Summer Heat

After the driest June on record in 70 years we are now enjoying (or in my case not enjoying) baking heat in July.  I'm not accustomed to temperatures and humidity that make it feel like the 90's. That's just way too hot for me. And apparently my body agrees as I've developed blisters and lesions the size of marbles on the underside of my arms and had heat stroke last week. I've been enjoying the past two cooler days and thanks to a trip to Dr Canete in New Minas I have ointment that I hope will heal and stop any more new blisters forming. They are quite painful as I'm sure you can imagine. 

It's all good growing wise though. We had some very helpful wwoofers here over the past month. Yuka from Okinawa, Lucas from France and Nadine and Eva from Germany. They were all really lovely people and got lots of weeding and planting done plus they were great fun to hang out with. Now that they're gone it's back to the grindstone for me. 

As far as the garden goes, the burgundy bush beans are flowering as are the melons and squashes and peas. In fact I'll send the girls out to pick today. Kate is a slow garden worker but a good picker and she likes it. We have enough beans planted to keep her busy with a succession of harvests for the next 2 months so she should be happy. The squash plants have just reached the point of starting to run all over the garden so that's great and we will have more cucumber picking and tomatoes this week. I should pick more zucchini as well to keep them small. The recent day of rain have them a great boost. 

We dug out the troublesome potatoes in one section and have replaced them with other veggies such as beans, peas and beets. I'm going to start leeks, Brussels sprouts and more cucumbers today and give some fish fertilizer to everything. It's a never ending cycle of weeding and harvesting and replanting once plants are finished. Busy busy! 

One project we tried this week was using a strong vinegar solution to kill the weeds. I'm particularly interested in thistle control. I'll let you know how it goes. 

The turkeys are growing like weeds! This weekend should see the completion of their movable pen and they'll be outside on grass which I know they'll love. I will too. Less cleaning. If you're interested in buying turkey for the holidays just let us know. 

August 6th is going to be our farmers market anniversary celebration with extra prizes and family fun. Stop on down and check it all out at the Wilmot community centre on Hwy 1 near Bayard Rd just east of Middleton. Every Saturday all summer from 10-1. Don't be fooled by the junk sale near Frenchys, 2 more minutes down the road and you'll be finding freshly baked goodies, soap, lunch if you like a good sausage or dare to try the monster market burger, handmade gifts and crafts, and of course tasty produce. It's also just fun to visit after you're done shopping. 

Well it's time to go feed all my critters and I have a section of about 8 feet of peas that are falling over I need to restring. It's a good time to water as well while it's cool. Hope you have enjoyed this vey brief update and sorry I've been incommunicado. 

WWOOF Canada and Worldwide

Unlike slugs in the garden, my article on slugs has disappeared so I'll have to find and re-post it. Sorry about that.

Today is a very wet one with 40mm of rain expected in the next 12 hours or so and maybe some thunder showers too this afternoon. So what do you do with wwoofers who are wanting to work and learn but can't because of the weather? You give them homework. Now as many of you know, not all work at a farm is outdoors but at this time of year most of it is field work which can be made near impossible by heavy prolonged rain. And I'm not sure I want to be out sloshing over my fields today anyway. It's true that work doesn't stop for the weather but we have to be practical. The animals are fed and bedded down except for a few brave roosters out for a walk and the turkey toms who have only just decided that it's not going to stop raining so they'd be best off indoors. What we've decided to do is clean their cabin, empty the toilet, maybe sort out the tool shed a bit and read up on Humanure. Part of being a wwoofer is learning about life on an organic farm and at our farm it's about composting. Here's the link if you'd like to read all about why composting toilets are so terrific in the Humanure Handbook. We have a basic humanure toilet plus an very fancy Sun Mar model and given the choice I think the bucket method suits me better.

I know I've talked about wwoof before and how great it is to meet young people and have some far help. With Steve gone, Chris working and the kids in school it's always a struggle to get things in the ground and they've been really helpful with planting. This rain is great at least for giving everything a good soak so we won't need to water for the next ten days or so at least. As soon as it stops we have apple trees to plant, berry bushes to go in and an orchard to rescue. We're going to take down the standing deadfall for firewood and get our piles stacked properly for drying. It should be fun and lots of work. 

WWOOF, as an organization and an idea isn't new. Although you may not have heard of them, there have been many schemes over the years to train up new generations of farmers, provide education and help young people find their own path in life. Here's an interesting video about one such scheme in England.