Background & Gallery
Moving to the acreage in 2015 was a big change for all of us. Starting a business off the acreage in 2016 was an even bigger change. The property was mostly pasture when we started and we are slowly learning what uses best suit the soil, micro climate and our passions.
History
We started with growing vegetables for our family only in the first two years and selling free range eggs. A hoop house (unheated greenhouse) was added for early season vegetables as well as mid-season tomato and pepper production. Our soil is black gold and we needed a far larger vegetable garden if we were to grow on any scale beyond our own needs only. The help of eight piggies were called in to dig up most of the grass, alfalfa and weeds on the pasture to make room for a vegetable garden.
Since most of our property is pasture, a flock of wonderful Dorper sheep was added that suddenly took animal care to a new level! The first season lambing was quite the emotional roller-coaster. The second year of lambing was clear sailing (except for a rogue ram lamb leading to some early lambing!) and the little lambs growing up were thoroughly enjoyed.
We started growing significantly more vegetables including garlic on approximately half the market garden space. Garlic growing seems to suit our soil amazingly well with large, beautiful, flavourful bulbs being produced. A significant increase in market garden space is needed in order to increase garlic production space and follow a crop rotation schedule (to prevent diseases and build the soil through cover crops). This conversion of pasture to garden led to selling the flock of sheep. It was a sad day, but they went to a good home.
The future is bright and we look forward to see what is around the next corner.
