The reasons we farm have shifted and changed a little bit over the years (we’ve been at it for 17 years), but the primary roots of our choice to farm have remained the same.
Fundamentally it is important to us to provide people with high quality soil-grown vegetables. Our interest in good growing comes from 1) our commitment to earth care and 2) our interest in food as the first medicine. When you nourish your body we’ll, it is an investment in your future.
Being gardeners at this scale comes with challenges and we've been humbled by nature again and again as we learn her lessons.
Our farm isn’t perfect, and our knowledge is insufficient, but we trust in our capacity and commitment to learn as well as the earth's continued lessons.
Thanks for being part of the journey with us!
Farm Boxes, Week 2
We've been farming for 17 years and along the way we’ve been humbled and also blown away by soil! In the wrong conditions, soil will degrade quickly, and treated well it can perform miracles and even recover from disaster.
Over the years in response to messages from the soil (yes, the soil speaks to us - through weeds, health of plants and even through its colour!) we’ve implemented some major changes on our farm.
The first change took over four years to implement and it is the construction of permanent, no-till beds. We now have 120 of them. We use a method of creating raised pathways and then deep mulching the beds in between the pathways. We use a mulch made of well - composted cow manure. The pathways are then planted in clover to keep the ground covered and less weedy. We mow the pathways regularly (in reality it’s our son that does the mowing!). The beds have been working very well for us. We have less weed pressure, better yields and healthier crops overall as well as a more enjoyable environment to work in.
Below you can see the no - till beds in action with clover pathways flowering in between.
The other technique we've employed to improve soil on our farm is mineral balancing. This is based on the methodology espoused by William Albrecht in the 40s and 50s as he observed the damaging effects of chemicalization of agriculture following WWII.
In order to apply the minerals to our fields Jenny's dad took a trip across the mountains and oceans to a gulf island where an old old old lime spreader was rusting into oblivion. We got it to our farm and removed the moss and oiled it up, and are hoping it hangs on until we’re done this particular soil project!
The mineral balancing was originally meant to be applied to the fields that have not been transformed to no-till, but we’re so happy with the results we wanted to trial it on our no-till beds as well. We’ve also seen that the high organic matter of the no-till required some balancing, and the minerals have helped them.
Below you can see corn in our regular beds. We use low tunnels to ensure we get a crop, and this is why it is not in the no-till.
We wait a long time for this, don’t we?! Summer is short, and oh so sweet in Alberta. The skies are endless, sunsets are gorgeous, and the amount of growth that happens is nothing short of astonishing. We sometimes freak out that things aren’t growing fast enough on the farm, but with the long hours of sunshine, we consistently find our worries are for nothing in the end.
Stormy skies moving above our fields. The flowering clover makes a fairytale pathway between crops!
Garlic scapes are an early treat from the fields and every year we love seeing them curl their way up and out.
We've been enjoying the nearby river valley for evening walks.
Our Silas joined us again this year for the summer season! We’re so lucky to have him. He’s taken a break from his framing job this summer in order to give us a hand on the farm.
And lastly, summer eating is back! It’s my (Jenny's) absolute favourite thing to do to walk out to the field and put together a meal for the evening. Tonight it was onions, pepper, bok choy, garlic scapes, and a bunch of cilantro with some simple seasoning and a jalapeño from the greenhouse and a pound of ground beef from Sunworks Organics. Simple and nourishing after a day of hard work.
Love, Jenny and James!
The past few weeks we’ve been browsing all the seed catalogues finally making their way to our mailbox. It is the best! We use this time to dream about our plans for the growing season ahead. We ask what worked well last year and what our goals for improvement are for next year. I’ve talked to several gardeners who are doing that as well - it’s one way to get through the cold of February.
One thing that we want to change for the year ahead is to grow more crops to last us into the winter months, more watermelon radishes, winter squash and giant kohlrabi for example. What are some things that you would like to see?
In addition to ordering seeds, we are also getting ready to set up the greenhouse for planting our seedlings. Last year we had some trouble with our seedlings, and we did a lot of troubleshooting and inquiring last season, but failed to come up with a clear understanding of what was happening. But now, with clearer heads, we are aware that the problem was in the water that we use to irrigate. Now we are learning about strategies to monitor and amend that. I often say that farming has required us to become scientists!
It is deep winter here, but so much work happens to make the most of our very short growing season when it gets started! Can’t wait:)