About Us
“My great-grandfather and grand-father were farmers, and my father was a farm boy. It seems that when mankind makes something to get rid of a pest, we do more harm through unintended consequences than good. We need to learn how to tend to nature’s gifts responsibly.”
Brass Point Farm was established in 2018 by Dorothy Hector. It is located next to the historic Rideau Canal, near Kingston, Ontario. At Brass Point Farm Dorothy grows organic elderberry, pears and plums, and produces elder products for use in juices, syrups, jams, cordials and tea.
Dorothy’s farming journey first began back in 2002 when she purchased the 74 acres of land. At the time, she purchased what would eventually become Brass Point Farm with no real purpose for it other than eventual retirement. She worked for the World Food Programme in over 78 countries and saw first-hand the importance of resilient lands for food security.
Her work abroad inspired her to restore the land she owned, and thus, although she wasn’t farming from the get-go, Dorothy has been actively caring for the land for the last two decades.
Our Story
With the help of a retired contact with the Ministry of Natural Resources, the Cataraqui Conservation Authority and Ducks Unlimited, there have been over 3000 trees planted on Dorothy’s property since 2002. They brought in endangered black walnut, white oak, tamarack, maple and other native species, and enhanced the wetlands with bushes, tamarack and wild red elderberry.
The harsh winter weather, droughts in summer and the rogue snowmobilers took their toll on the trees, and in 2017, only 40% of the planted trees had survived. Despite these losses, the space where trees didn’t take left the land open for Dorothy’s next project: elderberries.
Growing Organic
In June 2018 Dorothy signed up for an Elderberry workshop put on by River Hills Harvest in Missouri. “I told myself that what I learned there would enable a decision to commit to elderberries or not. After listening to agriculture PhD students, professors and farmers it was an easy decision and one based on science, real data, and the experience of those in the business.”
A year later, she planted 3000 elderberry cuttings, as well as some pear, plum and heart nut trees. Her first certified organic elderberry plants flowered in 2020, and although there was a limited berry production that year, she dried and sold the flowers for tea – and sold out in all her products!
This coming year she plans on opening up the front acreage of her property for six more acres to transition to organic. This would more than double the acres she was working with in 2020, and, with some help, she hopes to continue to grow. In the next five years she plans to transition 29 more acres using ag forestry principles, and add a windmill to the solar systems running the farms irrigation.
Needless to say, we’re excited to see what is coming up next at Brass Point Farm! Make sure to follow Dorothy on her website, on Instagram, and Facebook.
Brass Point Farm ( Seeley’s Bay, ON )
Meet Our
GEO-O Farmers!
GEO-O stands for Growing Eastern Ontario Organically, a three-year, on-the-ground initiative to support farmers to transition to organic through mentorship, financial incentives, and on-site experiential learning. GEO-O builds on COG’s earlier Organic Success initiative to provide farmers much more in-person, on-site, and farmer-to-farmer training. GEO-O is a first of its kind experiential learning-centred approach in a specific region.
COG will compare the outcomes of GEO-O to similar efforts across the country in order to bring further benefits to the entire Canadian organic sector.