For the second time in two years, writer Ronda Payne has written an article about our farming project. The first article was an interview with myself about the original ‘Farm for a Year’ project. Almost a year and a half later, Ronda returned to interview both Chris and I about our move into the market gardening business. The article isn’t online, so I’ve reprinted it here for readers. Thanks again Ronda for helping us share our story!

Small scale ag experiment morphs into Farm for Life
by Ronda Payne
Country Life in BC, April 2013 Issue

MAPLE RIDGE – Small scale farmers are proving they can make, and are making, a difference in the push for food sustainability and local agriculture. In 2011, an ambitious “Farm for a Year” project in Maple Ridge saw a handful of young adults, relatively inexperienced in agriculture, feed their families while learning and applying a variety of farming tactics.

Now, well past the one year end point, a number of things have changed but the drive to continue learning and farming locally has persisted. The farm continues to be an educational environment with a number of students from pre-school to adult eager to learn about farming methods and practices.

With an expanded land base under production, the team is growing produce to sell at the local Haney Farmers’ Market (special opening April 20, regular markets start the first Saturday in May) as well as to support the fledgling Golden Ears Food Co-op.

“Our priority will be to sell at the farmers’ market where we can interact directly with our customers and get top dollar for our produce,” says Jocelyn Durston, who was responsible for the original proposal to farm the two and a half acre hobby farm her friends live on. “But we will definitely be interested in supplying the co-op with fresh produce as our supplies allow.”

As Farm for Life evolved, group members changed. Durston, her childhood friend Julie Clarke and Clarke’s husband, Chris Moerman, stayed involved. The couple’s young son Kai is continually learning the ways of farming. A new member, Durston’s partner, Chris Kasza, also came on board.

“Our common interest in permaculture is what brought us together,” notes Durston of her relationship with Kasza and his ultimate arrival on the farm.

Kasza has been an instrumental addition due to his extensive permaculture and master gardener education. He and Durston take on the lion’s share of the work in keeping the farm operational and participation in production gardening is theirs alone.

“The market garden is just Chris and I,” Durston says. “Chris (Moerman) is primarily interested in the fruit trees and the perennials.”

The arrangement is ideal. Durston and Kasza have modified their lifestyle to allow for more time to manage farm activities. Moerman and Clarke balance off-farm jobs with contributing as much as they can to the growth and advancement of the farm which includes the orchard, production gardens, animals, herbs and a healthy dose of permaculture-based planning.

In fact, Durston and Moerman recently signed up for a 14 month Permaculture Design Course (PDC) certification to further their understanding of how plants work together to create a more positive environment for growing.

With the move to join the farmers’ market, more land was needed. One plot was obvious – a location Kasza had already been using. The second, another off-site plot of raised beds, is the sunniest region of the combined acre under production, but for off-site production, planting had to be carefully considered.

“What we plant there took big thought,” notes Kasza. “We can’t get there every day in the summer.”

Other changes on the farm have included the rabbits becoming pets rather than a meat source and the chickens and ducks being used for egg production as well as pest control.

“Muscovy and Indian runner ducks are the best at eating slugs,” Kasza says. “The Indian runners are less interested in the destruction of the plants.”

The small orchard has moved, and a polytunnel greenhouse was erected. The poly was not the first choice in material, but it was a necessity with its position on top of a new septic field.

“We had to be sensitive to the fact it was over the septic field,” says Durston about the choice of materials, methods of construction and weight.

When asked what visitors to the farmers’ market can expect, the response was a list of standard vegetables, but according to the pair, that’s what people are asking for.

“People were looking for specific classic items, like carrots,” comments Kasza.

That doesn’t stop them from doing a few unique things like including edible flowers in their mixed salad greens. There is also a healthy dose of exploration.

“We suffer from a broad interest in trying new varietals,” Kasza jokes.

“Farm for a Year became Farm for Life about a year and a half in,” explains Durston. “It became apparent that I wasn’t leaving. It is our second year selling at the market (and operation a small production garden). It’s interesting; I want to grow food for life, but I also want to grow food in a life giving way to improve food sustainability and availability.” 

I’m not going to pretend to be an expert on comfrey. Like everything garden-related, I still feel very ‘young’ in my knowledge of plants and ecological growing systems. I am, however, much more knowledgable now than I was a couple years ago, and one thing I know for certain is that I. LOVE. COMFREY.

I posted a photo of some comfrey on our facebook page recently and received some comments of concern about it being an invasive, hard-to-get-rid-of plant, so I thought I’d write a blog post about why comfrey is awesome, to set the record straight about how it grows, and to provide some tips on how to get rid of it if you don’t want it in your garden anymore.

Here’s what I do know: Comfrey is a perennial herb plant that produces large leaves, small bell-shaped flowers, and grows a long root. It grows well in damp grassy areas (most of ours grows along the drainage ditch on the northern side of our property). Comfrey is also a permaculture superplant! Here’s why:

1. Medicinal qualities: comfrey is great at healing wounds. Comfrey root extract speeds recovery of bone injuries and a poultice of mashed comfrey leaves heals cuts and scrapes. (For external use only. The internet has a lot of information about how to safely use comfrey medicinally. Some people make comfrey tea, but others warn that ingesting comfrey can cause liver damage, so do your research carefully before considering any internal use of comfrey.)
2. Beneficial insect magnet: Important pollinators like bees and other insects are very attracted to the pink and purple flowers that comfrey plants produce.
3. Nutrient accumulator: comfrey is a power plant when it comes to providing nutrients for garden soil and compost systems. Comfrey roots dig deep below the surface of the soil (like 10 feet deep!) to places where other plant roots can’t reach. The roots pull potassium, calcium, and magnesium up to the comfrey leaves, which can then be cut off and added to compost bins or laid directly on soil as a rich mulching material. We practice the chop-and-drop technique: we plant comfrey at the base of each of our fruit and nut trees as well as near garden beds, and we ‘chop’ the leaves off as they get big and ‘drop’ them around the base of the trees or other plants. In addition to adding rich nutrients to the soil, the large mulch leaves shade the soil from sun and help maintain moisture in the top layers of soil so that they do not dry out quickly in the dry summer months.
4. Underground soil-improver: comfrey’s deep tap roots can break up heavy clay soil, and when the leaves above-ground are chopped off, they result in some underground root dieback. The dying root stays in the ground, decomposing into helpful organic matter, nourishing the soil below the surface.
5. Perennial: no need to re-plant this super plant every year. It will return year after year, regularly providing you, your soil, and your garden’s insects with its awesomeness.
6. Easy to transplant: comfrey is also super-easy to transplant. For the past month, I’ve been cutting chunks of root and leaves from our larger comfrey plants and transplanting the cuttings to other areas of the gardens where I know it will be helpful to have it.

Warnings about comfrey:

1. Comfrey is not invasive, but… Comfrey is not an invasive plant. It does not send out runners or vines to take over garden beds or lawns like our morning glory and buttercup does. Most varieties of comfrey also do not set seed (including the comfrey we have growing on our property). HOWEVER, comfrey root grows very successfully after being divided (which is why it’s so easy to transplant), SO if you have comfrey on your property and you want to get rid of it, DO NOT try to dig it out or rototill near it. If even a tiny piece of root breaks off and is left in the ground, it will re-grow. The best way to get rid of comfrey is to sheet mulch over it. It will not send out shoots or runners to get around the mulch. Just lay some cardboard and other mulching materials on top of it to rob it of sunlight and you’ll be all set.
   

Most of what I know (and have shared) about comfrey, I have gotten from permaculturalists and permaculture books. Toby Hemenway’s ‘Gaia’s Garden’ has a lot of great information about comfrey (and is our favorite permaculture book in general, so lots of good reasons to check it out :).

Comfrey really is awesome. Like I said above, I love it. I love that transplanting it is so easy, that it attracts pollinators that our fruit trees, squash, and tomato plants need, and that I can depend on it to enrich our soil and to provide an easy to use (and fast to re-grow!) mulch material. After using comfrey in our gardens here, I can’t imagine ever having a garden without it.

For anyone interested in getting their hands on some comfrey for their own garden, we will be selling pots of it at the upcoming Earth Day Farmers Market in Maple Ridge (April 20th, 10am-2pm, Memorial Peace Park on 224th).

UPDATE: This seems to be the most popular blog post on our site. I’m glad that folks find it useful but I’m sad to say that we cannot assist in requests for comfrey anymore since Jocelyn and Chris K. have moved to Nova Scotia. Maybe once our new business, Seven Acres Farm, is underway we will be able to mail root cuttings around the country. – Chris K., 2015/04/06

(I’m copying something my favorite farm blogger does with this Pictured, Not Pictured blog post. Yesterday was a GORGEOUS, sunny day on the farm, spent with friends and animals and garden beds. Below are some of the photos we captured as well as some notes on what wasn’t caught on camera.)

Pictured:

1. It’s officially dry-your-clothes-outside weather!
2. Chris K. strikes a pose while reorganizing the polytunnel.
3. Jocelyn on her way to transplant some comfrey near the new garden beds.
4. Kai & Julie have a trampoline picnic.
5. Julie shows off some eggs she collected for our neighbour who gifted us with some big clumps of irises and a big bag of lily bulbs.
6. We ended the day with a bonfire on the property with our friend (and current trailer renter) Melody.

Not Pictured:

1. Julie falling COMPLETELY into one of our ponds while transplanting iris – like, right up to her chest. Jeans (with iPhone in back pocket) and all.
2. Kai challenging each of us to numerous races. ‘Race ya to the poop pile!’
3. Bunnies snacking on gifted apples from our neighbour.
4. Chickens taking dust baths in the warm sunshine.
5. The completion of transferring composted manure to our new garden beds.
6. Sun-kissed noses and cheeks on all of us after a full day in the warm sunshine.