Monday, June 23, 2008 – The potatoes are flowering
The grass in the backyard (aka 6 acres of pasture) was getting really long, so Brock decided to ask our neighbour Don Fisher to cut it with his tractor rather than trying to mow it with our ride-on lawn tractor. The result: 536 bales of organic first-cut hay, which we’d sold within 48 hours for $5/bale to a variety of horse-owners, hay dealers and cattle ranchers. Who knew we could make money from letting our lawn grow??
The tractor and Don did most of the work – Don has a network of regular customers who buy the hay he bales – but Brock and I helped the customers load their hay, and that was tiring work. It was also REALLY cool to watch the baler, which somehow picks up the loose cut hay, mashes it into a big brick, and ties it up with baling twine before pooping it out the back.
This parable is just one more example of how we’re still learning. Another is the fact that our potato plants are now flowering, which is the weirdest idea since purple carrots. Apparently it’s a normal stage in the potato-growing process, but I can’t get over it. Potatoes grow UNDERGROUND. Everyone knows that. So Barbara Kingsolver blew my mind when she revealed they actually grow green leaves above ground, like normal plants, and Brock finished the job with his news the other day that the potatoes had started flowering. Pretty, purple flowers.
In other news: our Harvest Box Program starts next week! We’ve signed up 12 or so families, mostly either employees of Island Savings or members of our BNI (Business Networkers International) chapter. We expect to have strawberries, lettuce, peas, maybe zucchinis, and garlic scapes (they grow out of the tops of the garlic plants, and you’re supposed to pick them to improve the garlic bulb. They taste like garlic). Our first farmer’s market is this Saturday, and we’re excited since our strawberries are just starting to ripen in multiple-pint quantities.
Perhaps the greatest development on the farm these days is that our home is (almost) finished. My brother Joe is a journeyman carpenter, and he’s been staying with us while finding an apartment and work in Victoria. He sided our house, did the soffits and gutters, and helped pour (and stamp) concrete patios in the front and back. He also built me a huge farm stand for the front area.
Also: my parents, sister and nephew are visiting us this week. Nephew Hollis rode his John Deere around and we loaded it with peas, strawberries, and wild flowers (aka weeds). The adults, meanwhile, are mostly impressed with the stevia. Dad likes the conspiracy theories about how Dick Cheney and the aspartame lobby had stevia outlawed by the FDA, while mom and aunt Sylvia just like the idea of a plant that tastes like sugar.
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Wednesday, June 25, 2008 – Organic farming sucks
Firstly: HAPPY BIRTHDAY Q!!! I can’t believe you’re almost 30. I’d call to wish you a happy birthday, but the elderly need their rest.
Secondly: Organic farming sucks. We picked strawberries from the rows yesterday, to prepare the plants for our Saturday market. (The forecast calls for days of sunshine, so we’re hoping for a big-ish crop.) It was so depressing. We did get about 2-3 pints of perfect berries, suitable for sale, but most were mutant, or too small, or had been sampled by bugs. I can understand why farmers back in the ’50s or whatever were so excited to be offered chemical solutions to their pest and unpredictable-crop woes. I’ve heard from 1,000 people that farming “is hard work,” but the fact is that farming is apparently “hard work with little reward.” How tempting to know that hybrid plants and a regular dose of pesticides would leave me with millions of perfect red berries!
Before I contact a realtor and put our farm up for sale, however, I intend to maintain patience as the season progresses. Brock assures me that the first crop of first-year strawberries can be disappointing, until they figure out how to do their strawberry thing. And we can try a variety of chemical-free pest control strategies — beer traps for slugs, et cetera.
What I have learned from this: if I charge you $5 for a pint of perfect, organically-grown, best-you’ve-ever-eaten, still-warm-from-the-sun field strawberries, it’s worth every penny.
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Sunday, June 29, 2008 – People like us, they really do
We had our first ever day at the Duncan Farmers Market yesterday, and we did WAY better than we expected, considering our minimal crops (due to weather, organic pest control and 1st year learning curve, et cetera). People were so friendly and supportive, and we met more than one young couple who wants to get into farming or have just started farming. Very inspirational and exciting, considering the vast demand out there for organic, local products!
Aside from our successful day (coincidentally also the hottest day of the year so far – whew), the highlight was definitely meeting Tara and Cameron, a young couple who live in Vancouver with their dog, Rex. They’re interested in starting their own farm and came to the Island for a four day “farm honeymoon” to meet farmers and test out the community vibe. We met them at the farmer’s market and invited them to visit us in the afternoon so they could see our farm, and during our subsequent 2.5 hour visit Brock and I fell in love with them. Aside from being Good & Nice People, they are as interested in all the weird “food” stuff that we are — Tara even knew about how mainstream carrots used to be purple, red and white before the Dutch got their hands on them. They’ve been reading the same self-sufficiency books and had visited/worked on the hops farm in Sorento where we bought our hops this year. They actually opted to drink our well water when we sat out on the patio — they love well water, compared to the processed city water they’re used to. They were so poetic about well water “keeping you in touch with your farm” and being “natural” that Brock and I have almost been converted ourselves. We’re excited to see them again. I can’t wait to hear what they think of Barbara Kingsolver’s Animal, Vegetable, Miracle.
In the evening we went to Ladysmith for a decadent seafood feast prepared by my sister Evy. It was exactly the right way to spend an evening after the farmer’s market, drinking wine and being fed amazing food. My family has gone back to Invermere as of this morning, so Brock and I are once again empty-nesters.
Today I decided to christen our farm gate stand, so I set up a shady area, made a sign, and picked five pints of beautiful, sun-hot strawberries. Brock just went to check on the shade situation at the stand, and we’ve already sold a pint. I made $5 while sunbathing on the back porch and drinking iced tea.
Yes, about that.
New favourite thing about living on our farm: nudity. I’ve always wanted to lie in the sun buck naked without having to watch for neighbours. I can now do that. The best part is that I don’t even feel guilty about lolling in the sun on a beautiful Sunday instead of working, because it’s WAY TOO HOT to work in the fields today. Picking five pints of strawberries almost killed me. It’s 30-degrees already and expected to rise. Also, I’ve already made $5 and will likely make more.
And now: I think I will upload our new website . . . . give me about thirty minutes . . . www.makariafarm.com.