A full day tour of two seed saving farms with EFAO farmer-researchers? Sign us up!

Join Kristine Hammel of Persephone Market Garden and Rony Lec of Luna Mia Farm in Grey-Bruce to hear more about their seed and vegetable production and farmer-led research.

We will start the morning at Persephone Market Garden, run by Kristine Hammel and Thorsten Arnold. They have been farming on this land for 17 years. Kristine will lead a tour of the market garden, which includes a growing seed garden and an expanding native seed orchard. She’ll share some of her motivations, challenges and joys with growing seed on contract, alongside a fresh vegetable CSA. Kristine is also a long time no till practitioner who using switch grass straw mulch in her gardens.

Following the tour, participants can enjoy their packed picnic lunch with soup from Kristine before travelling to Luna Mia Farm.

In the afternoon, we will see Luna Mia Farm, run by Rony Lec and Myriam Legualt who have been farming and seed saving for 20 years. Rony and Myriam ran the Mesoamerican Permaculture Institute together in Guatemala for many years then moved to Canada and started a regenerative farm. Today, they continue to use regenerative practices based on traditional knowledge, save their open-pollinated seeds, and share about their lessons learned along the way. Participants will join Rony and Myriam for a farm tour with a focus on traditional grain and seed crops.

Agenda for the day:

Arrive to Persephone Market Garden: 9:45-10 (241063 Concession 3 Keppel, Allenford)

Tour Persephone Market Garden: 10-12

Bring you own picnic lunch: 12-1

Drive to Luna Mia: 1-1:30(135038 Concession Road 8 RR 1, Desboro)

Tour Luna Mia: 1:30-3:30

Departures: 3:30-4

This event is funded in part by the Governments of Canada and Ontario under the Sustainable Canadian Agricultural Partnership, a federal-provincial-territorial initiative.

Funding for the project has also been provided by Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada under the Agricultural Climate Solutions – Living Labs program and by the following partners: Beef Farmers of Ontario, Dairy Farmers of Ontario, Grain Farmers of Ontario, Ontario Federation of Agriculture, Ontario Pork and Ontario Sheep Farmers. The project is coordinated by the Ontario Soil and Crop Improvement Association.