Wow, it has been awhile since our last post! We have been running like the wind with planting and other projects between then and now and have hopefully not left you feeling too out of the loop.
Our first big accomplishment in that time was finishing the construction of our fence. It took many work hours and some dedicated volunteer time to finally put it up, but it’s there! It’s a pretty good looking fence too, and we’ve already witnessed its ability to keep the deer out so we’re excited that it’s doing its job.
We’ve had two volunteer work days over the past two weeks. Our first work day we put in all our tomatoes and cucumbers, as well as a bunch of onions. Our second work day was last Friday, and we got the squash, cabbage, zucchini, and last of the lettuces in which was the LAST of what we had to plant!! There will be succession plantings of things throughout the summer, but this marked the end of the big spring push. And so the rain this weekend has been an extra blessing for us. Not so much for the marathoners, jazz festers, or father’s day-ers, but we have quite enjoyed it!
What a silly spring it seems to have been. Less than two weeks after our final snow fall we were experiencing temperatures more characteristic of August than May, but then last week was cooler again. All the heat plus precipitation that always seemed to miss us made for some very dry conditions at the farm. Our drip irrigation system becomes very valuable to us in these cases. We have our tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, and cabbage on drip irrigation. Watering can take a surprisingly long time in a space as large as ours, and not only does the drip save us time and labour, but it also helps us use our water resources more efficiently.
You may have heard on the news this spring that flea beetles have been especially frustrating to city gardeners this year. Apparently the canola crop they normally eat was a few weeks behind, so they went looking for other brassica family plants, which include radishes, kale, cabbage, broccoli, arugula, etc. So what that meant for us was that as soon as our radishes emerged they were munched. And despite our best efforts with natural and homemade pesticides (garlic fire-water it was called) in about a week our entire radish crop was destroyed. It’s a good reminder of how CSA farming works, where the inherent risks of farming are shared between the eater and grower. And while it’s disappointing to loose an early share box item, it means we work to supplement with other items instead. The good news is that the cabbages and kale were hardly effected (as transplants they were in our little greenhouse structure and less accessible to the beetles)..
This upcoming week the CMU Farmers are sitting in for parts of a Canadian School of Peacebuilding (CSOP) class entitled Food, Farming and Faith: Living in God’s Creation taught by Norman Wirzba. The course is offered right here at CMU. We’re looking forward to learning from Wirzba and being reminded again about the ‘why’ and ‘how’ of what we do. So if you swing by the farm this week and don’t see us, that is most likely where we’re at. We plan to be at the farm Tuesday and Thursday during the day.
I had to end with this cutie! We had quite the mice infestation at the beginning of the year so we “loaned” some farm cats from a farmer friend of ours. Houdini and Menno are brother and sister (above is Menno) and they are very friendly cats! About two weeks ago Menno took off and we haven’t seen her since. We’re still hoping she finds her way back to us, and should she be with kittens you might receive an extra surprise in your first share box 😉
Oh, and for those wondering when first share boxes will be available, the jury is still out, but we might be looking at the last week of June or first week in July. If we get some nice warm weather now after this rain things might suddenly start coming along very quickly. Either way, we’ll send you an email about a week in advance of the first share boxes.
CMU Farm CSA 