3 minute read
Plentiful Bounty at Innisfree Market Garden
Plentiful Bounty at Innisfree Market Garden
Michelle Pinon - News Advertiser
Glen Chmil has an exceptional aptitude for gardening. He has extensive knowledge and experience in horticulture and avidly shares that with customers who phone or visit him at his market garden in Innisfree.
“My motto is: My garden is your garden.” His market garden sits on the majority of his one acre property in the Village of Innisfree and is brimming with an impressive variety of fruits, vegetables and some flowers.
“I also sell my own seeds,” says Glen. He points out that all his seeds are acclimatized so they all thrive in this climate. Glen opened his market garden 10 years ago and now has customers from all across Canada. He has amassed over 600 Facebook followers since starting his own page five years ago, and credits that page for doubling sales.
This season he decided to become a vendor at the Friday Farmers’ Market at the Elks Hall and plans to set up a booth at the Pysanka Park Market on Thursdays. In a couple of weeks many of his vegetables will be ready and says a lot of people are on the waiting list for raspberries. While the majority of customers have Glen pick their orders, he said several customers like to go in the garden to pick their own raspberries with family members.
While the start of the season was slow because of the unseasonable weather, things are developing and maturing quickly now that summer temperatures have arrived in earnest. “This is the latest year I’ve ever planted tomatoes.” Normally he plants tomatoes May long weekend, but had to wait until June 8 because of the cool temperatures and strong winds.
He has Yellow Beefsteak Tomatoes and Giant Beefsteak Tomatoes. Glen said the yellow variety have low acid. The giant variety are the most popular and the largest one he ever grew came last year and weighed a whooping three pounds! Roma tomatoes are an excellent choice and are the choice of Mama K’s Homemade Salsa owner Koreen Fowler, who resides and operates her business near the Village of Innisfree.
Glen also grows yellow, red, orange and black cherry tomatoes that are enjoyed by many customers. Some of the other offerings include: carrots, zucchini, asparagus, spinach, kale, squash, beets, cucumbers, corn, parsnips, onions, green leaf and romaine lettuce, etc. Baby potatoes are also highly favoured. “Russet potatoes are the most popular variety.” Glen likes to try new things and this year he’s experimenting with pink fingerling potatoes.
His market garden is completely organic, and he wouldn’t have it any other way. Glen credits both his parents for having excellent green thumbs. He has acquired and developed many of those talents. “My passion is growing and eating food.”
As Alfred Austin once said, “The glory of gardening: hands in the dirt, head in the sun, heart with nature. To nurture a garden is to feed not just the body, but the soul.”
