At Chickadee Farm we have always tried to do with less to reduce our environmental footprint.

Around the farm we reuse and repair things as much as possible.

We also are off-grid and use a solar-power system to supply electricity.

This makes us think hard about all of our electrical loads, and, as a result, we use DC-powered appliances wherever we can.

We apply the same management principles to the farm’s water needs.

We collect and filter rainwater for drinking and watering the herb plants in the spring and for household use.

We supplement this water supply with a deep well, but because this is deep groundwater (from 300 feet down), we use it mostly in winter and during dry periods, when rain water is not available.

Chickadee Farm began as a mixed livestock farm primarily raising sheep (we also have goats, chickens, ponies, and a llama to guard the sheep).

Our main focus now is herbal tea production, but we still raise enough sheep and goats to graze our pastures. About 15% of the farm is in herb garden, and the remainder is in pasture and hay land. The livestock are an essential component of the ecological sustainability of our farm.

Our Garden

The garden is in a beautiful location on the banks of the Pembina River. The river actually flows around the garden on three sides. Fortunately we are high enough above the water level that we have never been flooded (we came close in 1985, but the water still stopped well below the garden).

This is a peaceful spot. It is also ideally suited to growing herbs. The ground is sandy and well drained, there is lots of sunshine, and the surrounding forest protects the garden from harsh winds. The neighbouring farm fields are all more than half a kilometer away from the garden, so we do not have to worry about anything drifting into our garden.

The land for the garden was cleared from the boreal forest by us in 1979, so the garden ground has never been contaminated. We have been certified organic by the Organic Producers Association of Manitoba since 2003. But we have always used sustainable farming methods and have never used herbicides, even prior to be being certified.

One of our guiding principles is that we sell only herbs that we grow in our garden or wildcraft in the forests near our farm. We began our herb business by selling at a farmer’s market in Edmonton in the early 1990s. Although we are now selling in many natural food stores across Alberta, BC and other provinces, we only sell our own herbs because we want guarantee our customers that the herbs they bought came from our farm.

Wildcrafting

Some of the herbs that we offer we collect in the forest on the farm or nearby. These herbs include Wild Raspberry Leaf, Horsetail, Willow Bark, Wild Rosehip, Uva-Ursi, Goldenrod, and Labrador Tea. These herbs are all picked by hand and the picking areas are distributed around a given plant population so that we do not cause significant harm to a natural stand of plants.

Generally everyone enjoys wildcrafting because it is an opportunity to be out in the forest for a day or two. We are still focused on filling harvest containers and picking the best material, but being in the forest is a nice break from more tedious garden tasks like weeding.

Growing and Packaging Our Herbs

We can say with complete confidence that our herbs are handcrafted. Yes, we do have many specially designed machines to help us along the way from growing, to planting and weeding, to harvesting, drying and packaging. But we still use our hands to work with the herbs at every step along the way.

In the spring we start many of our herbs in a small, wood-heated greenhouse. The rest are either seeded directly into the garden or they come back as perennials. Through the summer we do our best to keep the weeds under control. June is the most critical time for this as any weeds that are missed will take off in July and become super weeds by the beginning of August.

Harvest of the herbs begins as early as mid-June with some of the perennial corps and the chamomile flowers. Harvesting continues until fall. We finish the season with harvesting our roots (dandelion, marshmallow and comfrey) in late fall when all of the energy has gone from the plant into the roots.

We do everything possible to be gentle when handling the herbs. Every time that a leaf is crushed, volatile oils are released, which we want to trap in the tea leaves, so that we have the most potent tea possible.

The herbs are air-dried as quickly as possible without exposing them to excessive temperatures that might evaporate the essential oils. Maintaining colour and fragrance as close to the fresh plant as possible is our measure for a quality dried tea or culinary herb. If a batch or a part of a batch does not dry green enough, that part is discarded.

After drying, we do the minimum amount of processing to remove the stems and get the herbs into a consistency so that they can be packaged in our retail boxes.

All of our retail packages are assembled, filled and sealed by hand.

So, yes, we are proud to offer the best handcrafted loose herbal teas and culinary herbs!