Our family decided to start a market garden in the spring of 2013. While we are still a new farm, and slowly expanding our gardens to meet the demands for fresh produce, we are coming together as a family and rolling with the adventures of farming! We learnt quite a bit about growing food from my grandparents, but we are learning. The new advancements in agriculture, botany, farming techniques, to
ols and equipment is staggering. The farm came to us "Frasers" with the passing of my grandparents Hillas and Bertha Powell in 2008. Hillas and Bertha bought the farm in the spring of 1940, a year after they married. They farmed the land until 1996 when they were both well into their 80's, and driving the grain trucks or combines was a lot to ask of them. The agriculture land continues to be farmed by our family Geoff and Deanne Aikens. These two run an amazing operation that covers a vast amount of land from south of Avonlea to our plots around Rouleau. They dabble in all areas of farming, from agriculture to livestock. However, the gardens were not tended to for many years, and it has been quite the restoration process to bring the land back to life. We work continuously to bring it back to its former beauty. The Powell's raised three children on their farm: Bill, Stan, and my mother Beverly. The farm has a special place for all of these siblings, their children, and grandchildren. It is hard to believe that we will now have five generations of family with ties to this single piece of land. It is no surprise that my mother Beverly decided to go back to her roots. Beverly continues to love the place where she grew up. My father Dave is working hard to achieve this goal while she works the last few years in the city before her retirement, and tirelessly in her spare time. You may just see Dave zipping around the gardens cultivating, cutting grass, or hauling veggies. The farm has become a family project. The land has a very special place for our family. I can remember being a young boy swinging in the chair with my Grandmother, smelling the sweet peas, listening to the song birds, and eating fresh berries. The day the old farm house had to be demolished was a sad day for our family, and many of the original structures had to be demolished, but we look to the future and the possibilities the farm gives us. We have three large gardens nearly the size of football fields. It sometimes feels like they are larger when its hot, dry, and time to weed!!! We grow a large variety of vegetables, herbs, and berries. We don't use any chemicals on 99% of our produce, but those cabbage moths love our gardens! We water our gardens with two dugouts, and occasionally city water in droughts. We use heritage seeds when possible, but unfortunately some produce like corn is entirely a GMO product, its simply not maze but its unpopular cousin. We are dedicated to using the absolute least amount of chemicals as we see the changes in global warming, dwindling insect populations (bees), and new infectious
diseases destroying amphibian populations world wide. The only downside with this style of farming is that produce wont last as long, and storing the bounty properly becomes extremely important for us, and our customers. We do our best to not leave a large environmental footprint. We fight insects by building "Purple Martin" a.k.a "Barn Swallow" houses, we put up bat houses/roosts, and we employ feeder fish to eat larvae in the dugout. We have very large compost pile, and we do our best with what we have and can manage. We have a weekly market in Rouleau/Dog River every Saturday morning from 10:00 - 12:00. We also have baking, provide balloon animals for the kids, offer many homemade preserves, and refreshments. I currently take orders back to Saskatoon for family and friends, but as our business grows this will become public. We will have weekly availability for produce as well as pricing posted. We will update this weekly as we can only ever sell what is ready. With only a single year of operation behind our belt we already have regular customers. It has been great reconnecting with the citizens in Rouleau, and we look forward to creating new bonds with community.
