What a gift this pile is! I am so thankful to our friends that gifted these piles to us for the park garden. This is a mix of wood based bedding in a free stalled cow dairy by a friend who also raises most of the crops that are being used.
This is the third time i have had a delivery from them over the past five years, the first pile was 5 tons and it was delightful and dropped closer to the gate you can see the areas in the park garden that it was used in because you can tell the color of the grass where it sat even though most of it was used in creating beds, that’s how much the land wanted and is using what this provides.
The second deliver was much closer to the front of the park gardens and in truth we still have around a ton or ton and half to use up. They closed and sold their cattle, keeping only back a small amount of meat type to raise up, so I knew that access to this resource was limited, I asked if could get one more big load and was very happy when told yes.
What you ask is the difference between this compost and what i can produce on my own farm? The answer is turning, they have bedding fluffer that means that the wood based bedding, the urine and the poo are turned, spread and mixed to create a living always decomposing deep pack for the comport of their animals.
I have old aged sheep in aged hay/straw bedding, I have hot fowl in wood chip/hay blend and i have lots and lots of picked horse piles. What i don’t have is the ability to blend my horse piles with wood chip bedding and turn it over and over and over again in a living active way.
This pile will have some very small clods in it but overall its going to be loose and friable aged compost, its already a year plus in age as we had to wait for the winter freeze to end, the spring to wet, the spring/summer/fall crops season to be done to find just the right day to deliver, when crops were off, the ground was dry enough for them to drive in on the ground and so on
If you are looking for manure tea for use, then you want to make with much more fresh then this and i have to be very careful where its used this year, i can make new beds with it, i can add it to the garden to rot in over the winter etc, but i can’t put it on any overwinter plants or canes, or fruit trees etc.. it is totally the wrong season to be adding in extras to encourage growth. I want everything to shut down right now..
Once everything is fully died back, I will do some early winter spreading, a great example of that would be on the rhubarbs, they will all get a good solid inch of compost over the whole area to feed the plant for next spring.
As we have this pile now to work with, the plan for the remaining pile by the front of the park garden which is across from the main garden is to clean it up/edge it out and flatten it into new garden itself, take advantage of the fact that it has smothered everything under it, that at its age, anything will grow in it, i am going to plant it out into started plants for the next few years.
What type of compost are you working with in your gardens/food forests/or raised beds? Are you able to access locally produced extras be that sawdust, or switch grass/straw or wood chips or ? Different areas and different small farms/homesteads produce different types of compost, in 2024, we will wood ash, fowl compost, horse, plant based (nettle/comfrey and so on)
This pile should if used carefully allow us to amend and increase our production in the park garden as we continue to expand it.
Day 4 of my personal 30 day mini challenge to back into writing daily for the blog! Trying to get back into the habit of writing often.
How has it been in your area this year in regards to ticks? With the crazy wet garden season it has meant that we have not been able to mow things as low as we have been over the past two or three years in terms of the walking paths and people spots.
We have even taken to mowing a huge part of the big dog yard down to make most of it non-tick habitat friendly, but there is still edges of the dog yard that provides idea pick up places.
Earlier in the year Dear Hubby picked up a nymph tick on his back, it was full in by the time it was found but was successfully removed, still he went the very next day to get the full treatment from the local pharmacy, never had any redness or bullseye pattern.
Boy are the ticks out at this time, they have been pulled of the horses, dog ear even though the dogs are on meds, and even much to my anger full feed females have been found, thankfully i have been able to kill them before laying.
Into a nice killing bath of rubbing alcohol! I have a feeling that we will be finding at least a few more yet before the season is done. Locally the rise of tick born illness and ticks carrying issues is increasing and i expect with our warmer and longer springs/summer/falls we will continue to see even more .
Full credit to these goes the Ottawa public health and as they would not allow me to save these other then in a pdf, forgive the screen shots. The information however is very on target and useful to what i am talking about.
and as if lime is not enough.. sigh!
Given the cost of testing your ticks, it is far to say that many people do not send them in for testing https://geneticks.ca/ I am glad that we do have the ability to send ticks out for testing and i have to admit that if i had one really into me, i would be willing to spend the money to get the results back to know how to move forward but i could not afford to test all the ticks we find here on the farm.
Have you ever sent a tick out for testing? Can you get testing in your province, state and do you have free tick testing anywhere near you?
For us we choose to use Deep Woods Off but i know lots of folks that prefer the treated clothing and most small homesteads an farms do try and use their bird flocks to help keep their populations down, of course our hunting cats and the local skunk/Snakes help reduce the mice populations which in turn helps reduce the ticks as well.
One trick for in the gardens where we tend to spend a good amount of time is wood chip pathways that are at least three feet wide, the ticks do not like the wide open and very dry tops of this and will go around it on the moist green, this means that if you have these types of pathways in the right spots you can help prevent the ticks from traveling into your gardens in the first place and second you can work in your gardens more safely but still always remember to tick check yourself daily!
Which brings me to the tick removal tools, there are many on the market but they are all a version of each other, some are for your key chain, you do need to two sizes one for the smaller ticks and one for the bigger. I personally like this tick kit i picked up a few of them, they have the standard tick removal type slide and pull slow, but also tweezers and magnifying glass and tick collection tubes along with a id card etc.
You can tell that mine are a few years old and have been hauled on trips, camping and so on, its looking a bit worn but that is a good sign, all the tools have held up well to years of use and while you do need redo the wipes and so on replacement wise i have found them to be of good value
Farmgal Tip Hunters and or on farm butchering, if your deer or ? had ticks on them, once they are dead and starting to cool, the ticks on them will release, drop off where that body is and start looking for its next warm blooded host. That very much could mean you, yours or your pets or your truck bed or yard etc as you work on the processing, worth being aware of and keeping a eye on for sweeping up and removal.
Written Goals are such a good starting point to at least try and direct the coming time.
Miss R and I have the same tracking and thought journals and we are enjoying finding a time (perhaps not daily) to work on them. We are also sharing the cooking and i must say that its delightful to hand over the kitchen and or meal planning to such a creative mind.
I took the goal list for 2022 done on our 50th year and used it as the starting point for this post.
They say that you should pick a word for the year. I very much want a Hygge house, garden, farm and year.
What does that mean you say.. it means good food, use the pretty dishes, buy the good coffee and tea, drink it out of the good tea cup or the big pottery mug with soft lap blanket with purrpot or puppy snuggled in while listening to music, or reading a book or gathering around the table for games night or card games or watching a movie together, outdoor gathered by the fire, walks down the garden paths and picnic’s..
Spend as much time in as many ways to enjoy and strengthen with continued active communication with Dear Hubby and in our overall household. The above really goes for everyone in my life that matters to me in different degrees..
Continue to work on different health issues within our household, some of which are stable an or improving and some which are currently not stable and are actively requiring care, surgery and treatment plans at this time. Ideally i would like to end the year in a full stable health place for the whole household.
Live, Love and Work with the land/farm.. Expand the plantings, working the current gardens, work the food forests, Meat, Milk, Eggs, Fruit, Veggies, Herbs and Medical Plantings..
Work on creating spots within the food forest, the kitchen garden and park garden that are both use for photography and for company.
Blog, Ok really i am paying for the blog and will continue to do so as long as i can afford it as there is a huge wealth of knowledge and i can see that every single day so many find and read posts but i really need to make a effort to write new posts, share photos and recipes and so on
Feed the birds in winter, continue to create haven on our farm for the wild birds
Continue support my gardens that have active breeding programs for my natives bees So MANY BEES
Replace, Repair, Rebuild in regards to continued farm/land/pasture needs. Drylot the horses again this coming spring and do a full reseeding and close off of some small sections of the pastures, clear the pastures carefully enough that i can use the big lawn mower to cut down and mulch for the soil health anything that the horses do not eat that the sheep would.
Photography, while i will continue to offer it for clients, i would like to also try and continue to do at least one passion project per month for the joy of it
Finish the kitchen to get my certification even more then i have now
Teach small classes again on all kinds of homesteading things
Host small classes, in the past year i have tree pruning and propagation including tree grafting courses offered here with me acting as the host.
Cut down trees to cut/stack for firewood, plant more tree babies for future fence posts and firewood
Would really like to do more fishing this year
Travel?? hmm maybe some short trips for my girlfriends and ideally at least one girl trip, otherwise no real travel plans for this year, its a stay at home year really.
Its hard to believe that the year has come and gone and that a new one is starting today. My 51st year was filled with ups, downs and lots of steady as she goes. You know when they say to think back on the past year and figure out what the “overall year” was like.
My highlights words of the year would be “creative” ‘flexible” “travel” “family” “friends”
Having said that i would also need to add a few more words for the rest of the year “health” “boundaries” “worn”
In many ways, it was a excellent year, including a month long trip across Canada with time spent with family in Alberta, visiting the mountains and more
Yet it was a year filled with health issues for me, for dear husband and even for our pets. The loss of Paris is felt even with Fancy taking up so much space in our home and hearts. Even when they pass away from old age after living a amazing life, they are still very missed.
Dear Husband continues to be his amazing self, i could not ask for a better partner to walk though this life with. He has allowed his creative side out at a few of my hosted themed photography events as a model so proud of him for stepping out of his comfort zone on these!
So far he has modeled as “trapper” in my western event, and mad doctor “Halloween Event” as well as personally modeling different ideas for me. I think its fair to say that we are both surprised and thrilled to find that he really enjoys stepping into a “character” as a model into a set. I am looking forward to seeing what “who” he will become for our next themed photoshoot project that we work on together.
I have worked very hard in the past year with regards to my photography and i have to give a HUGE shout out to the amazing folks i have meet in the ottawa an Eastern Ontario in terms of models, fellow photographers and clients.
The household end the year by growing by one person and a few more pets, as Miss R joined us here on the farm, she had been visiting and staying on the farm for farm sitting and just cuz for the past five years (man time fly’s by) I am also honored that she seemed to enjoy being one of my muses in front of the camera.
My own health has been up and down this year, rocky is the best way to say it, i have good days, holding on days and way to many rest/down days for my liking.
The farm itself had a major change in the past year, this spring, i made the very hard choice to send my remaining flock of ewes to a dear friend of mine farm, for the first time since we moved to the farm, we do not have a sheep flock, bringing our livestock down to chickens, ducks and our two horses.
I am happy to say that with the adding in of Miss R that the horses are getting back into work mode, Caleb is her hop on good old boy and take it nice and slow but she is actively getting Bojangles back into shape for a much more active work/ride life.
I am not at all sure what the coming year will look like but i am willing to say that the odds are in my favor that it will include the farm, the gardens, pets, farm critters, time spent with friends and or family, photography, some travel, creative outlets and more.
There is a lot of outside factors at play globally, in country in effect, Inflation is very much a factor, the increased cost in living is clearly seen everywhere and on so many levels. I am going to do my best to focus on things within my control and deal with things as they come.
How did your garden grow? How was your final harvests? Have you had your first hard frost? Still growing, still harvesting?
My overview of the gardens for the farm for 2024
Hard Fruit, including Apples, Pears, Cherries, Plums, Peaches
Apples- Wonderful crop 8.8/10
Pears- First year three trees came on line, lovely fruit for the regular Pears and OUTSTANDING for the Asian pears 9/10
Peaches, first year for harvest from our seed started peaches, all three trees produced 20 plus pounds each, over a hundred pits of the best have been selected and saved to grow more peach trees from.
Plums -Total loss plum pocket
Cherries (5 types) best year ever, we picked bowl after bowl after bowl while the birds feasted until they got to ripe and we finally stopped picking and processing. (this was something that happened all around as as well, best cherry year!
Bush Fruits
Blueberries- very good, large, sweet and lovely
Haskaps -Fully loaded, all 8 types produced large amounts of fruit
Gooseberries -Good Year, not the best and not the worst
Jostsa Berries, Best year yet!
Highbush cranberry -Outstanding
Black Chokeberry – Good
Black Chokecherry- poor
Pincherry- average
Hawthorn – Outstanding
Nannyberry-average
Small fruits
Raspberries- average
Strawberries -outstanding
Blackberries- average
Logonberries-excellent
Now we get to the garden itself, o the rains, the rains did a number on us this year.. SO MUCH RAIN
So many days where spent watching it pour rain down, the farm was so lush and green this year, those that could handle the rains did very well indeed. It effected the crops around us, including hay, so wet!
Rain that washed out seeds, rain that made it impossible to work the ground, rain that killed or drowned out tomato’s and even killed a cherry tree that was as it turns out planted in a drain line that would not drain.
In the end raised beds and a version of strawbale gardening is what gave us what we got..
Garden Harvests on the farm in summer/fall of 2024
Potato’s excellent Grown in bedding, hilled three times with more cover
Carrots- In ground raised bed
Beets- In ground Raised bed
Beans – In ground Raised bed
Cucumber – In ground Raised bed
Zucchini – Raised mini mounds made just for them
Green onions in ground Raised beds
Salad Greens, in ground Raised beds
That’s it, everything else drowned, stunted, and or died, including tomato plants, pepper plants and a host of other things planted in other gardens. Potato’s grew in the main garden area well but only because we moved to the straw/bedding method which we did as it was so wet we could not work in there and it was the best choice we could think of to get the potato’s in to start the growing season.
The squash worked only because we made two 16 to 18 inch hills to plant them into on the top to control the amount of water/rain and even then we had to replant them twice due to rot of the seeds.
The kitchen garden with its built beds, its built in swales and its built in dry creek/rain garden leading to the pond was the winner winner of the year. it was what and where the found was produced and is still being grown.
First hard killing frost arrived Oct 17th and all tenders are done, but the beets/carrots and such are still looking good yet.
What a strange garden season its been, and we will need to try and figure out what the plan is for next year, seeds are already ordered for 2025.
Sometimes i adore when both ultra frugal and yet foolish things cross over my facebook feed LOL
This fits the bill perfectly!
On the frugal side of things, in the usa this appear to cost around $2.50 cents and i would need to go to walmart locally to see if i can find it and price point it out but lets just say its 3.50. Pretty sure it higher then that but i am rounding.
So the first thing to note is that the company itself recommends that you CAN in fact sprout out their beans from this soup mix, and that it can be done as a class project and so on in a cheap and frugal way!
NO, i am not getting any kind of kickback or gift for this post lol and i will point out that i often buy bulk bags of mung beans for sprouting from the store because they cost me a fraction of what “sprouting mung beans” would and that they are excellent.
Photo credit goes to Monique Salinas for the sorted beans out of her bag she got.
Now on one hand these are the most common planted beans and if you planted them all and grew them out, the yield back would pay for itself and then some.
IF you are in need of a massive amount of freshly picked young green beans, then the odds are in your favor on this project, plant away and harvest, harvest, harvest.. For someone that really wants to harvest first picks only of very young beans for a road stand or youth group etc.. then honestly you are not going to get cheaper then this without using a seed library or a free seed program on a seedy Saturday table,
And with seed prices rising and the amount you get in the seed packages in many cases going down, its a viable choice for those in need!! Maybe you have a very long mild growing season, then in that case you can most likely bring some of these back to full mature and dry bean stage again.
Now for the foolish part of this
Beans are one of the easiest plants to grow, give them soil, light and space and something to climb and they are good.. and they are also one of the most staple for gardeners to save. So the odds are good that if you ask on facebook to your local friends if they have custom grown local saved seed, the answer will be yes and you can get some gifted to you easily enough.
Not all beans are a good choice for fresh eating and many of the beans shown in the soup bean mix will have not been bred to be stringless. While you can sit and snap and pull the string if you need to, when it come to eating and selling fresh eating beans, everyone today will assume stringless. My generations still remembers sitting, top and tailing and pulling the string of the back end for many hours.
Without knowing the seeds themselves there is no way to know how many days to harvest and how many days to dried. In short seasons and for those that like to do two plantings per garden season, this is critical
To be fair, it would only take one season of growing to get some of the answers, most dried beans can be eaten at a very young stage, you can pull the string on the beans if you need to do so and you could grow them out and track their timings.. So with a bit of work you could get your answers for most things listed above.
So for those that are looking for a cheap way to get seeds started for a homeschool project or a community garden, this looks like it could be a good choice
For those that are so lean this year and REALLY need to stretch their funds and grow some of their own food or who want to pay very little to grow trap crop, this is a great way to make it happen and i expect the yield return would be very high indeed compared to buying each of those types of seeds.
However for those that want to know what they are growing, want to know how much of a climber it is, want to know if its stringless, want to know how many days to dried stage.. Its a good idea to start with bought seed if you can and grow your own
So what do you think? Ultra frugal way to get into the garden game with some of the easiest plants to grow? Would you do it? If so what would get you to try this? Have you tried this? IF so how did it work? What was your results?
In fact, snow does contain nitrogen and other particulates like sulfur, which it collects as it falls through the atmosphere, however so do rain, sleet and hail, and believe it or not, lightning. Rain and lightning contain more nitrogen than snow. Statistics from agricultural studies estimate that as a result of snow and rainfall averages, between 2 to 12 pounds of nitrogen are deposited per acre in the U.S. per year.
According to Jeff Lowenfels: “There is something else that happens when it snows: nitrogen is deposited by the snow and absorbed either into the soil food web residing and active at low temperatures or by plants as a result of nitrogen fixation, a microbial activity which, astonishingly enough, can take place even at low temperatures.” https://www.adn.com/our-alaska/article/blanket-snow-poor-mans-fertilizer/2008/10/09/
I can not for the life of me find any data on this in Canada? I have to assume that the yield tracked in Alaska snow would be on par with snow in Canada. If by some magic you have data on this from a Canadian source, please let me know i would love to read it.
While you are clearly going to have issues with this working if the ground is frozen solid and then you get rain like you can in warmer parts of garden which include some of the best growing areas, the truth is that MOST of canada’s more marginal lands will and do get on average a good coverage of snow.
My farm for sure always gets a good amount of snow cover, often much more then other folks around the ottawa valley. We have all had a bumper drop of snow and most likely more on the way, one of the best ways to use this is to put your cleared clean snow onto your garden beds or around plants for extra coverage.
Now I am not going to put to much extra snow on my South facing early beds, because we will just be shoveling it back off as that is one of the things i do in early spring a trick i learned up in the north, remove the snow pack and cover it for solar heat collection and you can get that one or two early EARLY beds planted in greens much faster indeed.
However, there are some fruit trees/bushes and or other areas of the garden that would like to break dormancy later, some of have been planted in mid-shade or with wind breaks to help push them to a later spring timing in the hopes of them missing the first frosts and me losing crops, other areas in the gardens are just later planters in the years plan and they are prime areas for putting extra snow on as it will take longer to melt out.
So its worth taking a note on this, as fertilizer costs rise and as peaple get more and more frugal that for those that garden in a northern climate you are getting 2 to 12 pounds of nitrogen per year and the more snow you have the better the delivery system and the better the odds of keeping it in the place you want, a nice steady slow melt out in the bed is ideal.
For those that have covered beds, this is something you are losing out on, for those that are inground gardening, this is a bonus indeed.. For those that need to move that snow and garden.. its a good thing indeed to keep in mind.
Its a Friday ramble around the kitchen table type post.. If you are looking for homestead and or recipes or pretty photos, skip this one!
Cause my eye is on the future and what some of the things on the horizon could mean and or their possible effects
Its been a low spend jan so far, i tried hard on my trip to always use the included breakfast if we were at a hotel, and a bit of the breakfast might have made its way to travel with me, a apple or banana or perhaps a oatmeal cookie and so on. I had a cooler with me and stocked the truck for travel with the main out meal being supper but even there sometimes i would have enough to miss a few at times.
While i had a outstanding budget for trip, food was the one thing i figured i could lower some costs, i took some items planned and gotten on sale include my own farm eggs with me to help on the Christmas meals costs. i spent $300 in Alberta and i hauled extra and leftover staples back home with me. What didn’t get used there will get used here.
Still with everything that is going on and wanting to work out of the current budgets (aka not using savings etc) means that things are a little leanish. Compared to many, i know that we are very well set but like everyone we are feeling the pinch in every single thing we do.. it all costs more. It can seem small at the time but boy o boy by the end of the month when you look at your monthly statements can see it all add up.
Dear Hubby has his eyes set hard on retirement at 30 years with the federal service and while i will admit to feeling some Hmmmmm on this due the way things are, we are starting the process of figuring out things in the now and over the next few years in regards to figuring out the timelines and more for his retirement. Perhaps he will choose to work part time in some way, perhaps he will not.
I am certainly planning on working part time, I want to see if i can find a way to earn enough take home to cover the difference between our current budget and what our budge will be when he retires. That is my personal goal for the rest of our 50’s and if my health holds and allows it till i reach 65 give or take.. My main focus on this is my photography, combined with my kitchen reno to make it into a certified commercial kitchen for low risk foods which include canning, baking and more.
While the truth is no one can really tell what is coming in 2024, i think here in canada, we are in for a world of hurt on a few big levels! The ripples from the big ones will be felt by everyone other then 1 percent folks, they will just keep on trucking.. the rest of us.. o we will feel it.
Let me just hit some of the highlights.
While this will not effect those that own their home but the higher interest rates effect those that own the home but have large home reserve loans on them, which many took at the lowest point just before covid for reno, often taking out 50 to 100, 000 thousand on their lines of credit.
The fact that so many across the board have their renewals due this year and next means that those higher rates are going to hit and hit hard, this will effect those that will need to sell their second rentals properties, those that just made their payments when the rates where low, those that have had illnesses and more. We are going to see a lot of folks selling underwater and owning and or declaring bankrupts afterwards.
if you think the rental market are tight and pricy now, just wait till more single homes are bought up and then rented back out when folks are forced to sell.
It’s important to note that the mortgage renewal process can be challenging, especially given the current borrowing environment. Both fixed and variable mortgage rates have increased significantly since early 2022 due to rate hikes and a volatile bond market. The Bank of Canada forecasts median monthly mortgage payments will increase as much as 54% for some borrowers by 2027 2. However, there are options for borrowers who wish to reduce the financial impact of renewing their mortgage at a higher rate
The second big one this year is that all the CERB small business loans are coming due
More than 885,000 small businesses and not-for-profits took out CEBA loans, totalling more than $48 billion.
The federal government has indicated the deadline to pay back up to $60,000 in loans issued as part of the Canada Emergency Business Account, or CEBA, program isn’t going to be postponed again after being extended to Jan. 18.
If the loans are paid back by that date, businesses could have up to $20,000 forgiven of the loan. Loans that are not paid back before the deadline will start to accrue interest.
Companies that are unable to pay their entire loan off by the deadline can continue onward, without receiving the free money as part of the loan forgiveness, and have a five per cent interest rate per annum starting Jan. 19, 2024.
the most recent data from Export Development Canada (EDC), the Crown corporation responsible for administering CEBA, indicate only a fraction of the money has been paid back. As of the end of November, only $5.7 billion had been repaid and just 13 per cent of businesses had repaid the loan in full.
Do i really need to say more? so many small business are holding on or having been holding on by the skin of their teeth.. just watch for the closures that will be coming across the country and as each of those close, those they employ will be laid off. And then there is the issue of all that rental space being open, combined with all the office space that is currently under valued and underused..
It will effect tens of thousands plus jobs in a very short period of time, it will effect so many of the households that have been just making the payments by having a full time job and part time job on the side..
You know i was going to do a third in detail in terms of energy costs combined with how they will effect rising food costs but do i really need to.. sigh.. no no i don’t..
Please if you can plant a garden this year, do so.. talk to your friends about borrowing more costly items and if you have not done so building your community network, if you have one, support it, use it and respect it. IF you can raise a bit of your own protein be that eggs, be that chickens or be that beans, do it.
If you have any access to wild food, take what you need with respect, learn to fish and learn how to use all the parts, this spring take the walks and track and mark all the wild flowering bushes and trees, give them a bit of compost and a light prune or open the area around them for better sun if possible, if you find wild cane fruit, clean some out and prune some for better yields.
Look to your libraries for their free seed banks, talk to your fiends, can you trade seeds, they only want or need half the package of x and you are the same with y, trade them out. Start asking folks what their talent is and make note of it.. got someone who loves to sew, had the zipper go out of your jacket and not sure how to fix it.. while google is great, its not so helpful if you do not have the tools never mind the skills.. talk to your friend, see if there is something they could use, even if its as easy as a playdate with your children while she gets a couple hours to do something etc.
We are not all suddenly going to get more money, even those with some things tied to inflation will find it eaten up quickly, we are going to need to get creative..
VERY VERY creative!
How do you see the next coming years here in Canada or in the countries you live in, i fully understand that this is a post that is about my country and where i see the big challenges coming that will have big ripple effects in our area, i think the trades are pretty darn safe but the rest.. o boy.. its got my Spidey senses tingling..
I hear it break on the talk radio first, it was the topic of the day and it was slamming the phone lines, to say that folks were unhappy was a understatement but soon enough came the truth, well i will take the 30% price off as its better then nothing.
Canadian’s are a pessimistic lot really and we are used to paying higher food prices then many other places and the smaller your town or the more remote you live the higher those prices are going to be and they used to have food programs when i lived in the north, they were bias as (%&$ but they worked well if you could use them..
Today’s programs are a load of BullS(^t and do not help to the same degree at all, most of us live in brutal short growing season’s with built in challenges, the east coast has areas that can grow well for certain crops, we all love our PEI potatoes and the green belt in southern Ontario along with parts of BC are our big fruit growing belts and of course we are famous for our ability to grow grains and pulses.
“”””””The revelation that Loblaw will end its 50 per cent discount on perishable foods like meat, fruit and vegetables as they near their best-before dates should attract the attention of Canada’s Competition Bureau, says one industry expert.
Prof. Sylvain Charlebois, the director of Dalhousie University’s Agri-food Analytics Lab, believes the action taken by the grocery chain to align its policy with other food retailers might be considered anti-competitive behavior.
In an email to Charlebois Monday, Loblaw spokesperson Catherine Thomas said the company is moving away from offering a range of discounts between 30 and 50 per cent on “serve-tonight” products and toward “a more predictable and consistent offering, including more consistency with our competitors.””””
In a nut shell, they know they have a us between an rock and hard place, the big stores bought up and grew bigger, they drove out the mom and pops stores, they swallowed the main streets small businesses and now they are THE place to shop in many places..
What stands against them.. Dollars stores and community run food programs.. and on a even smaller scale, small scale farmers and farmgate sales and CSA’s and farmers markets. Green food boxes and bulk buying stores..
Already our food banks are overwhelmed and we have no provincial or federal food program like other counties can have. I can only imagine how many people this effects, we already have so many vulnerable Canadian’s that are making a hard choice between rent and food and many of those that are sitting borderline just took a massive blow this week with a 20% cost increase per item at one of the biggest store owners in our country.
These are not the people that drive cars and shop once or twice a month, these are not the Costco folks, these are those that buy small amounts as they can, they are the ones that go to the shop at the end of the day or first thing in the morning to see what was moved to the day of use 50% of pricing.
I am both deeply saddened and pissed that a company that made the highest profits ever in their company history last year, who have been hauled in twice in 2023 to answer to the federal goverment would just raise their middle finger and effectively charge 20% more on its must use day of items.
I am not going to even remotely pretend to know the answers but if you have built your food shed, use it, barter and trade skills if you need to but use it, if you have gaps, look for ways to use your local food sheds, ask on community groups if anyone does bulk buys and splits things, if anyone know of green food boxes or local farmers that sell farmgate or local butchers that sell local raised.
Personally i can no longer recommend farmer markets locally, their prices are so high that i just walk though, shake my head and walk away.. they have become very much for place for those with excess to attend, not like when i was younger and i could go to the farmers markets because it was cheaper then going to the stores.. at least locally its flipped and in a big way.
Want the good buy on the roma’s for sauce making, the store will sell local for a fraction of the price of what they charge you at the market and do not bother asking for seconds or end of day sales, these things locally are a thing of the past.. if you still have these, good! i am happy for you..
What do you think of this change? Do you agree, they did it because they could, because they do not care what the pr is! Do you see anything changing in the future for the good or just think it will get a lot worse yet.
I am sorry to have this rant, I might not even post this.. I most likely will and I am sure I will lose a reader or two.. but I have to write this.. If you live in an apartment or a tiny condo in the city, you can be many things.. You can be […]
Ok, its just going on record that we are going to be “in just in time mode” on most things this year. Let me give a example.. we have pulled at least a hundred or two wild parsnips but then we needed to focus on this or that.. and suddenly this week, we are like.. […]
Just another Day on the Farm 