Special Guest Reporter For Week 6
Kid reporter Thomas here again with another interview with Jim and Leslie Forsythe of Forsythe Family Farms and field manager Shannon.
What are some of your favourite things in the market currently?
Farmer Jim: The strawberries.
What is the farm growing currently?
FJ: We are currently growing lettuce, kale, beets, strawberries and peas. (Tell me about it. I think I’ve bagged my own weight in peas this week.).
What are other farmers growing now?
FJ: Some crops that other farmers are growing are things like cherries, potatoes, onions and blueberries.(yum!)
What are some challenges that the farm is facing this week?
FJ: The weather continues to be a challenge with the lack of rain and the heat means that the crops are starting to wilt.
FL: The animals are finding it hot too so they would like the weather to cool down.
What are some exciting things that happened this week?
FL: We had some baby bunnies born this week. (Did you know that a baby bunny is called a kit?)
FJ: The sunflowers got planted for our Sunflower Trail in September.
(Also Farmer Jim got a stylish new straw hat!)
I know that food waste is a worldwide issue, so I was curious to know how the farm tackles it. Some of the things that the farm does is to match the harvest to the sales, they also donate excess produce to local food banks. Leftover fruit gets turned into delicious jams and sauces. Vegetables that are past their prime get fed to the animals. (And sometimes even farmer Jim!) The farm also has several compost piles that are used to give the food that has gone off back to the earth. Shannon was telling me that when she was inspecting the fields she noticed that there were some heads of lettuce and kale that were too small to be sold in the market because they were not getting enough water. However, rather than letting them go to waste, Shannon picked them and used the leaves to create tasty mixed salad bags! What a great way to ensure that all the food gets used!
Farmer Jim spent 12 hours each day farming this week, so I would like to thank him for giving me some of his time.