persephone
market garden
We prevent problems by working with nature, rather than fighting symptoms with pesticides.
Our focus is on minimizing disturbance to the soil, increasing the diversity of plants in the garden, and having living roots in the soil with mulch on top of the soil, as much as possible.
A healthy soil, teeming with life, is the foundation of healthy crops and healthy food.
Three very challenging years (2016 – 2018), with droughts and floods, showed us that tilling the soil with a tractor and rototiller just wasn’t working. Problems were snowballing and farming wasn’t fun. So we stopped tilling in 2019 and have more fully embraced mulching!
And taking that leap (10 000 years of agricultural habits can be hard to leave behind!) has been absolutely worth it! Fewer weeds, pests and diseases, along with healthier and more abundant crops, are the reward for re-thinking how we do things!
Life thrives on diversity. To be healthy and resilient, our farm must also be rooted in diversity.
We practice intercropping (combining different crops in the same space), crop rotation (moving crops around from year to year) and cover cropping (growing non-vegetable species that stay in the garden). And we grow more than 40 different vegetables and herbs for you!<\p>
Band-aids don’t prevent problems, do they?
The soil, plants, animals and fungi are our teachers. If we observe carefully, studying the water and mineral cycles, energy flow, and populations of species, the land teaches us. The learning never stops and never ceases to amaze.
our approach to growing is rooted in our ancestral, peasant-farming roots of central Europe, teachings of the Anishnaabek people on whose land we thankfully live and grow, the global agroecology and food sovereignty movements, and holistic management.
It’s hard to sum these up in a few sentences! Two suggestions for further engagement are the works of Robin Wall Kimmerer and the nature journalling practice shared by the Wild Wonder Foundation.
Meet the standards for organic farming in Canada.
Our vegetables, herbs and seeds are certified organic by TCO.