Mirabel URBAN FARM Market
2661 4th Avenue V9Y 2C4 Port Alberni, BC, Canada

Nothing like a mess o greens to get the day started. These leaf turnip brocolini-like flower heads are delicious in the springtime. And they look pretty on the plate, just before I devour them, yum!!

Spring is coming on fast at Mirabel. We have seed germination testing going on, and little baby plants coming up in the green house. Outside the leeks have been mowed a bit by the deer and the garlic is looking healthy. Here are some pics of early spring at Mirabel Urban Farm.

We are also very excited to see that different kinds of land management are in play when it comes to our predicament with RAPID climate change. One upon a time 60 million buffalo roamed the North American grasslands. They did a good job at keeping the soil healthy. We support regenerative agriculture in the Alberni Valley. If farmers would start doing this and we had a good local abattoir access it could be a big positive for our local sustainable, good food system. https://www.nytimes.com//regenerative-grazing-cattle-clima

Its getting really exciting around Mirabel because spring is coming. We are germination testing our seed and will be selling them online from March 15 - April 15. Yes that's right it's Alberni Valley Seedy Saturday online!! Meanwhile we continue to be blessed with the best greens anyone can find in our 0 mile diet.

Yesterday's harvest of greens, after one night of frost, tasting sweet and rich with the taste you can only get from plants growing in living soil. Chard, kale and leaf turnip all acclimatised to Port Alberni. Next month you will be able to buy our seed. Stay tuned.

https://www.youtube.com/watch

Each year we like to bring in DNA from off the urban farm to create diversity and encourage the mingling of desirable traits. I found this cool family run seed company from Nova Scotia Incredible Seeds. I want to visit them! https://www.incredibleseeds.ca/pages/about-us

We save acclimatized seed at Mirabel. We are always on the lookout for other DNA that we can bring on to the farm through open pollinated and heirloom seed. Here is farm in Southern Alberta I discovered today, the Heirloom Seed Vault. They are offering some other seed varieties I don't have like San Marzano tomatoes. https://heirloomseedvault.com/about/

It's been an uninspiring spring for some veggies, but then its also been a wonderful shoulder season for the cold hardy greens. Arugula, lettuce, chard, spinach, mizuna and pak choi are all jumping out of the ground around Mirabel. Today I am excited because all my coyote bush cherry tomatoes are coming up from our acclimatised seed we had saved from way back in 2012. And because I found this lovely little video about these charming fruits and why they are so special. https://www.youtube.com/watch

Meet Charli. New to Mirabel, Charli trained, in 2019, with the Shelter Farm Market Garden Program and currently works there a few hours a day. At the urban farm we love her enthusiasm for the combination of farming, art, design and science. Here she is so excited about starting a red wiggler worm farm at Mirabel. We are excited about this because worms encourage the microbiomes that humans need to get from their food grown in living soils for vibrant health and immunity. Thank you Charli. Looking forward to veggies that have all the biomes we need for our gut health!

Cold nights, frost and -1 overnight, warming days with a cool westerly breeze picking up in the afternoons. No rain for a few weeks.Time to get the irrigation system happening. Maybe this year the city will give us a break on our water costs for farming? We have lettuce starts on the hugel bed and some tiny little onions, given to us by another urban farmer. The black currant is looking healthy and smelling divine in its spring growth spurt. Spuds are being planted under hay and we are deciding which of our leaf turnip giants we are going to save seed from, the others will be chopped and dropped. Covid or none, we have to continue to grow our own local foods because that is what resilience means, DIY.

Our "building soil in place" strategy is working well. We are planting and planning for a healthy season of permaculture productivity at Mirabel. This video is excellent because we all want to have good soil for free, or nearly free. Her tips are pretty good. Y'all. https://youtu.be/nP0WuaBy1vU