Hedgeview Farm

Meet Your Farmer

Brenna Jansen

I’m Brenna! I am the market gardener at my family’s farm – Hedgeview Farm. Together with my supportive family and friends, 2024 will be my 14th season of producing field grown organic veggies for our local community in Pembroke.

I love long days in the field, connecting with families during CSA pick up, and the hustle at the amazing Carp Farmers’ Market. I have a developing passion for garlic and we are slowly developing this as a main crop on the farm.

Hedgeview Farm is a 3rd-generation mixed farm with a small scale market garden. We are focused on producing quality, nutritious produce, through sustainable agricultural practices. We grow over 100 varieties of vegetables and some fruits on a 2 acre plot. In 2021, we gained our status as Certified Organic through Eco-Cert Canada.

We market our vegetables at the Carp Farmers’ Market and also locally through our on-farm CSA Veggie Basket program. We also offer a large selection of organically grown garlic for table and seed, which is available in August.

Our Farming Practices

Use only certified organic and/or

untreated seeds.

Use of mulches and cover crops to reduce erosion, build soil, retain soil moisture, and increase nutrients.

Control insect pressure through physical barriers (netting) and long crop rotations.

Control disease through long crop rotations and careful seed selection (i.e. disease resistant cultivars).

Encourage pollinators by supporting wild spaces and biodiversity.

Radish cover crops used for bio drilling.

Continuously build soil health through compost applications, green manures and reduced tillage.

History

Our Story

Hedgeview Farm was a dairy farm owned by George and Hazel Matheson. George’s parents bought the farm in 1915 (est. 1875) and George was raised here. Together with his wife Hazel, George bought the farm in the 1940s.
George and Hazel were looking for a family to come work on the farm, for they themselves did not have children.

In 1953 Brenna’s grandparents – Ruth and Albert Jansen were sponsored to come to Canada from Bremen Germany (Ruth fled Latvia during WWII), to start a new life with their baby Christiana.

In 1969 Ruth and Albert Jansen bought the farm from George and Hazel and gave the farm the name, Hedgeview Farm. Together with their 3 children (Christiana, Benita and Gary), Ruth and Albert ran their dairy farm.

In 1982 Ruth and Albert sold the dairy farm to their son Gary and daughter-in-law Sharron. For 24 years, Gary and Sharron ran the dairy farm together with their 3 children – Emily, Paul and Brenna until 2006, when they sold the cows and quota.

In 2011, Brenna returned from Denmark with her now husband Mathias, to start a market garden using organic methods. Brenna and Mathias’ two children, Svea and Peter, put four generations of our family on the farm.

In 2021, we are celebrating 11 years with the market garden and going strong!!