Why is there spelling and format mistakes?
I am neither a web designer or a published author and my proof reader ... well I dont have one. Its a bit like permiculture - emulate nature. Or Free range vs caged. Its the a draft - permanently.
So where exactly are you?
Canada - Ontario - County of Lennox and Addington - Napanee - Aldophus reach on lake Ontario is a few KM away offering some great microclimate - very similar to the GTA.
That's close enough I don't want a on premise store and public visits and I would like to keep as much in bio-containment as I can. The area is known for the loyalists and is some of the oldest agricultural land in Ontario. The farm I purchased was in the family for generations and there are very few newcomers, especially ones looking at alternative agriculture. I have already being told I am the talk of the area.
So why a Farm?
I spent over 30 years working in high tech. From building out the internet to more recently digital identity, fraud and cyber security. No this is NOT 'verse farming.
The 3 part BBC aired documentary "The Future of Food" was VERY prescient. For all the talk of climate change and all the money being spent on carbon capture and "ESG", agriculture is the area most in need of a new path forward.
There is nothing sustainable about putting more inputs of energy into a system, than you get out and as energy is forced to transform, so must agriculture. Though the problems in agriculture are clear and governments are applying pressure to farmers to make changes, the solutions and path towards this transformation is not clear. Our Ontario, Canadian seasonality and climate being unique. One thing is clear, is that we need more alternatives.
So you not a Farmer?
My first year I started growing, I spent thousands on a pretty flowers and shrubs. What a labour (and not of love). I hated the result. The next year, I tore it all up and gave it to my neighbour, and started with edibles While wondering around a small nursery, the heavily dutch accented owner, pointed to an aronia shrub and said you would like it, so I bought it. By the next year I was ordering romance series cherries for a hedge from UofS and Shallots from Quebec. Not only were these plants useful, but they were truly beautiful. Is it not our imperfections that make us unique and in that very uniqueness is not our identity? Although my produce, being grown with no chemicals was never perfect, the taste was FAR superior.
I started concentrating on what ate or used. I soon realized that "lesser fruits" and local plants were not nearly as easy to find as showy prize winning flower cultivars available in every store. Heirloom varieties of often unknown shapes, colours and flavours became an obsession and my seed purchases grew to hundreds of dollars a year.
While on holiday in Croatia, I met an incredible grower. The grower had scoured the local country side for olives, grapes and even a few other fruits - not looking for common cultivars, but old village plants and in their own words probably tasted hundreds. They weres not growing a Shiraz or a Pinot Grigio - but the vine on the stone wall on the east slope...The olive tree on side of road were the sheep graze. This grower had carefully cloned these finds and created new orchards. At the time of my visit they were selling 4 types of olive oil, 4 wines and and some dried herbs. They were now trying to cross some of these finds in their own breeding program. I must admit I was doubtful, but on doing a tasting, I was blown away.
THIS WAS LOCAL FOOD! The French have long spoken of - Terroir. Does the fruit grown locally, on a tree that was grew from seed and was cloned half way around the world, taste the same as the original? If your answer to that is no...
I was hooked. Take a simple seed grown herb like Thyme, which grows and tastes best in our climate. English, French or German - or perhaps if we cross pollinated them, and grew out there seed for a few seasons, selecting the best, evolution would answer and it we would have Ontario Thyme. Now many plants grown from seed, return closer to wild versions, but there is often one in the dozens (or dozens of dozens) that stands out and deserves to be cultivated further.
And so I began to ask some hard questions
- Have we all fallen into a marketing trap of looking for a named cultivar unsuited to the terroir its growing in?
- Why do more growers not develop local cultivars as was done for centuries before? Many fruits and vegetables were actually named after the town/farm/or grower till recent marketing changed that.
- Does eat local just mean, eating things developed for a different climate, but grown locally, or dos it mean eat locally developed and grown foods in season?
- What is the future of agriculture and food? Can we really continue to ship containers of fruit or vegetables, grown non sustainability thousands of miles to sell them out of season in the grocery store?
So its a local food thing?
Well partly, but really its more about the development of local foods.
Many of the best known cultivars are selected for their presentation, ability to withstand shipping and shelf life vs taste. Pumped with maximum water and fertilizers, polished, sprayed, gassed etc. Looking to get a shelf space on a major grocery store, and mind-share of shoppers. Flavour and nutrient density were not even on the minds of the developers. Thats not even getting into the large commercial GMO market.
One small farm cant find the path to the future of agriculture in Ontario, but one MORE innovative small farm - can - even if in some minuscule amount. In fact if all it achieves is getting 1 other grower to change its unsustainable practices, while regenerating the land, I would consider it a success.
So whats the business plan?
The area is filled with nurseries, CSA's, herb, fruit, vineyards, cider farms. With the GTA area a couple hours away with approximately 6 Million people. The strategy is to 3 fold.
- Being good stewards of the land we are trusted with. Developing the land, terroir and cultivars. Working as much through natural seed breeding to develop our own local cultivars.
- Producing some limited direct sales to create brand and test the market. This could be via local restaurants, markets or even processed goods like teas and herbs etc.
- Wholesale
sales of cultivars developed to herb farms, nurseries, cider companies,
CSA's and other local food companies to grow in bulk.
You not going to get rich quick then - are you?
Depends on how you measure wealth. Financially, unless a extremely wealthy patreon sees its value, no.
Shouldn't the government be doing this?
Of course and they have programs. But governments are neither known for speed or innovation. As environmental, food security and independence and sustainability concerns grow, I do hope the Canadian government will support sustainable agriculture more through programs like the UK hedgerows program or more tax breaks on cover crops etc and not spend money on grants to a few selected farms or promote people buying farms to leave unattended or hunt on, while invasive species take over. During my search for a farm, I was horrified on how much good agricultural Ontario land was just left for weekend warriors playgrounds, with no land stewardship in place.
Wont this take a long time?
Hopefully!. Its a journey not a destination.
Is it a web page, a blog or what?
Its more of a journal. Its not intended for anyone other me, to measure my progression and development. The repetitive tasks of manual labour, does not mean your mind shuts off, in fact, I find it stimulating. There is nothing like listening to Podcast on economic policy, while puttering with your seedlings to make you think.
Why not just use social media?
20 Years ago I heard that email was dead - killed by social media and instant messaging. Today - its still my favourite form of messaging. What is social media but a club membership - and I might add not very exclusive. Yet RSS is still my favourite way to get updates in any format - short or long, from media or just others doing great things. I get newspapers, classifieds, podcast and even videos all through one tool. Unlimited and unbound and more importantly, without selling my digital identity data to some social media company to try sell me something else I don't need. So RSS was the clear means to share my journey.