Frequently Asked Questions
What do you grow?
We grow a wide variety of vegetables - generally we like to say that if you CAN grow it in our climate, we either do or plan to! Check out our Produce page for a pretty detailed list of what we grow for market. In addition, we are planting new perennial fruits, herbs and medicinal plants every year.
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We grow seedlings for sale every Spring, which includes many of the varieties that we plant ourselves. Check out our Plants page for a list of our offerings this year.
Where do you sell your plants, produce and preserves?
We sell everything direct-to-customer at the Ottawa Street Farmers' Market in East Hamilton and on-farm in Simcoe. In the Winter, we deliver monthly to Hamilton and surrounding areas. You can view our delivery map here.
In the past, we have had a CSA (weekly box subscription) and have also worked with small grocery stores in Hamilton, including the Mrktbox Group, Barton Lettuce, and the former Mustard Seed Co-op.
When are you open?
For 2024, we will be open on-farm on Wednesdays from 12pm-6pm and Saturdays from 11am-4pm starting Saturday May 4th through the end of October.
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We are located at 9 Culver Lane in Simcoe, Norfolk County, ON
Can I order online?
You can order for delivery, dates TBA on our Updates page and social media.
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Seedlings will be available to pre-order starting in February/March.
What forms of payment do you accept?
At market, we accept cash, debit, credit, e-gift cards and more options through Square. We are also happy to accept an etransfer or cheque for any purchases. On the farm, we always accept cash, etransfer, and e-giftcard (let us know your gift card number to be charged); we can accept credit/debit on farm when we are available to help you in person.
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Etransfer is our preferred method of payment for online orders. For your convenience you can also pay for your order through our webstore/invoice with a debit or credit card. For etransfer, cash, cheque, or e-giftcard please select "Manual Payment" at checkout and pay us directly.
Etransfers can be sent to branching.path.farm@gmail.com (no password required on our end but if you need one use "veggies").
Are you certified organic?
We do not have organic certification. We feel that the certification process poses a challenge for small operations such as ours, and we prefer to rely on transparency and the direct customer-farmer relationship. Read more about our growing practices on our About Us page, and come visit the farm to see what we're doing and how we do it.
Do you give farm tours?
Yes, Adam in particular loves to give farm tours, as education and community are two of our biggest motivations. However, we work long hours and there is always more to do, so our time for tours is limited. If you're interested in seeing the farm, contact us to arrange a convenient time. You can also check our Updates page to see if we have any events or volunteer opportunities scheduled.
Are you hiring?
We may have opportunities for our 2024 season. Farming is hard physical labor in all types of weather, and we have a small team that must work closely together. Contact us if you feel you would be a good fit for our farm. We do not have accommodations.
What are your protocols around the Coronavirus pandemic?
We are always committed to high food safety standards, with the aim to eliminate the risk of foodborne illnesses. These practices include proper hand hygiene, which is one of the big ways that anyone can help reduce the risk of COVID transmission. There is currently no evidence that COVID is transmitted through food, and we sanitize surfaces whenever necessary. In accordance with municipal health codes and standard practices for all businesses, we have worn masks when serving customers at our farmers' market when this was required. In addition, we take precautions in our personal lives to reduce our chances of exposure to COVID, and both ourselves and our employees do not work when we are sick, in order to take care of our own health and that of those around us. We strive to respect both everyone's health and everyone's choices.
Can I help you redesign your website, increase your rating on Google, or call/email you about marketing opportunities?
In most cases, no thank you. This may be a bit of a joke FAQ, but in all seriousness, as a business with a website we get a lot of emails with offers to increase our site's SEO and rating on Google. Our purpose in maintaining a website is not to create a high-ranking site to draw in millions of views - this site is a place to inform our customers of what's happening at the farm, and direct new customers to seek answers to questions, so that we can spend more time doing what we're passionate about: growing food. We believe in a small local economy, based on community and mutual aid. We don't want to expand our reach online - we'd rather meet people in person and develop relationships within our community. That being said, we are happy to hear of local advertising opportunities to reach more local folks, and we try to support our local community when we can, through donations (most significantly produce donations to our local food bank) and fundraisers.