Transplanting vs. Direct Sow
For anyone starting a garden, it’s a common question: is it better to direct sow or transplant? The answer is, it depends. There are pros and cons to each—and it depends on what you are growing and where you…
Farmers Run Too: Runner’s Shopping List
I’ve always been a runner. It all stemmed from soccer practice—before that, I did a lot of riding horses, but rarely any cardio. I was fourteen when I made the soccer team and found that playing the position of halfback…
Planting Garlic: When is it too late?
I have run into this dilemma for a couple of years now—garlic planting. I get going in my little hurricane here at the farm and I forget all about garlic. Then winter is around the corner and I can pretty…
Opinion: When Doing Too Much is a Good Thing
It’s become a common phrase, tossed from working women to stay-at-home mums, a thoughtless label that is well wrapped in the disguise of coming from a place of love. Every woman I know has heard it: “You’re doing too much.”…
Farmer Christmas Gift Guide: For Her
Okay, okay. Christmas is here. I love this time of year, but truth be told, a lot of the magic comes from having your peas in a pod way before Christmas Eve rolls around. I like to have everything wrapped…
Safe Farming: 6 Tips to Avoid Accidents on the Farm
It has been a WEEK. Let me tell you. Not even. It’s been a MONTH. Since I’ve started this farm, I have been very lucky. I’ve made a lot of mistakes, but not one so bad as to find…
Do Pigs Like Mud?
A pig rolling in the mud should be a typical sight. It is, if you watch Peppa Pig. But in reality, the majority of pigs raised in an industrial setting are not—they are raised indoors, with air conditioning, concrete and…
When to Get a Second Opinion: Veterinary Care
Jackie came to us about two years ago. She was a wee thing, calm as can be—for a pony. She had spunk, but she was careful when it counted. And so naturally, we adored her. She was the kind…
Dealing with Death on the Farm: 5 Books About Death for Children
There’s something else behind the fog, the smoky pictures of a meadow in the morning. Behind the settled portrait of a farmer, sipping on a steamy coffee as the sun rises up behind me. There’s death. There’s more death than…
A Pig, a C-Section and Returning Home
This spring, the children and I settled back into the farm. We’d been gone for a minute—we had taken an eight-month-long adventure to beautiful British Columbia, where, if I’m being honest, I had gotten comfortable with my biggest challenge being…
