Manitoba's New Prairie Orchard Farm

I have a couple friends who are in the transitional period of having an organic farm just outside of Morris. Eric has been farming for his life outside of Morris and is fed up with modern farming. Jodi has been very involved in biology and environmental science and has been trying to figure out how to make a difference and is very passionate about organic and local food. They have been working on their organic farm and orchard for the last 3 years and are considering their options for involving the public in their farming with ideas like growing classes & organic food workshops, u-pick, farm share, volunteer workers/pickers for food share, etc and have started a newsletter to keep us all posted. I think supporting our local farmers is equally if not more important than promoting our local artisans and businesses. If this is something that interests you I will be keeping up with them and posting their newsletters here.

Jodi also has been having other workshops at the farm centering around having healthy bodies such as yoga, massage, and relaxation retreats. She also sells Miessence organic body products and teaches Zumba exercise classes in Morris. They are very busy people and cannot wait to stretch their farm over their fields.

If you know any other farmer that should be featured here please forward any details to handmadeinmanitoba@gmail.com.


Prairie Orchard Newsletter

March 2010 Volume 1. Issue 1.










Do you want to buy locally grown, pesticide free berries and garden
vegetables this summer? Do you want to know where your food comes
from and how it is grown? Do you want to handpick your own food or
have it delivered directly to your home?

Join our mailing list by sending us an email at
peaches9@xplornet.com or calling us at 204.746.8830.

What we have planned for the
2010 gardening season

We will be growing local produce for ‘Friends of the Prairie Orchard’. We will have strawberries and raspberries available along with a variety of garden vegetables (almost anything we can think of).

How to Buy Local

We want to know if you want more information about buying local produce from us this summer. If you are interested in joining our mailing list and becoming a ‘friend of the
prairie orchard’ please send us an email at peaches9@xplornet.com or call us at 204.746.8830. Our u-pick is located one and a half miles north of Lowe Farm, Manitoba on Provincial Road 332 North.


View Larger Map


History of the Prairie Orchard U-pick

In the summer of 2008 we started the orchard by planting a 700 trees and shrubs to mark off a four acre piece of cultivated land. We planted asparagus, strawberries, raspberries, and a number of different types of fruit trees (apples, cherries, highbush blueberry - to name a few). Our goal was to grow a variety of fruits and vegetables to see which ones did the best in our wet clay soil. Unfortunately between winter kill and hungry rabbits and deer almost nothing edible made it to the summer of 2009.

So we started all over again. We planted more trees, strawberries and raspberries. We also planted a variety of garden vegetables, which were destroyed by gale force winds and frost. We did, however, have a very successful crop of kale, swiss chard, kohlarabi and brussel sprouts; The hardy survivors of over one thousand plants that we nurtured indoors through the winter months.

By the fall of this year we surrounded the acreage with deer fencing, put up a gated entrance and erected our first building – an old grain bin to add character and hopefully provide a future store front and/or coffee spot.

We are currently in the process of assessing a number of independent certification agencies and moving towards becoming certified organic.








Who Are We…

Eric is a conventional farmer who has witnessed the trend in agriculture where family farms are gobbled up by large scale agribusiness. His passion for growing quality food has been ignited in a new way by his other passion, cooking, and by the prospects of returning to small scale farm values, i.e., farmers know the people who purchase their products and people know where their food comes from and how it was grown. Eric wants to give rural people access to fresh and delicious produce. His motto is “delicious food is easy to prepare when you have good ingredients’.

Jodi is a naturalist at heart. She has an education in biology and forest ecology and she is currently working towards a Masters of Environment degree. She believes it is important to have a strong land ethic, i.e., to work in harmony with nature. She also believes it is important to maintain and preserve knowledge about everything from land and animals and medicinal plants, to knitting and butter churning. She is motivated to sustain our families and our communities by providing food that is full of vitality because it is grown by creating healthy soils and without harmful pesticides or fertilizers.

Join our mailing list by sending us an email at
peaches9@xplornet.com or calling us at 204.746.8830