There are some new arrivals to the farm!

Yesterday we went to pick up 3 piglets. At this age they are called weaners (as in weaned from their mother). They are purebred Berkshires, a heritage breed known for its bi-colour coat and marbled meat. They are living in a fenced pasture, where they will spend the next few  months. These are definitely happy pigs! They have just under an acre of lush grass to run around in, and a cosy shelter to nest in. They are still a little unsure of their new home, and walk around side by side wherever they go. Very sweet.

Today we received a delivery of day-old chicks, which are now staying toasty warm in their custom-built (by Jesse!) brooding house. More like a sauna than a house! Day-old chicks need a very warm environment – the thermometers read 90 degree Fahrenheit at the moment. As soon as we took them out of their travel boxes they began to run around, cheeping loudly, exploring their new surrounding.

The sheerer also came today. He made sheering the sheep look easy! Our ewes and 2 rams will be much more comfortable without their thick wooly coats as the weather begins to warm up. I had high hopes of using their wool to spin some yarn. As it turns out, only the rams (Texel) have wool-quality fleece. The exes are Suffolk and  are not a breed used for fiber, so their wool is very coarse and has lots of lanolin (the natural oil found in wool). Instead, their fleeces can be used to mulch garden beds.

In the field things are moving along too. Jesse has plowed and rotovated about an acre, and we have been putting in an asparagus bed and sprucing up the strawberry bed. In our greenhouse the seedling are getting bigger every day. I’m looking forward to transplanting soon!

Hope you are enjoying the return of the sun as much as we are.

Robin

It’s great to get back to work on the farm. Not that Evelyn and Jesse haven’t been working all winter long! They have been busy caring for pigs, chickens,  sheep, and since February, lambs! They’ve also been upgrading buildings on the farm, building a new brooding house for the broiler chicks (coming soon!) and putting up a greenhouse for their first year of veggie production. Phew.

My name is Robin, I am one of two apprentices working at Terra Nossa Farm this season. The other is my partner, Bryan.

This is my third year apprenticing on organic farms. My past two seasons were spent on a small family farm outside Lytton, in the semi-desert interior of BC, mostly growing vegetables and fruit trees. What a change coming to the island! This year at Terra Nossa I will be working in a very different climate, and with very different soils. I also came to Terra Nossa to learn about animal husbandry, so I am looking forward to learning as much as possible from Evelyn and Jesse.

Bryan and I started work on the farm at the beginning of April. This spring has been very slow to warm up! (It is even here yet?) Since we can’t do much work in the field yet, we have been helping Jesse with finishing the brooder house, putting in new fences, and learning the daily routines to take care of all the animals. My favorite has been bottle-feeding the lambs three times a day. Learning to drive the tractor has definitely been a highlight too!

With the sunny days making an appearance we’ve been letting the chickens out in the blackberries to graze on the fresh pasture. But not in amongst the plants! Chickens are very destructive as it turns out. So we’ve been using netting to block off the rows of blackberries and let the chickens run up and down in the lush grass between the rows. So far they love it!

That’s all for now. Have a great week!

Robin