Interview With Catherine

This is my interview with Catherine a mother from the Special Delivery Club and the Bright Starts Group. She has attended both and is still a participating member.

I hope that her answers help someone in Haliburton County make a choice to call and inquire about one or both of these groups.

The Interview

________________________________________________________

Q. How did you find out about the groups ? (Special Delivery Club and Bright Starts)

A. Through my doctor visits of my 3rd pregnancy.

Q. When did you start the groups? During pregnancy, after birth or after first birthday?

A. During my third pregnancy.

Q. What was your first reaction when you attended the first day?

A. I felt good that I was finally getting to visit with other pregnant moms and getting help with parenting and pregnancy issues. Also was good to get the free milk.

Q. What were some reservations you might have had before you attended your first group/day?

A. Meeting new people was hard, dealing with anxiety. Was nervous and shy.

Q. What's your favourite thing about the group(s)?

A. Being with other moms, relating with people having the same issues as me, getting help when I needed it most.

Q. What are some of your favourite activities you and/or your child has done with either group?

A. Learning the circle songs, and getting my children socialized with other kids.

Q. What are some of your best memories from attending group(s)?

A. Being able to talk to other moms and getting out of the house to do it is probably the best memories of both groups. If I didn't have that opportunity, I'd have probably gone crazy.

Q. If you had to pick just one thing to talk to people about from attending group(s) what would it be and why?

A. All the help that they have offered me when I extremely needed it. They were always there to help me with a solution or given my family what we needed at the time.

Q. What are some of the things you would tell someone who is interested in attending or might benefit from attending either or both groups?

A. There is a lot of parenting help offered for who needs it. Gives you a chance to get a break, to sit down with other moms and have a good conversation. Provides you and your kids with a good lunch while you are there. Sends you home with milk which is good because it's so expensive. Provides travel money or a way to get there so that you can be a part of the program.

Q. What kind of things have you learned at group?

A. How to deal with struggling parenting problems. Where to get help with issues from around the county. That I'm not alone in my struggles, that there are many dealing with the same stuff.

Q. If you were to have another child would you want to attend The Special Delivery Club again? If so or not, Why?

A. I would definitely attend again if I was having another child. I felt better knowing that I had a place to go once a week that I could be with other moms to talk about what I was going through, and also to get me out of the house. For a place to relax knowing my child was being looked after for a little while. To get help when I need it, and not being judged for my situation.

I would like to thank Catherine again for taking part in this interview.

If you would like to join or learn more about either group please contact
Daniela at 705-457-1742 ext 31 

Or visit 

http://www.sirch.on.ca/programs-services/

Interview With The Special Delivery and Bright Starts Group Moms

I was given the chance to interview some of the mothers from the Special Delivery Club and the Bight Starts group that are hosted by SIRCH Community Services.

In these interviews I asked 11 questions in total and asked them to send me via E-mail their responses, this way they could tell me word for word what their experiences were without me missing something. I wanted these woman to have the chance to speak their minds and not be miss quoted by me.

There are three interviews not including my own. I will be posting theirs before I post mine because they are the ones that are still taking part in these wonderful groups.
I have not attended either group with my child since early 2011.

I hope that these interviews can help a mother out there that might need a place to go and feel safe and know that there are others out there feeling or have felt the same way that they do.

If you would like more information on the Special Delivery Club or the Bright Starts group please visit the SIRCH Community Services website 

http://www.sirch.on.ca/programs-services/

or 

call Daniela Pagliaro at 705-457-1742 ext 31 

Family Fun Farm Tour ~ Windy Meadows

Windy Meadows Farm Tour

On September 15^th I was asked to join SIRCH Community Services for another one of their wonderful farm tours. This tour was of Windy Meadows and working farm that had Angus Beef Cows.

When we arrived to the farm is was such a nice fall day and perfect to be walking around a farm. We were greeted by Jean and Brian Neville. Jean was our tour leader for the day.
We started with some facts about the farm like it's 200 years old and they have 100 acres filled with cattle, a donkey, some chickens and turkeys and we can't forget the pigs.

Walking to the barn 

There is an old milk house that is located on the side of the barn which was once used to milk the cows in, but has since been changed into the chicken house. The old milk house once housed the cream separator and that was a hand operated machine.

The Chicken House 

In 2009 they renovated the barn because it was starting to sink and one wall was falling apart so they poured concrete to save the wall

The Barn was built low for the height of the people and back then people were a lot shorter it seems. This barn is still held together with the wooden pegs where the joists meet. There is even a wall in the lower part of the barn where you can see the boards that were original and that they were held together with straw.

There is a pulley system at the top of the barn where there is a few ropes attached so that they could move the loose hay that was brought into the barn by the horses on a wagon. They had a hay fork that was also attached to the pulley system and would pick up a quarter of the hay load and then the person controlling it would then move it across to the other side of the barn where they stored the hay.

The wooden pegs 

The Rope that attaches to the Pulley 

Pulley on the roof 

The Hay Fork 

She showed us the original way into the lower half of the barn down a home built in ladder. But lucky for us they now have built stairs to get to the lower half of the barn.

Walking down the stairs 

When we were down there we got to see the stable area for both the cows and the horse. We got to see what the cows eat from and it’s called a manger. The entrance to the chicken coop is also down in the lower half of the barn.

Entrance into Chicken House 

We were shown some really interesting Pigeons called Trumpeter Pigeons. What makes them interesting is the fact that they have feathers on their feet. They also mate for life and live for about 10 years.

Trumpeter Pigeons 

She told us an interesting fact about chickens and turkeys. They have to have little stones to eat so that they can grind up all the food that they eat. You can also buy special stones for them from feed stores.

She also said that they break up all the chicken eggs that they get from the chickens and feed them back to them so they get all the calcium that they need and if you don't break them up small enough then they will start to eat the eggs they lay, if they start doing that there is a little trick you can do to stop them. You take a broken egg fill it with bread mixed with water and pepper put it back in with the chicken and when they eat it the pepper will make it too hot for them and they will stop eating their eggs.

The Male Turkeys 

She told us the difference between Hay and Straw. Hay is used for feed for the cows and Straw is only used for their beds and it comes from wheat and barley.

She also told us that Hay can spontaneously con-bust if it is not fully dry when bailed. So they now have a special device to read the temperature of the middle of the bail. So the best climate would be a very dry July/August.As for Straw it is always dry long before the Hay is.

Hay

Straw

Showing us how the temp tool works 

One of my favorite parts of this tour was meeting the pigs but there is only one thing that these pigs are for. They are Spring to Fall pigs, but that doesn't change how cute they are. We all learned a very interesting facet about pigs: they come from the bear family. These kinds of pigs are called Brukshire Pigs and they always stay outside.

Brukshire Pigs 

Jean was nice enough to turn off the fence so that we could all get closer to the cows and feed them the special treat that they enjoy, bread.

Cows eating 

Feeding Cows Bread 

The cows were so friendly and enjoyed us being there. If you gave them the time to warm up to you they would let you touch them. I was lucky enough to get to rub ones nose. 

Me touching her nose 

Some interesting facts about cows....

- They have three stomachs
- If cows eat nails or other metal things they have to have a magnet placed in them to make sure the it doesn't move, this is called Hardware Disease.
- They gestate for nine months just like we do.
- If there is a set of twins that are male and female then she has a 6% chance of being able to reproduce. The hormones from the male cause this.
- This year they had two sets of twins and they came from mother and daughter.
- One set of twins this year was a male and female
- After the calf's a certain age they get separated from the rest of the cows so they can reproduce again.

The Donkey that they have is deaf, he is also albino. Donkeys are kept on farms because they will chase off dogs, wolves and anything else that is there to harm the sheep and goats and it will kill the predators.

Bringing the Donkey over 

We also were told that horses gestate for 11 months and very rarely had twins.

Once we were finished with the tour we were treated to a wonderful lunch of hamburgers and salads. The burgers were made from the meat that they produce from the farm and I must say it made me never want to buy beef from the store again. This was one of the best burgers that I have ever had.

The Homemade Burgers cooking 

This was so yummy 

I want to thank them again for having us there and providing such a wonderful lunch for everyone.

Quotes from this tour were pretty simple and understandable.

Mmmmmmmmm

                      -Amanda (Parent)

 Interesting learning about small farming

                                                    - Jennifer (parent)

If you would like to learn more about SIRCH Community Services or any of the programs they have to offer please visit their website 

  http://www.sirch.on.ca/

Family Fun Farm Tour ~ Abbey Gardens

Family Fun Farm Tour ~ Abbey Gardens 

On September 7^th, 2012 I had the wonderful pleasure to join the Family Fun Farm Tour hosted by SIRCH Community Services and Abbey Gardens on the tour of their garden project.

I have been invited to three of these tours now and I must say the experience is amazing, we are all able to walk around the fields and learn all about the crops and the animals that are housed on the grounds.

These farm tours are to show the people of Haliburton County the types of farms that the county has to offer as well as teach parents and children that you yourself can have your own garden and grow your own food just as easily as anyone of the farmers on these tours can.

When we arrived at Abbey Gardens we were greeted by Janine Papadaopulos the project manager and our tour guide for the day.

Abbey Gardens was started six or seven years ago, but has only been producing for the last three years.

We started our tour with the animals that are on the property. Chickens and Turkeys.

We saw baby turkeys which she called Christmas Birds because people have ordered them for Christmas. There are about 50 turkeys in total and she told us that you can eat both males and female turkeys.

Then we also got to see White Rock Birds and these are meat birds. They were so cute all the children loved them. We also saw Red Rock Birds these are also meat birds and are their Thanksgiving Birds.

The Red Rock Birds are the type you would find at the store.

The other chickens that we got to see were called Chantecler Chickens and these are a Heritage Chicken, they are found in Canada and they are not very common. These chickens are used for eggs only, they are perfect for Canadian weather. They have a smaller crown so that it will not freeze, they have more feathers than most chickens to help keep them warm.

These chickens are helpful around a farm by chicken tractoring, which means they clear all the weed seeds that are left behind.

Getting to feed the baby turkeys 

Baby Turkey

White Rock Birds

Red Rock Birds 

After we got to see all the Chickens and the Turkeys we took a small break and she told us a little more about the land and the wonderful projects that were happening or about to happen at Abbey Gardens.

The Garden is on an acre and a half right now, but they are hoping that they use the other 200 acres for a Solar Power project and Green Houses.

Right now they are in the process of building a new Sustainable Building that is being built by Fleming College. They are only using things from the environment to help build this new building like straw.

This wonderful new building will house raw and cooked food that people from Haliburton County can buy. This will help the economics of the county and help the counties farmers.

In the mean time you can still find Abbey Gardens produce for sale at the Garden Gate Store located at the entrance of Abbey Gardens. The hours are Monday to Thursday 8:30am until 3pm from around May to late October.

Tuesdays and Fridays Abbey Gardens host volunteer days where you can come and help pick that weeks harvest for the CSA Boxes and you also get to learn a little about how to work in the garden. The hours for this are either 8am-11am or 8am -12pm depending on the day.

This year they also built a new building called The Hoop House, in this house there is no irrigation so everything must be watered by hand. The Hoop House will help extend the growing season, they are hoping until at least November.

This house has helped them already, they were able to start their season in April this year, that's when they started and continue to grow Peppers, Tomatoes and Basil.

Next year their plan is to start growing Parsnips, Kale and Lettuce just to name a few and the seeds for that will be planted soon.

The Hoop House 

We all got to learn a little about picking seeds to plant and what the best types were, she showed us lots of different types of vegetables that they have planted in their gardens and I will show you some interesting photos of the different vegetables.

What she told us about picking out seeds was what to look for on the package. You would want to get ones that said Organic or Heritage seeds and the reason she gave us is because they will re-grow.

She also told us that if you plant basil in between it will help keep the soil healthy and keep some pests away. When you plant things like this it is called Companion Growing.

The first thing we all noticed in these gardens would have to have been the amazing tomato plants that were everywhere. The first ones she told us about were the Manitoba Tomatoes, when you look at this plant you would think that it was about to die or might already be dead but she reassured us that it was from that.

This type of tomato plant has up to 40 tomatoes on it at one time and when it is growing them it save all the energy that other plant use to look green and healthy to make sure that the tomatoes are growing healthy instead.

Manitoba Tomatoes 

They have such amazing gardens that have some interesting vegetables in them like the Black Plum Tomato that always has green on the outside even when fully ripe and taste very yummy or the Lemon Cucumber that it round and yellow with a prickly outside.

The Lemon Cucumber 

There is also your everyday vegetables as well like Cucumbers, Beans, Kale, Swiss Chard, Onions, Celery, and a lot of different type of tomatoes like the Aunt Ruby's German Green Tomatoes that are green both inside and out even when ripe and the Japaneses Black Trifle Tomato and that one is black on the inside and very tasty as well.

 

We saw lots of different types of Squash including one I have never even heard of called Spaghetti Squash.

We saw and got to feel the Kale and I must say that it look like it is soft like lettuce but that is not the case what so ever, it is very rough and has pointy edges. We were all talking about the great things to do with it when one participant said that they like to add garlic, olive oil, kale and swish chard to a pan and fry it for a minute or so and serve it with sea salt and lemon.

I think I might just have to try that one day.

Picking an Onion

Janine showing us the different vegetables 

Kale

We talked about why they have raised growing beds and what they used to make them. They like to use three year plus manure because it becomes just like soil. There is also a black pipe that runs right down the middle of these beds and that is there irrigation for when they don't get a very good rainfall just like this past summer then they will water the beds twice daily.

The raised beds with irrigation 

After we finished our tour we were told about a wonderful lunch that we were going to be having, the best part was the participants had to pick the items needed to make this lunch.

Everything that went into the Pasta salad that we had to make was fresh from the garden right then. Onions, cucumbers, beans, carrots, tomatoes and basil.

After all the items were picked the parents then had to help cut the items and add them to the precooked pasta.

The different Tomatoes all cut up 

Looking at some Tomatoes 

Picking the Vegetables for lunch

Cutting the Carrots for the Salad 

All the different Vegetables we used 

The Yummy Pasta and Fresh Vegetables Salad

We all ate this very delicious lunch and we treated with some free produce to take home like tomatoes and carrots.

Abbey Gardens is taking part in a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) Box program where you can pay $300 up front and get 16 weeks of produce and we are not talking a little box either. Every week that you are a part of this program you get what is harvested that week at the gardens. The only thing that you have to worry about is that if the crop is not as great one week you all have to share that risk, but if the crops are wonderful then you all share in the rewards. As of this year there were 18 very happy CSA members. These boxes can also be picked up right at Abbey Gardens or at a central pick up location they have.

This was one of the best tours that I was on and I would love to be a part of the CSA Box next season because this is a wonderful chance to get healthy produce for my family, but also to help out our wonderful community.

Again if you would like to buy any produce from Abbey Garden you can from their Garden Gate Store located at the entrance of Abbey Gardens. Monday to Thursday 8:30am until 3pm from around May to late October. 

Family Fun Farm Tour – Garlic Festival

Family Fun Farm Tour – Garlic Festival

One of the booths had this sign 

On Saturday, August 25^th I had the privilege to attend the Garlic Festival held in Carnarvon, Ontario.

I was there with SIRCH Community Services Farm Tour.

While I was at the festival I got to enjoy some of the wonderful samples that the booths had to offer and was able to take part in learning how to braid garlic with all the moms that attended the festival with the Farm Tour.

Some of the photos that you are going to see are of the booths and the braiding activity.

While the mom's and I walked around and got to meet all the wonderful venders we also got to learn a little about how to plant the garlic and when is the best time to harvest it, we tasted some amazing items that were made with garlic and were able to take home some yummy things.

The first booth that we went to was Highland Garlic. They had wonderful array of Jams and Jellies as well as some amazing Spreads and Pesto's that are all made with Garlic or Garlic Scape (The green tops of garlic) I was able to try a few of them and I must say I fell in love with the 5 Cheese Spread. It was delicious.

Some of their Jams and Jellies 

Hunter Green was also in attendance with their wonderful display of home made “garlic” earrings. These earrings are made and sculpted in a special clay and look just like a head of garlic. They were also selling garlic seeds so that you can grow your own and Garlic Chive/ Onion bunches.

She also told us that you have to harvest the garlic by August.

Talking with Hunter Green 

  Garlic Chive/ Onion bunches

                                              

I was also lucky enough to learn how to braid garlic with the other mothers that were at this tour.

This was a wonderful experience and I would love nothing more then to get the chance to do this activity again.

Being told how to clean the Garlic 

Cleaning their Garlic

Getting ready to braid 

There were so many booths and vendors, that there are just too many to go into detail about, but I will list the rest of them with photos and let you know what they were selling. So please be warned there are going to be a lot of photos after this.

Towering Pines Market Garden had amazing Garlic Rolls you could smell them this far away

Sybil's (everyone called him the Curry Man)

Some of the sauces Sybil's had for sale
www.sybils.ca

Wall Flower Studio sold Seeds, Bulbs and Herbs 

Whippoorwill Farm had Garlic and Oregano Braided together as well as Yummy Mummy Emporium was there selling some wonderful baby items  

Trying one an anklet at Hand Crafted Jewelry  

Lavender Studios  

Heritage Hill Apiary was selling some of their Honey and I tried their Herbal Honey with Garlic, Ginger and Hot Chili and I would recommend buying some, it's so good  

Some of the participants told me what they thought of this Tour.

Awesome, lots of fun, this was more hands on this time.

                                                                                    ~ Katie (Parent)

I had a Garlistic good time.

                                      ~Terri-Lynn (Parent)

There is another Farm Tour taking place Saturday, September 15^th, 2012 at Windy Meadows Farm this is a working farm that has cattle, pigs, chickens and more.

To register or to request more information for any of the upcoming Farm Tours please contact Debbie or Daniela at SIRCH Community Services at 705-457-1742

For the official Event Page for the Windy Meadows Farm Tour please click this link

                                            

                               http://www.facebook.com/events/474071055950647/

To learn more about SIRCH Community Services and the services that they offer please visit their website.

     

                                    http://www.sirch.on.ca/