Earth Haven Farm is a 200 acre family-owned and operated organic farm located in the hamlet of Thomasburg, just north of Belleville in the Municipality of Tweed, Ontario. We are fortunate to be surrounded on three sides with acres of woodlot, making this an ideal location for growing healthy, nutritional food, free of chemicals, pesticides and other toxins.
Earth Haven Farm has been Certified Demeter since 2008, following the guidelines for organic farming practices and biodynamic principles.
Farm Practices & Principles
Earth Haven Farm integrates the practices of biodynamic, organic and permaculture farming. We believe that we are working with the traditions and principles used in agriculture by our forefathers, in alignment with sustainable living. These methods are different from today’s conventional farming practices of cash cropping and feedlots or livestock for profit.
It is amazing how one can spend their entire life looking for something that can't be put in words, yet you know it exists somewhere, and that others believe, think and are seeking the same or similar things.
In our ever-evolving journey in self sufficiency, our purpose is to leave something of value behind for future generations. It is our hope and dream that not only our children and grandchildren will continue on where we leave off, but that we will have inspired others to enter into a deeper and healthier relationship with their own land.
Earth Haven Farm is a Demeter Certified Farm
This means that our agricultural practices are recognized internationally as a "step above organics". As a Demeter certified farm, we follow the international standards of biodynamic farming and gardening. Everything produced at Earth Haven Farm including our animals, plants, vegetables, fruits and berries are included in that certification. All are naturally raised with integrity and nurtured biodynamically which is rooted in the thought that all things are connected and therefore work in balance to create and sustain life. All seeds must be organic sourced. All inputs must be organically sourced and approved by Demeter Canada.
All 200 acres of Earth Haven Farm is considered for Demeter Certification as all factors of the farm interact and affect each other, whether it is cutting a tree down in the forest and using the wood chips from that tree on the gardens or in the compost.
To be a Demeter Certified farm; the farm must have animals as a source of manure which is considered to be the main source of nutrient content used in compost and the creation of soil which is put out onto pasture and gardens.
Our biodynamic practices entail the use of biodynamic preparations which are applied to the soil and plants during certain times of the year.
We are currently making and using our own 500 and 501 biodynamic preparations.
Biodynamic preparations are applied to the compost pile which is used to enliven the soil. 502 to 509 biodynamic preparations are currently obtained through the Biodynamic Society to which we are members.
Homeopathic treatments are used on plants, soil, trees and animals to prevent disease and to reduce symptoms of disease, injury or compromised immune systems.
Permaculture is utilized in the planning, location and selection of plants throughout the farm to ensure optimum production.
Earth Haven Farm has been members of the Ontario Woodlot Stewardship program since 2006 and adheres to the guidelines of this program in preserving our existing forested land and ensures that it remains healthy for future generations to enjoy.
"One principle man has to grasp, otherwise no development will be possible in our crucial time.
Seek the truly practical life, but seek it in a way that does not numb you towards the Spirit that is working in it.
Seek the Spirit, but do not seek it out of greed for the super-sensible from super-sensible egoism; but seek it, because you want to apply it unselfishly impractical life, in the material world.
Make use of the ancient principle: "Spirit is never without matter, matter never without spirit.” So that you say: We intend to handle all material matters in the light of the Spirit, and we shall seek the light of the Spirit in such a way that it will kindle in us a warmth for our practical deeds. Spirit that is led into matter by us; matter that is shaped by us until it reveals the Spirit it contains; matter that receives through us the Spirit revealed; the Spirit that is brought by us to and into matter.
All this will build that active and vivid substance, which can take humanity into real development; into that kind of progress that the people of today, in the deepest and most worthy longings of their souls, can only but yearn for."
— Rudolf Steiner, Lecture in Germany, September 24, 1919
For more information on biodynamics and what we do and how we do it here on the farm, visit our Q&A page.