farm trucks.

Early Sunday mornings pre-farmer's market in Vancouver usually meant trying to jump one novelty sized farm truck with another.  Only the finest. 

September, 2012.

cultivating + collinear hoes

cultivating basil beds at sole food, 2012.

We try to reduce weed pressure at the farm by using the stale seed bed technique. Rather than plant directly into a prepped bed, we allow a bed to sit for a week or two after being turned/amended so that any weed seeds germinate. We then cultivate the bed just before seeding using a collinear hoe. The short bladed tool has one sharp edge - that edge passes just below the surface of the soil and slices through all the germinated seeds when the roots are in the white thread stage. We cultivate before seeding/transplating and then try to cultivate again every few weeks in between the plants. This works with plants that have 4" (or more) in row spacing or between rows (beans, kale, chard, collards, summer squash, tomatoes, etc.) The hoe doesn't work for crops that are more densely planted, especially those done with a pinpoint seeder or that are broadcasted. Those got a good old fashioned hand weed once the first leaves came up. This method also doesn't work for weeds that are deep rooted - like our seemingly indestructible bindweed. Bindweed usually just takes constant hand weeding to try an keep it under control. 

The students really love using the collinear hoes. Any detailed task that requires a specific tool yet is easy to master works really well with students. During the summer, there was no shortage of students who wanted to cultivate. 

A student's collinear hoe - crafted in welding class.

This spring I worked a lot with a grade nine student that was struggling with a recent move to the school. It was a challenge to connect and we were trying different ways to engage him in his classes. He showed an interest in welding and so the horticulture teacher gave him the project of designing and welding his own garden tool. One morning I was working with the senior class starting trays of summer squash in the greenhouse and this student came in to the class beaming from ear to ear holding his creation. A grade twelve student recognized it as a collinear hoe and asked him where it came from. "I made it, " he said. The senior students were completely impressed. They gathered around the tool and checked out the design and welding. One said he couldn't believe it, "it looked like it came from a store." This student doesn't get a lot of praise in school, and most attention he usually receives from both teachers and students is negative. And here he was, on the receiving end of some genuine admiration and respect from these senior students. A perfect moment. For the rest of the season, whenever we would take the tools outside to work, this hoe was always the first to be claimed - it was the students' favourite tool. 

Works real good, too.

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