Greenshire Eco Farms

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Greenshire Eco Farms

Postby Travis Philp » Thu Feb 23, 2012 3:56 am

Greenshire is a permaculture farm in central Ontario, Canada. 1.5 hours Northeast of Toronto. We are an intentional community composed of eight equal partnerships, with twelve members in total (some members share a partnership. Seven of us live on the farm, and five off. We make major decisions by concensus vote. We'll be entering our third growing season this spring.

http://www.greenshireecofarms.com

youtube channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/GreenshireE ... ture=watch

We have 100 acres total, with about 25 acres of forest, 70 acres of pasture/meadow/hay field, and 5 acres of wetland. We have about 6 different soil types ranging from muck/bog, to heavy loam, to sandy loam with an emphasis on the sand.

We run a CSA foodbox program, comprised of vegetables, some soft fruit, and wild edibles. We also sell at nearby markets, to restaurants, and are considering a roadside stand and pick-your-own veggie option this year. We grow a very wide variety of crops, and allow wild plants to thrive in the gardens as much as possible. We also have a 400 log shiitake mushroom operation.

Our cultivation methods are all no-till. We use hugelkultur, sheet mulching, hay bale beds, and chipped branch wood bed construction. We farm mostly by hand and without machinery aside from a one-time backhoe for the hugelkultur, and an ATV and trailer to haul mulch and manure.

We have about 1.5-2 acres of young forest gardens, with mature poplar, white birch, cedar, ash, aspen making the overstory, peach, nectarine, pear, apple, cherry, making most of the understory and grape, currants, blueberries, gooseberry, dogwood comprising the majority of the understory. This spring we will be planting about 50 nut trees (heartnut, hazelnut, pecan, almond, sweet chestnut, korean pine nut), as well as 1500 asparagus plants. Our eventual goal is to have 8-12 acres of forest gardens, which could net about $10000/acre conservatively

We have a variety of animals on the farm, including chickens, pigs, dogs, cats, budgies, turtles, and horses. Most of the horses are rescues, some of which are used in F.E.E.L. work (Facilitated Equine Experiential Learning). It's basically personal growth for humans, using the horses as a mirror and mechanism.

Our goal is to be an environmentally sound example for the local community. We run farm tours, and host summer camp and school work parties, in an effort to open the minds and hearts of those around us to the ways of Permaculture.
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Re: Greenshire Eco Farms

Postby matt walker » Thu Feb 23, 2012 4:36 am

Totally freakin' inspiring Travis. Thank you so much for posting. I'm halfway through your Hugel video and just watched the Tomato circle video. I've already learned stuff, great videos!

Perhaps I missed it, or haven't gotten there yet, but when did you put in the hugel beds in the video?
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Re: Greenshire Eco Farms

Postby pa_friendly_guy » Thu Feb 23, 2012 5:52 pm

I loved the hay bale gardens. That is an amazing idea for making new gardens. Your tips about ways to improve on what you started to do 1st was very informative. The idea of the blocks as a heat sink as well as covering the sides of the bales with dirt to help keep them from drying out was very helpfull. I have been making some small stone walls with stones from my garden and I have found that laying a board out along where I want the wall helps me to keep it straight. It might help keep the block in a line for you when you make your next bed. Keep up the good work.
Never doubt that a small group of dedicated people can change the world, indeed it is the only thing that ever has.
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