THE DAVIES’ STORY
A Proudly Sustainable & Family-Owned Business by Arthur & Tina Davies.
We have been farming since the early 1970s and love what we do. When our children were growing up we milked our ‘Emmerdale Ayrshires’ in Stirling, Ontario, and grew a big garden just for us. Organic wasn’t a buzz word back then, but our garden was all natural – no chemicals allowed!
ABOUT EMMERDALE EDEN FARM
We purchased a dairy farm in Stirling in Eastern Ontario, bought pure-bred Ayrshire heifers and eventually became “Emmerdale Ayrshires”, raising pigs and poultry until the heifers grew and freshened. We raised our 3 children, Melissa, Caitlin and Alex on Emmerdale Farm.
Years later when our grandchildren started to arrive, I was so proud of our girls insisting the wee ones only be fed organic food. It was Melissa, our eldest daughter, who encouraged us to get into organic farming – which we did in 2004, moving to beautiful Prince Edward Island and Emmerdale Eden Farm.
Over the past few years, with our organic heritage livestock gone, we have grown our vegetable and fruit business as well as incorporating more seed-saving into our market farm. In 2016, we partnered with Pembroke Farm to start a small regional organic seed company called the ‘PEI Seed Alliance’.
In 2021, our seed partner Lorna McMaster retired so we are presently an ‘Alliance of One’. We too have decided to start cutting back, and have reduced our growing area significantly for the upcoming season. Thus we have not renewed our organic certification for 2023… a very hard decision after 18 years of certification. Our farming methods have not changed: we are still completely chemical-free but cannot use the word ‘organic’. Our new label will be ‘Sustainably Grown/Chemical-Free’.
We sell varied seasonal produce year-round at the Summerside Farmers Market and from the Farm Gate.
SUSTAINABLY GROWN & CHEMICAL-FREE
Emmerdale Eden Farm specializes in growing and preserving heirloom vegetables, herbs and flowers, and saving their seeds as they adapt to our maritime climate.
We prize old family favourites, tried and true and full of flavour! Yet there are many dedicated plant breeders today who are creating wonderful new varieties, especially for organic systems, that thrive in our rich chemical-free soil. We continually trial these new varieties and select those that show promise.
As climate changes, so too must our methods of farming, along with our varietal choices. Only through diligent trialing, selection and preservation of the best locally adapted seed, will we be self-sufficient and secure in feeding our communities now and in the future.
Diversity, not monoculture, is our goal for a sustainable landscape on our Island.