hello !

*Order Pickups/Delivery Days

*BAKE SALE!!!!

and

*Reciprocity and resilience in the land

the harvest is in! order pickups/deliveries

Just a quick reminder that we have the following order pickup/delivery opportunities coming up.

 

Fri. November 5; 4-8pm: Home delivery of LAMB, BEEF, CHICKENS & HONEY

Sat. November 6; 1-4pm: On-farm pickup of LAMB, BEEF, CHICKENS & HONEY

 

Thurs. December 2; 4-8pm: Home delivery of PORK, LAMB, BEEF, CHICKENS & HONEY

Sun. December 5; 1-4pm: On-farm pickup of PORK, LAMB, BEEF, CHICKENS & HONEY 

 

Saturday, December 18; 1-4pm: Winter Farm Open House & Final Order Pickup day for 2021 on the farm. Even you've already gotten everything you ordered, we welcome you to come out for a chat and a hot chocolate, a walk, a skate on the pond, and a visit with the animals.

 

If you haven’t yet let me know when you’d like to pick up your order, please drop me a line! And remember, if these options don’t work for you, we can always come up with an alternative.

bake sale! sat nov 6 from 1-4

Some determined young bakers have been hard at work on their own project: my kids have decided to host a bake sale (mostly Georgia, my oldest, 9yo). They've recruited some of their best friends to help with the baking, and set the goal of being able to donate money towards relief efforts for kids in Afghanistan.

 

They’ve been baking away with utmost care and stowing all of their goodies in the freezer. There are already oodles of muffins, loaves and cookies and they have planned a very rigorous baking schedule for this week.

 

So, if you are already coming to the farm on Saturday, and a sweet treat sounds about right, please bring some cash for their sale! If you hadn't planned on coming to the farm, but feel like a walk in the fresh air with some cookies or muffins in your backpack would do you good - come on by! 

 

They'll be set up and ready to sell on Saturday, November 6 from 1-4

 

I can personally attest that the treats taste great! Believe me, I've been sampling them as they come out of the oven....yummmmm.........

reciprocity and resilience

I’ve always known that the land would take care of me. Deep down, from my youngest days, I sensed that this understanding was somehow important. The land is one true constant in a world of continual change. The land is there for us all. It is our vital, most fundamental keeper.

 

I’m a keeper of the land. We humans might think we don’t have a lot to offer back to the land; but what we do have is very important. As we go along from season to season here on the farm, I can recognize a pattern of reciprocity, of resilience. I give, I take. The land gives, the land takes. It accepts what I have to offer and humbly offers up it’s best in return: grass, growth, nourishment, life.

 

So what do I, simple farmer, have to give to the land?

I can give my restraint, my time.

Conventional wisdom might say that our hayfields are exhausted: I should spray down the weeds, plow them up, apply lime and fertilizer, and reseed. I might improve the yield by doing that. That could be one good approach to take, but it’s not the approach that we are taking. Instead we are choosing to give restraint, time, and patience. It’s a humble gift to be sure, but I think it’s an important one. We are giving the land time: time to see what will happen as the community above ground changes. Will my hayfields come back to life? Will my pastures become bountiful again? They’re already starting to.

 

I can give rest, or I can give work.

The plants need rest too, but not too much. All rest and no work does the same thing for the plants that it does for my muscles and yours: they would diminish. It’s a fine balance to achieve, to give the grasses and plant community enough of a workout, and then enough of a rest that they can regenerate their root reserves, regrow their leaves, all the while continuing to feed the life in the soils below. But too much rest and the opposite happens: the plants go into senescence, photosynthesis slows down, root exudate dwindles, soil microbiota starve. When I work too hard I end up stumbling through the rest of my life a bit like a zombie (whose email did I forget to reply to? How many pages of the Franklin bedtime story did I skip? What bill needs to be paid?) When you work those plants too hard, they become exhausted too, and stop feeding their own littles – the bacteria and fungi below the ground who are the crux of all life above the ground. But just enough work, and just enough rest, and we create a beautiful abundance. Strength. Resilience.

I can give the land my attention, my watchful eyes.

With each season that passes there is more to learn. I walk through the pastures, head down. But don’t worry, I’m not glum, I’m just trying to figure out the pattern. Who is growing where, and what will grow next? What changed when we grazed here last pass, and will it be ready to graze again when the cows come back next? Did we get such good growth in our grass this year because of the weather pattern this summer, or is it because of the changes in the soil? I’ve spent thousands of hours walking in the pastures. But, even all of that amounts to less than an eyeblink of time. There are layers upon layers of patterns – just when I start to grasp the broad strokes of one, I realize that it’s part of a much bigger pattern that I’m only tangentially aware of. The plants are a language, as they billow in the wind they’re speaking to all of the life below and above them. It’s a language that will take millennia to truly learn, and one that my bumbling, simplistic human mind struggles to comprehend. The sheep are smarter, so are the cows. How ironic. But I keep walking, head down, piecing together little pieces of the puzzle each time I come around again.

 

Our animals have their own gifts to give the land, too: manure, urine, hoofprints, saliva. Their beds, where they lay down to take a rest and chew their cuds, become reservoirs of nutrient for the land. The grass that they knock down and trample goes back to the soil. Their hoofprints become micro-ponds, trapping water that can slowly seep in and supply the ground below with the moisture it needs. The animals give their spit too, very generously in fact! Yup, you read that right: a gift of spit. As the cows and sheep eat they coat the grasses with saliva, which is rich in nitrogenous compounds. It’s practically a foliar application of fertilizer, that spit. Pee, poop, and spit. Fancy gifts, right? Yet they’re some of the most important puzzle pieces of all!

 

And the land has responded and given back. It is a true bounty of goodness that we’ve received in return. The grass has grown with exuberance this year. Glossy shiny leaves springing joyfully out of the soil. It’s green and abundant. Thick, soft, ample residue below the green. Worms, beetles, insects, birds feasting. The cows are fat, the calves are sleek, the sheep are lustrous, the lambs are sassy. The chickens and the pigs harvest the best. And we all give back what we can.

 

It’s such a pleasure to share in this cycle of reciprocity and resilience with you.

All the best to you!!

- erin

88 ch. Echo Dale, Farrellton QC J0X 1T0
819-775-8132

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