Getting Started on a "Biodome"

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Living a sustainable lifestyle can mean quite a few different things. It is in fact the theme of the farm but perhaps we have to define our objectives first. There are three factors we are focusing our attention on.

The first is economic sustainability. This goes without saying, but for a small farm it is not a simple objective. Food production today is mostly profitable on an industrial scale and small farmers must operate in "niche" markets. Hence our attempts to transform our site into what the Italians would call "agroturismo" or a centre for agricultural tourism (with the restaurant, the shop, the historical buildings and of course the land). Our philosophy here is also reflected in our efforts to promote local produce, local products and local artisans. We believe that doing this will have a positive impact on the sustainability of the local economy itself.

The second point is sustainability in our energy consumption. Given the scale of our activities, this will be much more difficult to achieve. We have a couple of projects in sight, but these projects will be quite capital intensive.

The last point is food, basically the production of food for the family. On this front, I believe we have made quite a lot of progress as we learn to grow our own fruits and vegetables. Eventually, we will work to produce our own sources of animal protein....and this brings us to the "biodome".

When it comes to food production, we have interests in three interesting concepts: foraging (particularly based on the bounty of the Carolinian forest), permaculture (companion planting to the extreme), and aquaponics. Aquaponics is where the "biodome" comes in and this week we were happy not only to break ground on the structure, but to also begin work on the foundations.

Foundations are going up for a new "Biodome"

The concept of the "biodome" is simple but rather difficult to implement. In fact this will likely be a multi-year project. It basically involves a 33 feet in diameter geodesic dome greenhouse (which we have procured from Growing Spaces in Colorado). This will be "off-the-grid" and solar powered.

The dome will then eventually house a large fish tank and hydroponic beds whereby in simple terms, the fish will provide nutrients for the plants and the plants will filter the water for the fish. The ultimate objective is to grow food year-round in a closed loop ecosystem. As for all of our other projects, we hope to provide regular updates on our blog.

Meanwhile work continues on the farm. This week not only did we have the help of our Swiss friend Aloise, but we also had the opportunity to host four burly young men from Quebec (friends of family). We took advantage of their presence to clean up one last remaining dump site on our property. Hidden in brush and close to some wetlands, we were determined to dispose of the garbage that was now overgrown with weeds.

A small "army" ready to tackle a dump site

In the  meantime, our Purple Raspberries have come to their end. We are now awaiting the coming of the Blackberry. Our pruning looks to be a success and the canes promise to be bountiful.

The Blackberry crop looks promising

Some of the early ripening berries are also looking rather large. We can hardly wait to harvest.

An early and rather large Blackberry

In the meantime, we have been picking wild Blackberries and Raspberries from the canes we planted this Spring.

On the gardening front, we discovered that some failures reported on in previous blogs have actually turned into success. We were sure no melons would grow, but we were very wrong. Both our heirloom cantaloupes and watermelons are doing very well and fruiting.

Small Shining Light Watermelon

Charantais Melon

Even some of the pickling cucumber vines we thought were dead earlier in the Spring are producing. In fact they are growing to such an extent that Chef decided to make his own line of pickles (which we now sell along with our jams and jellies).

Chef's lacto-fermented pickles

Our experiments in Melomel (fruit mead) production also continue. This week, it was time to rack a batch of Purple Raspberry Melomel made with a simple mead to which we had added bee pollen.

Readying our latest Raspberry Melomel for filtering

This was of course a good time to sample our brew. The results were much better than our attempts with a Pyment (Mead with grape juice). This wine had a decent level of alcohol (12.5 to 13%). It was dry but not too tart. It had also taken on the full flavour of the Raspberries. This batch promises to be a very good, dry fruit wine.

Of course, I could not complete this blog without our latest foraging discovery. This week, it was Milk Weed.

Young Milk Weed pods

It turns out that Milk Weed is a very good vegetable. From young shoots to flower buds to young pods, this is a very tasty green.

It is now the season to harvest young pods. These can be eaten when their interior is fully white and not browning. For us the most amazing thing was to taste the "silk" that carries the seeds in the fall. This silk can actually be eaten raw and reminds me a bit of raw peas!

When cooked these pods have a texture similar to okra. The challenge is now on once more for Chef to divine something from the Milk Weed pod. Now that we know of this edible wild plant, we'll be sure to keep an eye out to harvest some shoots and flowers next Spring.

In the meantime, the Tea Room has been quite busy this week. We were very lucky to get help from Alois' dad: Alois Senior. He is a chef from Switzerland who made a surprise visit to the farm. I don't think he ever expected to be recruited to wash dishes all day during one of our peak periods. He was a real trooper though saying it reminded him of the good old days.

In fact we've had all sorts of interesting people visiting including a couple who brought a simply gorgeous old Ford from the 1930's. Some of us even had a chance to take a ride in the "rumble" seat of this classic car.

 So I leave this week with the picture of a classic car on front of our renovated barn.

Two classics: a 1930's Ford and an 1880 fruit barn