FARM NEWS

Progress Report

This week we finished amending 1/2 of our garden beds. Since our new garden space was a fallow field the soil had become too acidic for growing vegetables and flowers. To address this we added finely ground limestone, also know as lime, to help raise the ph. Our soil was also too low in potassium and magnesium, and so we added a small amount of a mineral called Langbeinite.

Those two minerals plus the layer of compost should get our soil to where we want it. Our next step will be setting up the irrigation, fixing the fence, and then transplanting our plant babies into their new beds!

Thank You Community!

A few weeks ago we asked the community if they had any unused or unwanted tools that they would be willing to donate or trade us for. We shared our list of what we need and we received almost everything from that list! We wanted to give a big thanks to everyone who helped us out. Our farm would no exist without the support from this community!

NEW PRODUCT

Darkwoods Dill Sauerkraut

We tried out a new flavour of sauerkraut from our friends at Counter Cultured in Salmo and it was fantastic! Darkwoods Dill is one of their most popular flavours and we can see why. It has a crisp and crunchy texture with a deep and rich dill flavour. It’s great straight from the jar and would be a crowd pleaser at any BBQ.

FOOD FOR THOUGHT 🍎

 A Call For Transparency

How come we don’t get to know the names of the chemicals that are sprayed on our food or if it’s been genetically modified?

There are strict rules and regulations for the ingredients used in processed foods. Pick up any packaged product at the grocery store and you can find a list of ingredients clearly labeled on it, as well as ingredients that may have been cross contaminated. But when it comes to fruits, vegetables and grains we don’t get that same information. Why is that? If your food was coated in an artificial wax (which many of them are) shouldn’t we get to know what that wax is made from? What if it contains trace amounts of pesticides, herbicides or was grown from a genetically modified seed? Shouldn’t we be allowed to know?

Imagine if all of the produce at the grocery store showed a list of every chemical that may be on that food. How quickly do you think our agricultural system would clean up it's practices if our food was clearly labeled "Grown with GMO seeds. May contain trace amounts of Glyphosate and pesticides X,Y and Z. Coated with a petroleum-based wax which contains trace amounts of fungicide.”

GMO foods have been in our food system since the 90’s. The industrial agricultural system that uses GMO’s have fought tooth and nail to avoid having their foods clearly labeled. It was only until 2022, over 30 years later, that the US government finally made it mandatory for GMO’s to be labeled on food packing. But, not surprisingly, in another effort to conceal themselves they changed the term from GMO to “Bioengineered”. The new labeling laws also leave glaring loopholes that will still allow companies to use GMO ingredients without having to label it. In Canada, there are still no laws requiring GMO foods to be labeled. If they’re so convinced GMO’s are safe why are they trying so hard to hide them?

In the health food world there is a constant arms race to see who can create the healthiest products with the best and most sustainable ingredients. And the companies that pull it off are rewarded with loyal customers. If people could see the inputs that were used to grow their food imagine the innovations we'd start to see in agriculture. Farmers would be incentivized to use more sustainable and safer inputs. And the farmers that figured out the most sustainable practices would become more successful and grow faster, which would create trends, which would breed more sustainable farming practices.

Right now the system is backwards. The farms that use the most chemicals and the most unsustainable practices are rewarded because they can sell their food at the cheapest prices. All well not having to disclosure what they’re doing to the public.

The main problem with our agricultural system is that there's a veil between us and it. We can’t see what's happening. We don’t get to know what they’re doing to our food and to our planet. And without transparency change happens slowly. As consumers we have an enormous effect on the market. If all of a sudden there was a large demand for more sustainable food practices then the market would respond quickly. But without transparency the changes we want to see will take decades to materialize