Bushgarden Farmstead Cheese

There is a sweet nostalgic charm,
About an old Ontario farm,
That pulls your heart strings all awry,
A clean breath taking sweep of sky
An old grey barn built on a knoll . . .

- Edna Jaques, The Golden Road (1953)
As it appears in The Bush Garden by Northrop Frye

We are fortunate to rent land up Bush Road from the Bond's. We transitioned the perpetual hayfields to certified organic and Nigel worked the middle field and planted soybeans here after the weather finally dried up early July. They hardly got any rain after that but they turned out pretty well considering. This farm is kind of special because it was the land that John and Mary Smith first farmed when they came from Ireland around 1821. John also worked as a stonemason on the Rideau Canal. The house burned in 1890 at which time their son Charles Smith and his wife Agnes Cephronia sold and moved to the current farmstead down the road. Fun cheese trivia, John immigrated first and when Mary later arrived by ship to meet him she had to make a Pilgrimage on foot from Cornwall to what would later become Bush Road. The trees behind my car in the last photo are where the burned house stood, there is still the hole from the basement.

Back in stock this weekend at the this morning and the tomorrow - Pilgrimage with nettles or tomato&garlic!