Week of March 28 2021

Welcome back friends of Old 99 Farm, here we are going heading into Spring full force.
We have two beeves back from butcher and were stocked up on plenty of your favourite cuts. This time we have special cuts based on advice of master butcher, Jamie Waldron. We have special steaks and recipes for best flavour. Ground beef and stew is packaged in 1kg bags.

Old 99 CSA option starting this season

CSA means community shared agriculture and it’s all the rage, most local CSA farms are booked up, so we decided to offer this way of buying local. You pay a fixed amount in advance and get a box of our vegetables every week. We are charging $25/week x 24 weeks, so $600 for a small share, enough to supply most adults with their vegetables. Plus we will put a dozen eggs in the box. Limited to the first 10 families to sign up. Also have medium and large share options. See the item in The Market under CSA Harvest Share. If you can get four neighbours on your block to sign up, we will deliver to your house as the drop-off local, each thursday. Sign up soon, simplify your local harvest!

We have a great selection of lettuces and leafy greens tis week choose from green leaf lettuce, Rouge d’Hiver red leaf lettuce, red kale, green kale, collard greens, swiss chard, spinach, arugula, parsley and a few more.

We also have our composted cattle/pig/chicken manure available for pickup by the bushel or cubic yard. Its great fuel for your garden beds at home.

Transplants
We will have a few of many different garden vegetables and varieties available for sale. Advance orders are on best effort basis. Available mid May onwards while supply lasts. Lots of heritage tomatoes this year.

Please remember to place your orders BEFORE 7 AM Thursday morning. orders placed after this time may not be processed. Market pickup times are 4 PM to 6 PM Thursday & Friday.

We look forward to seeing everyone again this week.

Keep Well,
Nick & Angela
Ian & Cami

World-scale Event Happening now this week

Someone in my network put me onto the Soil Regen Summit a few weeks ago. I looked at the scheduled speakers, said, hmmm looks pretty good, top rated speakers and I recognized some of them from my own prior study.
But today is kick off day and I’ve watched a couple sessions. Wow. So good. I am so grateful someone thought to send it out to me.
Apparently thousands worldwide are tuning in for this bonanza of best practice information about how and why to care for the land and the food it provides.

I want my whole network world to check it out.
Why?
It will raise your spirits about climate crisis.
It will make you want to be healthier.
It will motivate you to care about issues that may not seem very related.
It will help you see the world as one system, one that humans have unavoidable role to play in.
It will spark your awareness of how all the disconnects (social, racial, ecological, economic) have common cause.
It will help you appreciate and love nature and its miracles.
It may even help you appreciate farming in its proper context.

The link is www.soilregensummit.com.
The free conference started today at 9am, I’d recommend you catch Vandana Shiva if there is only one 50 minute session you can make. Sessions are live and archived so can be watched online for month.
Others I have high hopes for are Dan Kittredge on food nutritional value, Walter Jehne on how green plants everywhere will quickly cool bioregions suffering heatwaves, John D Liu on volunteer camps starting up now by the dozens to regenerate large landscapes and Graham Bell on permaculture inspired lifestyles.

Please give it a shot go here. You won’t be disapppointed. Now I have to get back to the current session.

Send me a note to this blog on what you liked, discovered, and got inspired by.

Keep well,
Ian and Cami

Week of 14 March 2021

Hello again everyone! We hope that you’re able to enjoy the nice sunny days we’ve having in the Hamilton and Dundas Valley area. Early spring crops are coming along well in the greenhouses, seeds are sprouting in the flats and the planning of outdoor gardens is well under way.
We have select cuts of beef and pork ready to go. A slow cooked pork roast in the BBQ or slow cooker is always a hit for Sunday dinners, or nicely grilled steak or pork chops.
A selection of our delicious greens are available this week, including spinach, green kale, Swiss chard, collards greens and a few more! Check out the product list to place your order.

Please remember to place your order before 7AM Thursday.
Orders placed after this time may not be processed.
Market times are 4pm to 6pm Thursday and Friday.

We look forward to seeing everyone again this week!

Be well,
Nick & Angela
Ian & Cami

Week of 1 March 2021

Good day local farm supporters!
March is here and that means spring is right around the corner and another growing season is on our doorstep.
This week we have green kale and swiss chard along with a delicious slag-free spinach that is a specialty with chefs. Also available is collard greens, beet tops, carrots, parsley, eggs, beef, pork and chicken and much more. Coming to mind today as I write this I am thinking of beef bone broth made into a delicious barley soup with carrots and beet tops topped with some fresh chopped parsley. That’s a hearty meal to come home to!
We will have two beeves going in for processing next week so we will be stocked up on all your favourite cuts. We have some really nice pork roasts available that are perfect for a family dinner.
Check out the market for availability of select cuts of meat and featured items like our mild or spicy pork sausages and pork roast!

We look forward to seeing everyone at the farm again this week. Thank you to all who continue to order and support local organic growers!

Be well,

Nick & Angela
Ian & Cami

Week of February 14th 2021

It was a day for love on Sunday.
Did you love yourself by eating good quality organic food and treating your body right?

In the dead of winter after a good snow fall the greens in the greenhouse are coming along, seedlings are being started and there is a another great summer to look forward to in 2021.

Our squash is on sale this week, 25% off. To keep squash longer it can be chopped and frozen raw. It can be used in many dishes from soups to casseroles or as a simple side to your family meal.
Available this week our always delicious pastured beef, pork and chicken. A selection amout of vegetables available, from green kale, Swiss chard and beet greens to potatoes and carrots to name a few. Check out the product listing for what is available!

We look forward to seeing everyone again this week.

Market times are 4pm to 6pm Thursday and Friday

Be well,
Nick & Angela
Ian & Cami

Food Forest: designing your garden. Tomorrow

Households starting to think about lifestyle changes due to climate disruption often start with a garden. What better place than in your front yard. That’s a great idea and I agree wholeheartedly.
So if the shoe fits, try it on!
Saturday morning (tomorrow) my colleagues and I at Community Permaculture Lab are putting on a ‘charette’ conversation about converting a front yard to a food garden and natural habitat.
Join the zoom call at 10am and listen, ask questions, make suggestions. No charge.

Zoom login is here

Edible Forest Garden Design Charette Feb 6, 10am to noon

Presentations of two urban site designs by CPL members on Tweedsmuir Ave and Ogilvie Ave in Dundas. All welcome. Home food production is one of the easiest ways to start thinking about retrofitting your lifestyle for the post-carbon future. And it’s fun and feels so good to ‘eat fresh from the garden’.

A ‘charette’ is a way of open-sourcing ideas about a given subject, often used by architects and designers. We invite people curious about permaculture’s way of creating sustainable futures for all sorts of households.

You could even join our design teams on these two sites learning how to do permaculture design for edible landscapes, so-called Forest Gardens. We hope the sites will show what CPL is doing, and contributing to Action 13, the new climate group in Dundas/Flamborough. Come on the call with us, listen, ask questions, make suggestions.

We think the future can be a better place focused on more fun but less stuff, more effort but less energy. Life as we know it hangs in the balance. We can imagine a way forward. Can you?

Permaculture is a worldview, a movement and a skill set for living well, within the Earth’s means. Care for the Earth, Care for people and Sharing earth’s fertility fairly is the core. Principles that capture the essence of healthy ecosystem function guide our designs.

We can learn to recognize the symbiotic ways Nature creates abundance and balance. We can study, plan and prepare the built space, the biological elements and the behavioural changes that will yield benefits for humans and creatures alike.

In our gardens and yards we can learn to cooperate with Nature and heal the damage that is climate disruption.

Community Permaculture Lab

We’re based in Westdale/Dundas and are willing to come to your neighbourhood to discuss getting a Lab started near you!

Our stated intent is to build resilience in our communities, in order to live well under the influence of climate disruption, through growing connections, knowledge and practice of permaculture. This small group of local citizens started in 2017 to learn about permaculture and in the process, create an example of social change for ecological renewal.
If you would like to participate and learn more, click here to get more information

Link for access to the webinar charette tomorrow

Covid Attention Please

Canadians have a clear and urgent choice to make this month as two highly transmissible variants of COVID-19 now sweep across the globe.

They can accept the approach provincial governments are taking across the country now. In which case Canadians will be hit continually by the wrecking ball of a mutating virus for the next eight to 12 months.

Read these two articles by Andrew Nikiforuk writing for TheTyee this month. Do your own research, make up your own mind, but whatever you do, please engage in this crisis. I have been rather blase about covid up to now. I still think that if you are healthy and support your immune system with a protocol of specific vitamins and minerals you will be fine. Find the latest version at evms.edu/covidcare, thats Dr Marik at East Virginia Medical School.

But there are some chilling statistics now out there for all to see.
1. The old COVID-19 doubled its numbers every 40 days under a particular set of restrictions; under the same conditions, the variants double every 10 days. That means they can outrun any vaccination campaign.*

That means if you haven’t eliminated — or almost eliminated — cases in your region, you are going to learn the meaning of grief.

2. To illustrate it, British mathematician Adam Kucharski recently compared a virus mutation that was 50 per cent more deadly with one that increased transmission by 50 per cent.

With a reproduction rate of about 1.1 and a death rate of 0.8 per cent, current strains of COVID-19 now deliver 129 deaths per 10,000 infections.

A virus that is 50 per cent more lethal will kill 193 people in a month. A variant that is more transmissible wins the game with 978 deaths in just one month.

3. Given that B117 overwhelmed a long-term care facility in Ontario just two weeks ago, (Barrie’s Roberta Place) it is already burning through the community. (This variant only needs about six weeks to become the dominant strain in a community.)

To date, B117 has been reported in Ontario, Quebec, British Columbia and Alberta, which means it is likely everywhere. The bomb has been planted; it will explode before you know it.

We need to demand to go to zero over the next four to six weeks. Going to zero is shorthand for a range of approaches that include sharper restrictions on travel, imposing strict lockdowns, marking green zones rendered free of the virus and protecting them, relentlessly testing and tracing — and in the process systematically driving transmission to zero.

https://thetyee.ca/Analysis/2021/01/08/Get-Real-Canada-Get-Zero/

https://thetyee.ca/Analysis/2021/01/28/Virus-Changed-Get-To-Zero-Face-Catastrophe/

So to repeat: we have a clear and urgent choice to make this month as two highly transmissible variants of COVID-19 now sweep across the globe.
We can accept the approach provincial governments are taking across the country now. In which case Canadians will be hit continually by the wrecking ball of a mutating virus for the next eight to 12 months.

Please make your government leaders aware and support them in going to zero. Please pass this on.

Week of 24 January 2021

Did you know that the store bought produce and meats boughten weekly that come from warmer climates carry a carbon footprint equal to driving your car non stop for 4 months? Look at how many people shop on a weekly basis – pretty scary when we add all that up.
When you buy produce, and meat from Old 99 Farm the carbon footprint is greatly reduced due to the simple fact that its picked fresh, not shipped anywhere, not refrigerated in massive coolers and very little fossil fuels are used to plant, maintain and pick it all.
When you buy from the farm, you help the environment and its a win-win for everyone.

Available this week – frilly green kale, Swiss chard, collard greens, spinach, arugula, health kick salad, our super sweet carrots, delicious squash and a few other favorites. Check out the product list to see what is available this week!

Plenty of beef, pork and chicken available as well.
The ground beef has been flying out the doors, get yours before its all gone! Great for meat balls, pasta sauces, stuffed peppers, meatloaf, stroganoff, sausage patties, Salisbury steak or the classic favourite char-broiled hamburgers.

Please place your order before 11am Thursday. Orders placed after thus time may not be processed.
Order pickup times are Thursday and Friday from 4PM to 6PM.

We thank you all for your continued patronage and support of the farm.

Be well friends,
Nick & Angela
Ian & Cami

week of jan 24

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It seems to be the winter that isn’t this year. Either way, we hope you are enjoying the season!

We have a great deal on our pastured chicken this week- on special 10% off for whole roasters, halfs and quarters. Raised here, summer 2020.

We did sell out of a few items but we can still fill your freezer and fridge with delicious organic produce and meats. Check out the market for what is available.
I made a delicious carrot, cilantro and kale soup last week. So simple and so easy. Check out the link for the recipe:
https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/50973/carrot-and-cilantro-soup/
The kale from the greenhouse is so sweet in winter time. Its great as it is in salads or in smoothies.

Also, check out this amazing site we’ve discovered!
“Neighbourhood building software Nextdoor”.
This site is really cool, its designed for neighbours to put their hand up, offering help, looking for stuff or advice, that sort of thing. The software uses postal codes to locate you in a defined neighbourhood. Check it out at www.nextdoor.com

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

We look forward to seeing everyone again this week.

Be well,
Nick & Angela
Ian & Cami