A pair of farms and an old dog

Spent some time at Haliburton Farm this week, collecting my latest CSA basket and seeing what was up with the farmstand and the farmers. “What a beautiful farmstand!” said one woman, visiting for the first time. And she was right: it’s in its glory just now.

And the veg box bounty reflects that too:

While elsewhere on the farm, the bees are buzzing, the weeds are growing, and the potatoes need hilling with a nice bit of straw.

Last night’s COG-VI farm tour was in Metchosin, at Sweet Earth Farms, where farmer Ian King explained how his mobile greenhouses can be pulled on their metal runners to help extend his seasons. We all admired his radicchio which was fortunately too bitter to interest the deer that had just broken into the field, obliging the purchase and installation of new deer fencing.

Then we got a look at the raspberries (thriving) and the strawberries (likewise) and were inspected by a couple of bold and curious ducks

unlike the rest of the flock which were young and skittish. Their duck barn boasts a custom designed water trough which sits on a mesh-covered drainage box so that their wild drinking doesn’t end up soaking the nice thick straw floor. The geese were interested and vocal; they are Pilgrim geese, an endangered species, so Ian is planning to raise goslings to try to safeguard some numbers locally.