Drover’s Way
Sarah and Oliver Loten (and family)
1161 1st Con. Drummond, RR1 Perth, ON
<lotens@superaje.com> 264–0539
What they raise: Lamb and cash crops

In January — the dead of winter — when the air is still, cold, and thin, there is nothing that quite beats walking into a barn and being greeted by hundreds of ewes and their lambs — especially when they think they are about to be fed. Hundreds of ewes, and their lambs, demonstrating their orchestral talents by bleating continuously and simultaneously is, well… impressive! This was how my visit with the Lotens began.

Elmark Farms
Dan and Frances Ribbink
5968 County Rd. 43
RR5 Perth
phone: 267–9848  email: elmark@ripnet.com

What they offer:
Grass-fed chicken and turkeys, pork, eggs. Order meat at the beginning of the season (March-April). Custom grazing. Gallagher electric fence supplies. Riding lessons and boarding.

Elmark Farms
You may wonder why the farmer profile this month features a farm that specializes in grass-fed meat and custom grazing. Looking around the countryside these days there isn’t so much as a blade of the green stuff to be seen. Maybe I was just trying to forget that it is indeed December (not June), and to give myself a taste (so to speak) of things to come in only, uh, five months or so… In any case, I found myself rolling in to Elmark Farms the other day to interview farmers Dan and Frances Ribbink.

Highlands Honey
Phil Laflamme
Anglican Church Rd.
(613) 267–4614
<highlandshoney@storm.ca>

What he offers: honey, comb honey, starter bee hives (nucs), queen bees
Where he sells: Perth Farmers Market (Saturday mornings), Foodsmiths, Balderson Cheese, Balderson Fine Foods, Pretty Goods, Clydesville General Store, and other locations in the area, Ottawa, and Toronto.

Highlands Honey
As I write this month’s farmer profile I am seated at my desk in my studio looking out over a small wild field. Out of the corner of my eye I can see a lot of dark specks to-ing and fro-ing — some shooting off into the blue sky and others zipping back making a “beeline” for the hives which are standing just out of sight next to the barn. The window is open and the studio is filled with the very specific scent of goldenrod nectar being dehydrated by the movement of thousands of vibrating wings — a scent that has been described as “a combination of bread baking on the hearth and fermenting cheese” (Charles Sauriol, A Beeman’s Journey). I am guessing that this is what the constant hummbuzzing is all about these days as the fields and ditches yellow-up with late summer blooms and the bees finally have some great foraging weather. It is a “hive of activity” out there and the bees are busy stockpiling their honey and pollen stores in preparation for the coming winter.

Riverside Garden
David and Inez McCreery
4884 Hwy 29, RR3
Almonte, ON K0A 1A0
phone: 256–9699
email: mccreery@magma.ca

What they have: Full range of (un-certified) organic market produce. 40–50 types of vegetables from asparagus to zucchini. Melons, raspberrries starting soon, garlic scapes, bulbs and braids in season.

Where they sell: Carp Farmers Market. Saturdays 8–1pm.
CSA program (16 weeks starting mid June). Contact in January/February to reserve a share. Farm pick up or box drops in Stittsville and Ottawa.

Down by the Riverside
David and Inez McCreery’s market garden lies next to the Mississippi River just a few kilometers north of Almonte. The McCreerys moved to Ontario from Newfoundland eight years ago in order to live closer to their kids and their grandchildren who (like many of the younger generation in the Maritimes) had moved to “Upper Canada”. David and Inez, inspired by friends who’d started a CSA program near St. John’s (in which David and Inez had held shares), had determined to “retire” from their respective jobs as Chief of Planning for the Atlantic Region National Parks and Historical Sites, and primary school teacher, and seek a property they could farm that had a new-ish house, waterfront, some acreage, and that was close to Ottawa (what they saw to be their primary market). This property fit the bill. After eight years they are running a successful CSA (Community Supported Agriculture), and growing organic produce for the Carp Farmer’s Market.

McDonald’s Corners Farmers Market
Turn right off county rd. 12 in downtown McDonald’s Corners (follow signs for MERA Schoolhouse)
Contact: Sheila Macdonald, 278–1818 or Lynne Parks, 278–2739
Saturdays, 9am–1pm.
What’s available:
(All organic) Seasonal produce, beef, pork, wildcrafted produce, baked goods, preserves, herbs and herb products, jewelry, photography, perennials, cut flowers, market café, goats.

Yes, readers, it is a tough life! As you can judge from the photograph above, interviewing farmers can be a rigorous, demanding and difficult job! Who on earth would want to drive through Lanark County in springtime, to a wee village that still has a general store, to sit on the grass (gracious me) in the sun, listen to bleating sheep, inhale thick wafts of lilac blooms and apple blossoms, and finally, to talk to people with a passion for the interesting initiatives they are taking, and a desire to offer it up to their community. Alas, I do suffer through these trials, dear readers, for your pleasure alone, of course (sigh…).

Queen Beet
Coral Sproule
1026 Bathurst 6th Concession
Perth, ON, K7H 3C9
264–2499
<cestor13@hotmail.com>

Andrew and Linda Gehrke
85 Beckwith St. East
Perth, ON, K7H 1C3
326–0465
<andygehrke@yahoo.ca>
www.perthfarmersmarket.ca

What they offer and where:
Assorted sprouts, full range of seasonal market vegetables (highlights include: heritage varieties, purple cauliflower, burgundy okra, fresh pod soybeans), eggs at farmgate
CSA shares June–November (still a few available)
Perth Farmers Market: Crystal Palace, Perth
Saturday mornings May 10 – Thanksgiving
Wednesday mornings July and August

Beckwith Gardens and Queen Beet
Something is brewing in a sleepy corner of the town of Perth. Something I find both very exciting, and very inspiring. Something, uh, dare I say it, even revolutionary?! People passing a large lot on Beckwith St. are beginning to crane their necks with curiosity wondering just what exactly is going on in the huge “used-to-be-a- lawn” backyard behind the house. This is the new home of siblings Andrew and Linda Gehrke — formerly the operators of By the Brooke Organics, a farm ten minutes from Perth. Most people move out of town to become farmers. They did that — for the last four years to be precise — and now they are relocating themselves, as well as the seedlings for their market garden, to what is soon to become Beckwith Gardens — Perth’s first backyard market garden!

Who They Are
Fulton’s Pancake House & Sugar Bush
Shirley Deugo, family and staff
#291 6th Concession Road, RR#1, Pakenham, ON
K0A 2X0
(613) 256-3867
www.fultons.ca email: info@fultons.ca

What & Where They Sell
100% pure maple syrup and maple candy, a wide variety of gourmet maple products (butters, sugars, fudge, salsa, mustard, teas, jams, sauces & more). All items can be purchased online at <www.fultons.ca> or from their on-site Maple Shoppe.

Family Trees
According to Shirley Deugo, the first Fultons to arrive in this area journeyed from Scotland in the 1840’s and wound up in Lanark County where it “looked like home” Shirley, herself a fourth-generation Fulton, relates the family joke that “if they had only walked a bit farther, they would have found some soil…” But among the rocks and trees of the challenging Canadian landscape were stands of maple trees — offering up a sweet and potentially lucrative spring crop.

Ronald and Diana Coutts
Coutts Country Flavours
County Rd. 18. RR5 Perth. ON K7H 3C7
tel 267–0277  email <couttscountryflavours@live.ca>

Store Summer Hours: Wed.–Sun. 10am–6pm (May-Christmas)
Winter Hours: Fri.–Sun., 10am–6pm

What they sell:
Coutts’ products include grass-fed transitional organic beef (assorted cuts), syrup, produce, products (pickles, relishes, frozen packets) made from their vegetables (from organic, heirloom seed), home baking sweetened with their syrup, preserves and jams sweetened with their syrup, ready-to-eat frozen meals using local and home grown ingredients, pork (starting in July)
Produce from 21 area farmers: hormone and antibiotic free free-run chicken, lamb, buffalo, emu, elk and turkey; grains and flours; hemp chocolate bars; cheese and dairy; berries and apples.

I interviewed Diana and Ron Coutts on their fourth generation farm just as the maple syrup season came to a close in April. There was a good sap run this year, bringing them a 100% crop. Diana expressed a sense of relief as they have experienced a decade of poor sap runs that followed the ice storm in 1999. With 5800 taps, the money they’ve invested in infrastructure, as well as the hours of work that go into every litre of syrup, it is no wonder!