Yarrow Ecovillage Community Farm: Photos from around the Farm

Yarrow Ecovillage Community Farm: Photos from around the Farm: Well its been awhile since I posted some pictures of the farm, so here are some great shots of the current state of the farm. Enjoy :) T...

Farm Stand Music Jam

Young musicians joined David in a wonderful music jam at the Farm Stand on July 11.

 Appreciation to all the kids who joined in to ensure David had lots of fun!

First CSA Pick up and Farm Stand Debut!

Summer is here.

I know, because my first fresh box of veggies are here!

Community Supported Agriculture, (CSA) feels good.  It tastes better.  Farmers get the support and cash they need up front in order to support their farming addiction.  In return for the upfront payment of what works out to be 20.00 a week, the buyer gets prime pickings of the freshest, most unique produce off the farm.  It is grown and picked with care.  I think it actually tastes better because of this.

And of course, we do things in style.  So the Farm Stand CSA Pick up will happen every wednesday.  A crew of hard working volunteers have created a real little place to be on wednesday nights.  It is focused around the veggies, and from there it will be anyone's guess.  

Next week my daughter has decided she is going to sell her art!  She is going to make "limited edition prints" and put them in picture frames.  Best she learn some basic business skills if she wants to be an artist right?

I think what struck me about it was how alive it felt.  How real.  We're really getting there!  I remember when I was first reading the Blog from afar.  We had not yet committed to the project but I was enchanted by it.  I read Ann's blog posts regularly and I remember a post where she day dreamed about a time in the future when she would be able to have fresh veggies in a CSA.  It seemed so far off.  It was this idea, or dream.  And now I am living here- blogging to you about a very real CSA.  It gives me great hope that one day YOU might be blogging about our finished seniors cohousing, or the Grand Opening of the Organic One Mile Ale Pub my husband so desperately wants to start.

Here, dreams come true.  It just takes love, and work.

If you aren't signed up for a CSA you can still come down and purchase breads, coffee, eggs, and produce at the farm stand.  Wednesdays from 3:00-6:00

Tam explains the veggies of the week.

That Chard looks like lunch to me!

We were amazed how quickly things sold!

There was a constant flow of happy people, excited to have their veggies

Sauteed Garlic and Ginger in sesame and avocado oils.  Shredded Swiss Chard, Kale, and toasted slivered almonds.  Just an average lunch the day after CSA!

Raising the Roof

I have never done a barn raising before. Truth be told there are all sorts of things I hadn't done before moving to an ecovillage.

I've done some research now. And I can't wait to raise a barn!

The idea of a whole community coming together to bring alive something as big as a barn astounds me. To assemble walls- and then raise them into place? To support people in such an integral way as making a barn! I'll spare the rewrite- there is a good 10 minutes of wiki should you be interested in the olden day way of raising a barn. My favorite part is when they talk about how it was unheard of to skip a barn raising. The idea that every single person was expected to support their neighbour, their town, their community. Is that what is missing? Now days it is hardly taboo to skip voting, never mind helping a neighbour. What a different world we live in "nowadays".

We laughed today about the food it took to feed a barn raising.

Food for a Barn Raising

115 lemon pies

500 fat cakes (doughnuts)

15 large cakes

3 gallons applesauce

3 gallons rice pudding

3 gallons cornstarch pudding

16 chickens

3 hams

60 pounds roast beef

300 light rolls

16 loaves of bread

Red beet pickle and pickled eggs

Cucumber pickles

6 pounds dried prunes, stewed

I large crock stewed raisins

5 gallon stone jar white potatoes and the same amount of sweet potatoes

(Enough food for 175 men).

The reality is that I would never have even thought about a "barn raising" if it weren't for my neighbour Tam.

Let me tell you about Tam. (and then I pause for a good 15 minutes trying to find words for my amazing neighbour)

Tam is one of our farmers. She turns 30 in a few weeks. She has two beautiful sons, and a darn tootin' neat husband. The trick about Tam is that she is so versatile. The first time you meet her she'll probably be hauling a load of dirt, or sawing a piece of wood. The next time you see her she'll making that thrift store dress she found last week look beautiful. Two weeks later you'll learn she's also artistic AND she can use photo shop AND she can slop around in a stream looking at Tadpoles.

Truthfully I don't know very many people as versatile as Tam. She is a hard working, smiling, endeavourous creature. She is thoughtful. She is kind. She is a joy to have in our neighbourhood.

Speaking of endeavours... Tam really wants the community farm to have a barn. I don't know where she has found the time to put this little number together but here it is! A barn-raise-fund-raiser! I hope you'll be able to help us. Every penny counts. Every forward of the URL counts. Whatever you can do will be a string pulling up our barn!

Thankyou for reading!

(wiki post on barn raising linked below)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barn_raising

Raise the BARN!

COMING APRIL 21

Take Part in a Good Old Fashioned Barn Raising

In the past, when a barn was needed, communities came together in a fun and frantic weekend to build it. Now, you can take part in a barn raising yourself, at the Yarrow Ecovillage Community Farm in the Fraser Valley. The farmers at this Community Farm need a barn, and are using this need as an opportunity to invite everyone to take part in an amazing, community building event. All people, young and old, are invited to participate – the handiest people will be given the difficult jobs, and children and anyone uncomfortable with a hammer can pick fresh vegetables from the farm, and prepare a lunch for the crew.

So how can you take part? Well, before the actual barn raising, the Yarrow Ecovillage Community Farmers need to do some barn fundraising. They will be launching a peerbackers.com campaign from April 21^th to May 31st, and anyone who donates, even if it is just one penny, will be invited to take part in the barn raising fun. Those who donate more are eligible for all sorts of amazing rewards, such as organic produce, an invitation to a pumpkin picking party, or a fancy local food dinner for two. You can help by encouraging you friend network to donate when the time comes. Please email us at welcome@yarrowecovillage to be put on our campaign list.

The Yarrow Ecovillage Community Farm provides farmland to farmers who are committed to growing organic food for local markets. If you have shopped at a Vancouver Farmer’s Market, chances are you have bought something grown by one of the Community Farmers! Some of the produce grown by the different farms include salad mix, sweet baby carrots, heirloom tomatoes, and deluxe asian vegetables. The Community Farm is also expanding as a hub for local food and agriculture events, such as gardening workshops, local food dinners, and of course, barn dances once our barn is built!

For more information, a tour of the farm, or an interview, please contact

Tamara Bonnemaison,

Farm Manager, Yarrow Ecovillage Community Farm

Tamara.bonnemaison@gmail.com

778 374-0321

Garden Advice from Nevin

Heads up for the gardeners!

This coming weekend is an important time for your garden, as this will be the 1st sunny stretch of the year, of any good measure, and will be a great time to prepare your site. Many folks will be out creating pathways in the gardens on Saturday as well, so its going to be a great place of activity.

As well with the New Moon on Thursday the 22nd, the days following the new moon are the best time to start seeds, either in trays, or directly in the ground. Direct seeding of hearty green vegetables (arugula, kale, etc), and early flower mixes, along with root vegetables, are things that you can seed directly in the ground this time of year.

Happy Gardening!

Nevin

NutShell Niblets #31- September 21, 2011

Ann's very personal, highly biased and incomplete guide to the ecovillage ... in a nutshell, and with only a little, a lot of no hyperbole.

It’s ages since I wrote a newsletter from Yarrow Ecovillage. It’s about time, I would say! How are you going to know what’s going on here, unless someone tells you?? And I like it to be me, because that way I can say whatever I like (… and you can delete it, if that suits.)

New neighbors moving in--- Oh, frabjous day!

Our two latest buildings are finished and five families are moving into their very own spiffy, new homes. And beautiful they are! As well, some have moved out of temporary quarters, and others have moved into those vacated spaces. The intricacy of these maneuverings could look daunting to the uninitiated. I heard one child ask his mum which home he’d left his shoes in--- # 4, his old home? or #12, the Quad -his temporary home? or #2 , his new one? I’m not downplaying the disruption that has been happening for many families as they settle in here. But it is also true that the nature of cohousing means that no-one bears the stress and pain of moving here, without the support and care of their neighbours.

The kids are scampering in and out of each other’s homes as much as they ever did. There’re always willing hands ready to lift heavy boxes. And neighbours who will clean and sweep at the drop of a hat.

I love to look out my windows at night and see the new houses lit with families for the first time. Figures moving around in rooms full of piled boxes. I see Linda unpacking, putting glasses? mugs? into kitchen cupboards.

My new neighbours, my new friends, already so dear and familiar, they seem like old ones, too.

Our two farms – Ohm and Osprey Organics --Both farms report great successes this year.

I pop down to the gardens see for myself, what’s doing today. Nevin is weeding pathways with a wheel hoe. We stand together in the sun, warm by the greenhouse and looking over the rows of vegetables, still going strong. White cabbage moths flit and land, disappearing into the white arugula flowers to become them, for a moment.

Nevin’s face beams with pride when he tells me what’s gone so well this year---- Having happy customers who’ve shared this year’s vegies with friends and family, and now those folks too, wanting to sign up for their own vegetable box programme. It’ll have to be next year’s, now. He reaches into the arugula to pull out a seedpod and strokes and opens it with his thumb, to show me the seeds inside. “I hope for some dry weather to finish these off. “ he says.

He and the other farmers are expanding into bigger fields on the other side of the creek; it’s already plowed and ready for cover-crops. Nevin tells me that he designs it all on the computer… 128 small beds are plotted Landscape plotted and pieced—fold, fallow, and plough; GM Hopkins with soil conditions noted, succession crops planned, successes and failures recorded. With my own new expertise on the computer, I’m guessing all he has to do to expand his operations from his current ½ acre to next year’s 2 ½ acres, is push the keyboard buttons ‘zoom’ and ‘save’. Farming has become so much easier now, farmers hardly have to go outside :>)

Nevin finishes me off, by taking me into the greenhouse for a gourmet cherry tomato taste-testing. Hmmm! Which are the best? The ‘Black Cherry’ are sweet, juicy bursting nuggets of flavour… the next, ‘Solid Gold’ yellow grape tomatoes are too… and little red ‘Apero’, as well.

That was easy!

So, all is well on the farm, and will be better even, next year.

Waste Water treatment --- Let’s all flush!

I could tell you a lot about the inner workings of our wastewater treatment system. I know details of the new tanks, pumps and pipes. I know how magnificently it’ll serve the village--- for a total of 50 households, and more shops than we have room for. And I could describe the current ugliness, noise and odour of the tanks … soon to be landscaped with bushes and little boys playing, sound-proofed and with the smell buried and eliminated.

But really, I couldn’t care less--- I just want to flush.

Hang on! The constructed marsh we’ll have next summer in the back pasture… there’s the exception to my lack of septic-enthusiasm. Finishing off our wastewater in natural-looking pond with bulrushes, reeds and ducks. It won’t be perfect. That really does make my heart sing!

Eating Together

Whatever else is happening, there is a happy coming-together on the evenings when we break bread and have dinner as a group. We’re dying for our common house, but lacking one, doesn’t stop us from creating that same sense of place and belonging in other manifestations. If anyone had told me ahead, that some of my best community sharing times would be in a building called the ‘bunker silo’ I’d have been amazed. It was used to store haybales in the hay-heyday of the old dairy farm. Now it is humble, (clean), and has a warmth of charm you’ll have to come and experience for yourself. Come soon for dinner! In the cooler, wetter weather we’ll move into homes for smaller gatherings. But either way, you’re just as welcome.

Compassionate Communication Workshop and the Return of Chuck- our cohousing guru

If you’re a friend of the ecovillage, or a warm acquaintance, you’re invited to learn Non-Violent Communication ( NVC) along with us at a workshop spanning two Sundays --- Oct 16^th and 23^rd , taught by Raj Gill from SFU.

Some of us are practiced at NVC and others are total beginners, but for all of us, it is our commitment to better communication. It works in all sorts of aspects in life, not just intentional community life. (I’m planning to inflict it on both my mother and my daughters… check in with me later to see how I’m improving :>). Perhaps I need to rethink the word ‘inflict’?

And Chuck Durrett is coming back in November for another of his workshops to get us ship-shape and tuned up for the next building phase. You could come to that, too. We’re nothing if not welcoming and open. All you need is time (a rare commodity, that’s true!) But a well-functioning ecovillage with room to grow, is rare too! Think about that!

Write back for more details.

Stewart Creek

Earlier this year, we embarked on a rehabilitation project with the Dept. of Fisheries and other willing partners, to remove blackberries and restore native habitat along the north side of the creek. And it’s working just fine … as long as you remember there’re canes coming back, that‘ll need removing. (We can do that… softer ground after rain, will help.)

In a conspiracy of good fortune, the City of Chilliwack has also stepped in (literally, stepped into the creek). The verges along the creek have been trimmed and cleared. And the water course has been mucked out, to clear the central channel, freeing it of choking canary grass.

It was interesting how they did the muck-raking. I stopped the workers and asked them. They cleared all the water creatures bigger than my little fingernail, out of a stretch of creek, using two electrically-charged paddles. The paddles started together, and then as they moved apart, they herded the creatures out of that section of creek. Then the digger pulled out the mud and beer bottles in a long strip, but leaving an untouched strip too, so that when the fish and critters were released back in there, there would be food and hiding habitat for them.

One of the workers showed me a picture on his phone of a cutthroat trout he’d netted, hanging head and tail over two palms held side by side. Precious beauty, held. I can’t decide whether I’d be pleased if, after it’s happy return to the creek, our resident herons caught it for dinner, or I’d be upset. What’s to be done with inconsistent and conflicting values? Sit on the bridge to dangle one’s legs and consider them, I suppose.

Snakes in the Village --- (every village has ‘em) (the snakes and ladders of outrageous fortune)

Internet Explanation: From Hamlet -"The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune" and it just means all the stuff life has to throw at you.

(I actually like snakes and their use for metaphors is legion.)

Snakes are the worries and concerns we all have, that live and hide in holes and slither out at night, only to be gone in the morning. But you know they’re still there. The worries I’m referring to, are about financial security, the (un)predictability of outcomes, conflicts of fairness and a possible inability to connect and be heard, when it would seem to be most important.

We don’t kid ourselves that we don’t have snakes in this village. And I know you don’t kid yourselves that there’s any other place you can go to be guaranteed safe from them, either. We live in a world that seems more fraught with uncertainty than ever. And we are human. And a developing village has extra uncertainties than your average suburb does, until it settles down.

And that is happening. These new neighbours arriving now, are the settling forces. They bring strengths and talents and renewing energy. And with that support, we’re now able to turn our attention and care to the specific concerns we’ve been harbouring, in unintended secrecy, that somehow this village won’t be able to hold all together and progress onwards, in a shared vision of an eco-community.

In recent constructive times of building and moving in, we’ve focused necessary attention on ‘getting it built’. We’ve made lots of decisions in a rapid, progressive, but sometimes confusing way.

Right now, we are going through a deliberate exercise of exorcising. Slowing down. Paying careful attention. Pulling out those confusions and uncertainties in order to examine, understand, honour and then diminish them. Revisiting our agreements from the past- how to reinforce their strength? Poring through financial statements --- what do choices do they offer us? Hearing the stories of those who came before- what can we learn? Making space for newcomers – how do we best incorporate their capacities? Listening to those we’ve been closed to- gaining new appreciation and insight.

It’s hard to do, but harder not to. It’s like the creek-clearing. The muck from the bottom is piled along the banks … it’s rich and dark and full of nutrients and goodness. The creek needs the clearing and the new trees need the fertilising.

There’s an inherent irony … it takes a certain base of security from which to examine and draw out the forces of insecurity. And I believe that courage to live in uncertainty builds trust, and that allows beauty, and beauty is the door to mindfulness, which brings peace and security.

That’s what I believe. And a light is shining.

There’s lots of welcome for you here, should you like to visit. We won’t be trying to convince you of anything.

Poem(s) of the Day – I’m sharing you favourites , this time.

Choshu

The moon in the water;

Broken and broken again,

Still it is there.

A Warning to My Readers

Wendell Berry

Do not think me gentle

because I speak in praise

of gentleness,

or elegant

because I honour the grace

that keeps this world. I am

a man as crude as any,

gross of speech, intolerant,

stubborn, angry, full

of fits, and furies. That I

may have spoken well,

at times, is not natural.

A wonder is what it is.

Wwoof!

Alex is a wwoofer working on the farm . Wwoofers are willing workers on organic farms, exchanging learning and room-and-board for hands-on help to farmers.
Speaking of hands, Alex has cold hands from washing the radishes, but her smile is warm and bright! We're very pleased to have her here for two weeks while she and Garrett learn more about organic farming and share ecovillage life with us.

http://www.wwoof.ca/

Look what I got in my vegie box from the farmers this week!

Osprey Organic farmers prepare for the East side Saturday market in Vancouver

Tam and Joel are a husband and wife team who lease farm land, and live here. They run Osprey Organic farms from our little Village and can be seen out on the land with their big beautiful dog Joey, and two great kids Noah and Eli. Not only do they grow great veggies, but they make great peach daquaris around campfires.

Those big bags of yummy fresh greens ended up in our CSA baskets. Yes folks. Begin drooling now. These farmers, along with Ohm Farms, give me a giant Rubbermaid full of veggies every friday in exchange for a mere $30.00. It's the cheapest way to hire a personal gardener that I know of. Combine this with great lettuce with some of the Hollyhock salad dressing we've all become addicted to here and voila! Simple one mile living at it's best!

Find Hollyhock dressing here:

Plant sale until 3:00 this afternoon

They'll be here at our open house on Victoria Day too!

Planting the vegies you'll soon be eating

Last chance to order weekly vegie boxes

If you live within 20 minutes of Yarrow in either Abbotsford or Chilliack, you still have a few minutes (:>) to order a weekly fresh vegie box from our Ohm Organic Farm ...www.ohmorganicfarm.ca

Looks like Spring!

Apres le Deluge

If you look down the blog, you’ll find an earlier item showing pictures of wind-damaged greenhouses with the title’

“Apres le deluge, c’est nous.

That’s me playing with words, an uncontrolled pursuit of my over-heated brain. What had originally come to mind was: Après moi le deluge.

Deluge is absolutely the right word for the weather we had, but when the phase popped into mind, I wasn’t clear on its provenance and meaning. So I wiki’ed it.

Windstorm Calamity

On Saturday, a winter wind storm blew here so fiercely, that it ripped one of our farm’s greenhouses... the galvanised metal pole one -right off its moorings and flung it rolling across the field towards the houses. It caught a foot on a pile of lumber and disintegrated into a pile of twisted poles and flapping plastic.

Apres le deluge- c'est nous- Ohn's and then Osprey Farm's greenhouses

Local residents can get vegies from our farm too!

Ohm Organic Farm is a 1/2 acre certified organic farm operated by Nevin & Shauna Gavigan, located at Yarrow Eco-village in beautiful Yarrow, BC. We sell our produce at local markets, and restaurants, and have a small Community Supported Agriculture Veggie Box program, as well as supplying our Eco-villagers with fresh farm produce.

You can sign up for their 2011 vegetable programme on their website:
www.ohmorganicfarm.ca

Good for the Land, Good for the Consumer, Good for the Farmer

For only $20/week ($400 Regular Share) or $40/week ($800 Large Share), we'll make you a box of quality, organic produce every week from July to mid October. Conveniently available for pick up at our market stall at the Abbotsford Farm and Country Market, or come on out to our farm at Yarrow Eco-village in Chilliwack, BC and pick it up. It's that simple. We'll also give you an easy to follow recipe guide on how to cook the wide selection of vegetables you'll receive, throughout the growing season.

Nevin: It's time to get plowing and prepare the greenhouse

Gardening with a hammer

With so much building progress with the houses, I don't want to miss out on showing you what's a'foot in the garden! Nevin and Shauna are laying out the foundations for their greenhouse. They'll be contributing their vegies to the CSA programme that we can buy into, later in the spring. That means fresh produce for us, every week, throughout the growing season.
When I was just in the Deli picking up some organic milk, Nevin, from behind the counter, let me know he's counting on a sunny day tomorrow, so he can get the rebar hoops planted.