“All great achievements require time” - Maya Angelou
The Story.
Dream it.
It all began with a toddler, a walk in the forest, and an idea.
Could I take a piece of land that is less than ideal for agriculture and create a farm that connects people, regardless of age, race, religion, gender, ethnicity, or socio-economic status, to the food they eat, the plants they grow, the community they live in, & the natural world around them?
If so, can this farm inspire them to live more sustainably, eat more locally, shop more locally, and care more about the environmental impact agriculture has on our planet.
I believe the the answer is YES.
Prepare It.
How it started.
The Gregoires Mill property was purchased in mid 2019.
Within a very short time I realized the land was not what I was expecting.
What was the solution? Sell it, live with it, or somehow, someway, work with it.
We didn’t complete the move until late 2019. With horses, goats, sheep, chickens, guinea hens, & rabbits, we knew it was going to be a busy winter.
Living on a farm in rural Northern Ontario was like moving to another country. Everything was different. Farm supplies were non-existent or very limited, livestock services were little to none, even the grocery stores were limited in selection & the quality.
Between my crazy busy days with 5 young children, seemingly endless daily livestock care, learning about keeping a house warm by wood burning stove, & working on developing a business, I found time late at night & in very early mornings to further educate myself about all aspects of farming, food production, livestock care, the impacts agriculture has on the environment, & even how building communities around agriculture has become “trendy”.
Still, nothing seemed “doable” on this swampy, rugged, land.
In early 2020 another piece of land was purchased about 15 mins away from the home farm. This would give me land for hay production & pasture. It would also provide dry ground to move the horses & small livestock to in the summer months.
But little did we all know the pandemic would soon change life for everyone.
Cultivate it.
“It does not matter how slowly you go as long as you do not stop” (Confucius)
In 2021, while visiting southern Ontario I took a walk through the forest with my young children.
Being farm kids, they spent hours each day outside from the time they were born, but walks in the forest weren’t something we did often.
This was the first time my youngest was in the forest and able to walk on his own. My youngest was a very happy, alert toddler. He enjoyed being outside but wasn’t fond of the smells of a barn. Nothing brought out joyfullness in him the same way that animals, or machines, or race cars, or horses, brought out joyfullness in my other children. As we entered the forest through large overhanging bushes he began to giggle & run. He ran straight to a huge oak tree & wrapped his arms around it. It was at this moment I knew what he loved…..trees.
I spent the next several months learning about trees. I was curious as to what he loved about them. The more I read, the more questions I had.
Upon returning to the farm, I made it a priority to frequently take the children out for walks in the forest on the farm. The more time they spent playing among the trees, building dens & shelters out of natural objects, and enjoying story time in the woods, the more the children flourished.
By the fall I knew clearly what I was going to do with the property that had caused so much headache & frustration.
In 2022, the property began a multi year transformation into a biodynamic, nature-inspired farmstead, where agroecological farming systems & regenerative agriculture practices are used to ensure everything grown, raised, & produced on the farm, has “kindness” as its 1st ingredient.
Even though the farm is just in the beginning stage of this multi year transformation process, we want the community to connect to it.
We want visitors to our farm to learn about it, connect with it, grow with it, be inspired by it, and most importantly, we want you, the community at large, to make our family farm, your family farm!