Canadian Valley Farms CSA

November 13th will be here before you know it. And we are in full gear preparing for our auction. With almost 10 years of farming we have accumulated a LOT of farm stuff. Too much to take all the pictures of. Or even list everything that will be at the auction. There will be freezers, lots of home accessories and decor. We are moving & downsizing so lots of home items. As well as everything for your farm or homestead.

Stay tuned as we get closer to the deadline I will be posting pics and videos of all the things.

It’s bitter sweet seeing where we began. We started attending farmers markets in 2014. Andy began growing veggies at our home in town on our small five acres. It began just to provide for ourselves with a few chickens as well.

Every year the garden grew and grew. Until we realized we wanted to grow more and didn’t have the space to do so. So we purchased our 80 acre farm while we still ran our other business.

We added cows to our new farm. Each year our following grew and grew at the farmers market. It became clear that Andy wanted to do this full time. We sold our other business and built our home on our farm.

Andy & I well mainly Andy built our home 80% of it himself. Having a company pour the concrete & install the metal building. Only contracting out the dry wall & texturing, & Heating & Air With help from a friend for the plumbing. He wired the house himself, painted, built all the cabinets, stained the floors, designed the layout for our home.

Then it was onto the races to move all 10 of us. Then get our home ready to put on the market. All while still growing but we grew so much less that year.

As full time farmers we launched our first season of CSA (farm box) with 18 members that year. We were new to this and learned so much. How to improve our crop planning, that CSA isn’t for everyone, how to improve our boxes. We have continued to improve our CSA each & every year.

We added pigs, bees, and more layers. While also getting rid of our cows. We have added high tunnels to be able to extend the growing season for veggies. While also launching our one and only pumpkin patch while at the same time trying to finish building our pack house, and installing our walk-in cooler. While also dealing with a loss in our immediate family.

We also added a few locations that we sell our products as well the last two years. It’s been a whirlwind of a journey.

Going into our 7th year of farmers markets and 4 years farming full time we are realize how much we have overcome. Last year took a toll on us trying to produce for all the demand that COVID created. We realize now that we can’t keep that pace. And we scaled up to meet that demand, but now COVID is over and the demand has gone away.

My heart has always been CSA and Andy has always said just pick one are we a CSA farm, farmers market farm, or selling only to restaurants and retail stores? Well it’s confirmed we are a CSA farm.

More then anything I LOVE connecting with our members. Learning about their family life, and how their kids are doing. Our members feel like family. We still have a few that have been with us from the beginning. And I have watched them become grandparents, meeting their grandchildren and hearing all the stories. Watching other members kids grow up, and seeing their sports accomplishments. But most importantly connecting.

Learning from a few of them that have backyard gardens. They teach me something new all the time on how to cook & prepare amazing recipes. I get excited to see them at pickup and spend a few mins visiting with them. It never feels like enough time to catch up, but I cherish the moments I do get.

They have touched my life in ways that they don’t even know. I really enjoy getting texts from them sharing their newest creations with their farm boxes. Or asking how would you prepare this item? And then messaging me back saying oh my gosh I LOVE Kohlrabi.

This journey Andy Wooliver and I have been on has blessed us greatly. And I’m so thankful for all of it. Even the extremely hard challenging times as it has helped shape the direction we are in now. Our CSA members invest in us 9 months out of the year, and we realize now that’s really all we want and need.

Because of them and the way Andy and I started this farm we are able to scale back. Plan just for our CSA and just have very little extra veggies for market. So there won’t be lettuce mix every week anymore. To be honest it’s the one thing I hate the most. And the time it takes to get it ready for market is daunting. So we are taking back our joy and cutting out the few things we dislike.

Don’t worry pork will still be available that’s the one thing we both LOVE the most.

Thank you to all our customers who have followed us on this journey. We couldn’t of made it here without you.