Egg on My Face

Dear Lovers of Fresh Eggs from the School Bus Chickens,

I have to apologize for the recent dearth of fresh eggs. The problem is that we have too few eggs for too many fresh egg connoisseurs.

Now that the CSA Season has started we're obliged to provide eggs first to our CSA customers. CSA refers to Community Supported Agriculture. By paying a fixed fee to our farm at the beginning of the season CSA customers get a weekly box of fresh picked vegetables. The first CSA vegetable pick-up at Whole Circle Farm started this past week. The last pickup will be in October. The farm managers explained that we need to insure that there are enough eggs on hand for the CSA customers when they come to the farm store for their weekly vegetable pickup, and for the first time we’ve had to ration the eggs to one dozen per CSA family.

I didn’t anticipate this would happen. Being new to farming I thought that food comes in an endless supply. All I have to do is go to the supermarket. If the shelves get low a supermarket employee magically appears from behind the swing doors at the back of the store and wheels out more stuff. I’ve since learned that really good food isn't a commodity, and comes in limited quantities, like the fresh eggs from the school bus chickens.

When I’m getting up at 6 am to open up the front door of chicken bus and watch the chickens scamper onto the wet grass it’s gratifying to know that you love the eggs. Sorry again for not knowing enough about the ebb-and-flow of chicken egg supply and demand on a small scale farm to give you a heads-up about the potential dearth of eggs.

I especially apologize to Deborah for subjecting her to near-riot conditions when the news spread in a certain downtown office that there would be no fresh eggs any time soon.

Peter

Quick Dip in Lake Ontario

On the way back from Orchard Hill we detoured down to the lake, where Nitya and I had a quick dip.

Visit to Orchard Hill Farm

As part of our education we visit a farm each month. Today we visited Orchard Hill Farm, run by Ken and Martha Laing. There were 80+ other farm interns and farmers also visiting today - we're all part of the CRAFT Network (Collaborative Regional Farmer Training). Orchard Hill uses draught horses, which once mastered, are cheaper to maintain than tractors, and supply valuable manure for the fields.


This 2 horse plow I'm having a practice run on certainly isn't as powerful as most modern tractors, but it's a different feeling riding behind the two mares as it cuts through the earth (Ken was nearby in this photo, but I cropped him out so I'd look like an old hand with a moldboard plow).
Heather and Andrew reinact the famous painting by Grant Wood.

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