Wind Whipped garden getting put to rest for the winter with some help from our friends.
Dear box program members,
Its finally started raining. Time to get caught up on some indoor tasks like writing an end of season update!
First and foremost: Thank you to everyone who participated in the Local Food Box Program this year, we really appreciate your appetite for and commitment to local food. When we started out this season with the goal of doubling our veggie and meat box memberships it felt like a long shot. Many of you played a big part in getting the word out to family, friends and co-workers about the program. We did reach our membership goal but we couldn’t have done it without you.
Loading aged pig manure.
Several new members joined the program, some a bit unsure of what they were getting themselves into, thank you for giving us a shot and for sticking with it through the season. We will be doing our planning for next year this winter and will let you know as soon as we are ready to take registrations.
Since the final weeks of the box program we have been busy gearing down, cleaning up and getting ready for the winter. At Wind Whipped Farm the garden is almost all planted to a mix of winter wheat, vetch and peas in order to protect the soil overwinter, add nitrogen and incorporate organic matter in the spring. We have planted around 1000 garlic cloves for next year. We have purchased a larger used greenhouse from Ragley farm and are in the process of dismantling and relocating it to our farm, this will greatly increase our capacity for growing heat loving crops. We sill have some fall pruning to do and winterizing but are overall in good shape.
Alex dismantling our new, much larger greenhouse at Ragley Farm.
Still meadow and Parry Bay had a good harvest of wheat in September, their ewes and rams have begun the process of making lambs for next spring, and their barns are prepared for the winter. The two farms purchased 40 tonnes of oats from a peninsula farm this year in order to provide their animals with more local feed, to add to the feed they already grow themselves, as well as to help guard against rising feed costs (http://www.goldstreamgazette.com/news/172354341.html).
On a more personal note, Virginie is currently in Europe as part of her research for her Master’s degree. She is participating in three conferences: “Villes jardinées et initiatives citoyennes” (Gardened Cities and Citizens Initiatives) in Strasbourg, the Cittaslow (Slow Cities) general assembly and the annual Slow Food gathering, Terra Madre, in Italy. She will spend most of the winter in Montreal finishing her degree at Concordia. Alex is going to visit Virginie in Montreal for November, take a timber-framing course in Vermont and attend the National Farmer’s Union annual convention in Saskatoon. In December he will move out to The Race Rocks Ecological Reserve to work as EcoGuardian until the end of March. For blog updates from the rock check out: http://www.racerocks.ca/wp/
Though the box program is done for the season there are still many opportunities to access local food including local meats from Stillmeadow and Parry Bay Sheep Farm and eggs from Elysian Fields. We encourage everyone to continue to support local farmers as much as possible, here are a few suggestions:
Parry Bay Sheep Farm and Stillmeadow Farm (meats and wheat): farm store every Sunday from 11am-1pm at 4198 Stillmeadow Rd, in Metchosin. They will also take wholesale orders at a reduced rate.
Elysian Fields (eggs): 250-382-0818 ElysianFields@telus.net
Ragley Farm (vegetables, dairy, baked goods, cut flowers, soup): Saturday on-farm market in East Sooke, April to Dec. 11:00 am-2:00 pm (coffee at 10:30) 5717 East Sooke Rd. 250-642-7349
Sea Bluff (vegetables): At Moss street market and a box program
Saanich Organics (vegetables): At Moss Street Market and a box program
Umi Nami (vegetables): At Moss Street Market and a box program, 250-391-0763
Eisenhower Organics (vegetables): At Moss Street Market
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