A Throwback to the Basics
Nowadays, if you’re looking for a taste of the classic farm life of a century and more ago, you’ll be searching for a long time. The simple rural life is long gone and many farms feel nearly as industrial as a canning factory.
Not everywhere, though. On Amherst Island, 10 kilometres west of Kingston and three kilometres from the shore of Lake Ontario, there’s a farm that, in many ways, harkens back to the practices of a century ago.
Topsy Farms had its genesis back in the early 1970s when a small group of young people bought land at the western end of the island and set up a commune. The way of life would be back-to- basics, everyone would have their farm duties, and the natural rhythms of life and death and harvest would infuse themselves into each participant’s life.
Like most communes, the ethos was initially full of idealism — but all too typically, the demands of ordinary life intervened and the dream, for most of those involved, soon sputtered and stopped.
Not for everyone, though. A handful of the original group arranged to buy the land from those who were departing. And nearly 45 years later, Topsy Farms is still going strong.
The farm originally raised cattle and sheep, but some years back, the owners decided economic concerns favoured dropping the cattle and creating a haven for sheep. They now have about 600 breeding animals.
Today, Topsy Farms sells lamb meat throughout the Toronto area, as well as in Kingston and points east, including Ottawa.
More than that, the farm also offers top-grade woollen products that are sold right on the farm in what’s come to be known as The Wool Shed. This is not wool as you probably imagine it. The farm’s wool is shipped to a mill in Prince Edward Island, where it is treated with a gentleness that no usual industrial process can mimic. The wool is washed in soap and never comes in contact with the sulfuric acid used in commercial processes, leaving the natural fibre- softening lanolin intact. The wool is never aggressively combed or pounded, so the wool fibres never break. The result is a soft and gentle product that never itches.
The Wool Shed offers a unique assortment of pure wool blankets, throws, yarn and sheepskin products. One might wonder where the blankets and other products are made, and even the precise location of the woollen mill, but Topsy Farms’ staff prefer to hold that information closely.
There’s more than meat and woollen products on offer. Topsy Farms welcomes visitors who want to experience farm life. Families come with children, who have a chance to gently pet lambs and learn that the meat we consume comes from creatures that once breathed and bleated and bled.
Perhaps the most stalwart of the original founding group were Ian Murray and Sally Bowen, a husband and wife team who kept the operation going right up until last year when they turned over ownership to three of their children and a couple of their progeny’s friends. But the philosophy remains the same. They treat he land gently, with no pesticides and no ploughing. The lambs and sheep are allowed to graze freely and treated with the respect accorded pets.
For many years, Sally has posted a lot of notes about life on the farm on its website. Getting into farming, she writes, was “a slippery slope.” The heifers that they initially kept needed hay, “so we bought some machinery, did some fencing, put lots of hay into the barn and got more cattle to eat the hay.” They bought goats to have milk for their children, dug vast gardens and built a root cellar.
The farm was not an easy go financially and they often found themselves doing paid labour on the mainland, making candles and working on other Amherst Island farms.
Love of the simple life typifies the attitude of most of the island’s 450 residents. For a time, young people were moving away, but a number are coming back, seeking the easy rhythms of rural life and a place where the school is small, there’s little traffic and all the family names are familiar.
Many islanders enjoy this separate space — as much psychological as geographic — while working weekdays on the mainland, a short 15-minute ferry ride away on the Frontenac II car ferry, which runs from 6 a.m. to 2 a.m., every day of the year, including holidays.
The new team that is now managing the farm — Ian and Sally’s children, Jacob, Kyle, and Leah, as well as their friends Will Adam and Kayleigh Graham — have their eyes set on maintaining the farm’s life-enhancing traditions.
“This is our first year without training wheels,” Jacob says. “But we’re getting the hang of it, and we’re guided by the principles of connection to the land, respect for the animals and an openness to the public that comes to learn about what we’re doing.”
There’s no price of admission. “We invite people to come as tourists, to a place that for most will be a really different destination. And we hope to give them value through education and entertainment.”
For a fee, families can arrange to spend a couple of nights in a yurt, the traditional skin-covered round tents used as a dwelling by some Central Asian nomads. (The cost is $125 per night plus taxes, with a two-night minimum.) The farm is planning to expand its future accommodations, probably by building a few tiny houses — small units that typically have a footprint of 400 square feet or so.
Perhaps the biggest attraction for visiting families is the shearing of the sheep that takes place in the spring.
Children love to see the shearing, but the raising and shearing of lambs and sheep has become highly controversial. The organization People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) has made a crusade of discouraging public approval of the practice. In videos and on its website, PETA insists that “[b]ecause there is a market for sheep fleece and skins, they are treated as nothing more than wool-producing machines.” Their videos show animals being injured by shearers and entirely treated without respect or regard for their status as sentient beings.
Jacob doesn’t deny that members of PETA are generally idealistic and do a lot of good things.
“PETA serves a real purpose,” he says. “It brings sunlight, the best disinfectant, to many important issues. They have some incredibly committed and valiant people who just want to make the world a better place.”
But he takes exception to some of the videos he’s seen. For example, one video claimed to show a sheep bleeding extensively after being shorn. “But any sheep farmer would know that we’re not seeing blood — but just marking paint that indicates what should be done with the sheep after shearing. And if anyone wants to come and observe, I guarantee we have no locked doors.”
What’s more, he adds, sheep need shearing to better handle the summer heat. “It’s a matter of life and death. If we don’t take the fleece off them, they will die of heatstroke."
On Topsy Farms’ shearing days, he says, anyone can see that the shearing is done gently and with respect for the animal’s emotions.
“We bring in professionals, the likes of Don Metheral,” he says. Metheral has represented Canada in international shearing competitions in such countries as New Zealand, Ireland and Norway, and can shear a sheep in fewer than 90 seconds.
"That speed is important because a quick shearing puts far less stress on the animal,” Jacob says. His impression is that the process is not much more traumatic than a haircut. “But shearers are also graded for avoiding any nicks to the animals and for finding the sweet spot between being too rough and too gentle.” He believes that sheep want to be held firmly during shearing. “In the arms of a good shearer, the sheep seem to understand they’re in a safe place.
“Anyone who comes and watches will understand what I’m saying.”
All that said, Jacob doesn’t deny that some shearers somewheremay be unkind and even abusive. “But that’s not what you’ll see at Topsy Farms.”
Farm staff and visitors don’t do any of the shearing. “We hold to Malcolm Gladwell’s theory that it takes 10,000 hours to master anything,” Jacob says. “The shearing we leave to the pros. We respect our animals too much to hack at them as amateurs.”
With a nod to the principles of regenerative agriculture, Topsy Farm staff move the animals from pasture to pasture just when the grass has been eaten to the optimal degree, leaving robust grass plants behind. The animals themselves produce all fertilizer. Staff never till the soil. “That top layer is sacrosanct. We never disturb it,” Jacob says. “It’s all about sustainability.”
Topsy Farms is the first Canadian farm operation to receive certification from Green Tourism Canada, which has recently changed its name to Sustainable Tourism. Among other items, the certification recognized the farm’s commitment to sustainability, its care in disposing of toxic substances, and its responsible pattern of energy and water use. The farm was praised for its support of minorities and local schools, its community involvement, including 30 years of work on The Beacon , the Amherst Island newspaper, and its commitment to permaculture, including careful stewardship of its water and land. (An example: The farm improves soil quality not through the use of fertilizers but through “sheet composting,” spreading hay and manure on the fields to feed the soil’s earthworms and microorganisms.)
The new operators’ first year is working out well, Jacob says. To be sure, there have been challenges, including some unhelpful weather and the odd work injury.
“But we have our big-boy pants on and we’re enjoying it all,” Jacob says. “If we can make things work financially and keep giving families the chance to connect to the land and themselves, we’ll be very happy.
“If we won lotteries tomorrow, I think this is still what we’d be doing.”
Topsy Farms
14775 Front Rd., Stella (Amherst Island), Ont.
topsyfarms.com | 613.389.3444 | @topsyfarms
