22. April 2009 by David.

Hi

Act Now!!!!!

The critical vote about Lansdowne Park is happening at City Council within a few hours or less.  The motion that is said to have the greatest chance of winning will probably kill the Ottawa Farmers’ Market.  The developer would have control of all of Lansdowne Park and has shown very little interest in the Ottawa Farmers’ Market.  We attended the day long deliberations at City Hall on Monday.  The outcome is a motion that will give away control of Lansdowne Park.  This means the developer will be able to charge very high rent and probably require each vendor to pay a percentage of their sales as well and charge for parking.  We will not be able to survive that.

We need a lease for parking lot # 4 directly from the City for the same timeframe as the City contracts with the developer.  We should also have the right to use the Aberdeen Pavilion in the future.

Please e-mail your City Councilor right away to express your concerns. (list below)

This may be our last chance!

PLEASE Bcc terauds@magma.ca when you send your message!

Thanks.

Andy Terauds

************************************************

Mr Alex Cullen,

You may remember visiting Riverglen Farm last summer in support of our efforts to sustain this heritage farm. We are greatly expanding operations this year, and are involving even more people from the community. Over 100 adults, and their children, are taking part in our Community Shared Agriculture program, and we regularly play host to various community groups such as schools to give them a chance to see where their food comes from.

I am writing about the current debate over the future of Lansdowne Park. We are counting on making a majority of our revenue by bringing certified Biodynamic produce to market on Thursdays and Sundays. Many farmers are joining this growing market because of its excellent location and because it is so carefully managed by a committee of dedicated individuals with a clear and organized vision.

It has come to our attention that the future of the Ottawa Farmer’s Market may be in jeopardy. Regardless of how the City of Ottawa decides to administer Lansdowne Park, I believe that the Ottawa Farmer’s Market is quickly becoming an extremely valuable asset to the neighbourhood, to the City in general, and to Ottawa’s agricultural community. Every effort should be made to ensure people in Ottawa can continue to access high quality local produce, meats and crafts in a convenient location which is equipped with appropriate facilities.

It might also be worth adding that the Aberdeen pavilion is a key component of Ottawa’s agriculture history. Since there is such a strong, concerted effort to re-enstate it as a central meeting point for local agricultural commerce, it only makes sense to support such an initiative.

Thank you in advance for taking the issue of Food Sovereignty in Ottawa seriously. I think we can move Landsdowne in a new, creative direction while preserving its role as described by the Ottawa Farmer’s Market Association.

Sincerely,

David Burnford
Riverglen Biodynamic Farm
613-720-3276

Posted in Newsletter | 1 Comment »

14. April 2009 by David.

Hi all,

Let me take a few minutes out of the sun to thank you very much for joining the group this year. We’ve sold 55 harvest-shares this over the winter; that’s a group of more than 100 adults plus their children, friends and neighbours. I’m pleased to say that a few members have already stepped forward to organize or to help organize activities to help create a community atmosphere and to make the experience as rich as possible. These kinds of initiatives ensure things like a good orientation session, entertaining potlucks, educational walks and inspirational movie showings. Keep looking at the website for updates of upcoming events, and look forward to news in your inbox. Please let me know if someone you know has been excluded from the mailing list so I can add their e-mail address.

Memberships

Thank you very much to all the members who paid up their harvest-shares by April 1st. Your timeliness is greatly appreciated! Almost everyone has paid up now, which is great. If you still owe a financial contribution, please mail it in as soon as possible. I’ll be making calls this week to remind you. I did take note of a few things to make the process easier for next year:

I will be creating an electronic invoice template that I can adjust quickly and send them out to you as payment comes in. I hope this will help you send in checks for the right amount. Another problem that came up alot were checks addressed to Riverglen Farm or to Intentional Eaters. Unfortunately, we don’t have a bank account in either of those names and bank tellers give me hell whenever I try to cash in a check that isn’t specifically in my name. For now, it’s important to address all checks to my personal name. However, it’s just a matter of time until we get around to opening an (expensive) business bank account where money can move a little bit easier for both our customers and for Robin and I as business partners.

Pickups

We’ve confirmed all three of our off-farm pickup locations for the summer. Three very generous parties have offered their personal dwellings as a space for you to pickup your weekly bounties. I will send you more details, but I would like to remind you that food pickup will be every Wednesday with approximate pickup hours of 4pm to 8pm. It will be up to our hosts to fine tune these hours to suit their schedules.

I will be asking everyone to confirm their preferred pickup location in the next few weeks, and I do request that you stick with your pickup location for the entire season. I can accommodate change if you decide to switch half-way through, but I cannot swap you from week to week. Here are the locations for our pickups. Detailed addresses, times and instructions are on the way:

Centertown pickup: Lyonn and Sommerset
Wellington Village pickup: Mayfaire and Byron
Britannia pickup: Elmhurst
Riverglen Farm pickup: Davidson’s Side

Farm Visits

I want everyone visiting Riverglen Farm to feel comfortable in their surroundings and in order to do so, I am offering an orientation session. We are organizing a brief tour of the farm to introduce you to our property, our land, our creatures and our people. For your convenience there will be two timeslots for this session, because it is very important that you attend. I require everyone attend an orientation session before you go exploring the property or pickup your bounty. In other words, for the sake of safety and respect for our private residence, this orientation session is mandatory. You can expect one session to be on the Wednesday prior to the first pickup, and the other to be on a weekend sometime. I will consult with our orientation committee and give you precise times as soon as possible.

How to Contact Us

If you need to contact anyone at the farm, here are a few ways you can do it:

David’s e-mail: david.burnford@gmail.com
Robin’s e-mail: arobint@gmail.com

David’s phone: 613-720-FARM (main contact number, you can leave a message)
Farm phone: 613-721-7063 (shared with house tenants, I don’t check the messages)

Mailing address: 230 Davidson’s Side Road, Ottawa, ON, K2K 2Z4

So what happens if your cell dies with all your phone numbers, your browser deleted all your bookmarks, gmail deleted your past e-mails and you’ve thrown out your membership package?

Try the all-mighty Google search engine! We’re the first link when you type ‘Riverglen Farm’ and the second link when you type ‘biodynamic ottawa’

or try:

Farm website: www.riverglenfarm.ca
The website has phone numbers, mailing addresses, e-mail addresses, news, updates, copies of the membership forms, pictures, etc.
I could use a little help with the website, so please let me know if there is any information that you’d like to see up there, or if anything looks outdated. Since it is a blog-type website, you can post your comments right then and there if you like!

Buy Local Food Guide
http://www.spcottawa.on.ca/ofsc/en/buylocal/buy_local_home.htm
You can find all our contact information here, as well as for other farms and farmer’s markets in the Ottawa area

http://www.greenottawa.ca
Another website with our contact information, as well as contact for all sorts of Green business in the Ottawa area

I guess that’s all for now. I am very happy to have the group organized and well on its way to a delicious season so I can focus on other very important tasks such as building, seeding and tilling! Enjoy the warm weather and we’ll be in touch soon.

Cheers,

David

Posted in Blog | 1 Comment »

8. April 2009 by David.

 Subject: University of Guelph to axe the Organic Agriculture Department

Hi, My name is  Erin Harris. I am currently enrolled in the Organic Agriculture Major at the University of Guelph and would like to let as many people as possible know about a troubling development at the University. I would be grateful if you could do the same and consider writing your opinion to any or all of the following email links.

In 2003 the University of Guelph took a huge step and began to offer the first Organic Major in Canada, one of few in all of North America. 

However recently due to the financial crisis the program has been eliminated.  Along with the major all but 1 of the courses have been cut, leaving Guelph practically devoid of any thing organic.  The process was completed with very little input by students or staff.  Students were given a chance to speak at the last stage of the process.  This however proved to be fruitless and simply a formality with everything the students saying being disregarded.  We are currently striving to get the decision overturned.  If you think that the top agriculture university should be offering organic courses, or that this decision is short sighted and a threat to future development of sustainable agriculture please let the university know.  Letters can be forwarded to:
cwagnerr@uoguelph.ca, vosborne@uoguelph.ca, gotis@uoguelph.ca, jtrevors@uoguelph.ca, allauzon@uoguelph.ca, nyap@uoguelph.ca, asulliva@uoguelph.ca, aboecker@uoguelph.ca, lizlee@uoguelph.ca, rsarker@uoguelph.ca, jfitz@uoguelph.ca, ggray@uoguelph.ca, wjt@uoguelph.ca

Posted in Newsletter | 2 Comments »