Blue Goose Farm
February 26, 2024
Nestled in the heart of Ridgeway Ontario you’ll find Keenan and Ashley McVey of Blue Goose Farm. Partnered with renowned culinary chef Matty Matheson, Keenan and Ashley have seamlessly woven their expertise into a tapestry of sustainable farm to table practices, providing fresh organic produce to restaurants such as Prime Seafood Palace, Bernhardt’s, Dreyfus, and other top Toronto kitchens. Not only do Keenan and Ashley cultivate the land, but their shared commitment paints a vivid picture of a harmonious marriage between nature and nourishment. Join me as we delve into the inspiring journey of Blue Goose Farm, exploring and savouring the fruits of their labour during a truly enchanting farm-to-table dinner.
- -
Tell me the story of how you two first met?
We actually met in high school! Both fell in love with each other at a very young age before we really knew what that meant. We lived our own separate lives after we graduated and re-connected a couple years later. Sounds like a typical teenage high school love story, but the time apart really allowed us to grow into ourselves separately from one another and we’re fortunate that we both grew into ourselves in the same way.
How long have you both been farming?
This year will be our fourth season at Blue Goose and we’re both first-generation farmers. So it hasn’t been long, but the connection we have to it feels like we’ve been doing it our whole lives — in the best way.
Ashley, tell me how you started as a Florist, and what is your favourite part about working with flowers?
There’s something about flowers that I have always been drawn to, but living in the city made it difficult for me to start my own garden or play with really good quality flowers. When we moved out to the country, I finally had the opportunity to have my own garden and yet I didn’t really know what I was doing. Keenan was just starting Blue Goose at this point and was teaching himself how to grow vegetables in a small trial plot and during this time, I started working as a farm hand on a flower farm and I immediately knew it was something I wanted to do forever. It filled my soul up like nothing else had ever done before and I was able to work my creative mind at the same time. For the first time in my life, I had the opportunity to play with flowers of such amazing quality and it totally blew me away. It gave me the opportunity to lean into my own style and really nurture it. I fell in love with a more raw and wild approach to design, and now that I am fully at Blue Goose growing and designing my own flowers, I’ve been able to elevate my style even further by adding more of an edible aspect to my design work. Flowers are such beautiful beings and they make me feel so entirely connected to the natural world. They are their own language — speaking so much without saying a word. Giving people gifts is one of my love languages and being able to arrange a bouquet with flowers and vegetables that I have grown with such beautiful intentions is the biggest form of love to me. It’s unlike anything.
Ashley, you work a lot with natural dyes, what drew you towards using natural dyes and fabrics?
I’ve always been interested in sustainability and wearing vintage or thrifted clothing since I can remember. It’s something that has defined my style and allowed me to hold true to my moral compass. I, of course, have also always been interested in flowers and so the two of those kind of just naturally came together for me. There can be a lot of waste in the flower industry due to their perishable quality, so instead of composting certain flowers, I started taking them home and drying them out to make natural dyes out of the dried flowers. At the same time, I also started to teach myself how to mend and sew in the downtime of the farming season so that I could repair our farm clothes. I then invested in a sewing machine and decided to really dive deep into natural dyes. I got my hands on some indigo seeds that first season from another natural dyer and totally fell in love. I now have a whole garden dedicated to growing colour and my own business behind it.
Was farming something you always knew you wanted to do? Or was it something you both just sort of fell into by chance?
Agriculture has always been a passion and a major interest of ours. Our love for food, culture and the environment definitely helped inform our decision to become farmers, though our career in farming definitely began by chance. Keenan was a chef in Toronto for 14 years up until we moved out to the country and Ashley worked an office job in marketing. One day, we just had enough of the city life and started talking about moving out to the country. We’d spend our weekends driving around different towns to see where we felt more drawn to and Niagara immediately felt like home. We got an incredible opportunity to start a farm right when we moved and we ran with it. We were yearning for a life that felt more authentic to us and that was more connected to nature and our own morals and well-being.
Are you mainly farm to table, or do you sell your products at markets? If so, where can we find you?
Up until now, we’ve mainly been supplying a select number of restaurants in Toronto along with doing a few pop up markets. Although there’s lots of exciting things happening this coming season that will make things more accessible.
What does Blue Goose specialize in?
We like to champion humble and simple vegetables that tend to be overlooked with a focus on flavour. Our main crops are vegetables, flowers and herbs.
How have you used farming to engage with your local communities?
This is something that we are working more toward this coming season and we’re very excited to get the ball rolling on a big project.
What do you enjoy most about working with the land?
It gives us the opportunity to be part of something bigger than ourselves. There’s just this symbiotic relationship with us and the farm that’s hard to put into words. We feel far more in tune with nature and the seasons, which was something we hadn’t felt when we were living in the city. You can feel the seasons shifting in your bones. We’re also at the mercy of Mother Nature everyday, which has proven to be a life lesson all on its own.
Do you view farming as more of a business or as a lifestyle?
The farm itself is definitely a business, but you can’t escape it from becoming your life; nor do we want to. If you don’t embrace it as your lifestyle and end up looking at it as dollar signs, you miss a lot of the joy.
What motivates you to keep going even when times are tough?
The farm is the most important thing and its needs surpass any of the needs that we have — it’s just the nature of being farmers; we are always thinking of the farm and about the farm. When it’s pouring rain outside and we’re tired, sweaty, hungry and covered in mud, it can be so easy to fall out of love of it, but nothing good comes easy. Working together as husband and wife also allows us to push each other and encourage each other everyday.
What is your relationship with soil? How does soil health help contribute to the success of growing your own produce / crops ?
Soil is everything to us and we do everything we can to maintain and nurture it. We basically do as much as we can to do as little to the soil as possible. We take a regenerative, no-till approach to farming so that we disrupt the soil as minimally as we can to encourage its own resilience and health.
What is the most satisfying part about working on a farm ?
Plain and simple, we get to work outside in nature every single day of our lives and we get to be together while we do it. After a long winter break, getting your hands dirty in the soil is like putting on your favourite sweater — so comfortable and it immediately feels like home. The fruits of our labour are (literally) at our fingertips and we can measure our progress everyday.
What are your hopes for the future?
Personally, we want to stay as healthy as we can so we can grow old farming and create financial long term stability within the business. We also want to start a family and make memories built around the farm. In a bigger point of view, we want people to alter their food shopping and cooking habits by thinking more seasonally.
Paint a picture for me of what the next 5-10 years might look like?
We both definitely still see ourselves farming, no doubt about that. Blue Goose is still somewhat in its infancy and is changing every year. We expand a little bit each season and with that comes a lot of new opportunities. With that growth comes more employees, more of a streamlined operation and more growth within our own community. Ultimately, we want to have our produce and flowers reach more eyes and more mouths. And hopefully a naked baby or two running through the cauliflower patch.
