OLDE FURROW FARM
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Be Stubborn, Farm On!

Nova Scotian Small Farmers: Ask Yourself Why, Not Who.

3/8/2019

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I have been taking a business development class alongside fellow farmers that has been put on by the Wolfville Farmers' Market with funding from Workplace Education. In this class we have been learning a wide selection of things all to help us fine tune different aspects of our business. The final goal is to have an in depth business plan that we can use to obtain funding through the "Small Farm Acceleration" program as well as apply for any business loans we may need. 
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The fact that we are taking this class alongside fellow farmers really enriches the experience and we often gain insights from one another that is just as valuable. Working together has really helped build my confidence too. It has made the farm business feel more real. I know that is an odd thing to say/feel but there is this subsconscious tendency to feel negated because you are a small farm and I am not going to let myself do that anymore. Adam & I work way to hard to feel like it's for nothing. We grow valuable food! 
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Recently in class I had said that "I plant about 50% more seed than I need for my CSA". Some people were surprised and some people were unsure. I then explained that because we don't spray or have a lot of row cover, irrigation, etc. that we can't take that risk because CSA members expect a crop (rightly so!). I also went on to say that our crop failure isn't 50% but some crops we harder than others. The conversation kind of ended there and I was left thinking about this more deeply. Was this the right thing to be doing? Am I just a crappy farmer? The list went on! So I decided I needed to go back and find out why I am doing this.
I am doing this to ensure I have a wide variety of high quality crops for the CSA. I want to be able to harvest crops that were never sprayed. I want to be able to pick out the best of what we have for our CSA. I want to be able to surprise CSA members every week with something new. I want to be able to have a bumper crop of tomatoes and basil so I can say "thank you for supporting our farm!" As I started to answer the "why" I started to feel better about it. 
I started to realize it's about building something of value. I have all the time in the world to get my 50% extra that I seed for our CSA to a lower number and indeed I am working on that. What I can't do is focus on the numbers because quality should come first! Numbers can be worked on slowly as I learn ways to improve our farm. I think as small farms we often find ourselves in a panic but what Adam always reminds me of is "life is about the journey not the destination." 
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So I say to all the small farmers out there. When you are in doubt or feeling lost just ask yourself why you are doing what you are doing? Don't get sucked into what other farms are doing because your farm is an extension of you and your values. There isn't a right way or wrong way even though it may feel that way. 
Be Stubborn, Farm on!
​Courtney
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Who is Olde Furrow Farm?

3/5/2019

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We are partners, Adam Webster & Courtney Madore and we farm 4 glorious acres on a +100 acre family farm in Port Williams, Nova Scotia. Our farming practices are stubbornly focused on the health of our land and all the livings things that are a part of it. We feel that crop loss due to insects/diseases is a very small price to pay for the overall health of the planet and since we are a diverse, small scale farm, we can make this choice. We are extremely passionate about rare & heirloom varieties that offer rich colours and lots of flavor. We are always interested in the history of these vegetables because this is what brings them to life for us. They have a story to tell and we're going to share it.  We share our harvest through a weekly CSA share that runs from July 10- November 20, through the Wolfville Farmers' Market every Saturday from May to December, and WFM2go online ordering every Wednesday through May to December. 
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OUR CSA VIBE​

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We really focus on vegetable varieties that offer rich flavors and vibrant colours. Vegetables that you can't just find anywhere but are common enough that people can easily use them. We want people to re-discover the carrot or zucchini by tasting the variation of flavors and colours they have to offer.  We feel this is what will cultivate your connection with food. The bravely coloured tomatoes will translate into a courageous cook in the kitchen. Your curious children will gather around the supper table and together you will all have a feast! On this food journey we will share our inspired knowledge of food and farming so you are never alone as your learn new things. 

WOLFVILLE FARMERS' MARKET

You come to our table when you are looking for something new to try. We enthusiastically guide you through what we have to offer and the best way to prepare it. We try and help you think of vegetables is a new way that isn't scary but fun! We offer honest conversations. We want you to fall in love with heirloom vegetables. 
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WFM2GO (ONLINE ORDERING)

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Wfm2Go is our newest addition, started in July 2017 by the Wolfville Farmers' Market. Essentially it is an online version of the market where you order by every Monday @ 7pm and receive your freshly picked/made local good at hub closest to you every Wednesday. This is very much a collective venture made by many small businesses here in the valley. We grow and we learn together. Our farm offers many of the same heirlooms that we do at market and try to expand our offerings on WFM2go every year. Our aim - more variety! 
Check Out WFM2Go's Website
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Rare, Unique and Heirloom Vegetables We're Growing - Part 1

3/4/2019

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Squash Breeding Project

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​Here's one of our breeding projects on the farm. We allow different varieties of squash to cross-pollinate and then save the seeds each year. The goal of this is to end up with a squash that is perfectly adapted to growing in the Annapolis Valley and has excellent flavour, is a vigourous grower and will store for a long time through the winter.

Saving seeds has become more and more of a fascination for us each year once we learned how easy it is! Many vegetable seeds can be saved simply by removing them from the mature fruit and placing them in a container of water overnight, the viable seeds will sink to the bottom and the duds and other matter will float to the surface which can then be poured off. The remaining seeds can be placed on a cloth or paper towel next to a window to dry, then when they are fully dry place them in a bag for planting next year! If you are still unsure if the seeds are viable, take a few of them and place them in a ziploc bag with a wet paper towel and just wait to see if they sprout!
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Seed-saving and the breeding of new varieties is how all the types of vegetables we now enjoy have come to be. Through all the hard work of the countless generations before us we now get to enjoy such a diversity of delicious food. For example, the corn that we now have was bred from a grain called Teosinte in what is now Mexico, and watermelon was bred from a bitter fruit with hard green flesh in the Kalahari. It's such an amazing thing to think about how much we benefit from our ancestors hard work, and it's definitely an honour to continue to work with what is literally their artwork that sustains and nourishes us. This is not just a squash, it's our history in edible form!

Silver Slicer Cucumber

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​Here is a variety of cucumber that our CSA members and market goers will be very familiar with- Silver Slicer Cucumber! We've been growing this type almost since we began Olde Furrow Farm and it has consistently been a favorite of ours and many, many people that try it! It's sweet, juicy and perfectly crunchy with not a hint of the bitterness that green cucumbers can sometimes get- you can eat it skin and all. We like to pick them a little smaller because they tend to be even sweeter and crunchier at that size.
Even looking at the pictures makes me think of the heat of the middle of summer and the refreshing bite of one freshly pulled off the vine (which happens quite often while they're being weeded).

Our Unique Nasturtiums

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​These are our beautiful and tasty Nasturtiums! We've saved seeds from them for several years now, picking out our favourite colours and letting them freely mix. The original seeds already produced beautiful flowers but over the years we've seen more pastel and bi-colour ones pop up which is always exciting!
Nasturtium flowers are edible and have a nice spicy flavour, and the leaves do as well. They go great on top of salads. The plants are really easy to grow and can get quite large in optimal conditions, and when planted next to many other vegetables they are a pest deterrent. Bees love them!

Ali Baba Watermelon

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​Ali Baba Watermelon - A delicious heirloom watermelon from Iraq. We grew these for the first time last year and we LOVE them. They have the best flavour out of any watermelon we've tasted or grown, and they get HUGE (30-40 lbs were some of the biggest)! In these pictures you can see them filling up our large harvest container and you can see me (Adam) cutting up one of the "small" ones. They are also shaped oblong which makes them easy to cut into chunks for the CSA shares. It's true that we had to harvest them a little early this past year because of an imminent frost (so they didn't achieve their full colour on the inside) but even then they tasted amazing. They are certainly high on the priority list for the upcoming growing season!

It's surprising that a watermelon from such a hot country like Iraq would do so well in cool and wet Nova Scotia, but once you take into account this is an heirloom that has been grown for thousands of years by different people in different weather, shared across different lands and different growing conditions it's a little less surprising that it did well. That's why heirlooms are so important! (and new varieties bred from heirlooms). They have stood the test of time for surviving and flavour.

Compare this with "commercial" varieties of vegetables which you get in the grocery stores, they are inbred over many, many generations to get the uniform shape that they think customers want, and they select more for storability and their ability to stand up to shipping then for flavour and nutrition, because if it lasts longer on the shelf it's more likely to be bought and that's more money in their pockets! Commercial varieties also are overwhelmingly sprayed by pesticides and herbicides over years and years, so each generation is less able to survive in natural growing conditions. Heirlooms are important because all those adaptable genetics haven't been bred out of them, and with the unpredictability of future weather due to climate change we are going to need these strong, resilient and nutritious varieties of vegetables.
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We are so thankful for all the people that are keeping the good old vegetables alive both by growing them and by buying them! (You vote with your wallet after all) - nobody would have access to these delicious foods otherwise.

Passamaquoddy Sunchokes

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​Passamaquoddy Sunchokes! They are a pretty amazing vegetable to grow since you harvest them like a potato and they grow like a sunflower! (over 6 feet tall) They are also super productive- you easily get 1lb per plant. They are great food for the bees since they bloom so late in the season, around the end of September, when most other flowers are done.

They will certainly play a large role in the future as an incredibly important food source (as they have since time immemorial for Native Americans) since they are pretty tough to kill and provide plentiful food year after year even in adverse conditions. They are very nutritious, more so than potatoes, containing more much more iron as well as inulin- a carbohydrate that doesn't metabolize in the body- meaning it's completely safe for diabetics to eat!

We've found that not everybody likes these guys, and that's understandable because they have a very noticeable flavour (as opposed to something like carrots or potatoes). We've determined that the flavour is similar to the one you get with sunflower seeds, but others have said they taste like artichokes. Another reason some don't like them is because they give some people gas, but over time we've found that really cooking them down more than you would a potato is the tastiest way to have them, as well it reduces the chance of gas. If you are part of our CSA this year just let us know if you don't like them and we will substitute for something else!

On the other hand, if you really like them, and have a patch of garden soil you are not using, you could take one and bury it about an inch or 2 down and you will have sunchokes until the end of your days! You can plant them pretty much any time the soil is unfrozen (before August if you want a decent harvest). They will even last in the frozen ground over the winter, getting sweeter tasting by the spring- that's where most of ours are right now- just waiting to be harvested for market goers in May.
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This specific variety was made available to the public through Hope Seeds and we find it to be the tastiest and best looking of the kinds we've tried. They are originally from Grand Manan Island, New Brunswick.

Brandywine Tomato

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​Brandywine Tomato - one of the best tasting tomatoes ever, in fact it might just be the perfect tomato. Anyone who's tried these before can attest, there's regular tomato flavour and then there's Brandywine, it on a whole other level. It's fruitier, juicier and more tender than a lot of tomatoes and it gets huge, 1lb or more, perfect slices for sandwiches with mozzarella and basil.

Brandywine tomatoes are said to be the single most popular heirloom vegetable, and they also contributed greatly to the recent growing interest in heirlooms. They are not the most carefree tomatoes to grow however- they need to be started early because they are a late-season tomato, they tend to get a bad spot if they are touching moist soil, their skin splits if they get alot of rain at once, and we've found the pheasants on the farm really like to take little test-bites out of them! However, even with all those drawbacks, the flavour is still worth it. We actually had our best Brandywine year ever in 2018! While other vegetables had trouble in the hot and dry weather these guys thrived. We've saved seeds for these basically since we started farming, they are always a top priority to save for sure.
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The best way to store tomatoes for flavour is to keep them outside of the fridge, yes they won't last as long but you will get the full fresh-off-the-vine flavour much longer. Grocery store tomatoes are harvested when still green and then ripened artificially by ethylene gas to turn them red. They do this because it allows them to be shipped farther and store longer, because they stay harder-skinned like an unripe tomato - this decreases the flavour and nutrition of tomatoes. That's why when you pick up a tomato at the Farmers Market they have more "give" to their skin, it means they are ripened naturally on the plant! It's a good thing!
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How Teaming Up With Local is The Way To Grow!

2/17/2019

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Our CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) has gone through big changes this season and for many reasons. We would like a chance to share with you how and why we are making these changes because there is a lot of thought that goes into it!
The main change is teaming up with WFM2go (Wolfville Farmers' Market Online Ordering Service). This service really focuses on the distribution side of things (something very much needed in Nova Scotia) but with a local point of view. As a small-farm business we would never feel confident in teaming up with a larger distributor because there is so much nuance even in delivering. You need people who know your product, your business, your values and the people at the hubs, because without that a lot of things can go wrong! Over the years we have built a very strong relationship with staff and vendors at the Wolfville Farmers' Market and share a lot of the same values and visions for the future.  So for us, it seemed like a no-brainer to team up with WFM2go and have them help us get our CSA shares to the city each week!
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Three Sisters Planting: Squash, Beans, Corn with a border of sunflowers
So how does this help us? This frees up nearly an entire day that can now be dedicated to farming which is the backbone of our business. Last season there were many unexpected curveballs that mother nature threw our way and it added on lots of extra work to an already very full schedule. For instance when we got our early frost we had to spend extra time covering what we could, seeding extra transplants to replace what we lost and re-planting out those transplants. The reality of farming is that you'll never have enough time to get everything done but you can always get more done each year if you plan it a little better, so that's what we're doing. 
There are also many added benefits to our CSA members, the main one being that they can now add-on many more local products and with much more ease.  Some of these local products include free-range eggs, milk, free-range meats, ferments, grains, breads, tonics, teas, etc. Before we use to handle collecting these orders and payments ourselves, which was a whole other job we simply don't have time for, but we knew this was of great value to our customers so we are glad we were able to come up with a better solution!
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The other benefit CSA members will get is building their relationships with local producers outside of our farm. We have always strived to share and support other producers whenever we could and we know our members would love the opportunity to grow their local food family! 
Find Out More About Our CSA Here

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​What Makes Our CSA Special
  • You can opt-out of veggies
  • You can put veggies on hold
  • You can make payments
  • You can switch locations
  • You can add-on over 250 different local products every week. Some of these include: ferments, flowers, meats, eggs, grains, tonics, wine, etc
  • You can participate in our awesome thanksgiving share
  • You can come have a feast at our farm on July 6th @ 3pm
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risky business

12/5/2018

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2018 CSA Cancellation
We have to done one of the HARDEST things we ever had to do since starting this farm back in 2011. We have cancelled the last 3 weeks of our CSA. Right from the get go we had a super shakey start to the season. Optimistically, we thought it would all come together...but it never really did. 

What Happened? Where Did It Go Wrong?
We feel like it was a seemingly impossible combination of things that really brought us down. The weather was certainly our heaviest burden of the 2018 season. This was the shorest growing season we have experienced on our farm with atleast 45 days less than previous years. The season was marked with multiple early frosts, little rain, and extreme heat. These things alone are tough but together they completely confuse crops causing them to be stunted. We have hundreds of brussesls sprouts, cabbages, kale, etc just sitting in the field that look like they stopped growing weeks after they were transplanted. We seeded & transplanted 3 times as much as we usually do and ended up with half of our usual harvest.

Differences, Are Just That - Different.
Even as I write this I still can't believe this has happened and I can't imagine how tough it is for people not in this industry to fully understand what has happened. You may hear conflicting things from farms around the province but keep in mind each farm operates differently, has different practices, different levels of experience, different resources and structures. This doesn't mean a farmer is trying to fool you. For instances, there are lots of farm that had a horrible winter squash harvest due to the shortness of the season, pest pressure, etc. Our farm on the other hand had an amazing harvest but we also don't have as big of a cucumber beetle problem and lay hay around our squash plants which helps retain soil moisture and surpress weeds. We also lucked out this year with our crop rotation, which meant our squash had to be planted in the shadest part of our field. Any other year this may have been to our disadvantage but since the season was so hot we lucked out. You never can tell what the future holds, all you can do is hope!

How Are We Moving Forward?
We need to restructure our farm to enable to get more done and efficiently. One thing is building a better irrigation system on our farm. The one we have now is much to small, inefficent and sometimes unproductive! Another thing we have decided is to move our 2019 CSA over to WFM2GO. Instead of paying ourseleves for delivery and admin we will share this with a group of people who do it best! This will free up a significant amount of time for us and allow us to focus more on the hands on part of farming. Another investment we'd like to make on our farm is getting some landscape fabric for certain crops such as melons. Lastly, we are going to focus on growing more intenstively during the main growing season and less on the fringes of the seasons. For our farm the fringes of the season aren't as profitable and this may simply due to our skill level as well as how much money we have to invest into season extentsion.

We did all we could in 2018 and we never stop making our CSA number one priority on the farm and that's the truth!

​ Your Farmers,
​Adam & Courtney
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2018, Climate Change, Frosts, Small Vegetable Farms

9/27/2018

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​I've had alot of thoughts rolling around in my head this growing season and it really reached a pinnacle when we learned we were going to have an early fall frost this year. This is not just an isolated setback that we've faced this year - we had a cold spring, a frost in June, blazing heat throughout the summer, lack of rain, and now this early fall frost. This is very unusual weather to have all clustered together - in our previous years of farming we've come to understand that even though we might have a bad spring we can usually make it up in the summer and fall, etc. This is the only year that we've farmed in that has been like this. As farmers, we have to be very aware of the weather, from which day to plant seeds (the day before a rain) to which day to transplant (an overcast drizzly day) or which day to weed (hot and dry are best because it kills the weeds). If you were to weed on a day that was rainy, for example, most of the weeds thrown to the side will reroot and start arching back up towards the sky, and the energy spent would have been for nothing. 

Frosts are a huge thing for vegetable growers to be aware of, because it can mean losing your entire crop depending on the vegetable. Certain vegetables like kale and carrots don't get too bothered by it because they evolved in a northern climate, but others like tomatoes, cucumbers, zucchini and basil have little resistance to it so usually are lost. The problem with unexpectedly late spring and early fall frosts is that it cuts into the time that you can have those veggies available, and it might not let you grow them at all. Every variety of vegetable has a "days to maturity" count which means (in ideal conditions) thats how many days from the seed germinating to when you can harvest it. This year we had a frost on June 3rd and on Sept 24th, that means we had 113 continuous frost free days (I know some other NS farms had an even shorter window). Compared to other years we've farmed, the last spring frost would usually be late April and the first killing frost in fall woundn't be untill well into October. This means we lost atleast a month and a half of growing time, and for some vegetables  that have 90-100 days to maturity (or more), this doesn't give you alot of wiggle room. And remember that count is for ideal growing conditions, if it's too cold, too wet, too dry etc it can slow things down considerably, these plants are very tough but even they have their limits.

Every year of vegetable farming is a gamble since there is always the unknown element of what type of weather we will get, and this year has been especially volatile. We've learned some surprising things about different vegetables this year that we might not have learned otherwise - for example, our potato crop got a frost when it had around 8 inches of above ground growth, we thought for sure this was the end of them, but we noticed in about a week that new shoots were growing right at the soil level and before long they were back to their former glory. We actually got a pretty normal crop of potatoes this year despite that frost, and that blows my mind, we think that the frost might have killed off alot of the potato beetles (the main pest of potatoes) so that could have aided our harvest. Nature gives and she takes away, it's quite an amazing thing! Speaking of pests, we also had less squash bugs this year, and something seemed to be killing them (maybe a new insect predator moved in because of the heat? who knows). We've learned in previous years that starting tomato transplants in a cool greenhouse gives them a little more cold-hardiness, and that planting crops closer together reduces the bad effects of lack of rain. There is always more to learn with farming, and even though it can be incredibly nerve-wracking crossing your fingers and waiting for a decent rain, we find it endlessly interesting.

Another thing I'd like to mention is that it's difficult to make money as a farmer even in good growing years. One thing I've realized this year is that one of the main rewards to a successful year is the fact that you're able to continue doing it the next year. This is very different from alot of other jobs out there (even though every job has some element of unpredictability) - just think about some of the apple, grape and strawberry growers this year who lost all or most of their crop due to the June 3rd frost, there's not really any other businesses that can lose their entire profits for the year based on one poorly-placed cold night. There are alot of small -scale vegetable farmers that are calling it quits this year because the volatile weather has been "the last straw that broke the camels back". We feel their pain to stop doing what they love because they can't deal with this one added variable to an already perilous line of work, and I'd be lying if I said the thought hadn't crossed our minds this year as well. We are an extremely small-scale operation compared to larger farms, we have one greenhouse, very limited irrigation, we don't use row-cover, black plastic or any form of pesticides. We have just two workers (us) for the majority of the time. We also make great sacrifices for this business, we had lived in small camper for several years, we invest most of the money we make back into the farm, we work 6 days a week from May to October, and we find other jobs in the winter to support our farming "habit", while also planning for the upcoming year (which actually is happening year-round).  I'm not saying this to complain, it's our own choice to do this and our reward is to make enough money to continue doing it, because we love it! Working outside, connecting with nature and keeping it healthy,seeing plants grow and produce healthy food, and being able to share this food with others as well as eat it ourselves is a huge passion for us. As well, with the future becoming more and more unpredictable in the way of climate change (or climate chaos), political chaos, and multitudes of other things, we find small-scale vegetable growing to be a sustainable and independant way of living in many, many ways, even if it's tricky in the financial sense. We wouldn't be able to continue doing this if we hadn't made so many sacrifices and if we hadn't had so much help from so many people along the way - the first would obviously be my (Adam's) parents Don and Deenie who have helped us beyond imagination, by letting us use the land and tools on their property and just constantly being supportive, and even before them my grandparents who moved onto the farm in the 50s - and after my grandfather passed away my grandmother Myrna and her 5 children all worked together to keep the farm going. The land wouldn't be what it is today without Myrna, you can tell from her photo albums that she loved every piece of that land and probably watched individual trees grow over time as you would a friend. More recently, we've been helped by a friend who is letting us rent her place for a very generous price, with other farmer friends who are aways offering advice and support, incredible farmers markets where we've made so many friends and connections and learned what community really means, as well as our CSA members and farmers market go-ers who actually buy the vegetables that we sell, we certainly wouldn't be still doing this if it wasn't for all of you! Not only just the monetary income but the spiritual fulfillment of connecting over naturally grown food and knowing it is something that other people care about - not just us!

Well, I hope if you got through this long-winded blog post it helped you understand a bit more what it's like to be a small-scale farmer - I sometimes feel that because farming has been around for such a long time there are some subconscious myths that can be in many peoples minds without them realizing it. For example that farmers charge too much for their produce or that we spend all day peacefully meandering through our fields. While it is true that there are many genuinely peaceful moments watching the sun rise through the mist or hearing the birds singing in the trees, there is also the very real underlying tension of "is anyone going to buy this kind of radish?", "is the frost going to kill off that planting of beans before we get anything to harvest?", "are we going to get any rain so we can do the next succession planting of carrots+beets?", "are we putting enough in the CSA bags so people feel they get what they paid for?". As for over-charging for produce, it is a very sad fact that farms definetely under-charge for their produce, for example - something as small as green onions can take 70 days from germination to harvest, and that is with perfect watering and compost. Tie in that with Nova Scotia's already short growing season, and now climate change, there is alot of energy that goes into producing every leaf of lettuce or basil or arugula. This is not to say anyone should feel guilty, farmers want food to be affordable too because we also have to eat to live! I'm not sure what the solution to all this is, but I think the more we all talk, communicate and understand the closer we will get to a solution.
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Okay I think I've said most of what I wanted to say, these are the reasons why 2018 has been a particularly bad growing year and it lays another variable on farmers that are (many of them) struggling. Our plan is to do some improvements to the farm next year to increase our chances in gambling with the weather - these include more irrigation and landscape fabric. This is the plan for now, as we all know plans can change depending on variables - speaking of which I forgot to mention we also had our tractor break down in June (prime planting time)and our farm truck break down twice (we did an extra mini-CSA to fund the repairs only for it to break again a month later) that's just how it goes sometimes. Despite the numerous struggles, this is what we love to do and we appreciate every moment of being involved in this re-igniting of the small-farm movement and healthy food movement. Thank you for reading! - Adam
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More perennials please!

4/20/2018

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Here are ten of the perennials we've decided to add to the farm. Other perennials we've added in the past are - ginkos, seabuckthorn, pawpaws, figs, mayapples as well as many herbs! You'll notice a theme amongst the plants below. One, they have multiple purposes and two, they are survivors - every farmers dream. :)
Schisandra
Schisandra chinensis

This is a plant Adam has fallen in love with and has wanted to grow for many years now. Native to Manchuria with a vining habit. Prefers to grow along the ground instead of trellis and bares red fruit with wonderful adaptogenic properties. The berries are sour but are know to prevent early aging, normalize blood sugar and blood pressure, and stimulate the immune system. 

Empress Tree
Paulownia tomentosa

I first learned about this plant during my schooling at NSCC and everything I learned about it blew my mind! Then I got to see it in bloom at the annapolis gardens and the smell was so delicate and intoxicating. I was in plant LOVE. I even gave these seeds out at my wedding as a party gift. The empress tree is native to china and can mature in seven year by growing 15ft a year! It also removes carbon dioxide from our atmosphere and replaces this gas with breathable oxygen at approximately twice the rate of a “normal” tree since it's growth is so rapid. We have many idea is the works for this tree! 

Rhubarb, Noble
Rheum nobile

So in florida there never was any rhubarb guess it isn't a southern thing so we haven't spent much time investing into rhubarb but when adam found this gem we were sold! There is just something to be said about a plant that is such a survivor! Native to the himalayans and growing up to 2m tall. The strange translucent leaves they have are adapted to protect the plant from UV radiation since it grows at such a high elevation. Can be eaten like regular rhubarb. Heres a link to more cool stuff about it! 

Good King Henry
Blitum bonus-henricus

Always looking for news plants to eat and well this one seemed so humble we had to grow it. The spring shoots can be eaten like asparagus and later leaves like spinach. Use to be a widely cultivated veggie in cottage gardens. 

Oregon Grape, Creeping
Mahonia repens

This was another plant I discovered during my time at NSCC. Something about it's lush, dark green foliage drew me in, ever since then I wanted to have a go at growing it! It grows mostly in shade with minimual water needs. Can be used like a large ground cover at the base of trees to conserve soil moisture for water senstive trees. Flowers are bright yellow and produce in  late spring.  Fruits are blue and come on in the summer. The berries can be used in jams but are too bitter to eat raw. Roots are medicinal and wood can be used for yellow dye.

Mugwort, Western
Artemisia ludoviciana

You know not enough plants come in such a lovely powdery blue-green color. Anytime I approach a garden that is the first color my eye is drawn too and well we want some of that on the farm. Mugwort probably has the most colorful history out of all the plants we choose and that alone makes it a winner! From sailors using it as tabacco at sea to it use in beer instead of hops this plant has obviously drawn people to it. It can be used to treat skin conditions like eczema, stomachache, menstrual woes reduce fevers,  and our favorite induces vivid dreaming!

Mullein, Greek
Verbascum olympicum

We already have the common mullein growing here on the farm but this one is so much more impressive and it's medicinal properities are suppose to be a bit stronger. Orginally native to greece, hence the name. Can grow up to 6ft tall but has been recorded at 8ft. Bees absloutely love it on the summer when it is in bloom with its numerous flowers! Also drought tolerant which is a plus. The mullein flower is also used to stimulate the lymphatic flow, treat enlarged lymph nodes and earache.

Aster, Aromatic
Aster oblongifolius

Saw this beauty at the tangled garden last spring and it was just loaded with bee and butterflies! The plant grows about as tall as me and is just loaded with blooms in the fall. This plant is very rough and tough and can grow with little water or nutrients. 

Chamomile, Saint John's
Anthemis sancti-johannis

I am already in love with the german chamomile and dry and save it every year for tea so when I found and orange version I was sold. Native to bulgaria this chamomile blooms in later summer much like it's german cousin.The flowers are fragrant and edible. Also self-seeding. I'll be curious to see what it taste like. I have tried eqypatian chamomile in the past and was not a fan since it was much more bitter. Beautiful none the less!

Wallflower
Cheiranthus cheiri
I basically picked this for two reasons. One it's in the mustard family which is so cool and two it's just loaded with blooms! It flowers in early spring with lots of blossoms for the bees to be busy at!

So those are 10 of the perennials we've decided to add to the farm this season along with some others. We primarly grow our veggies on about 4 acres but the farm property is over 100 acres so we have lots of space to add diversity. I can't stop imagining it when were 80! 
-Courtney

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A CSA that works for YOU!

4/4/2018

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LESS of what you don't like and MORE of what you LOVE!

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This is something Adam and I have been problem solving for years! How do we get you more of what you want in an EASY and EFFICIENT way?

In the past we've tried the "This or That" veggie list which came with a variety of responses. One being sent a whole veggie list of their own choosing and the other was getting a veggie list at 10pm the night before delivery-all of which we catered too! NEVER EVER did we say NO because we truly wanted to give customers what they wanted but for us that season was HELL. 

Finally we've come up with a flexible solution for both the customer and us. Fingers crossed! Upon registering you will tell us what your TOP 5 VEGGIES are and what veggies you DON"T use in your kitchen. This will be printed out on your share label with your name and everytime we pack your share we make note of this label and substitute accordingly. This way there is no need for a back and forth via email (especially when you're busy) and secondly it gives us a little wiggle room in planning since we know way in advance! 

Choose YOUR own WEEKS and Bi-weekly options!

This is something that seemed simple to change but it would take a commitment of organization from us that we had not yet done. We had always operated our CSA with some flexibility around vacations for any one who would ask. We never felt that we could justly give away a share someone had paid for unless they specificly said that it was fine. Instead we opted for the "double your share" when you returned the following week which required extra effort on our part as well as the customer, leaving them with some BIG veggie commitments that week. Of course we encouraged customers to make arrangements when they could but sometimes life just doesn't work like that. 

So we came to the solution of "Choose Your Own Weeks" and pay for JUST those weeks. You can start and stop as often as you needed as long as we know the dates before the CSA starts to allow us some time to plan. We also found this would be a great option for single family homes (which may find it challenging to get through their whole share in just one week) or CSA-curious customers (who don't want to make too big of a commitment before they really know it is right for them) because they could choose to have a bi-weekly shares delivered while experiencing a whole growing season of Nova Scotian veggies, fruits & herbs!
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Flexible and Customizeable Payment Plans

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We always thought if someone really wanted to be part of a CSA and they were not as financially flexible they would reach out to us. In some cases this was true but it seemed like we might be missing a piece and we were! We needed to make it VERY clear and WELCOMING that we do payment plans! It is not easy to ask for a service you're not sure is available and we recognized that. We have already had several more people opt for this option and it WARMS our hearts so completely! Food should be an option for everyone and while we ourselves are a small farm and can't do it all this is something we can do!

Remember what's TRUE to you

We have been on this journey with our CSA for many years now and have heard it all from farmers and from customers. We were always ping-ponging back and forth with all these suggestions being thrown our way - "Remember keep the CSA simple" , "We should be able to pick exactly what we want" , "Don't be a push-over" , "Why can't I have tomatoes in May?" - the list goes on. All we could think is every one has a point and all these points are vaild but are limiting in one way or another - so how the heck do we make this work? Well the answers were already right in front of us. They were in the actions we were complusively already doing behind the scences and these were the things that MATTERED to us- which was giving the customers what they needed when they needed it whenever humanly possibly to do so! 

For Olde Furrow the CSA is the BACKBONE of our farm without it we'd probably wouldn't have a farm to put it bluntly. SO WHAT if we need to be more organized - good for us! SO WHAT if we need to find more ways to communicate since everyone has different ways of doing so - good for us! SO WHAT if we need to learn to be more flexible- good for us! SO WHAT if we have to spend more time doing what we LOVE- good-for-freaking-us! 

And we HOPE IT IS GOOD FOR YOU TOO! :D

YOUR FARMERS,
ADAM & COURTNEY

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We are what we nourish

1/25/2018

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As soon as we can learn we start learning about food but more often than not we are taught what not to eat and why. Both Adam & I had that in our childhoods but for very different reasons. Adam grew up with a lot of food sensitivities which fortunately he grew out of and I grew up fearing food since my parents were compulsive dieters.

Somewhere along the way Adam was able to form a healthy relationship with his body and the food he put in it. Somewhere he learned the magic of food as health and learned the skill of listening to his body. This is something he has taught me since day one back in 2010 and it has transformed so much of my life.

Since that time a lot has started to shift in society and people are becoming more and more food conscious. At first, this was such an exciting time on the farm. Knowing that we were going to get to play a part in helping empower people in health. We are so excited to share any new information we gathered on the veggies and herbs we grew. This is what often excited us to try something new and we wanted our customers to be excited too!

This past year (2017) I hit a wall. There was SO much information flying at me I began to have that feeling of fear again. I began thinking about food as an enemy. I began losing touch with my body. I felt as though if I was feeling this surely our customers must be experiencing the same thing. So I made the choice to hold back more on these bits of information and just let the food be what the food is.

Then I bought this AMAZING cookbook "Recipes From The Herbalist Kitchen" by Brittany Wood Nickerson. Never had a read such a poetic cookbook. I'll be honest it made me cry a few time. Not because I was sad but just because it was so true. Having a healthy view on eating is so crucial. Just as important as what we eat. In her book she says "Food is only as nourishing as our body's ability to digest it" Our ability to digest is so connected to our minds that if we are sitting down eating a plain piece of kale and hating every bite of it - how much nutrition will we really be able to get from that?

Then it hit me! I need to be sharing all this wonderful information but it's how and when you share it. This is where my old pal Socrates comes into play with his test of three. Is it true information, good information and useful information? So much of what we are fed is often times no useful but shameful. No one should EVER feel shame about what they put into their bodies. Food is sacred. It the closest thing to religion we all share. It not only unites our body, mind and soul but it unities people from all over the world. It is as woven to our own identities as it is to the identities of those around us.

This has inspired us to empower YOU all to be fearless and proud eaters of nourishment. Through this nourishment you will help your body support your health and it will be delicious!

How will we do this? Mostly through our CSA, with tidbits going out on Facebook and at the market. (but of course we are an open resource so feel free to email us whenever you need help or inspiration with your nourishment) We have been creating information sheets for ALL our veggies, herbs and fruit. These sheets will share with you ways to store, process, and cook your food. It will also include useful information on ways this particular nourishment can help you support your health.

We really want to be part of creating a nurturing food system from the land, to the farmers, to you! <3

Below I have shared a piece written on Brittany Wood Nickerson website Thyme Herbal and a podcast she was on. Have a read and listen on food empowerment! 
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On Health and Healing - By Brittany Wood Nickerson
"I often notice that people take interest in their health out of fear.  Time and time again I see people who are suddenly  (or not so suddenly)  overcome by the need to “take care of themselves”– perhaps because they don’t have health insurance, or find themselves with high blood pressure or high cholesterol; perhaps because they wish to strike preemptively against the heart disease, alcoholism or breast cancer that runs in their family.  Many of these people would in fact do well to take care of themselves, and their health may very well depend on it.  However, these individuals will heal not only because of specific diet changes, or the addition of healthful herbs, but because of new relationships to their own self-care and an embraced sense of empowerment. One of the first steps toward this type of change is to embody a life-giving, positive, nurturing attitude toward ourselves and the world.  No amount of vitamins, minerals or green leafy vegetables can nourish or heal the person who lives in a state of negativity, fear, frustration or anger.  When we move away from fear-based ideas about our health — ideas of “right” and “wrong,” “should” and “shouldn’t” — we can see that health is not black and white.  We can see that, actually, health is quite complex, part of a vast web of relationships to self, lifestyle, family, community and the patterns of the earth.  This process can prove a challenging one, so amidst the challenges it is important to hold compassion for ourselves and for our process of change and self-growth.
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Health, and what makes us healthy, is as diverse as our preferences in art, film or music.  It sometimes feels easy to forget that being healthy is just that: a state of being, a subjective and personal state for each of us.  With this recognition comes the awareness that what is healthy for us will be healthy and healing for us in every aspect of our lives, and that those same acts of nourishment will build not only our health, but the health of our communities and the health of the earth.  Health is an embedded process, and to be healthy requires a connection — for many a re-connection — with our own bodies’ processes, and with natural processes outside of us.  I believe that we all possess the inherent wisdom to heal ourselves by getting to know our own rhythms, embedded as they are in the larger picture of our lives and the patterns of the earth.
People are taught to disconnect from their bodies in our culture, and to latch onto the prescribed wisdom of people they think know better than them — authority figures of all kinds.  As an herbalist and healer I see myself empowering rather than ordering the people I see, because I want to help people cultivate their own skills and connect with their own intuitive wisdom.  This view of health operates outside the paradigm of right answers and of “cures.”  Trusting this process requires a shift away from a scientific and objective idea of health, and toward viewing health as a subjective process.  Working together, we recognize that health can look many different ways; that a person’s healing path is unique, and their desire to heal, be well and live in balance with their body is their most powerful, important medicine."

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I wanted to speak about some personal nourishment and how it's helped me. I came across these wonderful ferments in 2016 from Seven Acres and at the time I was having difficultly with digestion mostly due to stress (this tends to be a rather natrual state for me, something I am working on. haha) What I have come to realize is that the friendship I have built with Jocelyn greatens the nourishment I get from these delicious ferments. Anytime Adam or I pull a jar from the fridge we instantly just have a feeling or warmness and goodness. 

If you have an opportunity to deepen your relationship with food - do it! Talk to the people behind the product and then take note of the first thing you grab from you fridge... :)
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Your Farmers, 
Adam & Courtney
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Weird & Wonderful

1/4/2018

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Every season we let people know the weird and wonderful things we plan to grow for the new season and well I wasn't fast enough to share this information since some of you are already hitting up the email with "what's new"!? We love your enthusaism for the weird things in life! 
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MISATO ROSE RADISH

What a beautiful winter radish we've found! If you didn't know this about us already we are pretty radish obessed. In many other places radishes are like our carrots and well we think they should be! We will grow our usual black radish, green lubo radish and our classic daikon radish so no worries there.

YOKOHAMA SQUASH

For the last couple of years we have been trying to focus in on the most fabulous squash we could grow and while we have some favorites there is more to be discovered in the vast squash world. This Yokohama squash is suppose to have wonderful texture and depth of flavor. We are really excited to be growing it! Here is a link to its back story!

ASHE COUNTY PIMENTO

We have still to find a pepper we are undeniably in love with but we are not giving up on the journey! These pimento peppers although small are suppose to be concentrated in sweet flavor with a hint of pepperiness. And while these are commonly used in pimento cheese they can easily be a stand in for a bell pepper.

SEA KALE

While the majority of our crops are annuals we do add more and more perennials to our farm. When adding perennials we look for not only diversity but strength and sea kale caught our eye! This plant can seemingly survive wherever and is drought tolerant - something that is very important with a changing and uncertain climate. Its flavor similar to cabbage/kohlrabi. It can be used just the same. 

JUANE ET VERTE

This heirloom summer squash (zucchini) looks like a piece of art. From its frosty green color to its scalloped shape. I almost feel it's to pretty to eat! Zucchinis are one of those veggies for us that we could take or leave but so many of our customers drool over them so every year we try to bring them something new. Although zoodles have brought us closer to zucchinis.

BLACK NEBULA CARROT

No longer will you be disappointed when you cut into your purrple carrots only to find an orange carrot hiding inside!  Not only that but these carrots pack high levels of  anthocyanins. This is an heirloom carrot even if it looks like science fiction. 

GETE OKOSIMIN SQUASH

Now for the squash that Adam has been peeing his pants to grow aka "800-yr old'. The story is the seed was preserved in a clay ball and still germinated -amazing. These suckers get up to 18lbs (my back will thank me in the fall) and have a hint of melon flavor with a smooth texture. I doubt we will be putting a whole one is the CSA shares but some cut up ones for sure! 
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Misato Rose Radish
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Yokohama
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Ashe Country Pimento Pepper
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Sea Kale
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Jaune et Verte Summer Squash (Zucchini)
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Black Nebula Carrot
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Gete Okosimin Squash
Feel free to let us know if there is something you're wanting to try. Maybe we're growing it or maybe we can. You just have to let us know and we'll make it happen. :)
Your farmers, 
​Adam & Courtney

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