Kimberly

I am Mom of our family of 4, and we love and are eager to farm and work land. My husband Brad is really the big kahuna in terms of farming in our family, he has worked on a organic farm in Severn Bridge for many, many years, and loves it. He is particularly great at growing beets! Though he can grow just about anything. He is extremely handy, and is excellent at using materials on hand to get the job done, he is very conservative with time, energy and materials, and is always looking for the most efficient way. Brad loves permaculture, and is itching to get his knowledge of permaculture into action (he graduated from the The Living Centre's in depth Permaculture course). Besides growing food, Brad has a lot of experience in animal husbandry and care. He's worked with cows, sheep, chicken, horses, pigs, dogs, cats, and has had a couple run ins with bears and coyotes. His big skill right now is building. He is currently building as a carpenter in Gravenhurst to pay the bills, and he does love his job and employer. He is most interested in natural building, cord wood, passive solar, etc. As for me, I volunteered on an organic farm in British Columbia for a Winter and Spring season and totally fell in love. I knew then this was the lifestyle that best suited me. I have experience organic farming, from seed to harvest, working with cows, milking, turning them out and in, working with goats, chickens and ducks (I love ducks!). I also love processing milk, baking bread, and preserving food. I love a good hard working day outside, and cannot wait to get back into this lifestyle. Brad and I have two daughters, Sophia, who is 9 years old, and Lilyanna, who is 3 years old. Our girls of course love being outside, working with animals and gardening, and I would love to get them out into nature more. Ideally I would like to keep Lilyanna home until she asks to go to school (Sophia is with us on weekends), and teach her using nature as the big model for learning, so being on the land would be a huge asset. If it worked out, I would be totally open to having other children in the neighbourhood come over and learn as well during the day, if that were a need. We currently live in downtown Orillia, and it has been wonderful being here for the past 2 years we are really ready to move on our path to our dreams of farming and living in connection with the seasons and the land, and raising our girls this way. Other little things about us, we both work at a Summer Camp in Severn Bridge, it's a lot of fun. I am the nurse on site and Brad is the head of maintenance. I'm a chanter/singer at our church in Barrie, and Brad makes wooden products for sale, but mostly for gifts (spoons, eclectic swords and toy swords for his nieces and nephews, stools, chairs). This is what he would like to do eventually is make hand crafted furniture.

Experience

I have a lot of customer service experience, working as a nurse and in the food industry thus far, so I would be tailored to interfacing with the community if we were selling products. As I said in the bio, Brad has tons and tons of experience gardening and farming and is always looking to learn more. He has a lot of experience with permaculture, organic farming, having sheep for sale, raising cows for meat, and marketing at local farmers markets. Brad did a lot of the client interfacing for the farm he worked for as well, and would deliver to many restaurants in Muskoka.

Partner(s)

We will be farming as a family; Brad, myself and our two daughters Sophia and Lilyanna (maybe more on the way but not yet). We would be interested in farming with another family or others as well if it was an option.

Farm Vision

Ideally, we would love to lease/lease to own a farm and take very good care of it, as it were our own. Brad would be very interested in using his permaculture methods. This would take a little bit of time getting to know the land, and seeing what we can do/work with what is already happening. Of course, we will honour with whatever the land owner wishes, and steward the land accordingly. Ideally we can have animals (chickens, ducks, sheep potentially, a milking cow would be icing on the cake) and grow our own food. I would love to sell as well and get into marketing, though that would be a project for later once we get into a groove and get to know the land well. I would also love to utilize the land for our daughter education, and do a lot of 'class room' time outside.

Relationship with Farm Owner

I hope that the farm owner and our family can have mutually beneficial relationship, as well as a friendship if the farm owner would be open to that. Having an open line of communication would of course be invaluable, and we look forward to getting to know the farm owner and forming a relationship:)