The Rural Voice, 2004-03, Page 22the vegetable production goes mostly
to local Stratford and London
restaurants and to Danfield's Organic
Market in the Covent Garden Market
in London.
"Dan (of Danfield's) has built up
a loyal following in London for our
produce. We're sort of developing
this great relationship with people
who are at the top of their craft in
artisanal products like cheese making
and bread and our salad and Dan is
offering products you can't get in a
big box super store.
John points to the wine industry
as his example of how to change
the market by going after quality.
The wine industry was supposedly
sacrificed in the Canada-U.S. trade
agreement because it was felt
Canadian vineyards and wineries
couldn't compete with lower-priced
U.S. product. But leaders in the wine
industry decided to focus on top
quality wines and revolutionized the
industry. He sees opportunities for
other farmers as well.
"The longer we're in the business
the more we discover that there's so
much we can grow up here but it's
almost a lack of imagination on the
part of the growers to try something
different. There really isn't that much
(they grow) in northern California at
least, that we can't grow here.
"Some growers in Simcoe, for
instance, are now growing peppers
and using their tobacco kilns to dry
peppers."
John spoke with an tobacco
grower and asked if he had ever
thought of growing the small french
onion called shallots and the man had
never heard to it. "Well let me put it
this way," John told him. "I get 50
cents a pound for onions. I get $2.50
a pound for shallots. You grow them
the same way."
The grower admitted that if
growers in his area ever really started
looking at alternatives they could
beat up on California competitors.
"And they should," John says.
"(Tobacco growers) have so much
technology and know-how of how to
keep a clean field. They are in the
vanguard of mechanical cultivation."
That's one of the things that organic
growers can learn from conventional
farmers, he says.
Soiled Reputation is a certified
organic operation and Antony and
18 THE RURAL VOICE
Tina are strong opponents of
chemicals.
"1 have a degree in wildlife
biology so an eco -system approach
has always come naturally for me,"
John says. Even before starting a
commercial operation the couple had
grown their own vegetables
organically for Flavour reasons even
more than for health reasons.
Supporters of conventional
agriculture argue there is no greater
nutritional value in organic
vegetables than conventional
vegetables but that's not the the
issue, he says. "The issue has always
been there's much less to harm you
in organic food than conventional.
Having said that it's possible to find
poorly grown examples in both
systems.
"But for me it's always been
about flavour. We have kids who
have no political stripe one way or
another who say that the carrots we
grow taste better than the carrots they
have in the supermarket. To me that's
an unbiased opinion."
Still, he is understanding of
conventional farmers who he feels
aren't so much proponents of
chemical use but are forced into their
use by the the North American cheap
food policy.
"I'm sure if it were more
profitable to grow large grains and
cereals organically they would do it
if they could do it easily.
"Organic farming encourages you
to look at more than a cause -and -
effect relationship between between
problems in your field. Aphids in
your soybeans may be a symptom of
another environmental problem other
than just aphids eating soybeans.
Certainly in my greenhouses, when I
see aphids in my lettuce, it's a sign
that the lettuce is under water stress
or nitrogen stress — that the plants
aren't incorporating the free nitrogen
in their tissues into plant tissue and
the aphids are locating that by smell
and feeding on it, They are actually a
secondary stress on that lettuce plant.
So I either water the plants or
increase the light level or add
nitrogen compost to the soil to get
them growing."
It would be interesting to see
someone conduct a test plot for
soybeans and irrigate plants to see if
there were as many aphids in the
irrigated plot, he says.
John's television stint came about
from a dinner party conversation with
a woman seated next to him who
worked in television. "She said she
was looking for ideas and I made an
off-the-cuff remark about why don't
you do a show on this organic grower
who keeps a journal and describes
the seasons on his farm an then cooks
with the produce he grows on the
farm.
"Three weeks later a producer
phoned me and said 'Are you serious
about this'. Then it took about a year
for this producer to start opening
doors in Toronto for us to do a demo
tape for The Food Network and for
them to get underway."
The result was the 13 -episode
series The Manic Organic which was
a revelation for the farmer -turned -TV
star. Every 22 -minute episode took
about three days to tape. "We were
averaging about 14 hours of shot
video tape for 22 minutes. 1 felt like I
was doing a horrible job but I'm, told
that's apparently the norm."
If the run on House and Garden
Network goes well, there will
likely be a second season.
Already The Food Network has
agreed it will sign on for another
season of co -production. Between
30,000 and 80,000 people watched
each episode of the first season on
The Food Network.
"I love it." John says of the work.
"I think in a lot of ways I'm a born
show-off. It was great fun. In fact I
think some of the funniest hits got
left in the editing -room.
"Farmers are by their nature a
very independent group of people
and this was a new experience for me
to have to work with a team of
people who had to answer to a higher
mandate. There were days when it
came down to 'just indulge the
primadona farmer and let him do
what he wants and we can cut it out
later'," he jokes. "They wanted it to
be very, very food based and 1 was
more anxious to turn it into a kind of
entertainment, comedy -drama kind of
thing. Certainly as the episodes
progressed The Food Network was
letting me get away with more and
more."
John and director Craig
Thompson have tried to use the
program to introduce viewers to other