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Day 9 #marchmeetthemaker... “Story behind name”. Foggy River Farm was established by Phil’s parents in 1988 as an equestrian training facility on a beautiful 100 acre farm in Mount Albert, ON. Phil grew up there - it’s the place that first taught him the inner workings of an ecosystem, and reflecting back, inspired the current course of his life. I was a city girl with a love of equestrian sport. At 14, I began training at his parents farm, working there too during high school. I must have rode through the fields hundreds (thousands?) of times. Its the place that made me realize I wanted to live in the country - the calm content it brought me. You’ve likely connected the dots that it’s also the place where Phil and I met. When the equestrian farm was sold, it was only fitting the name live on through version 2.0, our own endeavour... the reincarnation of Foggy River Farm.
Day 7 #marchmeetthemaker... “Less glam side”.⁣ ⁣ (Wait, is there a GLAM side to this?) You don’t really think to snap a photo in your most uncomfortable moments. I asked a crew member if she had any, and she replied, “I regret not taking a pic when it was pouring rain and we were packing mulch bags just drenched”. About sums it up. But I did find the following:⁣ ⁣ 🔥garbling in extreme heat in a hot barn loft ⁣ 🤧Pollen allergy ⁣ 💩Rainy day feet ⁣ 🦗Bug-suit, because all the mosquitos ⁣ ⁣ I think going to markets and getting to display all our hard work is the glamorous part. Especially because we live in a town that is pretty awesome about championing local farmers. ⁣
Day 6 #marchmeetthemaker... “Full or Part Time”. Whew, big topic. The answer is part time! For both of us. Phil is a landscape architect, and I’ve worked in marketing/communications/tourism over the past 10 years. Off-farm work has varied from full-time to part-time and contract, the only consistency being that it’s inconsistent. There have been times I desperately longed to only have the farm as my work. And times of gratitude for other sources of employment (and good things/great people that came from those opportunities). Phil does some inspiring work off the farm - often applying what he’s learned from the ecology of our land to other projects. Here’s the thing: we didn’t inherit farmland, we bought it. And unless you’re wealthy, having a big mortgage while starting a small farm is almost a guarantee you need another source of income to get off the ground. But then comes the catch 22... how do you build a financially sustainable farm when half your time and brainpower is always somewhere else? Never finding a daily rhythm. Always playing catch up with weeds and harvests. Changing in the back of the car from farm clothes to office clothes. Not to mention the wonderful people who have worked on the farm and put up with our chaotic schedules/muddled brains. We always wonder what the farm would look like if it had both of our full attention. It’s a crazy (and tiring) dance - and we are constantly evolving and trying to find ways to make it easier, and to make the farm a viable source of income for our family. Motherhood and fatherhood brings a new dimension - a new ‘job’ to add to the mix, opening a new door as well. There’s no one formula to starting and running a farm. Every circumstance is so unique - you have to work within your own risk tolerance, skillset and resources and just persevere. Would love to hear from other farmers on what this looks like for you!!
Wont be long until we’re in this same spot harvesting spruce tips!
Day 4 #meetthemaker prompt: Tools & Materials Here are three very important ones! Our hands: As a small scale farm, everything is very manual (vs mechanized). Our seeds: It all starts with a seed 🌱 This time of year is when seed orders start arriving - and farmers excitedly check their mailbox everyday and forget their woes of the season past. Our harvest knives (and scissors): We harvest shorter crops like mint and young nettle into harvest crates and then onto ventilated racks to dry. While longer stemmed plants get bundled with twine and hung on a nail to dry.
Today’s #meetthemaker prompt: “flatlay”. Some of our most treasured herbs - that we grew, dried, garbled (fancy dancy industry term, means separating leaf from stem), and now have been drinking through the winter months. Starting with red clover and moving clockwise is oatstraw, tulsi basil, mint, lemon balm, and nettle.
Ok friends, here we go. #marchmeethemaker ... an opportunity for you to get to know us a little better! And in true “life with a 5 month old” form, I’m already 2 days late with starting. Yesterday’s topic: “how you started”. This could be a whole novel. But the essence of the story is that we originally started the farm to tangibly create the change we wanted to see in the world. This picture is April 2013, breaking ground at our new home. Our vision was to create a showcase of #permaculture farming practices, and at the same time we were growing annual vegetables to help with cash flow. Fast forward a few years - I got sick - and found myself desperate for a non-pharmaceutical solution (cause that wasn’t working). Medicinal herbs to the rescue! It was eye-opening. We found it interesting that all these plants I was buying for teas were imported... yet could be grown in this climate. So we started incorporating more and more herbs into our landscape and into our lives. Fast forward another few years and we decided that while the local food movement for vegetables was alive and well, it was really lacking with medicinal and culinary herbs, and so we replanted all of our vegetable beds with herbs, and started selling them wholesale to herbalists. The margins on wholesale orders weren’t enough to support a small farm, so we decided to apply to the local farmers market and see what type of interest was out there with the general public. And that’s when the tea blends were born...
Forest mushroom bounty! Beautiful details in each one. . . . #mushroomhunting #mushroomhunter #mushroomhunters #mushroomsofinstagram #mycofile #fungilove #fantasticfungi #fungi #fungifinds #mycology
This guy loves a good blizzard.
We are at Seedy Saturday in Beaverton all day - surrounded by some serious green thumbs!
🐝 Bees glorious bees. Playing around with herb garden honey from our hives + beeswax from a local apiary and made a honey dry skin salve to test out on myself. Anyone else use honey on their skin? . . #beeswax #honey #apiary #beefriendly #savethebees #apothecary #naturalskincare #inspiredbynature #handmade #grannyskills #beekeeping #herbgarden #durhamregion #homesteading #homestead
Sad ramshackle garden shed, we’ve got plans for you💡

Foggy River Farm South

 

Foggy River Farm North