My Story
My name is Ian, and I am the owner/operator of IGFresh.
You could say IGFresh started in my garden. But maybe it started in the kitchen, or on my personal health journey, or when I cook for friends & family, or when I give away produce that I have grown. There is no singular event that put me on this path, more like an accumulation of many. I am very passionate about food and want to share it with a community. IGfresh was born.
My passion started, when I was growing up working for parents every summer at their market garden. This was my first introduction to growing food for myself, but also in service of others. Funny enough, I didn’t really enjoy it back then. Like most teenagers I spent more time trying to get out of work than actually doing the work. My passion, which I feel a lot of people can relate to, was to discover and create.
It’s funny though, where life takes you when you follow your dreams. As a young adult, it started down a path for the culinary arts. Creativity, paired with a side of breaking the rules and expressing myself. I remember, when it happened, my aha moment. I was learning about produce, and the term “farm to fork” came up. This concept of chefs using vegetables from local farmers. This was my light bulb moment, all of a sudden I was connected back to land that grew the food. Needless to say by connecting the dots, I was now hooked for life!
Fast forward, 13 years. I hadn’t worked in a kitchen for 3 years. I was missing something, I longed for growing my own food and finding my way back to the passion that fuelled me so long ago. I tore up part of my lawn, to put in a garden. Then the next year I expanded that garden and grew more. I grew far more vegetables than I could keep up with, so I started to give produce away to friends and family. Seeing how happy people were to get fresh vegetables on the regular basis was very rewarding to see. I felt like I need to get more amazing delicious and nutritiously dense food into peoples hands and at the same time to create a community around it.
So with a plan to go back to my roots I started IGFresh. Pairing two things that I love in life, growing food and cooking it. The whole point around all of this is to support people by providing the absolute best vegetables and also set them up to succeed with great storage tips and recipes.
What is a CSA?
CSA stands for Community Supported Agriculture.
A community farming practice that’s been around for generations. Risk is shared between the farmer and the consumer creating a highly supportive environment where the farmer wants to give as much value as possible. The consumer and farmer support each other towards a common goal of growing and harvesting fresh produce every week of the growing season.
The consumer supports the farmer by purchasing a share of the gardens produce early in the season, giving the farmer cash flow to purchase seeds etc. This guarantees the consumer fresh produce for every week of the growing season.The farmer supports the consumer by having the knowledge and doing all the work of growing the vegetables and managing the garden.
The way I have chosen to grow food is all about nurturing the community and the land it’s grown on. I will not be using any harmful chemicals like pesticides or herbicides. I use organic growing practices. Instead of herbicide I pull the weeds and or use black plastic to suppress them. Instead of pesticide I use bug netting, yeast traps that attract the pests and also things like beneficial nematodes and/or beneficial wasps. Beneficial nematodes and wasps are good for the microorganisms in the soil, and do not harm the plants or any pollinators. They will get rid of any pests that are eating the plants. By using these practices we know we are giving you the consumer the highest quality produce.