May showers, bring June...?

One week ago every farmer I knew was making half-hearted jokes that we needed to host a workshop on 'farming in the mud'; I couldn't not agree with them.  The harsh rain of a week ago is still affecting us. We are unable to ready many of our gardens for planting, and many of the plants that were already in the gardens have received too much water.  The peas that we planted almost one month ago are only two inches high, the beets will likely not survive, and we have many transplants that need to planted out in the gardens, but none of the gardens are prepared to be planted in. But we did get to plant cauliflower out this week.  But, on a good note, the bok choy, swiss chard, broccoli, garlic and lettuce look great!  And Thursday and Friday were beautiful, lots of sun!

To the barns...
After some extensive fencing (and, no, not the kind with faux swords), the cattle have been let out to pasture.     The latest addition to the herd, is a male calf named Yuri.
All the horses are out in paddocks and look a lot less shaggy.  Grass is also cut daily and fed to Isabelle and Frisco, the pigs.  Two of the ducks are sitting on nests.    And the chickens are laying well and go out daily and scratch around, occasionally making a mess in the gardens.

Luna also had another surgery yesterday. This time for a graft that has been sewn onto the area that the tumour was removed from. In order for the graft to take, Luna must do as little as possible. She whines, not only in pain, but for the chance to be let outside. Fingers crossed for her!

getting back into the swing of things

I haven't written in almost a month, and since then a lot has happened here at the farm. A new calf has been born, her name is Yolanda.

We now have numerous things planted in the garden, such as: beets, radish, kale, lettuce, Swiss chard, broccoli, lettuce mix, spinach, beans, and peas.  Some of this will be ready for the Windsor Farmers' Market opening day on May 27, 2011.

The pasture has grown enough to let all the horses back on it. They are enjoying their time frolicking and getting fat, paired two-by-two in separate paddocks.  Soon the cows will be let out to pasture.  Gardens are in need of harrowing and rock and grass-clump removing. 

Also, the farm dog, Luna, is recovering from a soft tissue removal surgery. She is still happy and active, but doesn't enjoy all the time she spends in the house.  

  

Spring weather

This weekend has been beautiful. We put up our greenhouse, and started a bunch of flower transplants in it today. And yesterday I planted radish and beets in one of the gardens.  We also have some more additions to our bovine family: Lizzy and Yuki. Yuki was born yesterday, and Lizzy was born the day before.  I was thinking that it would be funny if we had twin male/female calves, and name the male Yang and the female Yin.                                                  
                                    This is Lizzy.

Community Supported Agriculture

This year on our farm we are starting a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture).
What is CSA?         
In it's most basic form the CSA farm produces vegetables for a group of farm members or subscribers who pay in advance for their share of harvest.  Farm members receive the shares once a week, either coming to the farm to pick up their  share or picking it up a a central delivery point.

I will use an example CSA: my example CSA runs for 20 weeks, there are 15 shareholders, the farmers names are Burt and Beatrice, and it is pickup day at their farm.
How CSA works:
Burt and Beatrice have harvested all their crops for this weeks CSA members. They put the vegetables in baskets, a basket for each member.
Previous weeks' basket:
Beet greens
Beans
cabbage head
carrots
cucumber
cauliflower
eggplant
head of romaine lettuce
Kale
baby onions
potatoes
radish
tomatoes
zucchini
cilantro
                                                
 This weeks' basket:
beans
broccoli
carrots
cucumber
fennel
swiss chard
lettuce mix
onions
peas
peppers
spinach
tomatoes
corn
turnip
parsley

(The point is that there is approximately $20-$25 worth of food in each basket. And that this weeks basket differs from the last.)

Now Burt and Beatrice load 6 of the baskets into the car. They drive 35 minutes to a central delivery point. Within 25 minutes the 6 baskets  have been picked up the farm members.  Now Burt and Beatrice go home to greet the other nine members picking up their shares.  Between 5:30PM-7:30PM the other nine members come and pick up their shares at the farm.  While the members are at the farm, Beatrice gives them a tour of the animal barns.  One of the members, Shelly, instead of paying for her basket she works on the farm during the week. This pays for her share, and helps Burt and Beatrice.

CSAs have become extremely popular. Many people not only want to know where their food comes from, but also want to get to know their farmer. Some people even want to get to experience the farming and gardening process (like Shelly).

Spring is here!

 I can't believe I have not written on this blog in exactly one month.
Spring has made its debut, but the weather is still a little nippy. Valentino and Xanthipe are still the only calves that have been born this year. And the plants in the greenhouse are doing excellently. I never knew how much you could miss the sight of baby swiss chard!  Not that the baby kale or lettuce is ugly, it's just not as colourful. I like pretty, colourful things. But as John Ruskin once said, "Remember that the most beautiful things in the world are the most useless; peacocks and lilies for example."  But alas, I can not entirely agree. Are trees not beautiful? They are very useful.
But lilies...not so much. And can you eat peacocks?  That is why farming is so nice, we usually have an abundance of useful things - beautiful or not. Like cows, they give us meat and fertilizer, and keep our pastures trimmed. And hey! They aren't that ugly.





This is Xanthipe. This was taken when she was still very young.










And this is baby swiss chard. The stalks are already starting colour.

New additions to our family

We have two new Calves on our farm. Their names are Valentino and Xanthipe.  Valentino is a male, and Xanthipe is a female.  Valentino looks a bit like his father Joseph (our bull).  Xanthipe is all brown.  They are both very cute, and Valentino is very friendly.
Profile of Joseph the bull:
Joseph is a brown and white large bull. He has sired many calves in his life. And is quite friendly, but he will head butt, and can be very dangerous when he does this. And he is very protective over his herd.

We are also getting ready to start plants in our greenhouse. Soon we will be extremely busy with onset of spring weather. But for right now, the ground is still snow covered.

February, not much gardening

Hi! I'm Francesca

I live on a farm. The farm I live on is called Oakmanor Farm. This year we are starting a CSA (community supported agriculture) we and I have spent a lot of time making posters and stuff. Wow, I can't believe I'm staring a blog!!  So back to the farming stuff, here, in Nova Scotia, there is a lot of snow right now. The poor animals (cows,horses,cats,dog,chickens) have to wade through two feet of snow! And (cringe) we are supposed to get more snow tonight. If you live in the city won't understand why I don't want a lot of snow (but maybe you will). The reason is because I have to shovel and remove snow. Not fun!! It's OK the first few storms of the year, but now it's getting kinda boring. I would much rather be listening to music, learning Latin, or reading Anne Rice novels.   I know I'm jumping around all over the place.  So am I boring you yet?  Wouldn't surprise me.  So...I'll tell you a little about me: I love horses; I love listening to the radio; yes, my name is Italian; and my fave  colour is lime green; oh, and right now I'm listening to Enrique Iglesias.   Well time to go start chores.    Francesca :)  

P.S. does any one know how to post pics on a blog? I can't figure out how to this.