The Quickening

On the Farm:

The sheep have slowed down, their bellies are round and full as they come close to the end of their pregnancies. we should have some lambs in the next week or so (I hope). Our hens too, have started to lay more and are spending more time inside their laying boxes. Some are getting “broodyish”, wanting a clutch of chicks, I’m guessing. Rhubarb is starting to push up from its root crowns, the grass is starting to actually grow, and spring bulbs like crocus and daffodils are sending forth leaves.

This is called the Quickening, a term widely used as far back as the Middle Ages, but mostly forgotten now. I like the term, as it makes me think that we are a part of something greater, that we are a part of a cycle of life, death, and renewal. On the farm it is all around us, and hard to forget. The mice too, have started to wake up and have babies. I haven’t yet gone out to the greenhouse this morning to see if they have gotten into my flats of spinach, kale, and lettuces that I set out yesterday. I’ve surrounded the trays with mousetraps, but this time of year can be difficult for little succulent greens. The mice reproduce like mad! Our cat however, is still mostly asleep…

Roadside Stand

We still have eggs every day and two types of kale greens, but the carrots are finally finished as well as the squash. I have put out collard greens a couple of times and they have disappeared, so I will continue to put them out. Fresh local greens are hard to come by right now. The Purple sprouting broccoli is waking up and starting to grow, but it will be a few weeks before I have it out. They are one of my favourite springtime treats, so sweet, so abundant and delicious. I’m hoping to do a seed crop this year, so I can offer them next year. Everyone who gardens should grow this “hunger gap” food. I’ll talk about that another time.

Seeds

The seed season is in full swing and we had a successful day at the Denman Island seedy Saturday. Next up is Qualicum, this coming Saturday. We should have our seed rack up at Wild Rose Nursery in the next week or so, for those of you on Gabriola who are eager to get planting.

We feed the ewes high protein hay when they are pregnant to make sure they are getting enough nutrients as the grass isn’t growing that much yet.

January 16, 2020

Whew!

It has been a tumultuous week on the farm with windstorms and snowstorms, resulting in power outages. It makes for a lot of extra work here. For example, when the temperatures are freezing, the water lines outside don’t run and we have to carry water from the house to the horses, sheep, and chickens by hand. And when the power goes out as well, we either have to scoop it from the pond or use our hand pump well if it hasn’t frozen. It has never seemed worthwhile to dig in water lines below the freezing level since it rarely goes below freezing here— maybe 1-2 weeks a year, at worst.

Mailing List

If you have signed up for our mailing list and haven’t received anything, please sign up again. I hadn’t set it up properly so nothing was going through. I’m still figuring out how to do all this. I promise not to share it or spam you with garbage. You will receive this weekly post on what is happening around our farm, our stand, and maybe a bit of what’s going on in our little part of the world.

Roadside stand

The roadside stand is closed right now. The kale is buried in snow and the chickens aren’t laying so much. In fact, our road has not even been plowed and most cars would have trouble even getting up here. I’m not laying blame on the road guys— one of them is my neighbour. But there are a lot of roads and only a couple of plows to serve them so it can take a few days to clear them all of snow.

Seedy Saturdays

We had our first Seedy Saturday of the year last weekend in Saanich and it was great! Almost every weekend until April is going to be busy with these events, so we are busy packing seeds. Our next event is the Denman Island Seedy Saturday on January 25th. If you have never been to a “Seedy” event, check them out. They are a good way to connect with local seed growers (like myself) and get your garden seeds for the year. An added bonus is that we can give you some growing tips and tricks, or advice on how to grow something that is totally new to you.

Kind of a crummy pic, but you get the idea.

January 5, 2020

Welcome!

Greetings and welcome to our new website! It has been a longtime in coming, and thanks to all of our friends who have been so patient with us, but here we are. There are some tweaks that need to happen, but they will get sorted in time.

Seed Catalogue

Our seed catalogue is up and running. More varieties will be added as we finish germination testing, and we will have many more varieties this fall. I haven’t figured out how to do bulk sales as yet, so if you are interested in buying a certain variety in bulk just email us and we will set you up if we can.

Roadside Stand

We are really excited about selling our goods through the roadside stand too. Here is how it will work: I will write a weekly blog post, either on a Sunday or Monday and send it out to our subscribers. (So sign up! Its easy.) I will be fairly brief about goings on around the farm, and I will say what is available at our stand. You can then purchase it online by clicking on “Roadside Stand” in the navigation bar by Wednesday evening at the latest, and we will bag it and have it ready for you by Thursday afternoon for you to pick up between 2 and 6pm. So easy for you, and good for us as well.

If you prefer, you can see what is available and just swing by at your leisure and pick up what you want when you want. The only downside to this is that we stock up the stand once in the morning, and if we run out of something, it is gone for the day. When you order online, you get it for sure.

The Farm

Things are quiet around here, as quiet as they get anyway. Our first plantings will be happening soon in the greenhouse, we have several ewes close to giving birth— they’re due at the end of the month. It has been quite warm and signs of Spring are here: The hazelnut trees are starting to shed pollen (crazy early for this!), our overwintered kale is starting to elongate and is getting ready to flower, in spirit if not quite in deed. I hope we don’t get a blast of winter, although it certainly is possible.