The Rural Voice, 1979-09, Page 37of farm
portable classroom. They are in the process
of renovating the building. It is comfort-
able, unique, attractive, and surprisingly
large.
It is also, Bob said, "warm in winter,
cheap to run, and cheap to build."
TO CO-OPS
The Burchills sell their produce to the
Federation of Food Co-ops, which serves
42 stores. The closest outlet is in Mitchell.
Last year, they supplied Greenleaf Foods
of Kitchener, and will do so again. They
also sell some of their produce privately,
and will attempt to catch the highway
sales, Bob said.
His growing methods are often simple,
gleaned from old farm magazines advo-
cating home-made cures, which up until
the last 20 years, Bob said, were successful
Annie and Bob Burchill
for hundreds of years.
He's an "avid reader of Harrowsmith,"
and for years had gardens in other
locations on his travels. He also gets
information from the Department of
Agriculture, which is experimenting with
organic methods.
"I won't grow corn on the same land two
years in a row. I won't grow potatoes on the
same land two years in a row," he said.
This year's potato patch, nurtured in soil
fed for the last 16 years on rotten apples
from the orchard, has plants 21/2 feet high.
Manure from his 250 chickens has also
made an excellent fertilizer.
Bob has been using a bacterial spray
called Thuricide, and a mixture called
Rotenone, made from a poisonous root and
ground finely, which will not leave poison
deposits in the soil.
"I'm still looking at it, and may have to
go to other methods," he said.
SEAWEED CONTROLS
There are also seaweed products to
control pests, and a finely ground sea -shell
mixture that acts like ground glass on
worms.
"Chemical farmers should only be using
chemicals on the basis of necessity," he
said. Scuffling more ofte; and shallow
ploughing are better methods.
Bob also has a new orchard of 50 trees,
and hopes to plant 200. This year he
planted 1600 other trees, and said he will
have "cedar posts when I am an old man."
He plans a solar greenhouse as one of
next year's projects, and would like to
experiment with wind power generators.
THE RURAL VOICE/SEPTEMBER 1979 PG. 35