As the alarm goes off at 5:45 a.m., I groan and let myself sleep for another 5 minutes. I'm not a morning person. Hubby remains asleep, softly breathing next to me. I am wishing that I could stay in bed for another couple of hours. Instead, I roll out of bed and quietly slip downstairs. I ...
2014 farm season begins!
My body is aching, but we managed to get 4 beds ready at the farm yesterday. It was my first day back at the farm after a long winter. So much has changed, but it still feels like home. An acquaponics system has taken over more than half of the greenhouse, Connor is gone and ...
Killdeer
This week at the farm, I was helping Connor. What a huge difference between his beautiful, lush plot, compared to the plot I've been helping Phil with. I'm not saying it isn't equally enjoyable working the new plot. That is rewarding in a different way. It was just a nice change to be surrounded by ...
This Is Farming (TIF)
The land is starting to look like a farm! I remember when I first set foot on the 'dirt pile' - I was fully aware that this was going to be body-breaking, muscle-aching work, but I also knew this was going to be exciting to be a part of developing this mud field into farm ...
In the field: setting up
So far this week has been about getting started. The weather had been perfect earlier this week for preparing the beds at Fresh City. Compost had to be added to each of the 100m beds. Trenches, which are the foot paths between each bed, had to be measured and dug out. The various varieties of ...
Shelter in the greenhouse
Today I woke up to ice pellets bouncing off our windows. We had freezing rain this morning, and when I resurfaced from the subway, there were massive snowflakes falling. What happened to spring?! Yesterday we had some heavy rainfall. I was up at Fresh City Farms. As we did not want to compact the soil, we ...
All in a day’s work
Earlier this week, I redeemed a groupon for a 1-hour tuina session. I did this a day before going to the farm, which was such a silly thing to do. I had never heard of tuina before, which is why I had purchased the groupon. It's basically the Chinese version of shiatsu, using thumbs ...
Urban farming 2013
I've been looking forward to spring/summer. It means I can be found in greenhouses, garden beds and fields, growing delicious things. This week I will be starting at Fresh City Farms again. I was there last summer and I loved it. I didn't think I'd be back this year because it sounded like they were going ...
Urban farming, weeks 8 & 9
A little bit behind! Week 8 at the farm was very different. Connor was not working that day, so I decided to help out with packing the food boxes. I also watched how they branded the wooden boxes with the Fresh City logo. Thankfully it wasn't a terribly hot day (like today at 44 degrees with ...
Urban farming, week 7
It was so great being back at the farm after taking a week off. The tasks today were entirely different from before, now that crops are ready to be harvested. That's what I did, harvest and got them ready to be delivered. I helped to harvest the swiss chard, using the same knife but different ...