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Darcy Smith - page 23

Darcy Smith has 258 articles published.

Linerboard: A Love Hate Story

in Crop Production/Tools & Techniques/Winter 2017
Kraft paper mulch

Randy Hooper

As one of the original conspirators of mulching with kraft linerboard ‘paper’ back 20 years ago, and a continuing fan, I would just like to say that if you listen to my words of wisdom and take this path, you may be really, really happy. Or maybe not. But here’s the deal:

25 years ago I worked with the late Eva Temmel, a self- taught intuitive permaculturalist. She taught me a thing or two, or 80. Eva wasn’t into mulch but the neat thing was that she somehow stumbled across dozens and dozens of used hospital sheets from Lady Minto Hospital and transplanted brassicas and lettuce under colourful rows of blue, green and yellow for weeks with no damage from rain or sunburn. Eva taught me to be unorthodox when it came to farming.

The concept of using paper as a mulch is not new—backyard and market gardeners have been using attened cardboard boxes in the aisles to keep weeds down for decades. The practice of using straw and hay mulch for weed control and water retention goes back millennia. Growing vegetables through paper mulch, on the other hand, doesn’t have much history. Like all mulches, the benefits are many: much less weeding, less soil compaction, and wetter and warmer soil. But for some of us, there is absolutely no joy in rolling up thousands of feet of plastic row cover and trundling it off to landfill. For some purists, it may seem antithetical to marry organic production methods and single use plastics.

When I was back in the dirt again 15 years ago I took on a task far too hard—to convert about 20 acres of pasture back into vegetable production, with high weed pressure and nowhere near enough water. Mulching was the answer, and I chose paper. Most of the paper that was available in industrial sizes was too flimsy – the kind you use to mail a parcel. The Yellow Pages (remember those?) led me to Novapak in Richmond, a converter manufacturing all sorts of products from rolls of raw pulp fibre. The product I chose from them, and continue to recommend, is 40# linerboard, the same weight of bre used to manufacture laminated cardboard boxes. (40# means it weighs 40# per thousand square feet. A standard length we use is 5’ X 400 feet, 2000 sq. feet, so about 80# a roll.)

Bearing in mind that a few inches on each side are getting buried as you lay it, labouriously by hand, or with ease with a mulch layer, a 5’ wide sheet gives you a bit more than 4’ of row. Paper is much more expensive than plastic, but if you do the math, at a cost of, say, $.04 a square foot, vs. the cost of substantially more weeding and watering, the economic benefit is huge.

After an initial year of tests on a wide variety of crops, I decided that the only way to take on the other 14 acres was to go big or go home. I found a great mulch layer that worked perfectly for paper. It took just a few days to lay paper on our whole main field—17 acres.

In retrospect there was some major heartache, and for anyone who wants to have fun with paper, heed my wisdom. First, don’t look back. You know what I mean—it is nearly impossible to steer perfectly straight if you look behind you, and when you are laying paper, every time you look back you will steer a little crooked and end up with a big wrinkle or rip. Plastic stretches. Paper doesn’t. No field is perfectly flat, and lumps and bumps in the bed will also wrinkle the paper. However, paper does shrink, and after a few days of wet / dry cycles (dew and sun) many of those wrinkles will go away. What we did find that really helps is to have someone ride shotgun on the mulch layer itself, not just to shift balance, but to yell up to the operator to stop, or steer a tad left or right.

Paper shrinks—a lot. It’s quite amazing that a sheet of paper 400’ long will shrink up to a foot in length in just a few days. But it will literally rip apart if you don’t ease the pressure. An easy fix is slicing the paper every 80’ or so, right across the bed, covering the cut with a bit of dirt. These shorter lengths will shrink just a few inches and not rip. Do not cut holes for a few days, or start to transplant or direct seed before that paper has shrunk to its nal dimension. If you do seed right away through a hole you’ve engineered with a box cutter, and the paper literally shifts a few inches as it shrinks, the seed is now germinating in the dark, because the hole above it moved. Trust me—I learned the hard way.

Once the paper is down, walk the bed, making sure that all the edges and ends are buried. Wind is your enemy, and an exposed edge can let wind get underneath and create havoc. You cannot lay mulch paper in the wind. It is even harder to re-do it after the paper has blown all over the field. Been there.

The edges of the paper that are buried in dirt will start to break down within a few weeks. After that, you are once again left with a wind issue, because once the buried portion has rotted away, you now have a flat piece of paper lying on the beds that can be vulnerable if you’re direct seeding because there’s nothing to hold it down besides gravity. There is less of a risk if you have transplanted through it.

The only way I know to protect the integrity of the paper is to immediately, literally on the same day, sow buckwheat heavily in the aisles. Why buckwheat you ask? You can walk, kneel or drive on buckwheat and it bounces right back within a day, but the most important factor is that it germinates and sprouts in a few days, and by the time the sides of the payer have rotted out, the buckwheat is a couple of inches high. The wind blowing across your field is now riding across the top of the buckwheat, protecting the now exposed edges of the paper from going airborne.

What can you grow? Well, any plant that likes cold feet will do well, because the paper keeps the soil a few de- grees cooler—so kale, chard, collards, cabbage, Napa, Brussels and bok choi were a few very successful ones. Obviously there is a long list of what won’t work with paper—row crop like carrots, parsnips, beets, cilantro, radishes to name many. And there’s another list of varieties that just don’t make sense economically, an example being broccoli. Other crops that don’t grow well through paper are basil, tomatoes, eggplant and cucumbers. The soil temperatures just aren’t warm enough.

Because water was a big issue for me, paper was a saving grace. Whether in plastic or paper, if a chard plant is taking up a square foot, then all the rain that hits that square foot is going to go into the hole—a 10:1 water capture advantage over bare soil, and much slower evaporation. Unless your beds are dead flat and dead level you will have quite a few little lakes and ponds on the paper surface. I jab a hole in the paper at the lowest point of the puddles and let the water drain through. When planting out hard squash or zucchini, set transplants where you have poked holes, knowing that every bit of rain falling near those plants is going to drain right through those same holes—and for zucchini, you could be directing all the rain that falls over up to 10 square feet right to its roots.

Our two most outstanding successes were leeks and beans. Wait until the paper is wet and then punch holes through it with a ski pole (without basket). If you try that when the paper is dry it will rip. Drop leek transplant into hole. Water in transplants or wait for rain to set them in. Do not weed. Do not water. Don’t think about them for months. Come back in the fall or next spring and harvest. Same deal with beans—they were the best! Stab hole in paper. Drop seed. No weeding, no watering, and the best part? Crows and ravens, as you know, apparently have photographic memories and will carefully glean bean seeds, even while you are watching. Even while you are sowing. Well what a piss-off for them because they can’t extract them through those little holes in the paper.

Let me know if you have any fun stories about paper. Like how you hate the sound of ea beetles bouncing off the drum tight paper on summer afternoons—or how you write your eld plans and production notes in felt pen right on the beds.

Randy Hooper is an off-and-on again organic farmer, more off than on, and with less and less acreage each time over 25 years, on Saltspring Island, in Abbotsford, in Mexico, and currently in Ruskin east of Maple Ridge. He and his wife Annie own and operate Discovery Organics in Vancouver. His email is discoveryorganics@gmail.com.

All is Grist for the Mill

in Organic Stories/Tools & Techniques/Winter 2017
Red Fife Wheat at Woodgrain Farm

Jonathan Knight

The Story of WoodGrain Farm’s Hand Made Grain Mill

I like good technology. I don’t mean my smart phone (I don’t have one) or the latest gene spliced varieties, but rather the tools and innovations that have evolved over decades or centuries of use to make life easier. Appropriate technologies reduce daily drudgery, or improve efficiency to the point that what was otherwise impossible is now doable. They are the innovations and devices that make our lives simpler, not more complex. Good technologies are invented and perfected over time by the people who use them. The best innovations, and the most reliable, are the ones where the inner workings are easily understood, open to repair and adaptation by the user to suit their specific needs. Open-sourced. Good technology is durable and timeless, impervious to the fashions of the day, and without built-in obsolescence.

With perfect technology, the beauty is in its simplicity. Fewer moving parts to break, less complexity to figure out. The wheel hoe is a perfect tool for its intended purpose: efficient, ergonomic, drudgery-reducing, never breaks down, and is easily adaptable to the posture of the user. The digging bar is the perfectly appropriate implement for levering rocks, not the spade. The user and the tool work together, in step. There is no technological gulf.

Fanning mill

Another perfect technology is the grist mill, or stone flour mill. Quarried from natural granite, a heavy stone gradually ‘shears’ whole grains into smaller and smaller fragments until you’re left with a nutritious flour ready to be kneaded into dough and baked into bread. The stone can be spun by the wind, by moving water, by your arm or legs, or these days by an electric motor. The mass of the stone and slow speed keep the grain cool as it is ground, preserving its goodness. Nothing needs to be added or taken away from the flour. What goes in is what comes out.

As with most technology, attempts have been made to improve upon it. Modern industrial flour mills involve a complex system of steel rollers and separators that very efficiently divide the grain into its component parts—the starchy endosperm, the nutritious inner bran, the fibrous outer bran, the nutrient-packed germ—to produce the highly refined products that the food industry demands. Commercial ‘Whole Wheat’ flour on the supermarket shelf is always refined, adulterated white flour with some bran mixed back in (the germ, the nutritious heart of the kernel, is always removed as the essential oils it contains limits shelf life), because these mills don’t have the ability to simply grind the whole grain into flour. They are too complicated for that.

In smaller scale mills, steel burrs and whirling flails — cheaper to produce and easier to handle than heavy rock —are also used in place of stones to pulverize grain. Some give better results than others, though most burr mills have the tendency to heat and degrade the flour.

Composite stones are most common in small-scale stone mills these days. Instead of quarrying a single stone from the hillside, these stones are manufactured by cementing small rocks onto a concrete base. This gives the grinding surface a sandpaper-like texture that, like burr mills, tends to ‘shred’ the bran into tiny fragments rather than leave the intact bran flakes typical of a natural granite stone mill. These tiny bran ‘shards’ affect the bread baking quality of the flour by cutting through the gluten strands in dough (the complex protein web that trap the gas bubbles in a fermenting dough), limiting the volume of the loaf. These small fragments can also be an irritant to the digestive tract. The quality of wholegrain flour produced by millennia-old mill stone technology remains unsurpassed.

Mill stonesFreshly Milled FlourWoodGrain Mill

On the farm, we grow a modest five acres of cereal crops, mainly for our own bread making. We also supply wholegrain flour to a small bakery in town and sell bags on the side at our farmers’ markets stall to complement our mainstay vegetables. The grain is sown by hand with an antique broadcast seeder, harvested with a 1940’s Massey Harris Clipper pull-behind combine, and cleaned through a 1920’s Cockshutt fanning mill. Granite stone mills, however, are more difficult to come across than pieces of old farm machinery.

Previous to the farm I had a bread bakery and imported a stone mill from Osttiroler Getreidemühlen in Austria, a family-run company that has been building beautiful wooden mills for generations. These European mills, increasingly common in craft bakeries, are of the traditional ‘horizontal axis’ orientation meaning the stones are set horizontally like the massive slow-turning stones in the windmills and watermills of old. Another common stone mill nowadays in bakeries and small-scale flourmills is Meadows Mills from North Carolina. For over a century they have been quarrying mill stones and building a more industrial metal-encased ‘vertical axis’ stone mill, which can run at a much faster RPM than horizontal mills; a more efficient design though with potential compromises to flour quality.

Flour at marketI decided to stick with the traditional horizontal design I was experienced with, and build a mill. I ordered a set of 12” granite stones from Meadows Mills, bought a motor, pulleys, bearings and had a shaft machined locally. I made a trade with a sawmilling neighbour for a pile of dried birch he had in his basement for a furniture project he hadn’t gotten to. For the mill design, the beauty is in the simplicity.

In a traditional horizontal stone mill, the bottom ‘bed stone’ is stationary and anchored to the wooden base. The drive shaft passes through a hole in the center of the bed stone, which supports the ‘runner stone’. This shaft is supported by a bottom bearing that can be raised or lowered to set the distance between the stones; this controls grind fineness (the bottom bearing also needs to be adjustable laterally to set stone alignment). The mill is powered from a pulley on the shaft below the stones, in my case with a 2 horse power electric motor. The stones are encased with a wooden shroud, on top of which is mounted the grain hopper.

Grain drops out of the hopper at a controlled rate through the hole in the center of the runner stone, where it is spun out between the stones. The centripetal force of the spinning stone, together with the pressure from grain behind, moves the grain outwards across the grinding surface of the stone. The grinding surface is dressed with ‘furrows’, or tapered grooves, that the grain moves up and along until it is sheared off by the passing stone. The ‘lands’, or flat areas of the stone, further grind the starchy grain fragments into flour as it makes its way to the outer edge of the stone. A scoop attached to the side of the runner stone deposits the freshly milled our down a chute and into a bag.

Simple, time-honed, perfect technology.

Jonathan Knight organically farms WoodGrain Farm with his partner Jolene Swain.

All photos: WoodGrain Farm

woodgrain.ca/mill

getreidmuehlen.com

meadowsmills.com

40 Years of Thinking Like an Insect

in Crop Production/Grow Organic/Organic Stories/Pest Management/Tools & Techniques/Winter 2017
Certified organic apples

Bob McCoubrey

Gary Judd is passionate about his work. As a researcher in tree fruit entomology at Agriculture Canada’s Summerland Research Station, he works hard at balancing his passion for doing the research with his enthusiasm for sharing his knowledge with growers—particularly organic growers, many of whom he has come to regard as good friends. Over his four decade career he has proven to be a true friend of organic agriculture.

Born in England and raised in South Surrey, BC, Gary had many interests as a child, and was headed for a career in marine biology, when a couple of Simon Fraser University courses in entomology, taken to fill out his timetable, drew him into the realm of insects.

Career Metamorphosis

Once bitten, Gary was hooked. He worked as an assistant to Dr. John Borden, which led to enrolling in the Masters in Pest Management program at SFU. That led to work with Bob Vernon’s pest management company, consulting with vegetable growers in the Fraser Valley. When Bob went off to pursue a Doctorate, Gary bought the company, which he ran for three years, before pursuing his own doctorate degree.

Following the conventional wisdom that postgraduate degrees should be from different universities, Gary, now married to Linda and with a new baby in tow, headed to England to study at Imperial College. He was soon back at SFU wanting to complete his degree under Dr. Borden, the man he describes as the foremost Canadian authority in chemical ecology, the study of chemicals involved in the interactions of living organisms, particularly the production and response to signaling molecules. When he defended his thesis on the Behavioural and Chemical Ecology of Onion Flies, the external advisor on his committee, Dr. Ron Prokopy, set the tone for his career when he asked Gary if he was ready to start thinking like an insect.

As he entered the doctoral program, the federal government was offering to put promising doctoral students on the payroll, with the understanding that graduates would work for Agriculture Canada once their degrees were completed. So, with a PhD in hand, and a new way of thinking in mind, the Judds were off to Harrow, Ontario in 1986, where Gary conducted research in the field of vegetable entomology for three years before securing a position at Summerland in Tree Fruit entomology in 1989.

Always one to recognize the contribution of colleagues, Gary credits some of his success to the technicians he has worked with at the research station, particularly Don Thomson, who was on the job when he arrived, and Mark Gardiner, who took over when Thomson left to work for Pacific Biocontrol Corporation. Gardiner is still helping with the important research Gary performs.

The Apple of His Eye

Early on, Thomson introduced Gary to Similkameen Valley organic growers who were struggling to control codling moth (the proverbial worm in the apple) in preparation for the Sterile Insect Release (SIR) program, which was preparing to implement Sterile Insect Technology (SIT) whereby high numbers of sterilized codling moths would be released in apple and pear orchards to reduce the opportunities for successful mating, leading to lower and lower populations as the years went by.

The theory behind Sterile Insect Technology held that a ratio of 40 sterile male moths for every wild, fertile male moth would eradicate codling moth in the orchards. As the program evolved, it became clear that the goal of eradication would have to be scaled back to one of economic control.

The success of the release program depended on starting with the lowest possible moth population levels when the first sterile moths were released. Without conventional pesticides, the tools that organic growers used to achieve low levels were limited to the removal and destruction of damaged fruit and the banding of trees with corrugated cardboard bands to trap the larval stage of the moth as they searched for a protected place in which to pupate.

Gary thought that Mating Disruption Technology (MD) would be a useful tool for both organic and conventional farmers. The technique uses synthetic versions of pheromones, the chemicals that female insects emit to attract males for mating. Codling moth pheromone had been identified in 1971, and had been successfully used in monitoring to lure males into a sticky material in a cardboard trap so they could be counted. Research had determined economic thresholds upon which control strategy decisions were based—choice and timing of chemicals.

Apple trees in bloom

Beginning in 1989, Gary researched pheromone dispenser design, concentration and application rates, and orchard placement of dispensers to determine the role that mating disruption could play both in reducing populations prior to Sterile Insect Release, and as a stand alone codling moth control strategy. A five year study in John Hutchinson’s Cawston orchard, using mating disruption, banding, and hand thinning, drove damage levels down from 25% to 1% at harvest time, and reduced larvae counts in the cardboard bands from 1000 per hectare to 1 per hectare. By 1994, many organic orchards had lower population pressure than conventional farms, which had been using synthetic pesticides to tackle the problem.

Because the monitoring of insect populations is essential for effective decisions on control strategies, work was done to find ways to gain accurate information from pheromone traps in orchards where Mating Disruption applications had permeated the tree canopy with the same pheromone. As sometimes happens in science, a serendipitous error in mixing pheromone doses in trap lures revealed that a dose rate 10 times the normal rate would be effective under Mating Disruption conditions. Gary credits Don Thomson with the observational skills that found the solution.

Gary’s work on Mating Disruption led him to champion the technology as a stand alone strategy for codling moth. However, the political leaders of the British Columbia tree fruit industry, and the SIR Board, made up of municipal representatives of the Regional Districts that were collecting and contributing tax revenues to fund the program, decided to proceed with Sterile Insect Release.

As sterile moths began to be released, organic growers needed to learn how SIT and MD could work together, since they lacked the synthetic pesticides that conventional growers were using to try to keep moth populations low enough for SIT to work. From ’95 to 2000, Gary’s work compared three control strategies: SIT alone, SIT with the synthetic chemical Guthion, and SIT with Mating Disruption. His research benefited from the data he had collected in organic orchards prior to the release of sterile moths, and showed the best results from a combination of SIT and MD.

With the SIR program well under way, Gary shifted his focus to secondary pests, which scientists suspected would become significant when heavy duty chemical controls for codling moth were replaced by SIT. Bud Moth and Leafroller were two such secondary pests for which Mating Disruption held promise as a control strategy, since all three species, members of the Lepidoptera order of insects, employ pheromones to help male moths find their mating partners. Dual and triple lures were tested, proving that all three pests could be controlled with the application of a single lure containing three distinct pheromones without affecting the efficacy of the strategy.

An Organic Perspective

Throughout his career, Gary has preferred to work in organic orchards. From a scientific perspective, the absence of conventional chemical pesticides eliminates one of the factors that can alter and confuse results in research conducted in conventional orchards. On a personal level, he prefers not to be exposed to toxic chemicals while doing the research, and he finds organic growers to be great people to work with, enjoying their company and their ways of approaching the work they do.

As retirement approaches in a few years, Gary is looking forward to travelling, doing a bit of fishing, driving the ‘65 Austin Healy he restored a few years back, and most importantly spending time with family—he and Linda, married for 36 years now, have four children and three grandchildren. But he plans to stay in the Okanagan, and to stay involved in the industry, doing some consulting and helping with a start-up pheromone company that will use wireless aerosol delivery of pheromones for mating disruption control strategies. His travel plans will include sharing his knowledge and skills around the world where it might be useful.

In the meantime, there are filing cabinets full of research that needs to be written up, and there are new challenges that keep emerging. Invasive species that continue to surface will need attention.

The Future of Fruit Tree Pest Management

Apple Clear Wing Moth is emerging as the most important pest in organic apple orchards. First identified in the Okanagan Valley in 2005, it is difficult for organic growers to control, as its larval stage can spend two years buried under the bark of the tree, eating the cambium layer and hiding from control measures. Gary is working on a mass trapping strategy that will use ower and fruit odours to trap out the females, combined with pheromones to disrupt mating.

Another recent arrival is the Brown Marmorated Stink bug, a pest of apples that will also attack soft fruits and vegetables. There seem to be no end of challenges to last till Gary’s retirement. His message to anyone interested in entomology: there is opportunity for a fascinating career, exploring the life cycles and habits of a wide range of species, and devising ways for humans to control the impact of those that cross swords with us.

His advice—just develop the skill of thinking like an insect.

For a person who has spent four decades in the world of creatures that most of us tend to ignore until they get in our way, Gary Judd has had an impact on the lives of organic and conventional farmers throughout agriculture in the Okanagan Valley and beyond, with contributions that are impossible to ignore. He has earned a sincere debt of gratitude.

Bob McCoubrey is a retired organic orchardist in the Okanagan’s Lake Country. With his wife Sharon, he farmed eight acres for 38 years before turning his efforts to mentorship, writing, volunteering, and community building.

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Where is the GM Apple?

in 2017/Crop Production/Organic Community/Organic Standards/Winter 2017
CBAN Bulletin on genetically engineered food in Canada

Lucy Sharatt

In March 2015, Okanagan Specialty Fruits (OSF) got approval for its GM non-browning Golden Delicious and Granny Smith apples in both Canada and the United States. The US government also just announced approval of the GM Fuji, and a GM Gala is coming next. After having said in August 2016 that 1,000-1,200, 40-pound boxes of GM Golden Delicious apples would be sliced and sold in grocery stores in the western US,(1) the company now says it will test markets in the US early this year. But where will these apples come from?

Establishing orchards of genetically modified (GM) apples will take time and like other GM products that have been approved by our government, the new GM non-browning “Arctic” apple will be hard to track down. The GM apple is already particularly difficult to trace: OSF itself does not know exactly what to do with it because the market for the apple is unknown. But orchardists in BC, particularly organic growers, need to know where it is cultivated.

The company intends to plant 300,000 to 500,000 new trees each year but it’s unclear if this plan is for the US, Canada, or both countries.(2) OSF now says that based on their current planting contracts, they will plant over 870,000 trees between 2016 and 2018 that at maturity will produce over 30 million pounds of GM apples every year.(3) These numbers will be difficult to verify independently.

In an August 2016 letter to CBAN, Okanagan Specialty Fruits said that it will roll out the production and consumer test marketing in the US first: “OSF commercial orchards are currently planted in the United States. OSF consumer product test markets, to be conducted using Arctic® Golden apples from the first commercial harvest, will be conducted in the United States. These test markets will highlight a sliced product featuring the Arctic® brand. Most other parameters, including the Canadian market introduction, have yet to be determined.”

Because BC orchardists protested the field-testing of the GM apple, all field trials took place in the US instead of Canada, leaving maturing orchards in Washington and New York State. OSF President Neal Carter says there are already 70 acres at one ranch in Washington.(4)

The location of any GM apple trees is important information for organic growers. OSF told COABC that no GM apple orchards are planted in Canada and it may be “several years” before BC plantings occur.(5) However, in January 2016, the Ottawa Citizen reported that “So far, only a handful of Arctic Apple trees are being grown in Canada, in a greenhouse in Summerland, B.C., where Carter owns his orchard”.(6) Carter may not have planted GM fruit trees yet but could have a nursery where he is growing his own rootstock. The company also told COABC that when plantings in BC do take place, all trees and fruit will be under the direct oversight of OSF on either our own land or that of growers specifically contracted to produce fruit for us”.(7)

Despite the name, Okanagan Specialty Fruits is no longer a small BC company. In 2015, it was bought by biotechnology/synthetic biology company Intrexon, which also owns the GM salmon and a GM mosquito.

Ultimately, growers will need to work together to track the GM apple trees. COABC is asking growers to talk to their nurseries and report any information so that growers in BC can be aware if and when the GM trees hit the market. Some growers are already getting verbal pledges from their nurseries that they will never sell the GM trees.

OSF says “The Perfect Fruit Got Even Better” but consumers will decide if this is the case. Most major grocery chains in Canada have already responded to consumer concerns by saying that they have no plans to carry the GM apple in their stores. In the meantime, growers can also decide how far the GM apple tree gets.

Visit CBAN for updates and more information on the Arctic Apple

Lucy Sharatt is the coordinator of the Canadian Biotech- nology Action Network (CBAN). CBAN brings together 16 organizations that research, monitor and raise aware- ness about issues relating to genetic engineering in food and farming. CBAN members include farmer associa- tions, environmental and social justice organizations, and regional coalitions of grassroots groups. CBAN is a project on Tides Canada’s shared platform.

References

(1) Dan Wheat, “Company Forges Ahead with GM Apples.” Capital Press, August 11, 2016. http://www.capitalpress.com/Orchards/20160811/company-forges-ahead-with-gm-apples

(2) Laura Robin, “From Tree to Table: The Arctic Apple is Ready to Blossom.” Ottawa Citizen, January 22, 2016. http://ottawacitizen.com/news/local-news/from-tree-to-table-the-arctic-apple-is-ready- to-blossom

(3) Intrexon’s (XON) CEO Randal Kirk on Q3 2016 Results – Earnings Call Transcript, November 9, 2016. http://seekingalpha.com/article/4021879-intrexons-xon-ceo-randal-kirk-q3-2016-results-earnings-call-transcript?part=single

(4) Fresh Fruit Portal, “US: GM Arctic Apple Ready for First Test Marketing in Early 2017” October 3, 2016. http://www.freshfruitportal.com/news/2016/10/03/us-gm-arctic-apples-ready-for-first-test-marketing-in-early-2017/

(5) Email correspondence between Eva-Lena Lang, Certified Organic Association of BC and Jessica Brady, Okanagan Specialty Fruits, June 10, 2016; Letter from Neal Carter, Okanagan Specialty Fruits to Walter Makepeace, Certified Organic Associations of BC , November 1, 2016.

(6) Letter from Neal Carter, Okanagan Specialty Fruits to Lucy Sharratt, Canadian Biotechnology Action Network, August 22, 2016.

(7) Letter from Neal Carter, Okanagan Specialty Fruits to Walter Makepeace, Certified Organic Associations of BC , November 1, 2016.

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Gene Editing: The End of GMOs?

Lucy Sharratt There is a lot of excitement about “gene editing,” or genome editing, in the media and research community.

Why Your Food Choices Matter

CBAN’s New Public Education Tool to Support the Organic Solution Lucy Sharratt The gravity and gathering speed of the global

Footnotes from the Field: Biochar

in 2016/Fall 2016/Footnotes from the Field/Grow Organic/Standards Updates/Tools & Techniques
Making Biochar

Marjorie Harris BSc, IOIA VO, P.Ag. with many thanks to Zbigniew Wierzbicki of Elderberry Lane Farm for sharing his knowledge and experience

Turning Wood into Long Term Soil Fertility

Hooray! Biochar has arrived in the new PSL Nov. 25th 2015 edition!

Biochar is considered an excellent way to increase long term soil fertility. As an early pioneer in the farm production and use of biochar, Zbigniew Wierzbicki of Elderberry Lane Farm has always been eager to share the dos and don’ts of his biochar experience. Zbigniew is a strong advocate for the appropriate on-farm use of biochar and its correct production techniques.

The first question is; what is ‘Biochar’?

It seems to have appeared out of nowhere onto the COR PSL. The term Bio-char (biomass derived black carbon) was only coined in 2006 by Dr. Johannes Lehmann at Cornell University’s Crop and Soil Sciences department. Interest in biochar stems from the relatively obscure history and puzzling existence of the Terra Preta (literally ‘black soil’) or ‘dark earths’ scattered throughout the Amazon Basin which have caused much recent scholarly discussion, research and theorizing.

The current consensus is that Pre-Colombian peoples between 2500 to 500 B.P. created the Terra Preta by adding burnt agricultural wastes and pottery kiln ashes to their gardening soils. The Terra Preta soils were first reported in 1542, by the Spanish explorer Francisco de Orellana, to the Spanish court about his discovery of fertile lands supporting a large civilization living in the Amazon rain forest. However, by the time further expeditions arrived, the indigenous Amazonian populations had succumbed to European diseases and the existence of their civilization along with the fertile soils drifted into myth and legend.

In 1885, Cornell University professor, Dr. Charles Hartt described the Amazonian ‘dark earths’. Finally in the
20th century research and interest in the Terra Preta took off after Dutch soil scientist Wim Sombroek reported pockets of rich soils in his 1966 book, Amazon Soils.

Amazingly, these soils created more than a thousand years ago still demonstrate sustainably fertility that support astounding growth potentials compared to their neighbouring poor quality soils. They are rich in mineral nutrients and contain high concentrations of organic matter, on average three times higher than in the surrounding
soils.

The Pyrolytic Process

The pyrolytic process involves heating the biomass materials in the absence of oxygen. This causes a chemical reaction process whereby carbon transforms into highly interlinked aromatic chains forming a very porous and absorbent product. Pyrolytic heating causes 75% loss of the original biomass while retaining 50% of the plant carbon. The highest temperature reached during pyrolysis influences the molecular structure and the nal pore size and pore distribution, factors that govern its absorptive behaviour in the environment.

The resulting biochar is highly stable and resistant against microbial decay for thousands of years. Biochar increases overall surface area in the soil that can provide niches for increased microbial populations, which aid in reducing plant diseases, such as damping off, by mechanisms that are still unclear. Studies have demonstrated that biochar treated soils mitigate greenhouse gas emissions by reducing nitrous oxide release by up to 90% and by sequestering carbon compound residence time for thousands of years. Biochar also holds nitrogen, phosphorus, and many other minerals for slow release, while increasing the cation exchange capacity (CEC) and water retention ability of the soil.

Making Biochar

Activating the Biochar

As Zbigniew notes, the fresh biochar must first be “activated” by absorbing nutrients. Scattering a light layer of biochar on the barn oor will let the biochar absorb the nutrients from the straw-manure litter while keeping the barn oor sweet and protecting livestock feet from diseases. Biochar can also be charged by soaking it for two to four weeks in any liquid nutrient (urine, plant tea, etc.). If the biochar is not properly activated before being applied to the soil it will absorb the available soil nutrients to fill its absorptive capacity, depleting the soil. Once properly activated by adsorbing the ammonia (NH3) from barn urine and manure, biochar becomes an excellent slow release fertilizer full of bioavailable nitrogen compounds lodged in the carbon pores waiting for release by microbial action. There is evidence that biochar is beneficial to arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi that develop symbiotic relationship with plant roots for greater nutrient uptake.

How to Make Your Own Biochar

1. How to stack wood: Zbigniew emphasizes that biochar burning must be a top down process. The wood stacking method is opposite from what is learned in Boy Scouts, where small kindling is placed on the bottom, Zbigniew explains. When making biochar you place the large wood pieces on the bottom in a pit or trench and pile the small wood on the top, causing the pile to burn downward. Using this stacking method causes the volatile gases that form as the biomass heats up to be consumed by the high temperatures at the top of the pile instead of being released into the air, as is the case in a normally constructed fire.

2. Dig a trench or pit: and bury all of the roots, slash, and large logs. Compact the pile, and put lighter material on top. The intensity of the fire is so incredible that there is no smoke, it creates a very clean burn, and a large amount of biochar is produced. Cover the red hot coals with dirt or if you have a burning pit, cover it to finish the process in a reduced oxygen environment. This prevents the formation of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) in the kiln. Regular burning creates lots of PAH’s, which contaminate the soil and air.

3. Drenching is optional: Zbigniew drenches his biochar at the very end. The caution here is that the liquid from the biochar is very alkaline and the area the liquid goes cannot be used for gardening. Zbigniew has a permanent ditch for catching the liquid.

4. Activating the biochar: After the material is cold, crush into a fine gravel size for use on the bottom of the barn to catch urine and other nutrient goodies. Poultry barns and large livestock barns can all use biochar on the oor. Biochar is like a magnet absorbing minerals. As it absorbs minerals and urine from the animal waste it becomes activated.

5. Neutralizing the biochar: Remove from the barns when saturated and put into the compost with other crop and farm waste. The composting process helps neutralize it before spreading into the garden soil. The microbes of the garden soils will release the minerals from the biochar as they are needed. Because of this microbial release action the biochar will release mineral nutrients for a very long time.

6. Cautionary note: Zbigniew emphasizes that because biochar is so alkaline and so very long acting, it is very important to test your soils pH first. Although composting does move the biochar pH toward neutral you need to check your soil pH to manage it properly for long term changes.

marjorieharris@telus.net

All photos: Marjorie Harris

References:
Clough, T.J., Condron, L.M., Kamman, C., Müller, C. (2013). A Review of Biochar and Soil Nitrogen Dynamics. Agronomy, 3, 275-293; doi:10.3390/agronomy3020275.
Lehmann, J. (2012). Integrated biochar systems for soil fertility management. Cornell University, Mar 26.

Ask An Expert: Transitioning to Organic

in 2016/Ask an Expert/Fall 2016/Organic Standards
Kale with Water droplet

Rochelle Eisen, B.Sc.(Agr), P.Ag

We asked farmers transitioning to organic for burning questions they’ve been dying to ask. From paperwork to fence posts, standards junkie Rochelle Eisen has the answers they — and you — have been seeking!

Q: How much detail does my record keeping require for the inspector (crop seeding, planting, rotations, dates, etc…)?
A: The more detail the better as the inspector will try to establish if you had enough seed/transplants for the amount of the crop produced. Also, rotation plans, green manure seeding dates, and input use records are necessary to establish if good organic ag practices are in place. Sales records, crop seeding dates, and harvest dates are helpful with yield estimations, especially if plantings are staggered. Such detailed records help you to become a better farmer, as you have the necessary details at your ngertips to help you plan and identify your successes.

Q: If I need advice with paperwork can I ask my inspector?
A: Verification officers (VOs) cannot assist with paperwork except to explain the requirement/standard, as it would be considered consulting and giving you an advantage over other operators. Some certifiers offer workshops and others have someone who can answer your questions. Otherwise, provincial specialists are sometimes helpful. In the end it might be best to hire a consultant. Certifiers sometimes keep list of available consultants.

Q: Do I have to use all certified organic seed (and what if there is no organic option)?
A: Yes, organic seed is required. When you can’t find the variety you are looking for in the quantity and quality you need, you can use non-organic untreated seed. BUT (there always has to be a but, n’est ce pas?) you can’t play that card year in, year out for the same variety. Most certifiers will expect to you to explain what your plan is to help develop an organic source over the coming years, and this question will be asked annually. And just to round out this answer… as the most logical next question is “what does a commercial availability seed search look like?’ The answer is, most certifiers expect growers to contact three credible organic sources to establish the lack of supply. Such searches are to be repeated annually.

Q: Can I use saved seed, such as the garlic I saved from last year’s harvest?
A: Assuming the operation is organic or even in transition, the answer is an emphatic yes, as the seed was raised organically. This has to be tempered by the question: is it wise? It all depends on if you have clean and true to type seed. For example, garlic is one of those crops prone to seed borne diseases such as white rot. Saving your own seed if there is any level of infection may be your own undoing.

And as mentioned, transitional seed is acceptable too, as it was raised organically—it just comes from land that hasn’t met the 36 months from last prohibit substance requirement and can’t be sold as organic. See SIC Q113 for further insight:

“Does the requirement to use organic seed, tubers etc. (5.3) preclude the use of seed grown on transitional landwithin the same operation? (113) Answer: Seed grown on transitional land is acceptable as it meets the require- ment of 5.3 and as it has not been grown using prohibited substances or techniques.”

Q: I have had much discussion with other farmers, certified organic and those considering certification alike, about use and re-use of treated posts. Is a treated post that is already on your farm allowed to stay on your farm only if it remains in place, or is it acceptable to move and reuse posts within the farm as we change or rebuild fencing?
A: Good news—existing inventories can be used anywhere within your farm (see subclause 5.2.3 b of CAN/ CGSB-32.310). Be sure your certifier is aware of this existing inventory so there are no surprises when the VO does their site visit, or when your certifier reviews your Organic Plan and the VO report.

Q: What’s the difference between green manure, manure and compost?
A: Manure is animal waste. Green manures are plough down cover crops grown purposefully to build soil health. Compost can be made from animal or plant material and any combination thereof. Refer to the ‘compost’ definition (3.15 in CAN/CGSB 32.310) and the ‘compost feedstocks’, ‘compost from off-farm sources’ and the ‘compost produced on the farm’ listings in PSL Table 4.2 for complete details. Manure management requirements are outlined in 5.5 of CAN/CGSB 32.310.

Q: What’s the amount of time required between com- post application and harvest?
A: From a standards perspective, compost can be applied any time of the year, but compost containing animal waste or other risky feedstock that may contain human pathogens has to be effectively composted first. Otherwise, the material must be applied to the land 90 days before harvest when the crop doesn’t touch the soil. That would be the case with tree and cane fruits. 120 days is required pre harvest for any crops that commonly touch the soil (potatoes, lettuce, strawberries, etc…). Think about it this way—120 days is required unless the crop is obviously off the ground.

Q: What is required for mulching materials?
A: Plant materials from organic sources must be used as mulch but if organic sources are not available, then crop materials, such as straw and hay, that haven’t been treated with any prohibited substances for at least 60 days pre-harvest can be used as mulching material.

Q: Can I get animals I already own certified? (i.e. dairy cows)
A: Dairy herds and individual herd animals can be transitioned, but it takes 12 months of organic management before the milk collected can qualify as organic. None of the animals transitioned can ever qualify as organic meat animals. To qualify as organic meat, animals must have been born by an organic dam or the transitioning dam must be under organic management by the onset of the third gestation period.

Q: What’s the most appropriate way to label my transitional organic products?
A: Transitioning farms or “farms in conversion to organic” selling all their products within BC may identify their products as “transitional” or “in conversion to organics” or other similar language on all marketing materials including websites signs and labels. But they cannot refer to their operation or transitional products as “organic”, “organically grown”, “organically raised”, or “organically produced”. For products being shipped out of province the only acceptable phrases are “in transition” or “ transitional” or “in conversion”. The word “organic” cannot be included in any of these claims.

Q: What type of signage may farms in transition use?
A: A farming operation in transition or conversion is not “organic” and must not mislead consumers with false organic claims. For example, a transitioning farm, certified by a COABC regional CB, may not call itself “Joe’s Organic farm” or use the word “organic” “organically grown”, “organically raised”, “organically produced” or similar words, including abbreviations of, symbols for and phonetic renderings of those words, in any signage. The British Columbia Certified Organic Program allows “in transition/conversion to organic” claims on signs, labels, and other marketing tools to be used by transitioning operations. However, for operations shipping out of the province, this phrasing is not acceptable to the Canadian Organic Regime. Transitioning operations may not use either the provincial or national organic logos. Check with your CB if they have a transitional logo you can use.

Q: How should I market transitional organic products?
A: Label your products as transitional or in conversion and be sure to tell your story/journey to your customers. Some of the distributors, especially those who specialize in organics, may also be interested in your product if it fills a gap. Don’t hesitate to approach.

For more Organic Standards FAQs, visit COABC’s Grow Organic Toolkit.

Rochelle Eisen is a standards junkie who has been working in organics for close to 30 years, as well as with other certification systems. Like Einstein, she believes “What is right is not always popular and what is popular is not always right” and that assurance programs are a means to level the ecological playing field.

 

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Young Agrarians Land Matching

in 2016/Fall 2016/Grow Organic/Land Stewardship
Farmer in field at certified organic farm, black and white

Darcy Smith

The Shifting Paradigm of Land Access in Southern BC

At Blue Heron Organic Farm on Vancouver Island, Kris Chand and his wife Maria had been farming organically for several decades. The couple was starting to think about retiring; at the same time, they saw a rising demand for organic food. Happy with the size of their own farm business but wanting to provide opportunities to young farmers and establish a succession plan, they turned to a solution that increasing numbers of farmers and land owners are adopting (1) — they leased out an unused field after attending a Young Agrarians Land Linking Workshop.

Kris had always wanted the piece of land next to their farm that they’d originally bought as a buffer to be managed organically. “By leasing it, we could ensure that the land next door to us would be consistent with our philosophy. It is something that is important to us, that we as a society increase sustainable agriculture, particularly that which practices the organic way of doing things,” Kris says. “Young agrarians have one heck of a time getting access to land. We wanted to make it possible for somebody.”

Certified Organic Fields at Halt & Harrow Farm

He’s right – the number one struggle identified by new and young farmers in southern BC is the prohibitively high cost of land. Land and housing prices are some of the highest in Canada and areas with good access to markets, such as the Lower Mainland, far exceed what a new farmer can make off the land base. Many of the younger generation, just entering the job or housing market, can scarcely afford condos, much less an acreage that will support a thriving farm business.

Yet the desire to farm, to find a piece of land and put down roots and build a successful business, keeps growing. Leasing land gives new and young farmers the opportunity to get their farm businesses off the ground without the high cost of buying land or the necessity of moving away from friends, family, and markets to find cheaper land. The majority of farmers in BC are age 55 and up, and less than 5% are 35 and younger. (2) 66% of farmers plan to retire in the next 10 years, and almost half of retiring farmers don’t have a succession plan. (3) Leasing land provides an option for farmers like Kris, who want to ensure their land continues to be farmed into the future.

Leasing land is a real, viable solution — however, it comes with its own set of unique challenges. Namely, how do farmers and land owners find each other, and how do they establish a successful land match that is beneficial in the long run for both parties and the land?

Tractor in field at Salt & Harrow Farm

Enter the Young Agrarians Land Matching Program. The program, first of its kind in BC, is adapted from Quebec’s successful Banque de Terres (Land Bank), which has been matching farmers to land for several years (most recently finding homes for a farmer growing hops andanother who makes maple syrup). Young Agrarians has teamed up with the City of Surrey to roll out the Land Matching pilot in the Lower Mainland and develop an online U-Map registry for land seekers and land owners.

In this hands-on, personalized model, a Land Matcher screens farmers and potential land opportunities, ensuring that farmers are business ready and the land is suited for agriculture. Then, much like a dating service, the Land Matcher connects farmers and land owners who have similar visions and needs. If there’s a spark, the Land Matcher facilitates a “dating” process, where the farmer and land owner get to know each other and start to map out their land agreement. From there, the farmer and land owner draw up a legal arrangement with the Land Matcher’s help, which is then reviewed by a lawyer.

For program participants, much of the especially finicky legwork has already been established, including navigating the regulatory, zoning, and other farm specific issues surrounding leasing land. Farmers and land owners make use of resources such as guides and checklists to support them through the land matching process, as well as lease templates, saving valuable time trying to figure out if, for example, a leasing farmer will be able to live on the property, how much of an investment it will be to farm there, and whose responsibility it is to manage what components of the property. This helps reduce stumbling blocks for farmers and land owners who simply don’t have hours to spend researching the ins and outs of setting up a stable land agreement.

Certified Organic Vegetable CSA at Salt & Harrow

While the program is in its pilot year and providing services in the Lower Mainland, the ultimate goal is to provide an on-going matchmaking service across Southern BC – and successfully create land matches that lead to hundreds more acres of sustainably farmed land.

Kris would love to see that happen. He successfully found a young farmer to lease his land when he connected with Sara Dent, Young Agrarians Co-Founder and BC Coordinator, who put Kris in touch with Seann Dory. The new farm business, Salt & Harrow Farm, is now mid-way through its first season, selling a dazzling array of gourmet veggies through a CSA and at markets across Vancouver Island and Vancouver. To those in his situation, Kris says “I would encourage other farmers, especially in the organic sector, who are about to retire or have existing farmland that they can’t manage, to think in terms of the barriers that motivated young agrarians have – and try to make it possible for them to do it.”

Got Land?

Farmers: Looking for land? Ready to start a farm business?
Land Owners: Have land? Want someone to farm it?
We’re looking for you! Young Agrarians is piloting a Land Matching service for 2016-2017 in the Fraser Valley – Lower Mainland and is reaching out to farmers and land owners to find viable farmland opportunities and facilitate the connection and agreement process with business-ready farmers.

If you’re interested or would like more information, please contact Darcy Smith at land@youngagrarians.org

The Young Agrarians Land Matching Program is a collaboration with Quebec’s Banque de Terres (Land Bank) and a partnership with the City of Surrey. Funding is provided by Vancity and the Real Estate Foundation of British Columbia. Young Agrarians is a partnership with FarmFolk CityFolk.

Darcy Smith is the Young Agrarians Land Matcher for the Lower Mainland. A farm enthusiast and backyard gardener, she wears many hats in the farming community – in addition to her work on land matching with Young Agrarians, she is COABC’s communications officer and editor of this publication.

All photos: Salt & Harrow Farm

References:
(1) Statistics Canada. Census of Agriculture. 2011. Figure 11: Land tenure as a proportion of total farm area, Canada, 1976 to 2011.
(2) Statistics Canada. Census of Agriculture. 2011. Table 004-0017 – Census of Agriculture, number of farm operators by sex, age and paid non-farm work, Canada and provinces, every 5 years, CANSIM.
(3) CFIB, Business Succession Planning Survey, Agri-busi- ness results, Mar. – May 2011, 602 survey responses.

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Passing on the Farm

in 2016/Fall 2016/Organic Community
Claremont Ranch Organics transition planning

Bob McCoubrey

A Succession Planning Story

After more than 35 years of growing tree fruits and vegetables on our small farm in Lake Country, it was time to think about retirement. Our joints were telling us to ease up on the physical work and our son and daughter had moved on to other towns and careers.

The idea of selling the property was a bit scary, as we had become attached to the land and the houses. The main house was just a year or two shy of its 100th birthday, and the “guest house” was one my father had built for a previous owner when my parents first moved to the area to take up farming, back in the late 1940’s. Both houses had heritage value for us.

The land had supported our family well over our time on the farm. Sharon and I had transitioned the land to certified organic status beginning in 1989, and we didn’t want to see new owners abandoning what we had achieved by going back to conventional farming methods. We were reluctant to list the property with a realtor, taking a chance on the intentions that new owners might have.

We didn’t want to see new owners abandoning what we had achieved by going back to conventional farming methods”

Our Okanagan location meant we could benefit from the overheated real estate market. Land prices were high. However, that meant many of the people who might share our values and plans for the land might not be able to afford the in ated prices. After a lifetime of living here, close to family and friends, we wanted to stay in the area, which would mean buying in that same overheated real estate market, leaving us unwilling to sell for a discounted price to encourage like-minded buyers.

As we struggled with what to do, we were fortunate to meet Molly Bannerman and Matt Thurston. Recent graduates in agriculture from the University of Guelph, and fresh from a year of WWOOFing and touring in the United Kingdom, they were about to get married and were thinking of settling down on an organic farm. It seemed like a perfect match. They both found good jobs related to farming, and we began a three to four year “dance” to see if we could put a deal together.

There was a period when they leased the farm and lived in the small house, followed by a few years with us running the farm again, while they moved in to town, only to come back to rent an acre to grow some vegetables. It became clear that we all wanted to make it work for Matt and Molly to acquire the farm.

The farm had all of the basic equipment needed to grow the crops we had been producing, and we had recently built a cold storage facility, which would make it easier for the Thurstons to grow, store, and sell their crops while continuing to work off farm. The biggest challenge was to find a way to finance the sale in a way that the cash flow could handle the debt servicing requirements.

The key turned out to be rethinking how we would invest for the future.”

A paradigm shift needed to happen in our minds about how to manage our needs and our assets. I had always thought we would sell the farm, buy a retirement property, invest the remainder of the proceeds, and live happily ever after. The key turned out to be rethinking how we would invest for the future.

Financial advisors told us to avoid high risk investments as we moved into retirement in an effort to keep our assets safe. That would mean lower but stable returns from nancial products such as term deposits. We wouldn’t be making a lot of money, but we could see that we would have all we needed to enjoy life.

As we looked for a solution, we recalled the help given to us by the seller, when we bought the farm back in 1973. After scraping together a down payment and borrowing the maximum available to us on a first mortgage from Farm Credit Canada, we still needed to find 20% of the purchase price. The seller took a second mortgage on the property, with payments of only the interest for a number of years to keep our cash flow requirements low while we got ourselves established.

The real estate market had changed in the 38 years since we started farming. Interest rates were much lower, but the principal amounts were significantly higher. The financing solution we needed would have to put even more importance on keeping the cash flow required to service the debt as low as possible. In the final agreement, we took 30% of the sale price in cash, financed through a first mortgage by the Thurstons. The remaining 70% was financed through a second mortgage that we hold, with payments of only the interest, at a rate slightly higher than what low risk investments would pay us, but lower than what a second mortgage would cost on the open market. After four years, half of the second mortgage was to be paid out, leaving 35% of the sale price in the second mortgage for the full 10-year term.

All we had to do was to decide to invest in the future of organic farming by trusting and investing in the next generation of organic farmers.”

Some would suggest that we were putting ourselves in a much higher risk position than we would experience by investing in penny stocks on the Vancouver Stock Market; however, we had come to know and trust the Thurstons, and thought the risk was acceptable. Our lawyer did his job well, pointing out all of the things that could go wrong, and suggesting contract wording that would protect everyone’s interests. But, being an organic farmer himself, he understood our desire to believe in our new partners in farming.

So in 2011, we moved our belongings to a quiet property where we enjoy a bit of gardening and watching the weather on the lake. The financing arrangement met all of our needs. We never looked back and have not regretted any of our decisions.

Five years into the agreement, the Thurstons are ahead of schedule with their payments, and the farm is thriving. The transitions — into retirement for us and into farming for Matt and Molly, have been smooth and painless. All we had to do was to decide to invest in the future of organic farming by trusting and investing in the next generation of organic farmers.

Bob McCoubrey is a retired organic orchardist in the Okanagan’s Lake Country. With his wife Sharon, he farmed eight acres for 38 years before turning his efforts to mentorship, writing, volunteering, and community building.

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Organic Stories: Farming on the Edge at WoodGrain Farm

in Fall 2016/Farmer Focus/Grow Organic/Organic Stories
WWOOFers at Woodgrain

Jonathan Knight

If you walk out the back door of the little blue farmhouse at WoodGrain Farm, past the acre of market gardens and the old log outbuildings and barns, and back through the forest high along the banks of the Skeena River, there is wilderness. This is real wilderness, where one could follow ancient footpaths of the Gitxsan people and century-old telegraph trails hundreds of kilometers into the heart of the Sacred Headwaters, from where the three great salmon rivers of northern BC, the Skeena, Stikine, and Nass, flow.

I’ve always been drawn to places on the edge, interested in the transition between where one place ends and the next begins, whether a seashore or a mountainside. This valley is very much where the last patchwork of rural habitation meets the wide open wilderness of the northwest.

I wasn’t always planning on being a farmer, but knew I would one day end up on a homestead in a wild place. Yet I was aware that once you choose to live deliberately on a piece of land, you don’t do much else, and I had other lives to live first. During time spent living and travelling around Europe and India in my early twenties, I explored my relationship with food, particularly drawn to old methods of craft food production, culminating in an apprenticeship in organic bread making.

Spring Garden at Woodgrain Farm
Spring Garden at Woodgrain. Credit: Jonathan Knight

I’ve always been drawn to places on the edge. This valley is where the last patchwork of rural habitation meets the wide open wilderness of the northwest.”

The apprenticeship was followed by a couple of years cycling and WWOOFing across Canada, after which I returned to BC and opened the popular True Grain Bread in Cowichan Bay. In the second year the bakery installed a stone mill, which shortened the links between the farmer and the baker, opening up a treasure trove of heirloom grains and the opportunity to work with local farmers to get grain growing on Vancouver Island. As passionate as I am about craft bread making, I still felt the strong pull backwards, towards the very basics—the grain, or seed, and the soil. In 2008 the bakery was transitioned to its present owners, and I set off with my then-partner on another bicycle odyssey of rural Canada.

If you trace the line on the map, Highway 16 heads northwest out of Prince George where it leaves the interior plateau and passes into the broad, pastoral Bulkley Valley. Past Smithers, the Bulkley flows into the Skeena, and the highway makes an abrupt left to follow the river’s course southwest to Terrace and the coast. At this confluence of the rivers, the northernmost point on the Yellowhead, lie the villages and settlements that comprise the Hazeltons. Instead of following the highway downstream, turning right to follow the Skeena due north for 20km will bring you to the Kispiox Valley, the most northern reach of the Agricultural Land Reserve west of the Rockies and, at one point, home to the second oldest Farmers’ Institute in BC.

When we first pedalled through these parts, we were struck by the mountains and open spaces of the Bulkley Valley, and by the vibrant youthful community around Smithers. We returned that fall with the intent of looking for land, and people kept telling us “you have to check out the Kispiox Valley” in a way that sounded almost mystical. In a practical sense, the Kispiox enjoys a temperate coastal influence from the Skeena, which makes it noticeably warmer than Smithers just an hour to the east, but with not nearly the precipitation of Terrace two hours to the west. It felt like the right balance for making the most of the shorter but more intense northern growing season.

Red Fife Wheat at Woodgrain Farm
Red Fife Wheat. Credit: Jonathan Knight

It also fit another important criteria. I didn’t want to end up living just somewhere along a highway, where there is the tendency to drive into town whenever you need something or are feeling social. The Kispiox Valley is definitely a place unto itself, with a strong character and community. Beyond the Gitxsan village at the Kispiox River’s confluence with the Skeena, the valley is home to about 200 folks of mostly rancher/logger or back-to-the-lander origin, with a thriving community hall and annual rodeo and music festival.

The valley was first farmsteaded about a hundred years ago, and this farm was one of the original staked. It had been sitting gracefully fallow for about 30 years when we found it, and began the work of slowly bringing it back to life. A fair number of valley folk today have roots on this farm, and the support we’ve had from our neighbours since the beginning has been immeasurable. Wilfred, an old-time neighbour who tilled our first garden space for us, remembers running and hiding under the bed when the valley’s first tractor was being unloaded on the farm. That rusty W4 is here still.

When I’m asked for advice by prospective new farmers, it is not to rush into too much, too soon. That first year, we helped get a fledgling Hazelton Farmers’ Market going, planted a modest market garden on freshly tilled old pasture (with no rototiller), bought the sweetest Jersey cow named Elsie, sheep for the pasture, pigs for the tillage, and a hundred laying hens. Never mind that the buildings were all in need of serious repair, the house was decrepit, there wasn’t an intact line of fence on the place, we had no haying equipment, and I was also committed to help get a small social enterprise bakery in town off the ground. Whether the decisions we made to jump in with both feet had much of a bearing on it or not, the outcome was that by the second year I was alone on the farm.

WoodGrain Farm at sunset
WoodGrain Farm. Credit: Jolene Swain

Well, not quite alone. There were always the WWOOFers. My experiences WWOOFing have been invaluable in a lot of what I have learned how to do (and not to do!), and I am privileged to be able to offer that in return. No matter how hectic things can feel at times, I try and always keep in mind that the experience this person is having here may just well be changing their lives. It had changed mine.

More permanent help soon arrived. Andi and Ryan came fresh off a SOIL apprenticeship and partnered for a season of market gardening, where we quickly out-produced the demand in Hazelton and started to regularly attend the Bulkley Valley Farmers’ Market down the road in Smithers. Next came Angelique and Lynden, first as WWOOFers and then for two seasons as market gardeners. They, with their new daughter born on the farm, are moving on this spring. But, as with Andi and Ryan and their new twins, to another place just around the corner. The valley’s population has grown by seven.

Jonathan and his hand built grain mill
Jonathan and his hand built grain mill. Credit: Marjorie Harris

Going into this seventh season of farming, the balance between farming as a business and homesteading as a life choice feels more settled. Growing systems are figured out, perennial weeds are getting worn down, fences are keeping animals put, buildings are staying up, the farm is established at the markets, and farm earnings are forecastable. It’s now easier to make deliberate choices, about where to focus and what to cut back on. Hay needs to be brought in for the winter, but otherwise the balance can be tipped from side to side. Grow more for the markets, or work on improving self-sufficiency on the farm. Farm to earn money, or farm to reduce the money needed to be earned. Feed and nurture your community, or feed and nurture your soul.

When I manage to stand back far enough to get a good vantage point of the farm as a whole, it is neither here nor there. Not what is was in the past, and not what it will become in the future. I have incredible admiration for the work that was done by the original homesteaders, clearing the land and building the hand-hewn log house with an axe, but I wouldn’t wish to be in their shoes for a moment. My respect is not diminished for the later generation who raised cattle here because they might have sprayed Tordon, those were different times. The thistles survived it nevertheless. Nowadays, the soils are healthy and being improved with each season. The fertility of the fields is passed through the animals to the market garden. Innovations like drip irrigation, electric fences and hay balers are the envy of those who have farmed here before us.

The farm provides our vegetables and fruit, grains and bread, dairy and cheese, meat and eggs, and our livelihoods. But others will come and go, and hopefully settle close by, and this place will continue to evolve with the people who live here. The farm will remain on the edge, of what it has been and what it might become.

Jonathan Knight organically farms WoodGrain Farm with his partner Jolene Swain.

*The photo of WoodGrain farm that appeared on the cover of the Fall 2016 BC Organic Grower was taken by Jolene Swain and attributed in error to Jonathan Knight.

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The BC Seed Trials

in Crop Production/Fall 2016/Seeds
BC Seed Trials Field Day in Chilliwack

Shauna MacKinnon

Scaling Up Ecological Seed Production

British Columbia is home to a vegetable industry worth $2.8 billion annually, but nearly every seed planted to grow those veggies is produced outside of Canada. While local, organic vegetable production is on the upswing, seed production is lagging. That may not appear to be a problem when browsing through a thick seed catalogue, but behind the seeming abundance of seed available there is a narrowing of diversity and neglect of varieties that perform well under organic or non-industrial agricultural practices.

The Bauta Family Initiative on Canadian Seed Security was initiated four years ago with a mission to conserve and advance seed biodiversity, keep seed in the public domain, and promote ecological seed production. In BC, passionate seed growers have long been at work in support of these same ideals, but the lack of commercial-scale seed production still prevented most BC farmers from using BC seed in their market operations. To fill this gap, the Bauta Initiative, carried out by FarmFolk CityFolk in BC, is focusing on increasing the quality, quantity and diversity of ecologically grown BC seed.

Inspecting golden beets at UBC Farm
Inspecting golden beets at UBC Farm Photo: Chris Thoreau

We do not need to look far for inspiration. Just over the border, Washington State has a well-established and very profitable seed production industry. Like the coastal areas of BC, Washington’s cool valleys west of the Cascades are one of the best areas in the world to grow seed for cool weather crops like spinach, beets, and brassicas.

❥ Washington state’s Brassica vegetable seed crops gross from $1,500 to over $6,500 per acre (1)
❥ Washington growers earn over $5 million on beet seed crop alone (2)
❥ The vegetable seed industry is a significant contributor to the diversity and economic viability of Washington state’s agricultural community

Going from a small number of experienced seed growers producing seed for backyard gardeners to seed production for commercial growers is not a simple transition. The BC Seed Trials project is helping to facilitate that transition by harnessing the passion and experience of BC seed growers and rising interest in diversifying local agricultural production to lay the foundation for a BC seed industry.

Beets in bins ready for evaluation. Credit: Alex Lyon.
Beets in bins ready for evaluation. Credit: Alex Lyon.

BC Seed Trials

If your goal is to grow seed for the best performing and regionally adapted crops, it is crucial to know which existing varieties perform best under local conditions. The BC Seed Trials project is seeking to do just that by trialing numerous varieties of beets, spinach, and kale on farms throughout BC to better understand which varieties are best suited to BC seed production. The three-year project began in early 2016 through a collaboration between the Centre for Sustainable Food Systems at UBC Farm, the Bauta Family Initiative on Canadian Seed Security, and FarmFolk CityFolk.

The project includes variety trials, seed quality tests, and field training aimed at engaging farmers in seed development. The research is participatory, which means BC vegetable farmers will be directly involved in growing and evaluating the crops. Academics and farmers will be working together to help identify varieties that perform best in local conditions and are good candidates for local seed production.

The first year is off to a strong start with 14 farm participants primarily representing growing conditions in the Lower Mainland and on Vancouver Island. BC Seed Trials Lead Researcher, Alexander Lyon, along with UBC Farm Seed Hub Coordinator, Mel Sylvestre, are overseeing the organic “mother” site at UBC Farm, where a full set of trial varieties (in triple replicates) will be grown, while Renee Prasad from the University of the Fraser Valley is coordinating growing efforts at Wisbey Farm in Chilliwack, the BC Seed Trials conventional “mother” site.

Mel & Alex evaluating beets at UBC Farm. Credits: Chris Thorea
Mel & Alex evaluating beets at UBC Farm. Credits: Chris Thoreau

The “baby” sites on participating farms are trialing a sub-set of beet, spinach, and kale varieties. Each participating farmer observes and records how well each variety grows (germination, vigour, presence of disease, pest damage) and the quality of the harvestable product (upright stature, uniformity, visual appeal). This information is collected and provided to the BC Seed Trials research team, which will analyze the data to determine the best performers.

At the end of three years, the BC Seed Trials will have helped to determine the best stock varieties for seed production in a number of crops that are well suited to our climate. But perhaps more importantly, a network of BC farmers will be well versed in the trial design and crop evaluation that is crucial for successful seed trials and plant breeding. These farmers will have practiced the first steps of choosing plants with the best genetics for improving varieties and growing superior seed as we work to scale up BC ecological seed production.

Golden beet evaluation. Credit: Alex Lyon.
Golden beet evaluation. Credit: Alex Lyon.

BC Eco Seed Co-op

A great complement to the BC Seed Trials in this endeavour is the BC Eco Seed Co-op. The BC Eco Seed Co-op was incorporated in 2014 in an effort to help BC seed growers scale up their seed production while marketing that seed on growers’ behalf.

The co-op allows growers to pool production and marketing resources while providing educational opportunities to growers to help them provide high-quality bulk seed to BC vegetable farmers. The BC Eco Seed Co-op represent a shift away from multiple individual seed companies selling packet seeds to backyard gardeners towards growers collectively growing bulk seed to sell to farmers.

Get Involved

If you are interested in being involved with the BC Seed Trials please get in touch as we will be expanding the number of farmers and regions involved next year. Even if you are not growing a seed trial crop you can still be a part of the research. Many of the BC Seed Trials farmers will be hosting field days this season to bring the experience and observations of the wider farming and chef communities into the research process. Join a field day and be a part of the discussion of what characteristics are most desirable for plant breeding in your area, how to select for these, and the importance of strengthening our local seed system.

Follow the research journey at the BC Seed Trials blog, on Facebook, Instagram, and Flickr.

The BC Seed Trials project is funded in part by Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada and the B.C. Ministry of Agriculture through programs delivered by the Investment Agriculture Foundation of B.C. Additional funding is provided by the Centre for Sustainable Food Systems at UBC Farm, the Bauta Family Initiative on Canadian Seed Security, and Whole Foods Market.

Shauna MacKinnon has been working on food issues for over a decade, from running environmental campaigns to holding the position of BC outpost for the Canada Organic Trade Association. She recently joined the BC Seed Security Program, a collaboration between the Bauta Family Initiative on Canadian Seed Security and FarmFolk CityFolk.

Resources:

(1) http://mtvernon.wsu.edu/path_team/EM062E.pdf

(2) http://69.93.14.225/wscpr/LibraryDocs/BeetSeed2010. pdf

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