About

History:

John Boy Farms is a 6th-generation family farm that has been growing crops since 1879. The operation is located in the fertile Red River Valley of southern Manitoba, 20 minutes from Winnipeg. The region has a continental climate, which means very cold winters, hot summers and variable growing conditions from year to year. The farm has mostly black clay and silty soils that are some of the most productive in the world. 

The location's harsh and unique environment is perfect for selecting and adapting the strongest, most vigorous garlic seed varieties and cover crop species. This means that garlic grown by John Boy Farms has amazing flavour, is cold hardy and is ideal for use as seed stock for almost any growing conditions in Canada.

Today:

The farm is currently managed by John and his wife Ainsley. They are helped by John's parents who both still actively work on the farm. Their daughter, siblings, nieces and many cousins all pitch in as well when needed.

John is an agronomist with a Bachelor of Science Degree in Agriculture and has been using his knowledge and experience to research and develop improved growing techniques suitable for the extreme Canadian prairie environment. He began growing garlic in 2006 and now specializes in producing cold-hardy garlic varieties that thrive under Canada's cold climate conditions.

All the garlic stock he has chosen over the years has had to meet certain criteria, including, great flavour, good bulb size, strong plant vigor, and tolerance for a wide range of growing conditions. 

John has also added a large selection of cover crops to the farm's growing rotation and offers seeds for other farms, small growers and gardeners. 

The farm sells its premium garlic seed and cover crop seed to customers across Canada. 

Growing Methods:

John Boy Farms uses many sustainable and natural growing methods that have been adopted by organic growers. The farm plants cover crop green manures, uses seaweed applications and adds compost for fertility. It also uses long crop rotations, pest prevention strategies and mechanical weeding in order to avoid the use of synthetic pesticides.

Every garlic plant is individually inspected multiple times during the growing season and at harvest. Any garlic that appears weak and/or shows signs of disease or infection is always removed immediately and destroyed to ensure only the strongest, healthiest garlic seed is kept. To see all their quality control protocols during the growing season, check out their Disease & Pest Management page.

John also works closely with extension staff from the provincial agriculture department and other farmers across Canada to help monitor and ultimately prevent new pests/diseases from entering the farm's seed garlic stocks. Learning and developing new cover cropping strategies that are useful to other growers of different sizes is also a priority.  

For more information on how they grow their garlic, see the Growing Garlic pages and look for the little  symbol.

If you have any questions about the farm or want to discuss anything, please feel free to contact them.