WEEK 9: No quitters here

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.