Free labour? Bring it on!

Last weekend a couple of teenage boys ambled up our driveway while we were in the garden and passed me the bill pictured above. Later that evening I called the number and, sure enough, no joke. Human teenagers willing to do hard physical labour for no money. And no catches. I asked.

Recall that we actually have two plots of plowed up soil in the borrowed backyard but that we are only using one right now; the other is just planted in a harvest wheat cover crop. When Ron rototilled that section in June, he complained bitterly about the size and quantity of stones battering his equipment. After we decided to concentrate on the other section, we virtually abandoned the wheat area; we didn't even bother watering it. All summer long, the section - and its abundant stones - festered.

Now the wheat has a flattened look about it. Pastor Andrew plus 3 teens hopped out of a mini-van at 10am sharp and, after we gave them a quick tour of the garden, got right to work in the wheat field. As soon as 4 or 5 pails of stones were filled, I hauled them to the rock pile using the BCS/dump cart. We probably removed 10 loads or over 3 tons of stones. The teens also collected half a large garbage can of garbage and an almost full bin of metal for recycling. They also removed a lot of small blackberry shoots that had sprung up over the summer. Even Laura helped out, gathering dozens of small treasures of glass; bottles, marbles and pieces of old Chinese plates.

Apparently this wasn't the teens' worst job during their 10 day stay on the island although the worst one also involved stones. After digging them out of a stone retaining wall that was built on the wrong side of a property line, they had to haul them up to the top of the property, on a hot day. One imagines the rejoicing when that job was done.

Before they left, Pastor Andrew invited us to an open-house BBQ on the weekend at the church (although we won't be able to make it). Instead, we dropped off a 2 gallon ice cream pail full of salad mix to the church to feed all those tired teens. Thanks again to Philip, Cory, Tessa, Vanessa, Kurtis and Pastor Andrew.

Decisions, decisions

(Sorry, this picture has nothing to do with today's post but it foreshadows an upcoming one).

This whole farm thing happened pretty quickly, once it started. Unlike the typical farm startup - if there is such a thing - we didn't really have much of a crop plan. The plan, if you can call it that, was determined on the fly and was initially based on the plant starts and seed that people gave us. After those crops were in, we put a little more thought into the other crops. Although, why we decided to plant beans - some dried and some fresh - seems like a mystery now.

This year has not been kind to bean growers; beans just started ripening a couple weeks ago (recall that we had a rainy and cool 7-month fall/winter/spring that only let up towards the end of May). Last year we had beans at the beginning of July, if memory serves, and then there were lots and lots. Of course this year we started them much later but, as of a few days ago, they were just thinking about flowering. That and the fact that some of them got eaten by deer forced us to answer a tough question; for them to bean or not to bean.

We have 13 beds whose length vary from 60 to 100 feet. By the time we had planted the potatoes, tomatoes, squash, carrots, brassicas and beans, we only had only 3 short beds left. In them we tested lettuce mix, spinach, kale, chard and arugula. Of those, the lettuce mix and arugula were the only ones we could sell. We were looking to the near future and seeing a poor crop of beans, some of which would have to be left until October to ripen as dried beans, and no good place to put another planting of greens in the mean time. We were also seeing the calendar and thinking that if we didn't find some spare dirt soon, that we'd lose any opportunity to get fall and winter crops growing before light levels prevented growth.

And so it is that a cash crop of beans became a leguminous cover crop. Because beans do such a good job of transferring nitrogen in the air to the soil, our decision was a little easier. Future crops would benefit from the bean sacrifice.

The first step (after making the decision) was to remove the drip tape and its soil staples. Then I gathered all of the creeping bean shoots into the centre of the bed before chopping it into little pieces with the Palladino flail mower*. Next, I used the R2 power harrow to incorporate the mulched bean material into the soil. The harrow is nice because, unlike the rototiller which mixes soil layers vertically and tends to hyperoxygenate the soil, it (more) gently stirs the soil, leaving it in a more natural stratificaiton. Having said that, it still brings up a fair number of stones (our biggest crop, by far) which need to be removed by hand. Once the top few inches are relativelty stone free, the resulting bed is quite flat and firm, toned even.

Such a bed is critical for the finicky precision seeder but the prep work is probably worth it since the actual seeding takes mere minutes and compares extremely favourably with the alternative of planting individual heads of lettuce. And the lettuce mix pays well at $9/lb, compared with $2 per head of lettuce. Pauline, being something of a harvesting machine, can cut about 7 lbs of mix in an hour, using nothing more than scissors.

We use a washing machine to wash and spin the leaves which is a remarkable time saver compared to using a $5 plastic kitchen spinner. You can buy a 5 gallon spinner but it's a few hundred dollars and you still have to do the work. So, thanks to Bryan on Sunset Drive who not only gave away his spare washing machine but delivered it to the farm. I gave him and his daughter bread, jam and salad mix as a token of my appreciation.

Now we just have to hope that it grows tall enough before it goes dormant for the winter and that people will actually buy it when we harvest it. On the one hand, there probably won't be many others growing this crop in for the winter harvest. On the other, it's tough to say how much salad people around here demand over the winter. Guess we'll find out soon enough.




*From Palladino's website: "The commitment that we assume to the customer is to make the brand synonymous with quality Palladino recognized as 'guarantee and seriousness'."

CFF Agronomics 2 - Markets

Having discussed the reduction of farm expenses in CFF Agronomics- Part One, I now feel like spending some time on the ickier topic (IMO) of generating sales. Of course, I have already spoken of the farm stand which continues to get rave reviews and is a consistent smallish source of daily income (which could be significantly higher, percentage wise, if some people would stop stealing, but that is another post for another day).

We now have two other sales outlets; Growing Up Organic and the Market in the Meadow. GUO is an initiative of the local chapter of the Canadian Organic Growers, Island Natural Growers and is basically a middle-man between growers and buyers on Salt Spring. There are something like 20 growers like us and maybe half that number of buyers, which include grocery stores, restaurants and institutions.

On Wednesdays, l'homme au moyen, Laurent, sends out a reminder for the growers to list all the things they have for sale come the following Tuesday's harvest. He then calls all of the buyers to see what they would like to purchase. We find out what to harvest the day or two before. On Tuesday, Laurent drives around to all the farms and picks up our stuff before dropping everything off at the buyers. The prices were all decided upon months ago and are not negotiable. The GUO program takes 10% to partially run the program (it's also funded by COG).

We are really fortunate to have GUO as people seem reluctant to buy our fresh produce off the stand for some reason. The inviolable rule or showing abundance of produce conflicts with the fact that it quickly wilts in summer heat and becomes compost material. So we are quite happy to harvest relatively large quantities of produce from the beds knowing that it will all be purchased in perfect condition.


The other outlet is the Market in the Meadow or the "Tuesday" market in downtown Ganges. While the Saturday market is much larger and attracts tourists from all over, the Tuesday market is smaller, predominantly food products and attracts mainly locals. The pace is more relaxed and yet there is a constant supply of shoppers who have come to get the freshest produce money can buy.

The first Tuesday market we attended two weeks ago was a big success. Pauline had the foresight to scope it out a few times prior to our appearance and realized that no-one was selling either plant starts or bread, our big sellers at the moment. The first week I baked 18 loaves of non-organic bread which sold minutes after I delivered them. I baked them at our summer farmhouse near town so it was only a 2 minute drive. People could smell the piping hot loaves across the "Meadow" and came running over, sometimes reserving loaves from the next batch. They also seemed to have a sweet tooth as the ginger snaps sold out. Pauline sold several plant starts although we've learned that people want more broccoli and cauliflower than we thought and it's too late to start them now.

For yesterday's market I increased bread production to 16 loaves of non-organic and, due to all the requests from the first week, 8 loaves of organic. All of them sold although we needed all of the market time to do it. I suspect we'll keep the baking constant for the next couple of weeks and maybe add our plum jams, provided we get it successfully acid-tested by the health authority.

The buck stops here

We had another ungulate intrusion Sunday night. The foliage on more Yukon golds, this time at the other end, were sampled. Probably more tomato flowers. All of the edamame. And I didn't mention the hot peppers. Completely defoliated. All in all, though, still not catastrophic but I'm not the type to wait for the (otherwise) inevitable.

Dad and I picked up 3 rolls of stucco wire at Windsor on Monday. After raising the existing plastic fence a couple of feet so that it now rises up about the T-posts a foot before flopping down, we cable tied the stucco wire at ground level. Using un-reinforced T-posts means that we couldn't stretch the wire. Given the uneven terrain, it is impossible to turn corners and adjust to changing elevation without some wrinkles, either at the ground or at the top. So, even now, a deer could conceivably push its way underneath the fence (Dad doesn't think so). To err on the side of caution, we used some heavy duty garden stakes to further pin down a few sections that were particularly suspect. And on the worst one I saw, I weaved a 10' length of electrical metal tubing through the bottom holes.

So far so good. Some tracks on the outside of the fence now and no new ones inside. It's too early to declare victory but I have allowed myself some optimism on this one.

Oh deer

As I sit here contemplating the inaction of a medium size mule deer buck just outside our garden (NOT pictured above), I can't help but realize all of the similarities we share:

We are both taking a break after eating a herbaceous meal (his, various grasses, berries and fallen plums; mine, our own salad mix including arugula and turnips).

The species we belong to have overpopulated our respective habitats (in his defence, we killed off the cougars that would have kept his population in check. In our defence, not having killed the cougars may have also kept our own population in check).

We both subscribe to the notion that we are wild animals and, as such, will do whatever is necessary to not only continue living but to propagate our species. Neither of us hold any straw dog beliefs that humans (or deer) can engineer a way for all of the world's species to live in perfect peaceful harmony.

We both set foot in the garden yesterday and ate from its stock of food.

It is this last point that is causing me the most consternation today. Recall that the land we are using to grow feed - er...food - is borrowed. Since we cannot predict with certainty how long we will be able to continue here, certain compromises had to be made; one of which was to erect a steel post and plastic mesh deer 'barrier' instead of the more expensive and time-consuming high tensile page wire. I use the word barrier in single quotes since any deer worth its antlers should be able to walk right through a plastic fence . That they still have not is a testament to the psychology of deer fencing. But the fact remains that one or more deer has been inside our garden enclosure and some action needs to be taken.

So far, my investigation is inconclusive. Beans and potato leaves were munched and, I suspect, some tomato flowers. Probably some greens were sampled but there were no obvious signs (although someone else might think the butcher job I did with the greens harvester on the lettuce mix bed the other day was the work of a malicious doe). There were no piles of scat which suggests the visit was brief. For that, I am insulted.

Recently a farmer friend suggested that deer would soon become a problem as sources of naturally occurring food whither in the seasonal drought (we've had some rain in the last 2 days but, before that, none for about two months). When I told him about our plastic fence, he advised that we install a 4' width of stucco wire a foot off the ground to protect the critical 1-5' level that the deer test with their heads. While I agree that this would probably be a smart thing to do, I believe the deer are probably getting in underneath the plastic fence since there is no evidence of any fence breakage. Less likely is that they are jumping over its 90" height. Not that they couldn't; just that they probably wouldn't unless they were spooked while inside.

The tracks left in the soil suggest a very conscientious fellow; always staying on the narrow animal-track-width pathways between beds. I have heard stories of them trampling the crop that they didn't eat thus doing twice the damage. But not our buck. Even where the squash vines intersect pathways haphazardly, none were squished by his cloven hooves. Perhaps the deer here have evolved to be responsible crop stewards, never taking too much and not doing gratuitous damage. Or not.

So, what to do. Well, on a Sunday, there are no stores open to even purchase fencing wire so that's out. In any case, I doubt leaving a 1' swath along the bottom is wise, since that's where they're likely getting in. I could extend the wire to the bottom but then it would only be 4' high. I could wrap two widths one on top the other to make 8' but then I will have wasted the existing plastic fence (time and materials) and still not have any guarantee of success.

So I think I'll continue to watch this guy in hour two of my ongoing coverage of The Buck Who's Just Sitting There Being Lazy on a Sunday Afternoon.

Apparently we have another thing in common.

CFF Agronomics - Part One

The 3 R's of waste management take on extra signifigance when the consequences of following them affect the bottom line. And when you are employed in a profession which promises to make financial survival a challenge, reducing expenses takes on a new importance.

Out here on the West Coast lumber practically grows on trees, there's so much of it. Yet, for some reason, the lumber yard still charges ungodly sums for it. So whenever something needs to be built, my instinct is to scrounge around to see what is already on the farm property, at our home in Vesuvius or is otherwise free somewhere near.

Our ailing sandwich board (let half of it rest in pieces), is an example of repurposed junk. It had recently resided in the farmhouse's main floor bathroom as faux maple "wood" panelling over the better-looking 150 year old fir boards which, if I am to believe the story I was told, were themselves likely salvaged from ancient rail car floors. Mary and Blair wisely ripped the panelling out and tossed it outside where her boys turned one of the two 4X8 sheets into a ping pong table. The other full sheet was neatly stored by the tractor shack (the tractor shack was a chicken coup in its previous life). A few weeks ago we contemplated cutting the panelling into a countertop for the new kitchen island.

Good thing Mary doesn't have the internet at her Ontario summer cottage else she would be wondering island? in the kitchen? WTF?!. Happily, she and the boys will get to appreciate the results of their two-month while you were out when they return just before school starts.

The island is actually a hacked-down Home Depot DIY work bench Pauline picked up at a Channel Ridge estate sale (I specify Channel Ridge because, had it been any other neighbourhood, it would have been either a home-made workbench or, at best, a cheesy Mastercraft workbench, made out of plastic and good intentions). We ripped off the backsplash thingy and cut down its two 2X6 uprights flush with the table top and then surfaced it with an old 3/4" sheet of plywood lying around the tractor shack. It took me about an hour with my garage sale belt sander to remove its black paint. Our counter height stools fit under its 14" overhang so that we can sit at it.

Forgive me for I have digressed. We decided that the sanded off black plywood looked a lot nicer as a countertop than the panelling so the panelling remained unused until the sandwich board application. After some yahoo (I have to believe it was a tourist) crunched the board Friday, I spent a half hour Saturday morning cutting another piece from the sheet's remainder to replace the one damaged side. The hard shiny finish acts as a whiteboard. Using hardware I already had from yardsales past, the sandwich cost no more than my time. And that is worth practically nothing these days!

Five pallets resided on the north side of the tractor shack when we arrived in May. They are now arranged so as to contain our compost piles for the cost of some screws. I lined them with compostable SSC burlap coffee sacks to keep the compost from spilling out yet allowing it to breathe.

The roof of our market stand came from discarded galvanized roofing lying amongst a Scotch Broom plantation on the property. Almost completely overgrown near the roofing is an enormous coil of 1/2" steel cable. Not that I need another enormous coil of that. Just sayin'.


Again, the gold mine of the tractor shack area recently yielded a couple of steel ladder-like structures that we are now using to bridge a couple of workstands to create plant start stands. The laying boxes for the property's long gone chickens are now hung on a wall in the tractor shack and used as cubbies.

The current project is to reuse a bunch of lumber to make a solar dryer. The lumber for this project was previously used to build a frame for our polyethylene garden cover for our balcony garden in Vesuvius. The lumber's original use (as far as I know) was as framing material used with steel strapping to hold a bundle of drain pipe in Windsor Plywood's backyard. It was the perfect size for the mini chicken coup I built last September. That stuff plus some distressed OSB and a few discontinued asphalt shingles found their way off their property for a small donation to the staff Christmas party.

And one final example. On Friday I learned that when a lot of water drips off a cookie sheet onto an electric oven element, it first creates a fireworks show before the element breaks. Further, I learned that the local hardware store has a surprising assortment of replacement parts for appliances. Fortunately I had forgotten my wallet at home so I was unable to pay its $43 +HST price. Fortunately, because I had a few moments at home to lament the fact that my teachable moment was going to wipe out half of the day's sales and most of its profit. And then I remembered the scrap metal place up the road. Dad and I drove up there, made some enquiries and left 10 minutes later with a free (no tip accepted) replacement element. They agreed to accept my scrap roofing material as payback.

Unless I think of something else to build with it first. In which case, they can have the broken fridge ... or the old concrete truck bumper ... or the big metal box ... or the steel rim ...or...