The All Sorts Acre Chickens
Beginnings
Jennifer
Ever since Jennifer was a small child she had wanted to farm. Growing up with the mystique of James Herriot along with her father’s stories of the family farm in England had made her long for the mixed farm of her childhood stories. Alas whenever she begged for her parents to move to the country they refused.
Like many little girls she was in love with horses. Having been placed on a horse around the age of 4 and then starting camps at five, started regular lessons at age six. It wasn’t just the horses though. It was the barn, the land, the fields, and the feeling of peace when being around that atmosphere. At age twelve she got a horse. By sixteen she no longer had a horse and had moved away from farming, the outdoors, and most of what she held dear during childhood.
She focused on pursuing art, specifically animals and nature. Jennifer attended several art schools including Sheridan College’s Scientific Illustration program and Central Technical school. Art brought her to graphic and web design where she has been since.
Jennifer found herself in school again, this time for animal care, or animal nurse assistant. She had to do a work placement to graduate. There were many choices from zoo’s to dog groomers. She chose a vet and farm. It was on the few days at Whole Circle Farm in Acton that she realized that she still loved farming.
This type of farming was not fixated on only horses. This is mainly due to the fact that Whole Circle Farm had no horses and is a mixed Biodynamic farm. The amount that a good farmer has to know about the surrounding world and how it interacts fascinated her.
Tim
After working in food service after high school for a number of years Tim needed a break. He saved up some money and took a trip to Thailand for a winter with a friend. While walking along a beach in thailand he saw a local burning some plastic bottles. He found out there was no other way to dispose of them. This was the moment he decieded he wanted to change his life.
Upon return to Canada he enrolled in school for Environmental Science at Centennial College. He became fascinated with composting and was amazed how simple, yet complex the whole process was. Composting could save the world.
Tim worked in large scale composting for a while but when the company changed hands he was downsized.Tim then found himself utilizing his computer skills and entered into manufacturing doing design work. Tim didn’t lose sight of his composting ideals and kept up with what is going on in the composting world.
The Rest
Tim told his boss he was leaving and they continued to learn as much as they could about mixed farming with nature. On-line real estate listings were e-mailed back and forth between us. They talked to others, went to classes, and found out about soil, breeds, crop rotations, and anything else that people would tell them.
Cheap land was scrutinized all over the country. Did it have enough water? What were the laws like? What was the soil like? Winds? Fires? Cities? Markets? Jobs? the questions went on and on. We looked all across Canada. They then drove out to Eastern Canada, it had some of the cheapest land in the country.
After driving around the east, they settled on New Brunswick. It was everything they wanted and beautiful to boot. Tim and Jennifer went out three times looking for land and tried to buy three places. None of them were finalized. There was always something really wrong with each place.
One had a poisoned well. The other the vendors were off fishing, and the third had zoning problems. Other houses they liked were mysteriously gone when ready to see them.
So, the universe decided that hey were to stay Ontario. So that summer Jennifer took a permaculture course. She had an epiphany that this was the way the world should be living. Jennifer finished up her certificate in the summer of 2008 with Gregoire Lamoureux in Orangeville, Ontario. Permaculture was more of a fluke than planned. On the search for information Jennifer saw some interesting books in the Goodwill shop in Guelph. One was Toby Heminway’s Gaia’s Garden and the other was the Permaculture Principles by Bill Mollison. Each book was two dollars. Neither Tim or Jennifer had any idea that those books would change the course of their lives.
All Sorts Acre
Our booth at the Guelph Organic Conference
All Sorts Acre is where Tim and Jennifer now live with, eight cats, a dog, sheep, chickens, fish, and many outdoor critters in the garden. My name is Jennifer Osborn and I am a Permaculture Designer. I
All Sorts Acre is 5km outside of Guelph, Ontario. on 1.18 acres.
The first year nothing was done except observation and a few square foot gardens. Much can be learnbed from just watching and waiting to see what happens. A sub-urban micro farm and learning centre seems to be appearing at All Sorts Acre.
VISION
There is a plan to the farm albeit a loose one:
- produce stand
- bee hive
- small livestock including chickens, sheep, ducks, possilby goats and rabbits
- forest gardens (currently have several producing fruit trees)
- berries and nuts (currently have producing berry trees and neighbour have nut trees)
- pasture rotation program
- art produced from and inspired by farm in some manner
- teaching and education
- composting
- grain crops
- dyeing gardens
- lost life skills
Which ones will come to the forefront remain to be seen.
