Welcome ......... At Wallace Springs our goal is to be a Canadian Centre of Excellence in Ethical & Sustainable Agriculture demonstrating that a family farm can be profitable, practice environmental stewardship and produce a stable food supply, in perpetuity without degrading the natural resources that support our production processes..........cont'd in About us.

One Million Milkweeds for the Monarchs Campaign

"Because the monarch population is basically in a downward spiral, getting milkweed in the ground is the most important thing."
~Tyler Flockhart, a conservation biologist and researcher at the University of Guelph.

Become a friend by sponsoring 100, 500, or 2000 milkweed plants
This is exactly what we are prepared to do at Wallace Springs Eco Centre.   The land is committed, much of the seed was harvested last fall and is currently being stratified, planting arrangements are substantially in place.  With a little help from our friends we will have a 12 acre pollinator sanctuary in place for the 2015 season.  It is our expectation that Wallace Springs Insectory will, once in place, contribute over 500,000 Monarchs to the fall migration as well as provide clean pesticide free habitat for bees and other native pollinators and be a demonstration plot for education

Become a friend of Wallace Springs Insectory by sponsoring a portion of our "1,000,000 milkweeds for the Monarchs" planting.
  • Sponsor the planting of 100 milkweeds for $20.00 ($0.20 each), 500 milkweeds for $50.00 ($0.10 each) or 2000 milkweeds for $100.00 ($0.05 each).  Donate at the "Building Wallace Springs Insectory" Donate button on the right hand sidebar.  Please leave a message letting me know if you wish to remain anonymous.  
I Thank You.  The Monarch butterflies and other pollinators will thank you for being a friend of Wallace Springs Insectory.

Friends of Wallace Springs Insectory

Maurice Clark                                        
Melissa Lockwood                          
Fawn Seminoff
Kevin Thom                                             
Dan Shieck                                      
G. Lavacque
Wendy Broadbent Forsyth                    
Michelle Wehrle                                
S. & C. McCullough
Jinchuan Wang                                      
Richard Dance                                    
Cecily Porter
canadabeehives.ca.
Mr. Kelly Edgar
Larry Krumpitz
1 anonymous sponsor
Lyann La Rochelle
Coreen Heary
Doug Crosby
Kathleen Harding
Karin Godak
Donna Kudzman
Keith Taylor
1 anonymous sponsor
Dianne Johnston

For whatsoever a man sows, That shall he also reap


Raising hogs for meat and doing it in a manner that is responsible to the welfare of the animal while it is alive,
good for the environment and fertility of the farm and produces a healthful and delicious product for the person sitting down to a meal of pork takes a lot of human effort and management. The word is husbandry. To do so without the use of GMO feeds, concentrations of waste, phosphorus loading, etc is at the very least a break even proposition when the final product brings a price point around 2.5 times higher than what is available at the average grocery store.

People will never brag about how cheap their car was, what low end price they paid for their house, what bargain rate clothing or cosmetics they regularly use, but they will, 9 times our of 10 look for the cheapest price when it comes to what they put in their shopping cart and eventually their bodies. They don’t take into account the treatment of the animal in these operations- at best it is equivalent to a concentration camp .

They don’t give a thought to the eventual harm it does to the surrounding soil and water, they don’t think about the effects of the pass through chemicals from pesticides and antibiotics to GMO genes, nitrates, nitrites, bleach and herbicides contained in the flesh of these animals and the long term health consequences of consuming them. They see the family farmer selling a pound of uncured, maple smoked bacon for $15 a pound and think “elitist”.

The problem isn’t in the poor redneck who makes his deal with the Smithfield devil and indebts himself to a CAFO just to save the farm, it isn’t in the Chinese business that profits off the venality and penury of the average American “consumer”, it isn’t the AgriCorp peddling their genetic mutations at the cost of our soils and open pollinated species, it isn’t the grocery chains and big box stores with their lowest common denominator customer base using FSA taxpayer subsidized free food cards to lard on as many extra pounds as their radically reduced lifespan will allow. The problem is people being so out of touch with nature and reality that they don’t see nor understand the very nature of their own existence apart from their role as a consumer in a race to the bottom.

Eating is something we all do, I can say this with confidence. Nourishing our bodies is something only a thoughtful and purposeful human being does. You are what you eat. When you begin to eat keeping all these things in mind you begin to change- physically your body becomes healthier, leaner, fitter, more capable of healing when injured, more resilient when fighting off illness and disease, your eyesight, joints, musculature and bone density improve or last longer.

You see the effects of your choices when you look outdoors and at your environment, you enter into relationships with people who actually raise the crops and the animals you consume and benefit them and their efforts which in turn benefits the environment. You improve the lives of the crops and the animals you are eating by giving them better environments in which to live and lives in tune with their nature and diets based on what they require rather than on what makes them fatter faster. There may be a downside to it, but I haven’t found it yet.

Those lagoons of swine manure and urine filled with chemical residue are what the average consumer looks like inside. It is their world view and lifestyle made manifest.

The bounties of this Earth, the flavors of woodland and pasture, fruit and grain turned into flesh, the health benefits of clean foods, fresh from your local farmer or gardener, the thriving and living soil nourished by the decomposed manures of healthy well fed livestock covered in lush growth, year after year, the quality of the water filtered through spongy soils alive with billions of micro organisms- these are gifts given to us for little more than ur commitment to do what we know is right, what we can see is beneficial for ourselves, our families, our communities and our planet.

“Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man sows, that shall he also reap.”

Article written by Hardscrabble Farmer (unable to locate)

Wallace Springs Insectory

Here it is! Wallace Springs Insectory; Ground work commencing spring 2015, designed to provide habitat, to promote and foster habitat for pollinator insects in rural areas of Ontario. 12 acres that once completed could contribute up to one half of a million Monarchs to the fall migration, provide habitat to our other native pollinators, and be a demonstration plot for education.

Our contribution is the land (current market value, approx. $250,000.00), a significant portion of the seed, shrubs and trees that we have available, and labor (but I am only one person). The development will proceed at the speed of which funding is available. So said, your ideas, suggestions, recommendations, and referrals are appreciated. Donations to help with seed/seedstock and seeding can be made at via the "Building Wallace Springs Insectory fund" button here   Thanx



"The Before" picture - courtesy Google Streetsview




Wallace Springs Insectory, conceptual plan



THE DESIGN:

There is a considerable opportunity to build biodiversity into this site, especially in the cropland that is about to be retired. The Permanent Milkweed Plot will provide a substantial feeding and larval resource for Monarch Butterflies. The many plants described in the foregoing will aid the land owners to create a high level of biodiversity with a mix of habitat types for pollinators as well as pure stands of flowering plants.

At the entrance to the site from the township road a formal garden area with pathways will have beds of showy flowering nectar plants and milkweed with labels so that people know what these are and they would be educated at once as the entered the Insectory. As users progress into the site they will be exposed to more complex habitat types that incorporate these showy plants and others so there will be more biodiversity to the site that will benefit both butterflies and song birds. This design approach will show people how plants favorable to butterflies can be found in many types of habitat in Ontario and they can be used on their property from flowerbeds to riparian plantings to hedgerows.

People will see how maintaining pollinator habitat is important and that there are plenty of opportunities with a range of habitats that could be suitable for their property especially lands that are marginal for agriculture and that they might consider retiring for conservation to build biodiversity and ecological resiliency.

It is important to remember that humans depend on biodiversity for the necessities of life. For example,biodiversity provides us with clean air and water and the fertile soil in which to grow the food we eat.Conserving Ontario’s biodiversity is key to ensuring a healthy environment, strong communities and athriving economy.

Biodiversity is the foundation upon which we derive benefits called ecosystem services. These benefits can come from species, such as bees that pollinate crops, or from a complex ecosystem, such as a wetland or riparian area that provides habitat, absorbs carbon, and cleans air.

The use of a high variety of plants for this project will allow for greater range of pollinators to use this site and to make it a highly valuable resource for the local ecosystem and for environmental education in the Maitland River Watershed

PHASE I - NORTH OF THE RIVER

Phase I will include those lands north of the Maitland River.

This work is intended to be implemented in 2015. Individual components include a Permanent Hay Crop with grass species including Rye Grass, Orchard Grass, Panic Grass, Tall Fescue and Timothy. The Permanent Milkweed Plot will be a single species planting of Common Milkweed (Asclepias syriaca).
There will be a hedgerow between the former area and the pollinator plant beds; this will consist of a variety of shrubs as listed above.

The Pollinator Plant Beds will consist of both mixed species and single species plots. A mown trail will wind around through the plant beds to allow for access for visitors. Any flowering plants from the former

list may be used. Demonstration Pollinator Plots at the entrance will allow the owner to highlight those plants that have the highest pollinator potential at this site.

At the entrance and at the central Information Centre there will be interpretive signage to educate uses with regard to the project intent, the types of plants found here and the role and value of pollinator species for the natural environment and human kind in general.

PHASE II - SOUTH OF THE RIVER

Phase II will include those lands south of the Maitland River.

This work is intended to be implemented after 2015 as funds and other resources allow.

CONCLUSION

This project,  the Wallace Springs Insectory will provide a valuable educational resource for the Maitland River Watershed, the Town of North Perth, Perth County as well as those reached in the "virtual" world. It is important to assist in changing attitudes toward the ecological role of milkweeds for the Monarch Butterfly. It is also important for emphasizing the need to protect and foster pollinator species in rural areas where pesticides are used heavily and pollinator habitat has been greatly diminished.

Monarchs and milkweed; understanding the plant, pollinator partnership

Monarch butterfly populations have declined at an alarming rate. Researchers are citing a 90-percent drop over the past 20 years

Monarch on milkweed via commons.wikimedia.org
This year I set out to examine interactions between milkweed plants and the pollinators and caterpillars that depend on them for breeding and food. What I found is astounding and quite contradictory of a lot of the mainstream "for profit" messages that are being conveyed.

I add the caveat that my research was conducted in Ontario Canada and is possibly most relative to the Canadian Monarch crisis, but I do believe that much of it applies to the whole migration corridor.

Firstly, I will state that there is NO shortage of milkweed plants in Canada; what there is is a shortage of seedling and regrowth milkweed.  While it is generally accepted that the preferred milkweed for egg laying  is young growth, from what I see no one has asked the question why?   Fact is that milkweed, like most other vegetative plants, loses nutrition very quickly post-flowering, and by early seed set protein has already dropped by close to 50%, digestibility and relative feed value has dropped almost the same while fiber has increased. Post-flowering of established milkweed stands in Canada is precisely when Monarch caterpillars begin to hatch.  While I have no evidence specific to Monarch butterflies and the caterpillars re their survival rate on low nutrition milkweeds, I (and you) do have evidence in droves of low survival rates of many other  species on low nutrition diets, up to and including humans. IMO it would be insane not to presume that Monarchs would not also suffer from low survival rates given a diet lacking nutrition.  Let's not be so naive as to believe that the reason Monarchs "prefer" seedling and regrowth milkweed is "cosmetic"; millions of years of evolution has taught them what is important - that is NUTRITION!


image via Canadian Soybean Council
Where have all the milkweed seedlings gone?
Fact is that milkweed seed will not (or minimally) germinate on untilled soil but rather prefers tilled soil ie; cropland.  Seedling milkweed did in fact grow abundantly in cropped land up until chemical ag came along.  It is important that we not put all the blame on GM Roundup tolerant crops although it is these that have allowed the elimination of established milkweed in crop land.  It is true that most all newer pre-emergent herbicides (non Roundup) also kill or prevent germination of milkweed seedlings in crops.  While many studies indicate that up to 50% of milkweed has been eliminated they fail to mention (or look at) the fact that seedling milkweed has suffered almost complete elimination in most of Canada's Monarch breeding range.  With Monarchs being given little choice they will lay eggs on mature milkweed plants, but what is the survival rate of the Monarch?  I suspect it is very low.   Further, in years of drought and heat such as 2013 existing milkweed stands will be even more mature earlier resulting in even lower survival rates. While I may be alone (but not wrong) in pointing this out, this is what we saw last year through the entire Monarch migration corridor - "the smoking gun" NUTRITION! or better said, lack of it.  Plenty of milkweed! - just not vegetative or nutritious.

Where has all the "regrowth" milkweed gone?  Twenty five years ago 2 crop haying was standard, hay fields were cut mid to late June and then again early fall allowing established milkweed to regrow post first cut and be in perfect vegetative state for Monarch egg laying, and caterpillar feeding.  That has all changed now with the current standard 3 to 4 cuts per year, never allowing substantial milkweed plant growth.  At the same time the hay acreage has decreased dramatically while grain crops have increased.  Pasture fields were good sites for Monarch egg laying on regrowth milkweed that had been trampled by the grazing animals (and/or mowed by farmers late June) and regrown but pasturing animals in most of Canada is no longer practiced.  These fields have been converted to cash grain cropping.  Also disturbing is the current campaign to discourage roadway mowing.  Road allowance mowing should instead be encouraged but at times that will assure not only regrowth milkweed but also nectar flower bloom timed with Monarch arrival (mowing typically mid to late June).

A bit about Wallace Springs and our findings this year

Established patch of milkweed at Wallace Springs
Wallace Springs is an operating ecologically based mixed farming operation in the heart of CAFO farming country (Perth County Ontario) consisting of approx. 100 acres of  conventional non GMO cropland and 50 acres of nature preserve (original hardwood bush, reforested coniferous, meadow, and riparian).  While we discourage crop spraying, conventional herbicides are allowed to control weeds, in crop, excluding Roundup which is not used in crop as no GMO crops are allowed. Sadly, this said the result is virtually no seedling milkweed in the cropland while we do have a good population of established milkweed in all the cropland (over 5000 plants in the 100 acres of cropland and another 5000 + plants in the reserve and field margins).

This year in addition to distributing free milkweed seed across Canada and encouraging people to "Plant a Patch" we decided to plant our own patch even though we thought we had lots of milkweed.  We planted a patch in May approx. 10' X 18' with approx 2000 seeds adjacent to the cropland..
seedling milkweed patch at Wallace Springs
What happened is best described as absolutely astounding.  While I was unable to find any Monarch eggs or caterpillars on the farm's established unmowed milkweed our seedling patch had over 300 healthy thriving caterpillars in it. Equally good results were achieved on a small patch of regrowth milkweed in the garden. Interestingly this garden patch was right adjacent to an established patch beside the garden (in fact it most likely grew from the adjacent patch rhizomes) and there were absolutely no cats on the adjacent unmowed patch.  One has to conclude that the issue is frankly a shortage of vegetative milkweed leading to the Monarch population crisis.

Cats in the patch at Wallace Springs
 So, where to from here?

It is highly unlikely that chemical farming methods are going to change any time soon, but even accepting that much can be done without a signifigent cost impact:

1) Mow roadway and utility rights of ways and other uncropped open land in a timely fashion (mid to late June)

2) Encourage every farm to "Plant a Patch".  Every farm has a 10' X 18' piece of lawn that could be planted to milkweed.  What needs to be done is to somehow incentive this planting (maybe a seed/chemical co.).  It costs so little, children (and a lot of adults) love it, it will not spread by rhizome if mowed around, it will not go to seed and spread if mowed in mid to late June after the first year and it is not ugly. I repeat, it is not ugly! Ontario farms alone could add 50 - 60 million Monarchs to the migration.  Obviously adding farms across Canada and if 10% of town and city folk would plant a patch hundreds of millions of Monarchs could be added to the fall migration.  Habitat it and they will come

3)While milkweed "fluffing" parties, seed bombing and scattering milkweed seed on vacant unworked (undisturbed soil) are all noble concepts, the results, in reality, are much less than what the participants imagine. These efforts could be redirected to "Adopting a Patch" of wild milkweed  if your space does not permit "Planting a Patch".  Mow it in mid to late June (whipper snippers; aka string/brush trimmers are great), enjoy the show and most importantly share it!  Encourage your friends/associates to also help the Monarch where they can.  One citizen "armed" with a whipper snipper for one morning could add 10's of thousands of Monarchs to the migration - IMAGINE what a small army of volunteers (or paid contractors) could do!  We need a "National Mow the Milkweed Day" mid to late June!  Remember - Do not mow all the milkweed, leave some to go to seed as mowed milkweed will not set seed in most of Canada.

4) As a Canadian who believes that the Monarch solution is jointly and equally shared by Mexico,
Spring and summer breeding areas in the
milkweed/monarch corridor
- Monarch watch.org
the US, and Canada I find it distressing that on many published Monarch migratory and breeding  area images that Canada and Mexico are totally missing.  Organizations advocating must be more inclusive if we in Canada and those in Mexico are to convince our friends and neighbours that their efforts are important. Misinformation and "drawing borders" that the Monarchs know nothing of helps no one and certainly not the Monarch.  Our respective leaders "the three amigos" agreed back in February that the Monarch population issue was a tri lateral issue, now let's get the rest of us on board and start acting that way.

5) I know that my findings are correct but to convince others it will most likely be required that peer reviewed side by side studies be done.  It will  be necessary to study not only the nutritional requirements of Monarch caterpillars but also the survivability of malnourished cats  through the life cycle of the resulting adult Monarch.   The nutritional content of milkweed will need to be studied from full vegetative to full plant maturity.  We are prepared to offer our space and milkweed population for those efforts.

Remember, the generation of Monarchs raised in Canada is the migrating generation, what they need to fuel their journey and survive the winter in Mexico is the best most highly nutritious diet Canada can muster - it's sad that we have reduced their diet to basically scraps.  We can and must do better! 

A Real Food Manifesto

The moment we restore food’s proper value, we begin to see where it belongs—not at the periphery of society, but at its heart. For example, “cheap food”—the apparent triumph of modern agribusiness—is an oxymoron, an illusion created by externalizing food’s true costs. Once you factor in all the fossil fuel consumption, rainforest destruction, soil erosion, pollution, water depletion, carbon emissions, loss of biodiversity, rural depopulation, animal suffering and obesity that result from cheap food, it doesn’t look quite so cheap. In fact, we pay a very high price.

picture courtesy of Alexx Stuart
It’s time to take back control of what and how we eat. Here’s why.


The short answer is: another war. The new food movement is an act of popular resistance against a system hardly less harmful to life and limb than military conflict. Food isn’t just something we need to shovel down our gullets each day to survive. It’s far more potent: the means, more than any other, by which we humans shape our planet and ourselves. Recognition of food’s true power demands we treat it in a completely different way. Rather than think of it as cheap fuel, we need to embrace food as a cultural force. We need to understand food in the way our ancestors did, before fossil fuel blurred our sense of its importance.

We need a new food manifesto—one that enables us to start thinking not just about food but through it. We need to understand how profoundly food affects every aspect of our lives, depending on the way it’s produced, transported, bought and sold, cooked, eaten and wasted. Food is much too important to be left in the hands of megacorporations. We must take back control of food, and start wielding that ­control ­positively and ­collectively as a tool to shape a better world.

For millennia, food has borne multiple meanings. Food is love, health and a gift from the gods. Food is friendship, identity, belonging and community. Food is desire, sharing and pleasure. Food is sex and sacrifice, reward and punishment. Food is the body of Christ. Food is fattening. The things food has been, or has represented, are as broad as life itself. Why, then, has food for so many become just a meaningless, tasteless commodity?

Before industrialization, food was the dominant priority of cities. No settlement was built without considering its sources of sustenance. Perishable food, such as fruit and vegetables, were grown as locally as possible, often on the fringes of the city itself. Meat and fish were consumed seasonally, with the excess preserved through salting, drying or pickling. Nothing was wasted. Leftover scraps were fed to pigs and chickens; human and animal waste was collected and spread as fertilizer.

With the arrival of the railway, all that changed. Once it became possible to transport fresh food quickly across large distances, cities were emancipated from geography, able to grow to any size and shape in any place. Cities began to sprawl, and as they did so, food systems became industrialized to supply them.

Our very concept of a city—inherited from a distant, predominantly rural past—assumes that the means of supporting urban populations can be endlessly extracted from the natural world. But can it? With at least 3 billion people living in cities, and a further 3 billion expected to join them by 2050, the assumption looks shaky.

Industrialization created the illusion that cities are independent, immaculate and unstoppable. Now, the illusion is wearing off. We urgently need a new dwelling model, one that recognizes the dominant role cities play in the global ecology.

Food is vital as we rethink our way of life. Many of the dilemmas we face—how to reconcile city and country, man and nature, prosperity and sustainability—can be addressed through food. Food is the common denominator: the one thing without which we can’t survive. What better basis, then, around which to order our lives? Together, we can harness food as a social and physical tool, both to interpret the world and to shape it.

My word for this approach is “sitopia,” from the Greek terms sitos (“food”) and topos (“place”). We already live in a sitopia of sorts, since the cities, landscapes and ecosystems we inhabit have been profoundly shaped by food. The problem is, our blindness to food’s influence has created a bad sitopia; one so bad, in fact, that it threatens to destroy itself—and us—if we don’t change it. So we must create a good sitopia, one that restores balance to our lives, to society and to our relationship with the natural world.

How might that work? First, we need to understand that sitopia is not utopia. We’re not trying to create an ideal world, but a way of thinking that allows us to create many different places, connections and relationships, using food as our tool.

Much of the mess we’re in is due to lack of respect for food. To create a good sitopia, then, we must restore to food its true value. This isn’t just a question of how much we pay for food, although that matters, but of what we understand it to represent. Ask a starving man what food means to him, and he’ll give you a frank answer. Food remains the most important shared element in all our lives.

The moment we restore food’s proper value, we begin to see where it belongs—not at the periphery of society, but at its heart. For example, “cheap food”—the apparent triumph of modern agribusiness—is an oxymoron, an illusion created by externalizing food’s true costs. Once you factor in all the fossil fuel consumption, rainforest destruction, soil erosion, pollution, water depletion, carbon emissions, loss of biodiversity, rural depopulation, animal suffering and obesity that result from cheap food, it doesn’t look quite so cheap. In fact, we pay a very high price.

When such externalities are taken into account, the debate about how to feed the world shifts. The pursuit of ever more “efficient” food systems is revealed as profoundly uneconomic. The false choices of industrial versus organic, high tech versus traditional, also disappear, replaced by an open debate about the farming practices and food systems that best match our aspirations for the future of the planet. Such thinking represents a reversal of the current trend, which treats food as a necessary yet somehow separate problem. In the ongoing food debate, the most vital question of all—What is a good life?—is rarely asked.

Of course, that question has no single answer; instead, it generates a spectrum of further questions. Being open to asking these questions, and realizing that there will be many different answers, is key to creating sitopia. Even if we can’t say for sure what a good life might be, we can describe some of its attributes. Most of us, for instance, would agree a good life is one in which people are generally happy, healthy, industrious, generous and loving; societies are tolerant, peaceable and sustainable; physical surroundings are diverse, bountiful and beautiful.

We know such a place can’t exist; that would be utopia. But that’s where sitopia comes in. Sitopia is contingent, partial, practical. It can be big or small, shared or personal. It can take many shapes and forms. It can be created by anybody, right here, right now. It can exist anywhere. Indeed, it already does.
To see sitopia in action, go to a place where food is highly valued—such as India. Food is everywhere in India. The countryside is densely populated with more than half a million small farms. Close networks of villages trade with one another at busy food markets. In the cities, people cook and eat on the sidewalks; vendors sell snacks from carts and stands; and traders carry baskets of vegetables on their heads. Cows, goats and chickens wander freely, and even the temples are brimming with sweets, left as gifts for the gods.

Read more at http://odewire.com/48776/a-new-food-manifesto-2.html

Mangel Wurzels, The Feed That Monsanto Hasn't Messed With

Attention small farmers --- Looking for a fantastic low cost Non GMO feed for your chickens, pigs, or cattle. These Mangel Wurzels can reach weights of 15 plus pounds and are very high in energy (typically up to 13% sugar). Oldtimers know all about these and they were grown on most Ontario farms prior to corn silage becoming vogue. Typical yields are 40 plus tonnes per acre (not that your going to grow an acre) but even a small plot yield a huge pile. Very easy to grow - we grow these, the pigs and chickens loved them.

For 2021 Wallace Springs Eco Centre has both the Giant Yellow Eckendorf, the Mammoth Red, and a mix of Red and Yellow. - if you want some it's $10.00 for 1/8th of a lb. (shipping is $2.00 for 1/8th lb. and $3.50 for 1/4 lb.)  (approx. 3300 seeds/1/8th lb.) (should yield over 6000lb of mangels). Plant these seeds in loose fertile well drained soil after last frost at 4 inch spacing in 34 inch rows - thin to 1 plant every 8 inches (more or less). Mangels must be harvested prior to first hard frost ( -5 degrees C)
 
Prices are + HST

For those who want to read up on growing and feeding mangel wurzels profitably
The Farmer's Magazine- Vol. 15, Jan to June, MDCCCXLVII  page 345 -

and Vegetable Fodder & Forage Crops for Livestock Production: Fodder Beets Washington State University

Contact me and I can ship the seed to you. We do accept Paypal  and etransfer payment. Thanx.

Seed available now for 2023




















Many questions answered and a lot of good growing/feeding info in this from Washington State University http://cru.cahe.wsu.edu/CEPublications/FS053E/FS053E.pdf

A Farmstead Sugar Project for those interested in this area 

Mangel Wurzel Beet Wine Anyone?

Grow Your Own Hops...

Wallace Springs Eco Centre  has Hop Rhizomes available for purchase. These will be available in the spring, from late March to late April.  The hop rhizomes we sell are grown organically on our farm.  We will also have a small number of started plants available

 Book now for 2019

Rhizomes are the best way to produce strong, healthy, female plants. The female plants produce the hop flowers that are used for brewing. Hops (Humulus lupulus) grow well in temperate climates and prefer lots of sunlight and water. They are a climbing vine plant that can reach lengths of up to 18 feet. Hops are a perennial that grow back from the rhizome each spring and die back to the crown in the fall. Most varieties planted from a rhizome cutting do not produce a lot of flowers in the first year, but will produce hops for many subsequent years if properly cared for.

Hops are very easy to cultivate and will produce more hops than you and your friends will need for many years.  Generally it will take 2 years for the plant to become fully productive, although you will get a small decent harvest the first year.

For the 2019 season choose from Cascade, Mount. Hood, Hallertau and our newest addition, Wallace hops.  Wallace is very hardy, has excellent flavor and citrus aroma.  Wallace is a 200 + year old heritage variety that we have propagated exclusively at Wallace Springs.  A hop you will love.  Rhizomes are priced at $6.50 ea and plants are $12.50 ea.   We will have Cascade, Hallertau, Mt. Hood and Wallace plants late May.

You can pick the rhizomes up at the farm, or we can ship them to you.  Plants must be picked up and will be available in May/June and thru the summer as long as supply lasts.  Rhizome shipping will be in March/April.  All orders will ship as soon as frost is out of the ground and we can dig the rhizomes . Pre-orders are strongly recommended to have the best choice of rhizomes.. All pre-sales must be pre-paid at the time you place the order, not at delivery time. This policy allows us to ship the rhizomes immediately upon digging so you receive the freshest possible root stock. Your purchase will be refunded in full if a crop failure prevents delivery.

2nd year hop Cascade hop plant grown from rhizome at Wallace Springs


Ordering - We can invoice you on Paypal or you can do an etransfer to us at cowboss@ymail.com.  Please note that Canada Post now has a $12.00 minimum charge for parcel post.  As a result the shipping for 1 or 12 rhizomes is the same total postage :-( ie; 1 rhizome = $12.00 total for shipping, 12 rhizomes = $12.00 total for shipping.


Finally, farm visits are encouraged, questions are welcomed, and feedback is appreciated Contact us