food
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What’s Up For the 2026 Season?
Just a few days away from starting the 2026 season, the seeds have all arrived, and we’ll be getting the greenhouse going a bit earlier than usual, for this is the first year we have our new Hoop House ready to go. It’s hard to imagine the “before times” now, even though a year ago… Continue reading
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No-Till Bed System Fall Prep 2025 Version
Next year will be our 9th attempt at this…can we finally utilize the entire system? We’ve never maxed it out. (For a quick recap about where we were last season, and two seasons when we converted to 100 feet), and for this season, we had the capacity for a 58-bed system, but in practice we… Continue reading
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The Tomato Journey
There are few crops in my farming career that I’ve learned more from, and made as many mistakes with, as tomatoes. To put it simply, I never respected this crop, how beautiful it could be, and I didn’t understand the “tomato people.” I thought that a tomato is a tomato. Furthermore, I thought that staking… Continue reading
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One Month: Greenhouse Update
We passed the one-month mark since transplanting in the new greenhouse and the results are totally blowing our minds. It seems like each day we go in there you can see visible growth. The cherry toms are stretching up to their 3rd truss, the beefsteaks are setting fruit, the cucumbers have been trimmed and pruned… Continue reading
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Cover Crop Update:
It’s hot, real hot, record-setting hot, and tinderbox conditions have fires popping up everywhere from inside the city to our provincial parks, while the wind blows uncovered topsoil around enough to reduce visibility. This would be a good time to have an update on our cover crop situation, whose soil is not blowing away. For… Continue reading
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Toxic By Default
We received notice from our RM of all the wonderful chemicals that may be applied during the season, a run-of-the-mill PSA. It proceeds to list 9 different herbicides and 4 pesticides. At the bottom of the PSA comes the kicker: if you don’t agree, you have to write a physical letter to the provincial government… Continue reading
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Grower Error III: Incomplete Nutrition
One thing becomes clear after reviewing the various challenges or crop failures I’ve had over the past few years. There is a common denominator, and that common denominator is an inattentiveness to plant nutrition. For the most part I’m very lucky where the farm is, our clay soils are pretty good and if the weather… Continue reading
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Why don’t we want to be close to where our food is grown?
Agriculture and innovation have always gone hand in hand. Indigenous American Three Sisters methods with corn, squash and beans. Incan terraces and potato cultivation. Anishinaabe food forests. Many people not only don’t grow their own food, but food comes exclusively from the store. Land is a prospective real estate development, not for farming. And farms… Continue reading
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All That Plants Know
Let’s consider all the things a plant knows how to do. A seed knows when to germinate…if the conditions are right, if it is too dry, too wet, too hot, too cold. A seed knows if it is close enough to the surface of the soil, or if it is too deep. Some seeds even… Continue reading
agriculture, botany, chlorophyll, climate change, earth, Ecology, evolution, food, garden, gardening, intelligence, life, nature, photosynthesis, plants, seeds, soil, solar, trees
About Graham
Graham is an ecologist-farmer from Canada working on educating about the wonders and beauty of the natural world, and how we can design biodiverse food production systems.
