My husband Paul and I have always considered ourselves gardeners. We live on a hobby Farm. Our son, Brennan, studied culinary arts at George Brown College in Toronto. He is currently working under Chef Mitch Lacombe at Gitanes, a French inspired restaurant, in Ottawa. We appreciate beautiful food and totally get the Farm to table experience concept. There is nothing more satisfying about planting a seed and seeing it flourish, then bringing it to the table as a delicious meal prepared from produce from our own gardens.
When Covid-19 hit in March 2020, the way we thought about gardening changed. After seeing empty grocery shelves, seeing that we relied so much on imported food, increases in food costs—We knew We needed to do something. We wanted to be more self reliant / self sufficient and grow our own food, for our family, friends and neighbours; Sell farm fresh produce via @littlefarmcart; We also want to donate food to the local food bank as more and more people are relying on them.
We had to start with rejuvenating our sandy soil. Inspired by these incredible people: Eliot Coleman , Charles Dowding, Jean-Martin Fortier, Richard Perkins and Master Youngsang Cho, we decided to use no-dig, no-til methods and follow the market garden approach. We built 30” rows with cardboard and added 8” of compost, with 18” wood chip isles. We ordered a few trucks loads of compost, and added manure from our own horses and a neighbours manure pile.
Our gardening on our hobby farm started with a few raised beds and a 30’ x 30’ garden. in 2022 we added two more plots: 50’x30’ and 100’x30’. Last year, 2023 we added a 32’x72’ high tunnel. In 2024 we will be adding an additional 32’x30′ and an 8′ x 100′ Flower garden.
Today we are promoting living soil by composting (Charles Dowding), organic fertilizers (Master Cho), market gardening and crop rotation methods (JM), cover crops and regenerative farming practices (Richard Perkins) and season extension (Eliot Coleman) to maximize yields and quality of our farm fresh products.
If you’re interested in farm fresh produce and supporting us, please look into our weekly Farm Basket program. We offer locally-grown in Oxford Mills Ontario, fresh vegetables & Flowers from mid-June to late October.
Don’t hesitate to reach out if you have any questions.
Heather & Paul
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