It’s been an incredibly trying season so far on the farm, as I’m sure it has been for everyone.

After 30+ seasons growing fruits and vegetables, I’m prepared each spring to work hard, for long hours until the crops have been harvested. I’m used to being tired at the end of the day. And it feels good to go to bed tired, knowing you’ve put in a good day’s work, having done something challenging and meaningful. Usually, I awake the next morning rested, refreshed and ready to go again.

But this year is different. It’s not tiring. It’s exhausting. And after 4 months of this pandemic, I’m never getting fully rested and refreshed. I feel like a marathon runner hitting “the wall”. And just like a marathon runner, I need to keep going. And focus on just crossing the finish line of this season.

So it was in this exhausted state, that I learned about Facebook “trolls”. I didn’t even know they existed. Turns out they are fictitious people on Facebook that are attempting to spread an agenda or an ideology. They target businesses or groups who have a large number of followers. By giving the business a poor rating on Facebook (even though they have never actually visited the business) they bait the owner into responding to their phony review. When this happens, all of the business’ followers see the response and are exposed to the ideology being promoted.

So I responded to the phony reviews. I should have just let it go. But in my exhausted state, I wasn’t really thinking properly. The more I responded, the more they kept coming. It was relentless. I finally came to the point where I determined that it wasn’t worth the battle.

So I turned off Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. For now. Maybe forever. I don’t know. But I’ve determined that I don’t need to be beholden to Mark Zuckerberg in order to make a living selling quality fruits and vegetables. My family has been offering pick your own berries since 1977 – a full seven years before Zuckerberg was even born.

So we’re going to focus on communicating in a more “old fashioned” way. Through our website, our email list, and by our telephone crop report.

So please stay in touch. Check our website. Sign up to our email list. Phone the crop report. And we’ll do our best to keep you informed.

And together, we’ll remain passionate about local food. And eating healthy. And preserving farmland. And keeping Ontario green. And food secure in challenging times.

Farmer Morris