Locally grown, raised, harvested, crafted …
The long-running Fireweed community farmers market has grown over the years into a destination event each week, as a multitude of local farmers, vendors and crafters gather to share their products.
Farming
No earbuds aboard
Have you heard the one about the farmer’s daughter, the music teacher, the composer and the jazz singer? It’s not a joke. They’re all the same person: Karin Plato. Although she has called Vancouver home since 1985, Plato grew up on a grain farm near the tiny (current population: 129) community of Alsask, Saskatchewan. That’s where …
Harvest at the Yukon Grain Farm
The giant green machine inches its way along a row of potato plants with the fall coloured mountains as the backdrop. From far away it looks like a slow-moving, peaceful agrarian scene, but this changes as I get closer. First I begin to hear the big John Deere tractor motor running, then I make out …
Honey Bees and Yukoners: A love story
Etienne Tardif, gloved and clothed in white, his face behind a dark mesh veil, slowly lifts a tray from one of his stacked beehives. He’s in a meadow just off the Annie Lake Road, south of Whitehorse. “Whoah… this is heavy,” Tardif says. He looks closely at the tray, laden with sealed bees’ eggs and …
What Do You Have to Do to Eat Local?
The benefits of eating local are well known and documented; it’s better for the environment, it’s better for your health, and it’s better for the local economy. But when you live north of 60 it seems daunting – even in the height of the summer produce harvest. Fresh local ingredients are more expensive or more …
Great Food from the College Kitchen
This past fall they also did the Government of Yukon Agricultural Branch’s North of 60 Conference banquet and sourced almost 90 per cent of the ingredients for the dinner from local farmers. In the north this is especially a challenge as the conference is in November, so a lot of fresh produce isn’t available and …
Home Is Where the Heart Is
In August of 2008, we had ground cleared so we could build a new house. It wouldn’t be very big or fancy, but it would be a clean, dry place to live. You see, the previous winter I had had pneumonia. Which was exacerbated by the mold in the existing house we lived in. It …
No Farmer Left Behind (Iceland Age part 2)
A square, two-storey guest house with bare, small rooms and a simple kitchen is snugged in between the trailer-cum-farmhouse and the sheep barn. The collection of buildings looks tiny against a sweeping backdrop: a deep valley that winds away from the mouth of the fjord, hemmed in by high cliffs. A woman perhaps in her …
(Hot) Water Water Everywhere (Iceland Age part 1)
Although Iceland has been getting a lot of press lately as a hot – metaphorically and geologically speaking – tourist destination, it hardly seems a likely go-to spot for an agricultural experience. That however is exactly what landed me in the middle of the blustery North Atlantic in October along with seven other Yukoners. We …
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A Feast For All
Harvest time. At the Tr’ondëk Hwëch’in (TH) Teaching and Working Farm, there will be a feast to celebrate a summer’s worth of hard work.
Eat Your Art Out
‘Tis the season where giant vegetables are being harvested from gardens and potentially prize-winning jams are being churned out for display in the hopes of gaining a ribbon. This was the case at Dawson City’s horticultural exhibition as part of Discovery Days last week, but you won’t find large or entertaining vegetables adorning the tables …
That Wasn’t the Plan
I always forget the way this works, how fast things change here. In the hot, hot days of summer, I think it will last forever and then suddenly, one rainy July day, there it is. The chill, maybe a wool sweater, the thought of lighting a fire crosses your mind, and you notice the first …
Winter: A Season for Change
“The more things change the more they stay the same” and “The only constant in life is change” are both very cliche and very true. In some sense farming and gardening means things are staying the same. We usually use the same plot of land and plant the same kinds of vegetables. We also raise …
Chicken and Egg
Smooth and brown, the eggs slip through the machine where they are held up one at a time to the light. The light shines through the shells and illuminates the interior of the egg and then the machine moves the egg down the light so the next egg can be inspected. This process, called candling, …
Winter is Coming
Over the past few years the gardens have been producing more and more vegetables. So, come fall we start to look for places to store the root crops for the winter. Our main root crops are potatoes and carrots, which need a dark, cool space with a bit of humidity. We have been storing them …
Farmer Robert’s: The business of nature
From the outside, Farmer Robert’s Store looks like a market in the middle of farm country. And that is exactly what it is… and much more. It is the final piece of the logistical puzzle that brings locally produced and organic produce to a demanding consumer in the most efficient way. Step through the doors …
Potatoes Grow Anywhere
Formerly the Ramada, now the Days Inn, sits at the edge of the Whitehorse industrial area. It’s parking lot and big-box-store land, the concrete jungle of our Northern capital. It’s windy and dusty and, according to Francis van Kessel, general manager at Days Inn, the perfect place to grow potatoes, carrots, beets, and maybe kale. …
Cheese and Kids
In February I had the privilege of running a workshop on cheese-making for the Learning Lions, a homeschooling group that meets out at the Mt. Lorne Community Centre. What a fun time. A farmer friend generously donated the milk, and I delved into my cheese books to come up with a lesson that would pack …
Farmers Need Funds, Too
If you ate today, thank a farmer. If you know where your food comes from, thank them even more. Knowing where your food comes from can be a challenge, especially in the North. Why should a person support a local farmer when the food they sell is often more expensive than what can be found …
Fall
Living in the Yukon, people want to enjoy summer to the fullest, “summer” being those 14 to 21 days randomly sprinkled across June, July, and August. Gardeners are no different.The perception of many is that a long, hot summer brings an abundance of produce normally grown in hot houses down south. In truth though, a scorching summer …
Fava Beans
One of the biggest animal raising expenses in the Yukon is feed. So I am always on the look out for crops we can grow that will meet the nutritional needs of the animals. When I find something that might work I give it a try in the garden. If it does well, I feed …
4-H is in Full Swing
Whitehorse Spirit Riders 4-H club kicked off a summer riding season with a three-day riding clinic at the North Ridge Indoor Riding Arena. The focus of the clinic was fundamental riding levels and team building. The riders were fortunate to have Jody Mackenzie-Grieve as their local clinician. Jody has years of riding under belt and …
Springing into Summer
There are so many things I want to do this summer. The very first thing I’m going to do is put my school books in a corner where I won’t look at them for the entire summer, and then write a What’s up Yukon article about all the other things I’m going to be doing. …
Perennials
In spring, while we wait for the snow to melt, we check on the chives to see if there will be enough for a taste. Once the snow is gone we keep an eye on the rhubarb. This year I was also watching for asparagus to return. Last year I seeded asparagus in a flowerbed …
Migration
Early in the spring, Swan Haven offers Yukoners a place to watch swans and other water birds as they stop to rest on their long migration north. Shortly thereafter we see small groups of swans flying past our farm, trumpeting as they go. Our geese really notice when wild birds fly overhead. The migrating fowl …
One Potato, Two Potato, Three Potato, Four…
It’s planting time and one of the last things we plant are potatoes. We put in all of our cold crops first because if there is a late frost the seeds of these plants and even the seedlings are able to deal with the cold stress better than a potato plant can. In fact, “seed” …
A Celebration of Spring
Spring… there is nothing quite like it. Living here in the North, we generally have a long winter followed by a long spring. It seems to take forever to finish melting the snow and warming up the ground. To help keep us going, the pussy willows are out, as well as the crocuses. But to …
The Real Dirt
A few years ago, a neighbour told me my garden needed to be amended with some dirt. He was referring to the stereotypical black soil that can be purchased from either big-box stores or a local distributor who harvests the soil from old marshland. Neither source promised high nutrients for the vegetable garden. Here in …
A Frozen Pipe Dream
I went to Vancouver a few weeks ago. I wasn’t looking forward to trading sunny skies for rainy ones — although the temperatures were going to be much warmer than the -24°C temperatures here. Before I left, Allan asked me to bring back some spring with me. When I got there, it was indeed spring. …
Now’s a Good Time to Help Farmers Feed Us
Now that spring has officially sprung, local farmers are waiting for the ground to warm up enough to put seeds and seedlings into the earth. Every year, farming is a gamble. It takes a pile of money to get started, and then farmers are at the mercy of factors such as frost and insects. Eaters …
Food Talks Explore Complex Relationships
Recently, there’s been more focus on our food — what is in it, and where it comes from. Living in the North, securing a steady supply of food is a topic in our food conversations. Between March 26 and 28 this conversation continues with the lecture series, Yukon Food and You – Food Talks, hosted …
Homemade Seed Tapes
Winter can be frustrating for gardeners. There are days when it feels like spring won’t get here soon enough. Combine this with the knowledge that when it does, there is only a small window of time available, and a gardener can become anxious. Last year, I tried to get a head start on planting the …
Food Security
Winter; a season many people dread. The extra work of shovelling snow, the layers of clothing, the cold temperatures, and even the shorter daylight hours are something to be endured. But I like winter, and always have. To me, it’s a time of working together — even if it is just to get a vehicle …
A Quiet Yukon Christmas
Twas the week before Christmas and all through the farm. Not a chicken was stirring, they’re all in the barn. All summer they roam, but when once the snow flies, our hens will not go out to where the snow lies. They scratch up the bedding and look for some treat; it might be a …
A Chicken and Egg Story
Last year our chickens stopped laying eggs. For the first time in a decade we had to buy eggs instead of selling them. The egg strike, as one of our customers called it, lasted five months. But by the time they started laying again, their replacements were already in the barn. The life of a …
Living on Farmer Time
I have always wondered why we need to adjust our clocks for daylight saving time here in the land of the Midnight Sun. It was originally adopted in Europe to extend the evening daylight hours during the summer months. Sure, it is necessary if we are to stay in sync with the rest of North …
Winter Gardening
Years ago I was asked by a Japanese helper what kinds of plants grew here in the winter. I laughed and said nothing grows, it is all frozen solid. She was amazed. In many places they rotate their crops based on the season. Heat-loving plants like tomatoes and peppers can be followed by crops that …
The Joy of Homegrown Tomatoes
Nothing tastes quite as good as a garden fresh tomato. Here in the North these are rare enough to find, but this past summer we had enough heat to grow tomatoes outside without any protection from the elements, though we did fence them off from the laying hens. I started seedlings indoors around mid-March. And …
Yukon Harvest Time
I can’t believe it’s almost over. This summer was one of the best on record as far as gardening goes. We always had lots of produce to harvest and a sell at the markets. But the garden doesn’t stop producing just because the Fireweed Community Market is done for the season. In fact, there are …
Local Food, Local Politics
Food has been in the news. A lot of it has to do with the issue of food security, food safety and the costs of the food we eat. Locally, we’re working hard, literally, to make sure we have an adequate supply of good, wholesome, sustainably produced food for an increasing portion of the year. …
Barnyard Politics: Establishing a pecking order
Recently we noticed some of the turkeys had bloody wings and were being picked on by the others. Often if turkeys don’t have enough feed or enough protein in their feed they will pick each other. But this isn’t the case now. There are two laying hens in the turkey house to overnight, so I …
PHantastic Soil
It is a good idea to find out a bit about your garden before planting anything in it. What will grow in a plot of soil depends on what is in it, how compact the soil particles are and the pH level of the soil. The required nutrients are reliant on what is to be …
Dreams Achieved: The Fireweed Market is back
When we first moved to the Yukon 16 years ago I told my family that if I would like to have a market garden. The inspiration for this statement was the lack of fresh produce in the stores and a tour through Yukon Gardens with my sister’s daycare kids. When we moved here we were …
Venturing into the Unknown
All good things must come to an end and two days ago this was true for our piglets. It’s been eight weeks since they were born and we usually wean them between six and eight weeks. We determine the time based on how well the mom is dealing with them. When pigs are eating they …
Spring Means New Life
There are pussy willows, crocuses and chives growing in the garden. Migrating birds are returning to Swan Haven and mallards are swimming in the ditch just down the road. On the farm we see new life in spring as well, although it isn’t as reliant on the weather as crocuses and returning geese. Every spring …
Our Egg Situation
My husband Allan got a goose egg last night. He wasn’t hurt as some may suspect, rather he found an actual egg out in the goose pen while doing chores. Lately the egg situation on the farm has been nonexistent. Our laying hens stopped giving us eggs some time just after Christmas. For the first …
Deep in Snow and Going to Seed
When we moved to Whitehorse, from Saskatchewan, I had been led to believe that gardening here was next to impossible. Then I visited Yukon Gardens and was inspired. They had all the ‘regular’ garden plants that seemed to be doing very well. That’s when I knew it wasn’t impossible. But it was still years before …
‘Honk, Peep (Oink?) or Gobble’ If You Love Spring!
Spring has finally sprung. The arrival of spring also brings with it new joys of farming – not just in the garden, but also in the barnyard. Spring chicks will be arriving soon, as well. And with them, the challenges that come with farming in the Yukon. Both turkey poults and chicks need to be …
‘Honk, Peep (Oink?) or Gobble’ If You Love Spring! Read More »
Gardening: It’s About Knowing Where and When
Can you smell it? … fresh-tilled dirt. There is nothing like it to a gardener or farmer. It is one of my favourite smells of spring. With the warming sun and the longer days, people who garden are waiting impatiently for planting time, a time when the garden is tilled, the rows are laid out …
The waiting is the hardest part
I don’t really like waiting but as a farmer there are some things you have to wait for. Like seeds to sprout or crops to mature before harvesting. More recently I waited for Kali, our sow, to have her piglets. Last year at this time she was also due for babies but she lost the …
Dig Those Diggin’ Pigs
They don’t dig like dogs, with their front feet, but with their noses. It is unbelievable how strong their nose muscles are. They can even lift fence posts out of the ground with enough time and effort. So one of the first things needed for keeping pigs is a strong fence. When we first started …
Bringing Local Food to Local People
Yukon farmers face a variety of obstacles from dealing with a cold and dry climate to the type of soil conditions here, but an organization just getting off the ground is trying to help farmers with one big challenge they face: securing a market to sell their produce. The Potluck Food Co-op was started in …
Ploughing for Parsnips (and Other Root Crops)
With the snow finally gone, a gardener’s mind turns to working the soil. But, to work it too soon could leave it in unwieldy clumps, and too late would mean that most or all of the soil moisture has soaked away. So it is difficult to know when the best time to cultivate is. At …
The Joy of Weeding
Well it seems that summer is here. The heat that we have been getting has been a bonus for the garden. Everything is up, even the corn that I planted outside in containers. Usually in the Yukon, one of the main challenges is to keep enough heat on the plants and to prevent frost. Not …
Unwelcome Guests at Butchering Time
It’s chicken-butchering time again … This is a part of farming that is definitely hard work. It starts a day or so before the actual butcher date with the set-up of the equipment: a kill site, a scalder, a plucker, an evisceration table and some large chill tanks. Most of this is stored in a …
Unearthing Harvest Treasure
It’s fall. I know that no one wants it to be fall, but it is hard to deny. With every season, there are vegetables that are in decline and those that have just reached their prime. Root crops are usually biennials, which means they store up energy in their roots the first year, then flower …
How to Beat ‘Jack’ at His Frosty Game
It was cold this morning, zero according to the thermometer. In most places there have been frosts already, but we haven’t really had any until now. Our farm is backed up against a rock face that collects and holds the sun’s heat – a definite plus for gardening up here. My tomato plants weren’t covered, …
A Gaggle of Geese
In the fall, wild geese migrate south. But domestic geese are bred for meat, so they are almost too heavy to lift off the ground and therefore can’t migrate. They do, however, still have similar instincts as wild geese, as far as gorging themselves before winter. This year we had eight geese on the farm …
Harvest is About More Than Vegetables
With the market over and the garden harvested, you would think that there isn’t much to do on the farm. And you would be partially right. But on a farm with livestock, the fall brings a harvest of another kind. It is usually a one-day job, with friends coming to lend a hand. The old …
Christmas for Farmers
I love Christmas … the lights that light up Main Street, the smells of Christmas baking, the excitement of wrapping up secrets and putting them under the tree. I love just about everything about Christmas … except the commercialization of it. So when doing my shopping, I try to look for things that haven’t been …
Sunny Side Up? Over Easy? Egg-cellent!
About six months after we purchased our farm, we decided we needed to start raising chickens. This decision came about when, about a week after Christmas, there were no eggs, milk or butter on the shelves at the local grocery store. In order to have our own milk and butter, we would have to acquire …
Manure Tea and Mud
One of the main spring tasks is to clean out the barn. On our barn we have two four-foot doors at each end to help with the easy removal of the manure. With the doors wide open, the chickens take advantage of having no fence and go exploring. They usually don’t go too far as …
Shredding the Trees is Within Her Comfort Zone
I tend to mow the grass around the barn areas as green feed for all of the animals. This not only gives them the greens they love, but it also helps to protect the roaming chickens and geese. You see, it’s easy for a fox to sit and wait in the tall grass and not …
Kali and Sienna Would Rather Dig Holes
Kali and Sienna are home. They have been for about a week now, and it is very nice to have them back. When I mentioned to a friend that they were gone for awhile, she asked if they were on holidays. My reply was that they were, kinda. Kali and Sienna are going to be …
Tour of Canadian Organic Farms Starts Here
Tana Silverland didn’t ask for any attention, but she’s learning quickly that it has a way of finding her. The British ex-pat, who used to be a university administrator in Cambridge, England, is about to embark on a two-and-a-half-year bicycle odyssey across Canada. Attention seems to be a natural consequence of doing something interesting and …
Plants Are Popping Up Everywhere
It’s up! In my garden there are all sorts of little sprouting plants, most of which we planted. This year we were able to get on to the garden sooner that usual. Al cleared the snow off sometime in mid-March which allowed the garden to warm up quicker. I wasn’t too pleased with him at …
Dig the Taste
One of the best types of vegetables to grow in the Yukon are root crops. Most root crops can take late frosts in the spring, so they can be planted as soon as the soil can be worked. They also don’t require high amounts of heat units which aren’t plentiful up here anyways. I like …
Meeting Chicks at the Watering Hole
One of my favourite parts of spring is when we get our chicks. It doesn’t seem to matter how often we have gotten them in the past, new chicks are always fun to watch. When they first arrive, they are given a drink of water, shown where the food is and then placed under a …
A passion for piglets
Last spring, we took both Kali and Sienna to visit Boris, the boar. So this fall we were waiting with bated breath for them to give birth. Sienna was first, and we learnt a lot from that situation – mostly what not to do. We had thought that in September it would be warm enough …
Eat Your (Northern) Broccoli!
This past September, I was privileged to attend the seventh annual Circumpolar Agricultural Conference in Alta, Norway. Alta lies just below the 70°N latitude, which makes it a bit farther north than Old Crow. The Circumpolar Agricultural Association (CAA) was founded in 1995 in response to the ideas created at the first Circumpolar Agricultural Conference, …
A Time to Be Thankful
Summer ended abruptly this year. When the first snowfall came, I was very thankful that all of our veggies had been harvested. Harvesting is backbreaking work at times, and having snow on the ground and a cold wind only makes it harder to do, especially with root crops. After the second snowfall a few days …
Some Like It Cold
With the snow blowing around and the temperatures dropping, most people and animals prefer to be indoors. This isn’t the case for the geese and one of our pigs, Kali. The geese are in a yard attached to a small building and they have the option of going inside. In fact, their water is in …
Rhythms Change as Seasons Change
Iam enjoying our long fall this year. It has allowed us to work on outside projects much easier than if we were knee deep in snow. It is also easier on the animals. The laying hens continue to go out into their yard to scratch about and dust bathe. However, we no longer allow them …
Stopping to Smell the Roses on the Farm
I took a walk today with three young boys. First they followed me throughout the barn while I did the chores. Asking questions and admiring the birds. The turkeys were scared of these unknown beings that just wanted to watch them. And so they backed up into a corner. But the Cornish cross chickens didn’t …
Ode to Beets
Most vegetables have their share of pests and problems. If it’s too wet, mildew will attack peas or tomatoes. An early fall frost can kill many of the garden vegetables commonly grown up here, such as lettuce and potatoes. Radishes, cabbages and others of that family have a beetle (I don’t know the name of …
Will It Germinate?
Children, when learning to garden, show this quite plainly when they dig up a seed to see if it is doing anything. Sometimes this actually slows things down. And even though a seasoned gardener may have faith that everything will come up, they too sometimes have the urge to dig into a planted row and …
Peas Aplenty
I decided to go with the larger package. It is a variety that has done very well in the past. It was almost funny, when I opened the parcel with my seeds. I know I ordered a large pack but I really hadn’t visualized what that would look like. A packet of pea seeds bought …
Better Late Than Never
Spring! There is just something about it that gets the blood moving. It could be the excitement of new life pushing its way up from the cold, rocky ground the way crocuses do. Or the ability to go off the beaten path to explore. Not having to wade through knee deep snow does make a …
Multi-tasking Time
Springtime on the farm is one of the busiest times of the year. Harvest is busy, too. You’re racing the frosts and fall rains to get everything in without losing anything. And everything harvested needs to be processed in some way, so that the harvest is stored for the winter. Harvests on our farm seem …
New Life, New Challenges
Well, spring has sprung. I am seeing the evidence of this everywhere. Trees and bushes are starting to bud, grass is coming up and crocuses are in full bloom. The geese are back and heading further north. The barn is getting cleaned out and the garden is drying off, although it isn’t quite dry enough …
Changing Accommodations
Every spring, we start preparing for chicks. This usually means a rearrangement of how animals are housed. In the fall we usually move everything into one building or at least to a central area. This makes chores a bit easier, as we aren’t slogging through knee high snow, or fighting the north wind to feed …
Living Self-sufficiently
There’s more to farming than feeding animals and planting seeds.” This is a quote from my husband, Al. When he said this a few weeks back we were talking about the firewood he had just finished bringing home. He’s right, too. The typical farmer tends to be a “Jack of all trades, master of none.” …
Flipping the Calendar
In mid-July, I dream of January. For most people it’s the other way around. Cold temperatures have never really bothered me and, after a very busy summer, a time of respite is very welcome. But I am still farming … in a way. I pore over seed catalogues to select the varieties we want for …
Christmas on the Farm
Dashing through the snow, in a one-horse open sleigh, o’er the fields we go, laughing all the way, ha, ha ha. Bells on bobtail ring making spirits bright, what fun it is to ride and sing a sleighing song tonight….” This is a common Christmas song heard at this time of year. And while most …
Are You ready for Winter? Winterizing Yukon Style
Are you ready for winter? It’s a common phrase heard every fall all over the place. What does it take to be ready? Vehicles and houses need to be winterized. On top this, a farmer needs to make sure the animals have a warm place to spend those cold days. Those animals that won’t be …
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Cool Veggies
Most people associate fresh vegetables with summer, especially in the Yukon. So when my cousin came for a visit near the end of October, she wasn’t expecting anything to be growing in my garden. She is from southern Manitoba, where seasons are longer than ours and she hadn’t heard of harvesting in October. When she …
Changing Quarters
I always enjoy watching the interplay of one species with another. So when Allan decided it was time for the piglets to start using an outside pen along with their inside one I wondered what the eventual outcome would be—because the pen they would have access to was the one the geese were in for …
Plucking Our Christmas Dinner
Goose is not an everyday kind of food. Some find it too greasy to eat, but others love it because of the oils. I like it because it is all dark meat. I have never really been partial to the white meat of chickens or turkeys. All summer they eat grass, but in the fall, …
When it Comes, to Weeding, Err on the Side of Caution
I keep telling myself, it is still early. Because of the warm weather that we have been having it feels like the middle of summer. Now, I am not complaining about the weather, but normally when it is this warm, our greens are have already been planted in the ground for more than a few …
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