Our Farms
Our farms are the foundation of our company as we believe that the quality of the food products that we manufacture is directly related to how these foods were originally grown and produced. We felt that if we were to produce the best food possible, we'd have to control the quality and production process from the seed to the finished product. That's why we have invested in our own agricultural land and our own production facility.
In order to generate nutrient dense foods, we must start with nutrient rich, fertile soils. We've developed a comprehensive fertility program to ensure that we are feeding the soil in the most sustainable, effective manner so that the soil in turn can feed the plant, which ultimately feeds you!
Much of our land is certified organic through QMI Organic Inc., with the balance in transition from conventional to organic. We do not just practice “process farming” however, but rather “outcome farming” which we have termed Nutritional Farming.
Organic regulations speak more to process, namely what you can and cannot do, and often, if you do nothing you can be considered organic. But what if all food we picked and ate was selected by a disclosure of its nutrient density? Then farming would need to focus on outcome. Creating nutritionally-dense plants – the outcome of Nutritional Farming – is where our focus lies.
We believe in managing the soil for three critical characteristics. Chemical – that is the presence and absence of minerals and nutrients, Physical – the actual structure of the soil, and Biological – the soil is a dynamic factory of bacteria, fungi etc. that do most of the hard work. To balance for these things, we rely on methods such as green crop plow down, natural amendments like seaweed and fish fertilizer and the use of compost that is produced from our extensive compost operation.
Farming is a dynamic process requiring constant adaptation. We test, monitor, record and analyze our outcomes every day and we are constantly learning what nature is teaching us. To continue expanding our knowledge of “balance”, we are experimenting on an on-going basis with issues such as seed variety testing in field plots, intercropping, and companion cropping to name a few. We rely on the connectedness of things to give us desired results. For example, to increase our nitrogen in the soil, we seed plants that naturally fix nitrogen into the soil. Plants like alfalfa and clover and peas are seeded with our target crops of spinach and barley. Through this relationship between crop and the various aspects of soil health, we focus on the nutrition of food.
Being able to work the land allows us to be more connected to the earth. Our respect for the land and waterways results in a sustainable approach to managing soil. Over the last few years as our business has grown, we've continued to expand our farming operations. We now farm over 2000 acres, much of which lies along the Pembina River in Central Alberta.