Old 99 Farm Week of Aug 15 2015

Did you notice that post on friday that we are now in ecological ‘overshoot’ as a planet, as of Aug 13? Means even the renewable resources we consume from here to the end of the year, cannot be replaced/renewed in an annual cycle. Worth pondering…

Fewer items each week passing as the seasonal items get sold out, and we’re waiting for the next harvest. But fun to say, today I picked the crop of peaches from our orchard, organic, mostly untended fruit trees. One whole 10 kg basket! Needless to say you will not be seeing these in the store! Unless you ask me very nicely …

Special is now over for lamb, but I am taking several animals to butcher at the end of the month. I have a sad story to relate on that; I found that the sheep have a high parasite load from not being rotated often enough around my paddocks and I lost two to anemia. The rest had to be treated with antibiotics so they are no longer organic. But you decide if that’s a deal breaker: they have had great pasture, no drugs, a good life.

Did you ever see the BBC series on This Living Earth with David Attenborough? I just found his two documentaries on The Truth about Climate Change, one from 2006 and one from 2013. They’re on youtube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2JmrmwIyhAE

Healthy eating
Ian and Cami

Aug 13 Earth Overshoot Day

In 2015, 13 August is Earth Overshoot Day. The day marks the estimated calendar date when humanity’s demand on the planet’s ecological services (which produce renewable resources and assimilate wastes) outstrips what the Earth can supply. This means that for the rest of the year, we are taking more than is regenerated, operating in Overshoot. Last year, Earth Overshoot Day was August 19th. We first went into Overshoot in the late 1970s, and since then the day has crept ever earlier on the calendar. This means we are using the ecological resources of just over 1.5 Earths.

Meeting the challenge of providing for all humanity’s needs within the limits of what our Earth can provide will require a radical restructuring of the global economy. In this post I will discuss how a post-growth economy based around not-for-profit enterprise can help us get to One Planet Living.

Read more at Resilience.org

Old 99 Farm, week of Aug 9 2015

Lamb special still on this week, 25% off. Please place orders for your fall lamb soon.

Cami is doing cabbage rolls and quiches on a regular basis now.

We have tomatoes in varieties to wonder at: the cherry type in yellow, orange and red; slicing tomatoes, romas, and heirloom beefsteak, the kind we eat with bacon and mayo! Lots of basil too.

Bush beans are now in harvest: yellow, purple and green.

Special on Chard: free bunch with every order! Three varieties: Rainbow, Fordhook and Perpetual Green.

I have a Facebook page to repost really cool news and information, especially about permaculture, climate disruption, peak energy and now the Election. It’s going to be A LONG 11 WEEK CAMPAIGN. Maybe the real stories will get out, not just the posturing and propaganda. Yes I’m voting NDP.

I got one reply so far on the Local Food Challenge, so I encourage you to review last week’s post or go here for the scoop. http://www.resilience.org/stories/2015-08-05/talking-resilience-with-vicki-robin.

Healthy Eating,
Ian and Cami

RESEND: 10 Day Local Food Challenge

I found this idea on Resilience.org and thought, why not try to float it in the Dundas valley?
So read more here about the Local Food challenge.

Here is the basic idea in Vicki Robin’s own words.

“I invented this thing called the 10-Day Local Food Challenge, which is giving people a game to play that’s like my game, if a little easier. For 10 days (not 30 days), you eat only food grown within 100 miles of your home (not 10 miles), and you give yourself 10 exotics (not 4). October, (the) 10th month, 1st through 10th.

You do it as a process of self-discovery, a process of discovery of your community. I could bundle everything that I just said in terms of what I call “relational eating.”

I discovered that eating is…part of the hyper-individualistic mentality. [Many people in the US] think of eating as an act of consumption. “Food is in the store. We get food and we don’t even have to do anything other than pay for it…. Food is so easy and actually so cheap.”

[W]e don’t have any relationship with the hands and lands that feed us. But when you focus on local food, you realize that your destiny is tied to your place on Earth and to the competency of the people.

You care in a way that is so much more profound, and you know that your environment, it isn’t just a nice place to live…. No, I live in a community that can feed me. That is ultimate, and that’s around relocalization and resilience and resourcefulness."

The whole interview with Vicki is a good read too. http://www.resilience.org/stories/2015-08-05/talking-resilience-with-vicki-robin.

You may have come across her as the co-author of the classic “Your Money or Your Life”.

Reply here or email if you are interested in being part of this. We can talk about it when you come to the farm for your ‘local organic fresh’ produce.

Ian

10 Day Local Food Challenge

I found this idea on Resilience.org and thought, why not try to float it in the Dundas valley?
So read more here about the Local Food challenge.

Here is the basic idea in Vicki Robin’s own words.

“I invented this thing called the 10-Day Local Food Challenge, which is giving people a game to play that’s like my game, if a little easier. For 10 days (not 30 days), you eat only food grown within 100 miles of your home (not 10 miles), and you give yourself 10 exotics (not 4). October, (the) 10th month, 1st through 10th.

You do it as a process of self-discovery, a process of discovery of your community. I could bundle everything that I just said in terms of what I call “relational eating.”

I discovered that eating is…part of the hyper-individualistic mentality. [Many people in the US] think of eating as an act of consumption. “Food is in the store. We get food and we don’t even have to do anything other than pay for it…. Food is so easy and actually so cheap.”

[W]e don’t have any relationship with the hands and lands that feed us. But when you focus on local food, you realize that your destiny is tied to your place on Earth and to the competency of the people.

You care in a way that is so much more profound, and you know that your environment, it isn’t just a nice place to live…. No, I live in a community that can feed me. That is ultimate, and that’s around relocalization and resilience and resourcefulness."

The whole interview with Vicki is a good read too. http://www.resilience.org/stories/2015-08-05/talking-resilience-with-vicki-robin.

You may have come across her as the co-author of the classic “Your Money or Your Life”.

Reply here or email if you are interested in being part of this. We can talk about it when you come to the farm for your ‘local organic fresh’ produce.

Ian

Old99 Farm, Week of Aug1 2015

Had a computer power failure so am writing remotely now.
We can add several varieties of tomatoes this week, in addition to the bounty I posted last week.
Lamb on special: leg roasts, shoulder chops and loin chops, 25% off. That’s about $7/kg off loin chops.

Healthy eating
Ian and Cami.

Old 99 Farm,. week of July 26 2015

First, no fruit from Palatine because only had 7 boxes committed from y’all, and I need 10 minimum. Lets try again next week.

Tomatoes are ripening in the greenhouse, the plum variety and new spinach is available. Summer squash joins zucchini in the curcurbit family of offerings.

As of July 26th, we can offer 46 items including the following crops: zucchini, plum tomatoes, spinach, cilantro, basil, napa and early white cabbage, arugula (rocket), kale, three varieties of chard, cabbage leaves, collards, and beetgreens, peppers, eggplant, summer squash. There are lots of eggs but they’re selling as fast as I can make ’em.

Almost 700 000 viewers on youtube have wondered what environmental devastation actually looks like. Do you? At TEDxVictoria, photographer Garth Lenz shares shocking photos of the Alberta Tar Sands mining project — and the beautiful (and vital) ecosystems under threat.
Go here!

What does environmental devastation actually look like? At TEDxVictoria, photographer Garth Lenz shares shocking photos of the Alberta Tar Sands mining project — and the beautiful (and vital) ecosystems under threat. Go here to view his ted talk.

Healthy happy eating,
Ian and Cami

the missing map

Old 99 Farm week of July 19 2015

Enjoying the weather? when you look at the continental maps for temperature anomalies we are the sweet spot around the great lakes, very little deviation from ‘normal’. See that white zone? But overall, it’s a scorcher and on track to be the hottest year on record: here’s the link to the full story.
http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2015/07/17/3681260/june-2015-hottest-year-record/
Here’s a map showing what I mean.

The lettuce is feeling the heat, starting to bolt, but the sweet potato plants are loving it. Lots of zucchini, beans are in flower, and raspberries! I have yet to see such a crop. I’ll have prepicked and U-pick open this week.

There are pasture raised roasting chickens in the freezer, whole, halfs or quarters.

Palatine Fruit next week. Place your order: I have so far a box of cherries for Joe, Irene, Lenore and Norma. Tell me if I missed you or you decline.

Healthy eating,
Ian and Cami

Raspberry U-PICK

The crop is gorgeous and at its peak now. These are organic berries, not sprayed. I’m encouraging u-pickers to come while it’s prime time.

I don’t know the roadside stand prices but Lindley’s Upick is $5/quart,
Jerry’s is $3/pint, get 7th pint free.
Jordash Gardens is $5/pint (location?)
and Hamilton Berries in Brantford hasn’t called me back.
None of these are organic.

I’m offering organic upick for $1.50 per 100 grams (HUH? that’s $4.50 per pint or $9/qt since a pint weights 300gm) That’s 3 dollars less per pint than on opening weekend last.

quarts are bigger than liters, 1 qt = 2 pints = 1.14L, if you recall. Figure how much jam and frozen berries you want to put by for winter and come on over.

I have boxes and containers here. Come soon for best picking.