Happy New Year!

It feels refreshing that it’s finally cold and snowy outside – when it’s balmy and muddy I always have the vague feeling that there’s something I should be doing outside, so the snow settles me in to make the garden plan for next year.

As some of you know (Fall CSA members) 2019 is going to be a different year here at Orchard Hill – we are changing directions, and will no longer offer a CSA – for the first time in 21 years! It’s bittersweet – a lot of members feel like extended family at this point. We will miss catching up with you each week. But I feel the need to explore other directions, and feel out the market without the commitment to growing lettuce for 100 each week! I’ll still be growing vegetables, and we will have lots of asparagus and rhubarb in the spring at the market – followed by strawberries! I’m pursuing organic certification this year to make it more viable to do some wholesale vegetable sales in the future.

This year we are going to be at the Horton Farmers Market in St Thomas (Saturdays 8am-12) and the Covent Garden Farmers Market in London (Saturdays 8am-1pm & Thursday afternoon 4pm-7pm). I’m planning to do a little catering, and some value-add foods to take to market as well. We won’t be taking interns this year – also for the first time in more than 20 years!

Jess Andrews will be staying on as my right-hand woman, with Ken, Martha and Aaron in supporting roles. Ken and Martha worked hard this fall installing wood posts and electric fence around the majority of the west side of the farm, in preparation for a custom-grazing operation – we will essentially rent out the pasture for the growing season to another farmers’ herd of cattle. Great for the cattle (excellent, organic, nutrient-rich pasture), and also great for the land – intensive pasturing where you mob-graze ruminants – moving them every day – is one of the best ways to encourage biological activity and organic matter in the soil. It also attracts insects and birds to the farm. Martha is planning to pursue organic natural dye production and Ken will continue to produce organic grains, hay as well as breeding and training Suffolk Punch draft horses (we just got a colt this year that he hopes to train into a gentle stallion to run with a small herd of mares). We are expecting another calf from Florence this year, as well as two foals from Sadie and Buttons.

If you’d like to continue receiving emails about upcoming events, markets and special sales, just add your email to this list – here’s the link:

https://goo.gl/forms/5qMkxCLuah9PLCgL2

And finally – a big thank you to all of you who have been a part of our extended family – or just eaten our vegetables! Thanks for supporting our local economy, and keeping our family here growing food for the last 40 years.

Take care and keep in touch – come see us at the market, and find us on Insta and FB

Ellen, Aaron, Ken & Martha (and Della and Frannie)

Fall CSA Here’s the application – Fall CSA Application

Fall is my favourite time of year because we all get to enjoy the bounty of the harvest! People sometimes think that it’s going to be all onions and potatoes, but we often still have delicious tomatoes and peppers, the most beautiful greens and lettuces still grow into November, enjoying the cooler weather after the hot summer. This year we will have our own fresh turmeric and ginger, as well as popcorn and cornmeal grown and milled by us! We also some ornamentals planned like cornstalks and broomcorn. Pickups are generous and every 2 weeks. Some of our members store extra squash in their closets or basements for months!

Join us! $240, payable by Oct.17th or in monthly instalments of $80/month in October, November and December.

Pick ups are Saturdays 11am-3pm here at the farm, every 2 weeks, October 20th-December 1st.

Farm Dinners

September 7th and September 8th, 4:30-8pm

5 courses + wine pairing, $80 per person, including tax and gratuity.

Featuring vegetables, fruits and grains from our farm. Vegetarian and gluten free options are available. Payment required to hold reservation.  Limited number of tickets! UPDATE – SOLD OUT!

Connor Ross, from ‘Pie by Night’ in Guelph will be joining me to cook for you again!

Hope to see you there.

 

Come on out and see us tomorrow at our Second Saturday – it’s 11am-3pm. We have a market and and open house – learn more about how we grow food, buy a flower bouquet and some sausages! There will be a demonstration about Sourdough (pancakes and coffeecake, good beginner stuff) at 12 and 2pm. 

The CSA will start May 23rd and run for 22 weeks – until October 17th! It’s a week later than anticipated because of the late spring this year. We still have space left in the CSA, it’s not too late to join!! If you’re a member of the garden and haven’t gotten an email from me (info@orchardhillfarm.ca) – let me know (and check your junk mail).

Next Wednesday, May 16th 4-7pm, members can come by and pick up a bonus bunch of asparagus! Just email/text me to say that you’re coming and I’ll have it ready for you! It’s also a great time to pay for your share and pick up some eggs!

We have been busy on the farm! The windstorm tore the plastic off our big hoophouse and it had to be replaced, but aside from that and some chasing of row cover, we came out unscathed!

Today we have a CRAFT day on the farm – it’s our turn to host a monthly farm tour and worshop. We will be talking about soil health and planting some onions – it’s amazing what you can get done in an hour with 30 people! CRAFT SW is a group of farmers in SW ON that also host interns on their farms – it’s a way to foster a community (for farmers and interns) of like minded folks – people who want to educate and collaborate – and broaden the scope of the interns’ education. Exciting stuff.

Perhaps you are part of our CSA [community shared agriculture] garden already or are considering joining us this season but are wondering what it is special about our farm. We are a small farm by today’s standards at 93 acres but that allows us to better manage the many complex details involved in producing wholesome nutritious food and caring for the land we steward.
One of the most important aspects of growing nutritious food is having a healthy soil. Healthy soils grow healthy crops for humans to eat and results in healthy people and ultimately less health care costs for society to bear. This is a responsibility we take very seriously at Orchard Hill Farm. So what do we do differently?

One thing that really sets us apart is that we do most of our fieldwork with draft horses. They allow us to work the fields and harvest vegetables while reducing our dependence on petroleum fuels and represent one of our ways of tackling climate change right here on the farm. Granted, we are not purists, so we do use a tractor for a few jobs like loader work and baling hay and a rototiller for small plots that are difficult to work with horses. These working horses are fed pasture, hay and grain we grow on our fields as part of our diverse crop rotation which keeps the bugs and weeds guessing as to what is coming next. In the winter months, we collect the horse manure and straw bedding (from the grain we grow for feed and flour) and start the composting process, which results in a soil amendment rich in plant nutrients and organic matter which is then returned to our vegetable and grain fields to help supply the many nutrients essential to plant health.
A big part of creating healthy soils is promoting all the biology [bacteria, fungi, etc.] living below ground. We encourage this biology by crop rotation, cover crops, compost applications, minimizing tillage and even developing organic no-till methods. Every time the soil is disturbed, it also disturbs the bacteria and fungi – they play a critical role in providing plants with nutrients, and impact the water holding and drainage capacity of the soil – so we want them as abundant and happy as possible.
Another aspect of healthy soils is avoiding compaction, which squeezes the soil particles together – eliminating pore space where air and water are stored in the soil for use by microbes and plants. The use of horses helps us avoid compaction caused by using heavy tractors in the field.
This year we are beginning a trial of a “permanent bed system” that if successful will eliminate field wide tillage for most of our annual vegetable crops. This is a big change initiated by the next generation of farmers at OHF – Ellen and Aaron – and a big challenge for Ken to develop new field and equipment designs to make it possible.

So join us for an exciting season of progress and good food at Orchard Hill Farm CSA.

The pace of winter life on the farm is critical part of the whole. The speed and pressure of the spring and summer season is balanced by the introspective and intellectual focus of the fall and winter. This year has been especially slowed by the lack of Fall CSA – we were able to close up the garden particularly early and get the cover crop (rye) planted in October so that it would have a chance to get some roots established over the winter. Even if there isn’t much visible above ground growth, there are a lot of small roots that extend into the soil and help build up the soil’s resiliency during the cold season. This year we are experimenting with a plot of daikon radish as a cover crop in the section of the garden that we would like to plant to the earliest chard, carrots and beets. The daikon was planted in August and grew vigorously until the first frost. It winter kills and breaks down quickly so hopefully it will be easy to (gently) work up the ground in the spring for the first planting. We are always struggling to get the cover crop killed, worked in and planted when it first warms in the spring – and hopefully having a section with this already dead daikon will speed things up!

As always, one of the last field jobs was to mulch the strawberries – they like to be good and frozen before being mulched in the fall, and a lot of times that takes until December.
We have also been taking care of construction projects that seem to take too much mental focus in the summer – even if we have time, we don’t have the mental capacity! We dug a hole 5 feet down (before it froze!) to expose a leaking water faucet in the barn and replaced it. We’ve got three new pigs in the barn – Della has named them Sprinkles, Cream Cheese and Greenie. Florence, the calf born the summer before last, is pregnant and due to calve in June! We haven’t decided whether or not to milk her (for our own use) – it’s so much milk! So many dishes…

This year we will be training two new work horses – Flynn and Sadie. They’re now not 3 1/2 and ready to train to work! All the rest of the workers are 15-18 years old. Flynn is a character – he regularly hops up into his manger, or onto the sleigh in the paddock.
I am in the thick of garden planning right now – mapping the garden, planning a planting guide for the field and for the greenhouse. We will be experimenting this year with some permanent raised beds, and some intercropping of flowers in the vegetable garden – to help attract predators for pests as well as pollinators! Somehow the kids don’t have school and/or daycare for most of January, so I’m trying to get all my important tasks done before the end of the week! The first week of February I will be in Colombia visiting friends, and then it’ll be time to fire up the greenhouse!!
Have a healthy and happy holiday –
Ellen

Order now and pick up any of the next three Fridays before Christmas – a big bundle of vegetables – potatoes, carrots, leeks, beets, rutabaga, parsnips, kohlrabi, winter squash, winter radish and garlic! We also have a lot of eggs if you need some rich yellow yolks for that holiday baking, for only $5/dozen – all organically fed and pastured.

Here’s the Order Form – or just send an email to info@orchardhillfarm.ca and tell me what you’d like!

It would make a great gift, help you with all of that holiday cooking – and we all know that lovingly raised, local food tastes better, right? Happy holidays!!