Tiny Farm is a tiny market garden right outside Peterborough, near Trent University. Most of the work is by hand with basic garden tools. A tiny tractor turns compost and tills up garden beds. Minimal irrigation comes from a dug well. Two unheated high tunnels are sometimes used for growing in cooler weather. For my farming practices, see the Tiny Farm Pledge.
Tiny Farm Pledge
These are Tiny Farm’s basic growing practices and beliefs about small-scale farming.
No pesticides
Pesticides include bug killers (insecticides), weed killers (herbicides) and other specialized killers (-cides). Some pesticides are considered “biological” and even allowed under organic certification standards. Tiny Farm uses no type of pesticide at all—floating row cover is the farm’s strongest measure.
No synthetic fertilizer
Synthetic fertilizer is manufactured, quick-acting, and water-soluble. It bypasses the complex system of microorganisms living in the soil—the soil food web—that normally delivers plant nutrients, and is absorbed directly, or leaches into the ground. Tiny Farm fertilizes with partially and fully composted cow manure from a farm 10 minutes walk down the road, and uses no synthetics.
No GMOs, no treated seed
In vegetable growing, genetically modified organism (GMO) usually refers to seed from GM plants. In Big Agriculture, corn and soy are almost entirely GM varieties. This means many food products include GM ingredients. Sorting through the science to see if GMOs are “OK” or “bad” is tough. Descriptions of genetic modifications made to crops can definitely seem unsettling. Still, there is no smoking gun evidence pointing to specific harms. Treated seed is seed with a chemical coating of some sort of pesticide, to protect against different bugs and disease. Again, it’s hard to determine whether treated seed makes any real difference to you health. What GMO and treated seed both definitely do is make food crops more reliant on technology. Tiny Farm uses no GM or treated seed or any other GMO.
Minimal irrigation
Irrigation for vegetable growing in central Ontario is usually considered a must. Most summers, rainfall alone is not enough to make the rule-of-thumb one inch (2.5 cm) a week, especially during extended dry periods. In my case, I irrigate only when things get particularly dry, using drip tape for some crops, and by hand. Mulching can also be a big help in conserving moisture. I’ve never set up full irrigation, which involves laying down drip tape along every row, and regularly turning on the water. Minimal irrigation means that every rainfall is still an event, something to look forward to and be grateful for! In dry periods, without full irrigation, plants may grow more slowly, or not get as big, yet the harvests are consistently high quality in taste, texture, and storability. While irrigation is at times necessary, I don’t use it a lot. I don’t believe doesn’t make the veggies better, but it does mean that they’ve relied mainly on the weather to grow.
No refrigeration
Refrigerated coolers on farms of all sizes is a normal thing. Coolers allow the most perishable crops to stay perky and fresh for days. I’ve several times almost built a cooler, but never did. Instead, I harvest very close to distribution time. In hot weather, a cold well-water rinse, and storage in a cool part of the barn or in a root cellar (around 10°C) is all it takes. Once at home, veggies can be popped into the fridge. Farm refrigeration is useful and necessary when harvesting days in advance. It’s also nice not to use it when you don’t have to.
Harvested on pick-up day
This applies to most crops. Some crops have to be harvested all at once when mature, and kept until used, including garlic, onions, potatoes, and winter squash. At times during the season, abundant root crops like carrots and beets are harvested and stored for a couple of weeks, to keep them from gnawing pests, and from over-maturing. In fall, just before the first killing frost seems likely, everything that could die off in the cold is harvested, and some crops, like peppers and not yet ripened tomatoes, can be kept indoors for an extra week or two.
Staying small
Staying small refers more to a state of mind, than size of business. It’s neither good nor bad, it’s only a way of being present in what you’re doing. For me, that means participating in all parts of the food chain, field to table. I choose the seed, plant it, harvest crops, and deliver them to the people who eat them. After quite a few years of small-scale growing, tiny farming continues to make sense to me. It has its place in the industrial food world. It’s real, you can see it, you can know where your food comes from and what goes into it. (Tiny Farm also happens to be a super-tiny business, but that could be a coincidence.)
Answers
Questions you may have, already answered!
Why not Certified Organic?
(Note: Tiny Farm was certified organic through March 2023, after that I may move to a different certification, still to exactly the same growing standards. Stay tuned!) Tiny Farm veggies are certified organic. I got certified in my first year of farming, and renewed for several years. I didn’t renew for a period when I was only at the farmers’ market, in direct contact with everyone. When I stopped going to market in 2019, I re-certified. I figured this would add a measure of assurance, since I’m not seeing people face to face all the time. Certified and not, my farming practices remained exactly the same over the years. That includes no pesticides, no synthetic fertilizers, no GMOs. The official certification is Pro-Cert Organic Systems Certified Local Organic. This means certified as both organic and local (grown in Ontario, on a small farm of under 10 acres).
Why isn’t Tiny Farm at a farmers’ market?
Tiny Farm was at the Saturday market for nine years, and decided not to return to any market for 2019. The Peterborough farmers’ market situation at the time didn’t feel good-natured. Going to market stopped being the highlight at the end of each week in the field, so I chose to opt out.
Why CSA?
I tried home delivery for three seasons and it didn’t work out for this size of tiny farm. Too much keeping track of weekly orders and scheduling deliveries added a lot to the overhead. CSA is as direct-to-you as delivery. It also requires more of a commitment from the customer. The CSA advantage is that I can concentrate practically all of my time on growing and harvesting! There’s more variety, and way more flexibility if you want to customize your share every week.
Helping home veggie gardens
Home veggie gardeners are tiny farmers, too. I can help with veggie garden basics, crop variety recommendations, and seed samples, recycling floating row cover for bug and frost protection (cut up my bigger torn sheets into perfectly whole smaller pieces), and answering all questions the best I can. If you think I could help in any way with your home food garden, please don’t hesitate to get in touch! (This is entirely free! :)
Year-round local food
There are lots of great ways to keep eating local during the winter months. Freezing, especially cooking greens, like spinach, and kale, also cauliflower, broccoli, and garlic. Lacto-fermenting (immersing in salty water) is great for beets, carrots, green beans. Refrigerator and cool cupboard storage are great for crops like carrots, beets, winter squash, garlic, onions. And there’s cooking them freezing: basic tomato sauce and pureed roasted squash come to mind. These methods can preserve food right through the winter. Share ideas!
Questions, comments, suggestions?
Your questions, comments, and suggestions are invaluable, so please let me know what you think!