| OUR HISTORY
Cultivating and Celebrating Terroir since 1988
The exhilarating first years
David Cohlmeyer has been owner/chef of his own acclaimed Beggars Banquet restaurant, a weekly food columnist with The Globe and Mail, and a night-school cooking teacher at George Brown College. In 1988, David began supplying critically acclaimed restaurants and hotels with specialty produce from his Cookstown garden (one hour north of Toronto). The first years were exciting as Toronto chefs eagerly tried many “new” varieties obtained from Heritage Seed Savers. Regular calls from California chefs and farmers confirmed our “Ontario Cuisine” was in the vanguard!
To more reliably meet hospitality needs, Cookstown Greens steadily grew from a 2 acre family garden to over 30 acres with four year-round greenhouses and winter root-cellars managed by a dedicated team of 9 full-time year-round employees (including seeders, transplanters, cultivators, harvesters, washers, packers, and deliverers). Uniquely, David started by understanding the produce needs of chefs and the desires of their customers. But he quickly learned how to drive tractors, feed the soil, cultivate weeds, avoid pests, plant and harvest at the right times, and find seed sources for superior tasting varieties.
"Four Seasons Hotel chefs came for work days and treated us to some very fine meals."
The challenging middle years
In 1994 market gardening became more demanding as Torontonians for some reason fell in love with cheap food. Chefs responded with lower prices and cheaper ingredients. A price war started with California Spring Mix – a simplified version of Cookstown Greens’ signature Baby Salad Greens. (Currently, only two aggressive brokers remain in the war that has so far dropped prices by 65%.) By 1995 Canada began accepting cheap dumped U.S. produce. [Canada’s food baskets had typically cost 20% more than in the U.S. – now they are 20% less and by far the cheapest food in the world!] By the end of the decade, Canada’s agricultural subsidies were virtually eliminated. (Meanwhile U.S., Europe and China have increased subsidies by over 35%.)
Specialty organic growers cannot compete in price with chemically forced produce, heavily subsidized (and dumped) imports, aggressive brokers buying market share, exploiters who "mine" their soil, nor growers who were given their farm by a previous generation. In other words Cookstown Greens’ prices approximate the true cost of providing safe quality vegetables.
"Careful hand harvesting assures premium quality and a long life."
Nevertheless, committed chefs continued to purchase the consistent quality coming from Cookstown Greens’ home-gardening techniques. They love the distinctive colours from proven heritage (and some new) varieties. And they truly appreciate a reliable source for custom picked, seasonal, local, and extraordinary produce.
The promising years to come
Chefs say their customers specifically request the amazing flavours of Cookstown Greens’ produce. Steady increases in ºBrix (long used by grape growers to measure sugars, nutrients and flavour components) are in fact confirming richer flavours. Cookstown Greens’ on-going commitment of raising soil organic matter to enhance soil-life (so far raising it from 2½% to a very respectable 3½%) certainly contributes to more flavour. (California’s typical organic matter has now fallen to under 1%.) A full 75% of Cookstown Greens’ land is devoted to plow-down crops to further increase flavour-enhancing micro-nutrients. Selecting the best tasting varieties rather than the highest yielding ones promotes even more flavour.
Chefs also notice food cost savings as Cookstown Greens shelf life keeps improving. Being small and local means chefs can quickly obtain special requests. Chefs receive consistent on-time delivery, continual in-season availability, steady prices, uniform sizing, and beautiful cosmetics. And most importantly, diners receive appealing presentations with satisfying natural flavours.
"Our carefully organized farm allows us to reliably serve our chefs." |
