Famous Canadian Blogger

I was reading through the comments section of my blog this afternoon and there are a couple of recurring themes besides the whole 'please check out my website' requests. The first one is 'thanks for giving me some new ideas to think about' and the second one is 'this was great, you must be a really famous blogger'.

To which I have these replies:

1. You're welcome! I like to explore and study new things and having a blog just gives me an excuse to write about them and have a place I can look them up again. It's sort of like my good idea filing system.

2. Thanks, and no I'm not famous, lol. This is possibly the least read blog in Nova Scotia or Canada. And actually a good portion of my readers are international which is terrific. I guess people like it because my writing style is what I'd call conversational and is pretty much the way I speak in everyday life. You can just ask my friends. I like it. I don't know if that makes it more or less entertaining to read but it works for me. I'm not likely to ever be a famous blogger as I'm writing about family, farm, and community life and not something exciting like famous people, sex, money or music. But that's ok. If you get even one useful tip from reading my blog then I'm happy to have helped.

So thanks for reading and hanging out with me on the internet. I know I'm just a little blog in an ocean of online media, but I appreciate the more than 200,000 page views and hope that you'll stick with me as we get moved onto the farm full-time and the adventures continue!

Stretching your Food Budget

Everyone at one time or another has had to stretch their food budget. Some people have to do it all the time and others learn to make do when there's an emergency such as a hurricane or blizzard. Learning how to cook on top of your regular woodstove is important but then again, so is having the ingredients in the first place. You can't have 100 spices and exotic herbs sitting in your kitchen wasting space and money and not know how to use them. That's not thrifty. Better to have a dozen that are not stale and really know how to use them well.

Having some of the basic ingredients on hand and knowing how to use them can really make your food go a lot further. Having flour is all well and good but having just a little yeast, sugar and dried fruit suddenly means you've got fruit buns, or even hot cross buns if you add a little spice to them. Eggs, flour, milk and salt give you the choices to make crepes or Yorkshire puddings (I think they're called popovers in the US). And that's what we had for lunch today.

I'm trying to use up and rotate some of our food stores so the girls and I did a bunch of baking today. It was a snow day so no school and it just seemed like the perfect time to teach them another baking lesson on how to knead bread by hand and the proper way to beat eggs. We made banana bread, hot cross style buns and Yorkshire puddings with gravy and vegetables plus some of our thinly sliced lonzino for lunch. Despite the skepticism of one son, they all ate with gusto. I baked the puddings in my tortilla pans to give them an interesting shape and to make them enormous and slightly hollow in the middle, then I made up some gravy with a packet mix and a bouillon cube with flour and water and in it I cooked a half package of frozen veggies. I sliced the meat thin, placed in in the depression in the pudding then filled it with the veggie/gravy mix.

The results? Filling and Delicious! Now it's time to teach a lesson on cleaning up after you bake.

We're making a concerted effort to eat less refined sugar and flour and increase the amounts of vegetables both raw and cooked that we eat each day, but on a snowy day like today it's always good to have some comfort food too.

I've got to get going and stir my beans on the woodstove, I'm making baked beans from scratch and figured that if the woodstove was on I might as well use the heat for something extra useful. Here's my recipe if you're interested in making your own Yorkshire's.

Yorkshire Pudding Recipe

3 Eggs
1-1/4 cups  milk
2 Tbsp Melted butter or oil
1 cup flour
1/2 tsp. salt

Beat the eggs, then add the remaining ingredients and beat smooth for 2 minutes. Leave at room temp for an hour or two before cooking. You'll need to cover it and stir again before baking.  When you're almost ready to begin baking, turn the oven on to 375f (gas 6) and lightly grease your tin or tins. These can be made in muffin tins with great success. Pour in your batter and bake for 30-40 minutes or slightly longer if using a big tin. It'll be puffed up and slightly darker than golden brown. Traditionally served in our house with roast beef, gravy and vegetables.

I always double this recipe but this should make 12 mice muffin sized puffs.

Cost of todays lunch was probably $6 because I made a double batch plus the gravy and veg. It fed 6 adults. Dessert was buns and juice for another $3 so a total of $9 or $1.50 per person.  Take that McDonald's!

Community Garden 2014

Welcome to the community garden! Where friendship, knowledge and plants are growing.

We're excited that you've decided to check us out and see what we have to offer you.  2014 is our first year as a community garden although the groundwork has been laid for the previous 2 years. We  offer a variety of plots for families and individuals plus some community growing areas for larger crops that are more efficient to grow together such as corn and pole beans. We will be buying some seeds in bulk to save money, we'll have some seed packs and plots available for free to those in need, gardening classes, a picnic area and we invite everyone to work together to grow food for yourselves and the foodbank. So come join us and let's get growing!

Available plots:

12 - 20x20 feet  $50 each for the gardening year. (May 1-October 31)
22- 10x10 feet   $20 each for the gardening year.
2 large community plots for bulk crops will be planted and harvested by all users of the garden. 

Plots include:

Your assigned piece of land which will be tilled and ready for planting.
Access to tools, water, hoses etc.
Use of picnic area and all community areas.
Harvests from community plots as they are ready.
Classes throughout the year.
Community events.



If you're still interested after reading this far, here are our rules. 

Garden Guidelines and Rules:

1. Have fun!

2. Parking: Some parking is available at garden side, however we recommend parking at the church and walking down to the garden to limit damage to fields and disruption of the day to day workings of the farm.

3. Community: All members are encouraged to participate in the garden community, by signing up for one of the community tasks. We also invite you to attend classes and other activities throughout the year. We're a small initial group so let's enjoy it!

4. General Care: Garden plots and communal beds must be maintained to the satisfaction of the Garden Coordinator. This includes normal watering, weeding and general care of the assigned plot, and the immediate surrounding pathways.

5. Gardening Season: Plots must be worked on throughout the duration of the gardening season, generally understood to be May 1 through October 31, subject to weather conditions. If you are away for an extended period during the growing season, you must find someone to look after your plot in your absence. If you can’t find someone, inform the Garden Group Coordinator so that other arrangements can be made.

6. Harvesting: Crops must be harvested once they are mature. Produce from plants may not be sold. All produce harvested from the garden should be washed thoroughly before eating. We recommend that any surplus be delivered to friends and family or alternately to the foodbank in Kingston or Berwick. There are also churches and other community groups who can help you with suggestions. We think that planting a succession of crops so that your harvest is spread out over the growing season is more self-sufficient and makes it less likely to go to waste.

7. Neighbouring plots: Be considerate of your neighbours. Do not plant sprawling crops or tall ones that might interfere with others. Tall plants are best planted on the north side (towards the road) or the east side so as to limit the shading they may give to your neighbours plots. Harvest only from your assigned plot or from community plots. Keep insects and weeds under control as much as possible (see below) and please teach children to stay off neighbouring plots.

8. Compost / Insecticides / Mulches: Chemical insecticides, herbicides, fungicides and fertilizers are prohibited in the garden. Only Diatomaceous Earth, predatory nematodes and other insects or Insecticidal Soaps may be used in the control of pests. Only organic fertilizer, compost and composted manures may be used in soil conditioning and fertilization. We will have compost available on opening day and we will have some already in the soil when we till. Black and red plastic mulch and row covers are allowed as long as they are removed at the end of the season. Straw and newsprint are allowed as mulch but please no bark mulch. There will be a $25 clean-up fee for plastic mulches not removed at the end of the season or other non-compostables like tomato cages, wire etc.

9. Plants allowed: Trees and other woody plants are not allowed on individual plots. Please be careful with invasive species. If you plant something in your plot that starts to invade another part of the garden,you may be asked to remove it. This would include things such as pumpkins that sprawl, Jerusalem artichokes, comfrey, mint etc.

10. Fees : There is a fee for plots as described above.  All plots must be paid for by May 1st or in years when the weather allows earlier planting, before your plants are placed in the ground.
    
    

11. Keep the garden tidy! Please use the recycling and trash bins as provided. If containers are not available or are full then plot holders agree to remove their own waste/recyclable materials.

12. Pets : Due to the presence of farm animals such as poultry and sheep we ask that you please leave your dogs at home.

13. Water: The water supply is limited. Please use sparingly. Well water is not approved for drinking so please bring your own bottled water.
    
    

14. Compost: Members are encouraged to make use of and help maintain the communal composting area according to the rules of use in the garden guidelines. We will be teaching a class on composting several times through the year.
    
    

15. Shed: All tools and common gardening tools should be stored within the shed. Please clean off, dry and return your borrowed tools to their correct place. You are welcome to bring your own tools and we suggest that you label them with your name and plot number.

16. Tools: Any tools left in the garden area are there at your own risk – although we promote positive use of this space, we assume no responsibility for lost or stolen tools, plants, planting supplies, etc.

17. Plots: We will assign plots as applications are received. We will assign upto 2 plots per family initially and then will assess other remaining plots based on the waiting list. Each family may apply for a maximum of 4 plots. We will try to keep multiple plots together for ease of gardening and to assign the same plots to returning families each year.

18. Issues: Please report to the Garden Coordinator immediately if you spot any signs of theft, vandalism, misuse of garden resources or damage to the garden. For less serious issues or to leave a friendly note for a friend, please use the notice board. You can include questions, suggestions, and seasonal recipes. Also watch for upcoming events and classes. 

19. Dispute Resolution: In the event of non-compliance with the above rules, the Garden Coordinator will issue a verbal or written notice to the member. If at the end of a two-week period the problem has not been solved, we will attempt to contact you by other methods to resolve the problem. If after this time there is no action, we will potentially mow down and re-assign the plot. The most common cause for this is not weeding. If you have a serious health concern or other problem that does not let you weed please arrange for some community help with weeding. We have several Duke of Edinburgh's Award participants available to provide service where needed.

I'm a Mormon

I think that most of you know I'm a Mormon, a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. Our religion has been in the spotlight a lot recently because Mitt Romney who is running for President in the USA is also Mormon.

Like any other religion, we come in all different colours and sizes. Some of us are funny, some are professionals and some are a bit strange. We're just people after all. No, we don't have 3 wives (or husbands), no we don't have horns, yes we do have missionaries and we read the Bible, and yes, we try to follow the example of Jesus Christ to be better fathers and mothers, friends and neighbours. More members of our church live outside the US than in it. It's the fastest growing Christian religion in the US, Islam being the first overall I believe. Women and children are loved and highly valued in our religion, not second class citizens as some people believe. We value a persons right to choose what they believe, we can discuss beliefs but at the end of the day my friend, your choices are up to you. Some of us are good gardeners, some of us can sew, some of us can build beautiful playgrounds in a welding shop and some us are lawyers. There are lots of "I'm a Mormon" ads out there... and here's one I'd like to share with my permaculture/gardening buddies. Because no matter what our religion, we're all sharing Planet Earth together.



Comments and Questions welcome.

The World According to Monsanto

"There's nothing they are leaving untouched: the mustard, the okra, the bringe oil, the rice, the cauliflower. Once they have established the norm: that seed can be owned as their property, royalties can be collected. We will depend on them for every seed we grow of every crop we grow. If they control seed, they control food, they know it -- it's strategic. It's more powerful than bombs. It's more powerful than guns. This is the best way to control the populations of the world" -Vandana Shiva, Physicist, New Delhi India

Food Sovereignty, or the right to keep our seed for use as food, future crops, and to preserve the genetic diversity in our staple foods, should be a right granted to all persons in the world. Contamination from GMO crops is adversely affecting the World's poorest people and subsistence farmers from South America, to India to the USA. Yes, there are farms in the US where people are struggling to be self-reliant in food so I've included them too. Our right to have ancient seed varieties of peas, beans, corn be preserved genetically is becoming harder and harder due to cross-pollination from Monsanto's genetically modified crops. Pollution from pesticides and fertilizers is literally killing people the world over.

And people tell me I'm crazy for wanting to be an organic grower.

I think you're crazy for NOT supporting local organic farms. So I am re-posting this movie which I will note was funded in part by the National Film Board of Canada. And I will stop complaining about Monsanto. Infact I'll leave off this post by telling you something wonderful about Monsanto who really are a chemical company and not the agriculture company many people think of, and holders of more than 15,000 patents. Did you know that Monsanto was the company that developed LED technology? I love LED's and find them very useful.

Wood Cookstove

This is our new Enterprise wood cookstove. We're collecting it on Sunday afternoon and bringing it back to the house for some restoration. The enamel looks to be in good shape and with the help of our wonderful friend Dan who is a welder we hope to be able to repair a crack in the cast iron top, but it's very tricky to repair or weld cast iron so we'll have to see. It will be totally up to the professionals to let us know. However, for a small investment in new fire bricks for the firebox and the repair of the crack, we can hopefully have a working cookstove for our new home when the time comes. One of the beauties of having a home to live in right now is that we can acquire necessary things as we go and get a good deal on them. Our investment in this stove will be approximately:

$30   gas to go collect it.
$100 for welding rod and labour
$30   for fire bricks
$20   Sanding wheels to grind down the top and remove rusty spots before we season it again.

Total Cost Estimate = $180

Cost of a new cookstove = $5500+

There is an extra cost for chimney and stove pipe but the cost is the same whether for an old stove or a new one. We'll need a steel liner in a masonry chimney or an insulated steel pipe and collars depending on how we decide to install the stove.

So with luck and a lot of labour we will have a working cookstove that will be useful in the house or in the workshop as a source of wood heat. It's great to be able to make something like this useful again and this particular stove is from the Enterprise-Fawcett foundry that's here in the Maritimes, in Sackville New Brunswick. They recently had a fire and so are not currently working I don't think.

In other news...we paid our first mortgage payment yesterday, one of our cats is 20 feet up a maple tree in the front yard and meowing like mad (yes it's Suzie again) and the parts we need to repair the tiller, the ignition coil and something else I don't remember, have arrived 1 day after we ordered them. Hooray! And the timing is great because I have to go out today and was afraid I'd miss the delivery guy. Ahhh, the week is getting better.

Traditional Wisdom From Our Parents and Grandparents

Most of us realize how important it is to share knowledge with others, right? By sharing we encourage the preservation of useful skills and increase our community's self-reliance. But what if we don't have grandparents that can teach us? We're now getting into generations that have never grown veggies or lived on a farm so it's creating a huge gap in the passing of traditional wisdom within families. Things like Grandma's cure for bug bites, or Grandpa's favourite 'no-fail' fishing technique. One thing we can do to stop this from happening to our kids is to learn as much as we can from others through books and also by taking lessons from people willing to teach. Our family histories and stories can be a source of knowledge too. Our family has roots in England, Scotland, and the Czech Republic. We grew up hearing about life in WWII, poaching rabbits, life as a bush pilot in northern Manitoba in the 30's and 40's, what life was like during the great depression and how people made do. Stories that give us the opportunity to know more about our family history and to learn the lessons that other people have learned so thereby avoiding them. I want my children and grandchildren to learn from my mistakes and to go make their own!

On Survivalblog this weekend (it's a great place for preppers and doomers) was an interesting letter that I thought I'd like to share with you to get you thinking about how self sufficient you are right at this minute. It gives some perspective about what people thought was important and also how our inter-personal relationships make a huge difference to the course of our lives. Enjoy!

Self-Sufficient Farming in East Prussia in the 1930s and 1940s, by Mrs. Icebear

Please keep in mind that English is not my mother tongue, and that these recollections are from the perspective of a young girl, now in advanced years.

My mother-in-law grew up in what was then called East Prussia (Ostpreussen) – now Poland. She was born 1929 – got twice evacuated – the first time at the age of 14. The beautiful area is called “die Mazurische Seenplatte” and “die Mazuren” and is today developed for tourism.

I´ve picked her brains to learn as much as I can, and here are some of the things she remembers of life on the farm back then:

Father, mother and 8 children lived abundantly – with spare produce to sell (and saving up money to buy more land) on 35 hectares (about 75 acres) of ground. 8 hectares was mixed forest, 27 hectares tilled land and meadow for grazing. A river ran near the farm, there the animals drank, the geese and the ducks swam (one child had to keep fox-watch), and net fishing for dinner was done. From the meadow and forest they got wood for building the houses, firewood, all kinds of berries, nuts and mushrooms, healing herbs like peppermint and chamomile, linden flowers and birch juice, rushes were collected from the river.
They all had a lot of work to do, schoolwork was done in between farm chores. In the evening there was singing and storytelling while spinning, knitting, shoemaking, horse tack making, basketry, small carpentry, sorting peas, shelling beans, feathering the ducks and geese was done by petroleum light. The children had almost no toys, but my mother in law got her first and only doll. She put the poor doll close to the oven so it wouldn´t feel so cold – and the doll melted.
The animals on the farm were: geese and ducks for down bedding, meat and eggs, chicken for eggs (own use and market sale), some sheep (less than 10) to make own wool, 6-7 pigs for sale and own use, around 20 cows strictly for sale of milk/ butter/cheese (i.e. not for slaughtering), three cats as mouse police living in the barn, a guard dog and 3-4 horses for traveling and farm work like plowing. The father was the exclusive handler of the horses, and even so he once got severely kicked by the most nervous horse and had to be hospitalized because he (in a tense market situation) forgot to talk to the horses before he came up to them! While the father was hospitalized the mother got (organized by the state) an inexperienced 15 year old “white Russian” forced labourer to help out on the farm – she had to teach him everything in sign language. He stayed on since both sons of the family had to go to war. Later, when the Red Army invaded East Prussia this boy saved the whole family by testifying that he had always been treated correctly, he even cried and begged to be allowed to stay. Families got shot to the last member if they had treated the forced labourers badly.

A doctor and hospital was 20 kilometers away in a bigger town, so the trip there was a big project. The school principal owned the only car in the village (a Volkswagen Beetle). The 3 kilometer trips to school and church were generally done on foot – the horses were spared for farm work apart from on very special holidays.

After the first evacuation to another village an “ordinary man” got the job of being local priest, grave digger and dentist. Dentistry meant getting a tooth pulled out without any ado and pain killers. Infections were completely avoided by rinsing with alcohol and chewing plantain leaves.

The children walked the three kilometers to school in summer barefoot or in “jesuslatschen”, (toe sandals) - in winter in wooden clogs the father made. Later he advanced to making leather shoes for the children – he bought the leather but the thread for rough sewing they grew on the farm: Linen/ flax was grown for the fiber and as animal fodder. The linen fibers got soaked in tar and were used to make tack for the horses and thread for sewing shoes.

Some things that the family bought: Petroleum oil for the lamps, linen fabric for sewing bedclothes, underwear and kitchen towels (dresses and such were made by the village seamstress), salted herrings, salt, sugar, pepper, cinnamon, feather pens, ink, schoolbooks (handed down to all the children in turn), small blackboards with chalk for individual writing, from the 5th class real schoolbooks for writing in. They also bought nails and carpentry tools of course, sewing notions and even a sewing machine. (The sewing machine got hidden in the earth cellar in the forest when they had to evacuate – sadly the family never came back to reclaim it.)
The family built their own house with relatives to help, they grew/ raised/ collected all their own food except the aforementioned herrings, for instance meat got cured by smoking with juniper.
They also made their own bedding (mattresses filled with straw, exchanged when necessary, counterpanes and pillows filled with down and feathers), spun their own wool, made all knitted clothes like socks, sweaters, mittens etc. The father made baskets of all sizes and shapes, also for animal feed (through shape), either from willow or split and watered tree roots, and he also made some of the simpler farming tools out of wood. Strangely enough none of this got sold, just the farm produce. (During the war years nobody wanted to get paid in money, so the family paid the seasonal farm workers in meat, butter, cheese and eggs.) They collected all their own seeds, made jam, pickles and “sauerkraut”. Peat and wood kept the “kachelofen” running, an enormous oven built into the house, including a built in water heater and a big bread baking oven that got used for eight sour dough loaves once a week (cakes were made afterwards since the oven was heated up.)

The horses got fed hay, clover and oats, the cows got hay, clover and thinly sliced turnips, and the aforementioned linen seed/flax mix if ill or having just calved.
The dishes were first rinsed with clear water so the pigs could drink the swills.
The crops were: Potatoes, red beets, turnips, beets, carrots, peas, beans (pinto beans), red cabbage (got stored with the complete root in sand in the cellar) white cabbage for sauerkraut, oats, wheat, rye, barley, cucumbers for pickles, and squash/ pumpkin plus garden herbs like chives and parsley. Flax and clover was grown for the animals.
Rushes of different kinds were cut up and put on the clay floor in the ”old house” – it smelled good and was easy to brush out again since it made no sense to wash a clay floor. This practice was discontinued after the new house was built with wooden floors.

My mother in law´s mother got struck dead by lightning during the years as a refugee. The sun was shining again after a thunderstorm , but she was leading a goat and a sheep in iron chains, one in each hand... The father died of pneumonia because of having to do forced labour in winter, one son barely survived Stalingrad (he “just” lost one and a half legs to frostbite) but all the children managed somehow to escape to the west and start their lives anew there.

The most sought-after barter goods in war time (after food) were: watches, cutlery (a fork could buy a piece of bread) and fur coats! Guns made zero sense in this situation, since that only would have gotten one killed faster. Being devious, hiding and/or keeping calm in the face of danger was the way – or simply appealing to the human side of war-traumatized soldiers: My mother-in-law had many narrow escapes – once she got found cowering behind the dresses by a Russian soldier rifling through the clothes cupboard with a bayonet, and he spared her life because mother cried and begged for her; once she came running to her father with Russian soldiers on her heels, so father fast dug her into the strawstack he was just making. He stood calmly still on the stack over the spot where she hid – the soldiers pushed bayonets through the stack but she thanks God they missed her every time. Her father did like the other farmers, they used coal “make up” to accentuate their wrinkles and thereby appear older and useless for other things than farming. The soldiers wanted to “take him” (i.e. to Siberia), but he insisted he had to feed the cows otherwise they (the cows) would starve – and food was the number one priority also for the Red Army, so he was spared.

My personal conclusion: Know when to keep your guns in the cupboard, get distilling equipment for making your own alcohol! In case your antibiotics get too old/ used up or you have a resistant strain of some bug or the culprit is a fungus or virus – get books on herbs now, grow Echinacea, stock up on tea tree oil and baking soda (for your teeth)! Thyme, sage and honey will fix almost everything. Grow paprika/ red peppers (window sill) and rose hips for vitamin C. Plantain chewed to a pulp heals cuts, sores, and acne; aspirin was originally synthesized from willow bark. If you have a chance, grow tons of nut trees, and maples for the syrup, and when your vitamin pills get used up remember that nettles, nuts and dandelions contain lots of important vitamins and minerals.

Organic vs. Convetional Growing

Just had to post this article again although I'm sure some have read it already.

Study: Organic Farming Outperformed Conventional Farming in Every Measure Written by Paul Hanley, The Star Pheonix Thursday, 29 September 2011 12:57

The results are in from a 30-year side-by-side trial of conventional and organic farming methods at Pennsylvania's Rodale Institute. Contrary to conventional wisdom, organic farming outperformed conventional farming in every measure.

There are about 1,500 organic farmers in Saskatchewan, at last count. They eschew the synthetic fertilizers and toxic sprays that are the mainstay of conventional farms. Study after study indicates the conventional thinking on farming - that we have to tolerate toxic chemicals because organic farming can't feed the world - is wrong.

In fact, studies like the Rodale trials (www.rodaleinstitute.org/ fst30years) show that after a three-year transition period, organic yields equalled conventional yields. What is more, the study showed organic crops were more resilient. Organic corn yields were 31 per cent higher than conventional in years of drought.These drought yields are remarkable when compared to genetically modified (GM) "drought tolerant" varieties, which showed increases of only 6.7 per cent to 13.3 per cent over conventional (non-drought resistant) varieties.

More important than yield, from the farmer's perspective, is income, and here organic is clearly superior. The 30-year comparison showed organic systems were almost three times as profitable as the conventional systems. The average net return for the organic systems was $558/acre/ year versus just $190/acre/year for the conventional systems. The much higher income reflects the premium organic farmers receive and consumers pay for.

But even without a price premium, the Rodale study found organic systems are competitive with the conventional systems because of marginally lower input costs.

The most profitable grain crop was the organically grown wheat netting $835/acre/year. Interestingly, no-till conventional corn was the least profitable, netting just $27/acre/year. The generally poor showing of GM crops was striking; it echoed a study from the University of Minnesota that found farmers who cultivated GM varieties earned less money over a 14-year period than those who continued to grow non-GM crops.

Importantly, the Rodale study, which started in 1981, found organic farming is more sustainable than conventional systems. They found, for example, that:

. Organic systems used 45 per cent less energy than conventional.

. Production efficiency was 28 per cent higher in the organic systems, with the conventional no-till system being the least efficient in terms of energy usage.

. Soil health in the organic systems has increased over time while the conventional systems remain essentially unchanged. One measure of soil health is the amount of carbon contained in the soil. Carbon performs many crucial functions: acting as a reservoir of plant nutrients, binding soil particles together, maintaining soil temperature, providing a food source for microbes, binding heavy metals and pesticides, and influencing water holding capacity and aeration. The trials compared different types of organic and conventional systems; carbon increase was highest in the organic manure system, followed by the organic legume system. The conventional system has shown a loss in carbon in recent years.

Organic fields increased groundwater recharge and reduced run-off. Water volumes percolating through the soil were 15-20 per cent higher in the organic systems. Rather than running off the surface and taking soil with it, rainwater recharged groundwater reserves in the organic systems, with minimal erosion.

Organic farming also helps sustain rural communities by creating more jobs; a UN study shows organic farms create 30 per cent more jobs per hectare than nonorganic. More of the money in organic farming goes to paying local people, rather than to farm inputs.

With results like these, why does conventional wisdom favour chemical farming? Vested interests. Organic farming keeps more money on the farm and in rural communities and out of the pockets of chemical companies. As the major funders of research centres and universities, and major advertisers in the farm media, they effectively buy a pro-chemical bias.

Still, the global food security community, which focuses on poor farmers in developing countries, is shifting to an organic approach. Numerous independent studies show that small scale, organic farming is the best option for feeding the world now and in the future. In fact, agroecological farming methods, including organic farming, could double global food production in just 10 years, according to one UN report.

Dirk Becker's Fight and Grass Farms of Nova Scotia

Dirk Becker and Nicole Shaw's fight to keep their "Urban Farm" has attracted media attention the world over and I've posted about it several times before as I've met Dirk and believe in the principle of what he's doing, to fight for the right to keep his livelihood and grow food in an 'urban' (that's debatable) area on his acreage. While I believe in the rule of law in most cases, I truly believe that this is one worth fighting mostly because if the back handed way that Dirk and Nicole have been dealt with by their local gov't. It's not really any wonder that an activist would then turn around and fight back is it? I'm amazed that he and Nicole didn't take up arms sooner. All the City of Lantzville has done is make folk heroes out of Dirk and Nicole and bring more attention to their cause. The City (a lot of Lantzville is actually rural and not paved) and mayor in particular look like a bunch of bullies. Here are a couple of videos I thought you might find interesting.

The reason I'm still writing about this issue even though we're now 7000km away is that this is a problem that affects everyone in Canada and in the developed world in general. Don't think it happens in Nova Scotia? Steve and I are constantly dismayed and shake our heads when we drive around the beautiful Annapolis Valley at the hundreds of 'grass farms'. That's what we call the rural houses that are surrounded by acres of neatly trimmed lawn and nothing else. No fence, hay fields, sheep, or anything resembling a vegetable garden. Just one small house and 3 acres of grass. There's a nice house on the way to Berwick that I swear has 12 acres of grass all beautifully cross mowed and not an animal in sight. People buy the houses and then sit back to enjoy the peace and quiet of the country, riding the mower for a couple of hours a week and that's fine but what about those of us who want to grow food and can't afford rural property that's suitable for agriculture because of the property prices being driven up by people from the city buying it and then not using it wisely.? What happened to understanding that we are stewards of the land? Isn't there some sort of balance? Don't we recognize where we're heading as a society? Sadly, the answers to these questions and others about our consumerism is mostly 'no' , we don't get it. For the majority of people things like 'Peak Oil' and 'Peak Water' are just topics for discussion amongst us cranks and conspiracy theorists. As long as WalMart has shelves filled with stuff and the grocery store is full of cans and veggies they feel secure and smug in their own little world and think that life will always be like this. They simply don't understand that something like 'peak phosphorous' means commercial growers won't have unlimited fertilizer for their crops so yields will decrease and prices will go up. That affects everyone. We all eat. Well, those of us who can afford it.

We're biased of course because we've experienced this personally when living on Vancouver Island and so we're living here in Nova Scotia now where land is still more affordable so we can provide a better life for our kids and grandchildren. And we love the people here too.

Well, that's my mini rant for today. Watch the videos and comment.

Dost mine eyes deceive me? Is that the sun?!?!

It finally happened...a day of sun! And wouldn't you know it, we were working at the youth group's fundraiser garage sale at Q.Bay resort. We did well though making nearly $600 so far and a couple of big ticket items still to go. Camp is definitely looking better for the boys now :)

Once we got home we headed right for the garden. Reports of a rabbit were not exaggerated, one has a taste for lettuce (preferring romaine) and peas. Not too much damage but I have no intention of feeding this little critter again.

We got lots more planting done. More peas, beans, kohl rabi, lettuces, scallions and we put some leggy tomatoes outside using our sideways method. More tomatoes will be going out tomorrow and lots more seeds are going in the ground. Next week will see the planting of main crops of oats, buckwheat, more potatoes, leeks, cabbage, turnips, corn, and all the squashes including pumpkins. It's going to be a very busy week. The weather looks like it will be sunny for a few days and then showers so finally we have good planting weather! We'll be putting our first application of organic seaweed fertilizer for those crops that are up already.

On the animal front, we're deciding if we should attend the Coombs swap and find homes for some goat kids. Maybe the Silkie roosters too. Or a few odd chickens we have around. Hmmm, what else can I sell? Alpaca fibre? Maybe the billy goat.

The turkeys have stopped their big die-off so we're holding steady at 41. However the meat birds are eating and growing and eating and growing and eating...you get the idea. 5 more weeks and some will be eating sized, it's hard to believe...until you see them eat! We usually grow ours a little more slowly and let them outdoors as it's so much more healthy for them and more natural if they can peck around outside and feel the sun on their backs. They certainly seem happy.

Our injured chicken is ready to return to the flock tomorrow once his bandage comes off. Jasper the smelly Manx cat is fixed so that's a good thing and the last 2 kittens should be going to homes tomorrow with any luck.

That's it for tonight. I got most of the dirt from under my nails, fed the cats, and washed some laundry so now I'm going to bed for some well earned rest.

Thanks for praying for good weather!