The Mosquitoes are on strike

Has anybody else been wondering where those nasty little critters have disappeared to? I haven’t a single bite this spring. A mosquito gave my ankle a try a couple weeks ago… Perhaps his failed reconnaissance mission dissuaded the rest of his gang. And not a single black fly! Is it the dry spring? The Ottawa River is at its lowest in decades. I just hope the song birds can find an alternate meal.

I want to apologies to all you keeners who have offered their help over the past few months and who got a ”get back to me in a few weeks” type reply. I appreciate the surge of enthusiasm towards gardening and I want so support it as much as I can. The best way to gain valuable farming and gardening skills is to go through a summer internship on an organic farm. Gardening involves a variety of technical abilities that can only be learned over time and with practice.

Two young ladies will become more acquainted with the rhythms farming at Riverglen over the summer. Their 6 month stay on the farm will be filled with opportunities to use specialized tools as they go through the various tasks involved in maintaining a healthy, holistic farm. Two more apprentice farmers will join the crew for the months of July and August.

Managing a five person crew does require some planning and organization. It therefore hard for me to accommodate the more than 20 people who have communicated their desire to help out at the farm on a casual basis. In an effort to create balance between working with an efficient, tight crew and working with an assortment of eager volunteers, I will designate specific week days where community members are welcome to participate in farm activities. I suspect these will be harvest days, when we can often use help washing and packing vegetables.

I would also like to start a pool of names who can be contacted on special occasions, such as mulching and transplanting, when the more arms are the better. These names will be e-mailed ahead of group work days. Thanks to Otesha for helping us sheet mulch the perennial herb garden and the orchard.

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This entry was posted on 16. May 2010 at 11:20 and is filed under Blog. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site.