Text by Tuula Talvila, photos by Jim Davidson
COG OSO enjoyed a second day of farm tours on Sunday, September 14th, in the Almonte area. It was a perfect sunny and warm late summer day, and we had a group of about 20 people on these three farm tours.
Our first stop was at Divine Colour Acres, a micro permaculture flower farmstead. Our host, Breanne Gibson (photo above), met us among the front flowerbeds, which were bright with colour in the morning sun.
Breanne took our group to the various flower beds in different areas of the property. The front beds used to be a driveway but, since that is a valuable full-sun location, the driveway was dug up and replaced with flower-growing space. Under some “mystery” apple trees – located there through the activity of squirrels – some more shade-tolerant flowers were growing. Here, Breanne’s five year-old daughter told us all the names of the flowers growing in her own section of the garden.
Most of the flowers we saw are natural dye plants, including sunflowers, cosmos, coreopsis, zinnia, black scabiosa (pincushion), black hollyhocks, madder, and wode. Tall eucalyptus stems grew in large containers; Breanne said she would like to have more eucalyptus in the future. We also visited the plant preparation room, with drying racks and a table full of prepared bouquets.
Breanne shared her experience and knowledge of permaculture, soil health, and regenerative growing methods. She uses no-till methods, straw mulch, amends with compost and has laid down deep wood chip pathways. We saw the young flock of three lambs whose mini paddock is moved daily so they can graze on new areas. After experiencing the frustrations of deer herbivory, tall deer fencing now protects the flower beds. We also saw the vermicomposting station.
Mixed among the flowers were food plants that supply her family: potatoes, raspberries, ground cherries, squash and pumpkins on a large arch, as well as a kitchen garden right outside the back door, following the permaculture principle of using zones based on frequency of use. New fruit trees are also filling out the landscape. The diverse plantings should provide habitat for lots of biodiversity.
Breanne has a roadside farm stand but, as they are on a relatively quiet stretch of road, she intends to take part in more farmers markets to reach a wider market. She also offers workshops at the farm and sells fresh bouquets, dried flowers for dying, and dye-flower seeds on her website (https://www.divinecolouracres.ca/). Tour members asked lots of questions and were impressed with how much had been done on the property in only a few years. Breanne was an engaging, informative host whose knowledge and hard work really shone.
Our second tour was at Community Compost Composers, where host Scott Hortop showed us his leaf-composting facility. Leaves are brought to his site by Almonte residents, where they are piled into wire mesh bins (“bioreactors”) to gradually decompose over about 18 months. In previous years, he and his team have had almost 3000 bags of leaves dropped off! At its highest capacity, the facility has had 25 bioreactors on the go at once. The resulting compost is fungal-dominant, where slow, low-temperature decomposition results in a high number of fungi in it compared to other composting methods which are higher in bacteria. Scott’s motivation for the enterprise was to help mitigate climate change by sequestering more carbon in the soil and diverting materials from landfill.
Scott walked us through the composting process, which starts with cutting up the leaves by mowing them, then soaking the leaves in a cattle trough (a key step), and mixing the wet leaves with amendments such as coffee grounds (donated by Equator Coffee) and sawdust. The resulting mixture is then piled into the bioreactors. Aeration is important, and the bins have air space at the bottom as well as vertical chimneys to allow air into the middle. Scott has experimented with covering the bins to prevent freezing during the winter, but has found that freezing made no difference to the rate of decomposition.
To help prevent material going to landfill, the composting facility uses materials from the community, including 10 L plastic ice cream pails. Each tour visitor received a pail of the lovely, rich-looking compost. It can be used to make a compost tea for watering indoor or outdoor plants, added to soil when planting, as a surface soil amendment (although it’s best to get it into the root zone), or for mixing seed into before seeding. The high fungal content will contribute to healthy soil. Pails and bags of compost are sold each spring and Scott is also working with local farmers who have seen good results using his compost. It can be a valuable amendment to remediate degraded soils.
Scott, Michael, and Dave were charming hosts and Scott very generously provided pizza for lunch, with chairs set out under a large tree. It provided a nice relaxing lunch break and gave tour participants a chance to chat.
After lunch, the group met up again at Indian Creek Orchard Gardens for our final tour. Host Scott Sigurdson met us under his vehicle shelter which is covered in solar panels. Scott and Marisa are market gardeners with a CSA program and stalls at local farmers markets. Their certified organic farm utilizes silvohorticulture: it’s covered with apple, pear, and plum trees which are integrated into vegetable rows and berry bushes, with some vibrant banks of flowers here and there. By mixing everything together, pest pressure can be reduced and it’s more like a natural ecosystem.
The focus and highlight of the tour was the many technological innovations on the farm. There are three greenhouses, wired up to collect and transmit environmental data so Scott can monitor conditions from the house. The different greenhouses provide a range of levels of temperature control and protection from the elements. Automated side flaps will raise or lower when necessary. One greenhouse is elevated off the ground, on a base of caged rocks. By using an airflow system of ducts and fans, heat from the greenhouse is directed down into the rocks, which store the heat and release it gradually to gently heat the greenhouse later. This keeps the greenhouse temperature quite a few degrees warmer than the other ones.
One of the other greenhouses has an automated system that will deploy a tent-like covering inside the greenhouse, creating a smaller interior space to heat. In the same greenhouse, Scott’s tomatoes and cucumbers are rigged up on an interesting trellising system that allows the stems to grow vertically until they reach the height of the overhead supports and then the lower stems can be laid along the ground as the plants continue to get taller.
We also saw outdoor beds of luscious-looking greens, and some rows protected from deer with row covering. Scott also told us about their three acres of rented land where they grow garlic, and some of the methods they use to protect against leek moth. Scott shared with us many stories of making things work on his land and where he’d like to go from here. Scott and his neighbours have adopted the nearby roadway to keep it free from spraying, one more way in which he’s protecting the biodiversity that enjoys life on his farm.
All in all, it was a lovely day out, with such informative and generous hosts. One tour participant commented that she liked the diversity of the farms we visited, while another liked the order of the talks: from small to large. He went on to add that he “loved the innovation these people had to do to get to their current state of success: both to grow organically as well as the use of technology especially the last farm to maximum growth potential of their produce. Felt I really elevated my understanding of what organic farming is all about plus seeing the dedication of these individuals in making their farm work.”
Thank you to everyone who came along for the day!