Persistence paid off. We’ve entered the modern age and we now have high speed internet on the farm!! Thanks to David, Sam, and Marshall for their efforts. The internet is just a tool, like a hoe, tractor, or an irrigation pump. Now that it is set up and we can use it without spending hours and pulling our hair out trying to get it installed or make it work for us, we can focus on more important things like the soil, water, plants, and people.

Every Friday after lunch, the farm team has a safety meeting and then a group sharing. It’s a chance for people to share what they liked about the week (rose), what wasn’t so good (thorn), and what they are looking forward to (bud). Last week, a couple of people mentioned their rose was seeing how the crops planted a short time ago in the fox field had grown so fast, and were flourishing. We had the first significant harvest in that back field last week. The team was thrilled. David and I have been working with this field for many years. It started out sandy and worn out from continuous hay harvesting. We adopted a system of cover crops between beds of vegetables. The cover crops build soil carbon by adding lots of rye roots and stalks. They add nitrogen to the soil through the nitrogen-fixing nodules on clover roots. We just plant them and mow them while the vegetables are growing and being harvested. It’s an elegant symbiotic biological system. Most of the soil building work is being done by soil micro-organisms. We also add manure to the soil every year where we plant vegetables. Because the vegetables are rotated back and forth with the cover crops, we think we might have built up the soil to the point where we won’t have to add manure. Every year we see the cover crops preventing soil erosion because they provide a living, protective mat all winter. Every year we see yields of vegetables increasing.

The tomato harvest is in full swing and we have so many types to choose from. There are about 20 different varieties growing now, and I’m going to introduce you to some of them at the bottom of this post.

Indigo cherry is a deep purple colour. At first it is purple and light green, and as it ripens, the green turns to orange, and then red when it is fully ripe. The one in Kara’s hand is getting close to ripe.