broadfork farm

The big snowfall was pretty exciting! We think our view looks kind of like a postcard picture and the snow fall changes the postcard completely. Now, everywhere we look, we see a winter-y paradise.

We’ve built a composting toilet on the back of the house so we don’t use up our great spring-fed well water on flushing AND the humanure will provide great nutrients to our fruit and nut trees.

Two of our friends, Xander and Lola Jean have been staying with us and helping us out. They both spent this past season interning on farms. Xander interned at Tourne-Sol Farm in Quebec and Lola Jean was interning at Highland Farm/Motheroak Permaculture near Windsor, NS. Lola Jean has been measuring out our farm with measuring tape and compass to create a map that we can use to make a permaculture design of our farm.

Well…..we bought a farm! A really sweet 15 acre farm in River Hebert, Cumberland county. And tonight we’re going to sleep there!

Perhaps you’re wondering how this happened. We’ve spent this past year leasing land at Windhorse Farm in Lunenburg county. We loved our markets, our customers, our fellow vendors, our community members and neighbours. We definitely weren’t thinking of leaving this area.

Then one day, we went to look at a local property for sale. We were saddened by the level of neglect in the house (nobody had lived there for a year at least) and that the land had recently been clearcut. We said to each other, “We want to find a farm that has been loved and that needs to continue being loved and stewarded.”

The next day, we got an email from a woman who had heard of us through ACORN (Atlantic Canadian Organic Regional Network) and said that her elderly neighbour wanted to sell her place. Very affordable, good deep sandy loam, 15 acres, old farmhouse. We said we ‘d come take a look.

It was exactly what we’d been looking for (except the location….but we’re excited to meet all our wonderful new community members!). So, we went through the process of trying to acquire a mortgage. We tried Farm Credit Canada (FCC) first. They looked at our application. The measly dollars we’ve made in the last few years from working at farms. The amount we believe we can live on (I don’t think they believe). And said they’d reconsider if one of us got a full-time off-farm job. Which would require us to hire an employee. Which seems ridiculous to us. So, we tried our credit union next. They don’t deal in farm mortgages. And then we went to the Nova Scotia Farm Loan Board. They did their own assessment of our property, our farm business plan, and our finances. And said YES! So, now we’re the proud owners of a mortgage (and more importantly our very own farm!). So we’re now kind of in love with the farm loan board. And excited to make it home. And very excited for visitors! So, if you’re ever in our area, please contact us!

Organic Week is coming up (Oct.15-22) and they want to know what healthy, organic goodies folks are eating for breakfast. So I thought I’d show take some photos while I broke my fast one morning.

Starting off with Algonquin Tea Company‘s Awakening Tea. I love this tea so much. I also love this company so much. Algonquin Tea Co. was the first farm I ever worked at. That was 9 years ago! I had just finished my diplomas in Holistic Nutrition and wanted to study herbalism. But not in a classroom. So, I did an herbal apprenticeship with Steven Martyn at Algonquin Tea and my life has never been the same! So, I know first-hand how much care and respect for the earth and intention for the health of humans goes into these teas.

Then, I made myself some oatmeal with some Speerville oats, freshly-picked apples, and honey from our own hive.

The only breakfast that could have been better is if Bryan had made omelettes…..he makes the best omelettes ever…..one of his secrets is mixing honey with the eggs. So good!

I encourage everyone to check out Organic Week for events happening in their area (we’re doing a Seed Saving workshop) and the Organic Breakfast Challenge on facebook.

September has always been my favourite month (probably due to my having been born in this month…). As a vegetable farmer, September is especially nice for me because of the reduction in the growth of weeds, the fruition of the much anticipated longer-season crops (winter squash, melons, eggplant, coloured peppers), and the sadness and longing-for the cooler weather (and future frost date). I am sad about the approaching cool weather because it means the end of many of my favourite vegetables being in season and the ability to eat straight “off the vine.” But the excitement is for what this fall and winter have in store for us….hibernation. We have plenty to do this winter (more on that in the next post!) and are currently busy preserving our September bounty so we keep well-fed all winter. But there is definitely excitement in the crisp morning air!

The picture above is one of our favourite tomatoes we grew this year: White cherry. Very elegant and softly-sweet.

Beautiful heirloom ‘Moon and Stars’ watermelon. The sky is very beautiful reflected in a watermelon!

We have a market banner!!!

We asked Danette, the woman behind the Sea Dog Bag Company, if she would make our banner because we wanted to support a small local business, she creates beautiful things with reclaimed materials, and she’s awesome and passionate and we really like her. A lot. She’s also a vendor at both farmers’ markets we go to so it made it really easy.

She looked at our market stand tablecloth, our website, and our new logo (thanks to our friend Farmer Bob!) for inspiration.

She said she had a really cool piece of old tent canvas that was a great mustardy-y colour and “knarly.” She said she really likes knarly things and asked if we did too. We definitely do!

I don’t think we can be more enthusiastic about how much we love the banner, how much we love Danette’s detail-orientation and passion, and how much we love her and and all of her creations! Thanks so much for putting so much care and intention and time into our banner!!!

When we got home from the Lunenburg farmers’ market yesterday, we made a very delicious pizza with the items we purchased there.

We started with Italian-seasoned Focaccia from Schoolhouse Gluten-free Gourmet.

Then we made pesto using our own basil, oregano and garlic scapes.

For toppings, we sliced up Pleasant Hill Farm‘s (amazingly early!) cherry and slicing tomatoes and our own zucchini.

We put two cheeses on top, both from Ran-cher Acres: their raw goat gouda and raw goat feta.

And…yum!

This past Sunday, we had the pleasure of hosting the 1st in a series of Grow a Farmer days organized by ACORN (Atlantic Canadian Organic Regional Network) and the SOIL apprenticeship program. The workshop we held here was called How We Got Started which was mostly about how we moved from apprenticing or working on other farms to starting our own farm business. Hopefully, to inspire more young people to see farming as a viable (and not crazy) career choice. We had a really great turnout and met really cool people and had a great time. We’re excited for the rest of the Grow a Farmer days happening this season (all with a different theme) and hope to meet many more cool people!

We wanted to label our seedlings so people could remember what exactly it was they were growing. So, we went to the store and picked up some sticker labels and I (Shannon) hand-wrote each label (!)….which took a very long time. And the labels didn’t look very nice after we watered the plants.

However, I’ve been saved from this laborious task by Bryan’s brother-in-law Joey. He works for a very cool company called Sticker You.com. He suggested that we should design our own labels on their website. Which we did. And it was fun! (I highly suggest creating your own stickers on the website even if you have no need for stickers or intention of ever buying stickers). And they are waterproof! I really like them and am very enthusiastic (in case you can’t tell)!

Here are our new labels:

This past week, we attended a LOCALicious trade show put on to connect local farmers and food producers with local restaurants.

We really enjoyed chatting with people from various restaurants….it’s so great whenever we can talk with others who love good food too!

And it was really interesting to see which restaurants in the area are interested in local food and which farmers are interested in selling to restaurants. And we now have a good list of new restaurants to check out in the area!

This past week, about 15 high school students from The Shambhala School in Halifax came out to the farm for a transplanting party! They helped us put in winter squash, leeks, celeriac, storage cabbages, and brussels sprouts. It was a HUGE help to have so many people transplanting… and covering the squash with row cover was so fast! We planted 1/4 acre in 2 hours! It was awesome! Some of the students had their cameras with them (ours is still being fixed) and sent pictures to us. Thanks so much for your help guys and we look forward to seeing you again in the fall to help harvest those same crops!