Too Busy Farming to Blog

A photo of some of our new garden beds, mid-construction. You can also see the gigantic excavator in the background which, until yesterday, was in our backyard for a month while a new septic system was installed.

I have a lot of news and farm updates to blog about, but am sort of existing in a pedal-to-the-metal mentality right now. The Haney Farmer’s market starts this Saturday and although we don’t have enough produce ready to start selling this week, we still have a TON to do to before being ready to set up our booth in a few weeks.

My daily schedule looks something like this right now:

6 – 8:45am – wake up, let farm animals out of their pens and give them fresh food and water, water garden beds, shower, eat breakfast.

9- 11am – (pay-the-bills morning tutoring job)

11:15am – 3:15pm – a combination of picking up compost & tossed cardboard from local grocery store, stopping by hardware/ garden shop if in need of anything, building greenhouse, building garden beds, planting seeds, transplanting seedlings, tidying farmyard, giving bunnies a dandelion snack, eating lunch.

3:30 – 7:30pm – (pay-the-bills afternoon/ evening tutoring job)

7:45pm – darkness – water garden beds, plant more seeds in trays, top up animal feed and water, lock in animals for the night, and anything else on my to-do list that I can cram in before the sun goes down.

Nighttime/ darkness – go inside my trailer, clean up whatever mess is left from my busy day, make dinner, watch something brainless online, look at emails but don’t bother answering many, go to bed.

At the moment, weekends are farm/ gardening work from sunrise to sunset.

I actually love all the work the farm and gardens are demanding from me right now. What I don’t love is all the stuff that takes me away from it (the pay-the-bills job, telephone calls, emails, unexpected delays on projects…). I’m so happy that this is how I’m spending my days and I just wish I had more time for all of it. I don’t remember the last time I spent so little time online or indoors. It’s early May and my skin is already getting tanned (you know, as much as mine can ;) and I’m spending every spare second I have outdoors: getting my hands dirty, growing stuff, learning construction skills… it’s SO awesome. I’m pretty sure I’ll never be able to return to an office job now – this is my kind of lifestyle.

All that to say (and the purpose of this post), I’m totally behind in my blogging. I have LOTS to share! Photos and updates coming soon, including our newly constructed greenhouse, new garden bed spaces, free gifts from new friends we’ve made through this blog, a new permaculture friend and market partner, two new rabbitats for our now much happier rabbits, a new gardener on our property, a new septic system which resulted in the relocation of our young food forest, a visit from a local high school student who’s doing a project on alternatives to factory farming, and more…

Yay! It’s a busy, productive, fruitful time on the farm! Things will only get better as the spring/ summer progresses and our plants begin to bear delicious food for us and people in our community.

And on that note, it’s time to make myself a 10pm dinner: salad which will include fresh raddishes from my planting box on my deck.

G’night all.

Chris Kasza joins the Farm for Life family!

I’m stoked to announce that we have a new addition at Farm for Life!

Chris Kasza moved to Maple Ridge from Vancouver in March of 2011 to pursue an opportunity to create a working and demonstration market garden on a few acres in Silver Valley. I met Chris in August of 2011 and our common interests in permaculture, homesteading and road trips with co-op and vegan restaurant destinations quickly developed into a farm friendship and romance. Since we wanted to spend a lot of our time together, but were both committed to working on separate acreages, we began working side by side, splitting our time between the two properties. When this started happening, it wasn’t long before we started talking about joining forces to turn our gardening adventures into something we could try making a living at . By the end of 2011, we were making plans to expand our garden plot spaces so we could grow enough produce to sell at local farmers markets this summer. Because of so many collaborative efforts, it was just natural that we invite him and the property he lives on to become an official member of The Farm for Life Project. Yay! A new member and a new property. We’re growing!

Chris has been involved in some really cool experiences. Here’s a little bit about him:

Before moving to Maple Ridge, Chris worked on several ecological agriculture projects. In 2008, he spent the summer as a WWOOF volunteer at an international community/ burgeoning ecovillage in Herefordshire, England called Earthworm Housing Coop. This experience strengthened his interest in small-scale projects, self reliance and community involvement. Two important concepts that were introduced to him during this time were permaculture and transition towns. While transition towns are a fairly new idea, he’s been lucky to participate in two now; Village Vancouver in 2010 and currently as a member of the Golden Ears Transition Initiative.

After returning to Canada in 2009, Chris worked as a farm apprentice in Ontario’s CRAFT (Collaborative Regional Alliance for Farmer Training) program at The Ark Farm in Tiverton, ON. He also had the opportunity to finish off the 2009 extended growing season as a volunteer at Everdale Organic Farm and Environmental Learning Centre.

In 2010, Chris decided to move to Vancouver, BC. While it meant giving up playing in the dirt of rural locations, he still managed to get his hands and knees dirty as a member of the Collingwood Community Gardens (and by engaging in a few stealthy plantings around his neighbourhood, but that’s hush hush).

Last year, Chris relocated to Maple Ridge to engage more actively in his interests in food security, biodiversity and sustainability issues. In addition to his market garden project, he is hoping to use the property he lives on to provide educational opportunities related to self reliant living (gardening, seed saving, permaculture classes, small-scale DIY electricity, grey water systems and more).

Chris’ related education includes a Permaculture Design Certification completed at Lost Valley Educational Centre in Oregon, the Organic Master Gardener certification from Gaia College, and a Permaculture Advanced Teacher Training certification completed at OUR Ecovillage on Vancouver Island.

We’re very lucky to have him join The Farm for Life Project and are excited to see where this partnership brings all of us. Welcome to the family Chris!

Rhubarb Muffins for a Rainy Day

It’s rainy today. Really, really rainy. I have lots of work I could be doing outside in the gardens, but I feel like this kind of rain gives me an excuse to stay inside, get caught up on blogging and reading, and try out a new recipe or two.

Food is growing on the property and it’s been fun to start adding home-grown goods to our meals. We’ve been adding wild stining nettles to our smoothies, mashed potatoes and home-brewed beer experiments for awhile now, but the past few days have given us a chance to harvest and eat some of our rhubarb and radishes too.

On Saturday I made a rhubarb crumble and while outside taking care of the animals this morning, I harvested some more to try out a rhubarb muffin recipe. (I’m totally growing a new appreciation for the tanginess and tartness of rhubarb – sooo good!).

I did a google search for vegan rhubarb recipes since there are none in my vegan cookbooks. I came across a muffin recipe that I adjusted for the ingredients I had/ wanted to use. They turned out really well (I just gobbled up two of them). The rhubarb pieces add a really wonderful flavour and moisture to them. Here’s the recipe that resulted from my combined google search/ personal adjustments:

Combine:

1 1/2 C diced rhubarb pieces
2/3 C brown sugar
1 1/2 C spelt flour
1/3 C oil
2/3 C apple sauce
1/3 C almond milk
1 tsp baking soda
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
1 tsp allspice
sprinkle of nutmeg

Pour into greased muffin tins. Bake for 30 mins at 350F. Makes 1 dozen.