Start-up Farm Program Graduates

The following farms operate at the Just Food Community Farm—most as graduates of our Start-Up Farm Program, and mentors of future program participants. Just Food Farm became certified organic through Ecocert in October 2014 and maintains this certification on a yearly basis.

The Just Food Farm is located in the Capital Greenbelt, 12 km east of Parliament Hill.

 

Cadence Ecological Farm

Cadence Ecological Farm is a 2 acre education farm that hosts the youth skills program; employing youth and teaching them to farm in partnership with Just Food and the Youth Services Bureau.

Starting in 2017, the farm is run by Brett Weddle with help from the seasonal youth team. The farm exists to teach people how to grow food, and to connect them to their local ecology. Cadence sells at the Main Farmers Market, and the Just Food Farm Stand. Seasonal CSAs are available too, more information can be found at Cadencefarm.ca

Capital Bees

Ron St. Louis, Melissa, and Sadia Abdullahi

Capital Bees cares for nearly 50 beehives that help pollinate the delicious organic veggies at the Just Food Farm. These bees also forage on an abundance of wildflowers and flowering trees.

We are Certified Naturally Grown which means that we don’t use synthetic pesticides or antibiotics to control pests or diseases. We only use natural methods that are similar to organic standards. You’ll taste the difference in our honey and keep coming back for more.

We are actively breeding bees to be resistant to pests and diseases, gentle to work with, and adapted to our local climate. In 2017 we joined the Ontario Resistant Honey Bee Selection Program. We conduct hygienic testing every year through the Ontario Beekeepers’ Association’s Tech Transfer Program to scientifically ensure the bees’ natural resilience.

We’re not just breeding better bees, we’re training better beekeepers.
We offer comprehensive hands-on learning for the full season and all the support you need to become a competent and confident beekeeper.

Products: Certified Naturally Grown honey, beeswaxand candles, bees (nucleus colonies, queens, queen cells), beekeeping tours, workshops and courses.

Where to Buy: Shop online on the Open Food Network, pick some up at the Just Food Farm Stand, Main Street Farmers’ Market (at the Cadence Ecological Farm booth), see our website for a full list of retailers, or contact us for wholesale.

Contact Information
Phone: 613-852-5063
Email: ron@capitalbees.ca
Website : www.capitalbees.ca

Capital Greens Urban Farm

Mathew Levinson

Capital Greens is a sustainable urban farming business that specializes in growing artisanal-quality, pesticide-free herbs and veggies at the Just Food Farm, as well as in under-utilized urban spaces, such as suburban front and backyards in the City of Ottawa.

We are deeply concerned about the increasing separation between eaters and food producers. There is a severe lack of knowledge about where food at the supermarket comes from, how it is grown, what is sprayed on it, and the ecological and health impacts associated with it. That is why we would like to increase the transparency of our local food system by growing the food right in your community- and feeding it to you and your neighbours!

Capital Greens employs traditional organic methods to grow our produce, and we do not use any pesticides whatsoever, not even the organic ones. The goals of our growing methods are not just to be sustainable by maintaining the health of our soil. Rather, we aim even higher. We use methods and strategies that we believe are regenerative, i.e. improve the health of our soils. We focus on minimizing soil disturbance (e.g. tillage) which helps to sequester carbon and increase organic matter and biodiversity in our soil. It is our firm belief that healthy soil is the basis of healthy food, and healthy communities.

We specialize in growing lettuces and other salad greens, but also grow a variety of other delicious veggies as well. You can support Capital Greens by purchasing our delicious offerings at the Just Food Farmstand or the Lansdowne Farmer’s Market every Sunday throughout the Summer. You can also find our products in several grocery stores throughout the city.

For more information
Website | www.capitalgreens.ca

Chi Garden

Sun Shan and Li Bo

The Chi Garden is a market garden specialized in organically grown vegetables, Asian vegetables and herbs, wild edible greens, and fermented vegetables. We are located at 2389 Pepin Ct, Gloucester, about 12 kilometers east of Parliament Hill, Ottawa, Ontario.

Our garden was founded by two environment professionals, Li Bo and Sun Shan, and has been growing a farm garden, both for homesteading and farmers market, since 2014. Started gardening organically in Bruce County, in the beautiful lake shore of Huron, we have relocated and will become a Certified Organic farm business from 2017 based at the JustFood farm.

At the Chi Garden, we value crop variety and farming traditions from both the global east and west. Our DIVERSITY SALAD, a variety of over 10 mixed eastern and western greens, provides a not-to-be-found-anywhere-else experience of enhanced flavor and health benefits, and surely adds to the emerging culinary culture of Canada! Edible chrysanthemum, tender bok choy, sweet pea shoots, goji leaves and Chinese kale, are but a few examples to find in your salad mix of fresh lettuce and arugula!

The Chi Garden is also cultivating WILD EDIBLE PLANTS: wild garlic, lambs quarter and wild leek, and more, and is hoping to bring them to market soon.

Our farm kitchen also prepares FERMENTED VEGETABLES. The Chi Garden has a variety of raw fermented products including kimchi, ginger-infused fermented chili, soy sauce fermented garlic scape, sauerkraut, and Yunnan style sauerkraut and fermented soy nuts chili paste. These specialty ferments are made with real passion to bring probiotic enzymes, antioxidants, and such flavors to bring childhood memories and ease homesickness for all!

A little bit about the name of our family business, the Chi Garden. Chi is romanized from a traditional Chinese character ? (ji4), owing to its origin from a common and much loved vegetable herb in many Asian countries: ?? (jicao) in ancient Chinese, ??? Yuxingcao or ??? zhe’ergen, in today’s China, Dokudami in Japanese. It is sometimes referred to as fish mint in English, but maybe more familiar by its Latin name to horticulturists, Houttuynia cordata. In Asia, this herb has both culinary and medicinal use, and is believed to be a ‘poison blocking plant’. For us at the Chi Garden, it signifies our aspiration to bridge and to bring together traditional knowledge, remedies provided by plants, and culinary know-hows from around the world.

Our other Asian vegetables are: bitter melons, bok choy, chili pepper, daikon radish, perilla and shiso, celtuce, Chinese kale, okra, waxy corn, edamame (vegetable soy nuts) and many more.

We are experimenting with our Half Organic Farming, Half International Exchanges and Study Tours life/work style. The Chi Garden business is also a basis to connect with our exchange visitors and like-minded people. To find out more about our stories, experiments and tours, please visit https://www.thechigarden.com.

Where to buy

Information coming soon!

Contact us
Email | chigarden2015@gmail.com
Phone | 613-981-4568

Earth and Heart Organics

Jean Claude, Frantz and Françoise Celestin

Organic Way focuses on growing organic rare crops (like jute) with potential nutritional elements. Other general crops are also harvested to accompany the rare ones. It will be a tremendous experience once you try them and learn about them. Usage of these crops should naturally bring you to the consumption of healthy foods.

Past Start-Up Farms