Organic Farm Visit (1)

I went to visit a farm today, in the vicinity of Joliette (the town, not the metro station), in a sort of tour organized by someone with the Union Paysanne. It was a good chance to see organic agriculture in action. It`s a family farm. Originally the husband did most of the farming but he died a few years back, and since then she`s been keeping the farm going. She has two sons (around 20) and a daughter (15). They also have a large, and very affectionate, dog. In spite of the weather it was good to see this and be in the countryside for a bit. I also enjoyed doing some work- helping with the onion harvest, and pulling out the rotting tomatoes (quite a lot of them actually- it doesn`t seem to have been the best of years for growing tomatoes). She definitely has a strong sense of where she is- outside the mainstream of farming (the industrial farming now favoured by the government and even by the official farmers`association, to which all Quebec farmers must belong and pay dues). She would like to turn the farm into a “community farm”, since it is a lot of work for her to keep it going.

More visits to other farms in the weeks to come! Yay!