Silver Creek Nursery

NOTICE: EVENT CANCELLED DUE TO TIGHTENED SOCIAL RULES. BE IN TOUCH FOR NEXT YEARS TASTING! We are planning our annual fruit tasting and orchard tour for Oct. 17...due to the pandemic, things will be quite different than previous years. Contact us for specific details or to book your time with us! Ph:519-804-6060 email:[email protected] Available time slots:... 9am-11am 11:30am-1:30pm 2pm-4pm Each time slot we welcome 30 people to our farm. We will divide into groups of 15, and half of the group will join Steph for a guided orchard and nursery tour. The other half tastes the various fruit from our orchard at the store area, and can enjoy our mini-market with a few of our favorite local farmers and artisans (vendor posts to follow!). After about an hour, the groups will switch. We would ask our guests to kindly leave in a timely manner once the 2 hours are up, to allow us to clean the areas down before the next group arrives. And while it feels very rude to say, regretfully we will not allow drop-in guests the day of the event. We care about the health and well being of everyone, and as such feel we need to treat this event with what feels a bit like excessive caution, but firmly believe the old adage, "better safe than sorry!". Guests must wear a face mask and maintain a physical distance with the exception (of the mask) being during the tasting part of the event, as per the rules of the province. We are very excited to host yet another annual tasting, and hope to see you there!!

Q: How big are the trees we sell? A: We say 1m minimum, for a 1 year old, grafted tree. The trees in the rows pictured here are both plums. They are both 1 year. They are both the same price. One is Shiro (the bigguns on the right), one is President (the petite ones on the left). Because we grow so many different cultivars, this difference can be distinct and varied. And each and every different cultivar has a different level of vigour. A bigger tree does not mean a better tr...ee, sometimes it merely means a more vigorous tree. Mother Nature just decided to give different growth patterns to different trees, and voila, we have a pretty crazy variation between varieties! So, something to keep in mind come spring or fall, and you receive your bundle of trees: size doesn't really matter; what matters most is that they are planted asap into healthy soil, given a little drink, and shown some love thereafter. . . . . #nurserystock #barerootfruittrees #fruittrees #backyardorchard #fruittreenursery See more

A little crop check-in: it's challenging to get comprehensive pictures of the crop without them just looking like a mass of green... here is my attempt: Picture 1: knip-boom (bench grafted) Golden Russet on B9; look at those branches! That's a happy tree! For scale, the stakes are 4'. Picture 2: Zack's cover crop, so pretty! Soon to be disced and replanted with winter rye. Picture 3: More of Zack's cover crop, this is sun hemp- aside from the other soil benefits, it adds love...ly spikes of yellow to the field! Picture 4: Even more of Zack's cover crop, these are forage peas in bloom. Pretty pretty! Picture 5: baby knip-booms, these trees will be dug next fall, but they are off to a great start! Picture 6: Pears! That's a 6' stake it's scaling, and people wonder why shipping costs so much! Picture 7: Chickle-pickles living their life. This flock of meat birds are enjoying their last few weeks in the clover, before gracing our families and friends freezers and bellies. Thanks, chickies. . . . . #ontarioagriculture #fruittreenursery #knipboom #growyourownfood #smallfarm #mixedfarming See more

Thank Dad!! my very own Treemobile I'm so excited to give it a good workout this fall!! . It has electricity (for a coffee pot ) and lighting inside, and the plan is to have a covered tying and grading station right out in the field, to keep the sun and wind out as we handle the bareroot trees. Bundles of washed trees will go in the front half-door, get counted, graded and tied, and then plopped in a bin at the rear which can be taken to cold storage and unloaded. We'll be digging trees in style this fall . #homemade #fruittreenursery #treemobile #familylove #growyourownfood #oneofakind

Fall Potted Tree Sale: 20% off 5+ potted plants!! Open Friday and Saturday in September and October, 8am-5pm, visit our website for availability and pricing

Ripe now in the orchard Dolgo crab apples! An unknown variety that was labled 'Berlepsch', but clearly isnt! And Butirra Precoce Moretini pears! . Dolgo makes an excellent jelly or an astringent summer snack, like lemonade (dolgoade?!) on a hot summers day! . This unknown apple has a uniquely strong cherry flavour, I've never tasted anything like it! However, Berlepsch ripens late Oct, so I'm sure it's not that... and this is why we have the test orchards, so we can gro...w a cultivar out before we sell it, to try to ensure everything is true-to-name. There is only one major budwood supplier in Canada, and while they are usually accurate, there's been more than one incident where something was mixed up; not to mention all the lovely scion swaps out there; make sure you trust the source, or you might get something completely different than what you wanted! That's why we aim to do everything in house, where possible. . Butirra Precoce Moretini- this was the only pear on the tree, so she's tucked into the fridge to taste at the annual fruit tasting! This variety keeps well, so I'm excited to taste it in October! See more

TO-MA-TOES, so many, so many kinds!! Wayne grew over 60 varieties of heirloom tomatoes this spring for his veg seedling sales, and planted almost all of them; consequently he's swimming in tomatoes... so beautiful, so tasty!

#august at the nursery: chickies made it out to pasture, grafting is the name of the game, collecting budwood is extra exciting when there's apples on the tree (unripe Spartans pictured here with what appears to be a Red Spotted Admiral flutterby), and a little raspberry reward at the end of a long day courtesy of @burdockbrewery

And so the grafting season begins, starting it off with a round of new varieties from @tropic_of_canada, some to be just added to the test orchards, and some to jump right in to the offerings in the catalogue when fall 2022/spring 2022 rolls around. Some of the new varieties include the ever elusive Shipova, an assortment of Asian and European Pears, Chinese apricots (with a sweet pit!), various plums, peaches, cherries, paw paws, and of course, apples Thanks so much, Keith and Michelle, for the tour, cuttings, and comradery in growing anything and everything edible, in your little slice of paradise in Wainfleet @ Wainfleet, Ontario

Hello there since I use the word 'I' a lot on here, I thought I better introduce myself! I am Steph, new owner of the nursery (as of June 2020, taken over from my cousin Ken who made Silver Creek Nursery into the wonderful business that it is). Zack, on the right, is my partner in crime. He works part time at a tool and die business in Stratford, and part time at the nursery doing a mix of maintenance and soil work. And Edgar, staring off into the distance below, keeps the ...mood light and helps us find the weak grafts when he chases with reckless abandon after a frisbee if it strays off course into the nursery field . Recently an employee asked me why I grow trees, which got me thinking... why do I do what I do? . What gets me up and going every morning, aside from that lovely bit of debt that comes with buying a business, is the fact that with each and every tree that I graft, prune, grow and nurture, there is the opportunity for *good* food to be made more accessible to more humans. Every spring, thousands of our food-trees find their homes across Canada, to be grown and cared for by their humans, to eventually provide food, year after year after year. Which I think is just amazing. To be able to literally grow that potential feels pretty good! I believe in local food, the power of perennial crops, and growing with only inputs from Mother Nature. I believe soil health means more than we know, and trees of any kind are an intrinsic part of the world, and we should all plant more, everywhere. I believe food is a common ground between all humans, that is so very valuable yet often forgotten and disregarded in the bustle of life. . So, that's a bit about me... if you made it to the end of my spiel, I hope something in that jumble resonates with you; Russle Brandt talks in his book 'Revolution' about how a community is common unity. That has stuck with me the last couple of months, with the happenings this spring/now, with hiring my summer help for the first time, and working with people for a common cause. Common unity. I look forward to carrying the community around Silver Creek Nursery onward towards a sustainable food future See more

That load x10: victory over the sow thistles!!! Way to go team! Tomorrow we'll tackle ragweed and lambs quarters.... many hands make light work, and when the weeds are big, they make a big difference when you pull em! #progress #goteamgo #sowthistles #weedingwarriors

An ode to fruit grown for pleasure, not perfection "The imperfect is out paradise" -Wallace Stevens #growyourownfruit #growyourownfood #yellowcherry #sweetcherry

Sweet little chickle-pickles these little fluffs will soon be moved off our front lawn to the clover field at the nursery. Then, after eating the clover and weeds and pooping a lot to fertilize the field, they'll fill the freezers of our friends and family.