At Fair Sun Farm, a 70-acre organic farm in Spencerville, Marnie Chown and Patrick van der Burg have come full circle, returning home to grow.
At a time when it’s commonplace to find lifeless cilantro and browning, plastic-wrapped lettuce in big-box grocery stores, the produce from Fair Sun Farm stands apart.
“Freshness is key to the quality,” emphasizes Marnie Chown, who co-owns Fair Sun Farm with her husband, Patrick van der Burg. “It’s healthier food –– the fresher it is. It’s healthier than stuff that’s been sitting on the shelf for three days in a grocery store, maybe not at a temperature that it likes to be kept at.”
Timing is everything, as Chown explains. Customers of the farm –– located in Spencerville, about an hour south of downtown Ottawa –– typically enjoy their produce within 48 hours of it being pulled from the soil.
“Since we’re a small farm, we get to control how it’s grown, how it’s harvested, how it’s washed and processed and when you get it,” says Chown, adding that everything grown on Fair Sun Farm’s 70-acres is certified organic.
The result is robust vegetables plucked at their prime — juicy, sun-kissed tomatoes, herbs bursting with flavour and bunches of thick, green onions the length of your entire arm.
“We really want people to have a good experience, because I’m working hard to grow these beautiful veggies,” Chown says.
Community-supported agriculture
Fair Sun Farm operates using a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) model, A share entitles the customer to customizable orders of mixed seasonal vegetables –– lettuce, cucumbers, peppers and more –– while investing in a local farm.
“A person who joins a CSA is kind of a unique individual,” Chown says. “It’s [people] who want to know where their food is coming from and values that in their life.”
While some CSA farms require shareholders to participate in the process of growing and harvesting the crops, Fair Sun Farm does not. “CSA connects people to their food, and everyone wants a different type of connection,” Chown says. “So your CSA experience can be unique –– based on [the farm you’re working with].”
Vegetable shares at Fair Sun Farm are available in three sizes: A small share is $25 for four to six items, a medium is $35 for six to nine items and a large is $45 for nine to 12 items. Shares are offered for 20 weeks between June and October, and customers can choose between weekly or bi-weekly orders.
When they sign up for a share, customers can designate one of 10 pickup locations around the city. Chown sees the Ottawa-area deliveries as an environmental benefit of the farm’s offerings.
“An astronomical amount of fossil fuels are being used to ship food all over the world,” she says. “Another main benefit [to buying local] is that you’re reducing your overall footprint of existing on the planet. You’re using energy more efficiently when supporting local farmers –– and you’re supporting a local family so your dollar is staying in the community; I think it’s [win]-win for everyone.”
Regenerative farming
In addition to being a certified organic operation, Fair Sun Farm uses regenerative farming practices to restore and improve soil health while producing food.
“We do lots of rotational growing and cover cropping,” explains Chown, citing the farm’s garlic as an example. “We’ll interplant a cover crop with the garlic –– like rye, alfalfa or buckwheat –– and then you could either mow it, tarp it or till it in so it would break down and feed the soil.”
She adds that tillage radish is another option; the tap root grows deep into the soil to help with aeration and water absorption.
“You’re basically fertilizing in place by growing plants that are working for you, feeding the soil and nourishing the biology in the soil, rather than farming in an extractive way –– harvesting a crop and leaving no roots for the microbiology to survive on,” Chown says. “You can have a big impact in a short period of time with different farming strategies.”
Coming full circle
Chown and van der Burg are a local couple –– high-school sweethearts who grew up in Dunrobin –– who have lived many chapters together. While attending university in Halifax, the pair spent their summers tree planting in northern Ontario, Alberta and B.C. Then, during a six-month stay in Australia, they caught the farming bug.
“We learned about permaculture and homesteading and farm-y type stuff,” Chown recalls. “Then we knew we wanted to buy land to have a farm.”
In 2009, they purchased a farm in Winfield, Alta., southwest of Edmonton. At that time, Fair Sun Farm focused on pasture- raised meats and sheep farming.
“We did chicken, turkey, duck and pork; we had 300 layer hens for eggs and we had a large sheep flock,” Chown says. “We had lambs for commercial meat production, and purebred ewes and rams for sale to other sheep producers.”
While van der Burg took the lead on setting up their Alberta farming operation, Chown worked off the farm in a range of hands-on positions. Over the years, she worked with a land-scaping company, building patios and ponds in summer and helping with construction projects in the winter. Working on two Alberta ranches, she helped manage the livestock –– 2,500 feeder cattle at one ranch and hundreds of elk, steers, cows and horses on the other. She helped with vaccinations and treated animals showing signs of illness, which led to an opportunity to work in a vet clinic.
While the two enjoyed being able to eat their own meat that they had raised on whole grains and grass and without anti- biotics, Chown says the responsibilities of caring for animals was an all-encompassing experience.
“We just got tired of it, because you cannot leave,” she explains. “With plants, it’s more seasonal and you have a break in the winter in a different way than you do with livestock; you always have to feed those animals and make sure they have water.”
With its focus on livestock, Fair Sun Farm was also susceptible to the fluctuating prices of grain. Chown and van der Burg decided to incorporate more vegetable farming; they built a greenhouse and added some flowers.
“We ended up going to more farmers’ markets and doing direct-to-consumer sales for the last couple of years [in Alberta],” Chown explains.
As they prepared to welcome their first child in the fall of 2017, Chown and van der Burg decided to move back to Ontario to be closer to family supports. Damien was born two weeks before the family moved to its current property –– a certified organic market farm.
“We were already up and running,” Chown says. “There were things that we had to upgrade and fix, but we could just carry on business –– it wasn’t like we had to build everything from scratch.”
While the couple moved about 30 sheep from Alberta to Ontario, they eventually decided to focus solely on produce and sold off their herd. During that first transitional year, Fair Sun Farm had a small CSA that served mostly family and friends.
Today, the CSA has grown to include about 120 shareholders. Chown and her staff also sell at the Carp Farmers’ Market (Saturdays from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m.), the Westboro Farmers’ Market (Saturdays 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.) and the Lansdowne Farmers’ Market (Sundays 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.).
Room to grow
Chown and van der Burg have expanded their family –– Damien is now seven and their daughter, Jordan, is three. In 2024, they also grew their offerings to include shares of certified organic fresh-cut flowers. Chown says she developed her love of flowers at a young age, while spending time in her mother’s expansive perennial garden.
“I feel connected to nature through the seasons, through the food that we’re eating and the flowers that we’re seeing,” she says. “They’re also a lovely gift; it’s such a thoughtful act when you’re trying to brighten someone’s day or share in a hard or traumatic experience –– like the death of a friend or a pet.
Flower shares are offered for 14 weeks, starting at the end of June. A small share is $25 per pickup, while a large share is $50 per pickup. Pre-made and custom bouquets can also be purchased at farmers’ markets. Depending on the season, weekly or bi-weekly bouquets include a variety of cut flowers such as zinnias, dahlias, sunflowers, strawflowers, ranunculus and snapdragons.
“We’re trying more and more crops of flowers, including three times as much eucalyptus as we had last year because people really like that –– it just adds so much to a bouquet,” says Chown. “The scent is just so therapeutic.”
Whether she’s passing along shares of produce or flowers, Chown always wants to impart positivity.
“That’s the whole reason we got into farming; we want to go somewhere and leave that place in a better condition than it was when we got there,” she explains. “We want to improve the ecosystems, regenerate the natural systems that should be there and cultivate more habitat.
“Whatever we do in life, I want to have a positive impact instead of a negative one. I feel like farming –– growing nour- ishing food and flowers that bring people joy –– is just a good way to live life in general, cultivating connection, health and well-being.”
Fair Sun Farm
3015 County Rd. 21, Spencerville
fairsunfarm.ca | 613.914.5572 | @fairsunfarm
