Local Ian Aldridge founded Jardins Glenorra with his wife Julie Tardif nearly thirteen years ago. Today, they organically farm over 25 acres of land.
While Ian Aldridge did come from a family of farmers, he didn’t have his sights set on an agriculture career in the beginning. Actually, he wanted to be a gym teacher. Fortunately, that all changed when he stumbled upon the Horticultural Field Management program at McGill’s Macdonald College in Ste. Anne de Bellevue. The program made sense to him, as the Saint-Antoine-Abbé native had grown up in a sugar bush. Surrounded by a family that encouraged gardening (making seasonal preserves was a big part of family life) provided Aldridge with an upper hand when he began his studies. “That ideology pushed me to learn more about horticulture,” says Aldridge of the experience.
Today, the Aldridge family lives in the Chateauguay Valley, taking up residence in his grandmother’s former home, a brick Victorian-style house overlooking the Chateauguay River in Ormstown. The three acres of land surrounding the home allowed the Aldridge family to begin their farming business (the home’s original farmland had been sold to the Ormstown Fair Board in 1936). Organic certification was easy, seeing as how the land had been left untouched for years. Gradually, the couple and their growing family expanded their business, renting 25 acres in Godmanchester on a ten-year lease.
At Macdonald College, Aldridge worked closely with Mike Bleho, chief horticultural technician at Macdonald College Horticultural Research Centre. His knowledge grew monumentally, and upon graduation, Aldridge accepted the position of farm manager at Park Montreal’s Cap-St-Jacques Outdoor Centre. Along with handling livestock, Aldridge also managed 2500 bucket taps and prepared vegetable baskets. This job also led to his meeting Tardif, who studied at the Montreal Botanical Gardens, providing her with an incredible amount of general knowledge when it came to growing produce and dealing with the many variables encountered by organic farmers.
Today, Aldridge and Tardif have developed their business into a burgeoning organic farm, working with 36 different varieties of vegetables. Doing much of the work by hand, including crop harvesting, the work is long, but rewarding. Using their knowledge of horticulture, the couple use rotation methods to ensure that the soil maintains its nutrients. They also produce vegetables year-round through the use moveable greenhouses. Their efforts have been recognized—much of their produce is distributed to the wildly popular Montreal-based Lufa Farms, while food distributors Canadawide and Bercy Foods purchase their bumper crops.
The couple, who are the parents of four young children, also employ five individuals to help them. While the couple love what they do, they are the first to admit that farming comes with certain challenges. This year, due to a lack of rain, the farm struggled to ensure that the crops had enough water. Resorting to sprinklers and drip-irrigation, Jardins Glenorra was able to work around the issue, but some of the crops did not receive as much water as they would have liked.
As for the future, the farm is considering increasing their string bean volume, due to an increase in demand. Jardins Glenorra’s produce is sought after—the farm often receives requests from other farmers, looking for additional local produce. Glenorra tries to send their surplus their way, and are currently opening their business to a client in Ottawa. Through hard work, a thorough education and dedication, these local farmers are shedding light on the joys of family farming—the organic way.
