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.