Welcome to Livingstone Farm 1860

Hi!! Welcome to the blog at Livingstone. We are an active farming operation in south western Ontario with 115 acres, an 1860 stone home and a beautiful century barn housing a variety of livestock that all have a job to do.

Here's a little story with the history of the farm to give you a better idea of our roots.

The farm was established pre-1860 with a Scottish family settling in the area. They quickly cleared a laneway and built a house in the middle of the property, planted an orchard and got to work on their dream.

Once they were comfortable in their original home, they started construction on the beautiful Georgian stone farm house, first with one part and added an addition shortly after.

The plaque on top of the front door reads A 1860 D in stone, a nod to a bygone era where houses were built with stone and milled beams from the same property.

The origins of the first owners were traced back to old historical texts and records of the property, sadly the patriarch of the original owner's family was recorded dead from falling off his wagon, hard at work. Over time, the farm changed hands to a few different families until it was restored for the first time by the elk farmers. They restored the beautiful stone home to it's glory on the inside in a multi-year project that only people with attention to detail and care would ever engage in. They raised a herd of elk on the farm and sold their produce at the St. Lawrence Market in downtown Toronto, decades ahead of their time when game meat was very niche and just starting to become something that sparked interest of few.

When they retired from farming, a video production company purchased the farm to produce a television series for kids. The farm fields continued to be worked, while the weeds piled 6' high and the house was vacant for years, leading to all sorts of issues down the road.

The first day that I set eyes on the property, I knew I needed to have it. It was a mess but it was going to be cleaned up and I knew I was the one to do it.

Since then, this place has made a farmer out of me. Slowly but surely, I have become part of it and it's become part of me. I see God in the sunsets over the fields, in the dancing soy beans and flowers in the hay field. I have seen thieves come to steal, kill and destroy (also known as "racoons in the barn"), cats carrying around dead mice, and a slew of other things ladies probably shouldn't speak of publicly. Regardless of the day, I see limitless opportunities to grow here.

Starting the journey by taking more ownership of the crops, a massive renovation to the envelope and systems in the house, and the placement of beautiful hand picked furniture, we had a restored and up-to-date working farm house.

Once the renovation was complete, we opened up our doors to guests near and far as a luxury bed & breakfast. It's been such an honour to be people's relaxation haven from professional sporting events, family vacations, corporate retreats and bachelorette parties over the years and we can't wait to welcome more guests.

As farmer's do, taking more authority over the fields, decided to change the make up of our farm to 100% own the crops (in a world where most rent land or share crop) and be more involved in the decisions on what's being grown, pesticide and fertalizers use and all that. We are involved in the long term planning of the fields and what they would produce and made the decision to pivot to now exclusively produce high quality timothy-alfalfa hay for export.

Over time, the decision to include livestock and a garden started small and progressed with success. The underside of success really just means that there were a lot of lessons learned. We first had 8 laying hens for eggs, and a garden producing vegetables, berries, herbs and garlic, and tapped our own maple trees which we reduced to syrup every friday on a homemade evaporator in our driveway. We expanded to pumpkin patches, about 1,300 garlic in the old chicken field, 3,000 chickens on pasture, 100 laying hens and 5 Berkshire pigs that can't wait to be moved to their forest home for the warmer months. A neighbor who has the proper machinery is our partner with the maple production, we have tons of summer bees pollinating our hydrangeas and apple trees, and lots more ongoing on the property. It's been messy and hard and expensive.

But I wouldn't change it for the world.

Follow along for the journey. Two blog posts will be released monthly, every second Sunday afternoon at 5pm, with updates on the farm and what our farm crew is up to. Included in a few of the blog posts will be a new promo code with a discount or sample complementary item from our farm stand. All of our promo codes run out after a certain # of uses or a timeframe or both. Be a part of the journey!

Enjoy,

The Farmer @ Livingstone Farm 1860