In the world of farming we spend a great deal of time growing food to sustain ourselves and our communities, but we often forget that all around us there is food growing; free for all people, and in abundance. Foraging for mushrooms is just one of the ways that we can reconnect with nature and the ecosystems that sustain us all. Myself, Nick and Nate had always wanted to try mushroom picking, but didn't feel knowledgeable enough about species identification to pick safely. Luckily for us, there are mushroom-picking friends in the Golden Ears Farm community! We joined them in late September for an amazing day of foraging in the Shuswap and returned home, the next day, with our baskets full. What makes foraging so incredibly satisfying, is the way in which it makes you slow down, breathe a bit deeper and see the forest for what it truly is; a rich and diverse habitat, teeming with life. Your senses sharpen as you comb through the woods searching for delicious edible mushrooms, such as chanterelles and admirable boletes, as well as lobster, pine, and honey mushrooms. When you find a beautiful, bright orange lobster mushroom, you can't help but feel a little burst of excitement! When you forage responsibly, always leaving a few behind, and never taking too much, you establish a connection with nature that can't be grown in the garden or bought at the grocery store. Foraging reminds us that the earth provides for us, and that it is our responsibility to take care of it, so that it can continue to provide for us for generations to come. Mushroom picking also just happens to be a whole lot of fun and a fantastic excuse to go camping, huddle around a fire with great people, and eat a pan full of your delicious findings.!
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May has been a time to celebrate, that's for sure. Our three interns arrived and got right to it. All are eager to learn as much as possible about organic farming, animal husbandry, beekeeping, and so much more. They couldn't have arrived at a better time -- plants were getting to the harvest stage, the weeds were starting to overtake crops, a lot of plants needed to get transplanted, beds need to be prepared for seeding, seeding salad greens started on a weekly cycle and all of this needed to be watered with the unseasonably warm temperatures...Tristan and I were getting overwhelmed! With great appreciation for their contributions, let me introduce you to our interns this season. NathanielNate joined us as soon as he could after completing his second year in Sustainability studies at Dalhousie University in Halifax. Originally from Ottawa, Nate has helped out with the family garden and brings with him a meticulous approach to tasks. He is also up for any challenge and did a great job getting the drip line set in the summer squash and pickling cuke beds. He followed that up with organizing drip tape in the greenhouse for our cucumbers, cherry tomatoes, sweet peppers, and basil. ChristyChristy comes from a culinary arts background and is keen to learn more about growing food from the seed up. She has spent many hours in the strawberry patch, liberating them from grass, dandelions and other weeds. And steadfastly took on hand weeding beets and carrots -- a most uncomfortable job. She has also been the steward of the greenhouse on market days, making sure the plants are well watered. Her gentle spirit is truly appreciated, and she is a fantastic baker/cook, to boot! How lucky are we : ). NickNick also comes from a culinary arts background and the food conversations we have while weeding and transplanting are so enlightening. His professional, kitchen-born enthusiasm for incorporating the freshest of the fresh veg from the farm is contagious! As are the descriptions of the various facets of metal music -- I had no idea that it was so intricate and layered. I look forward to having a more nuanced ear by the end of the season! Nick has a fantastic "get 'er done" attitude and I am struggling to keep up with these three. They just plough through the work.
I hope you have the chance to meet them this season -- they will be helping out at the Saturday markets starting in June! After helping to organize the Certified Organic Associations of BC Conference in Chilliwack, things on the farm got to a late start. That, in combination with chasing after a toddler and the intern we hoped would start first going to another farm, meant that things have been very, very busy. Spring has flown by and this post will consist of photos that show some of what's happened over the past three months... It's been a bit of a learning curve fine-tuning the process to get fresh and frozen produce to you over the winter! I think our veggie washing and sorting went seamlessly this week -- thank goodness. We've been grateful to have warm days in order to wash the vegetables outside. No frozen lines and just a tiny bit of shovelling to contend with. You'll see in the photos that Tristan and I are dressed in our most waterproof gear with lots of layers to keep us warm while we washed tons (literally) of vegetables over a span of 3 hours. Even though Tristan and I are assembling the Winter CSA bags, I've been feeling so thankful for the collective effort that made it possible (freezing strawberries in June; curing and bagging onions; late fall harvesting to bring in the last of the carrots, parsnips and celeriac; and freezing corn in August). A huge shout out goes to Kelsey, Paul, Annelise, Anne G, Sam, Anne D, Cornelia, and Libby for their work in the summer and fall that allows us to eat so well into the winter! As part of our organic certification, we needed to re-build our chicken housing (our previous coop was too small with not enough perch space or laying boxes for the number of chickens we have). Luckily for us, a friend’s father came for an unexpected visit. A carpenter by trade, he put his skills to use and built a luxury chicken coop during his week here. Built with insulated panels, it should help to keep the chickens a bit warmer in the winter months. Other features include windows and a skylight, a wider door so that the chickens have free movement in and out of the coop, and a full size door for the humans to go in and collect eggs (complete with screened window panel for air flow). Paul, Sam and Tristan mounted the coop on a hay trailer so that it can be moved to new spaces with a tractor or three people. This coop will comfortably house 45 laying hens. Our friend’s father came to the farm for a week of ‘rest’ after doing the Great Divide trek. Only a mere 1,300 km journey. He then gave himself one day of actual rest after finishing the coop before carrying on with his travels. After leaving the farm, he was on his way to do the West Coast Trail with his wife! Thank you, Mike, for helping us out with this project. The other construction project that has been so helpful this season is a new veggie washer. Sam finished it in August and has been fine-tuning it ever since. After adding bike tires to the inside to provide a ‘track’ for the veggies, lifting the apparatus and tilting it, it seems to be functioning efficiently enough for Sam’s liking. It has helped immensely with our market preparation -- washing the carrots and potatoes now takes half the time that it used to. Great work, Sam!
On Sunday and Monday, Golden Ears hosted a scything seminar. Chuck Hayes shared his knowledge and experience; with a bit of coaching thrown in during the actual scything. Sunday focused on the blades -- reconditioning old blades, comparing Chuck’s old, well-maintained blades with newly made blades, and sharpening (we’ll get to that later). Different snath (handle) styles were also discussed, with American ones having a curved aluminum shaft with two handles and European ones having a straight shaft with either one or two handles. Jigs were set up so that when peening (hammering), the impact was placed adjacent to the edge of the blade. This helps to make the blade thinner, which, in turn, makes sharpening easier. Each participant worked with a peening kit, complete with sharpening stone, that they took home with them. Who knew that blades need to be sharpened with a wet stone every 5 to 6 minutes? It makes sense when you think of the acres of scything that was done years ago -- a sharp blade meant less struggle and fatigue. A huge thanks to Alexander at scytheworks.ca for getting us the peening kits in a speedy fashion, just in time for the seminar! Early Monday morning, the group went out and scythed a 1/4 acre section of barley. It was crisp and dewy -- perfect conditions for a clean cut. Chuck provided feedback on posture and motion to improve efficiency and endurance. An ‘echelon formation’ was used to work through the patch -- each person used a staggered start (so the person in front of them didn’t lose their ankles!), and once they were finished their row, they sharpened their blade and cycled around to start again. It was great to watch the flow of it, and it was easy to imagine that once a crew was well-practiced, it wouldn’t take long at all to get through a lot of grass. In only an hour, the section was mowed down; ready for raking and stooking. This grain will probably go to our cows before the pigs are moved in. For half the cost of a weed whacker, you can mow your grass with no fuel input except for a bit of elbow grease (and practice)! Two Fridays ago, our large cooler space broke down. Horrible. This made things quite complicated, on a day of the week that was already very busy as we prepared for the Saturday market and had Lauren shooting B-roll footage for the farm video that is being produced. An incredibly heavy rainfall a couple of days prior caused a short in the compressor that runs the cooling unit. While figuring out whether a part could be replaced, or if the whole unit would need replacing, Sam came to the rescue and finished installing the air conditioner/Coolbot combination in the small cooler. By the time we needed to refrigerate market-ready veggies, the small cooler was up and running. Thank goodness! Also on that Friday, Johan continued to wire lighting into the prep area and both coolers. This was a huge help! We can now easily identify bins in dark corners, carry out quality control while bagging, and see the scale when we’re weighing harvested crops. Thanks, Johan : ). Next to all of this activity (in the commercial kitchen) was Tristan, who bakes yogurt-soaked whole wheat and spelt bread, along with oat square and pies on Fridays. In the photo, you can see him and Avé mixing the dough, getting ready to proof it, weigh portions, proof it again, and bake. There is never a dull moment on the farm, but this Friday was particularly lively!
Yes, it has been quite a dry spell since the last blog entry. Our weekly CSA box program started, the intense summer harvest/market routine got rolling, and Tristan and I are balancing farming with a baby -- no shortage of things to keep us busy! Also on the busy-kid front, Paul, Kelsey, and everyone else on the farm needs to keep up with the now-walking Pia, who will be running in the very near future, I’m sure. Annelise did a smashing job of managing the strawberry patch this season, with just over 3,700 pounds coming off this year -- well done! She moved on to overseeing the picking of shelling peas and has just started working on the raspberries. Whew. At least raspberry picking is a standing job -- strawberries and shelling peas are a tad bit hard on the back. On a side note, but related to awkward picking positions, Tristan will be out picking corn on his knees in the next week. Yes, you read that correctly. Our earliest variety of corn, Speedy Sweet, is only three feet high and rather than bending over to pick it, Tristan likes to "walk" down the rows on his knees...with roofing knee pads. Andrew was back at the farm a couple of weeks ago to continue working on the combine. While Andrew brought some refurbished parts with him for the grain bin, he and Tristan focussed on repairing the cylinder. Tristan got inside the combine to have a better vantage point to remove the rub bars from the cylinder. The rub bars were bent and the rubber also needed replacing. The rub bars are what helps break apart the grass (e.g., wheat, oats, rye, barley) and separate the seeds from the larger stems, so it’s quite important. It was also exciting to see Andrew’s recumbent bike that he is building from the ground up. Sam spent the afternoon working on the bike while Tristan and Andrew worked on the combine. Talk about multi-tasking! Within the span of a week, our goat population tripled, with each of our goats having twins; one female and one male. The first set of twins are Penny and Pickle and the second set were named by our Italian berry pickers/fruit stand workers -- Farfalla (Butterfly) and Pisello (Pea). They are super cute and we can’t wait to watch their playful antics develop. Who knew that another name for pigs is “cob roller”? I had no idea. The pigs are thriving here and each have their own personality. Libby took some great photos the last time they were moved onto new ground. You can see a distinct difference in the raspberries after the pigs have been through. Look at how they mowed down the cooch grass (yay!) and other undesirable weeds. We couldn’t leave out a group photo with almost all of the pigs in it -- look how they’ve grown!
Well, Sunday was the big day for us. We had our organic certification audit. Leading up to it, there was some nervousness and wonderings of, “Will our documentation be up to snuff?”, “Is the community landscape-waste compost pile going to be an issue?”, “Are we going to have to change our current system with the goats?”, “How long will it be until we can say we’re fully certified?”, and on and on.
As it turns out, the Verification Officer, Dwight, was both encouraging and acknowledged that we “have a lot of balls in the air.” We all chuckled at that statement -- there’s a reason that we feel frantic sometimes -- we really do have a lot to manage here! Although the meeting was four hours long, it didn’t feel onerous. Dwight was generous in sharing his knowledge and experience (he’s been in organics since 1974!), which will help us to move forward with improvements to our already high standards of practice. Our biggest project to complete by the time our second site visit happens in the fall is to construct a new coop for our chickens -- we need more perch space, nesting boxes, and a bigger doorway. Who knew that roosters can have the tendency to block the exit and bully the hens? Having a wide doorway makes him not even bother since the hens can get by him anyway. This is why we’re going through with certification -- by maintaining the standards, we will be using best practices to nourish the soil (rather than deplete it, which is what happens with chemical fertilizers and pesticides), taking good care of our animals, and ensuring that this land will be fertile for generations to come. And, we will be savouring the good food that we are growing along the way, while sharing it with the wider community. Sounds like a pretty fantastic, worthwhile, arrangement to me! We are absolutely thrilled to launch a new logo for Golden Ears Farm. It’s taken a couple of months and the collaborative effort of many people to make it a reality. It was well worth all of that time and energy! As a group, we were looking for a logo that would stand out while also highlighting the beautiful range of components and landscapes that make up the Golden Ears community. Within the bike tire outer ring, you can see our animals (rooster weather vane), market garden (crop rows), music (violin barn), yoga studio (child’s pose rolling hill), and newly planted trees. And, of course, the corn is featured front and centre. We couldn’t leave that out! So much gratitude is held for Susan Cousineau bringing our wish list to life. She did a superb job and we fell instantly in love with her initial sketches. We also have a shout out for John Wilson who spent the time to format the images so that we can get started with building up our swag — bags, t-shirts, stickers, stamps, and maybe buttons — exciting!! Let us know what you think of it! |
Photo credit: Martín Bustamante
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