Regulars at the Thunder Bay Country Market’s Wednesday gathering are familiar with Pitch Creek Farm’s twin black tents. Typically, the tent to the left is used for the weekly distribution of their CSA boxes, while the one to the right offers retail sales.
Beautiful presentation
The retail tent is always beautifully organized, with nice touches like wood and burlap that showcase the beautiful produce available.
A surprising variety and season
We’ve been impressed from the start at how early Pitch Creek Farm brings many of their crops to market, along with the variety of vegetables they’re able to coax from the soil.
Ten years ago people were saying you couldn’t grow celery here, and yet here it is!
150 members fed weekly
Pitch Creek Farm is primarily a Community-Supported Agriculture operation. This means that most of their customers are annual “subscribers” or “members.” Throughout the 15-week growing season, these customers receive a weekly box of fresh-picked vegetables that showcases the best of what’s in season.
If you’re interested in becoming a CSA member with Pitch Creek Farm, follow them on Facebook or Instagram for information on their 2022 shares, coming out in February.
Beeting the climate
One of the cool things they do at Pitch Creek Farm is use tunnels – basically a series of hoops covered with greenhouse material – with in-ground heating to extend the growing season for a number of crops. Once the vegetables are established and the weather warms, the tunnels can be moved and used for other crops. This is how they’ve been able to supply carrots and beets so early.
Yes, you can grow that here
Subscribers to Pitch Creek Farm’s CSA program were likely delighted when they opened a weekly box to find celery in it. Not only has it been grown rarely in this area, there have been occasional shortages of it in the grocery stores in past years. This stuff is grown in a tunnel with drip irrigation and is amazingly fragrant and crunchy.
Try something new... because.
“Why are those onions planted in threes?” we asked co-owner Greg, who showed us around. He explained that this was a bit of an experiment. Because only the roots are below ground, the bulbs shouldn’t crowd each other out. It should triple their crop but the amount of weeding will stay the same. Stay tuned – we’ll let you know how the experiment works out.
Pitch Creek supplied these beautiful sweet peppers along with the jalapenos for our August video. Chef Al Rebelo charred them on the barbecue with roma tomatoes and onions to make the salsa that topped his Tacos “Al’s Pastor.”
Pitch Creek Farm is a small scale market garden located in Nolalu On, established in spring of 2017. They grow on about 1.5 acres of land with two large heated greenhouses and 3 smaller unheated hoop houses, as well as field production.
