Tuesday, August 3, 2010

CRAFT Day visit to The New Farm


The monthly CRAFT (Regional Alliance of ) visit is to The New Farm. Brent and Gillian sell lettuce to high end restaurants in Toronto. They harvest their lettuce only once, whereas Whole Circle Farm cuts from the same lettuce plant 5 or more times (once per week). The Whole Circle lettuce may be slightly more bitter, and therefore fetches a lower price. But our labour input is less. We plant once, and get 5 cuttings. New Farm gets just one harvest per planting. Their price is higher than California lettuce, but it lasts longer. Note the verdant field in the below photo - for green manure they grow mixed cover crop: peas, sunflower, rye, and more.