A Year to Endure: 2023

As we are reaching the end of this difficult year, we felt it is time to give you all a summary of what went on, how it felt and what we've decided to do going forward. This growing year was the by far the most difficult we've ever experienced in our 13 years of farming on Olde Furrow Farm. While every year brings it's own challenges, whether it be weather, pandemics or otherwise, there always seems to be at least some part of it that brings some respite; this year was not like that, it was a constant ever changing struggle that we couldn't get ahead of no matter what we tried.

The word of this year for us was "endure". This means remaining firm through unavoidable struggle or suffering. It felt like an ending, but in reality no ending is ever just an ending, it always changes into a new beginning.

A song from the great songwriter Vic Chestnutt was in my head a lot this year:

"It ain't over till it's over
Just like some joker said
When it's over, it is done
When it's done, it's as good as dead
When it's good, the show is good
Yes, and when it's good it's great
When it's great, it's woah, so wonderful
But when it ain't, it ain't"

A portion of the song "Over"

2023 began with Courtney getting injured in her ankle ligaments in January. Though she ended up healing quite fast, it was certainly scary to have it happen and wonder about what long term effects could come from it. Farmers are on their feet a lot as you'd imagine! In the winter we had an extended period of  -25c that ended up killing all of the cherry buds and meant that we did not get any cherries to harvest in the spring, usually one of our biggest crops. Starting indoor and greenhouse transplants in the beginning seemed to go quite well, but once we started to plant everything outside we realized this spring was unusual because we were not getting any rain. Everything was dry and dusty, yes we could prepare the fields quite a bit earlier than normal which was nice but without rain we needed to irrigate what we could, and this doesn't allow for plants to grow like during a rainy spring, especially as plants are just getting established they need a good amount of water. So with seeing how the spring was going, we decided to plant in fields that we could reach with irrigation and that have heavier soil to hold onto moisture. Drought in the late summer is something we've gotten fairly used to and have learned to handle pretty well, so we were hoping against hope we could do it again even with it happening in early spring. Well things grew extremely slowly, and painfully we were able to get just enough for our spring CSA, though it was nowhere near where we wanted it to be in terms of abundance. As you know there were also the huge out of control forest fires happening in Nova Scotia at this time.

Then, in early June, the rain started and didn't stop. We had been hoping for it so much, and had planted out quite a bit of transplants and seeds right before it came. Well, it came too heavy and for way too long. The beautiful field of squash transplants we had put out were decimated by slugs brought out by the rain, the cabbages were under water or washed away, same with the zucchinis, the brussel sprouts were quickly overtaken with mutant crab grass that grew with a vengeance, and the seeds were just gone. During the rain we could not weed effectively, so by the time this first 2 week rain was done the weeds were out of control, as well we had frogs hanging out in algae growing in puddles right next to our crops, something that I've never seen.

And so this is how it continued for the rest of the year, too much rain, not enough sun, seeds getting washed away or rotting, transplants not growing from soil compaction from the heavy rain. We can't even tell how how many times we replanted and reseeded crops again and again, with nothing really growing well until the late summer, and even then it wasn't great. We did not have a single squash harvested on the farm this year, and that is usually one of the plants we grow best. We did not even try to plant sweet potatoes during the torrential rains. We got no brussels sprouts, very little cabbage, carrots, beets. Tomatoes and peppers were very low, and we got barely any eggplants. Looking back over it, it's hard to imagine how we were filling the CSA bags but somehow we got through, definitely without the abundance of many other years though. We received huge amounts of emotional support from our absolutely wonderful CSA members and this is a big part of how we were able to mentally and emotionally get through this. So thank you!!!

During all of this we were also going through personal issues relating to family and also housing, and while I won't get into all that here it added an extra dose of lack of security and a solid base to work from. This led to us living for a time in an RV on the farm at the end of the summer and bringing me (Adam) to the decision to take a full-time off-farm job in order to keep us going, both in our personal lives as well as in farming. The difficult decision of taking this job is not anything to with my values, it is simply a job that gives us enough money to live and continue farming. We would love to be able to both continue working together full time on the farm, but for now and the foreseeable future it will be only Courtney with me acting in a supportive role on the days that I can help. This means that we will have to change some of the ways we do things in order to make this manageable for one full time person.

So going forward, Courtney will be the main person doing most of the farming. We will continue to use no pesticides on our veggies and no plastic in our CSA bags, and be as sustainable as we possibly can in our practices. In order to make the cropping more manageable for one person, we will be purchasing a wheel hoe (which we have wanted for years but now can afford thanks to off farm income), this will allow Courtney to weed much more efficiently and quickly, and is much easier on the hands, arms and back. We will also be trying out a biodegradable plastic mulch layer for certain crops the it could work for, perhaps some reusable silage plastic or landscape fabric, and may end up having to use the tractor cultivator from time to time. We will of course try to limit our disturbance of the soil microorganisms as much as possible as we have always done.

It is quite relieving to get all of this out now, we didn't talk about this much during the growing year simply because we had to use all of our energy just to get through it. It was just one of those times we had to hunker down and get through. We are in a much better place now, both mentally and emotionally and also physically (we are renting a house for the winter in an amazing community of like minded people). While I personally will really miss not being as involved with the farm in the coming year, I have all the confidence in the world for Courtney running things on her own (because you know she is amazing!) and am feeling more secure in a role of support to her and the farm.

So yes, we are continuing with Olde Furrow Farm in a slightly different way, but our values and love for the land and wildlife remain the same and we will continue to do as much as we possibly can, in whatever situation that comes our way, for the world we want to see, health and well being for the earth and all it's inhabitants.

I want to finish off with a poem I wrote called "Quicksand" that describes the feeling of this year as well as the possibility of hope which no one can ever take from you.
-
if it is to be the last
why not make it glorious
star sparkle on dark horizon
light the way to adjusting eyes
a sudden crisis always appears
its shift a shock to the system
a change is as good as a rest my love
runner on a track of quicksand
rotten hanging vines are no use
this is just something you get through
you suck it up and get it done
as it sucks you in and brings you down
stability lost on sliding sand
it runs through your fingers
like a palm with holes
nothings standing still
when all is lost
lose your fear
thats it
my dear

<3