Good Spring Farm
Over the years, Karen Davidge was often the oddball at agricultural meetings; not only was she organic, she was also the only woman! Karen is the main farmer of Good Spring Farm, which she owns with her husband, Brock. When the couple moved back to New Brunswick after living in Ontario, they always lived where they could have large gardens. Then, when looking after a friend’s stall at the Boyce Farmers’ Market in Fredericton, Karen decided to offer some of her own organic produce for sale. She sold out of everything, and saw an opportunity. Good Spring Farm was born.
Karen originally became interested in organics during her last couple years of university, when studies were released about chemicals in the St. John River. With her background in biology, Karen was well suited to farming. She believed that, “with today’s science, and the best of both old and new technology, we should be able to farm even better without chemicals.”
Good Spring Farm has now been certified organic for twenty-five years. The farm has been certified since the first year of organic certification in the Atlantic Provinces, through the Organic Crop Improvement Association (OCIA). Karen and Brock’s farm was one of only six farms certified that year, and she has been personally involved in the OCIA ever since.
A 2,000 square foot commercial greenhouse is used to grow different types of lettuce and spinach in the spring, and mixed vegetables such as tomatoes, peppers, and cucumbers during the rest of the season. Field crops include small fruit, strawberries, apples, pears, and raspberries. Karen is also planning to include more grains as part of the rotation. Pastured poultry is another a feature, but Good Spring’s specialty is certified seed potatoes.
Each year, the farm offers between twelve and fifteen varieties of seed potatoes, a number of which are heirloom varieties with Good Spring as the only farm in Canada growing them. Good Spring’s seed potato varieties include fingerling potatoes, as well as yellow, blue, and other colours. This year the farm sent Corola to a producer in western Canada, who could not find the variety anywhere else. Karen also works closely with Dr. Richard Tarn, a research scientist with Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, on potato genetics.
Colorado potato beetle is dealt with in a few different ways. A five-year crop rotation ensures that potatoes are never planted in the same ground as the previous year, which helps to prevent the beetle in the first place. A propane flamer is used to kill 80% - 85% of adult beetles when necessary, and Entrust. However, Entrust is an allowable organic pesticide that still must be handled carefully.
Three types of chickens are also raised on Good Spring Farm, some which fall under Rare Breeds Canada. Black Australorps are one breed, along with New Hampshires, a dual-purpose bird used for both meat and egg production. Good Spring Farm also has a meat bird that they have worked with long enough for the bird to be considered the farm’s own breed.
Karen is not particularly concerned about the Avian flu, which she says effects primarily conventional flocks- organic flocks are more resistant.
“We don’t live in fear,” says Karen, “but we do have biosecurity protocol, and that is strictly followed.”
Since Good Spring breeds, incubates, and hatches their own flock, the only way to add genetic material is to bring in fertilized eggs. They also don’t allow the birds to go outside until the main waterfowl migratory season is over, thereby reducing the risk of contamination.
Another interesting aspect of Good Spring Farm is their closed system. As Brock likes to say, “We handle everything from the gleam in the rooster’s eye to the processing at an OCIA slaughterhouse.” Potatoes not used for human consumption are fed to the birds, the chickens produce manure that is composted and used to fertilize the soil, and “everything gets used up one way or another”.
The crop rotation is certainly not the only example of diversity on Good Spring. For the past fifteen or twenty years they have volunteered with a program called the Neighbour’s Alliance of North York (NANY), as mentors for at-risk youth and ex-offenders who come to stay on the farm. These people work at Good Spring, learn life skills, and use the experience as a base to begin their regular lives. Karen explains, “People fall between the cracks once they’re out of prison. They have to start somewhere, and the farm offers such a varied number of activities that you’ll always find things somebody’s good at doing.”
With Good Spring Farm, Karen and Brock Davidge have certainly found what they’re good at. The most unique part of this farm is the owners.
|
