Producer

Morninglory Farm, founded in 1969 near Killaloe, is an off-grid intentional community of 25 residents (16 adults, 5 children) co-operating in 12 separate family households on 100 hilly acres of woods, fields, gardens, orchards, pond, and stream. There are three generations living on the farm. We have learned a bit from the previous farm families who lived here and next door, how they did things on the farm in the pioneer days, some precious knowledge that we would like to use and preserve.

We grow and produce using organic and natural methods and ingredients. Our homes/home businesses are powered with solar electricity, and heated with wood and solar, one home is strawbale & natural plaster. We use hay mulch on vegetable gardens and fruit trees, using grass cut by hand scythes (Ethan and Robbie), as well as hay and straw from neighbouring farms. The soil in gardens and orchards is fed with our kitchen & weed compost, and composted manure from our farm animals and neighbouring farms horse manure.

We often have young adult helpers join us for a few months each year from the 'WorkAway' program to apprentice and live on the land, receiving room & board, and learning various homesteading and organic gardening skills in return for their help.

We use no synthetic pesticides or fertilizers, and no genetically modified seeds in our vegetable gardens & orchards: we fertilize with composted manure (cattle, horse and goat manure from our own and our neighbours' animals) and composted vegetable waste with kelp and rock powders. We grow vegetables in raised beds, mulched with straw and hay (scythed ourselves and bought from neighbours), using untreated seeds (some heritage & most open pollinated). We always use crop rotation. Our root vegetables and cabbages are stored in the original (refurbished) 100-year-old settler root cellar built into the hill, where they stay firm and fresh all through the winter. Our apples are stored in the old farmhouse cellar. Fruit juices are pressed in either our small hand-operated wood juice press or our large hydraulic juice press, or made into apple/pear sauce, and are heated to pasteurization temperature and processed into sealed glass mason jars. Ethan dries some of our pears and apples in slices on screens in the house above the woodheatstove. Robbie and Ethan have raised many interesting Northern varieties of pear and apple trees, some heritage varieties; 5 pear varieties, 8 apple varieties plus wild fruit trees.

Non-Inspected Kitchen Statement: Our home kitchen and juice press where we prepare all our processed food (canned juices, vinegars, chocolate, pesto, cookies, breads) have not been inspected by the local Health Unit. We follow the usual food safety procedures and eat all the same foods that we produce for sale, and have been producing these foods for family and friends for over 40 years.