Goodness Me! Farm Update

Our Goodness Me! farm is in full swing! All of our Goodness Me! locations are proud to carry the produce that is so carefully grown and harvested on our certified organic farm in Campbellville. In fact, we are offering same-day farm-to-shelf service, meaning that you can buy zucchini or kale in a store that was picked that very morning. Here is the schedule of when we receive fresh farm produce at our locations: 

Waterdown— Wednesdays between 11:30am-1:00pm
Burlington– Wednesdays between 12:00pm-1:30pm
Locke Street—Wednesdays between 1:00pm-2:30 pm
Upper Gage—Wednesdays between 1:30pm-3:00pm
Brantford—Wednesdays between 2:30pm-4:00pm
Mississauga—Wednesdays between 3:30pm-5:00pm
Guelph—Thursdays between 11:30am-1:00pm
Waterloo—Thursdays between 12:30pm-2:00pm
Barrie—Thursdays between 2:00pm-3:30pm

And here is an update from our farm... enjoy! 

July 28th 2016

Greetings from the fields,

             What a busy week on the Farm! We started by hosting our consumer tour on the weekend, with two groups getting a private tour of the farm, direct from the farmers themselves. We had so many positives from this experience that the farmers are considering doing another round of tours in the fall, during the main harvest season for customers that missed their chance this time around!

With a new week came a new set of visitors to the farm, as our store and department managers journeyed out to learn more about the facilities that are producing our wonderful farm produce. They all had a chance to experience what a morning on the farm typically entails, and even helped out for a bit by assisting with picking some fresh kale bunches, for delivery out to their locations later in the week. Many of our staff remarked on what a unique opportunity this was, to get closer to the products we are producing and strengthen their knowledge of our Farm practices, to bring back and share with their teams and their customers.

For the farmers themselves, the one visitor they desperately want to host on the farm is a heavy rainfall, to help get all the fall plantings more established and to ease the burden all of this recent heat has been placing on the product in the fields. Volumes of Kale and Zucchini remain strong, but leafy greens like Chard have definitely slowed during recent weeks.

Below is and excerpt from some of the notes provided to me by Meiring, one of our farmers, as shared during the consumer tour:

“ Everything on the farm is related to good soil management and biodiversity. The over-arching principle is that we try to differentiate between ecological farming and mining (the analogy being we are not stripping the condition and nutrients of the soil and then moving on in a nomadic way). We follow practices that aim to keep soil condition as is or better, and enhance biodiversity. Soil management is light till, hoping to transition to zero till. We work and cultivate soil from top down. Traditional agriculature and equipment worked soil from bottom up, taking deep soil and inverting it to the top which eventually depletes the nutrient levels and really disrupts the intense ecology of micro-organisms.”

Patrick Barclay

Product Category manager, Produce and Bulk