Get to know us!
Our journey to Camlachie, Ontario began nearly two decades ago when teenage sweethearts Shane and Emma first envisioned an ecologically diverse homestead that also fed their community. After years of tending to home gardens, their dream blossomed with the germination of Aslan Organics at the Yarrow EcoVillage in Chilliwack, BC in 2018. There, surrounded by seasoned organic farmers, they thrived, grateful for the wisdom and support that propelled them forward. Today, their commitment to sustainability and community thrives, as they fulfill their shared dream of providing Lambton County with fresh, organic produce, enhancing food security while championing regenerative farming as a beacon of nourishment for body, community, and Earth.
Diagnosed with a serious autoimmune condition at just 14 years old, Shane's health journey ignited the founding principles of Aslan Organics. Fuelled by the imperative for nutrient-dense, chemical-free food, we immediately adopted organic farming practices. Witnessing tangible improvements in Shane's health, including the alleviation of burdensome symptoms, underscored the profound impact of our commitment to wholesome, organic produce. Today, our mission extends beyond personal health, driving us to share the benefits of sustainable, natural farming with our community.
As stewards of the Earth and passionate food enthusiasts, we find joy in growing the food we love to eat. Inflamed by a vision of sustainability, we cultivate with a burning passion, striving for a direct connection between consumers and farmers. Our journey is guided by a relentless pursuit of farming knowledge, yielding high-quality produce with transparency in our practices. It's a privilege to nourish our community and honour the land we call home, fostering a deep sense of gratitude for the interconnectedness of all living things.
Nestled on just 1.5 acres, our farm thrives, cultivating over 30 diverse vegetable varieties available year-round at the Sarnia Farmers Market. We’re thankful for JM Fortier and his team who continues to do brilliant work in The Market Gardner’s Masterclass. In the spring of 2018, our farm won an international scholarship to that course with this video, and the lessons we’ve learned from that course have propelled us to being the industry leader in Lambton County in a short 3 years of production.
We are indebted to the wisdom portrayed by our favourite agrarian, Wendell Berry, for if Aslan Organics is to be understood, it is thanks to his elegant words:
An elated, loving interest in the use and care of the land, and in all the details of the good husbandry of plants and animals.
An informed and conscientious submission to nature, or to Nature, and her laws of conservation, frugality, fullness or completeness, and diversity.
The wish, the felt need, to have and to belong to a place of one’s own as the only secure source of sustenance and independence.
From that to a persuasion in favour of economic democracy, a preference for enough over too much.
Fear and contempt of waste of every kind and its ultimate consequence in land exhaustion. Waste is understood as human folly, an insult to nature, a sin against the given world and its life.
From that to a preference for saving rather than spending as the basis of the economy of a household or government.
An assumption of the need for a subsistence or household economy, so as to live so far as possible from one’s place.
An acknowledged need for neighbours and a willingness to be a neighbour. This comes from proof by experience that no person or family or place can live alone.
A living sense of the need for continuity of family and community life in place, which is to say the need for the survival of local culture and thus the safekeeping of local memory and local nature.
Respect for work and (as self-respect) for good work. This implies an understanding of one’s life’s work as a vocation and a privilege, as opposed to a “job” and a vacation.
A lively suspicion of anything new. This contradicts the ethos of consumerism and the cult of celebrity. It is not inherently cranky or unreasonable.
– Wendell Berry (C) 2017 The Art of Loading Brush
We acknowledge that this land on which we are gathered and farming today is part of the ancestral land of the Chippewa, Odawa, and Potawatomi peoples, referred to collectively as the Anishinaabeg. It is through the connection of the Anishinaabeg with the spirit of the land, water and air that we recognize their unique cultures, traditions, and values. As treaty people, we have a shared responsibility to act with respect for the environment that sustains all life, protecting the future for those generations to come.