WEEK 7? Losing track...

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

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!

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...

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

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!