Ze Farm

There is a great divide between reading about and actually doing farming. This is something I've come to realize rather quickly since arriving on the farm. For me the experience so far has really highlighted how much one needs to know in order to farm properly and well. More on that later, first a brief description of my temporary home. Alderlea Farm and Cafe, the name of the farm where I'm staying, is owned and run by John and Katy Ehrlich who run both, as their business title implies, a farm and cafe. They sell their produce through a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) plan which is an agreement between the farmer and the customers who will pay in advance for a weekly supply of fresh vegetables and fruits. The cafe is open 3 days a week and supplies a variety of tasty soups, pizzas and other dishes that change on a regular basis, plus sweets and coffee. John has crops on 5 different farms, which are all a short drive away from their home, which in total make up about 5 acres of vegetable growing and another 20 or so acres of hay for his cows. Where I live plays host to the cafe, 2 greenhouses where the seeds are started and other crops are kept, the house, a smallish barn for 30 or so egg laying chickens and one cocky rooster, an acre or so for vegetable crops and a large sloping pasture for two lovely cows, one a jersey named Alderlina and the other a Dexter/Jersey cross who as yet remains unnamed. A short drive away is a parcel of land - McLay - leased by John where he grows about an acre of vegetables on. A slightly longer drive from there, is a place name Keating, where John farms another acre of vegetables on. From there, another 2 minutes or so away is the place where he keeps two cows and a bull, who is surprisingly very tame. 8 or so minutes from Keating, close to the Cowichan river, is a farm in the making, where John tends a raspberry patch and will be starting a new field to grow in, an acre plus in size. There may also be another spot where he'll be growing on this season too. I'll post pictures next week. I've been here two weeks and only managed to take one picture... of their cat, Friskers, who like her name would suggest, is quite frisky for a 23 year-old feline.

What's this blog all about?

For the next 5 months, starting February 6th, I will be working and living on a biodynamic farm on Vancouver Island in the city of Duncan. I'll be posting photos and stories about the experience on a regular basis for our collective viewing enjoyment and hopefully to garner some interest in a method of farming our Earth desperately needs more of. For those of you wondering what the heck biodynamic farming is, let me tell you.

What is Biodynamic Farming?

Biodynamic Farming is a form of agriculture that focuses on soil health and food quality.  In 1924 Rudolf Steiner, a remarkably gifted individual, gave a series of lectures on agriculture and this is where Biodynamics was born.

Rudolf Steiner

A biodynamic farm is an organic farm, but it goes above and beyond the simple practice of producing food without chemicals.  All of the most important practices of a well managed sustainable organic farm such as composting, crop rotation & cover cropping are carried out on the biodynamic farm.  On top of that, the biodynamic farm is viewed as a ‘whole farm organism’, and a series of preparations are used to nourish the farm and the soil health.  Biodynamic farming also uses cosmic rhythms when dealing with the day to day activities on the farm.

The biodynamic farm focuses on the health of the farm and the soil, not simply on the short term gains of a high yielding plant.  Through proper composting techniques and with the use of the preparations, the biodynamic farm as a whole becomes healthier and fully functional as a whole farm ecosystem.  Once the biodynamic farm is fully functional, one can achieve a greater yield on a healthier plant, which will result in better quality food.

I'm sure this definition will expand and be honed down as I my stay progresses, but that sums it up more or less.

Why I'm doing it

Simply put, I want to commit to a profession that will reflect my convictions. For the past two years I've taken a greater interest in where my food comes from, how it's produced, what kind of damage industrial farming does to our environment and what sort of future these trends are taking us towards. When you read the stats, it's bleak. It's pretty clear things need to change in a serious way. For me, getting into farming is just one way I can contribute in a meaningful way to continuing the change towards healthier, sustainable, environmentally friendly produced food.