Our Roots

Putting the Culture back in Agriculture

Lunar Rhythm Gardens has been a lifetime in the making. I grew up on the family farm, working with my dad from the day I could walk, and knew as a little girl that I was going to be a farmer. My parents raised pigs from farrow to finish, and shipped cream from our home at 253 Gray Road, until I was 9 years old. With the introduction of the quota system, Dad chose to get out of dairy rather than invest in quota and major barn renovations. I was one mad little girl; cows were my first love, especially the black and white ones! But I was too young to take over. We changed to a cow/calf operation and raised market hogs. It was then that I started my own business, with 25 laying hens. I kept chickens until I went to college.

In the meantime, I was introduced to horse logging at sixteen. We had our bush logged by a gentleman named Art Shannon who practiced sustainable forestry with horses, through his business Arbor North. I was familiar with horses, having grown up riding and owning one myself, and having no problems learning how to drive the gentle giants. I logged for 4 years and loved it, but knew it didn’t jive with farming: I traveled a lot and was never home. Instead, I chose to farm with horses. People thought I was nuts!

Around that time I was convinced by friends to attend a ploughing workshop in St. Thomas Ontario with Ken Laing of Orchard Hill Farm. Once I saw their CSA vegetable operation, I knew that was the kind of operation I wanted to run. Over the next few years I juggled college, dairy farming, logging, and some travel in Europe (vacations are few and far between when you have your own farming operation). In the spring of 2008 I took a farm business management course and a 3-month internship back at Orchard Hill Farm. I had a business plan in my hand and rented 10 acres of land from a neighbor, broke ground for planting, and Lunar Rhythm Gardens was born.

Winter 2008/2009 saw us training our team of draft horses, Calvin, Peg, and Torque, delving into business planning, and ordering seeds. Summer 2009 saw us sell our first CSA baskets and attend our first local start-up market in Port Perry. Fast forward to 2016 and we were purchasing the family farm and growing. We now manage 25 acres of certified organic vegetables alongside our cow/calf operations, all the while striving to better our farming practice.

Every growing season, I am even more passionate about the endeavors at Lunar Rhythm Gardens. As the farm has grown, so has the community surrounding and supporting it. Growing vegetables has a funny way of expanding your family!