General

This past weekend, Guelph Wellington Local Food ran a spring version of the Rural Romp, a self-guided tour of Wellington County farms. We were fortunate enough to get on the tour, and spent much of the week prior planting and mulching and cleaning in amongst the rain in preparation.

Our rhubarb patch has always done well, this year it was particularly productive early on with the help of row cover. Jennifer found a recipe for rhubarb citrus ginger jam, and we brought out last fall’s foraged raspberries to mix with our mulberries and some saved frozen strawberries to make a selection of pretty awesome jams.

The tour started at 11am, and moments past eleven, people began to stream in. The afternoon flew by as one group of people after another came through our little place. Jennifer and I spent the afternoon walking around talking and answering questions, while Jennifer’s mom, Jeanne, our volunteer greeter, worked the door collecting admission and selling jam and eggs. Beauty the dog did her bit by greeting visitors and dutifully entertaining visiting kids by endlessly fetching her ball.

The lambs were a big hit, as was the brooder coop. Being able to see heritage breed layer chicks next to their much larger “Bonnie’s Heavy Red” meat chicks was a jumping off point for conversations about the economics and ethics of raising chickens for meat. Jennifer had a display of different coloured eggs from our hens. People are consistently surprised to find out that there are breeds of chicken that lay blue eggs.

Jennifer spent her afternoon by the gardens. This has been a big year for our forest gardens as a lot of the perennials that we planted over the last couple of years are coming up and thriving. We have asparagus, perennial onions, strawberries, gooseberries, mulberries, and a few raspberries that will produce year after year, along with lots of annual veggies.

Thana from the Guelph Mercury came by for a visit too, so keep your eyes peeled, we may get a mention in the paper!

I think we had over a hundred visitors through here over the course of the afternoon. Pretty much everyone that I spoke to had either already been to several farms, or they were starting out and had plans to visit more farms. Hopefully all of the participating stops on the Rural Romp had as much fun as we did. Can't wait until the fall!

This past Sunday, a dozen eager participants and a minor rainstorm (!) arrived for our Backyard Chickens workshop. Fortunately the rain only stayed for introductions and a quick cup of coffee, and we were able to get out and see the chickens do their thing without getting soaked.

The brooder coop was a big hit. We have a few broody Silkie hens who hatched out eggs for us, and we hatched a batch in our incubator as well. Jennifer cunningly snuck the incubated chicks out to the Silkies, who continued to adopt them in turn. This year we are raising meat chickens as well as layers. We purchased 25 "Bonnie's Heavy Red" chicks, which are a somewhat slower growing meat chicken.

As Jennifer talked about in a previous post, we opted not to raise standard Cornish Rock cross meat birds, and we're hoping that the Heavy Reds look a little less freaky as they grow. Even at a week old, there are noticeable differences in behaviour between the layer chicks and the meat chicks. The meat chicks are already much larger and slower moving, and this led to a short discussion on the difference between meat and layer breeds.

We took a walk down to the barn to see the hens and roosters, and talked about housing requirements for healthy happy chickens. As the weather has suddenly become very warm, ventilation and air exchange are on our mind. We have fans running throughout our barn to ensure air flow, and the chickens seem pleased about it. The hens were also very happy to demonstrate how to have a dust bath.

I think that the next time we run this class we should stretch it to three hours, as most everyone wound up being here for nearly an extra hour asking questions and talking. It was so much fun to spend an afternoon with a bunch of like minded folks. I can't wait until the next time that we run this course!

On Saturday May 28th we are opening our doors to the general public for a SPRING RURAL ROMP sponsored by Guelph-Wellington Local Food. Come and see our lambs, forest gardens, chickens and chicks, and play with Beauty the ever-fetching dog!

Wellington Spring Rural Romp - Saturday, May 28th, 11a.m. to 4:00 p.m. For farm locations, download the pdf map at http://www.guelphwellingtonlocalfood.ca

While rompin', discover taste • real, the new branding initiative of Guelph Wellington Local Food being launched this spring. When you see the taste • real logo, you know that you are experiencing food grown close to home! When you see the logo at farmers markets, farm gate stalls, on-farm stores, at your favourite retail outlets, restaurants and places to stay you will know it is home to real local food. The brand exists to support local businesses and farms. It represents a group of people who are passionate about the way local food is grown, prepared,  presented  and how real it tastes. For further information on this initiative, visit the website at www.tastereal.ca

Frolic with baby animals, learn more about local Community Shared Agriculture, buy heirloom tomato seedlings or browse selections of herbs, fruits shrubs and vegetable plants. Learn how to grow your own delicious produce, and so much more. A one time $5 donation per vehicle for the day would be greatly appreciated so that we can keep doing this work and continue to support our local farmers. A birdhouse donation box will be located at every Rural Romp location with maps available to locate farms that are open for tours.

Participants are encouraged to share photos and videos from the Spring Romp on our Facebook page with the opportunity to tag friends and be featured at www.tastereal.ca. And in case you like to plan ahead, don't forget to mark your calendar for the 5th Annual Fall Wellington Rural Romp, which occurs on the last Saturday of September, this year on the 24th.