Adam

In grade two my class planted lettuce and radish seeds, watered them weekly and a month later we ate a salad from our efforts, that experience has made a lasting impression on me. Our food system is so disconnected that many people have no idea where their food comes from, that's why I feel passionate about connecting people to their food and sharing this experience with kids and people of all ages. In university I studied Political Science and International Studies, in my final year I researched alternative social structures. I found that Intentional Communities can be a way for people to thrive as a group while valuing the unique strengths of each member. By pooling resources, we can not only meet our basic needs but more importantly strengthening our social ties and achieve a greater collective life. Although I have been continually actively involved in community organizing, I initially thought that living in community would be something that I would only be able to do in later in life, after I had enough money to buy land, that I would be able to either set something up that I could allow other people to live and work on, or that I could team up with others to buy land together. I thought about how I could be of service, and what a community's needs would be. While my degree and work experience mean that I can support a community with policy, procedure and administrative matters, I felt that a community's essential needs would be more concrete. I appreciate that food is not only essential to our survival but is also one of the main cornerstones of any or culture, this set me down the path of honing and improving my food growing skills with the goal of being able to support a community with fresh wholesomely grown food. After university, I set up and maintained several edible gardens for myself and friends over the years, and in 2015 I helped convert a 1/3-acre lawn into a polyculture garden and community garden. In 2020 with the spread of COVID and the restrictions that followed, our interconnected globe seemed to fracture, my travel coordination job at a non-profit came to an end, and I saw the opportunity to get directly involved in food production. I registered in the Jean-Martin Fortier Market Gardener masterclass to strengthen my understanding of commercial veggie production and established Equilibrium Acres at the end of 2020. I moved to Whole Village in January of 2021 and ran the first year of the CSA with 20 shares in Toronto for a summer season from July to November. In 2022 I added London to the CSA and grew membership to 30 shares for the summer season, from July to October, and added a winter share for the first time with 15 shares, from November to the end of January. So far, I have focused primarily on the production side of things, relying mostly on my existing network for clients as well as some new clients from visitors to Whole Village. My existing client base is in Toronto and London.

Experience

I've established my own CSA in 2020 and have purchased most of the required infrastructure to run an efficient market garden. BCS walk behind tractor with several implements Jang Seeders 12 X 75 ft hoop house Caterpillar tunnel Landscape Fabric Silage tarps Frost netting Wash pack equipment 100 000 BTU propane furnace that I added to an already existing greenhouse that I have rented out on the property A large freeze dryer

Partner(s)

I have have farmed with employees for the last 2 years, and I will likely hire staff on again. My father comes to the farm weekly, and helps out. Friends and work trade participants also participate in the project.

Farm Vision

Ive been farming on 2/3 of an acre, in a 20'x30' Propane heated Greenhouse, and a 12'X75' hoop house. I would eventually like to grow the operation to 3 acres an start growing perennials and establish more growing under cover spaces. I would like to set up a farm incubator for new farmers to be able to benefit from my experience and have a low barrier to access land, eventually establishing a multi-farmer CSA. I would also like to expand value added food production with the goal of being able to sell shelf stable products at markets and retail outlets, so that we can be free from the perishability tight timelines of dealing with fresh produce.

Relationship with Farm Owner

I would like to get to get to know the farm owner and ideally work towards leasing to eventually either own or have a long term lease arrangement. I am community centric and would like to be involved in farming with other like minded people and share the labour and rewards of stewarding land.