The weather in Canada has been:
Torrential rain in Alberta
Snow in Manitoba
36 degrees C plus with forest fires in Quebec
Drought and heat warnings in Toronto and Ottawa
Wow.
Monday, May 31, 2010
Saturday, May 29, 2010
Plastic Mulch, and All Things Ambiguous
What a complicated set of choices a farmer has to navigate his or her way through!
This week, Alex and Jen put down biodegradable plastic mulch on 10 or 15 beds, which would become the home of tomato, courgette, squash and watermelon plants outside.
Alex says that mulched plants will produce between two and four times as much as non-mulched plants. But he also mentioned that how much the plastic truly degrades is questionable, and then there is the energy cost in making the mulch - "best" would be no plastic whatsoever, but for a farmer who needs to make a living from the produce they sell (as opposed to through eco-tourism, running courses, or whatever) it's an easy decision. For $120 you can buy normal plastic, $460 biodegradable, plus the investment of an implement to place the plastic (basically a roller with earth clearers, the spool of plastic, then earth replacers - so the plastic goes down and then gets held down with earth), and then just two people for half a day you have rows and rows of mulched beds.
How much energy is used? How harmful to the environment? What if it was 50% better than the non-degradable plastic, would that be ok? 30% better? 80%?
It's really hard to gauge these things, I feel. I'd love to be a zero fossil fuel farmer, to be "purist" but it's just not "practical" because of the world we live in etc etc.
But it's all choices. It should be empowering, but I find the fact that real world stuff means we aren't able to make the best choices without impoverishing ourselves (this is entirely subjective of course! Is not having a car, or a TV, impoverishing? Or is it just not having the money to be able to make the choice not to buy a car or TV that is the problem?).
"I would be a fool to accept a yield of half for my courgettes, squash, and watermelons just because I don't want to buy one roll of biodegradable plastic" - discuss!
This week, Alex and Jen put down biodegradable plastic mulch on 10 or 15 beds, which would become the home of tomato, courgette, squash and watermelon plants outside.
Alex says that mulched plants will produce between two and four times as much as non-mulched plants. But he also mentioned that how much the plastic truly degrades is questionable, and then there is the energy cost in making the mulch - "best" would be no plastic whatsoever, but for a farmer who needs to make a living from the produce they sell (as opposed to through eco-tourism, running courses, or whatever) it's an easy decision. For $120 you can buy normal plastic, $460 biodegradable, plus the investment of an implement to place the plastic (basically a roller with earth clearers, the spool of plastic, then earth replacers - so the plastic goes down and then gets held down with earth), and then just two people for half a day you have rows and rows of mulched beds.
How much energy is used? How harmful to the environment? What if it was 50% better than the non-degradable plastic, would that be ok? 30% better? 80%?
It's really hard to gauge these things, I feel. I'd love to be a zero fossil fuel farmer, to be "purist" but it's just not "practical" because of the world we live in etc etc.
But it's all choices. It should be empowering, but I find the fact that real world stuff means we aren't able to make the best choices without impoverishing ourselves (this is entirely subjective of course! Is not having a car, or a TV, impoverishing? Or is it just not having the money to be able to make the choice not to buy a car or TV that is the problem?).
"I would be a fool to accept a yield of half for my courgettes, squash, and watermelons just because I don't want to buy one roll of biodegradable plastic" - discuss!
Sunday, May 16, 2010
Musings
So. I've been at Ferme Juniper Farm for two weeks. It's a bit more intense than at Wheelbarrow farm - start at 7:30, work til 12, then again from 2 til 5:30. They don't really go in for tea breaks, so the morning seems really long - but the work is good.
So far, I have helped to: seed lots of things into trays, germinate squash using aluminium foil pie trays, kitchen roll, and a turned-off freezer with a 60W lightbulb in (works really well - it keeps the seeds at the right humidity and temperature. Also, it means you only plant the good seeds!); I have helped to build a pigsty, plant 8,000 onions and 6,000 leeks, as well as harvesting radishes from the polytunnels.
I'm living in a huuuge tent, and we three interns share a small cabin with woodburner and lean-to kitchen, with outdoor shower. It snowed one night, and it's been sub-zero a couple of times - pretty chilly! Sleeping with a sleeping bag, blanket, duvet, long-johns and a warm hat on is great, though, and the birds are amazing in the mornings.
The best thing is that we eat food from the ground, every day. They have done a big bulk food order for us too which is great, but the best thing is the fresh spinach, leeks, radishes and rocket; and the promise of all the stuff we are seeding and planting out right now.
Last weekend we had an adventure collecting two piglets which we will raise to just under 100Kg and then (gulp) slaughter. I'm still pretty sure I won't eat them - it just seems wrong.
Note to all would-be pig herders: don't let your new piglets out into their enclosure, just put them in the sty for a few days to acclimatise and calm down after the traumatic journey to your farm! Ours bolted straight at, and under and out of, the newly placed electric fence. One did, anyway. Three times. We had fun chasing her.
My fellow interns, Lyndsay and Jen, as well as Alex and Juniper - the owners of the farm - are great. Lovely lovely people all, with great visions, experience and ideals. It's fantastic to feel like a family so quickly. We eat lunch together at Alex & Juniper's house three times a week, and dinner once, so community really is there. It feels doable. I'm thinking about co-ownership of land - how that might work out.
Just one other family, perhaps, on a 100-acre plot? Or 5-6 families, each with 10-15 acres, eating communally but working their own dreams on their plot? Sharing tools, labour and dreams?
So, the 4 of us working full time on the farm (Juniper works when she can, but her baby boy Shilo takes up much of her time and energy!) will be pretty much providing food for 75 CSA shares, plus two markets a week. Maybe enough for 200 people? 1:50 farmers to rest of population seems pretty good!
Still, I feel drawn to focussing less on just food production for us humies, and more biodiversity for all living things. Perhaps we can grow a few things for cash, and then leave large swathes of lightly-managed forest, wildflower meadows and so on, to be a haven for insects, lizards, and so on.
Farming is certainly hard work, but I'm settling in to it very happily. It feels right to be doing it. I'm loving Juniper farm, but really looking forward to getting a place of my own! If anyone has a couple of hundred thousand dollars they don't need...
Two other thoughts. One: The blackflies love me. More than anyone else on the farm, probably including baby Shilo.
Two: Farmers need Stuff. It was easy, giving away furniture, clothes and so on when leaving the UK. As a farmer, I'll need a shed full of tools; either a tractor or horse/s (I'm seriously considering working horses, if I can apprentice to someone), plus implements; greenhouses and/or polytunnels; boxes if I'm going to run a CSA scheme. Wheelbarrows, hoes, watering cans and irrigation systems; row cover, knives, spades, forks, water butts, cable, posts, barns, coops, freezers; saws, hammers, nails, screws.... as well as a room of computer bits, of course!!
Well. It's a lot to think on, that's for sure.
Postings won't come that often as internet is pretty limited on the farm, but that's ok. If you wonder what I'm doing, well, I'll be outside with my hands, and sometimes knees and elbows, in the soil. Planting, harvesting, weeding. Listening to the birds, staring at the sky. At peace, pretty much. How lucky I am.
So far, I have helped to: seed lots of things into trays, germinate squash using aluminium foil pie trays, kitchen roll, and a turned-off freezer with a 60W lightbulb in (works really well - it keeps the seeds at the right humidity and temperature. Also, it means you only plant the good seeds!); I have helped to build a pigsty, plant 8,000 onions and 6,000 leeks, as well as harvesting radishes from the polytunnels.
I'm living in a huuuge tent, and we three interns share a small cabin with woodburner and lean-to kitchen, with outdoor shower. It snowed one night, and it's been sub-zero a couple of times - pretty chilly! Sleeping with a sleeping bag, blanket, duvet, long-johns and a warm hat on is great, though, and the birds are amazing in the mornings.
The best thing is that we eat food from the ground, every day. They have done a big bulk food order for us too which is great, but the best thing is the fresh spinach, leeks, radishes and rocket; and the promise of all the stuff we are seeding and planting out right now.
Last weekend we had an adventure collecting two piglets which we will raise to just under 100Kg and then (gulp) slaughter. I'm still pretty sure I won't eat them - it just seems wrong.
Note to all would-be pig herders: don't let your new piglets out into their enclosure, just put them in the sty for a few days to acclimatise and calm down after the traumatic journey to your farm! Ours bolted straight at, and under and out of, the newly placed electric fence. One did, anyway. Three times. We had fun chasing her.
My fellow interns, Lyndsay and Jen, as well as Alex and Juniper - the owners of the farm - are great. Lovely lovely people all, with great visions, experience and ideals. It's fantastic to feel like a family so quickly. We eat lunch together at Alex & Juniper's house three times a week, and dinner once, so community really is there. It feels doable. I'm thinking about co-ownership of land - how that might work out.
Just one other family, perhaps, on a 100-acre plot? Or 5-6 families, each with 10-15 acres, eating communally but working their own dreams on their plot? Sharing tools, labour and dreams?
So, the 4 of us working full time on the farm (Juniper works when she can, but her baby boy Shilo takes up much of her time and energy!) will be pretty much providing food for 75 CSA shares, plus two markets a week. Maybe enough for 200 people? 1:50 farmers to rest of population seems pretty good!
Still, I feel drawn to focussing less on just food production for us humies, and more biodiversity for all living things. Perhaps we can grow a few things for cash, and then leave large swathes of lightly-managed forest, wildflower meadows and so on, to be a haven for insects, lizards, and so on.
Farming is certainly hard work, but I'm settling in to it very happily. It feels right to be doing it. I'm loving Juniper farm, but really looking forward to getting a place of my own! If anyone has a couple of hundred thousand dollars they don't need...
Two other thoughts. One: The blackflies love me. More than anyone else on the farm, probably including baby Shilo.
Two: Farmers need Stuff. It was easy, giving away furniture, clothes and so on when leaving the UK. As a farmer, I'll need a shed full of tools; either a tractor or horse/s (I'm seriously considering working horses, if I can apprentice to someone), plus implements; greenhouses and/or polytunnels; boxes if I'm going to run a CSA scheme. Wheelbarrows, hoes, watering cans and irrigation systems; row cover, knives, spades, forks, water butts, cable, posts, barns, coops, freezers; saws, hammers, nails, screws.... as well as a room of computer bits, of course!!
Well. It's a lot to think on, that's for sure.
Postings won't come that often as internet is pretty limited on the farm, but that's ok. If you wonder what I'm doing, well, I'll be outside with my hands, and sometimes knees and elbows, in the soil. Planting, harvesting, weeding. Listening to the birds, staring at the sky. At peace, pretty much. How lucky I am.
Monday, May 3, 2010
Time for a change (again)
Tomorrow I start at the farm I'll be at all summer. The last couple of weeks have been great. I left Tony's place on Tuesday the 25th and went to Uxbridge, where I picked up a UHaul moving van.
Ohh that's an aside. Here, a truck could be a pickup truck/ute, a van; a trailer could be a trailer or a caravan (a caravan is a model of car). I'm sure there are more. A van usually means a people carrier.
Ahem. So I drove the van to Barrie and swapped my UK driving license for an Ontario one, then drove on to my father-in-law's house, who is moving and gave us a load of stuff. So we loaded up, did some admin and took the second free car I'd been offered down to get some papers checked out... then it turns out the car would cost thousands to get through its safety check. Argh.
Anyway, onwards - I decided to drive on up to Ottawa the same day. The vans are all petrol rather than diesel, and really nice to drive actually.
Since getting to my mother-in-law's house I have seen a couple of cars, a couple of houses, and now I'm staying at my sister-in-law's with her two young children which is great fun! Ohh man, and with fast internet!
Well, I guess this isn't so interesting. There are lots of 100-ish acre farms for $230,000 or so nearish to Ottawa, where we could do "anything" - farm, start an ecovillage or retreat center or workshop space or permaculture heaven. The possibilities are almost too great, but learning this summer should focus my thoughts, and local government restrictions should help (!) too!
Tomorrow should be fun - seeing where I'll be living and what I'll be working with. Hard work, but true. It'll be winter before I know it!
Ohh that's an aside. Here, a truck could be a pickup truck/ute, a van; a trailer could be a trailer or a caravan (a caravan is a model of car). I'm sure there are more. A van usually means a people carrier.
Ahem. So I drove the van to Barrie and swapped my UK driving license for an Ontario one, then drove on to my father-in-law's house, who is moving and gave us a load of stuff. So we loaded up, did some admin and took the second free car I'd been offered down to get some papers checked out... then it turns out the car would cost thousands to get through its safety check. Argh.
Anyway, onwards - I decided to drive on up to Ottawa the same day. The vans are all petrol rather than diesel, and really nice to drive actually.
Since getting to my mother-in-law's house I have seen a couple of cars, a couple of houses, and now I'm staying at my sister-in-law's with her two young children which is great fun! Ohh man, and with fast internet!
Well, I guess this isn't so interesting. There are lots of 100-ish acre farms for $230,000 or so nearish to Ottawa, where we could do "anything" - farm, start an ecovillage or retreat center or workshop space or permaculture heaven. The possibilities are almost too great, but learning this summer should focus my thoughts, and local government restrictions should help (!) too!
Tomorrow should be fun - seeing where I'll be living and what I'll be working with. Hard work, but true. It'll be winter before I know it!
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