The Long Haul Farmer Tam’s Blog January, 2021 Seven acres of broccoli is a lot of broccoli. A lot to harvest. Ambitious and naïve. It was 1987 and our first year of growing vegetables on a large scale. We had decided that our twenty five acre farm should be able to support us with a living wage by growing food …
Ready to Rot?: An Introduction to Compost- Mackenzie Martins
The word compost comes from the latin com meaning “together” and post meaning “to bring”. It is the bringing together of organic matter into a process of decomposition, which produces a soil conditioner rich in nutrients. From home gardeners to small scale farms like Prairie Gardens, composting is one of the best things we can do for our plants and …
Unforeseen Moments on the Farm- Kaitlin Baronas
When I arrived at Prairie Gardens, just over two months ago now, I didn’t think many things would be different. I have lived in rural farming country my entire life and so when I got the apprenticeship here in Bon Accord, Alberta I thought the weeds would be weeds, the soil normal, the weather similar if not colder in the …
It’s All About the Stinging Nettle – Eric Shapiro
On the seventh day of my apprenticeship at Prairie Gardens, I, along with Mackenzie, another apprentice, were told to collect some stinging nettle. Wear gloves, they said. I guess stinging nettle hurts, I thought. That should give you an idea of how much I knew about stinging nettle, in other words, pretty much nothing. I’d vaguely heard of the name …
