A New Year
It has been a very long time since my last blog post and for no particular reason other than life seemed to get in the way. As a busy farmer I find it difficult to sit down and write out what is happening with life because life moves too fast to remember sometimes. However, we have quite an exciting season approaching and I thought I'd fill you all in.
First off, an animal update. The goats and chickens are all doing great - for those that don't follow us on social media, last season we adopted some new goat members of the team; Nova, Millie, and Sprout. These girls have been here for some time but all the goats are now getting along wonderfully and loving life on the farm. I can say this with confidence... 5 goats are better than 2. None of our goats or chickens love winter (we are very lucky to have a big barn for them to play in) but they are slowly getting back out to greener pastures and in their element. Of course, still chewing on any piece of fabric they can find....
Many of our farm-ily members know this but those that don't; for the past 6 years Chris has worked part-time on the farm with me and full-time off the farm in Ottawa. Farming full-time with no financial safety net can be stressful. Most farms will have some form of off-farm work since income can be unsteady and financial security can fluctuate from season to season. While having off-farm income was nice and especially needed for all of our start-up costs and infrastructure projects it can take a toll. Driving back and forth long distances everyday not to mention two jobs is a lot for a person. Also, having to operate a farm business with only one full-time farmer was also very difficult. But finally, after many tired years we have decided that it is time Chris comes to work full time with me (and Winnie) at the farm! We are (of course) nervous but also really excited to see what we can accomplish as a full time team.
We have a tonne of exciting farm projects planned this season. Our wash/pack/storage station will be getting it's final touches. We just need to finish up with the outdoor siding and a few more details on the inside.
Our biggest project is our field irrigation pond. We are investing a lot of time and money (with the help of some grants) into creating a large irrigation basin to irrigate our crops. It's much more work than just digging a hole because we want it to last a lifetime, be susutainble, and most importantly add to the biodiversity on our farm. We had to get an agronomist to come out and design the pond and work her magic figure out the math of it all. And it was a lot of math..... The pond will not only be an irrigation basin for all our crops but we will also be adding trees, shrubs, and other plants around it in order to add natural habitats and increase space for wildlife on the farm. In the past our farm has been an open field, mono-cropped culture. One of our goals is to slowly fill in the open spaces with permanent vegetation. Last year we started with planting 25 trees...this year, a lot more!
Which brings me to our next project...our orchard! We are so excited to finally be planting our orchard this season. We have ordered all our fruit trees and berries which will be shipped out in May. This is a huge spring project but if all goes well in a few years we will start to have apples, pears, plums, other fruits, and nuts available. Growing vegetable crops organically can be difficult but growing fruit organically is even more difficult. We are spending the last few semi-calm days before the season gets too crazy in order to brush up on orchard health and properly incorporating perennials into our farm production. We are also working with another local organization in order to help increase biodiversity on the land. We will be planting trees, not for commercial use, but simply to regenerate the land and diversity lost from clearing and maintaining the 'standard' farm fields for generations. All the new help from birds and bees will do wonders for our little orchard.
Our last big project is fencing. Our ever increasing animal count on the farm means we need to create more safe and natural space for them to graze. We'll be adding a whole new grazing area as well as setting up a rotational grazing area within our new orchard where our girls can help with maintaining the weeds and increasing natural fertilization. We expect very full bellies in 2025.
This season is coming in quick and we are trying to get prepared. Our seeding room inside our house is full and our greenhouse is about a third full with thousands of soil blocks being made and seeded each week.
Our tunnels in the field are up and ready and the snow is slowly melting and the soil warming up in order to start planting soon. With our profits made from last season we were able to invest in three more tunnels so our spring to summer crop transition can be much more stress free and streamlined. Our CSA baskets and seedling sale pre-orders are well under way and we have also decided to dip our toes back into the Farmer's Market scene! After a long hiatus from attending Farmer's Markets we are very excited to announce we will be attending the Parkdale Night Market in Ottawa this season. It has been years since we were at a market so it will be so nice to get back that face to face connection with our Ottawa community.
So that is all the macro version of our season. With many more small projects and a never ending To Do List, 2025 is coming in fast but we are ready. Maybe...Kinda...
Last but not least we are also excited to announce that we will finally be having a farm tour this year! Our apologies for it taking so long and thanks to those who inquired about it. We could never seem to find the time with Chris working off-farm but now we will finally be able to show everyone where exactly their food is coming from. The tour will most likely be in September when everything is abundant so keep your eyes peeled for an announcement on that.
Your Farm-ily,
Jennie, Chris, Winnie (the farm dog), Daisy, Buttercup, Millie, Nova, and Sprout (the goats), and all the chickens