Honey it's cold out side, lets think spring.

After last weeks cold spell that swept across Ontario it seems strange to start thinking about spring, but now is the time.
Lynn and I recently began our spring advertising campaign. this year our main focus in on our vegetable CSA program. We will be hosting an information session on February 24th at Les Compagnon in North Bay. The information session will touch on our organic practises and some of our ideas regarding food production. We will also be explaining and answering questions regarding the CSA program. I do not speak in front of people very often, so it will be an experience for me. Other area of interest that will be discussed will be our new meat and egg marketing programs. We will be changing this year to a share program.in share programs consumers pay an up front fee for the meat and/or poultry they want. The remaining balance will be paid on delivery. The advantages for the consumer are smaller payments at time of delivery. The advantages to us (the farmer) is we have starting up capital that, so we do not have to risk our savings or use credit. Another benefit to the farmer is that a commitment has been made by the consumer, so we are ensured that the meat and or poultry will be sold. The Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) is a similar concept. Consumers pay for a membership or share in the farms vegetable bounty. The vegetables on our farm are all organically grown. We use compost and organic fertilisers and various organic pest control methods. When compared to our meat producing, vegetable production has far fewer outside influences. Some of the issues with meat production include the fact that on other business and organisations are very involves, such as the abattoir and Canadian Food Inspection Agency. For instance when we produce meat, the livestock is dropped off at the local abattoir. We rely heavily on his butchers and packers for the end product. This is especially true will beef and pork because of the variety of cuts. Luckily for us we have a very good local abattoir. Vegetables on the other hand are pretty much entirely in our control. The vegetables go from the field to the baskets to you. We pick them fresh, when they are ripe and ready. Our soil is very sweet soil and produces exceptional tasting vegetables. At last count we were up to 35 different vegetables, with several varieties of each. Lynn particularly loves growing tomatoes. I usually have to be the voice of reason when it comes to how many varieties should be grown.
For more information on the information session give us a call, or visit our new web site at www.holdenfarm.net. We look forward to seeing you. I will be posting some more educational blog post in the near future. I have been doing allot of research for some articles I am writing for the Alive and Fit magazine and the Baytoday.ca. I can tell you the more I read the more I believe in the process we use to grow our food. I encourage everybody to do some research on commercial food production. However it can be very aggravating.