About the Farm

Devon Acres farm is nearly40 acres of mostly rolling hills along the high bank side of the Grand River just west of Brantford and a few miles south-east of Paris Ontario. We grow a large variety of vegetables; all of the common ones, as well as many that are unusual and not often readily available. We  also raise  cattle, most of which are the breed known as the shorthorn, and a small flock of Border Cheviot sheep,  so organic beef and lamb are usually available at the farm. We have a CSA (Community Shared Agriculture) programme available and we sell our vegetables at the Brantford Farmers Market on Saturdays from mid-spring until the end of October, and also, here at the farm, we sell our beef and lamb in addition to our vegetables.

A large portion of the hilly area of the farm is in pasture and an equal area has been left in a more natural state, some being swampy with a small creek running through it, and quite well treed,  and a strip of land running along the river bank  has been , for the past 50 years,  reverting to forest to complement the older riverbank forest.

More details are available from the pages Why Organic?, Our CSA Programme, Our Organic Meat, and What’s Available Now.

Here are a few photos of the farm to illustrate our farms diversity and because they are all nice pictures.

  This photo shows the vegetables, ready at the shelter on pickup day, displayed on tables so that our CSA members can pick and choose vegetables that are ready that week. Often some vegetables will be available as free choice, that is,  take as much as you think you can use. Most vegetables though,  have a  suggested  amount to  take.

   This photo is of our cows on a mild mid-February day browsing on their hay. Four cows, two heifer cows and three heifer calves.  The cows are three Shorthorn and one Canadienne. The animal on the left  is a two year old Dual Purpose Shorthorn heifer  and the cow to the right of her is Barb, a Milking Shorthorn, and she is  about 15 years old.

A few rows in the vegetable garden

This photo is of our garden taken in early summer. Tomatoes, onions and broccoli are seen in the three centre beds stretching some 320 feet to the west. The garden is generally arranged so that there are sometimes three or four rows of vegetables in each bed. There are, for example,  single rows of tomatoes, four rows of onions, and  two rows of broccoli per bed.

   This photo is of our potato pickin’ party in September of 2010. The horses driven by Aerron are pulling the potato digger in the left of the photo and are heading to the other end of the field. In the centre the hard working volunteers are picking up the potatoes deposited on the surface by the digger and putting them in bags, The filled white bags can be seen on the right. It took nearly a full day to finish the job, but it was a job well done.

This photo shows Aerron seated on a large round hay bale, one of four on the wagon that the horses have drawn from our neighbours fields about one and a half miles away. They are just coming to the end of the trip, 30 feet to go. Their destination, the barn is right at the photographers back, The horses are the mare, Marie, closest and the gelding Wimpy. The bales are off loaded and rolled into the barn with the muscle power of two people. That is tiring work!