Old 99 farm,week of Jun 1 2019

Quick alert to all 200 of you on this virtual farm market list:
We have lots of asparagus, rhubarb, lettuce, kale, collards, chard and parsley ready to harvest.
I was going to write ‘fresh’ but that’s what any vendor says, fresh donuts, fresh coffee, fresh produce(harvested who knows where who knows when). So our veg are “not fresh” (pun: get it???) They are waiting for you to order.

Also have lots of eggs, beef, pork, stewing hens.

Work party at O99 this saturday: all welcome 10am to whenever.

Eggs are three doz for price of two, for XL that’s less than $5/doz average. I hope you’ll donate that extra dozen to a neighbour and get them liking farm raised organic eggs.

My climate/biodiversity links this week:
The Tyee:StartReporting Climate Emergency
“In other words, these sources seemed more interested in convincing Canadians there isn’t a climate crisis than actually reporting on it.”
The Good Ancestor. A poem for those who care too much.
How to enjoy the end of the world Lecture by Prof Sidney Smith, Virginia Tech Green Party keynote. It’s long, the teaser offered in the title comes at last 5 minutes or so. I have made notes summary of the whole thing if you would like to save 90 minutes of excellent presentation.
What would deep adaptation to a climate crisis entail?
Resilience asks us “how do we keep what we really want to keep?”
Relinquishment asks us “what do we need to let go of in order to not make matters worse?”
Restoration asks us “what can we bring back to help us with the coming difficulties and tragedies?
Finally, a fourth question to guide our reflection on how to navigate our climate tragedy: Reconciliation “What could I make peace with to lessen suffering?”

Healthy eating
Ian and Cami

Friday May 10, Old99 Farm

WE have rhubarb, chard, kales, lettuces, and of course, eggs, pork, beef and chicken. Place your order and tell me when you want to pick up. I’m here all weekend.

Your climate link for the week: a documentary from DW (German National Radio like CBC) on Climate Refugees already at the breaking point in several tropical countries. The tropics are ‘ground zero’ for climate change impacts because so many millions live there.

Healthy eating
Ian and Cami

Friday MAY 3 Rhubarb at oLD 99

We have rhubarb, greenhouse grown, now ready to harvest. Get that first taste of local in season freshness.
If you are considering ordering but can’t pick up today, no problem, I’ll pick and chill your greens for you in the cooler. You can pick up anytime on the weekend or even next monday/tuesday. Just depends how fresh-picked you want it!

Healthy eating
Ian and Cami

Old 99 farm, week of Apr 29 2019

Last minute reminder, yes the market is open and I’ve lots of luscious greens, ready to pick.
As well as eggs, meats, compost and some tree saplings.

Healthy eating
Ian and Cami

Old 99 Farm, week of Apr 22, 2019

Please take alook at the greens in our greenhouse: we got them through -28dC and hail and wind, now are prime for harvesting. Two bunches for price of one: red russian kale, Nero kale, rainbow chard, perpetual green chard, buttercrunch lettuce, Rouge d’hiver leaf lettuce, parsley, collards, something for every one.

Beef selection is tops and so is pork, you can buy individual cuts or 20lb packs or halves or quarters. I like the bacon this time compared to last; more smoke and salty flavour.

Pork is on special this week: 15% off market price. Ribs, shoulder roasts, butt and loin chops, smoked cuts.

There are tree saplings now diggable, quite large, about 8 ft tall: Locust, eastern chestnut.

Eggs are three doz for price of two, in other words, buy two doz and get the third free.

Compost for your garden, organic inputs from cow, chicken and pig manure, lots of straw and wood chips, innoculated with beneficial organisms, biochar and rock flours. $4/bushel (35L) or $60/cu yd (22 bushels).

Climate site of the week: Dark Mountain. Has been around for 10 years or so, very personal exploration of how we creatively react to the news and science of abrupt climate change, possibly stabilizing to a world we humans have never experienced before in all our history. Here are some quotes from a recent blog post on the global climate rebellion:

- [you will feel] the need for quiet spaces where bridges can be built between troubled insiders, an awakening grassroots and the ‘knowledge-carriers at the edges’; spaces of negotiation, away from the frontlines.

‘What you people call collapse means living in the same conditions as the people who grow your coffee.’

- part of Roger Hallam’s argument [for Extinction Rebellion] is that the rational, secular logic of mainstream Western activism, with its dependence on promises of progress, is the anomaly, while the stance for which he speaks has more in common with what has sustained grassroots movements in other times and places, and continues to do so.

…this is the first activism around climate change in the West…that has roots this deep, that draws on spiritual traditions. Roger speaks about ‘the dark night of the soul’, the need to move through the darkness rather than avoid it. This is a call to rebellion that is framed in the language and draws on the traditions of mysticism.

…the observation, backed up by research on social movements, that those whose willingness to act endures the longest are not the activists who are motivated by outcome, who need to be given hope and to believe in their chances of success, but the ones who are motivated by doing the right thing.

Old 99 Farm, week of apr 14 2019

Lots of lovely greens in the hobbithouse. Take a look.
We have Russian Red and ‘Dino’ kale, spinach, perpetual green chard, rainbow chard and buttercrunch lettuce.
In the store freezers we have a nice variety of pork and beef cuts, and roasting and stewing hens. We have soup bones for making broths and soups.

Pork is on special this week: 15% off market price. Ribs, shoulder roasts, butt and loin chops, smoked cuts.

There are tree saplings now diggable, quite large, about 8 ft tall: Locust, eastern chestnut.

Eggs are three doz for price of two, in other words, buy two doz and get the third free.

Compost for your garden, organic inputs from cow, chicken and pig manure, lots of straw and wood chips, innoculated with beneficial organisms, biochar and rock flours. $4/bushel (35L) or $60/cu yd (22 bushels).

Your climate news site of the week: ScientistsWarning.org
This is what they say in the intro to their website, set up as a ‘wiki’.
Welcome to the Scientists’ Warning Wiki
The Scientists’ Warning WIki is full of relevant, powerful learning resources geared to the individual, local, regional, national and global levels. The Wiki aspires to answer the question “So what can I do?” It also tackles questions about climate science and related issues. Get started by reading our FAQ. Then watch a video introduction on how to be a better steward on Spaceship Earth. They say a journey of a thousand steps begins with the first step. Start here!

There are many ways that we can act to intervene in the catastrophic trajectory that civilization is taking in terms of the unfolding climate crisis. We refer to these actions as ‘interventions’ since we cannot ‘solve’ many of these problems in the conventional meaning of the word (putting things back the way they were), but we can intervene to improve them. This is in the spirit of Drawdown by Paul Hawken, which offers 100 of the most substantive solutions to global warming as a source of information.

Healthy eating
Ian and Cami

apr 4 2019

Lots of lovely greens in the hobbithouse. Take a look.
We have Russian Red and ‘Dino’ kale, spinach, perpetual green chard, rainbow chard and buttercrunch lettuce.
In the store freezers we have a nice variety of pork and beef cuts, and roasting and stewing hens. We have soup bones for making broths and soups.

Pork is on special this week: 15% off market price. Ribs, shoulder roasts, butt and loin chops, smoked cuts.

There are tree saplings now diggable, quite large, about 8 ft tall: Locust, eastern chestnut.

Eggs are three doz for price of two, in other words, buy two doz and get the third free.

Healthy eating,
Ian and Cami

Old 99 Farm, week of Apr 1 2019

Yes, the farm market is open this week if any one has need of it. A delightful crop of greens is prospering in the HobbitHouse, eggs laid up by the hens aplenty, meat of cow, pig and chicken fresh frozen and waiting.

Old 99 Farm, Week of Mar 23, 2019

Greenhouse looks lush with mature plants now in all beds: spinach, collards, kales, chards. The rhubarb is showing it’s head, will likely have stalks in couple weeks.

Pigs went to market this week, will have halves and wholes for the freezer. About 50 lb of meat wrapped per side.

Eggs are on special, buy two dozen, get one free.

Beef still has 15% discount on 20lb and quarter orders.

On the climate front, Hamilton city council passed a resolution this week with unanimous vote to declare that climate change is an emergency. Here’s the wording:
THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED:

(a) That the City of Hamilton declare a climate emergency that threatens our city, region, province, nation, civilization, humanity and the natural world;
(b) That a multi-departmental Corporate Climate Change Task Force of City of Hamilton staff be created under the leadership of the City Manager;
© That the Corporate Climate Change Task Force be directed to investigate and identify:i. Additional actions to be taken to incorporate into existing plans and policies to achieve net zero carbon emissions before 2050, etc. (and report back in 120 days).

This is a big deal! Only symbolic at present but hey, we hope they mean it and will be working hard to keep them true to their word. If you want to write your councillor a word of encouragement, I would be pleased. Let me know you did. I’m active with the grassroots movement called Extinction Rebellion. Find us on facebook.

Healthy eating
Ian and Cami

Climate News

Artists for Climate Action Apr 13-12 at Spice Factory
AFCA is a group of local Artists makers and creators who have come together compelled to stop and reverse this senseless destruction. Creating awareness and creating action to motivate Hamilton to play its part in tackling the greatest existential threat humankind has ever faced.

Cami and I went to the ‘townhall meeting’ held for Climate Minister Catherine McKenna at Mohawk college on Wed Mar 13. It was well attended, well orchestrated and well executed for a pep rally for the current government’s plans. We heard an articulate and gutsy McKenna lay out the ambitious plans necessary to come to terms with this existential threat. She did call it that. She also said three times that the people need to get out in the street to show their concern. She lamented the partisan politics of her opponents who are already campaigning to win by scrapping a price on carbon. But McKenna has it right: we all have to pull together in this; it’s away beyond left/right politics. How’s that going to happen? People in the street, school kids on strike, and leaders telling the whole truth.

Healthy eating
Ian and Cami