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.
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 on the farm, at the Ottawa Street Farmers' Market in East Hamilton and through our CSA program with home delivery. You can view our delivery map here, for both the CSA and Spring plant orders.
We have also worked with small grocery stores in Hamilton, including the Marketbox Group, Barton Lettuce, and the former Mustard Seed Co-op.
When are you open?
Our on-farm market is open for self-serve from May to October on Wednesday, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday.
We will also be open November to December on Saturday and Sunday only (orders can be picked up mid-week, please contact us).
From November to April, we will have online orders available for pickup on farm.
You can also view our 2023 Farm Calendar here for more details.
We are located at 9 Culver Lane in Simcoe, Norfolk County, ON
Can I order online?
Our webstore will be open for ordering preserves throughout the year. Pickup and delivery will be available according to our farm schedule.
From November to April, we will have online orders available for pickup on farm and at market. Order by 12pm on Friday for pickup Saturday or Sunday (on farm only). You can also order for delivery, dates TBA on our Updates page and social media.
Seedlings will be available to pre-order starting in February.
Signup for our CSA program is through a webform, and members are sent an invoice for their payment. Read more about CSA signup here.
What forms of payment do you accept?
On farm and at market, we accept cash, debit, credit, and more options through Square. We are also happy to accept an etransfer or cheque for any purchases. On self-serve days at the farm, we will accept cash and etransfer only, unless you catch us at a good moment to take a card.
Etransfer is our preferred method of payment for online orders and CSA. For your convenience you can also pay for your order through our webstore/invoice with a debit or credit card. For etransfer, cash, cheque, 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 Work and Visit page and Updates to see if we have any events or volunteer opportunities scheduled.
We will announce Open Farm dates for 2023 in June, July, and September. These community events will combine farm tours and an optional potluck. Check our calendar for more info.
Are you hiring?
We are hiring for 2023! Our full job posting will be up in February, but the basics are: looking for 1-2 people to join our on-farm team and 1 person for help at Market (Hamilton). Hours on farm are flexible, parttime to fulltime depending on interest. And of course, it never hurts to reach out for more information - especially if you are keen to get your hands dirty with hard work on the farm.
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.