Rideau Pines Farms supplies restaurants with fresh, local veggies
Matt Vandenberg with his Texas heeler dog, Jimi Hendrix, at the greenhouse where Rideau Pines Farms starts its growing season.
Photo: Peter Simpson
Rideau Pines Farms supplies restaurants with fresh, local veggies
By Peter Simpson
Before the snow melts, before spring has sprung, Matt Vandenberg is putting seeds into soil.
Vandenberg is field production and sales manager for Rideau Pines Farms, the family-owned (with parents John and Saundra Vandenberg) farm in North Gower that supplies fresh local vegetables to many Ottawa restaurants, including Flora Hall Brewing and many others near the Glebe. Rideau Pines Farms is also open for you-pick customers from June 1 to October 31.
Each year starts with Vandenberg planting vegetables of all kinds – though not at the farm.
The Rideau Pines planting season begins in mid-March in a greenhouse on the Kemptville Campus, about 27 kilometres from the family farm. There, in a small greenhouse, Vandenberg plants thousands of seeds in one-inch-by-one-inch planters.
“March 16,” Vandenberg says, during an April visit, when the ground outside is still a mottled mix of greyish white on brownish green. “That’s when peppers need to be sowed, and then the last thing I sow in here is my tomatoes, which is April 16.”
There are perhaps 22,000 vegetables growing in the room, which seems an astonishing number in the compact space. Every surface is covered with trays of seedlings, all side by side on long, wide shelves that slide to allow access between them. Vandenberg tends the seedlings as they break through the surface to meet Monsieur Soleil through the greenhouse glass.
Vandenberg studied horticulture in the attached building when it was a facility of the University of Guelph. Years earlier, his father John was the head of horticulture at the facility. The campus is now owned by the municipality of North Grenville.
At this time of year, Vandenberg arrives every morning with Jimi Hendrix, his five-year-old Texas heeler dog, by his side. “He’s a cattle dog,” Vandenberg says, “one of the best farm dogs.”
The variety of veg is like a tour through the menus of many of Ottawa’s best restaurants.
“We have the brassicas here,” he says, pointing to one section, “the broccoli, cauliflowers, four varieties of Napa cabbage, kohlrabi, Brussels sprouts.” (He agrees with the statement: “People who don’t like Brussels sprouts have never had them cooked properly.”)
His arm sweeps around the room. “There’s basil, dill, about six different types of lettuces, and different types of peppers, from hot to medium to sweet, probably 20 varieties of peppers.”
Almost every crop Rideau Pines grows begins as a seedling in this greenhouse. Only carrots, peas and beans go directly into the ground as seeds. Others, such as beets, are planted as seedlings because if planted as a seed “the weeds will grow past the beets. By transplanting, the beet will be over the top of the weeds, and that’s the advantage.”
When seedlings go into the ground at the farm in North Gower depends on how long winter lingers, but generally it’s “when the soil hits 15 degrees, it starts popping.” By June, the crops will start showing up in Ottawa restaurants.
Every dish at these restaurants is a representation of fresh eating, and a demonstration of how local supports local in the ever-challenged food and restaurant sector. The final link in the chain is built of local customers – who are the reason chefs create these dishes, and the reason Vandenberg tends the seedlings every morning, seven days a week.
Peter Simpson is part of the team at Flora Hall Brewing that produces this monthly column on food and drink (florahallbrewing.ca).
Restaurants that Serve Rideau Pines’ Vegetables
Rideau Pines Farm (rideaupinesfarm.com ) serves, among others, these local restaurants:
Arlo, Arlington 5, Beckta, Black Tartan, Buvette Daphne, Cameron, Corner Peach, Dessert First, Datsun, El Camino, Flora Hall Brewing, Gezellig, Giulia, Harmony, Jax, Linden, Nu Grocery, Parlour, Perch, Play, Poisson Bleu, Red Apron, Riviera, Royals, Soif, Supply & Demand, Town, Whalebone, Wellington Gastro Pub