Everything Starts With The Soil

Our Soil Health Practice

Our priority is to make sure our soil is fertile and teeming with microbial life. By focusing on minimal tillage, preserving the existing soil food web and building up the nutrients needed, we create an optimal environment for our orchard to thrive.

We start every season by testing pH and nutrient levels in the soil and make the amendments necessary to add back what’s needed. Each spring begins with adding combinations of compost, aged manure and/or woodchips to improve soil structure and fertility. After trees are pruned, a mulching mower is used to break down branches, adding to the organic soil matter. Combinations of straw, grasses and leaves are used to help suppress weeds, retain moisture and feed the soil around the fruit trees.

Cover Crops

Planting between the orchard rows using cover crops known as green manure, like clover, vetch, or rye grasses, adds to the organic matter and plays a crucial role in reducing erosion, fixing nitrogen and feeding microbes, keeping soil rich with nutrients and fertile. It also improves soil structure, suppresses weeds and provides habitats for beneficial pollinators and predators.

Rest & Regenerate

Part of our practice includes letting the land rest for a period once the trees reach maturity. Typically the lifespan of a peach tree is 15 years and when it’s time to replant, we dedicate an acre (about 400 trees) to a resting period where it lies fallow for a year, allowing the land to rest and regenerate.

Support Tree Health

Foliar sprays such as seaweed extracts and liquid fish fertilizers, especially after flowering, are used to improve tree health. By focusing on long-term soil health we have seen our trees become stronger and resilient to disease, and they are producing fruit with better flavour and more nutrients, which is truly more nourishing for you, and is ultimately our goal.

Healthy soil means healthy people & healthier communities are happier places to live!

Pest Management

Integrated Pest Management

Our farm uses an Integrated Pest Management (IPM) approach. Key practices include mating disruption using pheromone-releasing ties, highly effective against Oriental Fruit Moth in peaches and nectarines, often removing the need for broad-spectrum insecticide sprays. There are times throughout the season when a spray is necessary. We work with our Crop Service consultant and look for target specific products that are not harmful to beneficial insects and are part of the IPM approach.

Using biological controls releasing and fostering natural predators helps us manage the orchard in a way that does not harm beneficial insects. We are part of a crop monitoring service that supports us with regular scouting and degree-day modelling to predict pest emergence, allowing targeted, timely intervention only when pest levels exceed economic thresholds.

Planting disease-resistant cultivars also minimises the need for fungicide sprays.

Transparency

We Want You To Know

We are always asked about why it is hard to find organic fruit growers in Niagara. As tender fruit growers we can honestly say there are many things to consider. Providing education, transparency and giving our customers the most honest answer is one of our goals.

The Niagara Region lies between two Great Lakes and is characterised by high humidity because of its proximity to both bodies of water. This makes it ideal for tender fruit growing while also presenting unique challenges. We manage our orchards daily and all pest control methods are identified and targeted to the specific threat present.

We love collaborating with other farmers who share our values. One of our favourite methods is to leave fruit on the tree until it’s ripe and ready, sweetness comes naturally from the field if you feed your soil. Our farm has completed the Environmental Farm Plan (EFP).

Our Focus

Growing With Purpose

Our focus is simple: we are committed to making choices that support our goal to grow nutritious fruit with big flavour. The most important part is taking care of and feeding our soil, while we feed our communities and provide a livelihood for our family.

Rooted in responsible land stewardship, so that our farm continues to thrive year after year and for future generations.

Healthy soil means healthy people & healthier communities are happier places to live.

How We Farm

Connecting Communities Through Food