Why we keep hens

We really aren’t livestock people. The farm is all about the lettuce, heirloom tomatoes and other veggies. The fruit trees and berry plants take up whatever time is leftover.

We do have is three little hens. They don’t have names. Only one is presently laying. The economics of eggs to feed is probably a toss up. But in the summer when they are free they really don’t eat much commercial feed. We aren’t selling the eggs anyways and they produce just the right amount of eggs for us. It is also amazing how much manure 3 little hens can produce.

Why do we keep them? It is hard to explain, but it is now impossible to imagine life WITHOUT chickens. Their presence, roaming the grounds, taking a run at the crows, making cooing noises as they roost at night and lining up on our porch (and the neighbour’s) to demand bread are as much a part of the farm as the gardens and orchard. It is hard to explain this idea to people who haven’t kept chickens.

I came across this article on Energy Bulletin and is summed up my thoughts perfectly:

Oil, Food & Agrotherapy http://www.energybulletin.net/44334.html

“…Chicken Wisdom and Agrotherapy
This year I returned to teaching psychology, part-time, at Sonoma State University. I sometimes take chickens as Teaching Assistants (TAs). For example, I took two sweet silkies on Valentine’s Day; they modeled being love birds as they cooed and cuddled, one even feeling safe enough to lay an egg.

Chickens can teach many things, such as surrender to what is, joy at the dawn, transformation of throwaways into jewels, and love of the Earth within which chickens take their dust baths to help them get rid of parasites. Chickens offer incredible eggs, humor, joy, and beauty. That other two-legged can teach chicken wisdom, that of a prey, to humans, who are predators. It includes, but is not limited to, the following: delight in simple things (like worms), keep dancing, recycle, snuggle into the earth, slow down, combine vulnerability and hardiness…”

-J-

rhubarb in the rain

It’s been a rainy week or two which frustrates planting and weeding efforts, but makes the fields lush and green – so we can’t complain! Already, we have 5 plantings of lettuce done, plus spinach, mustards, peas, radishes, green onions and more. I feel like we’re ahead of the game, except that the lettuce is still very small. Hopefully we’ll make it to the next market – May 30. Here’s hoping we get some warm rain…

In other news, we took advantage of last weekend to drive to the Annapolis Valley for a new farmer gathering. We planted like mad for a few hours in the morning, then managed to arrive after lunch at the site. It was an interesting event – somewhat foiled by the weather – but we saw a few friends and met some new people. Lots of homesteaders/community gardeners, and a few new farmers too. Caught the introduction, a pig roast and a salad mix presentation. But the rain and cold weather made me glad we weren’t camping that night and staying for day 2, and hot chocolate at the Just Us Cafe was especially welcome on the drive home. Jamey’s folks came down the next day and helped us paint/finish greenhouse construction.

Re: baby, I’m still in the second trimester and feel fairly energetic… except bigger. Really big, and I’ve got three months to go. I know I have to pace myself, and Jamey’s been great at picking up the garden-related slack. I’m hoping I can keep growing and harvesting for market until August, at least. We’ve also been going to lamaze classes and reading, and starting to gather baby clothes and gear. It still seems a little surreal, but then I feel a few kicks and it hits home that we will soon have a baby in our lives – 110 days to go.

I’ve been savouring our first asparagus and rhubarb. We have this incredible planting of 3 foot long rhubarb, with huge stalks – monster plants. It’s part of a legacy of fruit left behind by Dr. Warman, a prof who owned our property for 13 years, and planted grapes, apples, pears, currants and much more. The Kittlesons will have our rhubarb at market this week for us – look for Benjamin!

-R

Windows of Opportunity and Bonus Nights.

AKA “Part Time” Farming Challenge No. 1.

With the farm/work balance, weekends bear most of the load. Weekends in May (our intense planting, field prep and market readiness time) are tremendously precious. This weekend was a washout and blowout. High winds and torrential rains. We managed to fill the time with a trip to the city on Saturday (picked up an irrigation system for the greenhouse) and on Sunday we moved a dishwasher, moved a new fridge for the garage and filled the back of the truck with bags of sheep manure. How we lived before the truck I do not know.

The rainy weather meant no field work. No weeding. No planting. To have fresh greens at market every week we seed 1 bed (bed = 2 foot x 30 foot) of red, 1 bed of green and 1 bed of mustards. We normally prep the beds and plant on the weekends. We were a bit worried looking at the forecast. It has since improved. (nice weather on Tuesday) But ugh, Weds, Thurs and Fri look ugly.

When would we seed and weed? With all the recent rain, the perennial weeds have regained much of their vigor and the first flush of annuals is upon us. (Ohhh pigweed I missed you so much).

We normally have a class on Mondays, but it was canceled so we had we we like to call “bonus nights”.

Bonus Night: Unexpected and unscheduled blocks of time that coincide with good weather and become available for farm work.

Now for normal people, a Bonus Night might mean a bit of ornamental yardwork, running into town to rent movie or this thing called “recreation” I have heard so much about.

We managed to get in 3 hours of work. We seeded 3 beds of greens and one of radishes, laid some row cover on the freshly emerged mustards and did some significant weeding. (Roxanne hoed the annuals, I dug up cooch grass) But we had to take advantage of the time.

It seem often that these windows of opportunity happen at the wrong time or the wrong weather. Last year when we were trying to get some rototilling done, we were often frustrated by rainy evenings with sunny breaks only between 8:30 and 4:30. We’d be racing home to get started and the sky open up. arghhh

A new breed of farmers?

So what are we? What do we call ourselves? Are we part-time farmers? SPIN farmers? small-scale farmers? neo-agrarians? farmers with off-farm work? hobby farmers? aspiring full-time farmers? craft farmers? micro-farmers? foolish amateurs? really big gardeners? food entrepreneurs? It is very interesting question as names define and give impressions about supposed next steps and intentions.

If we try to describe ourselves, a few contradictions seem to jump out. We are farming by choice, but we also want the $, stimulation and satisfaction of non-farm work. Our defined goals don’t include trying to earn a complete living from the farm (at this time), but we approach the market gardening enterprise as a business (separate from the farm as a really great home). Yes we love growing good food for people, but it is not a hobby or charity. The market garden needs to provide a fair return for our labour, investment and risk. Martyrdom or losing money with each sale are not on our list of aspirations (back to the farming by choice thing). At the same time, we are very committed to making this work. Practicing small scale, sustainable agriculture, stewarding three acres and building this business a little bit each year is as much a statement of our ecological values as it is our entrepreneurial spirit.

It may seem odd to see to much text devoted to $ on an organic farming blog. But farmers need to earn a fair return or all of the benefits – good food, resilient local economies, reduced food miles, conversations at the farmers market, building living soils, etc… can’t happen. The good news is that the potential exists to leverage all that good into a real point of differentiation and value, and thus a fair return.

It is hard to be a category of one, but the really great thing is that there are more and more people doing similar things for similar reasons.

Turned on CBC Sunday Edition and heard the preview for piece called “Down to Earth”. We joked about whether we would know who they were profiling. Someone from Farmstart or Ignatius Farm CSA in Ontario or Victoria’s City Harvest? It is funny how small the world of organic farming is, and we’ve made a number of great connections through our jobs, associations and our time in Guelph about 10 years ago. Guelph has since become a hotbed of sustainable agriculture insurgency. The 25 minute piece profiled a number of young (late 20’s early 30’s) new farmers in southern Ontario including a friend of ours, Tarrah Young.

Roxy went to university and a semester in Guatemala with Tarrah. We also has a bizarre chance encounter in 2002 with her while WWOOFing on a Oberhasli goat farm outside of Santa Cruz, California. Tarrah and I both apprenticed at Greenfields Farm (at different times) and she has since gone through the FarmStart new farmer incubator and bought a farm a few years ago. Tarrah has become a poster girl for this new movement of farmers getting started in agriculture. Previous press coverage can be found here, here and here. The CBC piece can be heard here.

Down to Earth: Here’s one picture of a farmer: tough, weatherbeaten, pitchfork in hand, a bit grim, proud member of a vanishing breed. Here’s another picture of a farmer: Thirty years old, five foot two, fresh-faced, female, city-bred. Meet Tarrah Young, proud and very determined member of a NEW breed. Tarrah – and people like her – are real risk takers. They’re not starry-eyed back-to-the landers, and they know know what they’re up against. Across Canada, the number of farmers under thirty-five has declined by more than 50% in the last ten years. For those who want to loosen the grip of the agribusiness giants, to spurn cheap pesticide-laden imports, and to eat local – this is really bad news. And we all have enough of that! So this morning, venture out with a few of agriculture’s young pioneers. Frank Faulk’s documentary is called “Down to Earth”

The piece was really well done and it touched on a number of the things that this growing trend of young and second career farmers have in common.

• farming is a way to practice their environmental values
• most grew up in the city, not on a farm.
• many are university educated (Enviro Sci a popular major) or have established careers.
• they have taken many paths to learn about farming (apprenticeships, WWOOFing, courses, books)
• they need to focused on the bottom line and quick, positive cash flow due to the cost of entry and other commitments (e.g. student loans)
• they want to farm, but not give up their connections to urban areas (amenities, friends and culture)

Even with all these commonalities, folks are finding all kinds of innovative paths to farming. The CBC touched on some of those different options including a partnership between Mapleton’s Organic Dairy and another new farmer. The farmer is letting her use a parcel of the farm free of charge to start a CSA vegetable farm.

We feel that we are in a really great place right now, doing something that is both personally meaningful and connected to something bigger. Linking to other new farmers, discussing some of the challenges and joys of balancing farming/work/the rest of our life are some of the goals of this blog. One of these day’s we’ll publish a blog communications plan.