Old 99 Farm, week of March 9 2014

This post expired on March 10, 2024.

This time last year I had dozens of duck and chicken eggs in the incubator! Haven’t starting the breeding pairs yet this year.
I had two volunteers to do the protein cost research. Come where are the rest of you?
How about sending in a favourite recipe I can post here on locallygrown?

Early notice, does anyone want us to grow their transplants this year?

I’ll grow for you, using my on-farm compost. March is the month for tomatoes, leeks etc that take 6 to 8 weeks before planting out, April for the rest that take only 4 weeks. I’d say spring is a month later this year than last.

Eggs still $5 dozen, XL size. Limited greens available, cilantro, parsley, chard, claytonia. Pork, beef and lamb, stewing hens.

HOTBED
I’ve been wanting to show you the hotbed. Hasn’t been the slamdunk I expected, but then that’s what it means to learn by experience. Started with a pile of fresh manure in the empty North Greenhouse.

Then levelled it to about two feet high and fairly compacted (oxygen to feed microbes but not too much, so the heat will last about 2 months), built wood frame and lights (lids) and filled with compost and soil about 6inches. Planted rows short direction (N-S) about 7inches apart.


Planted short, fast maturing greens like lettuce and mesclun mix, spinach and arugula (hey Andrew get ready!) alternated with carrots. But had to replant some this weekend, seems seed was too old (I was too cheap).

The Post Carbon, Peak Prosperity universe

I loved this matrix format to make sense of who’s who in the ongoing saga of anticipating our collective future. We are in a crisis in the evolution of human society. It’s unique to both human and geologic history. It has never happened before and it can’t possibly happen again. Albert Bates, author of The Post Petroleum Survival Guide and Cookbook, brings you his personal map of progosticators. Left-right axis is a spectrum from peaceful coexistence to active resistance. The top-bottom axis is the range of outcomes of climate upset. This yields four quadrants. Find your favourite author and see where his/her writing fits. How many names do you recognize? Try reading some of the others, including Bates himself at http://www.peaksurfer.blogspot.ca/ where he elaborates on the chart and adds authors as they are suggested by readers. Very helpful to make sense of who to read. (example knowing that Jensen and McPherson are dark doomers helps a decision whether to read them.

Healthy eating
Ian and Camelia