Wales Farm Fresh Produce - Aylmer
The Wales' farm is an example of diversifing from a productive era of tobacco farming to one of mixed vegetables. The farm had been growing tobacco since the 1950’s in rotation with rye and, more recently, cucumbers. The land is sandy loam soil and had 2 large irrigation ponds. Mark Wales purchased this property from Henry Mervis in the early 1990’s when he returned home from university in 1976 and grew tobacco until 2004.
With the winding down of the Tobacco industry he began growing a variety of vegetable crops and evolved to the current offering of Sweet and Hot Peppers, Eggplant, Spanish and Red Onions, Garlic, Sweet Corn, Edible beans, Strawberries, Lavender and other Herb Crops. Pick your own is popular and many await his fresh produce at the local Farmers Markets and numerous Garlic Festivals throughout Ontario as well as the farmers Market at the Royal Winter Fair. In 2011 a 10KW solar panel array for electricity generation was installed - a new vision of farming energy.
The quilt block, “Garden Patch”, is illustrative of the market gardening at this location with the colours of green and red for his specific crops of peppers and strawberries, brown for the rich soil and the yellow star for the sunlight which is not only growing the crop but supplying energy.
