Thank you for visiting my web site. Windy Hill Organic Farm is owned by Alyson Chisholm. I produce organic fruits and vegetables and keep a small herd of dairy goats on my 45 acre farm in McKees Mills, New Brunswick. I offer a CSA box program starting in June and sell my certified organic produce at the Bouctouche Farmers Market on Saturdays from early June to the end of November. Though I am the sole owner of this farm I by no means operate on my own. My team of amazing farm workers, as well as volunteers, family, friends, neighbours and other supporters (including CSA members of course!) enable me to run this farm in a sustainable manner and produce vegetables to feed hundreds of families. To my co-producers, I am very grateful and hope we continue doing this for a long time to come!
2025 was not an ideal growing year but we still had some really good yields on some of our most important crops. Last year was the year of the carrot! I didn’t plant too many more feet of carrots than usual but somehow we ended up with lots more of those orange beauties. We managed to supply the CSA and the market as well as having some extras to sell to the food bank. Beets and parsnips also did really well and our fall cabbage was quite extraordinary. Sometimes I can figure out what we did right or wrong and sometimes I have no idea. Mother Nature is definitely in charge here! Unfortunately not all crops flourished and we had a very poor garlic season. Our garlic developed a disease known as fusarium which is quite common in alliums (the family including garlic and onions) but we’d never had issues with it in the past. Hopefully this will be a better garlic year and an equally wonderful carrot year!
Even though last season was very dry we were able to stay on top of the irrigation thanks to the new well (drilled in 2022) and to Laura, irrigation coordinator extraordinaire! It was Laura’s first year on the farm but she learned fast and quickly became an integral part of the farm team. Sadly she is moving on this year but, happily, we have Tara with us for the 2026 season! Tara has lots of market gardening experience and I’m sure she’ll fit in beautifully. Danielle will be joining us for her 5th year on the farm and Carla will be here for her 15th! What a joy it is to have their skills and knowledge for yet another season!
We had another great season at the Bouctouche Farmer’s Market. Our sales increased from the previous year though partly because there was one fewer farm selling vegetables at the market. Even though it is a small farmer’s market it can definitely support more than one market gardener and hopefully we see some new farms coming to the region soon.
We had a few unplanned projects on the farm last year but all went well. We replaced the boards on one of the greenhouses but in the process, lost the plastic on a windy day and had to replace it. We did a great job of re-covering that greenhouse, a job which was due to be done around this time anyway. Since I was ordering plastic for the greenhouse I also got a replacement for the large high tunnel. Its plastic had been damaged years ago in a hurricane (Dorian) and was taped back together. Well, it was high time for a new cover and it was nice to actually be able to see the tomatoes! We reuse materials so much here on the farm that we sometimes forget what new looks like.
We expanded on our protective netting supply and used even more of this material in 2025. It paid off because we had the least leek moth damage ever plus our fall broccoli and cabbage did really well under the netting. I plan to buy some more again this year and eventually we’ll completely replace summer row covers. The spring row covers are a heavier material and we use them primarily to warm the soil so we will continue using this type. The summer covers, though, were only for protection from insects and because a heavy cover holds too much heat, summer covers are much lighter weight and prone to damage. We’ll be investing in some more irrigation materials this year as well. We had to bring water to field 4 last year and the line we used was a bit too small. The beds are over 400 feet long so we had good watering at the end closest to the supply but not enough at the far end. A larger diameter feeder line will help us do a better job of getting water to field 4 if needed.
Some projects planned for this year involve replacing aging structures and equipment such as the hardening-off area and our chicken tractor. These structures have always served us well but anything made of wood and stored outside will not last forever! I also have a grand plan to put up another greenhouse. I’d like to be able to start earlier at the farmer’s market and this requires us to have some early crops like mustard greens, lettuce and spinach. The other two greenhouses are already packed full with veggies for the early CSA season so more space is needed. I’m also toying with the idea of putting in some asparagus, also for early markets, and also because I love it! I’ll be getting a new delivery vehicle this year, too, since my lovely old truck is getting just a little too quirky. I don’t have any new crops in mind though we are dropping strawberries. We haven’t been getting very good harvests these past few years and, unfortunately, they aren’t able to pay for the work involved in their care. They’re going to be hard to replace so I’ll have to get really creative in those early CSA baskets!