Older News from the Farm
What goes on at a farm in the winter? Do farmers just have 6 months off a year in Canada because the ground is frozen and there is nothing to do? I think most have a secondary occupation that takes up much of their time, either an off farm job and they are simply less busy in the winter, or cutting firewood, and plowing is an obvious one because of the seasonality. In our case we do have a "quiet" time of the year which is generally December and January. Winter is well and truly upon us and so there is no clean up or outdoor garden work that can be done, snow in most years covers the bare earth. But we do have sheep and so eventually they need us to supply them with their daily needs....
Every fall, for the past 3 or 4 years, we spend our time fencing the perimeter of our farm. After a horrific summer last year with multiple coyote attacks and many lambs and ewes killed, even our productive gardening season has had to be spent with repairing, maintaining and building new fencing. All this work has meant that this year we have had "only" one attack. In August, because of the lack of grass, we were forced to move the sheep into a field that had not been completely barbed wired at the top and bottom and wouldn't you know it, within a couple of days we heard some noise, went to check and found them: 3 killed, one injured and one missing.
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What an amazing month we’ve had. We started March with a seed sale and fairly warm but still seasonal weather. Held at the Royal Canadian Legion, there was fantastic attendance for a small town such as Perth. I invited community groups to set up tables (at no charge) and we had everyone there from Rare Breeds Canada, the NFU, Occupy Lanark, Perth and District Hort Society, the Foodbank and many others. As well, ecoPerth sponsored a very popular talk by Carole and Robert Moucks called “Keeping the Harvest for Food and Seed”. The local seed sellers were there as well as vendors from the Farmers Market and everyone seemed happy with the end result. I was so busy I had barely a moment to check out what was going on, but I would guess...
Winter on the farm is usually pretty quiet. A time of reflection of what has happened over the past year and what is going to come in the year ahead. For us it is also the time that we order our seeds and this involves figuring out what worked for us in terms of varieties and if we want to try something new. It is rare indeed that we plant the exact same thing from year to year. Part of the fun of gardening is seeing what grows and tastes the best in...