The Weblog

This page contains news, event information, and other items added by Ian and Adam, the resident farmers at Old 99. We send out a message every week, but most are set with a delete date about two weeks later. I archive some of the posts if they have content other than weekly availability of produce and meat.

You can send me questions too, which if they are of a general nature, I can post to this Old99 blog.



 
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old 99 farm week of jly 30 2018


Yes, tomorrow is market day, I"ll pick for you for pick up friday to sunday, if you like.
Lots of cukes, potatoes, tomatoes, bean, kale.

See this for a real plan to deal with climate emergency:
Climate Mobilization Plan 2016

Healthy eating,
Ian and CAmi

old 99 farm, week of july 22, 2018


Lots of berries still, raspberries recovered after the rain on the weekend. Fully loaded. Currants, you only pick once, about half hte bushes have been harvested. Don’t wait till friday.

Lots of greens, and new beans (yellow and purple), cukes, even a few cherry tomatoes.

Put in the comment section if you want tomatoes.

My climate education site for the week is
ScienceDaily. Just the facts ma’am, just the facts.

Old 99 Farm, week of July14 2018


Gotta say it again, berry season is here! A bumper crop thanks to the irrigation. Come pick unsprayed, organic raspberries and currants here at Old99, then go next door for blueberries too!
Lot of cukes for pickling, slicing, salads, sandwiches.

Also offering eggs, beet, green and bulb onions, arugula, kale, chard, herbs (basil, chives, parsely, lovage, fennel), lamb, beef and pork.

My climate science link for the week is designed to make it easier to understand what is missing from the public discourse and leading us to be complacent about the risks. Job One for Humanity is here.

The four sessions of Permaculture and Climate Change, offered by Adrian Hodgson and myself are published on the web at this site: learn how to adapt a permaculture design to your lifestyle, live the good life in spite of climate disruption.

Old 99 Farm, week of July 9 2018


Berry season is here: you can pick unsprayed, organic raspberries and currants here at Old99, then go next door for blueberries too!

Also offering beet, kale, chard, herbs, lamb, beef and pork.

We’re hooking up the drip irrigation this week, seems another hot dry summer is happening. With the water, we’ll have a good crop of cuccumbers, potatoes, sweet potatoes, squashes, celeriac and carrots.

For climate science education I really recommend a prof in California, background in astronomy, who has put all his lecture notes up on the web. Dr Richard Nolthenius has taught at Cabrillo College (17,000 students) for over 30 years. Here is the link. He emphasizes sorting out the truth on the weight of the evidence.

The fourth session of Permaculture and Climate Change, offered by Adrian Hodgson and myself is happening at Westdale public library, July 19, 6 to 8pm. Come out to learn how to adapt a permaculture design to your lifestyle, live the good life in spite of climate disruption.

Healthy eating
Ian and Cami

Old 99 Farm, week of July 1 2018


We can add beets basil and garlic scapes to our list of offerings this week.

Check the website or attached list, order direct online. Tell me if you need a different pick up date.

Coming soon: raspberries, cukes, currants and new potatoes.

We have pork in the freezer, if you ordered a half, you can now pick up.

For climate news, my featured blog is called FasterThanExpected. Nice short clips of the latest news from science with pictures.

Old 99 FArm, week of June 24 2018


Bracing for more heavy rain today and friday with ‘most significant heat event of the year to date’ for the weekend and into next week.

Today is second public meeting rolling out the Bay Area Climate Change Office, BACCO, based at Mohawk college for Hamilton and Burlingon foodshed. They’re inviting the public and stakeholders to attend from 6 to 8pm at Royal Botanical Gardens for “an opportunity to shape the vision and structure of this new office. How boldly our region responds to climate change will determine whether we can have a resilient, thriving community going forward. Don’t miss this chance to have your say.”

Old99 has greens and herbs: spinach, kale, mizuna, lettuce, chives, dill, arugula, lovage, sweet cicely, green garlic, garlic scapes, and asparagus this week.

Meats: pork fresh from the butcher is now on, raised here, Berkshire breed. Choice of beef cuts is good, lots of chicken for roasting and stock. Bones for stock are in good supply.

Healthy eating,
Ian and Cami

Old 99 farm, week of June10 2018


we’re heading into a long dry spell says the extended forecast. I’ll need to get irrigation set up for the outdoor gardens.

I cut hay on the weekend, very nice stand of waist high thick grasses and clovers. Now it has to dry and be baled before rain comes! I will sure appreciate any help from people on this list who can join in loading the wagon and moving the hay into the barn. Likely will be thurs to Sat timeframe. Please reply your willing and able, assuming timetable works. It’s not a lot of work, maybe 200 bales, easily done in couple hours with three to five people.

This week we have lettuce hearts, crisp and crunchy (Buttercrunch), mizuna, kale (two kinds) asparagus, arugula and herbs. There’s turnips, rhubarb, sweet cicely, lovage, dill and spearmint.

Pork sides are now sold, there will be select cuts available after butchering later this month.

On the climate front: I listened this week to a persuasive advocate for urgent action at radio ecoshock. I love this weekly broadcast of blue-chip scientists interviewed by Alex Smith on causes and effects of climate change. Michael Mielke calls himself "a “Cultural Transformation Engineer”. Earlier in his career, Michael led a movement to get tens of thousands of kids moved from state care to real families. He was the Executive Director for a movement that became the Coastal Wetlands Planning, Protection and Restoration Act for Louisiana and the Gulf Coast, passed by Congress.

See a four minute appeal from Canadian climate scientist and evangelical Christian, Kathrine Hayhoe called Sound the Alarm

Of course if you haven’t already, follow me on facebook where I try to post the best of what I find.

Healthy eating,
Ian and Cami

Old 99 Farm, week of May 27 2018


First off, before I forget again, I need some small plastic bottles, like water bottles, the 340 ml size. So if you’re buying bottled water on occasion, pls save for me and bring to the farm. (I use them for freezer cooling for milk.)

Lots of asparagus, we’re picking daily, will offer two for one this week. That’s two pounds of asparagus for $5!!.

We have sold the last half pig so you’ll have to wait now till the fall if you were thinking of it.

See the list of greens, herbs, meats available picked fresh on Fridays. Mizuna and Dino Kale added this week. If you can’t come friday but prefer sat or sunday, I’ll pick and leave in the cooler for you.

Yea, Justin just spent $4.8BILLION for an oil pipeline to the west coast! He must really know something the rest of us don’t, why that’s so crucial to the national interest. Shucks, who really expected him to go for the Paris accord targets anyway.

Healthy eating
Ian and Cami

Old 99 Farm, week of May 20 2018


Shorter week with Vic Day long weekend. (Not really shorter but you know what I mean.)
The greens are holding up: add mizuna to the list: an asian green for salads and steaming.
Lots of asparagus, I pick daily. I wish I had a market for dandelion greens, they have really enjoyed the compost I put on the asparagus rows and are ginormous.

Lettuces, kale, spinach, chard, turnip greens, lovage, sweet cicely: that’s the list. Also dill, fennel, green garlic, chives. Turnip root is only starchy veg right now.

We watched the food doc, Magic Pill (hat tip to Ron and Irene) this week. A reminder that fat is good, pastured beef is good, sugar (in everything is bad). Consider upping your fat intake with adding pork lard to your burgers. I have it here. The movie is Aussie made, well done, 2017 issued.

Healthy eating,
Ian and Cami

Old 99 Farm, week of May 12 2018


This is the numerical tally from the locallygrown site: we offer 66 items this week: Garden Transplants, seedlings (1)Vegetables (19)Meat (29)Herbs (7)Eggs (4)Other (6)

Can add spinach, mizuna, sweet cicely and arugula this week.

Special on stewing hens and kale/chard offering two for one.

We’re outside planting these days: bulb onions, potatoes, chard, beets, cabbage, brussels sprouts.

We still have some biologically active compost for sale to get your garden produce to its nutritional best.

Healthy eating
Ian and Cami