Old 99 farm week of Apr 1 2018

I need to entice you people!! The greens are now at peak and will keep coming. Kale, chard and lettuce. We’re also offering potted lettuce that you can put in the window, harvest a few times and have a bouquet as well as tender salads. Some micro greens available.

And coming soon: radish, globe turnip, spinach, claytonia, lettuces: rouge d’hiver, Italian, buttercrunch.

The roasting chickens are on special this week, $9/kg which is $2 off. Kale is special large bunches.

I have just started an advanced Permaculture Design for Climate Resilience course, offered by Oregon State U, online. Am soliciting you to offer your site to do the design on; you get free design documented, on how to adapt your home, farm or getaway to withstand severe weather events and climate disruption.
Call me or email soon.

I’d like to briefly mention a collaborative project in town: the Community Permaculture Lab is a volunteer group led by three of us to redesign the backyard of an Ainslie woods resident. We’ve been learning as we go, making friends, having fun. Here’s a picture of us doing the first yard work this spring: laying out the raised beds, minipond, tree sites, water capture and storage. There will be work parties over the next couple months, you can come out too!
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One of my "favourite climate news sites is FasterThanExpected where there is always a picture and a ‘snip’ from a major study or article, new every day. If you want more scope I recommend The Daily Climate for headlines and more worldwide coverage. For example, What does it take to electrify everything in your home? This California family just found out: “Unless you have gone through it, there is stuff you never would have foreseen.”

Healthy Eating
Ian and Cami

Old99 Farm week of Mar 25 2018

We have delicious new greens now in the greenhouse: chard, lettuce, arugula, kale and lettuce. Hope to see you friday.

New beef, along with chicken, pork and lamb.

I have bare root trees in cold storage ready to plant, these are large caliper trees, trunk diameter from 1 to 2 inches. We need to plant trees everywhere don’t we? For the good of the planet, reducing carbon pollution the natural way.

I am registered for an advanced permaculture design course starting early April. I’m offering to work with someone on doing the design for your place, from a 1/4 acre up to 20acres. No $$ cost to you but you’ll need to budget time as the ‘client’ to think through your objectives, hopes and wishes for your homeplace. This course lasts 10 weeks. By mid summer you’ll have a design for resilience and possibly quite self-sufficient lifestyle.

Have you been following the news about how the social media are being used to influence people’s behaviour, including voting behavior? Here’s a list of what FB and Google have on you.

Healthy eating
Ian and Cami

Old 99 farm, week of Mar 20 2018

We have fresh crops of kale and chard in the greenhouse, so I hope you feel inspired like I do! it’s first day of spring as I write this. We’ve got lots of lettuce, bokchoi and radishes on the way

Here’s some pictures
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There’s lots of beef in the freezer, we are well stocked with roasting hens and still have some lamb and pork. Eggs are plentiful.

Healthy eating
Ian and Cami.

Old 99 Farm, week of Mar 4 2018

This turned out to be a major breakthrough week in the campaign for climate change response. Al Gore’s film, An Inconvenient Sequel led off on the weekend in Dundas, Tues was McMaster Climate Change Research centre’s public lecture, Wed was the kickoff of the Bay Area Climate Summit hosted by Burlington, Hamilton and Mohawk College. Thursday is an all day conference at the RBG in Burlington on Bay Area Climate Action. And in Edmonton is hosting the IPCC Climate and Cities conference for three days with 750 climate scientists from around the world. The world is waking up to the urgency of action; you’re going to hear a whole lot more.

That and the federal government budget was made public, with dismal impact.

“This Budget has nothing for climate – nothing at all. It’s as if we’re not in a climate emergency.”
- Elizabeth May, MP

Overall this budget fails to deliver in the best interests of Canadians on the country’s most pressing problems: Growing Inequality, Green Economy and most importantly: Climate Change.

The Liberals campaigned on a promise to phase out fossil fuel subsidies, but over two years into their mandate, they are still giving the industry hundreds of millions a year in taxpayer-funded handouts. Budget 2018 should have signalled the beginning of the end for these harmful subsidies.

We don’t have enough growth on our greens to start harvesting but I’m hopeful for next week.

I have a Lineback steer in the freezer, 380 lbs of grass-fed beef. We’re offering pre-selected for $200 or 10% discount for 20lb orders, mixed according to your choice.

Roasting chickens are in the freezer, whole, halves and quarters.

We have lots of eggs.

Healthy eating to you all,
Ian and Cami

Old 99 Farm, week of Jan 15 2018

Quick note to you all. No greens still, but have eggs, meats especially chicken.

Healthy eating,
Ian and Cami

old 99 farm, week of dec 18 2017

We’ve been having a respite from farming the last week or so, that’s why you havent’ heard from us. The greens grow very slowly this time of year due to short day length, cloudiness and of course temperatures, even in the greenhouses. But we’ve got row cover over the planted beds and fired up the wood stove in the Hobbit House most of last week. That kept temperatures inside the structure about 10 dC warmer than outside. Of course when it’s sunny outside it can easily be 25dC inside. Plants love that!

We can offer chard and kale greens this week, with parsley, cilantro and arugulas well. Storage carrots and onions still in supply. Lots of beef, chicken, lamb and pork. Eggs are getting scarce again.

We’ll be open tomorrow Friday inspite of the snow and next friday too. If you can pick up other days, let me know and I’ll get your orders ready.

Healthy eating.
Ian and Cami.

For a great graphic of how average temperatures are changing all over the plant, country by country see this website.

Old 99 Farm, week of Dec 3 2017

Hi out there, we’re still here. Cami did wonderful job running the farm while I was away at the Bionutrient Food Assoc annual conference. Check it out, lots of content for growers/gardeners of highly nutritious food at their website

A cow got in the backdoor of the Greenhouse last week, chomped a lot of greens, so we’re short for a while. Still lots of meats, eggs. Tomatoes over for the season.

Here are some provocative quotations from my reading in the past week.
-Climate science isn’t a set of dominoes or a house of cards; it’s a towering structure built on a strong scientific foundation.

-It’s certain that the increasing energy burden of bitcoin transactions will divert progress from electrifying the world and reducing global carbon emissions. In fact, I’d guess it probably already has.

-Humanity is decades behind schedule on counteracting climate change, and every action in this era should be evaluated on its net impact on the climate. Increasingly, bitcoin is failing the test.

-Republicans have been cast into a growing civil war between mainstream conservatives, Tea Party-inspired libertarians, and the xenophobic and misogynistic groundswell that Trump has proven expert at tapping into. These schisms reflect genuine divisions in the Republicans’ voter base—and the Mercers, the Kochs, and the Adelsons are adept at exploiting them.

Healthy eating
Ian and Cami

Old 99 Farm, week of Nov 26 2017

We have chard, arugula, kale, carrots, onions, squash, parsley, cilantro, cherry tomatoes in the vegetable patch, and beef, chicken, pork and lamb in the meat department. Lots of eggs too.

Healthy eating
Ian and Cami
www.facebook.com/iagraham

Roasting Chicken now available

My last crop of roasting chickens was a great success, got up to weight on time, so I took them to the butcher yesterday, two weeks earlier than I had booked.

Means I have whole, half and quarter chickens now in the freezer, and some will be fresh today, chilled not frozen.

Price is $5/lb ($11/kg) for wholes, 6 to 9 lb size, and $5.50 ($12/kg) for cut pieces.

Old 99 Farm, week of Nov 19 2017

Very brief, just a reminder really. We’re still here! Veg, meats, eggs.

Here’s the best summary of COP 23 Bonn on Climate Change. http://www.eco-business.com/news/cop23-key-outcomes-agreed-at-the-un-climate-talks-in-bonn/

Healthy Eating
Ian and Cami