Building the Greenhouse - COMPLETE!

YAY! The greenhouse is finally complete. It took us 6 weeks to build the structure, (mind you we had a myriad of other projects to work on during that time). It was recommended that it would require 3-5 people to build this structure. Pffft, all you need is two Gavigans :) We are overwhelmingly proud, and in awe of ourselves. And as a bonus, our marriage is still intact lol (all you couples out there who've worked on large projects together know what Im talking about! lol). This is by far, the biggest structure we've built to date. And we did a dam fine job :)

Now comes the finishing work. Installing our 60ft propagation table, leveling out the site around the structure, tilling & cover cropping the greenhouse beds for planting late summer, and moving in all our greenhouse supplies & equipment.

As well, our first transplants went out into the field this week. Leeks, Shallots, Onions, and Squashes. It was a pleasure working with the new silty, sandy, loamy soil. So light and fluffy. Such a contrast to the hard, clay majority soil we have been working with the last several years.

We're almost to the point where the farm infrastructure will be complete, the wash station and storage facilities will be built, and we can just focus on farming and preparing for markets this fall. We're really happy with how everything has been working out, the farm is really coming together nicely.

More updates to come so stay tuned :)

Trinity Valley Drilling installing our high tech pump in the farm well

Finishing off installing the end wall struts and foundation posts

Installing the end wall struts

Nev's happy to finally be putting up the fans. Yay!

Installing the last fan

Installing the plastic on the east end wall

Installing the plastic on the west end wall

It was quite a feat to install the main plastic sheet with only two people, but we did it!

Plastic and roll-up sides are on! Yay! The greenhouse structure is complete (finally!)

Planting potatoes (Red Chieftain and German Butter)

A panoramic of the fields (facing east)

We popped out to Yarrow Ecovillage last week for a visit and to pickup our cooler. Which made it safe and sound to our new farm in Lumby.

My mom and sis helped me layout and transplant all the winter squashes last week. Thanks gals!

Transplanting the winter squashes

A Connoisseur of Fine Manure

What do you call someone who considers themselves a connoisseur of fine manures? Someone who understands and appreciates the subtle complexities of a well aged pile of dung? Simply put, you call them a Farmer.

Last week the lovely German couple from up the road, operating the largest and most prestigious Show Jumping Stables in North America, called and offered us a few loads of their mountainous pile of horse manure. Yippeee! Only a farmer could get as excited as we were to receive such a gracious gift. And only a farmer could consider a big pile of horse poo a "gift". lol.

We jumped on it straight away, and within a couple of days we had ourselves a big steamy pile of beautiful overwintered horse manure. It had the perfect ratio of manure/bedding/straw. And, as it had sat all winter, it was already mostly composted. With only a slight hint of ammonia to its sweet earthiness. Horse dung is the Bordeaux of manures, as it contains the perfect ratio of carbon to nitrogen. Making it the favoured choice of vegetable farmers.

As we operate an organic farm, we hot compost all of our manures. Meaning we turn the pile (the act of transporting it and piling it is sufficient), and heat that pile to over 130 degrees Celcius for a minimum of at least 4 days. This process kills off any seeds or pathogens that might have been present in the pile, making it fit for use on our farm. Once the pile starts to cool down, meaning the thermophilic bacteria have done their work and start to die off, we cover the pile and let it age and cure for another few months.

Once our precious pile has cured, it will have the sweet, earthy, seductive smell of a well aged wine. Its texture will be light and fluffy, silky and soft. And it will add an array of nutrients, as well as organic matter, to our soil. We are so blessed to have this traditionally run horse stables just up the road from us. Thanks a HEAP Gerwig & Eleke Bahle!

First Day: Sunny and beautiful. A foal was born not 2 min before we got there that morning. Cute!

Second Day: Pouring Rain. We were still happy as pigs in... well you know! To be receiving this manure.

Nevin taking the piles temperature with our handy compost thermometer.

Mmmmm, smells almost done!

Building the Greenhouse - Part 2

Wow, so much has happened here on the farm since I wrote last. Over the past few weeks we have been working on the farm irrigation pump-house, digging trenches and laying pipe for our irrigation mainline and the waterlines to the farm centre & greenhouse. As well as constructing grey water pits for the house and wash station, and getting ready to construct a road to and around the Farm Centre. Oh, and ploughing and tilling the new fields and cover cropping them. We also made a quick trip out to Yarrow Ecovillage (Chilliwack), to check on and weed our garlic (which is doing marvellous by the way!) and visit our friends there. Not to mention several other small projects around the farm and house. (whew!).

So, in between all of this, we still managed to work on setting in the cement foundations for the greenhouse. This was a very, very painstaking process. But, by recycling the previous owners cement foundations we managed to save quite a bit of money & work, which we definitely paid for in time needed to properly line and level them (isn't that always the way!). It was a learning process that took a couple of days, but by mid project we had found our stride and devised an ingenious method that worked quite well. Too bad we'll never need it again lol.

It took approx 5 x 7hr days to set in all the foundations, and only one day to actually erect the majority of the skeleton lol. With the ribs up and the snow load/end wall braces on, its looking like quite the structure!

Next phase is to finish putting together the skeleton (cross beams, base boards & wire locks, cat walk, end wall struts) then its on to installing the organs of the structure (the industrial fans, doors, propane heater, roll-up side mechanics). Then at long last, the skin (plastic) will go on. And our living, breathing greenhouse will come to life!

More updates to come, so stay tuned :)

Grading the trench for the Wash Station grey water pit.

Filling the grey water pit with river rock (after the pipe and barrel have been set up).

Nev posing proudly on his first ever constructed grey water pit!

Nevin and Carl (our excavator guy) discussing the water line for the Farm Centre.

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Feels good to finally be breaking ground (ploughing the first field).

Nevin tilling the vegetable field with our bad ass tiller. Aptly named: The Beast :)

Our first field is tilled and ready for cover cropping. Approx 2.5 acres.

Nevin raking in our cover crop seeds with the S-tine cultivator (love that thing!)

A great photo of Nev on Big Red :)

Mom's been working hard this past week clearing last year's Greater Burdock our of the fields around the farm centre. Great Job Mom! <3

Setting in the greehouse foundations was a tedious chore, to be sure. But well worth the effort to get it right the first time!

And up go the greenhouse ribs!

About halfway done!

Easily done with just two people! Even though it was recommended to have 4-6 people on hand for the building of the structure. lol.

Everything is lining up nicely!

Almost done the Ribs!

Tada! Ribs are up. It's starting to look like a greenhouse now :)

Building the Greenhouse - Part 1

We are so very excited about this project! We recently acquired a 30' wide by 96' long Ovaltech 3 Steel Frame Greenhouse. Complete with roll-up sides, inflatable double poly, peak roof vent, 320,000 BTU propane heater, and much much more! It was quite a deal (Thanks to Gwyllyn for his generous help!). And thanks to our friends Stan & Ann Coster for helping us load and transport the structure from Oyama.

This structure will allow us to grow premium produce throughout the year (winter too!). We are planning on moving into a 10-month harvest season next year, offering fresh produce from March right through to the end of Dec. (Exciting!).

First things first though, get the foundation in. Our structure also came with free 2.5ft cement foundation columns with anchors to hold up the "ribs" of the structure. With the help of our neighbour from up the road (the amazing Len of Foisey Ranch!) we drilled holes with his 2ft augar so that we can now sink in and arrange the cement columns.

Next comes the meticulous work of measuring, levelling & back filling the columns to get everything just right. Then once the tricky part is over, its on to assembling the "skeleton" of the structure. So stay tuned for part 2! :)

Welcome to The Farmacy! (formerly Ohm Organic Farm)

Hi Everyone, and welcome to the launch of our new project - The Farmacy! Formerly known as Ohm Organic Farm @ Yarrow Ecovillage (Shauna & Nevin Gavigan), we specialize in high-quality, super fresh and affordable produce sold locally through farmers markets, a CSA Harvest Box program, and restaurant sales. 

We are excited to announce we will be adding tree fruits, asparagus, strawberries and eggs over the next couple of years, in addition to our produce sales.

Over the next year we will be installing a 30' x 96' steel frame greenhouse (which will propel us into a 10 month harvest program, offering fresh produce from March - Jan!), we'll be upgrading the Farm Centre (the great big building in the centre of our field) to include an indoor wash station and storage facilities, as well as preparing the land (cover crops and mulches) for the installation of the orchard and asparagus in early 2015. 

We'll be managing a small vegetable program this year (growing a wide variety of crops), aiming to start sales in late August. Which will give us plenty of time to finish moving our farm from the Fraser Valley (it's no small feat to move a farm!), and finish installing the necessary utilities and infrastructure for operations here.

We are so very excited about this project, and cant wait to meet all the farm folk & supporters out here in the area. We do, however, miss all of our friends and contacts in the Fraser Valley, and wish you all a productive and profitable 2014 season! We also want to thank you, because without your support, we wouldn't be where we are now - successful up-and-coming young farmers!

We'll be blogging the highlights of the project, complete with lots of pictures, to keep you posted on how our adventure is progressing. You can also check out our website for info about how we grow, our organic certification, about us, our CSA Harvest Box program, as well as lots of colourful farm photos: www.thefarmacy.info. 

Thanks again, for all your support!

This is a preview of the steel frame greenhouse that we will be installing over the next few weeks. So excited!

My mom, putting the last of the trays in our custom made propagation table. Onions, Leeks and Shallots Oh My!

Our cozy new home, perched on a hill overlooking the farm and stream.

Beautiful Bessette Creek, which borders the property.

Nevin working the field with our new Foton Tractor (star trek anyone?), aka Big Red.

Our sleepy, quiet farm under a cozy blanket of snow. We sure did miss this kind of winter :)

The Farm Centre (a 6000sq ft building nestled in the middle of one of our fields)