WEEK XII - July 24 - 26

WEEK XII

July 24

The Imperfect Produce Movement

‘Naturally imperfect’ produce finds a home at select Loblaw stores" Global News March 25, 2015

Loblaws' 'Naturally Imperfect' Produce Line Will Sell At A Discount. The Huffington Post, March 2015

Loblaw’s ‘ugly’ food line provides big savings. Moneysence, March 2015

Nothing perfect about imperfect produce plan: Farmer. Toronto Sun, March 2015

I believe it is a great idea. I think it will educate consumers on the imperfect, uncontrollable  and unpredictable ways of the natural wold, it will lower their false expectations, and by doing so, it will make farmers' lives a little bit easier. Farmers say that consumers have been too spoiled over the last decades. The still live painting of the past display an array of imperfect fruit, in those time, fruit was not ready available as it is today and it was cherished no matter what.

Italian artist Caravaggio (1573-1610) went against the idea of painting the fruit aesthetically perfect, standing ideal, and instead focused on realism by placing imperfect pieces of fruit within his composition. The apples have been tarnished due bruising and to the holes seen on their surfaces from worms. The leaves that have been scattered throughout the arrangement have been depicted to represent varying stages of decay (Still life Painting in the Baroque period. The Utah Museum of Fine Arts. Selected. University of Utah, 1997. Web)

WEEK XI - July 21 - 23

WEEK XI

July 21 to 23

This summer has been an anomaly of high temperatures across most of our province. As a result, many municipalities have place restrictions on the use of water in general, with most cities going into phase 3, even phase 4 (no residential garden watering whatsoever in the Sunshine Coast). 

All predictions point to the fact that this anomaly will become the norm in the near future, not the exception. 

In our small corner of the farming world, we need to look at the results from this growing season in the context of these weather anomalies, for example, yield in the terraces has been equivalent according to Dr. Bomford, to what would be expected in a farm setting. Failures or short comings in this case, could be attributed to poor nutrient content in the soil, sandy conditions, issues with the irrigation systems, etc. Nevertheless, once the final harvest reports and results start coming from the front lines, the rest of the farms in the Lower Mainland, we need to take a closer view and re-calibrate the analysis of our own final yields. Early stories form across the province speak at germination failures, plants with stunt growth, crops such as peas and carrots not performing as usual, grapes and berries being ready three weeks before their usual date. Even wine makers in the Okanagan are concern because the concentration of secondary metabolites in the grapes are completely different this year the they have ever been before and they don't know how this is going to impact wine making this year. In 2003 the fires in the Okanagan wine region affected the taste of the wine, since there was enough ash on the skins of the grape to make it noticeable.

It will be interesting to read the reports.

From Jackson Triggs Okanagan Estate Website

WEEK X - July 14 - 16

WEEK X

July 14

Farming in the Kootenays 

For the last three years, my family and I make a point of making our way to visit our old good friend Michael in the beautiful community of Crawford Bay. It is not only a time off from our busy lives, a time to spend quality time with the kids, reconnect with the land, but also a nice mental break from mainstream culture, the WalM culture, I call it. The Kootenays is not only astonishingly beautiful, but it has been brewing a remarkable alternative culture based upon a very interesting informal economy. Nelson, the heart of the Kootenays is a leading community of co-operative initiatives, from food co-ops, to housing co-ops, to farm tools and equipment co-op! Kootenays Food Co-op …

The Kootenay Local Agricultural Society (KLAS) is dedicated to the re-building the Kootenay’s regional food systems. Most of the food consume in the region comes from outside, but this, as in many other areas in the world, was not always the case. More than a hundred years ago, people moved in to the region following logging and mining jobs, and all the food to feed people in the community was grown locally. Today, the organization seeks to restore and expand their fragile food sources not only by promoting but also by supporting Kootenay farming enterprises. Some of their key initiatives include public education, grant-seeking opportunities to support ideas that will benefit local agriculture and food production, and the tool library which helped fund the purchase of a variety of tools, which are rented to KLAS members at low rates. Available are root washers, honey equipment such as extractors, hoop benders to create cheap shelters and greenhouses, and dehydrators.  The KLAS covers the area from Rossland, B.C., across to Creston and then up to Nakusp. Tool depots are located in Winlaw, Kaslo, Creston and Castlegar. 

Also a very interesting initiative put together by this co-op is their Kootenay Mountain Grown (KMG) certification program. The program offers members the opportunity to become organically certified at the regional level. As we discussed last semester, it could be expensive for some small farmers to receive an organic certification. Though becoming organically certified can be very helpful for selling products nationally or internationally, a certification like KMG is an great option for small organic growers to sell locally without the hassle of the big leagues. According to Andrew Bennett, secretary of the association  “KMG follows organic principles but, instead of third-party certification, it operates farmer to farmer. Every year a farmer will check another operation to KMG certification standards. A farm is checked by a different participant every year and two farms are never responsible for checking each other. KMG is not an official organic certification body, so technically KMG has no legal claim to the term. Consequently, we steer clear of "organic" entirely.  (Invest Kootenay.com, 2014). Nevertheless, KMG's strict standards (see above) were built to comply with IFOAM's (International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements) Participatory Guarantee System, an internationally recognized means of "locally focused quality assurance.

I heard through the grapevine (while crossing the Okanagan) that my class was busy at the orchard harvesting the wheat. Yes, I regret missing that experience... check my colleagues blogs for details on this interesting account!

July 16

Agricultural history in the Slocan Valley

Driving from New Denver to Nelson in the Slocan Valley, we were delighted to see a lot of small heritage farms in the way. Each one was a cornucopia of polycultives and free range, free run farm animals. Talking to the neighbours, we learnt that the region, Slocan and Kootenay valley, received an inflow of immigrants that cherished not only agriculture, but "the land". After mining activities in the area wore off and people moved away, the area was more or less abandoned by both the provincial and federal government. 

Between 1908 and 1913, over 5000 Doukhobors migrated to the Boundary-Kootenay region where their communal life style was preserved and their enterprises flourished.  The Doukhobors had a deeply rooted understanding of sustainable farming. Being vegetarians, composters, organic growers, they established a communal system of farming. The Doukhobors were pacifist and stood against militarism and all forms of violence.

During World War Two, the Canadian Government removed all Japanese Canadians from the West Coast. One of the internment camps was established in the city of New Denver, north corner of the valley. The Doukhobors help many Japanese overcome starvation by bringing food and supplies. Japanese were outstanding agrarians and contribute extensively to the agricultural heritage of the valley. 

In the 1960s, a new wave of immigrants, US draft dodgers and back to landers invaded the Kootenays. The melting of all these cultures and world views created an amazing countercultural movement, and agriculture was at the centre of the it. This movement is still very much alive today

What's interesting about the Kootenays "way of living" is that it lies strongly apart from mainstream culture, not in a rebellious manner or to exist as a living contradiction to it, but strongly convinced that not everyone needs or wants to leave in mainstream culture, and that's OK. This worldview has survived the test of time and remains at the heart of the community. 

(PerryRidege.com, Agriculture: Community Sustainability Through Agriculture. Web)

(Tricycle Acres: Slocan Valley Farm Opportunities. Web)

WEEK IX - July 7 - 9

WEEK IX

July 7 to 9

The wheat is at the hard dough stage, 10% moisture content, displaying a beautiful golden colour,  and ready for harvesting. If hulled and chewed, the grain is quite hard. The grain will store very well at this stage. 

Scientist in China are looking into the intercropping of garlic and wheat and found that there's a lower aphid population in wheat when both crops are planted together (reduced pest pressure)

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Irrigation system at the Orchard - Update

We needed to finish initialling the irrigation emitters on some of the fruit trees.

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Management of Blackberry bushes at the Orchard

The blackberries are starting to grow back from the root stocks. This plot need to be weeded periodically to avoid reappearance. The other option is to dig the root out. A comparison of time/energy invested between these two approaches could yield useful information, specially in this region where blackberries are a nuisance to farmers. In our corner, we will need to come with the tractor and mower pretty soon and keep at it over the season.

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Corn and Squash Experimental Trials at the Orchard

We noticed there is poor germination rate of corn in our experimental plots. In corn we asses crop stage on corn by counting the number of leaves, and we don't count the first leaf that emerges. At this point our corn is at the three leaf stage, most plants are bearing 3 to 4 leaves, and this is a critical stage for weed management in corn. If not addressed, there's a great change to loose yield. We used a tiller between the rows, and a hoe in the rows to clear the weeds from this beds. Later on, the corn will get tall enough that it will shade newly emerging weeds, so weeds will be less of a problem. Another critical stage for corn is when the tassels are forming, and this is when corn is susceptible to drought. At this point we have sprinklers installed that keep the soil moist, however, we will need to install a better irrigation system for when tasseling comes. 

In the US, by calendar days, corn is planted in May and weed management needs to be taken care by July the 4th. We were late in our planting and all the phenolic stages shifted to a late date. 

Agriculture relays heavily on phenological stages (PS), PS are everything in agriculture; farmers use it all the time, specially now that the metrics have changed. In the old times, calendar date was the metric that measure activity, i.e. it is June 1st, I need to plant the beans. Today, there’s huge variations from year to year due to climate change, farmers cannot respond to the crops in terms of calendar date anymore, they need to respond to what stage of growth the crop is at.

Why is the stage of growth so important?

Understanding what the plant is doing at any point of its life cycle influences how you take care of it, how you manage it.

Therefore phenology is everything, when u start growing a crop, it is essential you figure out what the key PS of that crop are, what those stages represent in terms of development, and in terms of management. 

Dr. Bomford re-seeding the corn experimental field with the Earthway seeder.

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Potato Fields at the Orchard

One of the potato varieties is starting to flower, so have the weeds. At this point both varieties need to be "hilled". The plants are approx. over 20 cm in height, which is late for hilling, ideally is 10cm to 15cm in height. Nevertheless, hilling is going to increase the area where tubers will grow, tubers will start forming after blooming, it is also going to eliminated lots of the weeds. We will use the rotary plow piece of the walk behind tractor, the plow is going to uproot the weeds that grow between the rows, and burying the ones growing within the rows. 

The fields of potato growers around the Orchard have been hilled, and are flowering. Dr. Bomford notice a strong pesticide aroma that indicated some sort of synthetic pesticide use, probably a herbicide, to manage their weeds. He also noticed people working in these fields, which surprised him since usually there needs to be a time laps, an x amount of days to re-entry, after the chemicals have been applied into the fields, otherwise it becomes a human health hazard. On this note, I volunteered a few years ago helping the Mexican Temporary workers with translations of their papers ( I speak fluent Spanish) and they were repotting abuses of work safety standards from some of our local farmers, such as pesticide safety standards, living conditions (too many housed in one cabin), etc. The problem with reporting these incidents was, and it still is, is that those workers who raise these concerns are then blacklisted by growers, and their own consulate, and are not allowed back in the country. Temporary workers are usually farmers who have been displaced from their land by either dory cartels or mining companies and rely on working in Canada to support their families.

Students taking a noon break and enjoying the beauty of the wheat field. For most of us, this is like a kid walking through the aisles of the Toys R Us!

WEEKVIII - June 30 - July 2

WEEK VIII

June 30

Installing drip irrigation system at the Terraces

Instead of digging the terraces and hooking up our own irrigation system to the main line, we decided to retrofit what we have. Already in place, there's a perimeter main line that runs all way around each one of the terraces. Each section has at least two pop-up riser sprinklers unevenly spaced, which makes a total of six irrigation heads to be replaced by header lines for drip irrigation. We decided to build six sub-headers that were butterfly shaped with tape opening into the sides of the beds. The sub headers will feed off of one of the emitter ports.

First we started by installing a stand-up pipe into the emitter (the original sprinkler was removed) and then we attached a sub-header that run crosswise through the bed. Coming of and perpendicular to the sub headers, we were able to attach the irrigation tapes. 

We used: 

• a 3/4 inch stand up 
• an elbow that we placed in the correct direction facing the beds and away from the wall

 

• a valve (for 3/4 inch pipe) that will allow us to control the water flow (turn on and off when not in use)

• a 15psi pressure regulator (at this point we don't know the pressure in this system yet, we also don't wanted to be too high with the drip system). When you buy tape it will tell you what psi works. Pressure regulators can only bring the pressure down, never up. Pressure regulator is almost a requirement with trickle irrigation systems, in order not to blow the line all the time. Particularly in farm use where farmers operate off wells, or out of irrigation ditches which are very variable sources and pressure could be all over the map. Even in the terraces, there can be spikes if one of the line plugs changing the total overall pressure of the system. Other kind of sprinkler in farms can be 70 or 150psi

•  A cross piece that will hold two drip tapes (one on each side) with on and off switches. We installed two cross pieces on each section.

• The cross pieces were connected with several pieces of PCVs (connectors). 
• Several end caps to place at the end of the tapes 

The sprinklers are unevenly spaced, nevertheless we were able to accommodate approx ten meters on each side of the  sub-header.

The first step to the installation was to measure how high we needed the risers, we aimed to have the elbow just below the height of the concrete, buried to prevent tripping accidents. 

Cutting the PVCs and assembling the irrigation arms:

1. Measure and cut 4 inches of PCV (this length varied across sections)

2. Cut two 3 inch section of PCV to connect the valve and the pressure regulator.

3. Cut two 1 foot of PVC to connect the first two cross pieces, and 3 feet to connect the next two across the path of the bed. 

We glued some of the pieces together at "the glueing station"

Last but not least, we added the irrigation tapes (sorry Mike I borrowed your picture, I had none of the end product, thank you). The same day, we run a few trials, adjusted a some minor details. With this system in place we will be able to reduce water consumption due to a significant reduction on water loss due to run of, wind, end evaporation. Another benefit is that foliage of plant will remain dryer, reducing the chances of crating the perfect environment for fungal disease.

We had a little guest today, he was found at the Sharing farm, its mom made a nest in one of the beds, she would not take the egg back once humans touch it. Oliver was successful at incubating the egg and voila! Good luck little fellow, we hope you make it.

July 2

The Terraces

Irrigation System Update

The puddles that were forming around the terraces from the old irrigation system are drying out, a sign that the new drip irrigation system is wasting less water. 

Some of the sprinklers are leaking, you find some because of their hissing noise, wetness or excess water accumulation around them, a big depression/soil eroded around it. The heads might need further adjustment with a screw driver, might need disassembling and cleaning as sometime sand particles impede proper closure and sealing, or might need to be replaced.

Some of the end caps were missing, maybe the water pressure blasted them off or they were not in place to begin with. A cap can be made also by cutting a piece of tape and using it as a cap to hold the end.

The Professional Gardener. Spacing the T-tapes into rows. Planting. Web. n.d.

Tunnel

• The microclimate is much warmer and humid in the tunnel. This causes the plants inside to be bigger than their same crop varieties (tomatoes, zucchini) planted outside. 

• There are a few aborted zucchinis that indicates there wasn't sufficient pollination, the plant started to produce a fruit but the fruit is not going to mature. There's also lots of fruit that are forming.

• We finally can use t-tape to put in between the plastic and the staple so it could hold on to the tow board, and avoid ripping the plastic. We can have more stable and stronger side walls and end doors once we anchor the plastic to the tow boards. Until now, the plants at the end are stressed as compared to the once in the middles of the tunnel because the plastic doors blow in and out with the wind. The weight of the tow board will keep the doors closed and in place.

• The tomatoes are tall enough to be trellised inside and outside the tunnel.

Beds

The basil is going to flower, they need to be pinched

The first zucchinis and cucumbers are almost ready to be harvest  (anything approx. 5 inches long)

A few weeks ago, we collected data on lettuce emergence and yield in the experimental plots. We found a significant difference between all our treatments in that first harvest with the control being the lowest yield, followed by the harvest power plot, and then the net zero compost having the highest yield. The difference in plant size is not that obvious with the swiss chard. Due to the fact that chard took longer to germinate and grow, it might have missed the initial effects of having high salt content or low nutrient  availability in the compost, factors that with time were washed out by constant irrigation/microbial activity, etc. These factors might have affected lettuce more directly.

Chard needed to be harvest and data collected on weight and number of plants, in order to calculate mean weight per plant. 

Removed arugula

Trimmed lambs quarter to avoid it going to seed

WEEK VII - June 23 - 25

WEEK VI

June 23 to 25

The class went to the TFN farm. 

Sorry folks, I didn't have my camera that day, so, no pictures for this posting...

After an educational tour given by Mark, our host, we were able to help with transplanting the seedling the Farm School student have been growing in their tunnels: lettuce at 8″ spacing, swiss chard,  pac choi at 6″ spacing, and spring onions and scallions at 4″ spacing in the Market Garden Sector.

We also applied a mixture of fertilizer to these beds by mixing potting soil, lime and Gaia Green all purpose organic fertilizer (a 4-4-4 mixture consisting mainly of feather meal,bone meal, blood meal, kelp meal, and ground gypsum).

We noticed that for all the time we spent there, it was extremely windy. We were told this is a constant in the place. 

Also, we observed that the soil, which was wet during our visit during the spring has dried out. The structure and consistency of this soil is extremely silty, dominated by fine particle sand. This comes to no surprise since we know that the site was heavily farmed for decades by potato growers using conventional agricultural methods.

The farm had acquired since the spring a lo of cute chickens that are housed in movable coops.

The crops in the tunnels looked quite impressive. The varieties ranges from tomatoes, to eggplants, and peppers.

At the end of our visit, we help prepare 72 and 128 cell trays for starting new seedling. We were able to knock some of Mark's list by seeding several varieties of cabbage and kohlrabi.

Potato Harvest at the Terraces

We planted much of the potatoes in March 18. Warbas are early potatoes, the are usually the first ones planted, but we planted this variety the last, and although they were looking the worst at the beginning of the spring, wilted and showing symptoms of disease, they were collapsing before flowering, we ended up harvesting approx.. 10kg, which was twice as much as the Russian blue which looked healthier than the warba. We harvested approx. 6kg of the Russian blue, which had a healthy foliage and beautiful purple flowers. Finally, we harvested 8kg of the Yukon gold. Adding all up, we got about 15lb, which comes to 1kg/m² . The Kennebec were left in the ground a little bit longer to see if it flowers. It is great not to see any flea beetle.

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Weeding Blackberries at the Orchard

Today we tried to manage the hedges of Himalayan blackberry that grew on the edges of the Orchard and were getting out of control.

Blackberries are none native perennials that introduce both a number of beneficial and detrimental attributes into the agroecosystem. They have evolved traits that allow them to survive under difficult environmental conditions and outcompete not only the agricultural crops but also many native wild species. They have very deep root systems which allows them to access water that is well below the soil surface and even in a dry season like this, it looks very healthy, lots of photosynthesis, lots of dry matter, it is a delicious fruit, it feeds the birds, etc. They are, however very invasive. Our goal is to clear some sections so we can establish native perennials and other perennials that share some of the positive attributes blackberries but don’t take over so much, increase the biodiversity

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Intercrop: Wheat and Garlic Stand

A feast to the eyes, a beautiful and very healthy stand of wheat that accidentally grew from straw mulching layer to protect a stand of garlic planted in the fall. This resulted in an unadvertised intercrop of some sort  Usually straw should have the heads chop down when the farmers harvest it with the combine, as their are trying to harvest the seed and leave behind the stem, but in this case perhaps the combine wasn't working very well, maybe the stage for harvest was not selected very well and a lot of seed ended up in the load. 

At this stage, the wheat is at what is called the soft dough stage, green and soft, and it hasn't reach full maturity. At this stage, the grain can be easily unshelled and consumed. By the end of the season, the heads will turn golden and they will be ready to harvest. By then, the grain will have become hard and will keep for a quite a few years. Once stored, it will be susceptible to rodent and grain insect damage, but it will be very resistant to fungi, as opposed to when it is at its soft stage. One of the great advantage to grain is its storability. 

Prior to the combines, farmers used to harvest wheat with a scythe and bundle it up into sheafs. The sheafs were threshed by bashing them in order to separate the seeds from the rest of the chaffs, which are the outer part of the seeds. This was done in the wind the seed which are heavy fell down into one pile and the chaff would blow away. Later, threading machines were invented. These machines have a vibrating belt and a blower where the grain will flow and the chaff will blow away. At last combine machines were introduced to "combine" cutting and threshing operations together.

The Community Current News. 2012 Harvest. November 23, 2012. Web

tting an Combine harvesters can be set at a range of levels, normally in a field of wheat, combines are set at a low level, so the cutting blade will cut the straw part of the wheat. Combines can also be set very high, this would be ideal for our mixed plot, since a combine set at a high level will spare the garlic stems while harvesting only the top part of the wheat. There's great interest as more people consider polyculture and how to adapt combine harvesters to polyculture. Back in the 1950s, there were small scale combine harvested in North America, more like pull behind combines, a combined pulled by a tractor and the tractor would provide the power to run the combine. Unfortunately, by 1960s there was not a big enough market in North America for these small scale combines and manufacturing was ceased. These machines are still being produced in China, India Japan to harvest mainly rice, however, today, it is difficult to find one in our area. These machines cannot be imported since they do not meet North American emissions standards, the engines would need to be replaced. 

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June 25

The Orchard

Wireworm control in experimental plots

Next to our squash and corn plot, one of the student has his experimental plots. Sami’s experimental proposal: certain soil amendment may reduce wireworm damage, looking at two different soil amendments and control plots: one of the amendments is Enterra fertilizer. They are using the black soldier fly and the larva of this fly, the maggot, which is very large in size and it consumes grain waste and uneaten vegetable matter. The maggot itself provides a high protein feed source that Enterra sells to poultry producers as a substitute for soybean meal.  Enterra also sells the maggot dropping, called “frass”, as natural fertilizer (100% organic product, rich in essential nutrients, containing approximately 10% N-P-K). Frass make a nutrient rich fertilizer amendment. Enterra has some data that suggest their product may discourage wireworm activity.

The other amendment in the experimental plot is canola seed meal. Canola is a brassica, is high is glucosinolate and there’s data that suggest that it might deter insects and some fungi.

He has seeded all to wheat, which is particularly attractive to wireworms. It is late in the season to plant wheat in this area, usually it must be seeded in the fall or early spring, however, germination of the seeds will be sufficient to collect data on these two approaches.