Riverside Garden
David and Inez McCreery
4884 Hwy 29, RR3
Almonte, ON K0A 1A0
phone: 256–9699
email: mccreery@magma.ca
What they have: Full range of (un-certified) organic market produce. 40–50 types of vegetables from asparagus to zucchini. Melons, raspberrries starting soon, garlic scapes, bulbs and braids in season.
Where they sell: Carp Farmers Market. Saturdays 8–1pm.
CSA program (16 weeks starting mid June). Contact in January/February to reserve a share. Farm pick up or box drops in Stittsville and Ottawa.
Down by the Riverside
David and Inez McCreery’s market garden lies next to the Mississippi River just a few kilometers north of Almonte. The McCreerys moved to Ontario from Newfoundland eight years ago in order to live closer to their kids and their grandchildren who (like many of the younger generation in the Maritimes) had moved to “Upper Canada”. David and Inez, inspired by friends who’d started a CSA program near St. John’s (in which David and Inez had held shares), had determined to “retire” from their respective jobs as Chief of Planning for the Atlantic Region National Parks and Historical Sites, and primary school teacher, and seek a property they could farm that had a new-ish house, waterfront, some acreage, and that was close to Ottawa (what they saw to be their primary market). This property fit the bill. After eight years they are running a successful CSA (Community Supported Agriculture), and growing organic produce for the Carp Farmer’s Market.
I wondered how and why people with backgrounds that initially seem unrelated to farming, come to make the shift to farming. As it turns out, Inez was raised on a mixed family farm in South Dakota. Her father specialized in raising disease-free hog breeding stock, but she also remembers keeping other livestock, and her mother’s vegetable garden (large enough to feed the family almost entirely all year-round). David met Inez in South Dakota while he was studying horticulture — plant knowledge which I imagine now comes in handy. They moved from there to the Maritimes where they lived for 25 years. When asked about the process of starting up, and acquiring the skills to farm, they said they read all they could about the different approaches to doing what they wanted to do, took (and still take) many of the workshops available in the area, and then jumped in! At a certain point, David said, you just have to learn by doing it, and figure it out as your farm develops. They started small — something he advises new farmers to do to see if they are cut out for it, and to make it less economically and psychologically overwhelming. After selling at the Carp market their first year, they took on a couple of CSAs the second year, and have built that end of the business up to 27 shares, or what they can comfortably maintain themselves. Although there are no longer any CSA shares from the McCreerys to be had for this year (call them in the winter to purchase a share), their produce can be found on Saturdays at the Carp Farmer’s Market. Look this month for raspberries, pattypan squash, beans, new potatoes, herbs, cucumbers and more!
One of the biggest challenges for farmers has always been unpredictable weather, and this year is no exception. The McCreerys experienced a significant number of plant losses in a recent hail storm. The wet weather has also made it difficult to work in the garden, and made for slow plant growth for some vegetables (not the weeds of course!). Luckily, the couple uses row covers — a thin veil of remay that covers a row of vegetables — and this protected most of their garden from hail damage. Remay row covers are an important part of their growing strategy. They let light through but prevent many insects from infesting a crop if placed over the row early enough. They also create a warmer climate within the cover that often assists germination and growth of the plants.
Despite the setbacks, Inez expressed that being able to offer good, nutritious food and interesting, tasty vegetable varieties unavailable in supermarkets (garlic scapes, pattypan squash, eater egg radishes) is tremendously rewarding. She talked about enthusiastic customer responses to the “purple haze” variety of carrots they offered last year. The carrot is purple on the outside and orange on the inside. (David continued, explaining that carrots were originally reddish/purple and that we owe it to 16th century Dutch horticulturalists who “nationalized” the popular vegetable by creating an orange carrot, after which it was adopted as the Royal vegetable in honor of the House of Orange — the Dutch Royal family). For more info on the remarkable history of the carrot, visit <www.carrotmuseum.co.uk/history.html>.
Over the course of my visit, we discussed a number of issues related to farming these days. David is involved in a project now beginning near Stittsville wherethree3 acres of farm land will be used by a group of Ka’rans recently immigrated to Ottawa from refugee camps in Myanmar/Burma. These people are just settling in, and many do not yet speak English. They do, however, have much experience in growing food, and on a recent visit to the farm expressed an interest in farming. A friend of David and Inez is offering the land, and David is acting as a mentor/consultant to provide guidance and information to them about growing for this climate. This is one of the many exciting farming projects that are beginning to spring up across the country that add to the diversity of food being grown, that offer opportunities to people from a variety of backgrounds to farm, and that help to contribute to our local food security.
Though the McCreerys are part of an older generation of farmers, they are clearly actively involved and interested in contributing to the community (David is also presently the President of the Carp Farmer’s Market). Despite the challenges facing small farms, they feel inspired and hopeful about the future of farming and local food production due to the number of young farmers in the area who are expressing a serious interest in, and enthusiasm for, growing our food as a livelihood. Though some of them, David expressed, may be naïve to the difficulties and work involved, many are not; and it’s these who are finding creative ways of making farming possible without having to invest an enormous amount of money to start up. Last year, I wrote a profile of one such situation (see Dunbrae Farms and Teamwork CSA at <www.thehumm.com/food>) where available land on a family farm has been given to a market garden/CSA operation. The McCreerys, too, have an arrangement with their neighbour (who works in high tech) who bought an old dairy farm across the road. The land was no longer being farmed and the owner wanted to learn about organic growing methods. David is mentoring him, and providing a share of the harvest in exchange for the use of an acre of land (they grow on two acres of their own as well).
One thing that is really sinking in is just how many variations there are of what a “farm” is, and how many different approaches there are to the practice of farming. It is exciting to witness how our preconceived, conventional ideas of a farm are being challenged; making room for a new and more expansive paradigm that is now developing, to begin to meet local food demands.
Recipe:
Tarragon Green Beans
Steam beans (a handful for each person)
Toss in: 2 tbsp butter
1 tsp beef bouillon
1 tsp dried tarragon (or more if using fresh tarragon)
Slivered almonds