Sycamore Farm is a market garden with a focus on mixed vegetable production, honey, cut flowers, and grass-fed highland cattle. We grow our vegetables and cut flowers on 1.5 acres in St. Clair Township, Lambton County. We keep bees on our farm and at two other local, certified organic farms. Our production system follows organic practices with a focus on soil health and environmental sustainability. We hope to expand into agritourism and educational programming in the future.
Our Dream
For most aspects of our life we have a professional we trust and rely on; we each have our doctor, our accountant, our mechanic...but where do we get our food? That important stuff that nourishes our bodies and determines our health? The grocery store. Not a person, but likely a big box store. We don’t know how it was grown, how long it traveled since harvest, or who has handled it. Our society has become disconnected from one of our most basic needs. However, at Sycamore Farm, we believe there is a shift happening in our culture. More and more, people are looking for connections, for stories. They want to know the face behind their food. We believe that there is an appetite and need for the people of Lambton County to have ‘their farmer,’ just like they have their banker or chiropractor. This need is becoming greater as we face concerns of food availability and food sovereignty since the covid19 pandemic. We want to fulfill this need by providing healthy, local, sustainably grown food for our community.
The most important part of Sycamore Farm is how we grow our food. We are greatly disturbed by the degradation of our natural environment and the looming threat of climate change. We feel that the greatest contribution we can make to the health of the environment is to practice regenerative agriculture. That is, building soil, storing carbon, creating wildlife habitat, avoiding chemical pesticides, herbicides, and fertilizers, and working with nature, rather than fighting it. This framework determines our day to day decisions in how we operate our business. We want to give back to the land rather than just take from it.
Our dream is to create a financially viable farm business that improves our land, provides healthy food to our community, and helps to fuel a cultural shift towards local food.
Our goals can be summarized in our company’s mantra:
Healthy Environment.
Healthy Food.
Healthy People.
About the Owners
Justin and Felicia Nicol strive to work with nature to grow healthy, delicious food.
Justin is a horticulturalist with a diploma from the Niagara Parks School of Horticulture behind him. He farms the land bought by his great grandfather, James Nicol, in 1900. Growing up on this farm drove him towards a career working with plants. He owns and operates a arboriculture and landscaping business, Natures Way. At Sycamore Farm, he maintains our beehive colonies, attends farmer's markets and helps in the vegetable garden when he's available.
Justin pruning a Sycamore Tree at Sycamore Farm. He planted these trees along the laneway when he was 12 years old!
Felicia has always loved nature and being outdoors. She attended the University of Guelph to study a BSc in Environmental Sciences, followed by a Master's Integrative Biology. She looks at agriculture as an ecosystem, applying ecological principles to maximize yield, while minimizing impact.
Felicia manages the vegetable garden, cattle herd and business side of things.
Our Team
We receive a lot of free labour from our friends and family that have helped us get through some difficult seasons!
We also have a dedicated team of part time staff that assist with planting, harvesting and maintaining our vegetable growing area.