I would like to introduce you to two young gentleman who hit the road this summer WWOOFing across Canada with this purpose in mind:

The Filming, Reporting, and Production of a Documentary Film and Academic Report of a Nationwide Amalgamation of the Socio-Cultural Benefits and Potential Challenges of Small-Scale Organic Agriculture Using Canada’s WWOOF Network

They are Justin Cantafio (BSc, MREM candidate) and Ryan Oickle (BSc Eng).

In return for our support Justin submitted monthly blogs telling us of their adventures.  Below you will find his three submissions.  Enjoy!

Becky, Coordinator

First WWOOF blog post

Hello WWOOF Canada! We are two passionate and enthusiastic guys travelling across Canada with one primary goal: to demonstrate to the general public that not only is small-scale organic farming a viable and productive alternative to commercialized industrial agriculture, but also a socio-cultural foundation for a rich, diverse, and meaningful lifestyle that bolsters community resilience and self-sufficiency, fosters cultural development, and provides a backbone for personal, communal, and often spiritual development.

My name is Justin Cantafio and I am a Masters of Resource and Environmental Management candidate at Dalhousie University’s School for Resource and Environmental Studies in Halifax, Nova Scotia. I am travelling and working with my good friend Ryan Oickle, a recent graduate of Chemical Engineering at the University of New Brunswick, in Fredericton, New Brunswick. We are using Canada’s WWOOF network as our primary method of discovering the farms and people we wish to engage with to meet our goal. Furthermore, WWOOF will help to serve as a means to meet new people and to have meaningful cultural exchanges along the way. Without WWOOF, embarking on this trip and meeting its goals would not be possible.

Throughout the duration of our travels we are filming and recording our experiences, with the goal of producing a documentary film that we can show to the general public, ultimately demonstrating to our society that there really is a viable alternative to joining the “rat race”, and that this alternative is focused on the fundamental essentials of humanity. We also want to demonstrate to the world how amazing bartering programs such as WWOOF can be, offering meaningful exchanges that are impossible to put a monetary value on. We feel that there is a pressing need for humanity to connect back to its roots in nature; that there is no more inherent manifestation of human beings relying on and interacting with their environment than through agriculture, and that WWOOF is a powerful vector through which to demonstrate this connection.

So far our journey has taken us from the coasts of Halifax, Nova Scotia, all the way to prairielands of Wishart, Saskatchewan. Our first hosts had a farm in Saint-Ephrem-de-Beauce, Québec. Harold and Minon were an incredibly warm-hearted couple with smiles that could light up their entire century-old fourth generation farm house. We learned a great deal from them both on and off the farm, learning aspects of biophysical sustainability as well as deep and engaging conversations regarding spirituality. Perhaps the most interesting aspect of our stay at La Ferme Enchantée was the fact that our hosts and their family and friends all spoke French as their first language. Our cultural immersion was certainly a cultural one, with us speaking and even thinking in French, receiving instructions to operate machinery and perform tasks we had no experience in. We were even invited to be interviewed by Harold at the local television station he is involved with – entirely in French – which proved to be a very interesting and fun experience.

Left: Justin (far left) and Ryan (second from right) with WWOOF hosts Harold and Minon at La Ferme Enchantée, Saint-Ephrem-de-Beauce, Quebec. Right: Ryan and Justin with our hosts’ family friend and farm hand, Fernando.

Our daily tasks were fun and immersing, from roto-tilling soil in the greenhouse to riding ATVs out to piles of wood that needed cutting using a splitter. We got to feed the rabbits and chickens, as well as paint parts of the barn. Our work was always well-appreciated, as evident by wholesome meals and meaningful gratitude. To our good luck, Harold and Minon were both practitioners of energy healing, and we were most fortunate to receive individual sessions before our departure, leaving us both energized and in-tune with our upcoming tasks. La Ferme Enchantée could be summed up like this: two beautiful souls operating peacefully while being mindful of biophysical, social-cultural, and spiritual sustainability and openness; abundance well worth visiting!

Our next stop was at a beautiful host location in Wiarton, a village on the Bruce Peninsula, a few hours drive Northwest of Toronto. Here we met a four generation family, living harmoniously with nature tucked away in a rustic region of the Bruce Peninsula. We were immediately greeted by the energetic grandson of our host, Anna-Jean. Anna-Jean’s daughter and son also live there, as well as her daughter’s son, and her son’s girlfriend. To top it all off was our host’s own mother, making for a warm and communal atmosphere.

Work at our second host, Green Heart Gardens, was always fun and entertaining. Emily, the daughter of our host, operates an organic café located at the local airport, and we got to help prepare food as well as eat may a good, hearty meal there. We even got to participate in an open mic night. Most days we worked casually in their mixed gardens, walking barefoot in their patch of paradise, often learning wisdom from our host’s son, Grant. During the warmest parts of the late afternoon we would swim at a beach by their cottage, relaxing in the rays in our own little section of nowhere.

Our wonderful time at Green Heart Gardens was very family-centred, and we were accepted at their home as family members, making for intimate meals, friendly chatter around the fire, and myriad other experiences such as exploring cliffs and caves in the countryside, going to a movie at an old fashioned drive-in theater, or learning how to make pottery from clay. Perhaps the most memorable aspect of Green Heart Gardens was how painful and difficult it was to tear ourselves away from our host’s family. Despite our short stay, our experience was amazing, being fully immersed in the life of a stellar family of unique, loving, and compassionate people looking to make a difference in this world.

Our third stop was at a spiritual community just outside of Winnipeg called Little Mountain Farm. The community is a member of the Twelve Tribes Spiritual Organization. There are 22 members living communally here. Every member of the community lived their lives out of love for each other, ultimately allowing the community to be resilient, tight-knit, and on the path towards complete self-sufficiency. Every member of Little Mountain Farm, from the toddlers to the adults, exuded a radiant essence to them; it was as if we were given a warm embrace by their presence and positivity alone. Each individual put the community before themselves, living more or less selflessly, for the good of the community and their cause.

 

Sunset and hay bales at Little Mountain Farm, Winnipeg, Manitoba.

Every morning we started off our day with a gathering, where we would learn a spiritual teaching while drinking yerba maté tea, which they imported from one of their communities in Brazil. Then we would eat a big communal breakfast and share laughs. The men would gather afterwards and tackle the day’s work. Here we learned what a true day of farm work actually comprised, working until lunch, and after lunch almost until sun down. While we WWOOFers were not expected to work all day, the love and compassion exuded between the community members as they worked selflessly for the greater good of the group inspired us to work hard. Indeed, seeing the fruits of our labour in the form of self-sufficiency and community strength rendered our labour more as a joy to complete, rather than arduous tasks.

United under a shared religious belief, the community is tight-knit and strong together. I feel that there way of existing – selflessly and out of love and compassion for one another – is the fundamental basis of sustainability. It was truly inspiring to see such a large group of individuals working together, both on their farm and in town in their cottage industries, towards a shared vision. Their altruistic communalism has empirically proven to me that we too as members of an individualistic-dominated society can shed the shackles that bind us to living this materialistic lifestyle. There is a fruitful and abundant alternative to the rat race, and the members of Little Mountain Farm are a beacon of hope and example for us all.

We are now nearing the end of our stay with our fourth host, Jeff and Tara at Peregrine Farm. Jeff and Tara, their three amazing girls, and Tara’s parents across the street, Mel and Joan, all live on a small corner of a secluded little farm town called Wishart, about 2 hours East of Saskatoon. Our stay with the gang has been full of joy and happiness. The girls, aged 6, 9, and 11, had brilliant personalities and incredible bright outlooks on life. Their youthful energy was matched only by Jeff and Tara, whose young-at-heart perspectives on life were both rejuvenating and inspiring.

We often worked with Jeff, a man wise beyond his years, on various projects around the farm. This included helping a neighbour with several miles of cattle fencing using a tractor and machinery far beyond anything we’d ever used before. We were rewarded with amazing and filling meals, a casual cold beer, and intimate and heart-warming chatter by the fire. To top it all off, Ryan and I got to go to an old fashioned small town dance and celebration at the local town hall recreation centre, learning how to dance to fiddle-filled country tunes. After two-stepping and polka dancing all night – which included some dance lessons from Tara and the girls – we played Frisbee with Jeff until sunrise, which rose beautifully and colourfully across the gigantic expanse of the Prairie skyline. Luckily, Jeff spent many years living intimately with nature in the mountains of British Columbia, and set us up with a list of beautiful places to visit along our path, including a beautiful town he lived by which he says an excellent WOOFing community, which has ultimately given us an itinerary for our next chapter.

So it appears we our nearing our the end of our first chapter – a chapter that took us from the East coast all the way to the prairies – and that we are on to our next chapter – a chapter that will take us from the prairies to the Rockies and the coasts and islands of British Columbia and Alberta. As we surge across the endless Prairieland of Saskatchewan, and draw nearer towards the mountains of Banff in Alberta, we feel a profound sense of assurance that we are onto something big here. Our experiences have been incredibly abundant; culturally, socially, and spiritually. And we are only beginning.

Second WWOOF blog post

Hello again WWOOF Canada!  This is the second segment of a series of blogs describing the experiences of myself, Justin Cantafio, and my friend, Ryan Oickle as we travel and WWOOF from Halifax, Nova Scotia to Vancouver Island, BC, and back throughout this summer. For those unfamiliar with what we are doing, we are attempting to demonstrate to the general public through that not only is small-scale organic agriculture a viable alternative to its heavily industrialized counterpart, commercial agriculture, but that it can also serve as the foundation of a rich and abundant lifestyle. We also wish to demonstrate the importance of bartering programs such as WWOOF Canada, which allow individuals to break free from the shackles of industrialized society and to increase their self-sufficiency through alternative economies, while simultaneously allowing them to have enriching experiences through socio-cultural immersion. We plan to accomplish our goals through the production of a documentary film and an academic yet public-accessible paper/report. For more information on the nature of our project, please check out our first post above.

We have been most fortunate to have had such an incredible amount of enriching experiences over the past few weeks, rendering this past segment of our journey one of truly social, cultural, and spiritual opulence. We’ve been to three farms, bringing our total up to 7, and on our way towards our 8th farm, this time back in the Prairies.
At the time of the last post submitted we were crossing the endless Saskatchewan prairieland, on our way towards the Rocky Mountains with a loaded itinerary provided to us from our most recent WWOOF host at the time. We had an incredible time and exploring and camping in this magnificent region of Canada, visiting areas such as Drumheller, Canmore, and Banff in Alberta, and Lillooet, Anderson Lake, and Whistler in British Columbia, before finally settling at a gorgeous farm in Pemberton Meadows, BC.

The 5th farm of our journey was Rootdown Organic Farm, nestled in a beautiful valley surrounded by snow-capped peaks, including the prominent and breathtaking Mount Currie which was visible at all times from the farm. It took us a while to get over the incredibly grounding experience of being surrounded by these stunning, towering peaks, but we were quickly overcome with childish joy knowing we got to stay at and explore this place for a week.

 

Backdrop to our daily activities at Rootdown Farm.

Upon our arrival we were greeted by our three lovely and age-defying hosts, Sarah, Nicki, and Simone, their fantastically curious farm dog Buster, as well as Maude, a cheerful girl from Montreal who we quickly befriended. Before long we were setting up our tent under a tree, excited to get our hands in the dirt. It wasn’t long after our arrival that we began to understand the significance of what was going on at Rootdown. Sarah, Niki, and Simone run and operate what has been the largest farm of our trip – a farm that supplies several farmers markets, CSAs (community shared agriculture), and restaurants – almost exclusively by themselves. They grow a large assortment of vegetables, including many varieties of salad greens. They also raise pigs and laying hens, which both have their own mobile pens, allowing the girls to rotate their animals and fertilize the already seemingly rich soil.

We were incredibly impressed by the passion, tenacity, and youthful vigour of the girls operating this farm. Always concerned about our wellbeing and ensuring we didn’t work too long, they themselves defied logic and consistently put in 12 hour days of work, often to resume working after supper on one project or another. These girls are constantly buzzing, but perhaps what is most impressive is their positive demeanour and passionate curiosity. Regardless of bad weather or going through a slurry of back bending labour, the girls are always incredibly positive and cheerful, and they are constantly seeking new and innovative ways to conduct their farm operations. However, the girls are real, and often harked to the difficulties of farming at their scale by themselves. It truly is hard work at Rootdown, at least for the girls operating it; long hours, intense hands on labour, and a mandatory attention to detail. Such a lifestyle can no doubt take a serious physical and emotional toll on oneself, and indeed they mentioned it often did, yet these girls seem to transcend these difficulties through their joyful outlooks on life, resulting in a youthful vitality that propels this farm forward without a heavy reliance on machinery, although the help of WWOOFers and community friends is always welcomed.

 

Curious baby turkeys. They got braver by the day.

Days at Rootdown were generally started with breakfast cooked communally, often between the three of us WWOOFers in the trailer Maude was staying in. We would then spend the morning and early afternoon helping out with a wide variety of tasks, including battling the never-ending onslaught of horsetail which can choke out a market garden in days if not taken care of, or chasing, capturing, and transferring their tough-as-nails rooster to a different pasture. Evenings were always spent together, often with locals and friends, sharing amazing farm-fresh foods, stories, and laughter. Later on we would often go for walks to the nearby beach, make fires, and marvel at the sun setting over the prominent Rockies. The girls allowed us to become fully immersed in the farm life and Pemberton living in general. We got to experience the community, showing up to their farmers market, and even relax at a local women’s club gathering for tea and strawberries and shortcake. Sarah and the girls were even nice enough to let us know about a locals’ secret; a naturally occurring hot spring next to a raging glacial river deep in the surrounding mountains, which made for an excellent and relaxing afternoon trip.

After speaking to them individually, it became evident that these girls are on to something. They have a highly productive yet ecologically sound agricultural operation, while still able to lead socio-culturally and often spiritually rich lifestyles. They are taking control of their self-sufficiency and constantly learning while simultaneously feeding their surrounding communities. They are living proof that with some education, hands on experience, a true passionate commitment to sustainability, and a load of elbow grease, that it is still possible to have a highly productive and feasible farm in this day and age. Our experience at Rootdown was a thoroughly positive one, leaving us rejuvenated and inspired, as well as with a full tank of fuel for the proverbial fire of life.

After leaving Rootdown with wind in our sails, we set our sights on the city of Vancouver where we planned to meet my friend and get a taste of city life again. After spending a couple days exploring and relaxing, we planned an itinerary that would take us Northwest via ferry from Vancouver to Nanaimo, Vancouver Island, upwards to the north of the island at Campbell River, before taking two other small ferries into the little known, albeit incredibly liberal microcosm of Cortes Island.

We knew we needed to go to Cortes Island. Several people, including a great friend from Halifax who just so happened to be living there at the time, as well as others we had met along our travels all seemed to suggest that, “you’ve got to go to Cortes”. So we obliged. After two gorgeous ferry rides we made landfall in Cortes, quickly following directions to Channel Rock, a retreat centre located in a serene, isolated stretch of old growth coastal rainforest. The centre is only accessible by boat, or by a 15 minute hike through an enchanted misty stretch of monolithic trees.

After a few hikes we managed to get our essential gear down to the property, setting up our tent, and quickly immersing ourselves in the hustle-bustle that was going on at the centre upon our arrival. It just so happened that we arrived a day a half into a weeklong film camp called Re:Invent, run by Reel Youth, a not-for-profit organization which seeks to use media as a vector for youth empowerment and social change. We immediately got to meet the brilliant and energetic young camp attendees and their passionate and inspiring camp facilitators. It didn’t take long before we realized the magnitude of what was going on here; passionate and accomplished individuals taking time to help spearhead the next generation of social activists through creative and experiential education. The students got to learn from the best, including Mark Achbar, director of the highest grossing Canadian documentary film of all time, The Corporation, as well as Gemini winners Lisa Jackson and Velcrow Ripper, among others, both of whom were incredibly inspiring and motivating.

We were fortunate enough to see several film screenings while at Channel Rock, including being the first audience to watch a new project Mr. Achbar has been working on, and what will most certainly be one of the most powerful documentary films of our time. But it wasn’t just the film screenings from the big names – which mind you were certainly inspiring and motivating and an absolute treat we were most fortunate to be a part of – that was so uplifting. During the course of the film camp the students had to create short films focused on a particular topic of social justice. Seeing the students work together, learning from each other and pushing their boundaries, despite the fact that some of them were in their early teens, was enough to solidify our confidence in our generation. We even got to participate in some of the filming, with both of us being interviewed for one of the shorts on local food production.

 

Hand drums and a view looking out of the cob house, the large meeting area and kitchen for the centre.

The last evening of the camp was spent screening the shorts. The students and their highly accomplished mentors wore permanent smiles as an aura of glee and excitement swept through the giant cob meeting house. We couldn’t help but feel overwhelmed by our emotions as students and facilitators alike laughed, cried, and shared this incredible experience. As the evening wore on we retired to our tent, falling asleep to the peaceful banter of students and mentors sharing laughs, stories, and music well into the night.

The success of the camp is highly tied to the magic of Channel Rock retreat. Located next to the Pacific Ocean, the centre is entirely off the grid, providing its own solar energy to power the various buildings on the property. All of the edifices are sustainably constructed out of natural materials such as stone and cob, and are all topped by beautiful green roofs. Large windows and fire furnaces help with heating. What was of the most importance to us, however, was the huge permaculture garden that spanned throughout the centre of the retreat, acting not only as a centrepiece of beauty, but an ecological powerhouse producing high yields of food that is consumed primarily on the property.

 

Stunning sunset at a cove on the property of Channel Rock.

Stephanie, Channel Rock’s gardener/farmer, is a brilliant woman whose energy and vigour is reminiscent of that of a person far her junior. She is a wealth of knowledge and kept us busy with an array of tasks such as repairing and building compost bins, chopping the sustainably sourced firewood that heated the buildings, as well as even constructing a pulley operated hydroponics system we built from scratch for their pond. Stephanie is responsible for the wide array of permaculture projects that coalesce into one interconnected garden system that stretches throughout the centre of the property. Everything imaginable is grown here. Interconnectedness and resilience are stressed, with an effort to produce an ecologically sustainable and robust food system that can provide impressive yields to help nourish the occupants of Channel Rock.

 

View of the permaculture garden and some buildings (note green roof) at Channel Rock, Cortes Island, BC.

One of the most profound realizations we had while at Channel Rock is how the principles of sustainability have been incorporated into the physical structures and the gardens on the property. In doing so, they have created a piece of paradise and a beacon of hope; a beacon of sustainability that shines brightly. It is no coincidence that a not-for-profit organization focused on social justice chose this gem of sustainability to host its film camp. We are forever thankful for our experience here both during the film camp and afterwards, allowing us to connect with Stephanie and learn a great deal about permaculture.

After Channel Rock we met up with my good friend from Halifax for a few days of exploring other parts of the island. Meeting new friends has never been easier than on Cortes. Everyone is regarded as kin, as only those “in the know” generally stumble upon Cortes in the first place. Our last evening on the island we feasted on local clams and oysters as the sun set over a beautiful marina, basking in the beauty of the island and the warmth of its hospitable people.
Upon leaving Cortes we ventured back onto Vancouver Island, downwards to explore Victoria for a couple days, before heading back to Vancouver and southward towards Nelson. After exploring Nelson we rolled into Winlaw, a small farming town nestled in the Kootenays, at Airy Creek Gardens. We were quickly greeted by Annilie and Victor, our gracious and welcoming hosts, who showed us to our comfortable lodgings in a quaint little cabin in the back of their property where you can always hear a roaring creek.

 

The beautiful Airy Creek, which ran through Victor and Annilie’s property adding serene white noise to our activities during our stay.

Annilie and Victor had just returned from living and teaching abroad in Bahrain. They had myriad tales about the interesting island nation that entertained us for many a meal. Our first evening was spent conversing with their German friends who were visiting, exchanging ideas over wine as we explored the pertinent issues of late. The following day we quickly got to work, and were immediately thrown into a variety of interesting tasks such as using their 50 year old tractor to move lumber around the property. Airy Creek is more than just farm gardening. Here they seek to explore other aspects of self-sufficiency. It is for this reason that their house and the buildings on the property were constructed from lumber Victor milled himself from his sawmill located near the property.

 

Sleepy farm dog taking it easy after a night shift patrolling the property.

With the land in relative disarray due to their absence for several years, there was much work to do on the property. A full day was spent digging up the sandy earth on the property and replacing it with soil and composted manure. Victor and Annilie must produce the bulk of their own soil for their farm gardening, and have an impressive soil management regime. Other tasks included building an extension on their chicken coop, allowing their chicks to feed and explore a larger piece of land in the security of a fenced pasture.

At Airy Creek the mature chickens are free to roam where they please, comfortable in the presence of Victor and Annilie’s two big farm dogs, who spent a large portion of the day napping. We spent the majority of our working days with Victor, who is always full of interesting facts. Annilie was always quick to ensure we were well fed with meals and snacks. As educators, both Victor and Annilie are passionate about teaching, giving us plenty of useful knowledge throughout our stay. Late afternoons were often spent at a local beach on a beautiful glacial river, relaxing in the son and cooling off in the chilling waters, before returning home for delicious meals and relaxed chatter. Overall our stay at Airy Creek was relaxing and rewarding. We learned a great deal in our short stay, and always felt welcome.

So as it stands we are nearing our 8th farm just outside of Winnipeg, finishing our second chapter – a chapter that took us from the Prairies to the coasts of British Columbia’s Gulf Islands and back – and onto the third and last. We have had so many incredible experiences over the past month and a half, accumulating a great wealth of knowledge, friendship, and passion for our cause. It is often rather difficult to capture the magnitude and profoundness of what we are experiencing in words, and are thankful for our video camera. We have excellent footage of our experiences, and are getting excited about editing our clips into a film. We will be staying at three more farms during the remainder of our travels. After our 10th farm, which will be in Quebec towards the end of the summer, we will produce another post to keep you updated on our experiences. We will then put up a final post summarizing our entire journey as well as the common themes and lessons we have learned. I’d like to take this opportunity to thank all the amazing people we have met over the course of this trip. It is they who are making this trip the incredible experience it has been so far. I have never had more faith in humanity than I do now. Until next time.

Third and Final WWOOF Blog Post

Hello WWOOF Canada! This is the third and final segment of a series of blogs describing the experiences of myself, Justin Cantafio, and my friend, Ryan Oickle as we travelled and WWOOFed from Halifax, Nova Scotia to Vancouver Island, BC, and back throughout this summer. For those unfamiliar with what we are doing, we are attempting to demonstrate to the general public that not only is small-scale organic agriculture a viable alternative to its heavily industrialized counterpart, commercial agriculture, but that it can also serve as the foundation of a rich, meaningful, and abundant life. We also wish to demonstrate the importance of bartering programs such as WWOOF Canada, which allow individuals to break free from the shackles of industrialized society and to increase their self-sufficiency through alternative economies, while simultaneously allowing them to have enriching experiences through socio-cultural immersion. We plan to accomplish our goals through the production of a documentary film and an academic yet public-accessible paper/report. For more information on the nature of our project, please check out our first and second posts above.

I now find myself settled again in Halifax, Nova Scotia, after a wonderful final leg of our travels that took us from beautiful Sandy Hook, Manitoba, through Northern Ontario and into an urban farm in Kingston, to our final farm outside of Montreal, Quebec, before heading home. As I reflect on the last few weeks of our incredible journey, a powerful albeit grounding surge of bittersweet emotions flood my conscious. The spontaneity and impulsiveness of living on the road as a traveling vagabond has left my mind still fervently racing and struggling to settle down. Alas, I have yet to adapt to a solid foundation, however I have found the time and peace to reflect critically on the last chapter of our travels.

At the time of our last post Ryan and I were nearing our 8^th of 10 farms in Sandy Hook, Manitoba. We arrived during the afternoon to our busy hosts, Lorne and Nancy, together with a full house of family and friends. We were given a brief tour of the impressive premises, after which we set up our tent in a cleared area of the property that would serve as our temporary lodging until our hosts’ family members returned to their cities, after which time we stayed in ours hosts’ rustic custom-built home.

Lorne and Nancy have a beautiful property at New Morning Farm. At 50 acres, it is on the larger end of most of the farms we’ve been to. Animals here are healthy and full of vigour, with plentiful pigs, chickens, and goats happily grazing the grounds with plenty of room to explore, interact, and live an appropriate existence. Lorne was ever-busy running amok between tending to the farm and its many duties, and his part time work in the nearby town. Nancy took control of the kitchen, constantly preparing delicious meals and ensuring her team of WWOOFers and family members were well fed.

Cute and curious kid. Never shy to belt it out when he was hungry.

 

Our hard days of work were rewarded by delicious meals and scenic trips into the surrounding town of Winnipeg Beach. Lake Winnipeg beckoned to us in the heat of the day, and rewarded us with lapping waves and cool breezes as we relaxed waterside on several occasions. During the later hours, we were fortunate enough to be entertained by the musical prowess of Lorne and Nancy’s children and friends, Kal, Graeme, and Lauren. Graeme rarely didn’t have his hands on a guitar, ripping out excellent tunes. If a guitar was not in arms reach, he still belted out songs with incredibly youthful energy. It was a pleasure to be around a group of likeminded young individuals. I even had the pleasure of partaking in Lauren’s second official yoga session as a teacher. For someone on only leading her second class to a group, she demonstrated the confidence and attentiveness of someone far more experienced, and left me invigorated and ready to rip up some of the several hundred pounds of garlic out of the ground, some of which is visible in the photo below.

We forgot to grab a picture of ourselves in front of the van loaded with all the garlic
we ripped out of the ground, so host Nancy used her Photoshop skills to superimpose
us – dog in hand – in front of the load.

 

Both Lorne and Nancy are incredibly committed to the lifestyle they presently pursue; a counter-cultural lifestyle centered on self-sufficiency and meaningfulness. With the economic uncertainties presented to our present generation, it is no surprise that Lorne and Nancy decided to take matters into their own hands. What started off as a side project has quickly become a long term vision and full-time life commitment; a social and monetary safety net forged from the fires of sheer determination and will in the midst of socio-economic turmoil. However, where some may be contemplating retirement and their pensions by Lorne and Nancy’s age, the couple certainly have their work cut out for them. Yet I have the utmost confidence that these two out-of-the-box thinkers will continue to develop their operation into a resilient and innovative farm that will support them and reward their hard work. A true manifestation of a life well worth living.

Sunset at the moor at beautiful Winnipeg Beach, a 5 minute drive from New
Morning Farm.

 

After parting ways with Nancy and Lorne, Ryan and I set our sights on the daunting haul ahead of us. Knowing we were about to embark on a multi-day trek across Northern Ontario, we decided to reframe the haul from a nearly 2400 kilometer-long trip to Kingston, to an adventure during which we could push ourselves and test our limits. In this light, our trip through Northern Ontario ended up becoming one of our most cherished segments of our travels. We had plans to drive all the way from Sandy Hook to Kingston, Ontario, but realized we were ahead of schedule, allowing us to take on the journey one day at a time with no fixed itinerary or timeframe to work with, and to even drop in on some friends we had made earlier at a previous farm in Wiarton on the Bruce Peninsula, Ontario.

We spent three days and four nights making the trek to Wiarton, during which time we received nothing but sunshine with temperatures regularly in the thirties. The lack of air conditioning in the vehicle and the bountiful pristine lakes in Northern Ontario meant we often stopped for swims. I would often attempt to fish during these times, with one successful catch of a walleye. During the evenings we decided to refrain from going to campgrounds, choosing instead to camp by various lakes. We even decided not to use our tent during this time, and consumed a very basic diet consisting mostly of staples such as oatmeal and lentils. This simple existence of traveling, swimming, and sleeping under the stars by firelight was incredibly grounding, and left us both humbled by the majesty of an often ignored region of our country.

After taking the ferry from Manitoulin Island to the Bruce Peninsula for the second time in our summer, we dropped in for an evening with Emily, the daughter of one of our previous farm hosts. The whole family was there to greet us. The hospitality and genuine happiness exuded by our previous hosts and now great friends in seeing us on our return was heart-warming. The emotional slurry of laughter and tears from the impact of the mutual presence between hosts and WWOOFers was enough to convince both Ryan and I that our journey had already been an astounding success.

Renewed and invigorated, we left the Bruce Peninsula, visiting friends in Toronto along our route to Kingston. In Toronto we had left messages of inquiry with several potential hosts, and the first to respond was from who we had initially wanted to stay with the most. We were particularly intrigued by Main Street Market because it was to be the first and only urban farm of our journey. So far we had become heavily accustomed to the peacefulness of the rural lifestyle of small-scale organic agriculture. We were both sceptical about our ability to cope with the hustle-bustle of city life after so many months living a quieter lifestyle, however our adventures in Northern Ontario had us both yearning for adventure and the unknown.

We arrived in Kingston a day before our introduction to Main Street Market, couch surfing with a Queen’s University student who we quickly befriended. The following day we met with Tim and Tracy, our hosts, and Barbara, a WWOOFer from France, for breakfast. It wasn’t long before we realized the magnitude of the operation of Main Street Market. Speaking quickly and assertively, Tim gave us the rundown of the operation. Main Street Market is a decentralized urban food production network consisting of several urban farms and various projects around the city of Kingston. They rely heavily on bicycles and manual labour to provide the city, its inhabitants, and various restaurants with fresh produce, all produced locally within city limits. Food is distributed through CSAs and at their market, which they operate out of their home nestled in the middle of the city.

 

No object better reflects the itinerant nature of Main Street Market than a bicycle.

 

One of the most impressive features about Main Street Market is that it always seemed to be in a perpetual state of organized chaos. But this organized chaos worked beautifully, for couldn’t one argue that almost all aspects of urban life are chaotic? Regardless, Tim et al. mesh wonderfully with the necessitated speed and hurriedness of city life, taking bicycles – or tricycles – with trailers throughout the city to the various plots producing food. In an effort to keep food production systems cyclic, Tim employs myriad novel techniques such as collecting rainwater for irrigation or picking up compost from various restaurants and it them to the field, where it is turned into soil. The commotion doesn’t end here, with a bustling market based right out of there house, with Tracy managing to tend to their two beautiful young children while simultaneously turning their living room into a farmer’s market full of fresh produce and CSA boxes.

In a time where small scale organic agriculture is by no means fostered by our industrial-minded economy, innovation is stressed at Main Street Market. Tim and his gang constantly seeking to unearth new and unique niche markets, such as the production of shitake mushrooms, as pictured below.

Hardwood logs “plugged” with shitake spores; soon to be delectable fruiting bodies
aka mushrooms.

 

I cannot stress enough how impressive the vigour and tenacity of Tim, Tracy, and their interns Landon and Jolene. Tim was up before all of us and didn’t seem to wind down until well into the evening. When he finally did settle down, he turned into a super dad, focusing all of his incredible energy on his two children. Tim and Tracy are keen on community resilience, helping to foster community growth in their region. They are actively involved in their local church, integrate and connect community members through their market, their CSAs, and community gardens. They even managed to get some community members to donate sections of their property for food production, such as an entire back yard donated to Main Street Market for mushroom production and room for experimental plots.

During our time at Main Street Market we got to know the interns relatively well. Landon, an intern since February, also interned at the Sisters of Providence of St. Vincent de Paul Heirloom Seed Sanctuary located within the city. On our last day in Kingston, we were invited to get a personal tour of the Seed Sanctuary premises by Landon himself. There also happened to be several events occurring during that beautiful sunny day, including a tomato tasting and several seed preservation workshops. We learned a great deal about the importance of saving seed, as well as their unique methods of bolstering the genetic composition of their seeds. Unlike most gardens, the primary purpose of the Seed Sanctuary was to increase the robustness of the genes within the tomatoes in an effort to create the most resilient crops possible. This was made possible by keeping the plants in a state of environmental duress, which involved minimal weeding and little to no irrigation whatsoever.

Eleven reasons to save seeds; sign posted in the Sisters of Providence of St. Vincent
de Paul Heirloom Seed Sanctuary in Kingston, Ontario.

 

After the tomato tasting we took off towards our final farm of the trip which we had set up a few days prior, just outside of Huntingdon, Quebec. This segment happened to be the shortest distance between any two farms of our entire trip, and we embraced the brevity with open arms. We arrived at Rivercroft Saturday evening, and we’re immediately blown away by the beauty of the premises. Rivercroft is surrounded by lush meadows and pastureland, located down a seldom traveled road in the countryside of the Chateauguay Valley. Tall trees give shade to the yard and buildings, including the WWOOFers’ very own gorgeous cabin that we had the pleasure of living in for our week at Rivercroft.

Ducks, geese, chickens, and dogs all co-existed peacefully throughout the property, ranging where they pleased. Cows and sheep had expansive pastures to forage and frolic about, and the cow pastures were often rotated. A small river ran along the property and was often frequented by stunning blue herons. Old apple trees and ornamentals framed the property, and a swimming pool greeted us on hot afternoons. An organic garden with multiple crops was home to myriad plants, all growing lush and free of pests without the need of chemical controls.

Diverse vegetable garden at Rivercroft.

 

After settling in our cabin we entered the farm house to meet our host Anouk, her husband Stewart and their son Alexis. That evening, it wasn’t long before Anouk, Alexis, Ryan, and I got to work. We had to transfer their roosters and turkeys into the barn as a precaution against the tail-end of Hurricane Irene which happened to be sweeping into the region that evening. An interesting undertaking, we quickly learned that not all turkeys enjoyed being grabbed by strangers. After wrangling turkeys and securing them in their pen, we retired for the evening, knowing we would be facing some serious weather in the morning.

We woke up to surprisingly calm weather and an empty property, as the family had gone into the city to church. However, by the time we cooked and ate breakfast the weather had already turned fairly sour, and the wind had picked up substantially. We spent the late morning and early afternoon pruning and tidying up raspberry bushes and prepared new beds for the animals in the barn. We spent the evening relaxing and mingling, and looked forward to our next few days of work. It was during times like this – times that we got to mingle and have deep discussions – that I got to understand the duality that existed at Rivercroft. Anouk tended to the farm, working laboriously and passionately to create a viable income from the plants and animals, all the while tending to her farm with love and compassion for her animals. Stewart, on the other hand, spent a large portion of his time working in the nearby city of Montreal, leading a more urban lifestyle centred on people. Both Anouk and Stewart are highly educated and esteemed in their professions, and subsequently brought sometimes opposing views to our discussions involving economics, politics, and society in general. It was a pleasure having deep and meaningful discussions with both of them, forcing me to think critically and reflect on some of my own beliefs, constructions, and ideologies.

Leaf bug sunning on a classic Mercedes; a fitting example of the duality of the
lifestyles exhibited at Rivercroft.

 

Our tasks at Rivercroft were fun and hands on. Anouk often trusted that we could figure things out on our own with gentle guidance, allowing us to work on projects with minimal supervision. We got to use various power tools and a slurry of building materials, building a few small projects such as fixing a feeding box for her ducks, and constructing a row cover pictured below.

Frame of a row cover Ryan and I built using our rudimentary carpentry skills acquired
over the course of the summer. Note: the rebar was bent using the rim from an old
wagon wheel.

 

Our work at Rivercroft was always well rewarded with delicious foods and warm company. During the evenings we spent much of our time mingling with Alexis and his brother Adam, who arrived a few days after we showed up to Rivercroft. They introduced us to a fun new board game, and their similar age to us allowed us to catch up on some issues more relevant to our generation. During the days we spent much of our time with Anouk, a multilingual descendent of Russian immigrants who fled during the revolution. Anouk is a strong woman with an inherent sense of purpose, tending to her family and animals with love and care. We seldom worked more than a handful of hours without a delicious snack and a warm pot of tea. She always tended to our needs and always ensured we were comfortable; a tremendous host!

 

We left Rivercroft with a bittersweet feeling; a feeling we had been experiencing throughout the majority of our stay at our final farm. The feeling stemmed from a combination of our lamenting of the impending end of our journey coupled with the excitement of returning to “society” as profoundly changed individuals. We set off for New Brunswick to visit some family members, before stopping in Ryan’s present and my past home town of Moncton, thus marking the official end of our physical journey.

However, our true journey is only yet to begin. We have developed personally on a profound level over the duration of our summer. We have learned an extensive deal about one of the most important methods of food production with regards to sustainability in this country. We have met incredible people and experienced so many synchronicities it is almost unfathomable. We have managed to live an existence of love and compassion for our planet, its people, and its myriad inhabitants. We have demonstrated to ourselves and hopefully to others the power and profoundness of alternative economies, bartering systems, and the socio-cultural and spiritual abundance waiting out there for those willing to take the plunge.

I have garnered a tremendous deal of respect for those engaging in alternative food production systems. These individuals have taken a stance against the injustices our current economy-driven society. Some have taken the stand against conventional industrial food production, others against the production of unhealthy commodified foods, some against the dominant paradigm of individualism that pervades throughout our society. Many have taken stances communally in an effort to lead a life of example. Some have extended far beyond food production, seeking to help others lead a meaningful existence or improve their lives through experiential and practical learning. We have met spiritual healers, teachers, farmers, social activists, film producers, politicians, mentors, educators, and so many other beacons of hope for our generation and those to come.

Collage of a few fond memories of our travels. Thanks WWOOF Canada!

 

We have learned that it is not always sunshine and daisies in the world of small scale organic food production. It is tremendously difficult for today’s ecocentric food producers to get a foothold in an economy dominated by fast, cheaply and mass produced, commercially derived foodstuffs commodified into myriad cheap products that tempt those in economic duress, or those who have yet to learn the importance of eating a healthy, ethically-sourced diet. Every single host we met has made sacrificed to lead their lifestyles. However, despite the odds against them, each and every host shines as a lighthouse; a beacon of hope in these socio-ecologically tumultuous times.

It is through programs such as WWOOF that willing individuals can help these organic farmers make their livelihoods viable. We met people from Japan, France, Morocco, Germany, and others WWOOFing in Canada, as well as many Canadians all willing to join this noble cause, to have meaningful cultural exchanges, and to make new friends. Without these kinds of programs such integration would be incredibly difficult. As would our travels throughout this beautiful, vast, and diverse country. We relied heavily on WWOOF Canada to map out our travels, to secure hosts, and to make the meaningful connections we had the pleasure of experiencing.

I have garnered a renewed sense of hope and passion from my travels and experiences. For the sake of brevity I will end here. Ryan and I are finally getting re-established in our towns of Moncton and Halifax. It is now time for us to focus on our own paths again; be it securing employment or finishing schooling. In the next few months Ryan and I will learn the tricks of the trade to edit and produce a full length documentary film that will convey some of the incredibly important messages and lessons we have learned and experienced over the summer. A report related to our summer experiences will also be produced during this time.

Thanks to all who have followed our experiences over the course of the summer. I would also like to thank WWOOF Canada for their part in helping to make our trip a reality. I finish this final blog post with a profound sense of pride in being a member of the human enterprise. We have much to do in the next little while. Ryan and I will continue on our paths of self-improvement and personal development while simultaneously doing everything in our power to help shift our society to a mindful, ecologically-conscious global culture focused on individual and socio-cultural wellbeing, true happiness, and overall flourishing.

 

Peace and love,
Justin Cantafio