We are having an Ecological Farmers of Ontario Tour here on Saturday, July 5. The following is a handout that Ken wrote for the tour. It gives information about various alternative energy projects on the farm as well as general information about crops rotation.<\/p>\n
Orchard Hill Farm<\/p>\n
Straw Bale Bunkhouse
\u00b7 Just dormitory \u2013 no kitchen \u2013 no bathroom
\u00b7 Inside dimensions 20\u2019 x 24\u2019 – 2 bedrooms downstairs -1 bedroom upstairs.
\u00b7 Straw bales for roof insulation as well approx. 450 bales in total \u2013 will be plastered inside and out.
\u00b7 Special vented slab floor to increase heat storage created by 8\u201d concrete blocks laid on side to create north-south passage to allow circulation under floor as well. 4 vents on north and south edge up through 6\u201d floor slab to facilitate circulation of air.
\u00b7 2 relatively large sliding doors in south wall to facilitate solar gain.<\/p>\n
PV<\/span> system 2- 65w PV<\/span> panels – 330 watts total Solar Water Heater PV<\/span> System for Horse Barn \u2013 Lights Orchard Hill Farm OHF<\/span> established in 1979 \u2013 was part of Martha\u2019s family\u2019s farm. Soils vary from clay loams up on top of the ridge to sandy loams at the base of the ridge. The farm is located 6 km from Lake Erie which moderates the local climate. Our CSA<\/span> (Community Supported Agriculture) garden was started in 1997 by Martha and our daughter Ellen with 25 shares the first year. We have 160 shares this year. A share costs $500 or $465 for a working share, where members spend 5 hours helping with the harvest. CSA<\/span> crops occupy about 5.5 acres. The remaining crop land is used for hay, pasture and grain crops to provide all the feed for 9 horses, 4 pigs and 40 laying hens. CSA<\/span> rotation Potato rotation Field Crop rotation Irrigation System We are having an Ecological Farmers of Ontario Tour here on Saturday, July 5. The following is a handout that Ken wrote for the tour. It gives information about various alternative energy projects on the farm as well as general information about crops rotation. Orchard Hill Farm Straw Bale Bunkhouse\u00b7 Just dormitory \u2013 no kitchen […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.orchardhillfarm.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/191"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.orchardhillfarm.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.orchardhillfarm.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.orchardhillfarm.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.orchardhillfarm.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=191"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.orchardhillfarm.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/191\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.orchardhillfarm.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=191"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.orchardhillfarm.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=191"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.orchardhillfarm.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=191"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\u00b7 2-6v batteries for storage
\u00b7 300 watt inverter
\u00b7 Designed to use very little power \u2013 just lights & a few small appliances.
\u00b7 Parts cost for PV<\/span> system approx. $3500 excludes 120v AC wiring and breaker box.<\/p>\n
\u00b7 2 used panels approx. 40 years old.
\u00b7 Since storage tank is our electrical water heater in basement of house need circulation pump to move hot water to storage tank.
\u00b7 Strategy \u2013 since only hot water when sun is shining can use PV<\/span> panel to drive pump (no battery in system).
\u00b7 Need special low power pump to reduce size of pump & panel needed to drive it.
\u00b7 Pump \u2013 SID 10 PV<\/span> by Ivan Labs Inc. ($300) draws approx. 1 amp powered by 10 watt PV<\/span> panel ($100).
\u00b7 Even with electric back up turned off has been supplying all of our hot water for past month for 6-7 people.
\u00b7 Non-glycol system \u2013 must be drained for winter.
\u00b7 Our winter system uses water coil in stove thermo<\/span> \u2013 siphoning to adjacent tank.<\/p>\n
\u00b7 12 v DC system throughout for simplicity
\u00b7 50 watt PV<\/span> panel
\u00b7 small charge controller
\u00b7 12v DC breakers also used as switches to reduce length of wiring runs.
\u00b7 Requires use of #10 and # 12 wire to reduce voltage drop in long runs.
\u00b7 Large wire sizes expensive and hard to work with because stiff and bulky.
\u00b7 1 \u2013 RV 12 v battery for storage.
\u00b7 25 watt \u2013 12v DC incandescent bulbs used \u2013 cheap, but use a lot of power.
\u00b7 Marginal amount of power and storage with present bulbs \u2013 could switch to LED bulbs when prices become more reasonable to reduce power consumption.<\/p>\n
34 acres Owned
46 acres Rented<\/p>\n
The greenhouse is 15\u2019 x 20\u2019. It is used for growing transplants and is often augmented by a 4\u2019 x 16\u2019 hot bed. It is heated by a wood stove with a lot of concrete thermal mass to hold heat over night. It has worked well.
Weed control has many aspects. First the nutrients in the soil need to be balanced and appropriate for the crop. A proper rotation and cover crop strategy needs to be used to prevent weed problems. Most of our crops are planted in single 36\u201d rows (with the exception of mesclun<\/span> and head lettuces which are planted in 4 row beds) so as to allow the use of a team of horses for cultivation of the rows. The use of rolling shields allows the cultivation of crops before they emerge or shortly after without the danger of burying them. A CSA<\/span> garden requires a very flexible and adaptable row cultivator as there are many different corps and different stages of the same crop. Old 1 row 2 horse cultivators were very flexible and adjustable. Wheel hoes, hand hoes and hand weeding are also used to prevent weeds from competing with the crop or adding to the weed seed bank in the soil.<\/p>\n
\u00b7 1 year cover crops \u2013 buckwheat\/winter rye
\u00b7 1 year vegetables
\u00b7 2 years hay which is cut and left<\/p>\n
\u00b7 1 year sweet corn (compost before sweet corn)
\u00b7 1 year potatoes (want high fertility – but not recent)
\u00b7 1 year squash \u2013 heavily mulched for weed control and fertility.<\/p>\n
\u00b7 1 year winter wheat hard red \u2013 variety Harvard \/ red clover
\u00b7 1 year oats \/ alfalfa and grass
\u00b7 2 years hay
\u00b7 3 years pasture<\/p>\n
\u00b7 Pond holds 500,000 U.S. gallons
\u00b7 Small stream diverted into pond to fill it \u2013 summer flow very low.
\u00b7 Moveable<\/span> aluminum pipe with sprinklers or 4 ft. risers
\u00b7 Takes 2 hours for set of sprinklers to apply 1\u201d water.
\u00b7 Vegetable crops need 1\u201d water per week.
\u00b7 Takes 40,000 U.S. gallons to apply 1\u201d to an acre
\u00b7 Pond size just big enough for present acreage.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"