As a vegan I try to be well informed about the food I eat. In the summer a lot of the fruits and vegetables Val and I eat come from farmers’ markets, particularly the Peterborough market on weekends. When we were at the cottage for a week recently I emailed one of the farms we buy from to see if we could visit to see how it worked. Luckily the farmer emailed me back and offered me the opportunity to be one of his inspectors for the Certified Naturally Grown program. It is pretty close to organic, minus the massive amounts of paper work.

We arrived at Tiny Farm in Peterborough, near Trent University, to begin the inspection/tour. Mike gave me a clipboard with the inspection questions and we were off. The photos that follow are courtesy of Val, of course.

Going through the report was an excellent opportunity to learn about everything from irrigation to cover crops. We discussed organic cow manure, seeds, transplants, buffering from nearby chemical sprays, you name it. Here Mike is explaining soil compaction.

At the end Mike kindly gave us some freshly dug beets and carrots. We visited the Tiny Farm stall at the market the next day and got some lovely baby bok choy and green onions.

It was an educational and inspiring visit. Farming is very hard work. Thanks to farmers like Mike for making the effort to feed us healthy, naturally grown food.

One Response to “Farm Inspection”

1. Jesus Concepcion says:

   December 5, 2016 at 11:54 am

   Dear Ms. Gluskin. My name is Jesus and I am writing an article about organic farm inspections and I would very much appreciated if you allows me to use the first picture of your post “Farm Inspection” published at July 29, 2013.
   Thanking you in advance,
   With kind regards
   Jesus.
   j.organics@yahoo.com

   Reply