Morrison's Farm
6619 Sutherland Avenue V8A4W8 Powell River, BC, Canada

Well - never a dull moment...the *minor* procedure I had this afternoon ended up with a popped suture or two after I got home...resulting in a new colour for one of my favourite *town t-shirts*... since my sutures popped simply by getting up to have a little snack, it seems unwise to push through a harvest day and shift 30 pound bins of carrots and 40 pound bags of onions etc...and so, for only the second time since I started farming, we are going to miss a Saturday market the day after tomorrow... we're sorry we won't be there and we look forward to seeing you soon with all of our delicious and *truly sustainable* foods. The photo: our dog Grace visiting with our across the fence neighbour Mr. Horse a couple of days ago.

We'll be at the market tomorrow and hope to see you there....carrots and onions and broccoli and beets and chard and green onions and other things too.....it's been a full stretch....our new house/land call out for attention and I want to be developing all of our production at home....while the farm is just around the corner and still pouring it on...life as the solo farmer has a lot of upside....and it's been great when I've had bits and pieces of help, like when Mel dropped by this morning to help trim onions! The photo: late summer in our backyard.

It's been great to rest a bit and if the doctors are right (?!) then I am ready to get back to work. Actually, I am already back at work.....caring for the chickens, harvesting the broccoli, making deliveries to friends nearby....I love working with my body and it can be troubling when the body reminds a person of its impermanence. Many thanks to Tarl Norbert for showing up with powerful, kind volunteer energy to bust out some farm tasks I couldn't get to. And thanks to Don M...orrison (who will never ever be on Facebook) for tilling up a real big garden space for us at our new place. We'll be back at the farmers' market this coming Saturday (unless the doctors change their minds about the medical soundness of my heart), with more good things than I can list here. Mel took the photo a few minutes ago. Me raking in lots of green manure seed; oats, hairy vetch, crimson clover. Building soil is pretty much the best thing a person can do. Happily, I love doing just that.

Hello farm friends..... for the last ten days or so I have been having bouts of what I am told is cardiac arrhythmia. I've been hoping it would just go away! But it hasn't quite yet. And it is very a disquieting feeling. So rather than push through a harvest day tomorrow, I am actually going to listen to my heart and try to rest a bit. Not easy for a farmer at any time, and definitely not at this time of the year. But my heart is sending me a message and I am doing my best to listen. So, we won't be at the market tomorrow but I hope to see you next week with a happy healthy heart.

Given the supply and demand dynamics of the farm stand world here in Wildwood - we are heading back to the farmers' market this coming Saturday. We love living, farming and selling what I grow in a 200 metre radius. But Wildwood now has a whole lotta farm stand and we're not selling enough in our Saturday window at the Wildwood Pub. Many thanks to John Wright and all the publicans at the Wildwood Public House. We hope to be back at some point. And many thanks to market manage...r Juhli Jobi for her gracious and supportive welcome of our return to the market. We'll have heirloom tomatoes and carrots and beets and beautiful new green onions and other fine things this coming Saturday August 8. We very much hope to see you there! The photo: Some of the potatoes I harvested yesterday. For someone like me, of Irish/Russian genetic stock, many potatoes is just the right amount of potatoes.

If you've ever wondered what the phases of harvesting onions are....wonder no more: I did the first step this morning....snap all the greens and leave the onions alone for a bit. Next week - on a root day in the biodynamic calendar - I'll pull all of the onions and lay them out just so for curing. Many, many onions. Yum.

We're at that time of the farm season when the squash patch becomes One Squash To Rule Them All. Acorn and Delicata and Butternut and Red Kurri - all fusing and growing like crazy. And too thick and interwoven to weed, which is nice. Hope to see you at the farm stand tomorrow - Saturday August 1 @ 10:30 @ the Wildwood Public House. For all the good things....heirloom tomatoes and carrots and salad mix and beets and other fine yum too!

If you find yourself wondering what you would do with many pounds of the luscious, gorgeous, delicious heirloom tomatoes I'm growing (and selling) - you could always make gazpacho like we did this evening. YUM.

And now for a serious message from the only biodynamic farm (sometimes called *organic premium*) on the Malaspina Peninsula. I'm trying to decide whether to continue farming after this season comes to a close. I love growing beautiful food in a way that respects and loves up the planet. I love sharing that food with others. I do not love working every day of the week growing all of the beautiful things and then also being a sales representative, hustling to sell what I grow t...o the few venues in town which do what they can to support local farmers. For some time my view has been that there are too many farmers supplying a market that is sadly not growing very quickly (at all?). I suppose this tracks broader concerns; human consciousness is not expanding quickly and kindly enough for the grave situation we have created. This farm season is a pandemic farm season. It's also a farm season with significant new supply when it comes to local food. Which sounds great, except that we farmers can't sell everything we grow. So, the already ridiculous living I make is now even less than it was, because of new supply without new market. If you self identify as someone who supports local farmers then please come out and support us. Buy what we grow. Please buy what I grow. I grow it for you. But if you don't come to eat it then I will stop growing it. Facebook support is actually quite nice. So please like and love this post should you be so inclined. And please share this post should you be so inclined. But way better than anything you can do on a computer - please come to our farm stand and buy what I grow. Please go to Chopping Block and Pat's store up in Lund and Townsite Fruit & Veg and ask for Farmer John's stuff and then buy it and ask for more. Capitalism is what it is. Quite a few of us have strong opinions about it. It's what we have at this time. And *the market* is telling me that not enough people care about local food and the hard work and love I put into it - to produce in a way that really is truly sustainable - to continue. Oh market. I really don't love you all that much. The photo: Some of the many thousands of carrots I grow. Which some call the best carrots in the universe. Maybe so.

Things are going great at the farm and the heirloom tomatoes are now truly here: I'm picking about 40 pounds every day and trying to sell them all in a limited marketplace. So if you want to buy some tomatoes, I'm happy to do custom orders for 5 pounds or more (call or text me @ 604 223 7302). Also - everything else is growing like it's supposed to...haha. If you've ever wondered what +/-8,000 onions look like, look no further than the photo here. These beauties will come out of the ground in a week or two and start curing. There will be a couple thousand pounds so if you like a local, organic/biodynamic onion that was not grown on plastic - we can help you out! Hope to see you at our farm stand at the Wildwood Public House this Saturday July 25 @ 10:30 for all the good things...

FRUIT & NUTS LOOK FOR FRUIT FROM MORRISON'S FARM at Pat Hansen's booth on Sunday at the quonset hut at the market. APPLES PEARS ASIAN PEARS.... Look for chestnuts and walnuts the following week! What a georgeous weekend!! Happy Fall! See more

Well - never a dull moment...the *minor* procedure I had this afternoon ended up with a popped suture or two after I got home...resulting in a new colour for one of my favourite *town t-shirts*... since my sutures popped simply by getting up to have a little snack, it seems unwise to push through a harvest day and shift 30 pound bins of carrots and 40 pound bags of onions etc...and so, for only the second time since I started farming, we are going to miss a Saturday market the day after tomorrow... we're sorry we won't be there and we look forward to seeing you soon with all of our delicious and *truly sustainable* foods. The photo: our dog Grace visiting with our across the fence neighbour Mr. Horse a couple of days ago.

We'll be at the market tomorrow and hope to see you there....carrots and onions and broccoli and beets and chard and green onions and other things too.....it's been a full stretch....our new house/land call out for attention and I want to be developing all of our production at home....while the farm is just around the corner and still pouring it on...life as the solo farmer has a lot of upside....and it's been great when I've had bits and pieces of help, like when Mel dropped by this morning to help trim onions! The photo: late summer in our backyard.