Our Philosophy - What We Are Growing and Why


By John Murphy, Proprietor, Orchard Coast Farms

Today in Canada, most of us enjoy affordable access to a wide variety of fruits and vegetables all year round.  But year-round access means that much of what we eat is grown thousands of miles away in warmer latitudes.  This affects the varieties of fruits and vegetables that are grown for mass distribution.  It means that large-scale growers often select varieties that are suited to warm climates, can be picked when unripe, shipped long distances without suffering damage, artificially ripened, all before being sold and consumed.  In other words, a lot of food is grown because it "ships well", and not necessarily because it tastes great.

Nature has provided us with an unbelievable number of unique and great tasting varieties of fruits and vegetables, which most people never get to experience, for this simple reason that most of the varieties sold by large grocery retailers are chosen largely because they "ship well".  For example, how many of us know that there are over 30,000 varieties of apples?  How many of these have you tried?  How many know that on the internet you can purchase more than 500 different varieties of heirloom tomato seeds producing tomatoes ranging from as small as a grape to as large as a small pumpkin, in colours of red, pink, purple, orange, yellow, black, lime green, peach, multi-coloured, and even white?  Why don't we see these in stores?  They're hard to grow, and they don't ship well - but man, do they taste great!  The same goes for just about every kind of fruit and vegetable - there are literally tens of thousands of unique, interesting, and delicious tasting varieties that unfortunately, most of us will never experience.

At Orchard Coast Farms, we have a philosophy that shapes what we grow, why we grow it, how we grow and how we sell.

What We Grow

For the 2004 season, we are growing nearly 300 varieties of fruits, vegetables, herbs and flowers:

• 25 varieties of apples
• 50 varieties of tomatoes (40 which are heirlooms)
• 12 varieties of beans
• 4 varieties of beets (including one that looks like a carrot)
• 3 carrot varieties (including a yellow carrot, and one that looks like a beet)
• 11 varieties of cabbage (in purple, red, green, etc.)
• 4 eggplant varieties (all miniature, one pink, one white)
• 15 varieties of salad and cooking greens
• 35 varieties of herbs (including 15 different kinds of basil)
• 19 varieties of melons
• 23 varieties of annual flowers
• 4 varieties bunching onions (including super long white ones, and green onions that are red on the lower stock where they're usually white)
• 24 varieties of sweet and hot peppers (all sizes, colours, shapes, heats)
• about 40 varieties of summer squash, winter squash, pumpkins and gourds (just about every colour and shape, ranging in size from a few ounces to over 500 pounds)
• 8 varieties of strawberries
• 4 varieties of raspberries

Why We Grow So Many Varieties

Our philosophy determines what we grow. We believe the following:

• taste must always be the most important consideration when deciding which varieties of fruits and vegetables we will grow - we grow many varieties in a quest to find what tastes best
• consumers today want to see, feel, taste and experience the many unusual, unique and heirloom fruits and vegetables that nature has given
• chefs and restauranteurs are interested in finding ways of keeping their menus fresh and new
• it is important and good to grow a large number of varieties, in order to promote and maintain natural plant diversity
• plant diversity is good for the environment, because it reduces plant disease and insect problems caused by monocultural growing practices, and should, therefore, reduce usage of agricultural chemicals

How We Grow

We carry out a variety of practices to ensure that the food we grow is safe and healthful, and that we preserve the quality of our environment, and protect the safety of our employees and the public.

• We practice integrated pest management in order to minimize the need for use of pesticides
• We perform regular pruning and thinning to promote healthy plants
• We practice crop rotation, and "green manuring" to maintain healthy soils, which in turn produce healthy plants, and in turn high quality and healthful fruits and vegetables ("green manuring" is the practice of planting a cover crop that adds nitrogen and fibre to the soil)
• We have established and implemented a workplace safety and health program to ensure protection of our employees
• We are implementing a farm environmental protection program, to ensure the environmental sustainability of our operations
• We do not artificially ripen our produce
• We hand pick everything
• Prior to selling, we thoroughly and carefully wash every type of crop that we can (some crops, like strawberries and raspberries, cannot be washed by us without causing damage and spoilage, and must be washed by the customer immediately before use)

How We Sell

We are working towards the goal of selling most or all of what we grow directly to customers at our farm and orchard sites.  We sell what we grow both in the form of fresh produce, and in the form of value-added products such as jams, syrups, sauces, preserves and baked goods.  This approach allows us to select crop varieties for their taste (as opposed to ship- and store-ability); also allows us to operate in the manner of a traditional, labour intensive, family-owned farm, while realizing earnings sufficient to provide for the continued development and inprovement of the site, for the benefit of our customers, employees and owners.