PEACHLAND VIEW
10
OCTOBER 4, 2013
COmmuNiTy
DISPATCHES FROM THE FARM
Marr takes readers on a virtual tour of The Homestead farm Jordan Marr / Special to the Peachland View It’s high time I took you on a tour of The Homestead. You might think the invitation’s a bit late. It’s so blustery now, and the season is practically over. I beg to differ. The need for galoshes and a heavy sweater notwithstanding, this is the best time of year for a walkabout. The colours are at their sharpest, the smells are really fresh, and have you noticed the quality of the daylight lately? Summer’s light is so lackadaisical, and winter’s, at least on all the Jordan Marr overcast days, is flat. Now the light is full and crisp. And the season isn’t over just yet; we’re past peak production, but not by much. So let’s go. Touring the Homestead, one’s eyes don’t know where to settle. We’re a small-scale farm with diversified production, so there are all kinds of shapes and colours competing for the attention of passers-by. There are cornstalks wait-
ing to be cut down and fed to the horses, save for 10 or so Jess asked me to save for her Day of the Dead celebration; alternating hues of greens and reds of the 12 or so different succulents that we put into our salad mix; over there the zucchini plants are still fruiting, though their hearts just aren’t in it anymore. Obscured by more weeds than I’d like to admit is a bed of kohlrabis. Nobody wanted them, so they’re bloated and distorted from too much growth. It’s a convention of miniature, purple Jabba-The-Huts. Over in the orchard, the apples are blushing; a sure sign that it’s time for plucking. On the horizon, a sliver of the lake, captive behind fir tree prison bars that line the southern edge of the hay field. Below them, if you squint, and with a little luck, you might glance the brown bear that is camping in that tree line, equidistant between our orchard and our neighbour’s vineyard. Joe and his dog Gandalf have inadvertently treed him a few times during dusk walks, eliciting huffs of grumpy protest. Otherwise, it’s a live-and-let-live situation. He’s taken half the prune plum crop, yes, but we’ve learned that scarcity somehow makes fruit taste better. In the hayfield, a rare sight for this farm: an archipelago of brown islands of dying alfalfa in an ocean of timothy, clover and other grasses. Joe refrained from a final cut this year to allow the alfalfa to go to seed. He’s now collecting
the seed heads and will scatter them in those parts of the field where the alfalfa, that superfood of pasture grasses, has struggled to take hold. The radiant yellows, reds, and oranges you see in that garden bed over there are the heads of the quinoa I’m trying to learn how to grow. I think I need to try harder. My goal is to one day produce enough to eat all winter, but what’s there will barely constitute a hand-full. Out on the prairies, if you want to be the envy of your colleagues, you buy a bigger combine than them; in my world of hipster farmers, inefficiently producing a jam jar full of any grain indigenous to South America will do, as long as you’re nonchalant about it and suddenly develop a Latin accent when you mention place names. Sood Amedeeka. Voleevia. Over the winter, we’ll plan a whole new layout of the garden crops, the better to keep the pests guessing and alternate the nutrient demands made on the soil. It will also represent a twisting of the farm’s kaleidoscope, so you’re going to want to come back next year to check out the new array of colours. If you insist, we can do the tour in August, if only to prove that her sister, October, is the greater beauty. Jordan Marr grows organic veggies for home delivery at The Homestead Farm in Peachland. You can read more of his writing at thehomesteadorganicfarm.ca.
HERE FOR SENIORS Catering to the fine senior citizens of Peachland
Precautions to take when solicited for donations
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Charities often target certain groups of people when soliciting donations. Those groups may include past donors and people who have recently attended charitable fundraisers. Such an approach can be very effective. It should come as no surprise that criminals posing as legitimate organizations tend to target specific groups of people as well. Anyone can be fooled by a fraudulent charity, but such criminals tend to target seniors more than others. According to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, seniors often make attractive targets to con artists because seniors are most likely to have substantial savings, own their homes and/or have excellent credit. In addition, the FBI notes that elderly victims of fraud and other crimes are less likely to report those crimes out of fear that their families may feel they are no longer able to take care of themselves or manage their own finances. These factors make seniors especially attractive and vulnerable to con artists, particularly those who prey on wellintentioned men and women by posing as fake charities. But there are steps seniors can take to protect themselves from fraud. • Be skeptical of solicitors. Many con artists will indicate that persons have given to the charity in the past, hoping that prospective victims simply won’t remember if that claim is valid or not. If a solicitor or appeal letter claims that you donated in the past, don’t simply take it at face value, especially if you don’t recall making such a donation. Though not all solicitors claiming a past history of donations are dishonest,
this is one way that criminals attempt to create a rapport with potential victims, so such claims should be verified before making any donations. • Beware of solicitors pressuring you to donate. Reputable charities should not be on the verge of shutdown if you fail to make a donation, so such organizations never pressure prospective donors into making donations. If a solicitor is pressuring you into making a donation over the phone or in person, chances are strong that this person is not representing a reputable charity. • Send donations directly to the charity after independently confirming their address. When making charitable donations, those donations should never be given directly to solicitors. Never make a cash donation, as cash provides no paper trail should you want to deduct your donation or should you learn that you were victimized by a con artist posing as a representative of a reputable charity. • Request personal information not be shared. Upon receiving a charitable donation, many charities share their donors’ contact information with other charities. But many donors would prefer their contact information not be shared so they don’t find themselves being inundated with solicitations from other charities. Donors can ask to opt out of having their personal information shared upon making a donation. This is especially important for seniors living on fixed incomes who simply cannot afford to support many causes no matter how compelling those causes are.
Peachland’s Notary Public Odina Skovgaard • • • •
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Contact: 778-479-4706 * email: odina@lakesidenotary.ca