crimson clover.

Crimson clover cover crop and a bee from Sole Food's Astoria site 

at Hastings & Hawks, September 2012. 

We've Been Busy - An Update on our School Farm

Sungold and washington tomatoes.

December has been nice.

I have spent the past month catching up from the growing season - catching up on sleep, catching up with friends, spending more time cooking and relaxing, more time with family.   

The break also means looking back on what we've accomplished this season. 

Some highlights: 

- Our 6,000 square foot garden grossed $14,500 in sales this season (up from last year's $1,300). A substantial jump that I am super proud of. 

- We grew 2,800 lbs of food which is deceptive since most of it was cut greens (hence the higher sales).

- We donated $1,600 worth of fresh produce to student volunteers, school cafeteria kitchens and drop in meal programs. 

- My most favourite: we hired ten high school students who worked full time summer jobs farming and they were absolutely incredible. In July we had a massive heat wave and so started our days at 7 am. I'd roll up to the school at 6:30 in the morning to find a group of high school students ready to work. They did not miss a single day. They were committed to each other and to the project. They would talk to market shoppers about the flavour of patty pan squash and offer samples of sweet sungolds. They held each other accountable in community meetings and they shared what was going on in their lives. They supported each other and made each other laugh - making repetitive farm tasks fun to do. We sat down to weekly meals prepped from scratch in their cooking classes. They were absolutely remarkable. 

- Our students also helped to establish a school rooftop garden at one of the high schools we work at this year. This incredible project was mainly accomplished by the other staff on my team - from designing the space, securing funding, building all the pieces and bringing it all together on site. I was in a real put-your-head-down-focus-on-production zone so wasn't much help with the installations. It's a 16,000 square foot space which now includes raised planters for vegetable production, a small fruiting orchard, 92 blueberry plants, shittake mushroom logs, a covered learning area and a classroom right off of the space. The students were a huge support in getting this project done this summer and I'm looking forward to growing lots more food next season as our production space increases.

Our story's been shared a few times too. You can read more here: 

"School Grown by the Numbers" - FoodShare Blog

"Schoolyard Farming Project Growing Food Security" - Social Enterprise Canada

"Success of Schoolyard Farming Enterprise Built on Collaboration" - Axiom News

"Eastdale Collegiate opens its roof to urban agriculture" - The Toronto Star

"Q&A with Katie German" - NOW Toronto

Hive Inspection #1: Ants, skunks and sweet honey.

We did our first hive inspection after installing the nucs. This was two weeks after the install. Rosario walks out just to check the area around the hives each day, but this was our first time opening up the hive and checking out all the frames.

Scraping off the burr comb.

With a hive inspection, its best to approach the hive from the side rather than block the front entrance that the bees use. We stood to the side and removed the telescoping lid which had a bit of burr comb on it – a sign that there is probably lots of burr comb on the inner cover. Burr comb is excess comb that is built in places other than on the foundation – we had lots on the top bar of each frame and on the inner cover.

The inner cover was sticking to the top of the frames with burr comb and sticking to the corners with propolis. We used our hive tools to gently pry off the lid. The burr comb on the lid had lots of bees working on the comb and producing honey. Instead of trying to scrape them off while they were still working, or having to smoke or brush them, we just laid down the lid (bee side up) by the hive entrance and by the time we had finished looking at the frames most of the bees had walked back into the hive making it simple to scrape off the excess comb. We also scraped off the comb on the tops of the frames. The unfinished honey was so sweet and light tasting which was probably due to its high water content, being uncapped.

Wax foundation on the bottom, drawn out comb towards the top.

The frames looked great – there were eggs, larvae, capped brood and open cells so it looks like our queen has been busy laying. The brood kept a pretty good pattern of being centered at the bottom of the frame and arcing out into honey. The bees have been busy drawing out comb on the wax foundation of the new frames. We didn’t spot the queen, but there were several big clumps of bees near the brood area that she may have been in. Also, our queens are unmarked and I’d like to mark both of them on our next visit to make it easier to spot her.

Scratches near the entrance. 

In the second hive we actually saw scratch marks at the entrance of the hive. My guess is skunks. Skunks like to sit at the entrance of the hive and knock – the bees walk out to see who is there and get swiped up and eaten. There were not as many bees in this hive which may help support our skunk eating theory.

Ants breaking down the wood of the inner cover. 

Also, when I lifted off the lid I saw some very large ants around the inner cover. I brushed them off quickly with the bee brush and saw that they had actually started to eat through the inner cover – there was saw dust from their chewing to get at the honey inside. I turned the cover around and have since learned that if we cut back some of the brush nearby that should help control some of the ants – my mom had the same idea so we will have to do that on the next trip.

The second hive also had more junk on the bottom board – I’m not yet sure that this is an issue, but it was a clear difference between the two hives. One question I have is how to clean a bottom board that doesn’t slide out? Should I purchase a tray or is there an easy way to do that?

We spent some time watching the bees with their pollen baskets walking around the hive. We then put the hive back together, set up the straps and added a bit more sugar water to their feeders. I think with the heat we are having this week we would do well to fill the feeders with fresh water.

We took home the burr comb and honey – the honey tasted so sweet we just ate it with a spoon in the kitchen. Can’t wait for the honey harvest. 

Burr comb and honey for taking home.

Installing Bee Nucs

The nuc and a hive tool. 

We started our new bee hives by purchasing nucs – short for nucleus, a nuc is essentially a mini hive. You get four frames, some with brood, some with honey, some bees and a mated queen. We picked up our nucs from Better Bee Supply in early June. When we arrived at the store, they had already eaten a hole through the top of the cardboard box they were temporarily living in. They were definitely ready to get out. We taped up the hole and carried the two nucs out into the van.

We first set up our hive boxes – they are both under a bit of shade and set up on cinder blocks that were on hand. We added a strap to help keep the lid on and avoid issues with crafty raccoons.

Opening up the first nuc. 

Once we got the hive boxes set up, I lit the smoker so that we had it on hand and we opened up the first nuc. They were so not happy about being in that box. Lots of flying around. I lifted out each new frame and looked for eggs, larvae, capped brood, honey and bees. I was also trying to spot the queen. I transferred the frames into the hive boxes but there were still tons of bees that were not interested in making their way into the hive – lots were flying around and lots were sticking it out in the box. I knew that the queen had made it into the hive so it was really just a matter of time before the rest of the workers and drones followed suit. Since young bees & nurse bees can't yet fly, I leaned both the box and lid up against the base of the hive so that those bees could walk into their new home.

We opened up the next nuc and did the same thing – the second box had more dead bees in the bottom (which I looked up and found is fairly normal) and the bees were way more agitated. I quickly looked over the frames and transferred them into the centre of the hive box. We then headed in for a lunch break in hopes that the bees would make their way in on their own.

Checking on the frames. 

When we came back out they had settled in quite nicely and had already started to draw out comb onto the wax foundation. We inspected the frames again and made sure that we spotted a queen in each hive.

Mom doing her first hive inspection.

If we did it again, I would have waited between opening up each nuc to let the first group of bees settle in. Also, I’ve since read that a spray bottle of sugar water can help distract them and send them down into the frames, rather then having them fly around aggressively.

We set them up with some sugar water in their feeders to help supplement their food sources and make the transition a little smoother. They are set up near a fresh creek and a field of clover and other forage that two donkeys live in. They should have plenty of forage in their new home. There is lots of conventional farm land nearby, so we are keeping a watch on any pesticide issues, but so far they seem to be alright. 

Bees already working on drawing out come on the new frame.

A week in schoolyard farming.

I’ve been working towards a master’s degree at OISE, studying food literacy and schoolyard farming over the past year. For a food justice course, we were asked to volunteer in a community food organization and document our work on a blog. I was able to keep up the work I have been doing and share some of that experience here in this blog.

Writing about my current job as a schoolyard farmer has been on my mind all week, and so I decided to give you a (brief) snap shot of what a week looks like for this schoolyard farmer.

Market Banner.

Monday: office work - we need help.

I have been running a quarter acre market garden built on the front and back lawn of a Scarborough high school. The garden has been at the school for 3 years, this being our fourth season. Each year we get funding to offer paid employment to five students – they get full time summer jobs growing food at their school. Each year we also have to raise enough money in grant writing or fundraising to cover the cost of a staff member to run the garden and supervise the youth. My work this year has been to try and shift this towards a production focused farm – we are going to try and gross enough in sales of fresh produce to cover the operating costs of the project. If we can do that – we have a replicable, financially sustainable, model of schoolyard growing for other sites/communities. I’ve developed a business plan and crop plan that saw us out in the field in early April seeding peas and onions – this meant we had crops in the ground a full two months prior than any other season. We are focusing on growing high-value crops – cut lettuces, baby spinach, spicy greens & arugula. These sell well both at markets and restaurants – and that is our plan. In previous years the students set up a farm stand in the front of the school to sell their produce. We’ll keep that up, especially in the fall when the Business class is going to run a market stand and the harvest is bountiful. But we are also selling to local restaurants (those that prioritize local food and will pay $12/lb for cut greens). We are also selling at a farmers market throughout the season.

This plan means an increase in revenue, but it also means in increase in workload, an increase in the amount of time we need to spend in the field, the amount of time we spend processing and cooling produce, and the amount of time we spend delivering and marketing our goods. We need help. On Monday I sifted through a few resumes of folks applying to apprentice with our project. As someone who apprenticed at an urban farm in Vancouver, it’s nice to see people in cities searching for farming opportunities close to them. There has been a much talked about spike in the numbers of young city dwellers that are interested in trying farming. And with our average age of farmers in Canada at 54 - it’s a good time to get young people out into the field.

Its hard to market the realities of farming – there is a romantic notion of working in the sun, birds chirping, your muscles toned, the fruit sun-ripened and waiting to slip into your hand. In reality, you often do the same task for hours. You work the same muscles over and over. You pull weeds to return to more weeds. You plant starts to return to eaten starts. It doesn’t rain. It rains too much. You are exhausted and there is still more to do. And you have to do it. It cannot wait. How do you put that in a job description? How do you find the people that are willing to give the reality a try?

Me and OISE interns Sarah and Katey. 

Tuesday: “It wasn’t alfalfa, it was a truck full of juice” (& “a woman manager?!”)

Urban farming has its benefits – I am close to my markets, have quick and easy access to irrigation, I get to live in the city, folks can buy food from me that was grown next door to their house, we are making use of vacant land, providing paid employment for youth (etc.) Making cities more liveable. But there are struggles too that are unique to the setting – especially a schoolyard farm. To name two: I can’t store a composting manure pile out back & there aren’t many (any) farm supply stores in town. So I needed a to find a way to add nutrient rich organic matter to our soils (ie. not a manure pile) and I needed to find it in the city (ie. not likely). I finally landed on this brewing alfalfa method as a way of adding nitrogen, good bacteria and moisture holding organic matter to our garden beds, but I needed to source thirteen 50lb bags of pure alfalfa pellets. Phoning every farm supply in southern Ontario, folks were often not able to hold back their disbelief when they asked where I was calling from - a farm in the city? at a school? and you want us to deliver there?

After a long search I finally found a supplier that was nice enough to order in what I needed and deliver it to the school. I was working out front with some students, chatting with them about what we were going to do with the alfalfa when it came. A van pulled in and they said, “Maybe that’s your guy.” I walked up and shook his hand, he asked me about the garden beds out front, told me about his own garden. He then opened up the van and turned out to be the juice delivery guy, here to restock the vending machines. The students ate that story right up. I heard juice jokes for the rest of the week.

Later the folks from the farm supply did arrive (and their truck was in fact full of alfalfa pellets, not juice.) Instead of approaching me out in the beds, the driver chose to head in to the office to find the person in charge. This has happened before – the person in charge here is usually assumed to present as male. I do not often fit their assumption of what a farm manager should “look like.” A few months ago a neighbour came by to ask about some seeds. We had a classic “Who’s on first” moment: Who’s in charge? I am. No, who’s in charge? I am. No who is the manager? Me.

"A woman?!"

He finally smiled wide and showed me his seeds and we talked about pepper seedlings and winter squash. Women do not fit our stereotypical image of a farmer. And yet many of the hardest working farmers I know are women – and many of the innovative urban farmers in Toronto are women. I often feel conflicted about this. I have read so many times that women make good farmers because they are nurturers, care givers, because they are naturals at multitasking. I think this is just perpetuating patriarchal gender norms. I think farmers are nurturers – we are called to a life dedicated to caring for other life. If anything I think that I like being a female farmer because it is a subversion, it is a rupture in the norm of what I, a woman, am expected to do. Farming is a feminist act, for me.

Spicy Greens Mix

Wednesday: “I have something to tell you.”

At lunch in the staff room eating soup prepared by students in the foods class. Seated at a table of teachers, we’ve talked about whether there is still time to seed carrots and what people have planned for their upcoming summer break from teaching. One teacher put down her fork, looked me in the eye and said “Katie, I have something to tell you. And it may be hard to hear.” I truly prepared for the worst. Racking my brain for something disrespectful I’ve done, a misstep I’ve made. She shared that she came to our farmers market the week before and bought a bag of mixed lettuce. She then went to another market on the weekend and discovered that farmers there were selling bigger bags of greens for less money.  I exhaled in relief – folks sharing complaints about the cost of produce is nothing new to me. I thanked her for sharing this and really tried to make sure she felt comfortable to continue to do so in the future.

We sell our greens at $5 for a 1/3 lb bag. If someone else sells theirs for $4 for a 1/2 lb bag – that’s only $8 per lb. That is most likely not even covering their cost of production, much less making them any profit.

When I developed my crop plan for this season I had it reviewed by a few veteran organic farmers. Worried that our prices were too high, they all came back to me saying our prices were in fact too low. They did not want our reduced operating costs (ie. free land, student farmers) to be undercutting their prices. And even with our reduced operating costs, at $8/lb I wouldn’t cover my cost of production either.

We talked about how farmers aren’t taking home a lot of money and consumers are pushed to pay more – where is the money going then? We talked about agribusiness and monocropping and cash crops and GMOs and food subsidies and organic certification and why the heck is a candy bar so cheap and lettuce so expensive? Our table in the staff room was a light with engaging conversation about the food system. I was so thankful she brought this up. And I probably won't change the prices.

Flowers on our Snap Peas

Thursday: “I tell them that they’re beautiful.” (& “Can I have one for my girl friend?”)

Thursday was the last day of classes before exams and then summer break (when our paid summer students will start). To celebrate, we made green spinach smoothies with a blender powered by an old road bike. We said cheers to a semester of hard work in the garden and sipped our smoothies. We also set up the big screen and watched a clip from cbc news about our school farm. When the news team was here, they filmed the students prepping beds and feeding the aquaponics system. They also interviewed a few students, just out of earshot, so their comments were a surprise to myself and the teacher I work with. The clip they chose reflected the positive change seen in these students now that they work in the garden. One student shared that he talks to the plants when he is out working in the garden, “I tell them that they are beautiful.” The students loved it. I loved it.

As a final project we built tomato trellises. One student who isn’t always in class, as he has a full time night shift job, came that day – we made him crew lead for the build and he taught his follow students how to read the design dimensions and how to use the impact driver.

After class he saw me harvesting peas for the market that afternoon. He came over and said “I remember planting these.” I gave him one to eat, “they are snap peas, you can just pop them in your mouth.” He said, “I’d actually like to keep this one for my girlfriend, I really want to show her.” I gave him five more. He tried one and we sat there for a few moments eating sweet snap peas in the sun. He said he was happy he came to school that day.

French Breakfast Radish

Friday: “My boyfriend broke up with me and also what’s with this radish?”

The first day of exams I didn’t have any students come out to work as they were all taking tests. I got to work with the help of a volunteer harvesting 10 lbs of spicy greens for a restaurant order. We used our harvest knives to cut the greens and trim the stems before taking them in to wash and cool. One student came out, proud of completing her math exam. She asked if she could stick around, would that be ok. I said of course and got her working beside us in a radish bed. While she was pulling and sorting radishes, she shared that her boyfriend broke up with her. She would alternate between talking about radishes and talking about her feelings. This happens a lot. Students will come work beside me – harvesting, weeding, or just watching – and they will talk about some deep stuff. Racism, violence, college, relationships, smoking, marriage, why mustard greens are bitter, why their friends moved away, why is that cop always around the school. Farming has just the right amount of getting your hands busy, falling into a rhythm, so that your mind can sort of wander. When you get good at it, you can do the thing you are doing quite well, but also still have some moments of profound thought or conversation while your hands are working. I’ve learned that this farm is important to the students; even those that don’t come out as part of their course work or apply for the summer job. Students notice when we are planting, they pay attention to the growing, they watch the radishes pop out of the soil, they notice the flower that comes before the pea. It means a lot to them. 

And I hope they always have it. 

Sugar Ann Snap Pea

Building Hives & Supers

Parts of a Super

We are getting ready for the arrival of our two bee nucs later this May. Last weekend my Mom and I put together our hive boxes, supers and frames. They are all made out of pine which won't last as long as cedar but is certainly a lot lighter and cheaper. Once these are boxes are have full frames of honey, the lighter weight will be a blessing. We bought a package from a local beekeeping store that gave us all the necessary parts - we just had to put them all together. We went with Langstroth hives, which are pretty standard. 

Each super or hive box has four side pieces and two metal edges that act as frame rests. We nailed the sides all together, added the rests and then 

worked on assembling the 60 frames.

Adding foundation to our frames.

The hives came with a set of instructions that were pretty minimal. My mom did a bit of research online beforehand and discovered that each frame has a small wooden piece near the top bar that needs to be removed before you can add the foundation. In the set of small images here you can see the piece still attached, then after we removed it (they pop off pretty easily by hand), then you slide in your sheet of foundation and then nail that small piece back with some small finishing nails. This holds the foundation securely in place in the frame. We also added a small nail to the bottom of the frame to help hold the foundation tight. 

We've got our boxes, frames, bottom boards and lids all assembled. Next step is to add a coat of paint to the outside of the hive that will help the pine last a lot longer. Then we will be all set for the arrival of our bees! 

Almost finished!

start of the season

I've spent the past few months developing a production plan for a school yard farm I'll be managing this summer. We are farming in two school yards (one is a rooftop space) and have funding to employ ten high school students who will also get 2 co-op credits for their work (such a dream situation!) We'll be selling at a farmers market and to a few local restaurants. We've had such good feedback from chefs and farmers - lots of local community support. It was my first time developing a crop plan, and with our focus on tight spaces and lots of quick successions it took a whole lot of time and attention to detail. I'm real happy that I did it though, I now have a fully developed business plan and crop plan that can be easily shared with the teachers and students we are working with and it will make planning in future seasons a breeze!

We've got our seeds, some new tools, row cover, irrigation lines, spring weather, energized students - all we need to do now is start growing. 

Beginning Beekeeping!

We bought our nucs and equipment through
Better Bee Supplies in Cambridge

Last week my mom and I headed out to pick up beekeeping supplies for two hives we will be keeping this season. The bees will be staying at a friend's farm in Milton, a rural property with two donkeys and lots of space.

Barney and Daisy are stoked
on a back scratch from mom.

My mom and her friend are paying for the cost of the nucs, hives and supplies and I am contributing my beekeeping experience and help with taking care of the hives. Then we will split any honey for this season. Such a good deal!  

I researched several options for getting bees and we decided on starting with nucs. A nuc (short for nucleus) is usually a split off of a larger honey bee colony - you get a few frames (some of capped brood, some of honey) and also a mated queen. We have put a deposit down on two nucs for this season that should be ready in May. It totally all depends on the season though and how the bees did over the winter. There's a chance that the beekeeper may not be able to create the number of nucs they have estimated for - but we're hoping!

We decided on two nucs so that we will have two hives. Lil at the store recommended we start with two so that we can compare their development and will also have access to a second queen if anything happens to one. It will be interesting to have two hives to work with.

From Right to Left: 2 feeders, a bee brush, a capping scratcher,
 two hook end hive tools and a smoker (with cage).

In terms of supplies, we purchased a beginners kit that includes the hive box + bottom board, entrance reducer, telescoping cover, inner cover and 10 Langstroth frames. We also bought two super kits - each with two supers and ten frames. For the foundation, we went with wax for the frames in the hive box (since we heard that the bees will take to it faster and will hopefully help them get established sooner) and plastic for the supers (since it lasts longer). The super kits also come with a queen excluder. We also picked up two feeders, a smoker (with a cage) and two hive tools. 

I'm most nervous about starting the hives - I've only ever worked with established colonies. I think it will be an exciting challenge and a great way to learn. Also, the shift from a more temperate Vancouver climate to the relatively more extreme temperature fluctuations of southern Ontario will be interesting. In Vancouver, you want your hive to have a southern or eastern exposure so that the bees warm up faster in the start of the season and are more productive with some heat - but in talking to the bee keepers at the shop here, they recommended we put our bees under some shade, as over heating in our hot Ontario summers is a real concern. This climate shift is also going to be a factor in my crop planning for the school farm this year - we'll just have to try our best and keep lots of notes. 

Glad I get to visit this face when I check on the bees. 

Harvesting Herb Bunches

We grew basil, cilantro, dill, and two kinds of parsley at the farm this year. They always sold really well at market and they are a great item to have next to the cash box. If someone is buying tomatoes you can suggest a delicious basil tomato salad or some cilantro to make a fresh salsa. People were always interested in buying a bunch of fresh herbs to compliment what they were already purchasing. We also sold the herbs with a quantity discount - $3 each bunch or 3 for $8.

Harvesting was a little different for each herb:

Basil 

For creating basil bunches we would pull off select leaf stems by hand, making sure to not remove more than 1/3 of the plant at a time. The plants would continue to grow throughout the season. There were usually about 20 stems per bunch. Tie them with a rubber band and then trim the ends to be even with your knife. We would take our tote and stand it sideways on its end - then you can lay the bunches, stacking them inside the tote. Once you fill up the tote, you can stand it upright again and the bunches will all be standing up straight. Add a little water to the bottom of the tote. Try not to have the leaves stand in water as they will turn brown/black. We would also bring a shallow tray to market to put inside of our wicker basket. We would add 1/2 inch of water to the tray and stand the basil up in that - keeps it fresher longer.

Cilantro and Dill

For both of these herbs we would harvest the plant by cutting the root just below the soil surface (like in the picture above.) This way you are harvesting the whole plant instead of just individual stems. Take off any remaining cotyledons, low leaves and any dead stems. We would do maybe 15 stems per bunch. Rubber band them and trim the ends to be even with a knife. We would wash the bunches with the sprayer and then store in a tote without water.

Parsley (Curly & Flat)

For a while we were harvesting just stems and letting the plant continue to grow but half way through the season we switched to just chopping off the whole  plant, leaving about an 1 1/2 inches of plant to grow back fully. Pick out anything that is too small or brown. Also pull of any leaves that are really low, so that the rubber band doesn't cover any leaves - they will rot quicker. Band them and trim the ends. We would dip each bunch in water to remove the dirt. At market - flat sells better than curly, it has a better taste too. With my crop plan this year, I'm planning on growing just flat, no curly. But, just know your market. 

Sweet Treats - Sole Food Farm & Earnest Ice Cream

Working at the farm gave me a constant supply of fresh produce, totally delicious. We especially had a steady stream of eggplant, peppers, zucchini, tomatoes, and greens that didn't sell at market. So many delicious savoury dishes - ratatouille, stir fry, pizza, frittata, salads. 

My ultimate favourite though was when we had friends visit in August and served chocolate buttermilk Sole Food zucchini cake and strawberry basil ice cream from Earnest Ice Cream made with Sole Food basil. So good!

Earnest Ice Cream started this summer - they make ice cream by hand and focus on using local ingredients in seasonal flavours. Andrew made a video for them and as a result, we got free ice cream all summer. They were always at the farmer's market and sold glass pints at independent shops. If you are Vancouver - check them out! 


Here is the video - it will make you seriously want the ice cream!

Earnest Ice Cream from Andrew Norton on Vimeo.

Capped Brood

When I wrote about the honey harvest I mentioned that capped honey looks different from capped brood. Here is a shot of a frame that is mainly brood. You can see that the capping is more papery, dull and brown. There is a bit of capped honey in the bottom left corner - those look a bit shinier and golden. You can also see how the brood cells tend to concentrate towards the bottom-centre of a frame and then arc out towards honey cells. That top right side of the frame is actually the bottom of the frame when it goes back into the box.

The wider cells are ones where drones emerged - these male bees are slightly larger than the female worker bees.

You can also see the queen in this shot - the queen has a much longer abdomen than the other female worker bees. Although this is an easy identifier, if you have 70,000 bees in a hive, it can be tough to find your queen so most beekeepers will put a paint spot on the thorax of their queen. Our queen has a yellow paint spot to make it easy to spot her. Many beekeepers will use a certain colour for each year so that they always know when that queen hatched and can keep track of her age.

Lemon Cucumbers

We grew some lemon cucumbers in our high tunnels at both Hastings and Vernon. These babies are delicious! One of my favourite things we grew. They have a similar crunch to a green cuke and the seeds are very similar. I think they taste citrusy, but that may also be because I am thinking "lemon" when I eat it.

Lemon cucumbers are also great for a school garden - any time you can grow something that produces lots of small plentiful fruits is great for students. Just like tomatoes, it's easier to share lots of cherries with students than to try to slice up a beefsteak.

They were also a pleasant surprise for most market shoppers. We would always put out a small chalkboard with the lemon cuke name and do samples of slices. People were always interested to give it a taste and they were always hot sellers.

I've heard that the specks on them are both normal and bad - they brush off with your hand or a soft cloth, but they also are fine to eat. Any insight on what they are?

High Tunnels

This season we built 4 high tunnels at our farm site on Vernon Drive. The site is a brownfield - a former gas station that is still under remediation contracts with the former tenant. The soil is contaminated and we grew everything off of the ground in raised beds. The above photo is a panoramic shot of the site after we had cleaned it up and before we started building. There were a few folks living on this sits over the past few years, so there was quite a bit to clean up. 

Assembly

We got our high tunnels from B&W Greenhouses. They come in hundreds of parts - lots of assembly required. It took us a few days just to assemble all of the arches. We then mapped out where all the posts had to go, drove in the posts with sledgehammers (and the help of a jackhammer on the pavement parts) and then started to put up the arches and attach all the purling. Big lesson here: rent a laser level, measure everything at least three times and pay attention to the details. The tunnels all work but there are certainly some wonky parts. Also - we built these in the month of may and it rained most every day, cold and pouring rain. 

But I really learned a lot. I've used a drill growing up but never really felt like I knew what I was doing. But two weeks into this process I was saying things like "let's use the impact driver with the 3/4 inch self tapping screws." My father was impressed!

Up, Up and Away!

Once we got all of the pieces together we had to pull the plastic onto the greenhouse. We pulled the plastic on one of Michael's strawberry houses at Foxglove Farm but we had a team of people who knew what they were doing AND no wind. When we tried them at Vernon we had two folks who had done it before and knew what to expect and a team of exhausted farmers that weren't sure what we were doing. And some light wind.

To pull the poly up you lay it out accordion-folded along the length of the house. You wrap a rock in the corner of the plastic and tie a rope around the rock, leaving lots of rope length to pull on. We tied rocks at both ends and also 2-3 throughout the length of the plastic. We had around 6-8 people helping to pull the poly. Starting on one end you can toss the corner with the rock in up and over the arches (the rock just gives some weight to the corner so that you can toss it.) Someone on the other side should grab the rope and start pulling the corner down on the other side. Someone should be inside the house with a long stick (a broom works well) and they push up on the plastic from inside the house to move it over and down towards the other side. As the plastic starts to slide down you throw over the next rope. Most of the people helping should be on the opposite side, pulling down on the plastic. Be sure to grab it in bunches rather than just pulling on a bit of it - it's really easy to put your finger right through the plastic and you are really pulling hard to get the plastic down.

As you pull more plastic you are getting yourself into dangerous territory - this 200 ft sheet of plastic is essentially a gigantic sail. Just a small gust of wind can catch the plastic and really create a dangerous situation. 

At one point I was holding down the plastic on one side and the when the wind came I was lifted fully off of the ground. Make sure - If the wind comes - just let go! I have heard horror stories of folks not letting go and getting lifted and thrown 20 feet up and away.

The first day we tried to pull it up we had two unsuccessful attempts. The following day we had less wind and more people and got two houses pulled before planting our tomatoes. 

These hoop houses are one of the things I am most proud of this season. They were physically and mentally exhausting, but to look back at what our team did is pretty amazing. And they add such value to our operation - we dry farmed our tomatoes and are able to do some serious season extension at this site.

Honey Harvest

We collected our honey in late July - we had a total of 9 full frames from two different hives. Both honey and brood cells are capped, but the capped honey has a waxier, shiny look and the capped brood has a papery, dull look to it. We looked for frames that were full of the waxier capped honey.

Lots of beekeepers use a super on the top of their brood box with a queen excluder in between. The excluder keeps the queen from entering the super which means she won't be able to lay any eggs in the super - keeping it for honey only. Our hives were set up with two brood boxes and no super, so we had to look for frames that had the least amount of brood. Typically, the brood is towards the centre-bottom of the box so the frames that are closer to the outside of the box were full of honey. 

It's important to only take what is surplus honey for the hive. The honey they are producing is meant to keep them through the winter. They will continue to produce honey and it's ok to take this surplus, but you need to make sure they will have enough food source to over winter successfully. Lots of beekeepers that sell their honey may prioritize harvesting honey and then supplementing their bee's food source with sugar water. I would prefer they have the more nutritious honey for their food. One thing I learned is if you are anticipating a cold winter the bees will actually require less honey since they will be less active, if it's a warmer winter they will be more active and will require greater energy. 

Also, if you do harvest honey it's a good idea to keep some to be able to feed to the bees if they need it. Instead of feeding sugar water you could feed the bees some of their own honey which would be more nutritious (and less processed.) If you are collecting from multiple hives, be sure to label since you should feed the bees only honey from their own hive. 

The Harvest

We pulled out each frame to see how much honey it had, we took frames that had about 95% capped honey. If you decide to take that frame, make sure you brush off (with a bee brush or a soft brush) the bees on the frame back into the hive. We then put each frame into a large plastic tote with a lid to keep the bees off of it and also any wasps that may be interested in the honey. When we brought them inside, we made sure we didn't have the windows open since we would most likely get some panicked bees concerned we were robbing. 

To start we scrapped all of the wax off of the frame with a uncapping scratcher. We put all the wax into an old ice cream pale to make lip balm with later. We were sure to do this work over some baking trays to collects any sticky drips. 

Once the wax was scraped off we placed the frames inside a honey extractor. The extractor holds two frames at a time - you insert them vertically and then close the lid. A hand crank causes the frames to spin quickly and the centrifugal force pulls out the honey from the frame and flows down to the bottom of the extractor. There is a valve at the bottom that can be opened and allows the honey to flow out into a container.

We transfered our honey to a collection of glass jars and we had tons! 

Afterwards we returned the empty frames back to the hive to be filled again by the busy bees. 

The two hives we harvested from were only 2 km away and look at the colour difference! The one on the left is from the Strathcona community garden and the one on the right was from the Mt. Pleasant neighbourhood.