Poor Bonnie isn't growing much. Juniper is concerned enough that she spoke to the vet, who told her to collect stool samples to see if she has some worm or another.
After a couple of days of watching without results, Bonnie finally "delivered" to Lindsay yesterday. So I guess we wait a couple of days to see if there really is anything wrong with her, or if she's just a dainty/picky eater and a runt. The good news (as a vegetarian) is that, if she does turn out to be a runt, I think I have convinced Alex and Juniper to keep her as a pet!
The irony of Clyde trying to eat my leg this morning was not lost. Why shouldn't he be inclined to, considering his fate? He's a fine looking porker, too - big, boarish, healthy looking and very keen to get to food. I'm not sure my trousers or my crocs would provide much nourishment, though...
Last night we had a fire, with Alex on the fiddle, Jen on the guitar, Juniper playing drums, and me on the pvc-didgeridoo. This didge isn't quite as good as the one I had in Ireland but it does work. The more I play the more I want to get a decent one. The fireflies were out again - absolutely stunning - as were the stars. One of my strongest desires is to always live somewhere that the night sky is truly visible. Absolutely breathtaking.
In many ways, this is no normal job: working outside, working with living things, getting earth under your fingernails and ingrained on your skin. But in other ways it's similar: the weekends go past too quickly! Still, next week will be a fun one, with a visit to another farm on Tuesday, a trip to Ottawa on Thursday, and my first market on Saturday!
Sunday, June 13, 2010
Friday, June 11, 2010
How natural is farming, anyway?
Today I helped to tie up tomatoes and cucumbers, and prune them. This involves removing leaves and budding fruit to maximise yield and quality.
Tomatoes would normally go all over the ground, and the weight of the fruit bends the stem over until the fruit touches the ground and then goes rotten to release the seeds. But we don't want that - we want delicious, not-mouldy fruit!
It's the level of manipulation that bothers me, somehow. With rhubarb, you stuff it in thr ground, weed a bit, then pull off a few stalks when the plant has established itself. With spinach, you stuff it in the ground (actually unless you're doing aquaponics you do that to most plants at some stage!!), and then just harvest the leaves. But with the tomatoes and cucumbers, we're screening them to exclude cucumber beetles (actually this is a shame because it means we're hand pollinating the tomatoes!), manually pulling them up a string of baler twine (even removing the natural vines from the cucumber as it redirects energy from growing fruit), removing all but the bits we want - pretty much every other cucumber is removed so that the ones left get nice and long...
Growing is an art, but there is a lot of science in there. It feels very manipulative to me, "unnatural" to some degree. Not wild. Am I a wild man? No.. not really (!). In nature there is no mess, everything cycles. Was that the first change, going from hunter-gatherers to farmers, breaking cycles and beginning the journey to motorways, plastic, and muzak?
A permaculture principle seems to be only take what you need. With organic vegetable growing, the focus is still on earning money - taking as much as possible from a set area of land. Doing it in a good way, but still doing the capitalist thing - trying to maximise, within a set of rules.
There were fireflies on Friday last. Bumblebees bumble about. Snakes look confused when excited interns huddle around.
Tomatoes would normally go all over the ground, and the weight of the fruit bends the stem over until the fruit touches the ground and then goes rotten to release the seeds. But we don't want that - we want delicious, not-mouldy fruit!
It's the level of manipulation that bothers me, somehow. With rhubarb, you stuff it in thr ground, weed a bit, then pull off a few stalks when the plant has established itself. With spinach, you stuff it in the ground (actually unless you're doing aquaponics you do that to most plants at some stage!!), and then just harvest the leaves. But with the tomatoes and cucumbers, we're screening them to exclude cucumber beetles (actually this is a shame because it means we're hand pollinating the tomatoes!), manually pulling them up a string of baler twine (even removing the natural vines from the cucumber as it redirects energy from growing fruit), removing all but the bits we want - pretty much every other cucumber is removed so that the ones left get nice and long...
Growing is an art, but there is a lot of science in there. It feels very manipulative to me, "unnatural" to some degree. Not wild. Am I a wild man? No.. not really (!). In nature there is no mess, everything cycles. Was that the first change, going from hunter-gatherers to farmers, breaking cycles and beginning the journey to motorways, plastic, and muzak?
A permaculture principle seems to be only take what you need. With organic vegetable growing, the focus is still on earning money - taking as much as possible from a set area of land. Doing it in a good way, but still doing the capitalist thing - trying to maximise, within a set of rules.
There were fireflies on Friday last. Bumblebees bumble about. Snakes look confused when excited interns huddle around.
Saturday, June 5, 2010
Rain
Finally, the rain came - with thunder and lightning on Tuesday night. The plants love it, both "weed" and desirable alike. We spent a lot of the week weeding out barnyard grass, that arrived on the farm in horse manure, and didn't get broken down during the composting process...
Bonnie, our female piglet, seemed to be losing ground in terms of weight gain versus her brother, Clyde. In fact, she seemed gaunt at the start of the week, and we thought maybe she has worms - so we are adding some diatomaceous earth to their feed. I'm having to keep Clyde out of her food - he is so much larger that he bullies her out of the way. She's seeming a little better these last couple of days - fingers crossed.
Friday is our harvest day, for the markets that go on in Wakefield and Chelsea, so we grabbed radishes, spinach, lettuce, bok choi, rhubarb. There has been a LOT of work close to the ground this week, and my back is a little achey. Still, I went for a run at the end of the day and that felt fantastic!
The wildlife is amazing - butterflies, dragonflies, horse and deer flies, blackflies, mosquitoes, frogs, spiders, snakes, various birds, and last night a real treat - fireflies! Absolutely beautiful. And then sleep.. and a Saturday morning lie in - to 8:10! Which really felt great!
Now I'm sat in town, doing "computer stuff" and drinking a nice cup of Earl Grey. My ecological footprint is still no doubt way above that of your average Indian or African, but I feel pretty comfortable with the current lifestyle - composting toilet, outdoor kitchen, fresh veg from the garden. Ok, so... I just bought a car. It's liberating, being able to get to town when I want, not just on Thursdays and Saturdays. But there is no infrastructure for public transport here whatsoever - there is only one commuter bus from Ottawa to Wakefield per day, and getting from Wakefield to the farm is an hour's bike ride - at least!
Well. No point beating myself over the head. I'm changing, I'm helping to grow food for 80 families (the CSA) and however many more (at market).
The night sky is beautiful, the lakes and rivers are beautiful - the world is beautiful. It's great to really be able to see it.
Bonnie, our female piglet, seemed to be losing ground in terms of weight gain versus her brother, Clyde. In fact, she seemed gaunt at the start of the week, and we thought maybe she has worms - so we are adding some diatomaceous earth to their feed. I'm having to keep Clyde out of her food - he is so much larger that he bullies her out of the way. She's seeming a little better these last couple of days - fingers crossed.
Friday is our harvest day, for the markets that go on in Wakefield and Chelsea, so we grabbed radishes, spinach, lettuce, bok choi, rhubarb. There has been a LOT of work close to the ground this week, and my back is a little achey. Still, I went for a run at the end of the day and that felt fantastic!
The wildlife is amazing - butterflies, dragonflies, horse and deer flies, blackflies, mosquitoes, frogs, spiders, snakes, various birds, and last night a real treat - fireflies! Absolutely beautiful. And then sleep.. and a Saturday morning lie in - to 8:10! Which really felt great!
Now I'm sat in town, doing "computer stuff" and drinking a nice cup of Earl Grey. My ecological footprint is still no doubt way above that of your average Indian or African, but I feel pretty comfortable with the current lifestyle - composting toilet, outdoor kitchen, fresh veg from the garden. Ok, so... I just bought a car. It's liberating, being able to get to town when I want, not just on Thursdays and Saturdays. But there is no infrastructure for public transport here whatsoever - there is only one commuter bus from Ottawa to Wakefield per day, and getting from Wakefield to the farm is an hour's bike ride - at least!
Well. No point beating myself over the head. I'm changing, I'm helping to grow food for 80 families (the CSA) and however many more (at market).
The night sky is beautiful, the lakes and rivers are beautiful - the world is beautiful. It's great to really be able to see it.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)