Vicki’s Veggies is a small family-run farm located in the deep south of Prince Edward County, owned and operated by Vicki Emlaw and Tim Noxon. “Our farm is nestled near the shore of Lake Ontario at the mouth of the Black River in Black Creek.”
Vicki is a ninth generation farmer here in South Marysburgh. “Growing up and living on a dairy farm and helping my mother in our family’s garden patch was my my initiation into gardening as a career (much to my mother’s surprise). For many years I lived and travelled the world returning to PEC to work in the summers. While I was here, gardening seemed to take up most of my time and what started as a hobby slowly turned into a small business supplying the restaurants I worked at. Then I just stayed, things grew and here we are!”
Tim also of loyalist descent comes to the farm with a backgound in art, design and woodworking. Not typical farm skills but useful ones at that. “My family always had a vegetable garden. I can remember picking tomato worms when I was four and spent many lazy summers refining the art of catching chickens. Now I spend enormous amounts of time with equipment and infrastructure. Working hard to make life easier.”
“Each year we take on more land, build more infrastructure and produce more food. Last year in 2007 we had 80 CSA members, 3 full-time employees and a season spanning April to November. We also host two annual events each year promoting the use of heirloom varieties in agriculture, a seedling sale in May and Heirloom Tomato Tasting on Labour Day weekend.”
“Our priority is to produce food for people concerned with their health and the environment. We nurture the soil with methods that help plants capture the nutrients that they need to be healthy. We use compost, green manures, & bio-dynamic preparations along with a lot of hard work and love to help enrich our soil so it can be ever more fertile and alive with micro-organisms that help contribute to the over all well-being of the farm as a whole.”
“By sharing our farm with wildlife, the elements and our community we aim to create a self-sustaining eco-farm system with as few inputs as possible from off the farm. It is our privilege to help enhance the beauty & energy of this area.”
