More Planning

The mid-winter plan-a-thon continues. We have just returned from the Guelph Organic Conference and boy are we re-energized! It never fails to amaze me what a few days with enthusiastic, like minded people can do for our motivation and innovation. Here in the North there are so few vegetable growers, and no other CSA operators that we can talk with. Its great to be able to share stories and experiences over dinner and drinks with people who actually understand what you're talking about. Now with that boost of energy, we're ready to kick start this season!!!

Planning Time

January has seen us planning up a storm, getting our ideas together for the 2010 season. We are making a few big changes to the way we run our CSA this year in order to better accommodate our members. Mostly this means giving them options when it comes to all the "extra's" we provide, like bread and eggs. But we're also planning on lengthening our season by a 2 weeks, and bringing the membership up to 100 shares. This all has to make economic sense and fit in with our labor schedule for next year as well. Which of course means juggling numbers, and developing plans for the coming season. Employees, seed, compost, taxes, rentals, equipment, tools, the list goes on and on, and hopefully, somewhere in there we can make a living too!

One new option we're hoping works out this year is offering a few "work shares" on the farm. A work-share is when a member of the CSA trades their labor (4 hours per week for 14 weeks) in exchange for a share of the produce. This helps us with harvesting and packing, and lets the participant really connect with the farm (and get some exercise too). Last year we had one work share and we found it went really well.

This time of year is really exciting, but also a little intimidating, as we send out our first membership info for the year. Right now we have a long list of members and waiting members, that soon must transform into confirmed members for 2010. With the first year of full time farming under our belts we're hoping there will be many more to come!

The New Year Begins!

Happy 2010!

After taking some time off in December we're now back to work on the farm. What is there to do on a vegetable farm in Northern Ontario in January? Plenty. We have lots of paperwork to fill out and send away, accounting, taxes, t4's for our payroll. Not to mention building our new website, creating a short commercial and giving a couple of lectures at our local University and schools.

Around the farm we've had a few unusual visitors that have stayed much longer than normal.

Snow birds! Also called the Snow Bunting, these birds travel together in flocks of 20 to 50 individuals and migrate south with the snowline. Normally we see these birds arrive on the farm about a week before the first snow, and there gone as soon as the snow falls. This year the birds have hung around for months longer than usual. The reason? This we did an experiment with a cover crop of oats, and left half an acre standing in the field, rather than ploughing it under. The Snow birds have been eating the oats and some grass seeds and occasionally flying up to the driveway to get a bit of grit. Despite the snow and several nights of -30 C the birds are still here.

We wish everyone a Joyful and Prosperous 2010!

Clearing the Land

Every fall we try to clear another acre or two of the pasture. This year we had a lot of help from local students needing to get their volunteer hours for the education program in. Thanks guys! 6 people working for 7 hours accomplished a weeks worth of work in just a day. What a difference many hands makes.
There is only 1 acre left to clear in the pasture now! It's nice to share this immensely satisfying work with other people. There is nothing quite as rewarding as starting a day with a piece of land covered in small trees and brush, and then finishing it with a neatly stacked brushpile burning away, the land now cleared and ready to grow grass for the cattle next summer. Effecting positive change in our daily life!

Grass Fed Beef Now Availible!

Were now taking orders for our Grass Fed Beef.

Every year we graze Herford-Angus steers in our pasture over the grass growing months (May to Oct). Our steers graze on a lush pasture mix of clover, timothy and grass from May through mid-October. Our animals are rotated through the pasture, keeping a fresh salad bar of grass in front of them all season, while allowing the other parts of the pasture to recover from grazing. We strive to provide the best quality of life for our steers. Our animals have fresh, clean, spring-water piped directly to them at all times. They also have access to shady, tree lined, lounging areas to relax in and never have to walk far to find either water, shade or grass. In early fall we send them to government inspected abattoir in Murillo for processing. We believe grass fed beef is better for people, cattle and the land for a number of reasons:

• Pasture-raised animals roam freely in their natural environment where they're able to eat nutritious grasses and other plants that their bodies are adapted to digest
• When raised on open pasture, animals are able to move around freely and carry out their natural behaviors.
• Low stress conditions mean healthy animals, with no need for antibiotics or growth hormones
  

• The Human heath benefits of grass fed beef include being lower in calories and total fat, with higher levels of vitamins, and a healthier balance of omega-3 and omega-6 fats than conventional meat.
• Cattle can naturally gain weight and fat on good pasture without the need for grain.

Purchasing our beef

Because our priority is feeding our members, we offer our Beef for sale to our CSA customers first. If beef is available after their orders have been met we are more then happy to sell to the public too.

How do I request certain cuts?

Because of our small number of cattle we cannot offer beef by the cut. In order to be fair to everyone and ensure that we can sell all our cuts and ground beef, we bundle our beef for sale in 20 lb boxes. We include only top end cuts in our boxes.

The boxes are comprised of 10lbs of ground, and 10 pounds of assorted cuts. We include only top end cuts in our boxes.

Here's what you'll find in every box:

Box of Grass fed Beef Breakdown

1 Roast, 3-4 lbs (Sirloin tip, Boneless rib)

5 steaks (Tenderloin,T-bone, Rib steak, Porterhouse, Sirloin)

10 lbs of ground beef in 1 lb packages

Box Price: $100.00

Beef is sold on a first come first serve basis after our CSA customers.

Cooking Grass Fed Beef

Check out these links for great tips on cooking our grass fed beef.

http://www.sustainabletable.org/features/articles/grassfedbeef

http://www.alderspring.com/cooking/html/cooking.html

First Snowfall

Although the snow will melt pretty soon, it's definitely an indicator that our season is drawing to a close. This is the second last week of our harvest season, which will mean that April has gone to market every week for 17 weeks! That is the longest veggie harvest season we've ever been able to manage, and given our extremely poor summer, its a bit of an achievement.
After the snow melts we'll see what remains in the garden and take the last of it to market next Saturday, October 17.

Early October Update

With last weeks planting of garlic we've finally reached the end of the planting season on the farm. Despite the recent heavy frosts that killed the frost sensitive plants we still have harvesting to do. Right now we still have the following things available at the Country Market on Saturdays.

• Beets
• Chard
• Green Onions
• Mesclun Mix
• Carrots
• Spinach

Until we get a solid freeze, we'll keep going to Market, hopefully until the end of October.

See you there!