Old 99 Farm, week of Dec 5 2021

Apologies to all for not getting this weeks blog post out to you. Reminder that the market is only open thursdays 4 to 6 now, not Friday. Or by arrangement its fine to come friday or saturday, but I’d really like your freshpicked veggie order by Thursday noon.

Thank you to the regulars who already have your orders in. I’m going to be short on eggs this week, already have orders till saturday’s lay! Right now we have celery, mixed greens (aka mesclun), spinach, chard, collards and kale. Root vegetables include carrots, leeks, fennel, potatoes, turnip, rutabaga, squash varieties, and beets. Of course the freezers are full of beef, pork and chicken.

This was a big week in Hamilton for the Climate Emergency. Their taskforce presented the report so-called action plan today after two years and a pandemic. They reacted with urgency for Covid, but not at all for Climate.

Below is the submission I sent it. I will surely be the minority voice but see what you think. I would enjoy a conversation with any of you on this uber-important matter.

Memo to: Hamilton City Council and Sr Managers
Re: Corporate-wide Climate Change Action Plan Update
From: Ian Graham
Date: Dec 7 2021

It needs to be said at the outset, climate is a symptom,not a cause for the tremendous woe and loss that is unfolding on this planet in real time now. What is the cause, briefly put, of climate disruption? It is ecological overshoot and human habitat loss. We stand to misinterpret and misdiagnose our predicament if we fail to accept this reality. The endgame is there must be fewer people consuming less energy on this finite planet. That may not mean fewer people living in Hamilton but it certainly means living within a smaller carbon footprint.
We can and should act with urgency on climate disruption until such time as leadership and policy makers reframe the situation to be about overshoot in population and consumption.

Hamilton can help in that reframing by speaking out and walking the talk. One way of doing that is to root out the culture of Growth and Development and replace it with a culture of Climate and Ecology Stewardship. Make that Climate Lens paramount. Do not brag about $2B in building permits any more. Do not build more roads or suburbs.

We must proceed with action at the levels we are positioned to affect to reduce the impact of this symptom on our city. I submit that this action can be visualized as a rubiks cube: Emissions x Population x Impact.
Emissions can be arising from existing infrastructure, or from yet to be built infrastructure or they are the carbon legacy emissions in the atmosphere already.
Populations could be categorized as the citizenry, the corporate sector and the civic governance sector.
Impacts can be characterized as the Biological environment, The Build environment and the Behaviours.
Now it can be seen there are actions in each cell of the cube that will be effective and target populations who can be expected to act. For example:
The city can build bike paths but that doesn’t help if people don’t use them instead of driving.
The people can modify their homes and properties to reduce carbon pollution but the city can help with enabling policies and even grants, e\ducation and public promotion of retrofitting suburbia.
The corporate sector can reduce existing sources or not build more or fund sequestration programs to drawdown existing carbon pollution.
These are examples that come to mind. Each cell has costs and benefits associated with the actions that fit.

Net Zero by 2050 must be called out for the charade that it is. There is no technology to remove carbon at scale from the atmosphere and if there were, there is no way to build out enough capacity to make a difference in that time frame. The whole world has taken up the chant of Net Zero by 2050 but should be “Just Zero”. In both senses of the word ‘just’. Toronto has set the benchmark at 2040 which is even more impossible to imagine relying on technology not yet proven.

Your climate change taskforce is woefully underfunded and understaffed. That it took two years to produce this modest document is evidence enough. It’s a wonder that the core team has not resigned or been hired away by a more ambitious climate savvy municipality. Staff most likely understands that Council is not prepared to get on a war footing against climate disruptions. The Covid response by contrast shows that serious mobilization is possible.

I have been told that the climate action consultants retained by the City do not believe that Nature-based solutions are cost effective in reducing emissions. That has been proven wrong and obsolete thinking, dangerously so. For example the maintenance of green vegetation on farmlands and fallow spaces, all year long, will immediately reduce the heat stored in soils, reduce runoff in heavy precipitation and cool the local micro-climate by stabilizing the hydrological cycle. The taskforce needs to update their information and challenge these consultants.

The steel companies are clearly an atrocious example of carbon pollution and fully a third of all carbon emitted in our bio-region is their fault. Policy should be polluter-pay at a level that makes good business sense to their management and owners to clean it up. Funding from these companies can be invested in infrastructure and public awareness every year through the Climate Change Reserve fund.

We need demonstration sites up and running so that people can see what a 1.5 degree lifestyle looks like. There is only so much carbon we can burn to keep global heating between 1.5 and 2 degrees C and avoid a Hothouse Earth and runaway climate chaos. That translates as a carbon budget for every one of us. (Currently the average north american produces 16 tCO2e per year: we have to get to 4 T by 2030 and 1 T by 2050. It shows up in our buildings, our vegetation and our lifestyle choices. Bylaws changes seen through a climate lens, not growth and development, will mean enabling capability to withstand shocks and disruption, household resilience.

All these claims can be backed up with documentation and practice. I am pleased to provide them on request.

The people need you to lead, to tell the story like it is. You can’t feed false hope, in fact we must be hope-free. You can’t hide from this responsibility to the public who elected hou. Your awareness of the situation has grown over the years, from being dead asleep to recognizing one problem or two. Now (some of) you clearly see there are many interconnected problems encompassing all aspects of daily life. This is our predicament to minimize and adapt to but it will not go away. Your city vision statement includes being a great place to bring up a child; a climate stable bioregion is the foundation for that place.

Old 99 farm, week of Nov 28 2021

This is the week we are switching back to one day a week or by arrangement. That day will be THURSDAY, from 4 to 6 for pickup. Henceforth, if paying by e-transfer (interac) please put the date of order in the comment box. Take your sales receipt with you when you leave to remind yourself of a small detail still waiting: to pay!

Community Shared Agriculture

We are one of the few farms offering a winter share of vegetables: fresh greens all winter, eggs and cold storage root crops. The price is $25/week for 24 weeks, half paid up front, half at midpoint, starting from when you purchase. So if this week, your share runs Dec 1st to May 13. You can skip up to 3 weeks and extend the end date. A new option we’re trying is the smorgasbord: you pick your 6 vegetables from the harvest table when you arrive, or substitute an item or two that we have boxed up for you.
A third option is Cash Advance: pay ahead $300, and order a la carte from the locallygrown menu. The advantage: I’ll reduce the unit prices by 10% and you’ll know you are supporting the farm with your commitment.

Now’s the time to suggest to us what you would like to eat in the spring, when first greenhouse crops are available. We’ll be doing the usual: carrots, onions, lettuce, mesclun mix, baby chards kales and collards. And the unusual: do you know the cold hardy greens, Mache and Claytonia? Post your requests in the blog by going to the heading Your Account and clicking down to Send email to Market Manager (that’s me). Very simple, give it a try.

Right now we have celery, mixed greens (aka mesclun), spinach, chard, collards and kale. Root vegetables include carrots, 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. Surf on over to our virtual farm market.

Here’s a link for exploring lifestyle options in the wake of climate disruptions, from permaculturist David Holmgren. Not only was he instrumental in assembling the body of knowledge for living well within Earth’s means, he has done it. You can see via youtube his 2 acre site called Melliodora in the town of Hepburn, 90 min northwest of Melbourne AU. Climate upset, both local and worldwide will have knock-on effects. Supply lines are showing to be brittle: easily broken when storms, floods, fires hit places far away.

A supply chain is an example of a complex system: systems thinking is needed to make sense of these because there are always delays, bottlenecks, buffers and inventories. The best little book on this is by Donella Meadows, co-author of Limits to Growth, 1972. It’s called Thinking In Systems, A Primer, 2008, 200pg. There a lots of youtubes, like this one, In A World of Systems. Sit back and meet systems in our everyday lives, from plumbing to traffic jams to fisheries, based on the work of the renowned systems thinker Donella Meadows!

Old 99 Farm, week of Nov 21 2021

We’re covering all the chores and fall farm projects quite well, though we do miss regular help. Thank you for the offers that have come in, I’ll be contacting you for work days. I expect I’ll be able to make an announcement for our new farm intern next week.

This week’s produce

We have celery, spinach, chard (perpetual green, rainbow), purple top white turnips, Detroit beets, collard greens, baby fennel bulbs, baby leeks, potatoes, carrots, rutabaga and golden turnips, new crop baby carrots, kale, and mixed greens.
We have home processed pork lard and beef broth.
Several people took my hint about the NY striploin steaks being so tasty and tender. There are still some left as well as other steak cuts like t-bone and sirloin. The pork chops and boneless chicken breasts are popular too.
We have made 40 bottles of hard cider that you might like. Maybe I’ll slip one in the Winter CSA baskets soon.

Community Shared Agriculture
We are one of the few farms offering a winter share of vegetables: fresh greens all winter, eggs and cold storage root crops. The price is $25/week for 24 weeks starting from when you purchase. So if this week, your share runs to April 30. You can skip up to 3 weeks and extend the end date. A new option we’re trying is the smorgasbord: you pick your 6 vegetables from the harvest table when you arrive, or substitute an item or two that we have boxed up for you.
A third option is Cash Advance: pay ahead $300, and order a la carte from the locallygrown menu. The advantage: I’ll reduce the unit prices by 10% and you’ll know you are supporting the farm with your commitment.

Starting next week we will return to one day market pickup or by arrangement. Thursday will be market day, and you can pick up Friday to Sunday.

Are you paying attention to the climate scene? I believe I see a lot more mainstream media talk about the urgency of real action. I find it now past obvious that very disruptive changes are called for, sacrificial really, for there to be any probability of stabilizing the Earth ecological system. Here is an excellent summary, only 33min, by Michael Dowd of our predicament. I’ll be offering a few suggestions every week on what we can do to get ready, adapt and support each other.

Please surf on over to our virtual farm market to place your orders.

Healthy eating
Ian and Cami

Old 99 Farm, week of Nov 14

This is Ian writing this weeks blog.
On Thursday last week I was away visiting my mother and upon my return I found a note from Nick saying he had packed up and left, that Angela had closed her practice and they left the area. Not to try to contact him. He would have needed a truck and helpers to get it done by 4pm when the market opened. I had told him the day before I was going to be away all day Thursday.

Of course this was a shock. I did write to his email address that I am saddened by his departure and the manner in which he did it. Since then trying to piece this together, it is clear that he was planning to leave for some time; the greenhouse has not been weeded for months, outdoor beds are overgrown, no new crops are started for the winter season. During our biweekly check-in on Tuesday, he made no mention of unhappiness, and we discussed his revenue target for the next season. In fact relations have good enough that I have been quite comfortable leaving the farm in his hands. Now I have to conclude that I have been deceived.

I am putting the word out for candidates who would like to participate in the operation of Old 99 Farm, and/or live in the two bedroom loft apartment.

The silver lining may be that this pushes me towards changing the purpose and direction of the farm. There are many people who want to learn permaculture ways, to grow some of their food, and to build a community of interest in resilient lifestyles. Those of you who attended the Equinox event will remember my comments in this regard. If you are intrigued, pls contact me.

This week’s produce

We have celery, spinach, chard (perpetual green, rainbow), purple top white turnips, Detroit beets, collard greens, baby fennel bulbs, baby leeks, potatoes, carrots, rutabaga and golden turnips, new crop baby carrots, kale, and mixed greens. We have home processed pork lard and beef broth. The NY striploin steaks in the freezer are truly outstanding, even if I’m the one saying it! (We had family over for dinner on saturday and the steaks were a hit.) We have made 40 bottles of hard cider that you might like. Maybe I’ll slip one in the Winter CSA baskets soon.

I don’t think you will notice any difference in our offerings in the near term, but I do have to get that greenhouse planted for the spring season starting May 1st.

The first of segments of my talk from the Equinox Celebration is now ready for viewing at this LINK. The theme was My Journey So Far In The Climate Crisis. Part 1 is “I Feel A Call to Action”

Please surf over to www.old99farm.locallygrown.net to place your orders for meats, eggs, vegetables and prepared products. I did not attach the whole product listing this week.
Healthy eating,
Ian and Cami

Week of 7 Nov 2021

We’re fully stocked up on beef, pork and chicken for winter!
Don’t forget you can order half, or quarters of our beef and pork. We have a great selection of chicken cuts available as well as some very nice whole chickens for roasting. Its not too cold out yet so you can still fire up that BBQ for dinner.

Veggies available include celery, spinach, chards, purple top white turnips, Detroit beets, collard greens, baby fennel bulbs, baby Leeks, potatoes, carrots, rutabaga and golden turnips just to name a few. Check out the market for quantities and to place your order.

Please remember to place your order before 8am Thursday. Orders placed after this time may not be processed.
Market pickup times are 4pm to 6pm Thursday and Friday.

See everyone soon!

Nick & Angela
Ian & Cami

Week of Oct. 31 2021

We are excited to announce that we are fully stocked back up with our delicious pastured chicken. We decided to get them cut up again due to the great response last time. We have boneless, skin on breasts, bone in skin on thighs, wings and drumsticks and livers. There is also carcasses and necks/backs for making broth.

Don’t forget to pick up all the other ingredients for your broths here at the farm. We have carrots, celery, peppers, turnips, potatoes, garlic and parsley to name a few. Swiss chard, collard greens, rutabaga, beets squashes and much more is available. Have a look in the market for quantities and to place your order.

Please remember to place your order before 8am Thursday morning. Orders placed after this time may not be processed. Market pickup times are 4pm to 6pm Thursday and Friday.

Thank you everyone!

Nick & Angela
Ian & Cami

Week of Oct 24 2021

Well the last week of October has arrived and Halloween is just around the corner.

Did you know that cows, pigs amd chickens LOVE to eat pumpkins and squash?
Rather than tossing your decorations in the garbage or city compost bring them to the farm and toss them to the animals for a treat. Just a couple small rules – no painted or dyed pumpkins. Please make sure to remove any and all toothpicks or other parts and props and remove any wax.

Veggies available this week include some GREAT CELERY (new), collard greens, Swiss chard, health kick salad blend, spinach, tomatoes, eggplants, golden beets, golden turnips, Detroit beets, white potatoes, purple top turnips, carrots and much more!
Check out the market for more products and to place your order.

Market times are from 4pm to 6pm Thursday and Friday. Please remember to place your order before 8am Thursday morning. Orders placed after this time may not be processed.

Be well,
Nick & Angela
Ian & Cami

Week of Oct 17 2021

Hello everyone.
We have an amazing special for you this week folks!

Our ground beef and stewing beef are 10% off!

But that’s not all, half chickens are also 10% off!

Ground and stew beef are so versatile you can literally make 40 different dishes each with them. Fajitas and sloppy Joe’s are my favorites. What are yours?

Veggies available this week include GREAT CELERY (new), collard greens, Swiss chard, health kick salad blend, spinach, tomatoes, eggplants, hot peppers, golden beets, golden turnips, Detroit beets, white potatoes, purple potatoes, purple top turnips, carrots and much more!
Check out the market for more products and to place your order.

Market times are 4pm to 6pm Thursday and Friday. Please remember to place your order before 8am Thursday morning. Orders placed after this time may not be processed.

See everyone again this week.

Be well,
Nick & Angela
Ian & Cami

Apple Cider Day this s unday Oct

We’ve decided to hold a cider making day again this year. It’s a family affair, everybody gets to mash some apples and load the press. Start time 2pm till about 5pm. Weather looks a little iffy with rain forecast for saturday and maybe sunday. Please RSVP to old99farm2015@gmail.com if you plan to come. Bring a jug or two for your take home cider.

Our pawpaws tree fruit is ripe! Tis a bountiful harvest that won’t last long. What’s a pawpaw you say? A fruit the size of a small pear, with green skin and yellow custard-like flesh. It tastes like a cross between banana and mango. Very pleasant. You cut the fruit in half and scoop out the flesh with a spoon: so it comes in its own cup!

Asian Pears are also ripe, a crunchy sweet fruit like an apple with a flavour of it’s own.

We rendered lard this week, so if you’re looking for organic lard for fries or baking, now is the time. 400ml tubs or 1 L jars. Price is $1/100ml. I price it that way because the jars are different sizes.

Keep well, remember “pay your farmer now or your pharmacist later”. Eat well, stay healthy, stay disease free.

Ian and Cami

Week of October 10 2021

The colours of Autumn are coming out on the trees and the harvest is always delicious!

We have a good selection of veggies available this week- fennel tops, mint, parsley, collard greens, Swiss chard, purple top turnips, golden turnips, carrots, health kick salad, Tokyo bekana stir fry green, tomatoes, beets, eggplant and so much more! Be sure to check the market for quality availability.

We have a good supply and selection of pork cuts. Four different types of chops, shoulder roasts, fresh ham roasts, fresh hocks and more. Plenty of stew meat left, it makes great fajitas or Philly cheese steak sandwiches. Or just use it in a stew or soup with some of our nice Marrow bones.

Market times are 4pm to 6pm Thursday and Friday. Please remember to place your order before 8am Thursday. Orders placed after this time may not be processed.

Honey should be available soon, keep an eye on the market for availability.

See everyone this weekend at the farm!

Keep well,
Nick & Angela
Ian & Cami