Courtis Family Farms

07/26/2024

Now shipping our voracious Red Wrigglers “The Cadillac Of Composting Worms" coast to coast in Canada!

Worms will come in washed and re-used plastic bags (usually 1L milk bags) and be hungry and happy to devour all of your organic waste material and turn it into nutrient rich compost aka black gold!

Did you know that Red Wrigglers make a healthy treat for a wide range of pets such as: fish, frogs, rays, sharks, turtles, and more! When fed to chickens they can improve laying performance and egg quality. Simply store your worms in the fridge and give them a rinse off before sharing them with your pet friends.

Prices are as follows:

150 worms $10
350 “ $20
500 “ $25

Shipping & Returns: Free local delivery is available to customers within the Sarnia area. Minimum purchases of $75 or more will receive free shipping. We offer $25 flat rate express shipping with tracking through out Canada on all other orders. All sales are final.

07/18/2024

We harvested our first head of romaine lettuce!! This one started to bolt so it was time to harvest!

07/12/2024

Unwashed Loose-leaf Little Gem Lettuce

Freshly harvested crisp, delicious, and tender Little Gem loose-leaf lettuce is now available! Grown in the city of Sarnia using best organic practices our lettuce need only be washed before consumption. Watered with both tap and rain water. No fungicides, herbicides, or pesticides used.

Asking $3 per zip lock bag full. Message to arrange pickup or free local delivery.

07/09/2024

Almost as cool as a cucumber and with just as sweet a scent is our big volunteer Borage flower. Not the world's most photogenic plant but what it lacks in looks it makes up for by having this amazing cucumber/ melon smell and pretty star shaped flowers. Grown from last year's seeds that made their way back into the garden at the end of last season. Borage is always a welcomed guest in our garden as it's great for attracting pollinators especially bees.

07/09/2024

Little Gem Romaine lettuce produces small compact heads good for loose leaf or full heads. Resists bolting and pests well although I have found a few earwigs hanging around. Unlike many varieties I have tried little gem stay crisp and tender even in the most extreme heat. I have been spraying it with water directly on the foliage ussualy when I water it in the mornings right before sunrise or during extreme heat waves.

07/06/2024

Another sale of worms, hit us up if you need worms for your compost systems or even chickens!

06/28/2024

Stop buying expensive soil and fertilizers! Start saving money and the planet by adding Red Wrigglers to your composting system today! 50 million tonnes of food waste are dumped in Canada each year with Ontario's landfill capacity projected to be exhausted by 2032. Stop sending preventable waste to the landfills and instead turn what would be garbage into valuable nutrient rich worm castings, a gardeners black gold! They don't call them the ultimate composting worm for nothing! Red Wrigglers can consume 2 - 3 times their own body weight each day meaning that 79 kilograms of waste created per average household each year is easily avoidable.

Did you know they are also suitable for use in indoor vermicomposters, hydroponic systems, as fishing bait, a delicious treat for certain pets. When fed to chickens red worms provide a great source of protein helping to aid feather growth and increase egg production.

Our worms come packaged with some bedding inside of rinsed and re-used milk bags. Asking $10 for 150 adult worms. Need more worms? Message us for a quote or to arrange pick up or delivery. Free local delivery (within 5 kms) and shipping are available, weather permitting.

Thank You
Courtis Family Farms

06/12/2024

06/09/2024

Starburst patty pan squash, $8 each or 3 for $20. Solely watered with rainwater and grown in our super soil.

06/09/2024

Vintage wine heirloom tomato $10 each, watered solely with rainwater, grown in our super soil.

06/09/2024

3 - red candy cane peppers, $8 each or 3 for $20, solely watered with rainwater. Grown in our super soil.

06/09/2024

Galahad heirloom tomatoes $8 each or 3 for $20, watered solely with rainwater. Grown in our super soil.

06/09/2024

Twingo pepper, $10 only one available, solely watered with rainwater. Grown in our super soil.

06/09/2024

Milena pepper, ready to go $10 only one available, watered solely with rainwater. Grown in our super soil.

06/09/2024

7 - big Jim peppers ready to go in the ground or a large container $8 each or 3 for $20. Only watered with rain water. Grown in our super soil.

06/09/2024

Red robbin tomatoes compact determinate dwarf plant that's why on the small side, does best in containers with thick beefy stalk and cherry red tomatoes. Asking $8 each or 3 for $20. Being planted out this weekend, only watered with rain water. Grown in our super soil.

06/09/2024

Chadwick's cherry tomatoes, transplanted into these pots 04/25/24. Being planted out this weekend. Asking $8 each or 3 for $20. Finally available after a slow start. Only watered with rain water. Grown in our super soil.

06/01/2024

We transplanted our Flat White Boer pumpkins today! We can't wait to see them grow!

05/28/2024

Get Ready to Compost with Courtis Family Farms!

Are you interested in starting your own composting journey? Look no further! Our Red Wriggler Composting Worms are not only perfect for vermicomposting and creating a nutrient-rich super soil, but they also make a delightful treat for aquatic pets like rays, turtles, frogs, and more! Whether you're looking to reduce your waste or create a nutrient-rich fertilizer for your garden, our worms are the perfect choice. Choose from the following packages:

20 Larger Red Worms: $2.50 - Great fish bait or a special treat for your aquatic and amphibious pet friends.

150 Worms: $10 - Ideal for small to medium-sized indoor and outdoor composting bins.

350 Worms: $20 - Our largest package, perfect for those who want to accelerate their composting process and see a significant impact on their waste reduction goals right away.

All of our worms are packed in reused, upcycled containers or milk bags with some bedding and include a mixture of both worms and eggs (3-5 worms per egg).

Did You Know?

Red Wrigglers are voracious eaters, consuming up to 2-3 times their own body weight in organic matter each day. They're also nature's recyclers, breaking down food waste and other organic materials into a nutrient-rich compost.

The Best All-Natural Fertilizer:

Worm castings, also known as worm p**p, is the best all-natural fertilizer for your indoor and outdoor garden plants. It's rich in nutrients and microorganisms that promote healthy plant growth, improve soil structure, and increase crop yields.

Don't miss out on this opportunity to start composting and give your garden the nutrients it deserves. Contact us today to place your order!

05/25/2024

Our plants are soaking up the rays today!

05/24/2024

Step into the vibrant world of California Giant Zinnias, a beloved heirloom variety that has been delighting gardeners for generations. These extraordinary flowers can reach heights of 4 feet tall, producing stunning semi-double blooms that resemble intricate, hand-crafted lace. With their kaleidoscope of colors, including orange, pink, purple, yellow, white, cherry and scarlet, they're a true showstopper. Originally bred in the sun-kissed fields of California, this treasured heirloom is known for its effortless growth and ability to thrive in a variety of conditions. Whether you're seeking a splash of color for your garden or a statement piece for your vase, California Giant Zinnias are sure to impress.

Heirloom grown naturally using best organic practices from seed in homemade super soil and watered with rain water. $8 each, 2 for $15, or 3 for $20. Message to arrange pickup or local delivery today.

05/04/2024

Chadwicks Cherry tomatoes making a big come back this year after sitting on the shelf! 🍅 🍒 Bearing the same name as influential educator in the field of biodynamic/ French intensive gardening, Alan chadwick. These golf ball size red tomatoes pack a lot of sweet flavor but not many seeds. Prolific, disease resistant, easy to grow and good for just about anything you can think of. That's how it's remained a favorite in our garden since first discovering it. I was introduced to double digging through Alans videos and continue to use this method to prepare all of my garden beds to this day.

05/04/2024

Started on 04/23 using our super soil and loving it! Tempted to start a few more of these before it's to late. Grow pumpkins grow!

05/04/2024

We are getting experimental this year trying out a bunch of new varieties of everything! A first for us that's really taken off in recent days is the Flat White Boer pumpkin.

Courtis Family Farms

05/04/2024

How To Make Courtis Family Farms Super Soil

Essentially a compost system is a closed loop system that takes care of itself, for the most part. Just keep adding your organic material and you will continue getting a steady flow of finished compost. Finished compost can be used right away, but we like to take a few extra steps to completely separate unfinished materials before adding soil amendments to make the perfect potting soil and growing medium. Here is the three step process in which we use to do so.

Step 1: The finished compost is shoveled into a tote tub where two mesh screens have been placed one on top of another. The first screen that the material goes into is an old plastic garden pot tray with 1/2 inch mesh holes that rests on the second screen.

Step 2: Similar to that of the motion a gold prospector would use when panning for gold, I begin by rocking the tray side to side. Anything smaller than ½ inch falls through to the secondary screening area, leaving behind anything larger. The left over material, mostly consisting of various sized sticks and wood chips is saved for mulching garden beds or tossed back into the bin for further composting. A good rule of thumb I like to use is if I can't break it with my hands easily it goes back into the main pile. Any garbage or plastic is also collected during this step for disposal later in the trash.

Step 3: The material now rests in the secondary screening area made from a heavy duty ¼ inch galvanized steel garden cloth formed to fit snugly on the inner edge of the tote without falling in. This secondary screening area has also been given a convex shape to resemble that of a basket. This rests at the top of the tub and allows for the material to easily be collected during the first screening. I repeat a similar process to that in step 2, but instead of rocking the material from side to side I use a light tumble to separate it. Garbage is the first thing I usually spot followed by small sticks and stones. These items will impede a plants ability to grow in some cases so we want to collect them to be disposed of accordingly. This 1/4' inch mulch is much finer and contains a more or less finished product but has more of a wood chip like texture to it making it great for mulching around the base of plants. This left over mulch material is usually kept separate for mulching and fertilizing the garden, but this year I have mixed the bi products of step 2 and 3 because it was roughly all around the same size and stage of decay. A few unlucky worms may have made it this far of which I toss back into the composter, but by this time most of the worms have already migrated to the all you can eat buffet in the first bin.

Black gold. This is what your left with, now ready for your amendments to be added to complete the mix or as a ready to use top dressing.

Courtis Family Farms super soil mix is now available! Sold in 1L recycled milk bags for $10 each or 3 for $20 while supplies last. Our super soil comes amended with agricultural grade vermiculite and perlite in a 60/20/20 mix respectively.

05/04/2024

This is where it all begins. It starts by collecting all of our organic kitchen waste in a small container that we keep on the counter. Every few days someone from the family takes it to our backyard and empties it into the first cell of our 3 bin homemade compost system. Our small family of 3 produce enough waste in one year to fill an entire 3 x 3 cubic foot bin. Once full it needs to be turned and rotated into the second cell for further decomposition. The act of moving the material greatly speeds up the process by introducing oxygen and creating an aerobic environment where material break down quickly. This has helped us to divert hundreds of lbs of waste from the landfill each year while providing us with an abundance of nutrient dense soil.

Want to build your own rat proof 3 bin composting system? The link below is the same blueprint that I used when building mine about 3 years ago now and it's still holding up very well. It has survived one move and a few winters and been able to contain hundreds of lbs of waste well keeping the pests out.

THREE BIN COMPOSTER PLANShttps://foodshare.net/custom/uploads/2015/11/Three_Bin_Composter_Guide.pdf

04/29/2024

Sustainable pots made with newspapers filled with our soil made from our compost bin

04/29/2024

Burning the midnight oil, making some midnight soil. We haven't bought soil in years because of our compost pile with our red wiggler worms, they are absolutely amazing at breaking down food scraps into black gold! We are selling worms and worm castings now that the weather is getting nicer!
150 worms for $10
Recycled milk bag worm castings $10 each or 3 bags = approx 4l for $20

04/26/2024

Starting two trays of tomato seeds! We're excited to try these different varieties and see what works best!