~Chris Thoreau, Farm School Coordinator

Updates From the Field

The fields are moving along, lots of work parties and gettin’ er done. This time of year is all about plugging away and opening things up.  The brassicas that have been planted look great!

Field Highlights:

• Slugs slugs slugs….be faster than the slugs…sounds easier than it is…one step ahead always
• Wood bugs eating the tomatoes in the boxes in the greenhouse, more planting needed – one way to combat pests is to just keep your transplants big and healthy, well watered and have more on hand so you can keep replanting..eventually you win, safety factor 30% is good for this
• East field is going to get mowed and plowed this week. The decision to bring someone in to do this was two fold, first off, there is no tractor at the farm. Secondly, the buttercup and grass was so well rooted which makes plowing necessary. Rototilling would just spread the buttercup.
• Lettuce is having a hard time germinating in the greenhouse…like literally no germ… Usually if there is such poor germination, I call the seed company. Most folks don’t ever do this, as they blame themselves, but to have such poor germ is unusual, especially with our team of green thumbs!
• We find that the first early plantings in the field generally have low germ, erratic spring weather, watering, temp fluctuations etc. When the spinach that Sasha seeded in field 2 didn’t have great germ, instead of pulling the bed, she reseeded in the areas that didn’t have good germ. The new seeds are coming along great and will fill out with the first planting. You have to watch and be on this quickly to catch the timing right on this, watch for germ. As soon as you notice your have spotty germ, plant in the empty spaces
• Garlic looks like it could get another fish fertilization. Note – do not fish fert after the end of May. After this point in time, the plant needs to root down and focus on bulbing out. Ideally, one fish ferts or side dresses in February and again in April
• The favas look like they have some sort of rust, which beans can get. Sasha was noticing that they are quite tightly planted which would affect airflow and the weather is so hot and wet, making it great conditions for fungal rust. One could thin the favas for more airflow and/or spray them with a baking soda spray (anti fungal) or any other herbal fungal or compost tea. Check it out to see if you think it’s a rust. Beans can get a blight, but I’m not sure it looked like blight. This is the fun thing about farming, and from what I’ve heard there is an app for this kind of farm detective work :)
• Many of the pathways in all of the plots are grass grass. The 5 year plan is to get a good perennial clover in there. For this year, I do think another year of black plastic on the grass to knock it back is necessary. It is a necessary evil on an area that has so much grass. The hope is to really knock it back and then end up either getting a perennial clover in there, or leave them open and keep rototilling the paths.

This week we are going to weed, compost, till and PLANT POTATOES in multiple areas. Get ready. If you’ve ever tree planted you will LOVE potato planting, even if you hated tree planting! I have a few jobs that are my favourite and planting potatoes is one of them!

~Kareno

Project: The society is seeking a project manager to provide leadership and assistance to develop a comprehensive fundraising concept and campaign to support their programs and operations.

Project Objectives:

• Develop a fundraising concept and approach to support the farm’s operations and programs
• Define the fundraising goal for 2013 and meet it
• Generate a project plan for this year’s fundraising campaign
• Lead the team through the execution of the campaign

Required Qualifications:

• Demonstrated experience in program/project management either in a non‐profit, government or private setting
• Experience in developing and executing fundraising campaigns
• Excellent communication and organization skills

Estimated Time Commitment:  10 hours per month (15 hours per month in the first 2 months)

Expected Start Date:  End of May 2013      Expected End Date:  November 2013

Scope of Work: The volunteer project manager will familiarize with the funding requirements of the Sharing Farm, as well as past and current funding. S/he will develop with the assigned staff and Board members the fundraising goals and approach. This will be documented in a project plan. The volunteer PM will then lead the execution of the campaign and assist the involved Sharing Farm people if and where required.

Deliverables:

• Concept and goals for the 2013 fundraising campaign
• Project Plan
• Leadership during the execution of the campaign
• Assistance if and where required

Accountability:  The volunteer Project Manager will have an end‐to end accountability for the deliverables, reporting to
James Gates, Farm Manager at the Sharing Farm Society.

Benefits:  The Society will provide a letter of recommendation at the successful conclusion of the project. The project
manager will have the opportunity to improve his or her existing project management skills in the NFP sector.
In addition, the project manager may receive from time to time fresh and delicious organic produce!

Contact:    James Gates, Farm Manager
Email:    james@sharingfarm.ca

How to Apply:  Please apply with a cover letter indicating why you are interested in supporting The Sharing Farm Society
in this project and why you feel your skill set and experience would make you a good match for this project, along with a
detailed resume to James Gates.

Deadline for Applications:  May 24, 2013

Position Description  © 2013 pm‐volunteers.org      May 7, 2013
A grassroots initiative of the project management community, mobilizing high‐value, skilled, volunteer project management services
for our not‐for‐profit partners.

Until recently, we have had to rely on a frustrating combination of yelling across a field, personal cellphones, and long, often fruitless (but scenic), walks as we searched for someone we needed on the Farm. This often led to simply giving up, or worse finding the person right where the search began.

Imagine the challenges of coordinating fifty or a hundred volunteers between four or five staff, all onsite at the same time, across three and a half acres. Days such as those were exhausting at best for all concerned.

The first time staff experienced coordinating communications with radios was at last year’s Garlic Festival. Many of us didn’t know we needed them until we realized that now…. we only had to push a button.

Canada Wide Communications Donation

This new communications tool quickly became a staff favourite and an absolute need for year’s to come. Those radios, however, were only on loan to the farm for a day.

Looking for a solution, we reached out to Ryan Rowat at Canada Wide Communications and they responded by donating eight radios as a long term no-cost rental, a value of around $4,000!

Their graciousness has improved our efficiency on the Farm by an order of magnitude,and we are so very proud to recognize their wonderful sense of charity.

Thanks to Canada Wide Communications, the farm staff will now be able to stay in constant communication with each other and the office staff, allowing for greater success, and happier staff, at The Sharing Farm.

Radio Handles

The radios are a serious and a useful tool, but we still had some fun coming up with radio handles for everyone.

We got lucky and have been able to book the grillo again for next Friday’s practicum, so if you feel you want to put more mileage on that machine, there will be tilling on the agenda for next week. The grillo is an amazing tool, and the more time you spend working with it, the easier it becomes. (Who doesn’t want massive pipes of steel?)

Sasha has been moving along opening up beds as fast as she can. May is the bottleneck month for Richmond…you’ve only just started and you are already behind and everything is a priority.

Big items on the agenda for this week are:

• transplanting brassicas into the ready beds in the field (kale)
• potting up the brassicas that are still waiting for their fields to be prepared (broc/cabbage)
• seeding winter and summer squash
• transplanting onions into the field – if we don’t transplant them, they are going to walk…they are that ready!
• pot up the tomatoes for seed
• fish fert potted up plants in the greenhouse – many of the tomatoes are looking light green in color, it is time for a fish fert to give them a little boost
• weed seed lettuce and pot up seed lettuce (cimmaron, rouge d’hiver)

This week Sasha, James, and the interns are also going to be planting potatoes. I am not sure what day they will be doing this. As a work team, the Farm School Students will be planting the second planting of the potatoes which will be happening in about 2 weeks time. Because Richmond has such a high water table we are doing a shallow plant and hilling as we go along.

The cabbage moth is in full swing out there, watch for her little beautiful white wings. She has started to eat up the brassica transplants. Make sure that they are all covered in remay.

At this point in time as we were doing our walk arounds, we really looked forward to project realistically what would be in that first CSA basket. Now is a great time to do this. Two months before the actual basket, take a look: How is my plan on paper playing out in the fields? How farm behind am I? This gives us time to project forward and also to make sure things get in.

We saw our first fava bean today. They are starting to look amazing. Favas and garlic scapes in basket number one for sure!

~kareno

Because of these high temps, much of what was under lights has been transferred into the greenhouse. Many years, May is wet and cold, and the transition for heat lovers like tomatoes, and peppers, from the lights to the greenhouse is stressful; not this year.

This week they will be planting the cucurbits as well, cucumbers, winter and summer squash. There is a lot of potting up as well that needs to be done as the fields aren’t quite ready, but the little plants need more space. So potting up to 4 inch pots is a good way to buy this time.
The details of what needs to happen in the field haven’t changed from last week….its weed or weedwack, compost, till, plant. (and now water).

There is sooooo much that needs to get done in this 2 week period.

~Kareno

We could really use the extra hands this week in the fields to catch up with the weather. Check out this week’s volunteer opportunities.

Come out for guided tours of The Sharing Farm and learn about how we grow organic produce year-round in Richmond.

Maria and company

When was the last time you were truly inspired? When was the last time you stepped out of your comfort zone to take a year out of your life to commit to something so seemingly random and radical? When was the last time you were ABSOLUTELY FASCINATED with something you never even knew you had an interest in?!?!

My name is Maria. I am, with no question, the eldest student attending the 2013 Richmond Farm School. As I look around the table at my fellow comrades, a feeling of awesomeness overcomes me when I realise that we are all here, together, sharing a keen desire to learn something that has almost no place in our current modern world. We are not here for credits, diplomas or degrees. We are here to acquire the kind of life skills that we cannot even possibly realise the full value of, and we are without a doubt, acquiring those skills with great credit to our INCREDIBLY high calibre instructors… Can I just say, ‘wow’??!?… ‘WOW!!!’.

There has not been one moment when I have thought to myself, ‘What a waste of time, energy and money!’, as I’ve felt a couple of times in the past , being sold ‘fluff’, while training to be a golf instructor. On the contrary! I have often been thinking of how seriously LUCKY we are to be learning agricultural skills from such quality and highly inspirational individuals! The desire to find purpose and have intentions that are worth my time, my energy and which make sense to me in this world, has always driven me to push harder to find knowledge and therefore fulfillment, in all areas of my life. It is an ongoing process but so far, with a lot of challenging obstacles, excruciating growing pains and great support from friends and family, I have been an amazingly lucky girl, managing to surround myself with exactly the kind of life experiences worth living for, at this time, in all areas of my life. Richmond Farm School is one of those things and I believe that everyone who is part of the school and The Sharing Farm, understands exactly what I am talking about, or we would not be here together working on developing a farm, an orchard, ourselves and the others who come to volunteer on the farm.

As the soil on the farm has still been quite wet to start planting and growing on, we have been doing a lot of classroom work, which means when we do venture outside, EVERY SINGLE THING we have done in the field and in the orchards, has been absolutely filled with purpose and intention! So when we amend a field with lime powder or make any single cut on a fruit tree, we know exactly WHY we are doing it! IT SO AWESOMELY MAKES SENSE!! ::)) I mean, isn’t it the worst feeling doing something that seemingly has no value or reasoning to it?!?! Don’t you treasure life more when every single thing you do has a conscious intention attached to it!!??! :)

One truth about how our school works… It is not a dictatorship!!! I wonder if our instructors have designed it so. I wonder if our instructors realise the way they are teaching us, thoroughly aligns with those of us who have chosen to attend Richmond Farm School. As we, who are attending the school, are also choosing (and at the very least considering), a future lifestyle that goes a little bit against the grain. We are choosing a bit differently than the current masses, and perhaps similarly to me, because it feels as if some of our choices have been taken away. Personally, I like having choices, especially since having only recently realised, the serious reality that we always, always, always have a choice – and the good ones are not necessarily the easiest. Our schooling provides us with many choices to make, as well, the vital information and knowledge needed to make well informed decisions. Choosing goes hand in hand with taking responsibility for all the decisions we make in our lives, and with responsibility comes reward, fulfillment and of course, the possibility of blame…!!!

Through example, we students are being taught that we are all in this together and that we are all connected. Wouldn’t you agree that that runs synonymously with humanity and nature? As our class moves into the growing season, it becomes apparent that if we are not being properly educated, and if we are not taking responsibility by speaking up to ask for more clarity (if needed), then we will not be able to help produce quality food for the The Sharing Farm – To SHARE!!! (And there could be a whole lot of finger pointing, head shaking and hungry folks around!!). Yes, we are all in this together!!! So, tasks on the farm are handed over to us students, with this great trust, huge faith and endearing encouragement!!! Could you imagine what it feels like to be a newbie student and handed a pair of 32 inch loppers, given a choice of ladders starting at (a daunting) 16 feet tall, then being presented with a whole orchard (or two), of pear and apple trees that need pruning!!??!?!! :)) It feels like, a bubbling eagerness to apply gained knowledge, the hesitation from self doubt, the willingness to take on responsibility, an expression of art, a great handful of gut instinct and a serious dose of science, all rolled into one!!! Of course no one said it would be easy!!! And IT’S NOT!! But if anyone doubts it’s worth doing….

ful·fill·ment
/fo͝olˈfilmənt/
Noun
1. Satisfaction or happiness as a result of fully developing one’s abilities or character.

–Maria,  2013  Richmond Farm School Student

*The Richmond Farm School is a 10 month program focused on providing training for those who wish to join the ranks of those engaging in local agriculture. The Sharing Farm is the practicum site for the Richmond Farm School.

THE SHARING FARM

(GET YOUTH WORKING! PROGRAM)

Background

The Sharing Farm is a non-profit community organization that grows vegetables on donated city lands for the Richmond Food Bank and other community agencies. We are looking for enthusiastic, hardworking farm interns for summer and fall of 2013.

The Sharing Farm is a unique community farm combining the practice of organic farming set within a framework of food justice and food security in the region. The three acre farm is situated within Richmond’s Terra Nova Rural Park, and is also home to Kwantlen University’s Richmond Farm School.

Interns will have access to many different workshops, classes, and skill sets, including permaculture, composting, greenhouse cultivation, beekeeping, market gardening, tractor training, fruit tree management, and chicken care. Interns will gain valuable skills in organic farming, machine operation, and running a community-supported agriculture (CSA) program.

The Sharing Farm is located at the west end of Westminster Highway, alongside the West Dyke, in Richmond BC. It is accessible by bus, skytrain, car, or bicycle. It is about a ten minute walk from the nearest bus stop.

Duties and Responsibilities:

• Plant seeds/transplants; cultivate, water, weed and harvest
• Keep records and a farm journal
• Assist with the supervision and training of volunteers and Farm School students
• Assist with educational programs, tours, special events and fund-raising activities
• Assist with the transportation and distribution of vegetables
• Keep farm and storage areas organized and tidy
• Assist in running a 35-person CSA program
• Report to the Field Coordinator and the Farm Manager

Qualifications:

The criteria for eligible youth is as follows:

• Unemployed, 15-29 years of age
• Self-motivated, flexible, willing to take initiative, work well independently and in a team environment
• Physically fit and enjoy working outside in all kinds of weather
• Proven ability in working effectively with volunteers and/or co-workers
• Strong record-keeping ability
• Ability to operate and maintain tools and equipment
• Not currently receiving or eligible for EI and have not received EI in the past 36 months or 60 months for a parental claim
• Not a full-time student, enrolled in high school/ post-secondary or returning to school
• Not a participant in another LMA-funded program
• Resident of B.C. and legally entitled to work in Canada
• (preferably) Have farming or gardening experience, and a valid driver’s license

The ideal candidates will have a strong interest in organic farming and an interest in continuing in this field.

Salary:
$12 per hour + benefits

30-35 hour work week, Tuesday-Saturday.
Minimum 3 months

Application deadline: May 15, 2013
Please submit resume and a cover letter to:

Farm Administrator: Leslie Williams
lesliewalkerwilliams@gmail.com

(CANADA SUMMER JOBS)

Background

The Sharing Farm is a non-profit community organization that grows fruits and vegetables on donated city lands for the Richmond Food Bank and other community agencies.  We are looking for enthusiastic, hard-working farm interns for May – August 2013.

The Sharing Farm is a unique community farm combining the practice of organic farming set within a framework of food justice and food security in the region. The three acre farm is situated within Richmond’s Terra Nova Rural Park, and is also home to Kwantlen University’s Richmond Farm School.

Interns will have access to many different workshops, classes, and skill sets, including permaculture, composting, greenhouse cultivation, beekeeping, market gardening, tractor training, fruit tree management, and chicken care. Interns will gain valuable skills in organic farming, machine operation, and running a community-supported agriculture (CSA) program.

The Sharing Farm is located at the west end of Westminster Highway, alongside the West Dyke, in Richmond BC.  It is accessible by bus, skytrain, car, or bicycle. It is about a ten minute walk from the nearest bus stop.

Duties and Responsibilities:

• Plant seeds/transplants; cultivate, water, weed and harvest
• Keep records and a farm journal
• Assist with the supervision and training of volunteers and Farm School students
• Assist with educational programs, tours, special events and fund-raising activities
• Assist with the transportation and distribution of vegetables
• Keep farm and storage areas organized and tidy
• Assist running a 35-person CSA program
• Report to the Field Coordinator and the Farm Manager

Required Qualifications:

• Be currently a full-time student who will be returning to college or university in the fall of 2013 and be 18 to 30 years of age (Service Canada requirements)
• Be self-motivated, flexible, willing to take initiative, work well independently and in a team environment
• Be physically fit and enjoy working outside in all kinds of weather
• Proven ability in working effectively with volunteers and/or co-workers
• Strong record-keeping ability
• Valid driver’s license
• Ability to operate and maintain tools and equipment
• Canadian citizen or permanent resident (Service Canada requirement)
• (preferably) Have farming or gardening experience

The ideal candidates will have a strong interest in organic farming and an interest in continuing in this field.

Salary:
$12 per hour + benefits

35 hour work week, Tuesday-Saturday.
Approx. 16 weeks depending on final HRDC Canada Summer Jobs approval of grant application

Start Date: May 14, 2013

End Date: August 31, 2013

Application deadline: March 29, 2013

Please submit resume and a cover letter to:
Farm Administrator: Leslie Williams  lesliewalkerwilliams@gmail.com

As one of our largest fundraisers, the Garlic Festival greatly helps fund our mission to feed families in need.

In addition to spending a day out on the farm as a positive socially responsible team-building exercise, you would be listed as a festival sponsor at the highest tier of sponsorship. This includes great exclusive benefits such as being named in the festival media release, a banner ad on our festival website, and ad space in our electronic newsletter.

• Food Service/Sales including our Cob Oven
• Parking (off and onsite)
• Greeter/Welcome Areas
• Kids Area/Crafts – Hay Pile, Making Garlic Crowns
• Runner (support between different areas of fair)
• Crowd Support (assist visitors throughout fair)

Contact us if you are interested in this fantastic opportunity.