In the search for a Sacred Agriculture I can’t help but bring in the profound connection we have, by way of our body, with the Earth. We take in food and water from the ground, air and warmth from the atmosphere, processing this intimate relationship with nature. And through effort: tending the soil, caring for animals and plants; we provide for ourselves and our community. Manual labour gets a bad rap in modern economic life, but it is deeply human, and can open us to deeper layers of what it means to be human. If there’s enough local interest I will hold an in person session, otherwise I hope you can join me on-line December 6.

A big thank you to those who were able to come out at the last minute. Plans changed but a big job was made enjoyable with the community support! No pictures of us digging since we were all focused on getting it done (like real farmers!). Topping and bagging went so fast! Even the cows enjoyed the harvest with treat of carrot tops!

Winter csa members who would like to order potatoes please let me know how much you want before the end of October. Ben and Bonnie Cameron have been growing organic potatoes on their farm just southeast of Durham for many years, and I’ve gotten them for the winter shares since my scale and equipment limitations make potatoes not a practical crop for me. They said they have an excellent crop this year. They grow a yellow (Yukon Gold and Sante) and a red skinned white fleshed potato. They charge $1.25/lb.

I will pick up the potatoes and store them in the farm root cellar. You can pick them up each time you get your winter share (every other week from early November to late February). There will be 9 or 10 distribution days, and say you think you’d eat around 3lbs of potatoes every two weeks you should order 30lbs for $37.50. Decide how much yellow or red you’d like and let me know before the end of October. Ideally you could pay for them too by e-transfer or cash at the last main season pick-up.

Send me your order to saugeenrivercsa@gmail.com or reply here. If you reply here please include your full name since this website doesn’t tell me who replies.

Any questions, let me know,

Cory

Thank you all who have signed up for a winter share. I’ll have more information about the pick-ups soon.

The last main season csa pick-ups will be: Friday October 17 and Tuesday October 21. The Winter CSA will start Friday November 7.

I wanted to share a harvesting strategy I’ve been using, which you may or may not have noticed. Some crops need to be harvested at least twice a week since the window between them being ready and being over-mature is narrow (tomatoes, beans, cucumbers, lettuce etc.) Zucchini needing to be harvested 4 times a week. Some crops can hold in the field longer so I can choose to harvest or wait (carrots, celery, fennel, cabbage etc.). For many years I would harvest these crops every other week to spread out the distribution. That had to change when I added bi-weekly shares as an option. The first year I offered them it took me most of the season before I realized some bi-weekly members were not getting certain crops. I was harvesting carrots every other week and certain members ended up not getting any summer carrots… It was a tragedy. I switched to giving these types of crops out for two weeks then taking a two week break to make sure everyone got them. All the fall crops are like this, so for the remaining weeks you will see many crops for two weeks and then a break…

Just thought I’d let you know 🙂

First: there was a scheduled workshop on seed saving tomorrow September 13 that has been cancelled. Sorry but when I imagined doing this back in the winter I thought the season would have slowed down enough, but turns out I was overly optimistic 🙂

But stay tuned for information on upcoming events: In October we will hold our moving like planets that got rained out in July; and in November there will be a workshop “The Miracle of the Human Body: finding meaning in physical work”

More details to come!

From now until the end of September I will be signing up RETURN Winter share members. If you have (ever) been a winter share member in the past, sign up before the end of September. I’ve already started a waiting list for new winter members, so don’t lose your spot if you are interested. The share price will remain the same: $400 for a large share and $250 for a small. Payment by e-transfer to saugeenrivercsa@gmail.com cheque or cash is possible. Potatoes will be available for bulk purchase as before. I’ll be asking for your potato order in October. If you have any questions let me know.

What’s a bit of rain? Some of us got drenched as we began our planet walk and had to rush inside. Luckily we had decided to hold Ansley’s show in our back room. It was a little tight, but a lovely evening. Thank you all for going with the flow! I have a stock of her CD’s in the CSA store that are available by donation.

Starting at 6pm we will do a welcoming planet walk. You can walk the paths of the planets (from a Geo-centric perspective) to experience how plants express the connection between the heavens and the Earth.
At 7 Ansley Simpson will play songs and tell stories from her album “She Fell From the Sky” exploring the Anishinaabe creation story of Sky Woman. She will also be debuting some new material.
You can find her music at: https://ansleysimpson.bandcamp.com/ “Ansley Simpson is an award-winning Anishinaabe singer-songwriter from Toronto, and a member of Alderville FN. A weaver of haunting vocals and poetics, their songs unfold as stories, immersing the listener in vibrant imagery, journeying us through themes of vulnerably, love, and heartbreak.” 
She’ll be playing from our back porch with seating around our yard and camp fire. We’ll have marshmallows for roasting, cold herbal teas and Georgia will be selling her cookies.
We are limiting the numbers because of parking and the space in our backyard, so please let me know if you want to come by emailing saugeenrivercsa@gmail.com Suggested donation of $30 for the concert also gets you a copy of Ansley’s CD. Bring your own chair or blanket.

A few people were asking, and it’s a stormy afternoon, so I thought I’d share how the capital contributions are working this year. A capital expense is something (usually over $500) that provides a new direction (even in a small way) for how the farm operates. A couple of years ago this was the building of our movable chicken wagon that allows the chickens to move through the garden’s rest areas during the growing season.
This year the capital contributions are going towards mini hoop greenhouses for peppers and eggplant in the garden. I used to grow them as greenhouse crops. But after two years of late blight affecting the outside tomato crops, I realized I needed to grow more of the tomatoes under cover. Since tomatoes need height it made sense to move them all into the existing greenhouse space and put the eggplant and peppers (shorter plants) outside in mini hoops. Below is Simon and I setting them up early June. I don’t have an updated shot, but the plants are liking the extra protection.