UNCOVERING WELLINGTON COUNTY
CORWHIN HERBS AND PRODUCE WORDS & PHOTOS BY CHRIS TIESSEN
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PUSLINCH
A few years back, Barclay Nap, pondering the issue of sustainability, came up with a fantastic idea – namely, to plant vegetable and herb plots on the bits of land formerly thought ‘unusable’ on his family’s Moffat farm. The result: a successful Community Shared Agriculture (or CSA) venture and (sometimes) roadside stand, both of which feature fresh local herbs and produce.
While Barclay grows an abundance of vegetables on these plots – including rhubarb, beets, asparagus, tomatoes, and zucchinis – herbs are his specialty. Culinary herbs like arugula, mint, basil, lovage, and tarragon. And medicinal herbs like catnip, echinacea, yarrow, sorrel, and lavender. Ultimately, what Barclay’s CSA customers receive in their weekly pick-ups is whatever’s growing. Fresh. Local. Delicious.
‘Rich Ontario farmland, which is disappearing at an alarming pace, is too valuable to waste,’ observes Barclay, ‘and yet most farms have odd-shaped slivers of fertile land that go unused because today’s larger machinery can’t reach them.’ He continues: 'My mission has been to reclaim these bits one garden at a time.’ So far, Barclay’s cleared and made usable several awkward corners of the family farm – including a triangular plot, long narrow rectangular piece of land, and a stepped garden on the side of a steep hill.
Like so many other remarkable farms and food businesses that dot Guelph and Wellington County, Corwhin Herbs and Produce is a partner of Taste Real – a County of Wellington program that promotes local food and facilitates valuable connections among food businesses, consumers, craftspeople, and farmers alike. That includes farmers like Barclay Nap, whose enterprise brings fresh local food to our lives. Learn more at corwhinherbsandproduce.ca and tastereal.ca
