The Tilsons

Farm Love

Justin and I really enjoyed our stay at OUR Ecovillage.  We spent some time hanging out with the great posse that lives there, and spent some time in the garden transplanting sege.

Great things about OUR Ecovillage:

1. We vibed with the residents. Its rare that you find people who speak the same language as you.  People who get God in the same way you do, and feel the same passion in the same way for the earth and people who desire the same level of communication and co-operation.  This is what we found at OUR, people who were just like us.
2. The ecovillage is old enough to have gone through a lot of the zoning issues.  Sure, the farm is still an infant, but they have moved through a good portion of the zoning challenges, have applied for grants and have dealt with some of the major money issues. (The most stressful parts I think)
3. The ecovillage is small enough for a new family to influence the process. One of the major things that drew us to OUR was their openness and changeability.  There are no homes built on site, except the house that was originally there.  They are just establishing their program, their specialities and are still looking for experienced people to teach courses (and not so experienced people to grow into the roles available).  Justin and I both felt that our energy could make a difference there.

Read the complete Post.

Justin and I have been feeling the weight of life lately.  It is partially the economy, partially the pressure on humanity to evolve consciously, and partially the pain of the earth beneath our heavy footsteps.  Lately though, it feels more intense.  The other night, standing in the kitchen, I let out a childish groan, and then another one, telling Justin that is how I feel inside.  Childish because, for the first time in my life, I don’t feel like there is anyone to make all of “this” normal again.  In fact, every day I understand more clearly that the normal I grew up with will never be again.  It’s Justin and I and whoever else wants to join us, standing there letting the changes pass through us as fluid beings.  Sometimes it gets to be heavy.  Like now.

After the feeling of wanting to remain a child, comes the feeling of wanting to take responsibility and act as stewards for what is given to us.  Part of this action has been happening for a while, collecting supplies and skills. The weight of recent events has made us want to take it further - the veggie oil kit installed in the truck, and touring some ecovillages.

So here we are for the next few days:  OUR Ecovillage. OUR Ecovillage is located about halfway between Nanaimo and Victoria on Vancouver Island, near Shawnagen Lake.  They have been running the 25 acre ecovillage for 10 years and have established a residence, healing sanctuary, some temporary residences, many gardens and animal husbandry. Read the complete Post.

We just put our garlic in the ground. I started two years ago with a couple bulbs - about 10 plants in total. The experiment worked quite well except I didn’t plant nearly enough! We ran out in a month. To remedy this I scaled up last year and planted about 500 cloves (1 clove planted in October = 1 plant = 1 bulb of garlic next July). The bulbs grew so well the first season I figured there wasn’t much to do except put them in the ground around Canadian Thanksgiving and take them out the following July - with perhaps a couple waterings in May and June. It turns out that if you desire a reliable crop year after year, there is a little more preparation required to ensure your success. The soil was rather poor and the net result was a a large number small plants. We still have considerably more garlic than our family needs, but overall the experiment was disappointing because organic seed garlic is pricey and we didn’t get the yield we expected.

Read the complete Post.

Granville Magazine has spread the urban farming gospel in their latest issue. The online story doesn’t have any of the great pictures that we’re displayed in their print version. I’ve attached it as a pdf for those who don’t have access to a print copy.

The more I dig into the unreported details of peak oil and how dependent our current agriculture system is on petrol the more I see the necessity of vastly expanding urban agriculture to put every sunny piece of ground, grass, balcony and rooftop to use. With our food system 100% dependent on oil for farming, fertilizers, transportation, cooling, processing and disposal we can expect to see food prices inflate as oil prices do. Perhaps it won’t be 1:1 but it will be a significant amount, significant enough to make it prohibitively expensive to maintain the system we have built. The system is already failing and the media is just starting to report on it. If you haven’t started your “victory garden” yet, I think it’s time to dig in.