We started with sixty trees and a lot of nerve.

Fruit farming runs in the family. Our people grew apples and pears in the Kashmir Valley, on ground that asked for patience — thin soil, hard winters, and a habit of doing things by hand because there was no other way. When we bought this land, that's the way we knew how to farm.

So we planted slowly. Honeycrisp, Gala, Ambrosia and Fuji in the apple blocks; Bartlett, Bosc and Dewdrop in the pears; a few rows of peaches that ripen early and keep us busy through August. Young trees don't hurry, and we've stopped trying to make them.

The animals came next, and not entirely on purpose. Mabel the donkey, three goats with no respect for fencing, a pair of horses, the mini horses, the sheep, and the alpacas who wander the rows like they're supervising. They earn their keep by making everyone who visits stay an hour longer than they meant to.

What we're growing toward

More than a place to pick fruit.

We want this to be a gathering place as much as a farm — seasons marked by harvest days and open evenings, a market where growers, makers and cooks share a table, a kitchen that turns what we pick into something worth lingering over, and children learning where food comes from with their hands in the soil.

Come see it for yourself

Open daily, 11am to 6pm, through October 31. 3977 Wellington 35, Puslinch.

Plan your visit