Terraverde Farm

September 19, LEAF went to Terraverde Homestead. The owners of the farm Rob and Lorraine showed us their market garden and perennial fruit & nut tree farm. They have 10 acres of land in Northern Wellington County. Here it is windy and has a high elevation compared to most other parts of the country. They grow 40 different veggies, nut and fruit trees, along with raising chickens, geese, guinea fowl and kune kune pigs. They introduced us to natural windbreaks with their trees. They told us that the average forest would have around 20-30% organic matter and most farms would have 2-4% organic matter in the soil. Terraverde has about 6% organic matter. We learned that drip lines are used to keep plants irrigated and healthy during hot and dry summers. LEAF students can benefit from this visit by knowing you don’t need tons of land to grow a market garden business. My favorite thing about our trip was seeing the kune kune pigs. They were very cute and funny.Thank you Rob and Lorraine for letting our class visit your farm and taking you time even though you are very busy..