Old 99 Farm, week of June 8th, 2014

If I had more time I’d post a couple of pics of the now three week old Maremma pups. Very cute. Be sure to visit them, mother Sheba is now more relaxed about visitors.

We’re planting the rest of the hot weather crops: more tomatoes, eggplant, peppers, sweet potatoes.

Two weeks till the Strawberry Solstice Potluck, Sun June 22. Come around 2 with chairs and place-setting, to enjoy strawberries with cream and a light potluck meal. Families with last name starting from A to M please bring beverages or berries. Families N to Z please bring a main dish or salad. I provide the cream etc. RSVP really helps the planning.

Still lots of greens in the greenhouse.
Order at www.old99farm.locallygrown.net

On July 5th, I am hosting a farm tour sponsored by Ecological Farmers of Ontario. For a small donation you can attend to hear and see what Garden Farming for a Bleak Post-carbon Future is about. register at www.efao.ca on the events tab.
Healthy eating,
Ian and Camelia

Old 99 FArm, week of June 1st 2014

Feels like summer, first calf came last week, on top of 6 puppies, 7 goslings, 46 chicks and 17 lambs since April 28th. 5 or 6 more calves to go.

Our annual Strawberry Summer Solstice Potluck is fast approaching, Sunday June 22, in the afternoon. Mark your calendars to bring the family. A separate notice will go out shortly.

Maremma puppies for sale in about 6 weeks. Very intelligent, gentle, beautiful large breed, not for small properties. An ancient stock guardian dog. More later. Those who come to the farm know Rama and Sheba (no Rama is not the dad) but they both are excellent examples of the breed.

The greenhouse is running riot with weeds, which is why I love gardening in there in the cool/cold season: NO weeds.
So much extra work. How many weeks till the first farmers market opens? That’s my winding down day for veggies. We’re concentrating on fall crops and winter storage.

This past weekend was the big Permaculture weekend with Peter Bane visiting here and several garden farms in Erin ON. On Wed evening he’s did a public talk for Transition Erin at the Anglican church on Main St., an hour north of Dundas. Was a standing-room only crowd to hear: Learning how you might apply permaculture principles in your own backyard.

Says Peter:"The urban landscape has swallowed vast swaths of prime farmland across North America. Imagine how much more self-reliant our communities would be if 30 million acres of lawns were made productive again.

Permaculture is a practical way to apply ecological design principles to food, housing, and energy systems; making growing fruits, vegetables and livestock easier and more sustainable."

The Permaculture Handbook is a step-by-step, beautifully illustrated guide to creating resilient and prosperous households and neighborhoods, complemented by extensive case studies of four successful farmsteads and market gardens. http://permaculturehandbook.com/

Four families signed on for mini-consults with Peter last weekend, so after that, I could arrange a gathering so you-all could hear what it entailed and was it worth it. Three Cheers for the EARLY ADOPTERS!

Now was I writing you about Old 99 farm market? yes. Veggies now mature in the greenhouse: lettuces, beet greens, chard, collards. Eggs are selling out every week, love it.
Most of you are in for advance orders on roasting chickens. Still have room for more tho.

Time to Explore Permaculture Opps

Peter Bane, respected permaculture instructor/designer/author helped me design my farm in 2008/9, as I was thinking through my choices for living in the postcarbon transition. (btw, we are past transition now: climate change positive feedback loops are kicking in that will accelerate climate upset. But that’s another story.

If you want more stereo on your choices in designing your place of abode, be it condo, lux enclave, exurb or farm, you could do worse that spend a few hours with Peter’s book, The Permaculture Handbook.

If you don’t know about permaculture yet, go here for a primer:
http://www.peakprosperity.com/podcast/85511/toby-hemenway-explaining-permaculture?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+PeakProsperity+%28Peak+Prosperity%29.
Says designer Toby Hemenway, "At its essence, permaculture is about understanding and appreciating how systems naturally operate, and combining those systems in intelligent ways to accomplish intended goals, sustainably.

And while it’s mostly applied to food production and land management today, the principles of permaculture make just as much sense for our economic, energetic, social and other systems."

I maintain that the most positive action oriented response to climate/energy/economic dysfunction is a local hub of permaculturally informed households. We won’t stop, or mitigate one iota, the cataclysm of runaway climate change. (Changes have a 40 yr lag, so we’re experiencing climate upset set in motion by the cummulate carb on in the air in 1975!) We can make the years available to us more livable and become sources of help and encouragement to each other.

So its worth finding the people who will be the ‘early adopters’ and create the local network of more skilful living in a time of collapse.

Are you one of those?