Many of you are wondering about our apprentices for this season so I thought I would high light a bit about each of them in this blog entry.

Jonathan Bruderlein was born in Switzerland and is currently from Quebec. He is a graduate of McGill University with a degree in Agricultural Environmental Science. He apprenticed previously at La Ferme Terre Bleue and La Ferme Co-op Tourne-sol in Quebec. In the future he hopes to start up a vegetable and livestock CSA in Quebec.

We are happy to have Anna McFaul back for her second season at Orchard Hill Farm, as our Senior Apprentice. It is helpful that Anna knows the ropes around the farm. She comes from a farming background having grown up on the McFaul Family Farm in Prince Edward County as at least the sixth generation on the farm. Her skill in picking strawberries acquired as a child sure comes in handy! She is almost a graduate of the University of Guelph. (She is working on her last two courses by correspondence in her free time this season.) Anna is an avid field naturalist with a special interest in entomology. Some of you may remember her jars of butterfly chrysalis in our wash area last summer.

Devin Hickman grew up outside of New York City. He trained as a horse farrier. Devin apprenticed previously at Food Bank Farm and Cold Pond Community Farm in New England and expects to return to New England and start a CSA of his own in the future. He also enjoys fly fishing and outdoor activities. Devin is proud to be carrying on his grandfather and great-grandfather’s tradition of farming with horses.

Jolianne Demers was born in Quebec and is a graduate of McGill University with a degree in Agriculture. She has worked on a number of farms in previous summers including an apprenticeship at Meeting Place Farm in Ontario. Jolianne is an avid cyclist often rising before anyone else and cycling the five miles around our country block before breakfast. She plans to farm in Quebec in her future following in the footprints of her grandparents. She has quite a bit of horse riding experience and is able to transfer those skills to working with our horses. Jolianne has a special interest in herbs and medicinal plants.

We had our first Theme Day at Orchard Hill Farm this week. Our Super Heroes came to the rescue to plant our early transplants of leeks, onions, broccoli, cauliflower and cabbage.

We also seeded our first planting of sweet corn, weeded our perennial herb gardens and direct seeded our second planting of carrots, beets, spinach, lettuce and radishes.

The pick-up room is cleaned out and we are saving asparagus for the first pick-up of the season on Tuesday. It’s exciting to anticipate the start of another season.

Ken and crew have the chicken palace almost ready
to go. Just in time, because the Red Tail Hawks returned this week and we have had one chicken casualty already!

We look forward to seeing you at your first pick-up next week!

The first Tuesday CSA pick-up will be May 12 and the first Saturday pick-up will be May 16. Members can come on their pick-up day anytime between 11:00 am and 7:00 pm. Remember to bring bags or containers to hold your produce.

All of our apprentices are here for the season. Jonathan managed to get our lawn mower going and cut the front lawn for the first time last week. In the back ground of the picture you can see the chicken laying hen hoop house. It will be covered with aviary netting to keep the hawks away.

Anna and Jolianne were horsing around on Gwen after they cultivated the raspberries. Along with Devan and Jonathan they make a great foursome and will be busy this week with lots of planting. We have the early cabbage, broccoli and cauliflower to transplant as well as the leeks and onions. There is also another batch of direct seeding to be planted in the main garden. Hopefully we will be able to get these jobs finished before it rains again.

April has been a busy month at Orchard Hill Farm. Two of our apprentices Devin Hickman and Anna McFaul (you may remember Anna from 2008) arrived the end of March and have been working hard since then. We have continued with the bunkhouse. See Devin mudding the inside wall. At the same time we have been growing transplants in the heated greenhouse and planting the hoop houses and main garden with early vegetables. Yesterday, we planted the potatoes with the help of our team of Suffolks, Jasmin and Winnie.

The CSA in now full and we have a number of people on our waiting list. It seems that people are more attracted to the CSA model of connecting with where their food comes from than ever.

Snow drops in our front garden are always a beacon of spring at Orchard Hill.

The greenhouse is up and running and the first of the transplants are up. The first of our apprentices are arriving next week and the ball will really get rolling. Ken has continued to work away on the bunkhouse and the wiring for the independent electrical system is almost done. We have appreciated help from a number of our friends and past apprentices over the winter with the bunkhouse project.

More CSA applications are arriving everyday in the mail. We still have space in the 2009 garden for members, but we are filling up quickly so don’t delay if you haven’t signed up already.

All the best for a good spring.

Christmas Greetings everyone! Ken and I harvested our last Christmas Trees the beginning of December! We have them for sale at the farm on Michelle’s pick-up days for Fairmeadow farm: December 16th and December 20th. We harvested our first Christmas Trees in 1989 and it is with mixed feelings that we are phasing out that part of our business.

The bunkhouse is closed in for the winter and now Ken will go to work on the inside. We will finish the outside in the spring when warm weather returns! We had a local sawyer come and saw up some more logs for us this week to finish the job.

Ken has been busy the last few weeks doing a number of presentations about our farm and or soil fertility. We both attended a CSA conference that was held in Ontario the end of November. It was wonderful to meet so many other CSA farmers and share our experience, ideas and enthusiasm for the CSAs. One of the most positive aspects was the number of young people who were there that were interested in farming! While we were there we interviewed a young couple from Quebec who are going to come and apprentice here next season.

Just a note about the CSA popcorn – we tried some and it popped very well and was oh so good. If any of you have some at home now’s the time to try it. We had a tip from a CSA member for getting the kernels off the cob… just use your baking cooling rack to scrape off the kernnels, but cover it with a tea towel to keep the kernnels from flying all over the place.

Ken and I would like to extend our warm wishes to all of you for the coming year and express our gratitude for your support in 2008.

The mudding of the strawbale bunkhouse is coming along surely but slowly. We have the east side covered up again now for winter. We have discovered that we have to wait until spring to put on the final lime/plaster coat, because it has to have 5 weeks after application before it freezes. We now have the west side to finish and then we can move inside with the wood stove to work in the winter. I am finding it to be satisfying at a very basic level to take the raw materials that are readily available and build a shelter. I guess it is the same satisfaction I derive from growing wheat, grinding it and baking bread or shearing a sheep, spinning the wool and knitting a sweater…It a appeals to me in this world where there is often a big disconnect between providing for our basic needs of food, shelter and clothing and where they come from. I guess that is one of the things that is so nice about a CSA where members can come to the farm and see where their food is grown and have the opportunity to help harvest it.

The mudding of the strawbale bunkhouse is coming along surely but slowly. We have the east side covered up again now for winter. We have discovered that we have to wait until spring to put on the final lime/plaster coat, because it has to have 5 weeks after application before it freezes. We now have the west side to finish and then we can move inside with the wood stove to work in the winter. I am finding it to be satisfying at a very basic level to take the raw materials that are readily available and build a shelter. I guess it is the same satisfaction I derive from growing wheat, grinding it and baking bread or shearing a sheep, spinning the wool and knitting a sweater…It a appeals to me in this world where there is often a big disconnect between providing for our basic needs of food, shelter and clothing and where they come from. I guess that is one of the things that is so nice about a CSA where members can come to the farm and see where their food is grown and have the opportunity to help harvest it.