Nicole Faires

There are a million and one things on my mind right now, and yet I feel strangely at peace. There is calm amidst the chaos.  Here are a few things that occupy my thoughts right now:

• Planting.  Our planting schedule is tight.  We plant something new every week from now until July or August or something ridiculous like that.  We can’t get sick or busy because we have to stick to this.  It takes self-discipline and we do it by hand.  Why do we do it by hand rather than using even a small seeder?  Biointensive/French intensive and permaculture all require a planting technique that you could just call crowding.  There is no seeder right now designed to do this. The seeds are spaced about 10-25% closer to each other than the packet recommends, and the rows are asymmetrical so that plants grown diagonally from each other rather than being directly across.  In a bed that would normally have about 300 leeks I planted 700.  By the way, chopsticks make good dibblers.  I dibble all the holes first and then drop in the seeds.
• Politics.  Food is so entwined with politics, and our government representatives grant power to people over our food so quickly and with such ignorance.  It has been interesting looking into the BC Egg Marketing Board’s regulation on Small Lot producers under 399 hens which pretty much cripples all small farms from producing eggs in BC.  The government granted this board absolute power over all of the laying hens owned in BC and the board has no ethics at all about what small farms should be able to do.
• Interns.  In 10 days our first two interns of the season arrive.  We had over 60 applications for what ended up being 5 internship positions, and I found the whole process very challenging.  So many highly overqualified young people with 4 year university degrees and farming experience coming out of their earlobes.  This will put us at 4 full time farm workers and two part time workers at any given time during the year.  When I set up our internships I was appalled at some of the conditions some farm labourers deal with… other farms ask for ‘5am to 5-7pm farm days 6 days a week’ and then pay them almost nothing and don’t cook for them either.  We offered 30 hours a week no more than 5 days a week and we pay very little but we cook for you and put you up too. A student who is here to learn won’t learn anything by working 12-14 hour days over 70 hours per week.  That’s for full time salaried workers only. 
• Ducks.  We’re building a duck pond and I have to decide what kind of ducks I want.  These ducks aren’t for sale, but we’ll probably eat a few and they have to earn their keep by eating slugs and providing me with poop.  I am also planting a duck garden around the pond to help feed them.  I’ll keep them supplied with duckweed and grass and then have a bunch of insect-attracting flowers around.
• 9 year olds.  My oldest is turning 9.  I don’t feel old enough to be the mom of a 9 year old.  She still has anxiety and sensory processing disorder and it drives us crazy.  She is also brilliant and beautiful and obsessed with fashion.  Maybe she’ll be the next Coco Chanel.  
• Food Activism.  Food activism?  I’m writing a third book right now, it’s about food activism.  I’m not sure if the title will stick, but it’s the most depressing book to write that I have yet attempted.  I have to take a situation that seems completely hopeless and turn it into a positive, an opportunity.  In the process I am turning into an obsessive person who annoyingly spouts statistics as you put things into your mouth. That chicken you’re eating?  Injected with water!  You think that farmer is old?  That’s not OLD… the average age is 57!
• Why am I still sick this winter?  WHY?!  Everyone I know is sick.  Time to get out my zombie apocalypse kit.