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.
Old 99 Farm, week of Aug 25, 2019
i was out in the orchards this weekend past, the 100 yr orchard and the 2008 orchard I planted. They suffered (enjoyed?) horticultural neglect this season. Not pruned as they should have been, not sprayed with biological nutrients, not mulched raminal wood chips. So there is some insect damage on the peaches, pears, apples mainly. But what a bountiful harvest it will be! Trees just loaded with apples, including my fav in the 100yr orchard on the hill: it was hit by lightning in 2007 just before I came on this land. Really gobsmacked it was, right in two, and the old trunk was already hollowed out to a mere shell. But I let it be, encouraged certain new shoots, pruned away others. Now a whole new trunk is growing up from the base of the old. But wonder of it all, both new and old decimated tree are bearing a bumper crop of beautiful apples. I can hardly wait, well, I haven’t really, I’ve already been tasting them! Pretty tart just yet, but wait till they redden (and I’ve pruned way some of the excess watershoots so the sunlight can stimulate the colour and the flavour). We’ll have a harvest to be grateful for.
New this week: freshly dug potatoes to go along with the onions last week. Tomatoes of various sizes and varieties are now ripened. Aronia berries for the savant connaisseurs of natural immune booster berries are ripe to pick.
The rest is the same as last week. By the way I usually don’t wash our vegetables. Even washing removes nutritional value I believe.
We have basil, carrots, zukes, spinach, radicchio, onions, beets and tops, beans, kale, collards, potatoes and tomatoes, and eggplant and peppers. Limited peaches for those of you eager for organic. (peaches are one of the ‘dirty dozen’ with high pesticide residues)
Climate Quote of the week:
Roger Hallam, co-founder Extinction Rebellion: Roger emphasizes that now is the time for all of us to unite, to put any ideological differences between us into their proper context and to suspend any animosity towards others with different points of view. Or as Roger puts it, “We don’t have time to be snotty”. Solidarity, unity in diversity, compassion and love for all life… these are our antidotes to the massive climate and ecological crisis that confronts us. Watch this youtube for the whole 17 minute talk.
Healthy eating
Ian and Cami