Almost urban vegetables

We've made it to the new volunteering place. It is now time to debrief on our wonderful stay at the vegetables farm in Winnipeg !

Welcome to Almost Urban Vegetables farm, Bruce and Marilyn's home !

Former engineer, Bruce work on the construction and buildings on the farm. He's also dedicated to his sheep and chickens. Marilyn has two job : at the farm, she manages the plans and the crops, but she's also manager of St Norbert Farmers Market, taking place on Wednesdays and Saturdays with up to 120 vendors.

Located on the edge of the city, their land of 8 hectares is any gardener's dream. Several greenhouses, beds and tunnels for the veggies to grow. During the summer, 3 to 4 people helped Bruce and Marilyn on the farm, but we only worked with two other people : Christian, the living local encyclopedia of farming, super positive and smiling all the time, and Bee, an awesome German girl who volunteered three days per week with us and was always down to hang after the hours. We really had great times with these two, during and after the work ! Cheers to them both ;)

Bruce and Marilyn made us feel so comfortable in their home, and so did Graeme, their youngest son. We shared meals, evening and other great moments with them. Bruce told us all about the chicken, the nutrition and many other things. And Marilyn taught me all about canning, making wine and dyeing wool. She even took me to the Fiber Festival, where it was all about knitting, sewing and weave. I truly appreciate the time they spend sharing their knowledge with us !

And then, there's the trailer, our tiny house for the three weeks we spend there ! Parked by the house, our bedroom was so small Ronan couldn't even stand in there. And there was no room for a double bed so we slept on separate mattresses, which was actually quite nice ! And thanks to the small heater, we were quite comfy in that tiny home ! What an experience !!

Every week day, we started working at 8 am, after a short briefing with everyone. We each had our tasks for the day and went on with the work, mostly harvesting veggies (Tomatoes, potatoes, carrots, squash...), cleaning them and preparing the beds for the winter time. We also had to prepare everything for the weekly vegetable boxes (56 every weeks) and the Saturday farmers market. The tasks were always different and we really got the chance to discover new thing every day.

And the week ends, no work was asked of us ! It gave us the chance to rest, but also explore the area and the city. Of course, we started every Saturday by going to the farmers market where we got to taste so many delicious food ! Then we'd head down to the city by bus. We went to the beautiful Museum of Human rights, to the Manitoba Museum with Bee, and to The Forks, a former train station that was turned into a food and shops area. While wandering around a park, we ran into a special event for the 100th year of CN, a railroad company. And despite the rainy weather, we had an awesome time discovering the many activities. We also met with Bee and Christian for a drink or some food downtown ! It was really awesome to have to opportunity to spend some more time with them.

I feel like I should also talk about Manitoba, the province we were living in. Manitoba is flat. But not like kinda flat with some small hills. No, it's really really flat ! There's a saying about Manitoba : If your dog runs away, you can still see him after 5 days... That's how flat it is. Some trees cut the horizon a bit closer, but it's also known as the Big Sky province. It's so flat the rivers here are very winding and curving, and when it rains, the land can be flooded really fast because the water doesn't drain.

We were really lucky with the weather while we stayed there. We got some really nice sunny and warm days. Some cold and sunny ones too. And then, of course, we got a few shower days, grey, dark and wet days (those reminded us of the Belgian weather!).

And the catch phrase of the province is truly well deserve : Friendly Manitoba. Yes, Canadians are nice and kind, but people from Manitoba take it to another level !! So friendly and interested and always eager to help.

As you can read from this article, our stay in Winnipeg was quite nice and met all of our expectations ! Thanks to awesome people, we felt welcomed and appreciated.

It was GREAT !