Exploring Your New Farm Dream in Ottawa

Ottawa
When: Wednesdays February 22 & 29 6:00pm to 9:00pm and Saturdays March 17 & 31, 9:00am to 5:00pm
Farm Tours: Saturdays will include both class room time and farm tours on both dates.
Location: TBA, Downtown Ottawa
Cost: $325 (+HST) /person or $450 (+HST) for two people from the same “farm dream” (ex: family, business partners)
To register: Click Here
For more information contact: Cherie Bauman admin@farmstart.ca or 519-836-7046 ext. 103.

Over 12 hours and one day of farm tours, the Explorer course takes a learner-centered approach to exploring agriculture as a career. As a participant in the course, you will be guided through an in depth self-assessment process, designed to help you identify the specific aptitudes, interests, skills and resources that you can bring to a new farm business. You will receive support through the process of researching opportunities in agriculture. And you will meet other serious gardeners, livestock enthusiasts, and entrepreneurs who are also asking themselves, “Is starting an agricultural business right for me?”

*The Exploring Your New Farm Dream training opportunity is eligible for cost-share funding through the Growing Forward Business Development for Farm Businesses program in Ontario. For more information on program requirements, call 1-877-424-1300 or visit the OMAFA web site.
For information on FarmStart and our programs visit www.FarmStart.ca

USC Canada presents an inspiring evening with the visionary author of Diet for a Small Planet (1971), Frances Moore Lappé.

Today, she is challenging us to change the way we think so we can create the world we want!

The Ottawa Citizen has published an Op Ed penned by Lappé, entitled Food Scarcity: A Dangerous Myth. Join an online discussion with Lappé Can humanity feed itself? Monday, Jan. 30, from 11 am to noon, at ottawacitizen.com.

OTTAWA EVENT February 1, 2012
Place: Wychwood Barns, 601 Christie St. Time: 7:30 pm (doors open @ 6:30) Cost: $10.00 (+taxes), $15.00 (door)	Place:St Brigid’s Centre for the Arts, 310 St. Patrick St. Time: 7:30 (doors open @ 6:30) Cost: $10.00 (+taxes), $15.00 (door)

The World We Want

A Special Live Webcast Across Canada.

If you’re not in Toronto or Ottawa, you can still catch Frances Moore Lappé live Tomorrow night!

USC Canada invites you to tune in tomorrow, Tuesday, January 31 at 7:30 pm, for a special live webcast of her Toronto public forum. Click here to connect.

This promises to be THE must see and hear event of the season – so do join us!

We hope to see you Online!

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

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!

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

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

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!

 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!

”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

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