are accustomed to- they may have to take two of a less familiar, less exciting veg like Kohlrabi, or opt to make up for items in coming weeks. We love to please our members, but we also need them to roll with us as we deal with our challenges. It's all in the share of the crop they signed up for.

Hay days!

The farm family is gone to the cottage and the interns feel trusted and responsible, although Naomi, our farmer's daughter lead hand, has come home to give us some guidance, and Chris did come back for harvest days.

Chris has got us halfway to an outdoor shower. Andrea has got the silo's top deck fully (if temporarily) scrubbed clear of birdshit for her Salute the Sun Yoga Studio. We had a good weekly meeting- addressing intern issues including chores and focus dissatisfaction, did some crop rotation theory and put it to practice to solve Manorun's double heavy-feeder problem. And the interns are finding their niches as their focuses evolve and change. David is working with Russ Ohrt in Hamilton, a backyard gardener that caters to 7 CSA members and a market with his Backyard Harvest urban ag project; Meghan is switching to tea making, harvesting wild nettles and our own cultivars, since Trish (our lovely milk-maker) will be calving in September and can't sustain a dairy focus; Andrea is doing some detective work and data analysis to better understand the needs of consumers and vendors at the Locke Street Market; and Jocelyn is diversifying her bread-baking, experimenting with fun stuff (read AMAZING cranberry scones and SUPERB garlic/basil/tomato loaf) instead of dutifully producing the usual week's worth of wholesome whole wheat loaves.

WEEK 7? Losing track...

2010-06-27T17:43:00.002-07:00

The days and the weeks are beginning to blur. Missed a week due to solstice celebrations and family visits. We are mourning the loss of one chick and two turkey-chicks since the last post. None by Andrea's hand, this time. The birdies have moved up to bigger, better homes (some interns working overtime to make it happen) and many will soon roam free (our outdoor kitchen will never be the same).

We also got three little piglets, soooooooooo shy (who can blame them- they'd just had their balls chopped off!) but Megan and David won them over with strawberries and lots of visits.

Jocelyn is now treating us to baguettes alongside our wholesome whole grain bread (did I ever mention she grinds the wheat, grown here on the farm, herself?) and Meghan is making cheese curds so that Canada Day can be celebrated properly- with poutine! David has finally connected with a solid urban ag project in Hamilton, and Andrea is realizing that making and promoting surveys is fun, but then you have to analyse the data... not fun.

Harvest days are fun, and market is fun, but we are a little bit tired of picking peas. Oh well, at least they help hold us over till lunch on those long days in the field. Our members and patrons this week enjoyed salad greens, arugula, tatsoi, kale, chard, radish, broccoli, green onion, garlic scapes, snow and sugar snap peas, strawberries, asparagus, chinese cabbage and bok choi. Also hers- chocolate mint, camomile, and chives.

Locke St. Farmers market. Every Thursday 3-7pm. Come check us out!

Chris reminds us, on Friday after three consecutive harvest days, that we must not lose sight of less regular tasks as we fall into the routine of harvesting/planting/weeding. Really he means we need to do more weeding. Allll day loooong with hoes and hands, attacking the second wave of native competition. Finally, a nice intern end-of-week wrap up with chapter 4 in our "Oh to Grow" manual- compost. Competent little farmers-in-the-making are we.

Week 4/5 photos

2010-06-12T19:23:00.001-07:00

This row of lettuce is looking deee-licious!

view from the top of the silo

David got some new shades with some sweet refection. I couldn't resist the shot.

Chris chillin' in the field during morning break.

Beautiful scenery in the North Vollans

David's super large asparagus tree

WEEK 5: Harvest time!

2010-06-12T13:35:00.000-07:00

Ohhhh ya. All the work is paying off. The bus tour today got a market-stand taste of what's ready here at Manorun (asparagus, broccoli, tat soi, arugula, spring mix, green onions, radishes) but they would have had to be in the fields to get the first strawberries and snow peas that are just starting to tease us with their sweet yumminess.

We hoed and mulched and mowed; we hand-weeded the cut greens; we trellised the peas and drove in the stakes for tomato trellising; we had a practice harvest for the bus tour; and we had some end-of-week field walk and theory time. All in all we are feeling like we are on top of it, we got it together, we are on the ball. Bring on the markets and CSAs.

Andrea dealt with the fact that at least one chick must die by her own hand (or foot, or feeder); Jocelyn dealt with wet wood to get AMAZING cheese bread.

WEEK 4- This is a farm, not a garden...

2010-06-07T19:03:00.000-07:00

So the real work set in this past week with some long, looong rows of black mulch to be laid (raise soil temp, keep in moisture, keep out weeds), thousands of plants to go in the ground (tomatoes! peppers! eggplant! melons! cukes! zukes! squash! strawberries! herbs!), and the weeds to keep on top of all the while (lesson of the week: if you hoe 'em right the first time you don't have to go back to save the peas a second time... in theory).

And I quote Chris: "We're not gardeners, we're farmers. Leave the love at home."
(translation: "plant them, don't fondle them.") The next day, less stern, was "this is jazz, not math" (translation: "put one in every other hole, but don't obsess over counting.")

Focus day was a success for all(but maybe not a pleasure?) with a cinnamon twist on the bread, some sumptuous strawberry yogourt to greet us Sunday morning, and some quality quick local/organic food facts to hand out to the masses that will bombard us at the Locke Street Market in less than two weeks! Urban ag activities are soon to be unveiled...

We got some sun, we got some storms, we got more Aussie visits, and best of all (I say), we got 200 DAY OLD CHICKS!!! Toooooo darling to describe...

Outing of the week: Busker Fest in Dundas.
Technical term of the week: farmer: person who works in the moment, but not tooo in the moment. Antonyms: gardener, plant-fondler.

Week 3 in photos

2010-05-30T12:40:00.000-07:00

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

2010-05-29T12:37:00.000-07:00

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

2010-05-23T10:02:00.000-07:00

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

2010-05-22T09:41:00.000-07:00

This week the weather turned unseasonably hot. Interns took turns working with Chris (the boss) on construction of new intern housing: Andrea is happy in the silo, but David needs to get out of the farm house and Megan or Jocelyn may want to move out of the delapidated trailer...We are proud of our hole digging, post erecting, frame building, and floor laying so far!

In the fields, meanwhile, the rest of the crew was busy sewing (peas, potatoes, more greens), hoeing (the asparagus patch re-civilized), and mulching, anxiously watching for seeds to sprout ... carrots, spinach, where are you? We turned compost and manure, and seeded red clover into the oats and barley.

On this rainy Saturday, Jocelyn is back at the bread-making, Meghan is experimenting with a new yogourt recipe (we are ever grateful to Trish for her milk), and David and Andrea are visiting H-town to take care of some urban/internet business.

Outside of work, the highlight of the week for us interns was the trip to Websters waterfalls. Beautiful, busy, and sooooo refreshing after a sweaty day in the cow dung heap! On other nights, we find ourselves divided along running/biking lines. David and Meghan like to explore the trails with nothing but two feet and a heartbeat, while Jocelyn and Andrea prefer to fly by wheel (or in some cases painstakingly pedal the slow Dundas-Copetown uphill on a barely fixed-up farm bike). The migrating songbirds and spring ephemerals in the surrounding farm and woodlands reward us.

Technical term of the week: Post-emergent blind harrowing (raking the red clover into the young established oats and barley)

Lessons learned this week: The flea beetle is ruthless; you can never have too much row cover; measure 10 times before burying/cutting/nailing.

The farm family is great, the food is amazing, the work is hard but rewarding. Growing veggies, growing better/wiser/healthier people, and growing the sustainable food movement... Noel Tendrick speaks to my University blues and farming groove in his eco-action poem http://www.nopepperspray.org/noelpoem.htm... RESISTANCE IS FERTILE!

WEEK 1: Meet the Interns

2010-05-16T11:48:00.000-07:00

Jocelyn did a combined arts and science degree at MacMaster and is exploring a possible career in the broad field of food and environment. She feels that some hands on farming experience will help her in her crusade to defend the keepers of the earth.

Andrea majored in Environmental Studies at the University of Ottawa. She is thrilled to get out of the ivory towers and into the fields, and finds farming an empowering and enjoyable solution to the systematic issues of social/environmental degradation and disconnect.

Meghan studied photography at Sheridan, and has come to the farm because she is excited to learn self-sufficiency and sustainability in preparation for the inevitable crash of the manic system.

David's background is in IT, but after years in that field he has come to the realization that the world won't be saved by sitting in front of a computer five days a week. He's optimistic that he can take the skills he learns here at Manorun back to urban Australia and spread the food revolution.

Irregular hours in all weather conditions: Better than you think!

After weeks of gorgeous spring sun, a cold snap hit just on time to greet the interns.

1st night at Manorun- risk of frost. We covered the strawberries just before dark, and sure enough the morning grass was etched with white. Monday night was frosty too, but the rest of the week the winds and rain kept the frost at bay (and the farm hands huddled in rain gear).

This week the planting rush was on. Onions, broccoli, cabbages, kohlrabi, bok choi, rapini, and lettuce seedlings went into the ground. We also sewed radish, turnip, and parsnip seeds, pricked lettuce seedlings, and cleaned up the hoop house.

But farming isn't all in the fields: we did some networking and workshops at the C.R.A.F.T. (Collaborative Regional Alliance for Farmer Training) day at Orchard Hill Farm on Wednesday, and Saturday we began to work on our own focus projects. Jocelyn baked up a storm in our clay oven; she has found her calling in the grinding, kneading, and baking of the bread for the week to come. Meghan is getting cultured in the dairy world, with yogourt and cheese on the agenda, David is working on some urban agriculture connections in Dundas, and Andrea will be taking on the Farmer's Market and communications (aka blogging), with most of the photo credits going to Meghan.

We look forward to sharing our lessons and adventures with you, the world wide web of farm food followers (or at least you, Mom!)