{"id":23,"date":"2021-12-09T01:52:18","date_gmt":"2021-12-09T06:52:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mytinyfarm.com\/?page_id=23"},"modified":"2025-07-13T15:01:51","modified_gmt":"2025-07-13T19:01:51","slug":"about","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/mytinyfarm.com\/fr\/about\/","title":{"rendered":"\u00c0 propos"},"content":{"rendered":"

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. While food production in general is scaled to feed the world, Tiny Farm is scaled to grow garden vegetables in a small space by using the uncomplicated methods of a kitchen garden.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Cherry
Jerusalem artichoke flowering: they’re a type of sunflower!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n
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Growing practices<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

These are Tiny Farm\u2019s basic growing practices and approach to small-scale farming.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

No pesticides<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
\"Floating
Floating row cover: Fences out flea beetles<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Pesticides include bug killers (insecticides), weed killers (herbicides) and other specialized killers (-cides, like fungicides). Some pesticides are considered “biological” and even allowed under organic certification standards. Tiny Farm uses no type of pesticide at all\u2014floating row cover is the farm\u2019s strongest measure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

No synthetic fertilizer<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Synthetic fertilizer is manufactured, quick-acting, and water-soluble. It bypasses the complex system of microorganisms living in the soil\u2014the soil food web<\/a>\u2014that normally delivers plant nutrients, and is instead absorbed directly, or leaches into the ground. Tiny Farm fertilizes with composted cow manure from a farm 10 minutes walk down the road, and alfalfa pellets (dried alfalfa), and uses no synthetics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

No GMOs, no treated seed<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

In vegetable growing, genetically modified organism<\/strong> (GMO) usually refers to plants grown from GM seed. 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 the genetic modifications made to crops can definitely seem unsettling. Still, there is no smoking gun evidence pointing to specific harms. Treated seed<\/strong> is seed with a chemical coating of some sort, to protect against disease, and to improve handling of tiny seed. Again, it’s hard to determine whether treated seed makes any real difference to your 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Minimal irrigation<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

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\u2019ve 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\u2019t use it a lot. I don’t believe it makes the veggies somehow better, but it does mean that they’ve relied mainly on the weather to grow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

No refrigeration<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Refrigerated coolers on farms of all sizes is a common, normal thing. Coolers allow the most perishable crops to stay perky and fresh for days. I\u2019ve 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 short-term storage in a cool part of the barn or in a root cellar (around 10\u00b0C) is all it takes. Once at home, veggies can be popped into the fridge. With the current model of same day harvest for pick-up, cooling requirements are further reduced\u2014the timing is pretty close to harvesting from a veg garden outside your kitchen door. Farm refrigeration is useful and necessary when harvesting large quantities, days or weeks in advance of being eaten. It\u2019s also nice not to rely on that extra bit of electricity and machinery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Harvested on pick-up day<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

This applies to most crops. Some crops have to be harvested more or less 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Staying small<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

In a word where “scale”\u2014getting bigger and bigger\u2014is the primary business goal, staying small refers more to a state of mind, than size of operation. It\u2019s neither good nor bad, it\u2019s only a way of being present in what you\u2019re 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 provide them directly 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.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Answers<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Questions you may have, already answered!<\/p>\n\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Why not Certified Organic?<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

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, where I was in direct contact with everyone. When I stopped going to market in 2019 and tried delivery, I re-certified. I figured this would add a measure of assurance, since I\u2019m not seeing people face to face all the time. I dropped certification again in 2023, as certification costs doubled (the cost of on-site inspection skyrocketed)\u2014certification for small, local farms as a replacement for trust in the grower never made sense to me, and this was the final factor. Certified and not, my farming practices remained exactly the same over the years. That includes no pesticides, no synthetic fertilizers, no GMOs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why isn\u2019t Tiny Farm at a farmers\u2019 market?<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

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\u2019t 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Beans,
Beans, beets, carrots and salad greens in August<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Helping home veggie gardens<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

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. There’s already quite a bit of info in the many years of posts on the blog agricole<\/a>. If you think I could help in any way with your home food garden, please don\u2019t hesitate to\u00a0get <\/a>in touch<\/a>! (This is entirely free! :)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Year-round
Cutting up beets to pickle by lacto-fermentation<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Blended diets and year-round local food<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

It’s definitely a bit odd to go all-in on local fresh veggies for at most half the year, then turn to the supermarket. Does that mean local food is…not sustainable?! I think it’s more a matter of staying balanced, keeping the basic survival and nature muscles exercised. Eat seasonally with gusto! There are also lots of convenient ways to keep eating local during the winter months. Freezing, especially cooking greens, like spinach, and kale, also cauliflower, broccoli, and garlic. Lacto-fermenting (by immersing in salty water) is great for beets, carrots, green beans, cabbage, most fairly firm veggies. Refrigerator and cool cupboard storage work for crops like carrots, beets, winter squash, garlic, onions, potatoes. And there’s cooking then freezing: basic tomato sauce and pureed roasted squash come to mind. These methods can preserve food right through the winter!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Questions, comments, suggestions?<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Your questions, comments, and suggestions are invaluable, so please let me know what you think<\/a>!<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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. While food production in general is scaled to feed the world, Tiny Farm is … Continuer la lecture<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_themeisle_gutenberg_block_has_review":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-23","page","type-page","status-publish"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mytinyfarm.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/23","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mytinyfarm.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mytinyfarm.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mytinyfarm.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mytinyfarm.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23"}],"version-history":[{"count":41,"href":"https:\/\/mytinyfarm.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/23\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1446,"href":"https:\/\/mytinyfarm.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/23\/revisions\/1446"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mytinyfarm.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}