Finally, Sugar Snap Peas!

Finally, after weeks and weeks of waiting, I actually have harvestable amounts of sugar snap peas! I germinated my first planting of seeds on May 1...planted painstakingly as little sprouts on May 4 (hey, it was the first thing I planted on my farm so doing things the inefficient way seemed justified ;P). Since this summer has been so cold, it probably took those peas 3-4 weeks longer to produce fruit than would be normal. That said, who knows what normal really is, and their planting location (periphery of the horse corral) isn't exactly ideal prepared ground. It's interesting how each different segment of the horse corral (each about 6-8 feet long) is so varied in fertility. By far, the most productive bits are right by the entrance to the horse corral where the pea pods produced are actually 3+ inches long, while in the less fertile segments, the vines themselves look yellow and stunted, and the pea pods are only about an inch long, with maybe 1-3 peas inside.

I harvest about 1.5 to 2 lbs of peas off the first planting every 2 days or so. Not exactly heavy production, but they sure are tasty! This past market, I actually sold 6 scant pints of peas :) I think the last one was left over (which I ate) because no one ever seems to want to take the last of anything, and I wasn't about to discount it when I knew it could be part of my dinner!















The market table, with 4 scant pints of sugar snap peas on display!

Sugar snap peas only last about 3-5 days in the fridge, so all my harvests between now and next market are destined for my stomach or the freezer. The great thing about multiple plantings, is that as the first planting matures and gets completely harvested, the 2nd and 3rd plantings will come into production. And since it's such a cold summer so far, I'll have sugar snap peas to eat much later into the summer than normal.

When I head in to Toronto at the end of the month, I'll be sure to bring some with me. There's a certain Peanut expecting a mini-'Nut who should have a taste of her nickname-sake!

Monty and the lambs as lawn mowers

I know the picture isn't great, but it's the view from my office window today. I've been grazing my goat and lambs on leashes for a few days each week and am moving them about my back yard. You can't really see Monty in this picture because he's above and to the right of the lambs, sitting in the garden bed with just his head peaking out of the vegetation. I like having them in the back yard while I'm working on the computer, as they give me something interesting to watch while I'm waiting for anything internet related to load, and because I can keep an eye on when they get themselves tangled up and need me to untangle their leashes. Right now, they're taking a noon-time break, chewing their cud in the shade.

The animals have all been really amusing lately. Often, when I let them out of their shelter in the morning I see the chickens sitting or standing on the lambs or goat, and lately, I think one of the chickens actually chooses to sleep nestled with the lambs rather than roosting with her fellow hens on their perch. The other day, one of the hens caught herself a toad in the garden and was having a fun time keeping it away from the other hens, and also trying to figure out how to eat it herself. She certainly looked athletic running around the yard with the toad hanging from her beak! I certainly feel no qualms about eating eggs every day for breakfast since I see how much foraging my chickens do. The yolks of all their eggs are a wonderfully bright orange from their varied diet. I give them some layer feed first thing in the morning while keeping them in their shelter...in vain hopes of having them all lay their eggs inside rather than outside where I have to search for them! But I think I know where their outside laying nests are now. They seem to like making little nests for themselves among the daylilies. For the first time, I'm actually going to put out a sign that eggs are for sale as I do have 3 dozen collected over the past few days that I can sell.

Well, the lambs have gotten up from their grazing rest, so I guess I need to get back to my Farmers Growing Farmers work! One of the lambs has climbed up onto a tree stump now and looks like he may get tangled up in the plants soon. If anyone's feeling stressed these days, come visit me at the farm...an afternoon spent watching grazing antics is very relaxing!

My first volunteer!

The day after the farm warming, my first farm volunteer, Minh, arrived for a 10 day stay. She's working on a research project that requires interviewing new farmers, so in exchange for being interviewed and seeing how the farm works, she helps out!

She helped me with mulching the tomato plants, rock picking in the field (now the entire field is ready for rototilling!), planting out all the winter and summer squash, and setting up pest cover for my direct seedings of Asian greens and cucumbers. My cucumber seedlings never really germinated in their soil blocks, so I'm going to see how this direct seeding goes. I'm not sure if the soil blocks were too fertile for the seeds to germinate, or if a pest ate the shoots just as they were coming up. The pest cover should take care of the pests, and planting directly into the field which hasn't had any compost added (unlike the soil blocks) should hopefully germinate the seeds. I should know in about a week if the effort of putting up row cover is worth it.

Minh also took lots of pictures while at the farm, which was really great as I never seem to get around to doing that.














The freshly straw mulched tomato plants on a foggy and wet day.














Me, rototilling the next stretch of field to be used for planting.




















Watering newly planted winter squash.

Minh even persuaded me to get dressed up and take some 'portrait' shots which turned out surprisingly well.




















On top of the part of the barn that I want to fix into a barn top terrace since there's such an amazing view of the countryside from there.




















Minh told me to jump, so I did... I didn't know I could get that far off the ground!

My first farm volunteer experience was definitely a good one. She's moved on to the next farm on her list now (she's visiting around 10 farms over the course of the summer) and I'm sure will be a great help there too.

Animal updates

A week or so before the farm warming, I brought home my last set of animals for the farm, two 3-month old Dorset lambs from a farmer friend of my farmer friend. These are also male culls. Their mothers turned out to have no mothering instinct and rejected them at birth, so they're bottle fed lambs. They've had their selenium shots (yay! no white muscle disease!) and are really healthy and friendly animals. After a few days to settle in with the rest of the crew (4 bantam chickens, 9 Rhode Island Red hens & 2 goats), they fit in very well and are doing a good job of grazing down brushy areas along with the bigger goat, Monty. The littlest goat, Merlin also took well to them as they are more his size and weren't inclined to bully him.

Some bad news...Merlin died the morning of my birthday. I found him at 5:30 am as I was letting the animals out of their shed before I went to the Keady Market for the day. I definitely shed some tears over the little guy as I had gotten quite attached to him since he required so much babying due to his weakness compared to the other animals. He was a really picky eater, so I always kept him on pasture that he preferred, which seemed to be young dandelions and other tender plants. Otherwise, he just wouldn't eat, but would stand there, bleating. In general, he always moved like an old man (I never saw him move faster than a slow walk). He had little black lightning markings on his front legs, and really cute ears that folded at the ends. He seemed to really like having people around as he'd always start bleating if a person wasn't in sight.















This is the latest picture I have of Merlin, taken by Doret 4 days before he died. If anyone has pictures of him from the farm warming, I'd appreciate a copy.

I really wish he could have made it through his early weaning, but I think he never stood a chance of growing to adulthood. I'm just glad that his final days were out on pasture and not enclosed in a dark stall. I also hope that Monty, who still has the same cough he arrived with, has a stronger heart than his companions did. He's certainly been growing bigger, which is a good sign. Merlin had lost his starved look from grazing but never seemed to start really growing.

Having animals on the farm definitely brings up the emotional level of farming. Even though all the animals on the farm will be slaughtered for meat in November, I really want them to have a good life on pasture over the summer. I don't worry quite as much about my plants as I do the animals. I hope my remaining 3 ruminants stay healthy and growing. I move them around on leashes each day so they have fresh areas to browse and graze. That does require checking on them every hour or so as they can get quite tangled up with each other!















Monty and one of the lambs are sitting in the shade of the tree while the other lamb continues to graze.

The chickens all seem to be doing well, though I definitely understand where the tradition of egg hunts came from now. The hens did initially lay their eggs in the laying boxes that Robb built, but for whatever reason, now prefer doing so in various spots outside. I think some modifications will need to be made to get them to lay back in the boxes again as I'd rather not have to egg search each day. That said, it's pretty cool to come upon a pile of eggs in a patch of tall grass! The hens are definitely free ranging now that they're comfortable with the farm property. I often have one follow me all the way to the house!

One of the bantam hens has started to lay little white eggs. I'm a bit disappointed that they aren't blue or green, but they're still super cute!














Bantam chicken eggs, up close















Eggs, further out so you can see their size compared to other things.

Even with the added stress that animals bring to a farm, I'm still glad I have them all. The eggs I get to eat are wonderfully delicious with huge, bright orange yolks. You do have to watch your step around the farm though as you're liable to have a chicken underfoot ;P And the ruminants are doing a great job of clearing weeds, which they definitely prefer to eat over grass. If I rotate them well, they should do my lawn mowing for me, as well as getting all sorts of good things to eat! Having all the animals here means someone always needs to be at the farm, to let the animals out of their shelter in the morning, put them back in at night (to keep them safe from predators), and make sure they have enough water, or haven't gotten too tangled up when they're grazing on long leashes. Hopefully I can find farm sitters for whenever I may need to be away for a few days.

Farm Warming

The day of the Farm Warming dawned very wet. But the weather up here changes very quickly and by lunch time, the sun was out and the weather was perfect for an outdoor party!

People started arriving before 1 pm and kept coming and going for the rest of the afternoon and evening. I rented 2 portable restrooms for the event as I knew my septic tank wouldn't be able to handle 100+ people. My Amish neighbour Marianne baked all the mini butter tarts and pies the day before, and I had helpers that Saturday to help prep vegetables for appetizers. We blanched 10 lbs of local asparagus (around 200 stems!), sliced up prosciutto from one of the meat vendors at the Keady market, diced up feta cheese, minced chives and green onions and grated cheddar cheese. Then, after the Saturday day visitors/helpers left, I started my 5 double rolling batches of honey oatmeal bread. Luckily for me, each batch only requires about 2 hours of rising in total, so I did take the last set of loaves out of the oven by 10 pm. While all this food prep was going on indoors, Robb dressed all the tables in the barn and the drive shed so they'd be ready for the next day.









A basket of biodegradable cups for drinks.

On Sunday, all the appetizers were assembled. I prepared 5 appetizers, a cucumber, feta & grape tomato skewer/stack, asparagus with spicy prosciutto, homemade honey oatmeal bread with honey butter and an assortment of Ontario cheeses, mini butter tarts from my neighbour, and mini cheddar and chive scones.







Cucumber, feta & grape tomato skewers on a tray of hosta leaves

I saved baking the cheddar and chive scones for Sunday as they taste best the day they're baked. Some people arrived in the midst of the baking, so they got to get scones straight from the oven!









Cheddar & chive mini scones

I led guests on a tour of the barn, drive shed, animal yard and vegetable plot.







Tour in front of the 3/4 acre vegetable field, at the time, planted with carrots, parsnips, beats, beans, salad mix, spinach, tomatoes, hot peppers, peppers & eggplant.









The front of a tomato row, starting with the heirloom variety 'Black Krim'.

The tour ended with the house as I especially wanted people to see the newly renovated guest suite, so they knew they'd have a comfortable stay on future visits!







The newly renovated guest room...yes, it's the same room as in previous posts where I was insulating and drywalling.

Around 3:30ish (I think...I didn't really keep track of time that day), we all gathered in the barn for the informal farm blessing. Jen and Victoria from my Mississauga church, MCBC, led us in singing 3 songs in our Chinese baptist church tradition, and then I read 'Two Tramps in Mud Time' by Robert Frost. In retrospect, maybe I shouldn't have read the whole poem as it's not that short. The clincher is the last stanza:

But yield who will to their separation,
My object in living is to unite
My avocation and my vocation
As my two eyes make one in sight.
Only where love and need are one,
And the work is play for mortal stakes,
Is the deed every really done
For Heaven and the future's sakes.

Anyone who's received some sort of handcrafted gift from me over the years probably has that stanza written somewhere on their gift. It's been a favourite ever since I discovered it while reading Madeleine L'Engle books. It pretty much sums up the reason why I started on this farm quest and am continuing on this journey into farming.







Everyone gathered in the barn for the farm blessing.

After the farm blessing, I gave another tour of the farm and a bbq dinner was served, courtesy of Andrew and bbq help from the Barnabas fellowship from MCBC.









Three table top grills on the go with burgers, wieners, ribs and chicken wings!







People relaxing over dinner in the yard between the barn and the drive shed.









Amish pies for dessert!

The weather held for the entire event, and we did start a bonfire and roasted marshmallows and made some S'mores. All in all, the day turned out beautifully!

Thank you to all those who came to the farm warming! And a special thanks to all those who helped with prep and throughout the day :) I hope that everyone got a glimpse of what life out here is like and understand a bit better what I'm trying to do here.

Animals now at the farm!

Last week, animals came to the farm. First, I bought a set of 4 bantam chickens at the Keady livestock auction. For the past couple markets, I had tried bidding on some hen and chick sets and had lost as I wasn't willing to bid past my cut off amount. But last week, I got lucky and managed to win the auction for a bantam rooster and 3 young hens for $5 each. It remains to be seen whether these hens will start laying or how long that will take since I don't actually know how old they are, but the great thing about bantam chickens is that they forage for themselves so they're about as easy care an animal as I could get! When I brought them home, I opened up their box in the chicken yard so they could get used to their new surroundings. Little did I expect them to fly away on me! They're definitely a lot more flight worthy than your average laying breeds! Robb helped me catch the chickens and put them into the animal shed where I left them with some organic layer grain mix and water. My hope was that they would spend some time there and get used to it being their home. I then went on the internet to see how many days I'd have to keep them in there for them to feel like it was home. But after some web surfing, I realized there's no hard and fast rule, so I decided to take the plunge and let them back into the open after just one overnight roost in the animal shed. I figured that I could track them down to wherever else they might roost and bring them back to the shed if they didn't come back on their own. But luck was on my side as they came back to the shed on their own that night to roost, and have been coming back faithfully each night since then :) I hope when I get some regular laying hens to add to the flock that they'll get accustomed to their new home just as easily. I just hope the bantams don't take off when the other hens arrive!














The bantam rooster and 2 of his hens in the animal shed.



















The whole flock, just outside the animal shed after I took the plunge and let them out.

A couple days later, I went to an Amish farm around the corner from me and bought their cull billy goat kids from them. As a dairy goat operation, the male kids that are born aren't particularly important to them, so once they're weaned, they're available to whoever is willing to buy them. When I went by to buy the goats, they had an older kid and 2 really little ones available. I knew they weren't the healthiest animals in the world, but since I'm not setting myself up for a goat breeding operation right now, I figured this was a low risk way for me to start caring for animals that will become meat in the fall. I also felt that no matter if they got better or not, at least they'd be in the sun and on pasture on my farm for however long they lived, instead of in stuck in a stall in a barn. The littlest brown goat had all sorts of crustiness around his eyes and nose, which I wiped off with a salt water solution. The little kid didn't try to run away from me while I was doing this, which encouraged me. When I first brought them back, I put them on leads so they could graze in the open...but they soon got themselves hopelessly tangled up with each other, so they were put into the small yard around the animal shed that I keep the chickens in at night. They definitely liked being off leads and browsing around that small yard much better. And the chickens didn't seem to mind them being there. That first night, I made sure they all went into the shed at night so I could close them in and keep them safe from any predators. The goats all piled on top of each other in a corner, and the chickens roosted on a rafter above.














The 2 smallest kids.














The biggest of the kids. According to the farmer's wife, they missed this one when the last batch of billy goat kids were sold. I suspect he spent more time feeding from his mother than the other 2 did.

As the white goat had looked really unsteady since he arrived on the farm, I was concerned that he wouldn't make it through the night. Every time he would get knocked over by one of the other goats, he just couldn't seem to get himself back up again. But by the end of that first day, he seemed to be able to get back up on his own and so I just hoped for the best. He did make it through the first night, and spent the next day in the yard with the other kids and chickens, but continued to look really wobbly and stiff on his legs.

The second morning, I went to let the animals out of the shed and the little white goat was lying on his side, reflexively suckling with his mouth. I went to lift him up to see if he had any strength to stand, but he was clearly too weak. When I put his nose by the water, he didn't try to lap it up at all. I brought him outside to lay in a patch of sunshine and went into the house to warm up some sugar milk for him to see if he would drink that. I was in the house for about 5 minutes and when I came back, he was dead. I suspect he had white muscle disease, a nutrient deficiency from lack of selenium and vitamin E, nutrients which goats should get when foraging on pasture. I think he was already too far gone for 24 hours browsing outside to help him much. Or he may have been too starved from being weaned off milk too early for browsing to provide him with enough nutrition as his stomach may not have been ready yet for non-milk food. Robb and I had tried to feed him some milk and oatmeal a few times that first day, but he wouldn't touch it. And he also wouldn't touch any kibble we tried to feed him, though the bigger goat certainly gobbled it up, and the little brown goat nibbled at it too. I think if I had gone to the Amish farm to buy goats even a day or so later than I did, the little white goat would already have been gone. I'm just glad that at least he had a full day or so to spend browsing on grass in the sun before he died. I still feel worried each morning when I shut the animals into the shed at night that maybe one of them won't make it through the night. It's been almost a week now, so maybe I should stop worrying, but I'm sad that the little white goat didn't make it. I'm just going to have to get used to what all experienced farmers know, when you have livestock, you'll also have dead stock at some point.

The animals definitely all have distinct personalities. The rooster keeps his hens close to him and is quite cautious, but they do wander outside the yard and seem to find me when I'm working at various parts of the yard around the house. Robb has suggested that his name be Solomon. I have no names for the hens yet as I really can't tell them apart. The bigger goat's been named Monty as he seems to be a bit of a troublemaker, which is generally the nature of goats. I named the little brown goat Merlin, partly because Robb had started to call the little white goat Arthur for whatever reason, and also because Merlin has 2 whiskery wattles under his chin. Merlin's a bit of a cry baby as he often bleats at me when I'm around so that I'll pet him. That's probably the result of me washing his face so diligently the first day he arrived. I just have to remember not to pet either of them on the head to discourage butting in the future. So I stick to petting them on their sides and necks.

On Sunday, as they seemed to finally have eaten most of what was in their little yard (yay, no need for me to mow!), I set up the portable electric fencing to enclose a larger area for them outside of the little yard around the animal shed. When they've eaten down most of that area, I'll move the fence to another portion of the yard. There's definitely no lack of rotating forage for them, even just around the house! Once I also have lambs, rotating them around the house yard and into the fields should mean I won't have to do any yard mowing any more :)

Petting the goats each day, I think that they're starting to fill out a bit from when they arrived. They were rather scarily thin when I first got them, so I hope it's not just wishful thinking on my part that they're starting to gain weight. My hope for them is that they have a good summer foraging in the sun and getting fat on pasture.

Keady market

As I've mentioned in previous posts, I've decided to sell regularly at the Keady market, which is just a 10 minute drive north of the farm. Since I don't actually have any organic vegetables to sell yet, I've been selling my neighbour Marianne's baking (pies, bread, tarts and cinnamon buns so far), some of my own baking (tea shortbread and vegan brownies), vine wreaths (made by Robb from vines pulled out of the woodlot) and plants (hostas and Solomon's seal which Robb has been dividing and putting into pots). It's been good to get an idea of how the Keady market works, meet the other vendors, work on my market set up and tell people that I'm growing organic vegetables, so hopefully by the time I do have vegetables to sell, people will know to come to me.

Once we figure out how to get pictures off of Robb's phone, I can show the progression of the market stall. The very first one was with a table made from sawhorses, shutters and some shelving put together from materials found on the farm. With Robb's giant wreath out front and a lot of fresh flowers on the table, I think we were the prettiest stall at the market!














An arrangement of violets with a pretty leaf that was used at my first market day.

The next week, Benita came with me and we had some of her House of Hsueh products to sell too. That week, I had baked Oolong tea shortbread cookies, along with sample sizes, so it was fun to hand those out to people to try. It was a really windy day so we had to hold on to the clothing rack and catch things from blowing off the table. Lots of the vendors with canopies had to take them down as the wind was too strong, and one of them even lost his canopy completely. So now I know what it will be like to deal with a canopy on a really blustery day. I think Benita has a picture of our set up that day, so I'll have to get that from her for this blog.

The picture below is of my 3rd market, but my first one with my new canopy! The week after that, I also had my farm sign up (one of the pictures I need to get off Robb's phone).














My new canopy and all the different products from the farm and my neighbour.
















Me at my stall...it's cold early in the morning so I'm really loving my down vest!

Unfortunately, this week's market set up was both sparse and short-lived because the weather was horrid and I didn't think it was worth it to stick out the day there. I didn't end up putting up my canopy as the winds were too strong (I need to put together weights to hold the canopy down on windy days), and the canopy wouldn't have kept me or my products dry anyway, since the rain was coming in sideways. Knowing that the forecast was for rain, and therefore there wouldn't be much market traffic, Marianne didn't bake anything for me to sell this week. I baked a batch of brownies on Monday, this time cut out into circles, and with sample pieces for people to try. After 2.5 hours of standing in a steady drizzle, with the wind starting to pick up, I decided to call it quits since my hands were so cold that I couldn't actually grab change out of my money apron. So now I have a batch of brownies to eat this week...which Gideon is happy about since he really likes them and I gave him a bunch to take home. The market wasn't a complete loss though as another vendor at the market sampled my brownies and is considering carrying them in her ice cream shop. I'll see if anything comes of that!

Hopefully the weather will be better next Tuesday. I'm just hoping that I'll have some vegetable products to bring with me soon!