We named our farm in faith that one day it would produce abundantly. This year it did! David and I could not agree about the name of the farm. We asked our pastor for advice and without any hesitation, she said: “Abundant Acres”! It was a bit presumptuous, but we went with it. It would also rank high on any alphabetical list of farms. This year we had an abundance of fruiting crops. Tomatoes, eggplants, peppers. So we shared the surplus by offering more to farm share members.

During the last two years, we had terrible eggplant and pepper yields. Was it pests eating the flowers, dry conditions, late planting, not enough fertility?

Yesterday was David’s birthday. He turned 50. I sincerely hope he doesn’t suddenly buy a leather jacket and a motorcycle. On his birthday he was cutting, splitting and stacking wood. I was mostly stacking. He has asked for 2 things. One, for me to make a list of all the jobs I do in the office, and decide which ones we can delegate to to other people. We did that. It felt good. A lot of jobs were delegated to David because he has delegated most of his jobs to our farm crew. The second thing he asked for is a Kitchenaid machine. He can use it to make his favourite flatbreads, and roast them on a fire. Sometimes they go on sale at Canadian Tire. If anyone sees one on sale, please let me know! The two things he asked for are way better than a leather jacket and motorcycle.

We are also building an extension on the employee house so there is more space for cooking, drying clothes, doing laundry, and relaxing outside after work in a bug free space. We are joining a field tunnel we bought from our neighbours at Fill Yer Boots farm to the pantry and laundry space. That way we can have protected area for -ack!- MORE gardens and fruit trees. Let’s hope it works!