Old 99 Farm week of Apr 3 2022

Reminder, hop over to the online store to pick your selection of vegetables from the greenhouse.
And your first steak for the bbq. I have full freezers of beef and pork.
Please look at our CSA Harvest Basket offering, for $34.25 per week for 10 weeks. Community Shared Agriculture works for producers and eaters alike.

Stay Healthy,
Ian and Cami

April 1st 2022 we're back

After a couple of weeks off while the new crops germinate and size up, we’re back.
We had Strathcona Market owners here for a visit this week to check us out. Here’s a reel on instagram

We’ve got some crops now ready for harvest. The spring 2022 greenhouse crops are: lettuce, arugula, mizuna, parsley, kale, collards, spinach, chard, tatsoi and special salad green called Tokyo Bekana. Coming soon: baby salad mix, Tong Ho (what’s that you say?), claytonia, cilantro and baby carrots. We have a few winter storage selections: potatoes, turnips, beets, rutabaga.

Our orchard produces apples, peaches, raspberries, blackberries, aronia berries, mulberries, asian and european pears, currants and juice grapes in season.

Be careful, don’t all stampede back in here! We’ll offer fresh picked to first come.

The Spring Harvest Basket program is ready for sign-ups, notice some innovative ideas we learned from LaFamilleFermiere, a collective effort in Quebec to get farm fresh food to families and strengthen local agriculture.

We simplified to one basket size, available weekly or biweekly. If you order weekly you get a discount on top of the discounted price of the contents. Price is $32.45 per week for 6 to 8 vegetable items. You get alternatives to choose from and an exchange table for pick-one,leave-on. Season starts when you sign and runs for 10 weeks. You can pay 50% up front and balance at mid season. Our basket typically contains 6 to 8 different organic vegetables that are freshly harvested and in season.

You can choose to pick it up every week or every 2 weeks (bi-weekly. With the bi-weekly basket you will get 5 pickups/deliveries, scheduled on alternative weeks. Delivery is new for us, beta-testing so to speak. We think we can do it for $15 a week within 10km radius from the farm. If you want delivery, add $15 to the basket x number of weeks (5 or 10) by picking the Spring 10 delivered option on the menu. Likewise for Spring 5 Delivered.

Another change for this year: vegetables are not pre-boxed. Members make up their own basket by following a blackboard list with the basket contents, and making their choices. We also provide an exchange box where you can trade unwanted items.
Please bring your own bags or boxes! We use very little packaging, our vegetable basket is a great way to reduce packaging and waste!

Please go to the market page for examples of what the baskets might look like at different times during the summer season. The spring basket will be more limited.

Old 99 Farm week of Jan 24 2022

The deep freeze is taking its toll, we’ve lost some of the more tender greens in the greehouse. We still have rainbow and green chard, collards and kale. And the root veg in the cold cellar back up the carrots still in the ground.
On the other side, we have 15 flats planted and a couple of rows directed seeded: arugula is doing the best, followed by mizuna. Yet to poke their heads up are lettuce mix, rapini, kale, purslane and spinach, corn salad, bunching onions, chives and pak choy.
As a side note, to the gardeners on this list, if you buy turnips, cut the top off about an inch below the crown, plant it in some soil, even sand, it will grow turnip greens for you in a couple weeks.
All things start to come alive again when we get 10 hrs or more daylight, which will happen here on my birthday! Nice coincidence: Feb 9.

Healthy eating, keep your immune system strong, we’re headed into the home stretch of covid omnicon and most of us will get it without even knowing it.

Ian and Cami

Old99 farm week of Jan 16 2022

Yes we dug out from the snow and deep freeze, vegetables in the greenhouses well protected. I do love winter storms. It reminds me of how winter used to be when I was a boy in Caledon, real freeze up, real snow drifts. Never again.

Most of this blogpost is going to be political. But first, So we have crops for you again this week, fresh harvested and from the cold cellar.
We have available celery, mixed greens (aka mesclun), spinach, chard, mustards, collards and a selection of fresh herbs. Root vegetables include carrots, garlic, leeks, fennel, potatoes, turnip, rutabaga, squash varieties, and beets. Of course the freezers are full of beef, pork and chicken, and the hens lay eggs every day. Link to store here

Our Conservation Authority is about to hold an election for chairman. The current chair, Lloyd Ferguson, longtime councillor for ward 12 Ancaster, wants to run again on a pro-development platform. Recently all CA board members voted against a rezoning application to ‘re-site’ sensitive wetlands to help a developer max out the usable area. Ferguson voted in favour saying ’i’m for jobs, I’m for increased tax revenue’. No. He’s for construction on ecological assets the CA is mandated to protect.

Please write a letter voicing your opinion for/against Lloyd Ferguson using this link provided by Action 13.
Here’s what I wrote:
I am probably known to some of you as an advocate for climate emergency responses for the last 3 years. I operate a small farm in Ward 12 Ancaster since 2007 providing local organic food for the Dundas Valley. I am a businessman by training and 20 years experience as owner-operator of several companies.
I am writing to encourage you to follow through with the effective non-confidence motion on wetlands where no one voted with Chairman Ferguson. Do not re-elect him. You probably know much better that the public does his voting record, priorities and allegiances. Thank Goodness, Action 13 got this messaging tool up and running for people like me to register our deep concerns.
Not only are wetlands important for clean water, they are key component in stabilizing the local microclimate, precipitation and heat waves. They store carbon naturally, which we need to prioritise if we are to get anywhere close to the city’s goals for climate action.

Chairman Ferguson scoffed at the climate emergency motion when it was presented to city council in 2019. He said an emergency is when the house is on fire and you see it and have to act fast. He can’t see slow moving emergencies. He’s not fit to lead one of the key resources the city has to stabilize climate and eco-diversity.
I am asking you:
1) do not support the re-election of Chair Lloyd Ferguson to the position of Chair of the HCA Board at the Annual General Meeting on February 3, 2022.

2) to elect a Chair who has a proven track record of defending our watershed and natural heritage, and not interfering with natural assets management at the core of a CA mandate.

3) to ensure members elected to the HCA Board, especially the Chair, have a basic knowledge and understanding of watersheds, wetlands, biodiversity and natural heritage.

Thank you for reading this, I appreciate hearing from you with your intentions.
Yours truly
Ian Graham

Old 99 Farm, week of Jan 9 2022

We had the coldest night of the year so far, -16C and clear sky. Greenhouses did quite well thanks to the Underground Heating and Cooling system (UHCS for short). Inside temp was -2C at ground level. Crops can survive that especially when the soil is not frozen, soil temp was about 5C in the root zone.

So we have crops for you again this week, fresh harvested and from the cold cellar.
We have available celery, mixed greens (aka mesclun), spinach, chard, mustards, collards and a selection of fresh herbs. Root vegetables include carrots, garlic, leeks, fennel, potatoes, turnip, rutabaga, squash varieties, and beets. Of course the freezers are full of beef, pork and chicken, and the hens lay eggs every day
You can find us on the Weston A Price Foundation website too.

Here’s a picture of me putting the UHCS

The pipes are two layers deep going the full length of the house, giving 5 air changes an hour.

Click here to surf over and place your orders this week.

Healthy Eating!
Ian and Cami

Old99 farm, week of Jan 2 2022

A quick reminder for this week, place your order here. If you’re new to the list, this is the link to our virtual farm market offerings.

We have available celery, mixed greens (aka mesclun), spinach, chard, mustard greens, collards and a selection of fresh herbs. Root vegetables include carrots, garlic, leeks, fennel, potatoes, turnip, rutabaga, squash varieties, and beets. Of course the freezers are full of beef, pork and chicken, and the hens lay eggs every day.

Some good news on the covid front, quite a lot actually.
Geert vanden Bossche, well trained and credentialled European virologist has been a voice in the wildness about the dangers of mass vaccination during an epidemic. Lately he’s been writing on the implications of the omicron variant.

Old 99 Farm, week of Dec 19 2021

We are arrived; the shortest day of the year now upon us and it’s all downhill from here; every day a couple minutes longer. I can hear the plants applauding.

I discovered a new salad green that we planted as part of a mix, now it’s grown to maturity. It’s called Tokyo Bekana a member of the mustard family. Once you’ve tried it, you might decide to plan for Tokyo Bekana in the summer rather than lettuce. The flavor is very mild, and most people don’t notice they aren’t eating lettuce. The texture of the white stems is very crunchy and juicy, and the frilly leaves are sweet and tender.The color of the leaves is chartreuse: a light bright lime green.

For your order this week Click Here

We have available celery, mixed greens (aka mesclun), spinach, chard, mustards, collards and a selection of fresh herbs. Root vegetables include carrots, garlic, leeks, fennel, potatoes, turnip, rutabaga, squash varieties, and beets. Of course the freezers are full of beef, pork and chicken, and the hens lay eggs every day.

Christmas/Solstice Hours

We’ll be holding the market on Thurs 4 to 6 as usual or by arrangement.

Customer Survey Click here

Thank you to 25 customers who replied to our questions about how we’re doing and what you would like to see in the future. Surprise: over half want us to grow strawberries. I can hardly remember how long ago I grew this crop here, at last 10 years, so we’ll likely give it another go. I have just the spot in mind in the space between the cider apple trees: the Joubert block.

We have a new farm intern starting full time January 1st. Mackenzie Mallais, a volunteer this summer, has decided they really want to learn the small farm livelihood and market gardening in particular. I’m excited about the new energy we’ll have on the farm.

Healthy Eating
Ian and Cami

Old 99 Farm, week of Dec 12 2021

I will get this prompt sent off to you early this week.

Please consider responding to our member/customer survey that I sent out over the weekend. We have 11 responses so far from people subscribed here. We’re asking for feedback on how we’re doing and how to improve.

Our offerings for this week Click here

Right now we have celery, mixed greens (aka mesclun), spinach, chard, collards and a selection of fresh herbs. Root vegetables include carrots, garlic, leeks, fennel, potatoes, turnip, rutabaga, squash varieties, and beets. Of course the freezers are full of beef, pork and chicken, and the hens lay eggs every day.

I’m trying out a new mission paragraph for what we do. What do you think of it?

Old 99 is a permaculture demonstration site and farm, growing livestock, fruit and four season vegetables, located 5 minutes west of the Dundas city lights. We see ourselves as preparing for the climate emergency by growing local food and garden-farmers, teaching about food security, living a 1.5 degree lifestyle, soil fertility and ecosystem resilience.

Quotes to ponder

“If hope becomes something you express through illusion it’s not hope it’s fantasy. Those who speak truth are marginalised and ignored. dismissed as pessimists in a culture that prides itself on a child like optimism at the
expense of reality. We have a mania for hope which our corporate masters lavishly provide across the political and cultural spectrum to keep us passive”. (Chris Hedges)

“The richest 1% of the world’s people (those earning more than $172,000 a year) produce 15% of the world’s carbon emissions: twice the combined impact of the poorest 50%. On average, they emit over 70 tonnes of carbon dioxide per person every year, 30 times more than we can each afford to release if we’re not to exceed 1.5C of global heating.” (‘Wealth Curse’ George Monbiot)

“Large-scale problems do not require large scale solutions, they require small-scale solutions within large scale frameworks.”(David Fleming, Lean Logic and How to Survive the Future)

And again, that’s another way of looking at what resilience is, It’s a way of linking together a diversity of small-scale solutions, like what this community needs to do or wants to do, or is equipped to do, is going to be totally different from what some other community wants to do. And that’s appropriate, we need a diversity of small-scale solutions, but we also need networks and frameworks that tie them together into a kind of empowered wave of change, if they’re to address large scale solutions. I’ve been involved with Transition towns, Ecological Farmers, National Farmers Union, Extinction Rebellion. All of these in different ways are about creating frameworks, that allow a diversity of small solutions to come together to address a large problem.

Healthy Eating
Ian and Cami

Old99 Customer Survey 2021 (3rd try)

We have learned quite a lot over the last fifteen years since 2007 but the hardest has been what food to grow for people wanting nutritious local food in the Dundas Valley.

There are 350 households subscribed to our locallygrown virtual farm market and of those 200 have bought at least once in the past year.

Please help us do a better job by completing this survey and watch for the improvements this coming season.

Click on this link and use old99farm as a password if asked for.

It should take about 10 to 15 minutes, thank you kindly for your feedback.

Eat Healthy
Ian G

Old 99 Farm, Customer Survey 2021 (reprise)

We have learned quite a lot over the last fifteen years since 2007 but the hardest has been what food to grow for people wanting nutritious local food in the Dundas Valley.

There are 350 households subscribed to our locallygrown virtual farm market and of those 200 have bought at least once in the past year.

Please help us do a better job by completing this survey and watch for the improvements this coming season.