Meet Your Farmers,
Tess and Maggie!
We met while farming organically, learning orchard maintenance and beekeeping together under an amazing mentor. Through our love of nature, developing ecological thinking around farming, and learning from each other we became fast best friends. The ideologies of Good Care Farm felt like they had been waiting for us our whole lives and we are so excited to share them with you all!
Hi hi, I’m Tess! My love of growing food started very young, helping my grandmother in her garden every summer. I didn’t consider it as a career until moving back to Ottawa and looking for ways to create a positive impact in my community. After studying International Development and Indigenous studies in university out East, the idea of helping people always drove my studies and activism. Focusing those values locally feels like the most sustainable form of action for me after suffering from a serious concussion and moving home to look after family. Channeling my passions into something productive and supportive, while focusing on my own care, the farming community here helped collect all of those things and after a few years of learning and a beautiful partnership with Maggie, we are ready to integrate all of our ideas for care of the the land, our community and our health! Thank you so much for joining us on our journey!
Hi, hello! I’m Maggie. My journey into farming has been nothing if not winding. I completed a bachelor’s degree in Performing Arts in Southern Ontario before realising I didn’t know enough about what I wanted to communicate in my art, and moved to Nova Scotia to study biology and pursue a career in conservation. Through working with non-profit environmental and educational organizations, I found my previous degree in performing arts to hold great value. Art is an incredible tool for communication, learning, growing and forming community. After working with a wonderful conservation land trust in Nova Scotia, I returned to Ottawa with a strong interest in working with plants, and was welcomed into learning how to mindfully and intentionally grow food organically. And there I met Tess! Over harvesting beans, eating weeds and sharing ideas at a shaky picnic table, Good Care Farm emerged as a dream to facilitate connection, learning, and celebration in growing food sustainably and ecologically. We’re so glad you’re here to join us!
What We’re About
An Eco Farm
While we strive to provide local, organic, connected food security to our community, we also recognize the impact we have on the land. Our priority is to always give more than we take. Through ecological growing practices, no-till land management, crop rotations, and interplanting, we ensure that our vegetables are as nutritious as possible while the land is as fed as we are.
We are a member of our local ecosystem with great responsibility due to how we shape the landscape. Alongside our crops, we plant pollinator-friendly patches, native wildflowers, bird-friendly foliage, and are working to create nature barriers around our field that provide both deer and people with food!
Connecting people to the food we grow is as important to us as growing it. We want you to know your food, starting with the soil it comes from. While we’re an operational market farm, we are also establishing a place where our community gathers and collaboration thrives. By hosting workshops in partnership with other local organizations, we celebrate many ecological initiatives throughout our city. We are always open to new collaborations!
See our Workshops page to learn more about how you can engage!
A Place to Gather
Creative Connections
Holding our love of nature throughout the grueling farm season is a practice we’ve found a lot of creativity in. Through preserving flowers, pressing vegetable prints into our work shirts, and making little beings out of weirdly shapes vegetables, we have found little joys in our every day. We want to share that feeling and encourage creative practices in our space as much as possible! We hope to gather people around natural print making, fiber arts, and any other eco art ideas our community members might have. Please reach out with your creative endeavors - we would love to find a way to incorporate them!
Contact us!
Do you have questions about the farm or how you can support us? Do you have an eco project you would like to collaborate with us on?
We would love to hear from you! Thanks so much for taking the time!