New CSA Options!

14. January 2012 by David.

2011 CSA surveys are in and we received some terrific feedback! We’ll be implementing a few changes this year to make the experience even better for our members. One of the things many have asked for is more flexibility. Understood. Here are two new strategies to give you more options:

1- Swap bin: Extra produce will be supplied at each pickup location in swap bins. Members will have the option to exchange one or two items of their weekly bounty for a different item in the swap bin. Want to ditch your radish and grab an extra carrot bunch? Want to leave behind the green peppers and get an extra bunch of greens? Ok! We’ll make sure to leave enough of ”the good stuff” in the swap bin and adjust as the season progresses.

2- Flex Box: Prepaid credit allows members to choose any item on display at our farm store during open hours. This new program is in response to members who wish to participate in CSA, but are constrained by periods away from home, unpredictable schedules or dietary restrictions. Act quickly, only a limited number of Flex Boxes available!

Details in our updated Registration Forms

2012 Weekly Box Form

2012 Flex Box Form

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Thank You!

6. January 2012 by David.

Thank you for your support in 2011! We appreciate your business. We hope you took the chance to relax over the last couple weeks. We sure did! Barn renovations were put on hold in favour of some slightly more… delicate building projects David Burnford Riverglen Biodynamic Farm PS For those who are wondering: Yes, we do have eggs available! We also have carrots and rutabagas. Yum

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Market Money for Christmas

12. December 2011 by David.

Here’s a new way to share top quality, local, organic produce with your loved ones.

This Christmas, encourage someone you know to enjoy produce from our stand at the Little Italy Farmer’s Market, or right here at the farm.

Our ”market money” is exchangeable at either location for any item we have available. That includes vegetables, eggs, or meat products, depending on the season. It can be used anytime we are open in 2012.

Many of us know someone who could use a little incentive to purchase good food. This gift makes it easier for them, while supporting your favourite local farm!

Simply email us your name, mailing address, and tell us the amount of market money you’d like to purchase. Then send us a check or email transfer at your convenience. Our high tech printing machine (ahem) can make any amount of market money you wish. Market money will be mailed out on, or before, Monday, December 19th to make sure it arrives before Christmas. We can mail it your own address, or directly to the recipient of your generous gift.

Season’s Greetings!

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December

1. December 2011 by David.

I don’t know if I can write warm and fuzzy newsletters as well as Heather does, so here are a few pictures of warm and fuzzy animals instead. We were finally able to finish paying for Lana who has been waiting all summer to come over with her adopted calf, Micky. She is experienced and good natured, and has been extremely patient as we learn to handle a cow and calf pair.

Our new Katahdin ram, Coleman, came with a special chest harness equipped with a block of coloured wax. This lets us know which of our ewes was bred while our backs were turned, making it easier to predict lambing time. Apparently Coleman is a very charming fellow, if we can judge by Brownie’s backside… Don’t you wish this kind of gadget was available for teenagers? Or maybe not… This variety of sheep, called a hair sheep, doesn’t grow a fleece and therefore does not require annual sheering or docking, a common practice which involves removing the lower portion of a sheep’s tail. We are hoping to have lamb available next fall…

Coleman’s First Day

Take our CSA Survey! . Working hard, making some serious improvements to the barn.

Pickup Changes

November leeks

We have recently decided to cancel an additional pickup. We will no longer be taking weekly produce to Chipworks. Luckily, most members already contacted are happy to pickup at the farm, which is close by.

Pickup options are now: Riverglen Farm, Britannia, Wellington, Centertown.

We’ve been getting good feedback from members who opted for the fall extension. This panned out as a store credit. Many enjoy visiting the farm, choosing their vegetables, eggs, and ”putting it on the tab”.

We will be updating our registration form shortly so it includes an option to pre-pay market or farm store produce at a discount. More details to follow…

On a side note… I’m looking for some help to make a few improvements to our website. We need a banner, and I would like to add a photo gallery section. Any ideas?

- David

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Fall Reflections

21. November 2011 by David.

You are invited to

Fall Reflections

by Canadian Organic Growers Ottawa

Joel’s coffee will be ready as the doors open at 2:00 on Sunday, December 4th at the Sandy
Hill Community Centre, 250 Somerset East! The Booths will be open and our
Wonderful Volunteers will be featured on Power Point!

Our Keynote Speaker
Stuart Colins from Bryson Farms

there will be tons of gorgeous full-colour photos of Bryson Farm

 

A brief AGM for COG Ottawa

Come and get to know us!

Don’t miss out on the Silent auction

The best for last!
A beautiful selection of organic cheeses
by Organic Meadow
with biscottes and
organic apple cider.

Mmm.. Can’t you just taste that cider?
Welcome!

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Updated Registration Form for 2012 CSA

17. November 2011 by David.

 Registration Form 2012

 Here’s an updated version of our 2012 registration form. Please take a look and forward to your friends and colleagues.

Thanks!

Thuja and Bruno relaxing as I harvest the last of this year’s parsley. Six crates full will make a good fall boost for all the animals!

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Yes, we are still ”farming”!

14. November 2011 by David.

”So, I guess all the farming must be wrapping up for the year, then.” Uh, yeah… Nope, we are definitely still farming. Farming really isn’t the sort of thing you just put on pause when it gets too chilly for T-shirts and sandals. In fact, believe it or not, we’re still gardening!

 

Lots more veggies in the ground!

 

There are still lots of root crops in the ground. Row cover (white nylon sheets) does a great job protecting vegetables, keeping them lush and green. Even the kale is still standing. And when the leaves finally do die-off, such as our beets, the roots bellow ground keep in perfect condition.

 

Farm Store Display

Our farm store currently stocks:

-Orange and multi-coloured carrots

-Red beets

-Red and yellow onions

-Spaghetti squash

-Leeks

-Rutabaga

-Siberian kale

-Green swiss chard

-Parsnip 

-Daikon radish

-Nappa cabbage

-Yellow, russet and purple potatoes 

 

Renos include swapping steel cage windows to glass, adding pens and installing electrical outlets and lighting

We’ve also been keeping busy winterizing our house, barns, garden, equipment, machinery, vehicles and animal housing. The firewood pile is gaining height on the back deck, plastic is going over windows… Renovations in the animal barn include a new waterfowl pen, two sheep stalls and two double cow stalls. Winter is a challenging time for animals living outdoors and we need to be organized in order to provide water (preferably not in its frozen form), shelter and feed to our 100 laying hens, 11 waterfowl, 3 (soon to be pregnant) ewes, 1 ram, 3 pregnant cows, 1 bull, 2 dogs and 5 cats. Unfortunately, none of these creatures fly south for the winter. We modify feeding schedules, switch to heated water fountains and bowls, and spread a whole lot of straw bedding.

 

In a world where the typical gardener buys manure, fertilizer (organic or not) and even soil in bags, I feel the need to emphasize that none of these things would exist at all were it not for farmers willing to over-winter animals. When you buy produce from Riverglen Farm, you can rest assured that these critical ingredients come from animals well cared-for and well fed. We feed animals with our own hay, vegetables, and pre-mixed, certified organic feeds. We design our systems to maximize manure recovery and use it to create compost piles, inoculated with biodynamic preparations to increase its vitality.

 

So yes, we are still farming. We will be farming next month, and the month after that, and the next month after that. But thanks for asking. Thank you for acknowledging that we work pretty hard and could probably use a bit of a break. Luckily, the days are getting shorter and we spend more time inside, entering harvest and sales records, book keeping, planning and marketing while the stereo plays music in the back ground. Big produce commitments are over and deliveries are getting smaller. Our schedules become more flexible, we can take more leisurely walks, and if we’re lucky enough to find reliable farm sitters, we might even be able to go for a weekend camping trip! Sweet!

 

- David

 

November Discount for Returning Members

 

Over thirty members have already signed up for a 2012 weekly or biweekly produce box! This is very encouraging. Apparently, several people were happy with their produce this year and are hopeful that the quality of the program will keep improving. Thank you!

 

There are two weeks left to take advantage of the next early-bird discount level! Get your deposit and registration form in before the end of November to enjoy a discount on your weekly or biweekly produce box.

 

2012 Registration Form

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Michael’s Letter to the Premier

28. October 2011 by David.

Dalton McGuinty, Premier
Legislative Building
Queen’s Park
Toronto ON M7A 1A1

18^th October 2011

Premier of Ontario, Honorable Dalton McGuinty,

 

Choice is something that is inherent in our national identity.  People come to this country from all around the world because Canada is a place of liberty, and these are the values we hold most dear.

Yet, despite this, I have been fighting since 1994 for the right of men, women and children in Canada to be able to make the simplest and most important of all choices – what they eat.

Over the last 17 years I have made every effort to engage the authorities in a constructive dialogue about the issue of non-pasteurized milk in Ontario and Canada. In return my farm has been raided by armed officers, my family has been terrorized and I been dragged through the courts – first being acquitted and then being found guilty.

Today, farmers like me in Ontario and around the country are scared. We are scared that people with guns who claim to be acting in our best interests will snatch our livelihoods from us. We are scared that we will be tried for the “crime” of believing that informed consumers and citizens in our free country should be able to choose what they eat and drink.

This is why, on September 29^th, I began my hunger strike.

Today is day 19 without food. And whilst I am suffering and my body is weakening by the hour, I am resolutely determined that this will be the final chapter of this 17-year fight.

The right to buy food direct from a farmer is as old as our country. Yet, today, that right is being taken away from Canadians by a government that insists that only corporate Canada be responsible for feeding our citizens.  I respectfully call on you, Premier McGuinty, to meet with me in person, as soon as possible, to find a way of ensuring that this right is respected and that the government renounces in taking away the most fundamental of all our rights – that to choose what we eat.  The end of my hunger strike is dependent on it.

I am very hopeful that we will be able to resolve this issue, once and for all, by working together in an open and constructive way and I very much hope that the opportunity to do so comes soon.

Yours respectfully,

Michael Schmidt

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If You Eat, You Better Occupy Wall Street

26. October 2011 by David.

Dave Murphy

Founder of Food Democracy Now!

The recent carnage to the American people’s way of life began more than 30 years ago when the Reagan administration crafted deliberate policies that stopped enforcement of antitrust laws at the Department of Justice, encouraged an orgy of corporate mergers and launched a three decade assault on common sense government oversight. Since that time, politicians of both parties have embraced the radical notion of “free” markets that decoupled risk from accountability.

Occupy Wall Street was born out of a legitimate frustration with the collusion between Big Business and elected officials of the U.S. government. And nowhere is that collusion so great as in food and agricultural production where four firms control 84 percent of beef packing, 66 percent of pork production and one company, Monsanto, controls patents on more than 93 percent of soybeans and 80 percent of corn grown in the U.S.

Ironically, on the day that Occupy Wall Street launched, I was in San Francisco at a conference appropriately named “Justice Begins with Seeds” to discuss the problems of excessive corporate control over our food supply. The incredible growth in the use of genetically modified (GMO) seeds and the excessive corporate influence of biotech seed companies have in Washington was high on the agenda. Much like the ubiquitous credit default swaps of the mortgage crisis, which became toxic assets for the global economy, this new technology of GMO seeds is less than two decades old, but already appears in an estimated 75 to 80 percent of processed food that Americans eat everyday.

In 2011, an estimated 94 percent of soybeans, 88 percent of corn, 90 percent of cotton, 93 percent of canola and 95 percent of sugar beets produced in the U.S. contain GMOs. And since most items in the grocery store include common ingredients such as high fructose corn syrup, vegetable oils made from corn, soybeans, cottonseed and canola, with 8 out of every 10 bites of processed food, Americans are consuming genetically engineered foods without knowing it.

Despite a recent Reuters poll showing that 93 percent Americans support mandatory labeling of GMO foods, politicians in Washington and Monsanto lobbyists have so far blocked this basic right.

Even now, more than 50 countries around the world require labeling of GMOs, including citizens in the European Union, Japan, Russia and even China.

Food Democracy Now! recently released an exclusive, never before seen video taken in 2007 of then Senator Barack Obama promising a room full of more than 400 Iowa farmers and rural activists that if elected he would immediately work to label food that “has been genetically modified because Americans should know what they’re buying.”

Incredibly, President Obama made this comment during the Iowa caucus, in a mostly rural state with a leading agricultural economy, which he won by a wide margin and helped launch him to the White House. With the national conversation now raging about corporate influence it’s curious that he hasn’t kept his promise since taking office.

In another portion of the speech, more widely circulated, Obama offered the hope that his administration would differ vastly from the administrations before him.

“For far too long, you’ve had to listen to politicians tell you one thing out on the campaign trail, and then close the door and do another thing in Washington when they make rural policy. You’re sending your message, but sometimes you can’t get through because there’s a lobbyist who’s already on line,” professed Obama.

Four years later however, the shine of Obama’s victory has worn off, leaving many of us to wonder if this isn’t the most agribusiness friendly administration yet. The approval in one year of three new biotech crops (GMO alfalfa, sugar beets an ethanol corn) and a Roundup Ready bluegrass for lawns represents the same threat that financial deregulation and the resulting economic crash does to our food supply.

Even this week, more news of the Obama administration’s love affair with food and crop biotechnology is making the rounds, with an announcement last Monday that the Food and Drug Administration recommended the commercialization of GMO salmon (despite flawed scientific research). Currently the evaluation is under review at the White House Office of Management and Budget, but if the administration is as cavalier with GMO salmon as they have been with other GMO crops, the first genetically engineered animal could be a plate near you soon.

At the same time the Obama administration has decided to “plow ahead” with the indiscriminate approval of GMOs, a flood of recent studies have disproven several previous claims by the agricultural biotech industry, such as the perilous rise of superweeds, insects becoming resistant to the genetically inserted insecticide Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt), and a disturbing report out of Canada that found that 93 percent of pregnant mothers tested had the genetically engineered Bt toxin in their blood, something biotech scientists claimed was impossible.

In the 1990s, when agricultural biotech companies wanted to make sure nothing got between them and profits, they rotated executives into high-ranking positions in government to help write the rules that govern approval of GMO crops.

In the most famous example, former Monsanto attorney and super lobbyist Michael Taylor oversaw biotechnology regulations at the Food and Drug Administration that placed rBGH, a synthetic hormone, in the milk supply, despite the objections of agency scientists, and implemented the policy declaring genetically engineered foods to be “substantially equivalent” to naturally bred seeds and animals, the main Catch 22 of why GMOs are not required to be labeled in the U.S.

Currently, Michael Taylor is back at the FDA as the Food Safety Czar. So much for closing the revolving door.

For everyone who eats, the events that brought down our banking system and the lack of accountability for those who rigged the rules in their favor should be lessons in the making. Today’s system of industrial agriculture has become too concentrated, while corporations and commodity groups are continually advocating for the same type of policies and practices that outsource the risk onto society while privatizing all the profit.

Rather than encourage a diversified portfolio in agriculture, the Obama administration and the USDA are doing everything in their power to put all of global agriculture’s eggs in the biotech basket.

If people and elected officials think the collapse of the global economy was a disaster, wait until it happens to our food supply. The truth is, if people really knew about the collusion behind what they were eating, both parties would be in the streets. For some reason, Obama has so far sided with chemical and biotech seed giants like Monsanto, who keep insisting that Americans should be dining in the dark. It’s time to remind President Obama of his promise, after all there’s nothing more important than the food that we eat and feed our families. And some things are worth fighting for.

 

Follow Dave Murphy on Twitter: www.twitter.com/food_democracy

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Guard Geese

26. October 2011 by David.

The geese these days are showing promise as ‘guard geese’, the role they were brought to Riverglen to play. Unfortunately, they seem to be intimidating some of the store customers. I have to say, we’ve never seen or herd of them attacking people. The hissing is new, but it hasn’t changed their general behaviour patterns. While they will follow you with their neck down, I always smile at the floomp floomp of their clumsy feet as they try to move quickly. I’ve never gotten closer than about a metre to them - and that includes when I open the doors to let them in and out of the barns! They won’t actually get too close to you. They will honk, they may fly up to you, they may follow you hissing, but just turn around and look at them. They’ll stop, cock their heads, and wander away as if nothing had happened. They’re fascinating to watch.

If you walk towards the geese, they’ll walk away from you!

 

After a full season’s training, I found it a challenge to roll up 11 rows of drip tape in a row. I mean really, they’re lightweight (although sometimes heavy with water), and only 200 feet long each. Not amongst the harder tasks at the farm. Oh well. Part of the joy of farm work is that there is a little of everything. The body learns motions and can speed things up only when there’s a lot of a given task, like hoeing, harvesting and hand weeding. I guess I’ll just have to accept that my arms can’t roll too many drip tapes in a row unless I want to start a daily drip tape rolling drill, and I definitely don’t! The worst part would be having to re-lay it each time, carefully around all the plants. Definitely a huge waste of time, and unnecessary wear and tear on the already fragile tapes. Don’t even think about it for next year’s interns David

 

It is hard to believe that this is your 20th and final basket of vegetables for the year. I send you a fond farewell, and thank you for supporting an amazing learning experience for farm interns.  It is extremely rewarding to interact with the people we are feeding at pick-up day, the market stand, the farm store, or events. Thank you for sharing your smiles with us!

 

-Heather

 

 

 

What’s in my Box? Week No.20 Swiss Chard: Hearty greens. Classic, simple, but probably the healthiest thing on this whole list. One of the best things you can do to your body is eat more greens. More greens! Scallions: Fresh, green onions for adding a little zest to any meal Potatoes: Choose between ‘Siegliende’ a german butterball type, or ‘Gold Rush’ a white fleshed russet type. Rutabaga: These are similar to turns, but they are both sweeter and zestier. Heather likes them raw, sliced in thin flakes. Onions: 3lbs or yellow onions. These will keep well in a dry location, so don’t feel rushed to eat them all at once Daikon radish: These are an Asian staple food. The Pumpkin: New England pie pumpkins for making soup, pie or a spooky decoration. Your choice! Golden beats: My favourite kind of beet, by far. They are so much sweeter and milder… Steamed, roasted or boiled. Good in soup too! I’m curious: Do you prefer golden beet tops or chard? Leeks: Just a few left, but we had enough to share with you! Well, I guess that’s it! This is the last week of regular CSA pickup. I hope you have enjoyed your vegetables this summer, and that we have provided you with a pleasant CSA experience.   We’ll keep you updated as we wrap up our season, collect your feedback, and prepare for next year, but you can expect to receive fewer emails from us during the colder months.   The gardening season is not over, however! Visit our farm store on Tuesdays, Thursdays or Saturdays and browse are surprisingly full display of fall produce. From now until we run out of food, 2011 CSA members get a free bunch of carrots with each purchase!   Members who have purchased a fall extension should keep an eye on their inbox: I’ve still got a few tricks up my sleeve, and I think you will be pleasantly surprised…     Thank you!   -David

Joining us again next year?

Here’s a link to the registration form so you don’t miss out on the variety of great produce headed your way: Registration Form 2012  Early bird registration rebates apply until the end of October.

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