Wellspring Gardens is an up-and-coming market garden and agri-tourism business. Our core marketing model is the CSA program, which we launched this past summer. The gardening operation is run by me, Sheila Selby. My husband, Joe Renaud, works off-farm and provides huge infrastructure support during after-hours. Our mission is to provide fresh, local produce using sustainable agricultural practices and to promote
farmland as a community resource through ecotourism and education. Our local community is very excited to have a market garden operating in its own backyard and the support has just kept growing! We are looking forward to an expanded CSA program in 2012 and to participating in the first ever Deep River Farmers’ Market this summer. We’ve also partnered with a local school to launch a school garden, so expect to spend some time having fun with junior gardeners!
Where are we?
Our farm is located on 150 acres of mixed forest and rocky outcrops in Laurentian Hills, Ontario. The “field” such as it were, is bottom land and offers a clay-loam soil for growing. It has lain fallow for decades and is slowly being taken over by brush. Every year we carve a little more garden space out of the wilderness after the trees have been cut down and the pigs have rooted up the dirt all summer. We’re currently up to about two acres of cultivated land with plans to expand to five with a fruit orchard added.
What to expect
Farm work brings rewards that no other profession can offer. It is also more demanding than the average occupation. Harvest days are long and you can expect to work rain or shine. Some tasks are physically taxing while other more mundane jobs (thinning carrots maybe) call on your inner resources! You will get up close and personal with insects and dirt. You will learn to greet the dawn before the birds are even up. You will probably go to bed earlier than you have since you were a toddler. You will eat three times more than normal amounts of food…and that being said, when your internship is up, you’ll wonder where the time went! I can guarantee that six months of communion with the land will change your life.
Of course you’ll have days off where you can wander the property, work on a personal project or catch a ride up to the family cottage to laze on the beaches of the Ottawa River.
What’s in the works?
This summer we are planning to build a cold storage in the sand hill behind the house and a newer, larger greenhouse along the back wall of the concrete garage. We’ll also be needing more chicken tractors and wash tables, so interns will have many opportunities to learn or practice their carpentry and masonry skills. You will also get hands-on experience raising poultry and pigs. The pigs, as mentioned, work diligently all summer preparing the following year’s garden expansion and the chickens and turkeys travel around the field in mobile pens (chicken tractors) eating and fertilizing as they go. There are also some very friendly laying hens who will be happy to provide you with fresh eggs during your stay!
Lodgings
Your accommodations will be a refurbished square-timber building equipped with electricity, water and modest kitchen facilities. You’ll have access to the main house for laundry and bathroom use or if you’re planning a meal that requires a full-sized kitchen. We maintain an outdoor hot tub through the summer and have wireless internet for those who want a connection to the outside world! You are also welcome to pitch a tent anywhere on the property if you crave solitude.
Meals
Many of our meals will be prepared and eaten together. Farm food and fellowship go hand in hand. Interns will be able to prepare small meals and snacks using the facilities in their lodgings. More ambitious meals will require the kitchen in the main house. Much of our food comes from the local food co-op and, of course, the gardens will provide for us as well during the growing season.
Our commitment to you
We’re very excited about our decision to live closer to the land and offer the local community a chance to get connected with their food source. There is a well-established movement afoot to choose local, traceable food over industrially produced, internationally distributed products and as a result, the small farm model is making a comeback. Our hope is to inspire a new, informed generation of millennium farmers. During your stay, you’ll be provided with daily instruction on all aspects of organic growing. You will also be expected to do some reading and reporting on various topics. Since this will only be our second year in full production, we’re still learning too!
To apply
To apply, please email your resumé and a brief covering letter to
sheilaselby@rogers.com, or send it by mail to Sheila Selby, 228 Leader Road,
Deep River, ON K0J 1P0. Please respond by March 1, 2012.
