Farm Update, April!

It has been a while since we've posted here. There has been so much going on at the farm, it just kind of got pushed to the back burner. Now, it's mid-April and there is so much new to talk about. Just a couple of days ago, we got our first batch of chicks from our friend Kyle, who kindly agreed to do the collecting and hatching part of the process for us.

It's getting pretty late today, but in the next few days I will be posting about the new chicks as well as whats going on in the greenhouse.

For now, you can see the chicks in their box right when we picked them up...

Cute, aren't they?

Going Organic?

Recently, we've been thinking about whether or not we should be working toward organic certification for our farm. It has been one of the really tough decisions we've faced.

When we first decided to start farming, we weren't going to bother with organic certification even though we were going to grow organically. We figured that it was far too much work and expense to certify our small farming operation. We're also somewhat jaded about the whole issue of organic food. Canada has only had the new national standard for organic agriculture for about a year, and even now there are still so many different certifying bodies that each have different standards that you have to adhere to. We can still try to be better than the certifier requires of us, but would we be comfortable throwing in with a certifier that we aren't entirely happy with? Also, especially with the organic animals, there are other standards like Animal Welfare Approved that are almost completely in line with what we want to do, yet doesn't require farms to be organic.

The most important thing for us is taht we're growing our crops and raising our animals ethically. To that end, we are always going to grow in the spirit of organic agriculture, and maybe one day we will certiy as well. Being certified organic would allow us to give our customers a guarantee right from the get go, allowing us to provide the guarantee that there are no chemicals or altered genetics in our food. Then it wouldn't just be our word, but it would be backed up by a third party as well.

The organic standards aren't perfect, but they are a start. Certifying would also be beneficial for any seed that we end up selling, as one of the most difficult aspects of growing organic food is finding untreated, organic seed sources. In fact, it can be very difficult to find almost anything organic for a producer here in Alberta.

Unfortunately, as long as we're still renting land it isn't feasible for us to certify anyway. We would have to spend three years transitioning the land and working with John to make it work, only to have to do the whole process over again when we moved to our own land. So for now, we will continue trying to grow naturally and responsibly, and in a few years when we have our own farm, we'll think about certifying organic then.

Rosemary, chives and more

It's about this time of year, even in the cold heart of Alberta that growers are gearing up for the coming growing season. Sometime around mid February, when days start getting longer than 10 hours, there's enough light for plants to start growing vigorously. Of course, we still have the -35 to -40C nighttime temperatures to contend with. But in order to get some of the more difficult herbs and vegetables to produce in our 90-100 frost free days each year, we tend to find ways to get things started indoors. On the farm, we've started using Johns staff trailer to get his onions and our chives, thyme, oregano, pansies and lavender off to a good start. Unfortunately we're starting to lose sight of the floor. And so we've also been working with John on getting his heated greenhouse warm enough to grow in, which is certainly it's own challenge.

Even before that, Anna's mom was kind enough to let us take some cuttings from her Rosemary shrub back in B.C., where it's warm enough that it can actually grow into a full shrub. We've been slowly getting these cuttings to take root in the basement under a grow light. It can be pretty amazing how a plant will put out new roots with just a little encouragement from us. We took these cuttings at exactly the time of year we weren't supposed to take Rosemary cuttings, and had them sitting in a box in the fridge for a week before we stuck them in soil with a little bit of rooting powder, and still we've had about half of them root and start forming new leaves.

Now that March has come around, we're going to be getting into full grower mode, seeding new herbs and vegetables every week until summer.

New Website

Anna and I decided that we should go ahead and get a proper website so that we can have a full presence on the web.

It isn't much to look at yet, but we'll really be beefing it up soon with a full description of our farm and products. The website will have details on what we have available for sale (our shares, what's in season, etc), how much it costs and so on.
We even hope to create an online store for you to purchase dried herbs, tea, and even egg and flour shares. So be sure to have a look as we continue work on the website.

www.countrythyme.ca

Don't worry though, we will continue to update you with our daily farming adventures on our blog! The blog is where we will keep you posted on the happenings on our farm and also in our small but exciting local and sustainable community!!

Cleaning our Wheat

This week we finally got around to getting some of our grain cleaned. At first we tried to clean all the grain by hand with 1/4 inch screens, but this was a long and laborious process, and we just couldn't seem to get the sunflowers in the wheat separated. As it turns out, the small seeded sunflowers that John grows in his maze are just about the same size as a wheat kernel.

Stan was able to track down an Emerson kicker, an old seed cleaner no longer in production, from a museum. I guess it's not an antique anymore when you make modifications.  These cleaners used to be used in grain elevators to test incoming grain for the amount of dockage (impurities in the grain). Once a few more modifications were made (it actually moved across the floor when running, so it needed to be stabilized on a forklift) and it was good to go. It goes at a pretty good pace too.

We decided to get the cleaning process on video, and you can see Anna here explaining what's going on. Hope you enjoy it.