AGRICULTURE. The Potager des mains nus de Sutton is participating for the first time in the Rooted Schools project, launched by Équiterre eight years ago. As the first phase of the project, the Sutton farm delivered nearly 1,000 vegetable plants to the school.
For Yan Gordon of Potager des mains nus, the project raises awareness among young people regarding the local economy and agriculture, short circuits and responsible consumption.
“It shows young people that there are ways to avoid overpackaging and junk food,” he continued. It’s fair work, agriculture in Quebec. »
The second part concerns the distribution of organic vegetable baskets in the fall. Already, baskets are popular.
“We won the largest number of baskets ordered at the school,” said Mr. Gordon.
The farmer confirms it: the participation of the Vegetable Garden in this project is completely natural.
“We’ve been making baskets since we existed, in 2005,” he said. We think fall baskets are a good way to help farms. It is at this time of the year that we have surpluses compared to production. We are able to sell them for a good cause. It helps the schools as much as it does us. »
A YEAR 2023 TO FORGET
If spring went rather well, despite many rainy days, it was much more difficult last year at the Potager des mains nus.
“The difficulty we have this spring is that we had enormous financial losses last year,” said Mr. Gordon. We had to owe about $100,000. We were not able to go to financial institutions, which would have lent us 10% to 12% interest. We managed to finance ourselves through our basket subscribers. We had a very good response. »
“We lost 40% in the field last year,” he added. That leaves a big hole in the overall budget. In addition to losing income, there was also inflation. All my inputs really cost more, but we can’t increase the price of vegetables that much. The success of the farm depends first and foremost on the satisfaction of the community. We are doing projects with the community, for example, we planted a fruit orchard with the Sutton CAB and the harvests will be divided between them and us. »
