Author: MLFPC

To celebrate Local Food Week 2023, we thought it would be great to highlight local food producers who participated in our Know Your Food event last fall. For a summary of the event, see our previous blog post!

Proof Line Farm is co-owned by Janan Dean, alongside her husband Steve McNaughten and brother-in-law, Mike McNaughten. In operation as far back as 1850, the family farm produces and sells dairy products, beef, eggs, honey, and more.

Although Janan did not grow up farming or raising animals, it is clear that she has embraced her role as Co-Owner and Head of Marketing at Proof Line Farm with passion.

With a background in social work, working in non-profit organizations, and provincial politics, Janan’s focus is also on fostering better connections between rural agriculture and the larger food system, understanding the colonial history of her farm and the land surrounding it, and food literacy. She is, after all, the current Chair of the MLFPC Executive Committee! 

Given Janan’s fervour for the food system, it was a surprise to hear that she and her husband really had no desire to take over the family farm–at first. But a year of travel, culminating in a live-work experience at a micro-dairy outside of Melbourne in Australia, inspired the couple to invest themselves and new ideas in Proof Line Farm.

They were inspired by the micro-dairying process and the ways that small batch production could respond to local needs in more sustainable ways. Janan, Mike, and Steve are now “guiding the vision for the next stage of the farm.”

Janan and her family balance an operation including 50 Holstein dairying cows, a small set of Angus-cross beef cows, 50 ISA red hens, sweet corn and field corn crops, and rotations of wheat and soybeans. This balance is made possible, in part, because of their recently installed robotic milking operation, where cows learn to milk themselves(!), and the family’s labour can be turned to other new initiatives. 

Sustainability is central to Proof Line Farm’s vision. This is already being realized in practices such as growing 85% of its own animal feed, moving to low-till methods of cultivation that promote better soil health, and in the symbiotic pairing of hens and cows on the farm. These animals must, in fact, be kept separate for bio-security reasons, but as they are rotated around the farm pastures, hens peck at the fertilizer the cows leave behind, eating the bugs that pester the cows. Future goals include investing in a bio-digester, which captures methane and converts it into usable energy, which could be recycled on-farm. Janan also spoke of wanting to fully close the loop of dairy production. This would include turning byproducts like whey (9 lbs of which are produced for every 1 lb of cheese) into new consumer products rather than using it in animal feed or, worse, throwing it away as is common industry practice.

As it grows and innovates, Proof Line Farm is becoming a notable example of community stewardship and local food advocacy. As its lead farmer, Mike is enthusiastic about the care and welfare of their animals and shares this enthusiasm with the community by offering tours to local youth groups, girl guides, and scouts. Farm tours have also been available on Saturdays, when Proof Line Farms opens its farm stand to sell their beef, corn, and other produce. Through the week, however, Proof Line Farm shows their faith in community with their self-serve “Honesty Wagon.” Here, customers can purchase fresh eggs with cash, E-transfer, or a QR code posted on the unattended cart. Eggs, says Janan, are the “hot item at the farm.” 

Finally, despite many challenges with permitting during the pandemic, Janan and her family have been planning the construction of an on-site creamery and permanent farm store, which would also provide a space for agricultural education programs. At Know Your Food last year, Janan expressed her hope that Proof Line Farm would see its new facilities built in Summer 2023 and, indeed, their website reports that their farm market building will open this August! 

Until the new farm store is operational, the online shop for Proof Line Farm is closed. However, you can celebrate Local Food Week by visiting their Honesty Wagon any day of the week for fresh eggs, jams, and honey! We look forward to seeing what the future holds for this innovative operation.

To celebrate Local Food Week 2023, we thought it would be great to highlight local food producers who participated in our Know Your Food event last fall. For a summary of the event, see our previous blog post! 

Panelist and Apple Farmer Phillip Crunican arrived at Know Your Food with over 100 years farming experience in his genes.

While apples are the main product of the Crunican farm now, it was once a full-farm operation, with field crops and livestock. In 1910, Phillip’s grandfather planted their first apple trees on five acres of land. Before introducing motorized machinery in the 1950s, crops were sprayed and produce was transported by horse-drawn carts.

Apples and other produce were sold out of the Crunican farmhouse and barn. A sign told customers to “Blow your horn” when they drove up to receive service from the house. The farm shop, built in 1950, is still operating today and is home not only to Crunican Orchards’ direct sale of apples, but also offers a variety of items from other local producers, such as Bacon Acres Farm, Filsinger’s Organic Foods, and Ferguson Apiaries, to name just a few.

Under the care of Phillip and his family, the orchard has grown to produce almost twenty varieties of apple. While his grandfather originally planted 20 trees to an acre, the Crunicans now plant 400 trees to an acre. This is still a low-density rate of planting compared to other orchards who may plant up to 2,000 trees per acre.

In his talk, Phillip observed that “the industry is certainly changing a lot since my grandpa first started planting trees.” Instead of closing the farm shop each summer, the use of new controlled atmosphere storage technology means that their apples can be sold to customers year-round. This means the shop continues to support fellow producers by carrying their products year-round, too.

Even with the expansion of the farm and use of new technologies, some things remain the same at Crunican Orchards. For instance, each apple is hand-picked and hand-graded by a local workforce before being packaged for sale.

At the opening of Know Your Food, speaker Ray John asked the audience to look at their hands, and to think about and appreciate the hands that grow our food. Phillip and his family could not be more hands-on in feeding their local customers and the wider community, both with apples and by sharing space with other food businesses. With that level of care, it’s no surprise that Crunican Orchards remained a trusted source of produce throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, which proved to be the busiest years for the farm store so far. 

This Local Food Week, head to Crunican Orchards for a honeycrisp apple, the farm’s most sought-after variety. Or how about a russet apple, a variety first propagated over 300 years ago and still popular today?

“Come & Crunch!” says the farm’s website and, we say, go and appreciate Crunican Orchards’ century-plus-long tradition of family farming and community stewardship!

Written by Siobhan Watters