Nature’s Apprentice Farm

Joanna Jack & Alberto Suarez-Esteban

Nellai Farm

Kumari Gurusamy

Working with the soil and observing the vegetables as they grow through the summer, pleases my soul. I started farming in the summer of 2021. At Nellai farms I have a homestead focus, with some amount of commercial production for farmers markets. I decided to grow all the vegetables Indians regularly eat in their curries and salads, like tomatoes, onion, hot peppers, bell peppers, potatoes, carrots, peas, beans, okra, cucumber, pumpkins, bitter gourds and bottle gourds. Life feels meaningful cooking food with vegetables that my children can see growing at my farm, alongside butterflies, turkeys, deer and many beautiful flowers. One of the non tangible products is personal happiness and peace. When there is an opportunity to share well being with other women, or new immigrants, in the future the farm will be open for community involvement.

As an immigrant mother, who comes from a small town called Nellai, in South India, I am learning to market my produce, in Ottawa main street farmers market, through support and companionship of fellow farmers at Just Food. I have started learning how to grow other marketable green leafy vegetables like lettuce, brussel sprouts and herbs like celery, basil and garlic.

Value added products that are ready to use are more prefered by urban customers, and are more profitable than the farm fresh vegetables. So in the future years, in addition to homestead gardening, Nellai farms is planning on growing crops that can be input for value added products like veggie burger as the focus for the market gardening

7 Hues Eco Farm

Li Xu & Yves Saint-Pierre

Established in 2021, 7 Hues EcoFarm is a small scale ecological farm based at Just Food.

For years, we have been deeply concerned with the ill effects on the health of people and ecosystems of farming practices that rely heavily on synthetic fertilizers, pesticides and heavy machinery. The answer to our concern is to join others in the movement towards regenerative agriculture. On our farm, we are passionate about learning and experimenting with various farming practices which are respectful for ecosystems and healthy for people.

Certified by Ecocert, the farm grows a diverse blend of organic vegetables, herbs, perennial berries. The harvest from our annuals and perennials comes in the seven colours of nature. These red, orange, yellow, green, cyan, blue and purple vegetables and fruits are beautiful in colour, rich in taste and nutritious. We believe that good food grows in healthy soil and a bio-diverse environment. We experiment with various strategies to improve our soil including minimizing the soil disturbance and planting cover crops and we also incorporate a mixture of beneficial annual and perennials including flowers for pollinators. Yes, bees are happy in our seven- hues field. To put it simply, we are learning to rely on the workings of nature and find this process fascinating!

Carleton Mushrooms

Anabela and Fernando Medeiros

In 1984 Fernando and Anabela Medeiros had a dream of building a mushroom farm. With 15 years of mushroom farming experience under their belt, they started Carleton Mushroom Farms, a small family farm in Osgoode, Ontario, Canada.

Over the years their dreams and ambitions continued to grow, as did our farm. With family always at the heart of our farming practices, Fernando and Anabela’s two sons, Fernando Jr. and Mike, took over the daily operations and management in 2005.

Since then, our growing capacity has tripled, we’ve seen yields steadily increase to 10.5 million pounds per year, we implemented new state-of-the-art growing practices, and brought in modern and cutting-edge technologies from all over the world. Our steady expansion and attention to quality has allowed us to become the leading supplier of fresh mushrooms to Eastern Ontario and Western Quebec.

Social Harvest Ottawa

Social Harvest Ottawa is an organization within the Rideau-Rockcliffe Community Resource Centre (RRCRC) in Ottawa, Ontario. We are a social enterprise that aims to improve food security in one of Ottawa’s lowest income areas, Ward13. We offer a range of food-focused programming, workshops and events to local residents. We also offer a community garden where residents can plant and grow produce. Our aim is to engage our local community with agricultural practices and provide better access to fresh foods. 

Social Harvest sells leafy greens, microgreens, worm castings and seed paper. Our micro and leafy greens are grown and harvested at our location’s greenhouse. We sell a variety of microgreen flavors including spicy triton radish, red radish, broccoli and peas. We also sell microgreen growing kits that provide both the materials and instructions needed to grow your own microgreens at home!

Our worm castings are harvested from our vermicomposting stations and can be used as a great soil conditioner for houseplants and gardens.

Our handmade seed papers are biodegradable paper products that are embedded with seeds. When the paper is planted in a pot of soil, the seeds grow and the paper composts away.

Our products help fund our programs and services. All revenue is reinvested into our efforts to fight hunger within our community.

Ferme HLF du Lac Simon

Christine Lavoie, Carl Poirier, Marike Poirier

Who we are:

Arrived at Lac Simon in the fall of 2004 with their three children, Carl and Christine want to provide their customers with fresh products grown with respect for nature. They thus founded the HLF Farm (Horticulture Légumière Fruitière) and immediately started the production of fruits, vegetables, herbs and plants, for sale at their kiosk. They then add the production of salsa, pestos, jam & gellies and other processed products from farm products.

Christine Lavoie is a teacher in the Horticulture and agriculture department at Collège Lionel-Groulx, Sainte-Thérèse, Quebec.

Carl Poirier is a graduate in Food processing science, hunting guide and trainer for the UPA’s Regional Agricultural Training Collective.

Marike Poirier, the youngest daughter, graduated in TPHE* from ITA of St-Hyacinthe. She officially joined the management team in 2020 and became a co-owner of the farm.

* Technology of agro-environmental horticultural production.

Whitsend Market Garden

Bob Whitmore & Julia White

In a valley in Lanark Highlands, Whitsend Market Garden produces an array of organically grown vegetables from June to October. We have all of your favourites plus heirloom and unusual varieties to pique your interest. Wildflower honey from our own beehives is also available seasonally.

You can enjoy our produce by joining our CSA or by visiting our farm stand.
Bob’s farming dream was sparked by an internship at Elmtree Farm in 2009. Soon after that, Bob started Whitsend Market Garden on rented land near Stittsville. As the customer base grew, we searched for a permanent location and eventually found our current property in 2019. A few seasons of learning and transition followed, and we are now ready to expand our customer numbers again.

While the supermarket may sell you food, Whitsend sells you food and the farm experience!