Guest Post - shovelfuls of...love?

Hey everybody. I think it's time I took the reigns on this whole blogging thing. You see, Sasha has been neglecting this for long enough. I keep logging in looking for some new goods, but it's been the same post for over a month now. So, I decided to do a guest post today while I was helping out on the farm. It is my hope that Sasha will be inspired to continue updating us because I know she has a bunch of great stories to share. So, without further ado about nothing, I will share with you my story.

I came to visit the farm a few days ago. I have been working hard everyday and eating well. it hasn't been easy, but the work is of the variety that is rewarding by virtue of being able to see immediate results. My first day on the farm was a harvest day. Harvest day is a special type of madness. Everyone signs up for a task on a huge list of products that need to be harvested for the market and the box program. Guests "get" the privilege of picking perennial arugula. It is rather tedious work, but having a partner to talk to makes time go by quickly. I helped Sasha dig potatoes by hand. Digging potatoes is like robbing graves - you turn over the dirt and hope to find something good. Afterwards, it was my duty to make lunch and do the dishes. communal lunches are a beautiful way for everyone to catch up with the plan for the remainder of the day and get on the same page. Finally, we collected edible flowers, then went in, had dinner and went to bed.

The next day we packed the truck early for market day. After the truck was packed, we all arranged bouquets of cut flowers. Sasha and I drove into Victoria for the Moss Street Market. We unpacked teh stand and set the produce, flowers, bedding plants, and seeds. It was really cool being able to experiment with the display and getting into the heads of customers. Sometimes, putting things into the right sized basket goes a long way. The market is a busy day, but it is characterized by the soft, cool ocean breeze carrying the sounds of a bluegrass band over the buzz of activity at teh stalls themselves. People rushed about asking questions I couldn't answer and spending a lot of dough. Later that evening, despite coolish weather, we walked to Kemp Lake and had a swim at sunset, sampling Bill's homebrewed beer. divine!

Sunday is the farm's day of rest. Sasha and I slept late and had breakfast with Bill. Afterwards, we rode to Metchosin along the Galloping Goose Trail. The Goose is an old railroad-turned-trail that runs from Sooke into Victoria and up to the ferries. In Mertchosin we met a young couple who have only recently broken ground on their farm. It was so exciting to see what a brand new farm looked like, and Sasha and I were greatly encouraged by the fact that these people are only slightly older than us, and that they are at a phase in their lives that is more or less the same as ours. It was a great trip, and we both left feeling capable of doing things the way we want to.

Today was the best day I've had in a long time. I woke up and made oatmeal while Sasha tended the chickens. Then we set to work weeding this huge-ass patch. I was at it most of the morning, and now I see plants when I close my eyes. Afterwards we had a yummy lunch and spent teh remainder of teh day harvesting soil ammendments. Yes, we shovelled shit! Well, first we went to the sea and got a truckload of seaweed, which was great work, though hard. Then we went to the Alpaca farm nearby and scooped turds to wrap up the day. Why was it so great? I shared teh time working with my lover. Sasha and I went to hang out with the Alpacas in the field for a bit, then cam back, had a light dinner, and hung out with Bill before crashing. All in all a beautiful time. But now I'm tired and I have a long ride ahead of me tomorrow. a dios!

Bees!

Hey all!
I’m gonna do a few shorty posts this week to make up for my lack of writing lately. First off, about the bees!
Steve and his friend James came out from Victoria on Sunday, picked up Bill and I, and we all went over to Tugwell Creek Honey farm for a beekeeping field day. It was great, the crowd was a mix of veteran beekeepers, newbies and practical bee-virgins like myself. The morning sessions went waaay over my head (discussing the benefits and such of various bee box configurations and a run-down on integrated pest management strategies). After we all sat down in the sun to eat our lunches, we donned veils and suits and got to looking at the bees. One of the commercial producers gave a demonstration of emptying a load of bees into a brand new bee box, which was pretty useful information. Then we all went into Bob’s bee yard, opened up some boxes and had a good look at the critters. They were super docile that day, which made for great observation conditions. The veterans all had little crowds about them as they casually instructed on whatever matters came up from the people gathered there. It was really quite inspiring. We looked at drones and workers (didn’t see any queens), saw little larvae curled up in their cells, and looked for the infamous mites that are plaguing bee colonies all over the place these days. Very informational session, and so nice to spend a few hours in the sun surrounded by buzzing and honey smell. Mmmmm…
Stay tuned…

Spring builds big muscles

It’s Monday evening, and I’ll set the scene for you:
Warm enough to be out in a light sweater, sun’s just gone behind the trees ringing the property but still shining on the tops of the southernmost trees, and the only sounds are birdsong, including a neighboring rooster, hummingbirds zipping around me, and the kids playing across the road (I don’t want to, but to be fair must mention the occasional passing car). As I type this, I’m sipping ambrosial mead bought yesterday from a bee farmer and mead maker down the road (I also bought some of his fireweed honey). We worked hard today, as I think we’ll be doing more and more these days, clearing weeds from beds to be planted with chard and strawberries. Got the chard planted but the strawberries must wait as we just got the holes cut in the black plastic by (or just after) quitting time. It was a gorgeous day, hot enough to want a sun hat and plenty of water on hand.
Last Friday was the first harvest day for the Moss Street market in Victoria. Off the top of my head, we picked rhubarb, leeks, parsnips, salad mix, brassica florets, Jerusalem artichokes, kale, mustard greens, nettles (ouch! But yum…), fresh and dry herbs, spinach, flowers for bunches. Mary and Bill went to the market (which is just a half market for a couple of weeks), then next weekend it will be Bill and I. It was a fun harvest day. Last week was a hard-working week in general. I finished planting tomatoes into the greenhouse I am responsible for keeping track of, which ended up being around 160 plants. Mary built a small rock retaining wall for one of the fields which is somewhat terraced, and I helped out a bit with that. We moved the second movable greenhouse (the first one being the one in which I planted tomatoes) and that is really quite something. It involves pulling with the tractor and chains and sticking logs under the rails of the greenhouse… excitement. I don’t remember what else we did right now, but it included lots of digging and moving stuff in wheelbarrows and lifting and general body building-type activities. I’m definitely getting stronger, and I can feel the work in my back. To explain these pictures a bit: the massive leaf I’m holding is giant winter spinach. Bill is the guy gathering daffodils.
You can see some of the lovely produce we harvested for the market, and it’s in the cool room where we store what we harvest. The flowers in the buckets we made into bouquets Saturday morning. There are some examples of the seedlings we’ve been raising, both for sale and to plant at the farm. My hand is next to the same size tomatoes as I was planning into my greenhouse.
So things are going well. Jesse came to visit this past weekend, which was so nice especially after my having gone to Vancouver for the Easter weekend. We had a pretty chill weekend. On Sunday he, Bill and I went to the meadery and had a tasting, spent and hour on the beach, went to visit the alpacas (who I’m falling deeply in love with) and had a great supper. Yay!
Take care all of you,
Love, Sasha

animal farms

Today I had a rather animal-filled day, so this is going to be a rather animal-filled post.
To begin with, each and every day, are the chickens. They are becoming an ongoing source of my amusement. I love how they come running every time they see me coming because they know me as a general food-bringer. I’m often also bringing them tasty insect treats I find in the soil. They have a really funny way of running too, it looks as if they were about to take off any second. Sometimes they do too, I guess when running just isn’t fast enough. Today I was also laughing at the poor rooster in the moveable chicken coop. He rushes out after the hens each morning, trying to pull the rapist-style copulation so particular to roosters. This one just isn’t fast enough though. I think his brain is actually sort of slower than it ought to be. I like it though, he seems gentler than Strawberry (the rooster pictured above) who aggressively pins the hens down on the head and jumps them. Oh chickens…
There’s also a pair of Canada geese that seem to have taken up residence in the farm’s pond. We’re hoping that they have babies there, that would be fun. They are also quite humorous, and I spent quite a while down at the pond this morning just watching them.
Later on I rode down to Kemp Lake for the first time. Beautiful lake, it’s going to be so nice for swimming in the summer. I almost went in today! It was so nice to have a sunny day, just not quite warm enough yet. While I was taking pictures a small furry animal came walking along on a log under me, and I was able to snap some photos of it before it realized that it should get moving, quick. A mink, maybe? I went for a long walk along the lake and down a logging road that paralleled a lovely creek. I was completely alone and heard nothing but water and bird sounds.

Cows!
In the afternoon, I decided to swing by the alpaca farm down the road from ALM. I first visited Barrie’s place (Forest Green Llamas and Alpacas) two weeks ago, and she was really welcoming. She walked around with me, introduced me to all the animals, had me help her out a bit with one of the crias (baby) and then gave me 2 pounds of raw alpaca fiber! Yeah!! She also said that I could come by any time I want, just to hang out or whatever. I think that the animals remembered me as they weren’t quite as skittish as before. They’re very curious, but normally don’t like to be touched. You’ll turn around and a group of them will be following you and looooking. Today they were coming up to me to check me out. One of them followed me around for a while and was snuffling me and having me scratch her. Her name’s Jewel and she’s my new alpaca buddy. Barrie sadly lost one of her donkeys since I last visited, so now there are only two and they seemed a bit out of sorts. I guess wondering where their friend is.
Other than my animal escapades, yesterday Mary held her tomato growing workshop here. I was given the task of teaching transplanting. I feel pretty damn qualified to teach it too, after having done several hundred. It was fun, the participants seemed to get a lot out of it, and I think I did too.
On Friday, we finally decided who would be responsible for which fields. I spent half an hour or so after work playing my guitar down by one of my fields, getting to know it. It’s exciting to imagine all the amazing food that will grow there.
Well that’s it for now, and enough I think. Hope these posts aren’t too long, I tend to ramble I think.
Take care, love, Sasha

post # 1.5

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Hello all!

This is post number 1 ½, as last week I wrote out a whole long letter and then accidentally closed the window and lost it. I was so disheartened that I couldn’t get down to writing again until today. You know how it goes.

So I have been at the farm now for a month! That means seven more to go. I’m feeling pretty settled-in here now, but it did take a couple of weeks. It’s a beautiful place, and I love being rural. All I can hear at night is the sound of what seems like a million frogs, and on a clear night I can see so many stars! Such a far cry from the traffic noise and light pollution of the city. Let me describe the place and people a bit here. Bill and I are the apprentices, he is living in the cute little cob house, and I in the big farm house. Mary, who owns the farm, lives down the road and houses most of the seed company (called Full Circle Seeds) stuff there. Marika, who came to the farm as and apprentice six years ago and is now Mary’s business partner, lives in a tiny house on the farm with her partner Clay. The four of us work here, then there are a few other people who come on a semi-regular basis to do other work; Holger does a lot of the construction work on the farm, and Steve might be trying out a field of grains this year and helps out in other areas. I’m sure that there will be other people coming around too. There were renters in the farm house, but they’ve just moved out, so now it’s just me here. Right now we’re working Monday to Friday, 9 – 5, apart from our own daily chores. I’m responsible for A.M. chicken duty, which involves letting them out of the chicken houses and feeding them and bringing fresh water and scratch.

I feel like I’ve learned so much in this first month that I’m excited to think about how much I will have learned come November. That being said, my learning curve right now is very steep. Lately we’ve been doing a lot of seed starting; things that come to mind are tomatoes, peppers, fennel, beets, chard, kale, onions, leeks, lettuce, broccoli, Chinese cabbage, mustard greens… others I can’t remember. We’ve been transplanting hundreds of tomatoes into 4” pots, some for sale and others to grow at the farm. We’ve direct-seeded broad beans, carrots, peas into the greenhouses, and been transplanting oriental greens, green onions, rob, and lotsa lettuce into greenhouses. I think that the biggest thing I’ve been learning about has been the seed propagation. It’s tricky, getting good germination then making sure that the little seedlings stay alive and grow well. It’s pretty interesting though.

So, what about the heavy manual labour, hey Sasha? Aren’t you working on a farm?? So, last week I wouldn’t have been able to tell you much about that, but woohoo, after this week… On Wednesday, Mary went and cleaned out a nearby chicken farmer’s barn (her yoga teacher’s, actually) of 500 chickens’ worth of shit. That turned out to be about 8 - 10 pickup truckloads of manure to shovel into a nice long compost furrow that now rests in one of the fields. Then five or so more down by where they keep the pigs, and another three or four the next morning to put around the fruit trees. That was a shitty couple of days, and on the Wednesday it just poured. I felt pretty good about it afterwards though, and it’s nice to look at that huge long pile of compost and know that that was a day’s hard work.

Soon we’ll be planning out exactly what we’re going to be growing in the fields, and getting ready to start going to the farmer’s markets in Victoria and Sooke. I’m really excited about the markets, I think I’m going to like that a lot.

Well I wrote quite a bit more than this last week, but it’s a sunny day, and I’d rather be outside, so I’m going to leave the rest for another post.

I hope that all is well with all of you.

With love,

Sasha

Ps- here’s my mailing address for those who’d like it:

3680 Otter Point Road,

Sooke, BC

V9Z 0K1