About Us

To contact us:

• Email at sales@northernfoodforest.ca
• Call or text Hailey at 705-845-5738 Monday to Friday 9-5

Northern Food Forest Nursery specializes in growing cold hardy fruit and nut trees, berries, vines, and perennials to zone 4 and colder for our Canadian climate. We are located in Calvin Ontario, about 30 mins east of North Bay. We ship bareroot trees and plants to all of Canada excluding British Columbia in early spring (mid April to mid May). We take pre orders from December 1st until May 1st, and from there our website will close down during the summer while the trees are growing. We offer pick up options for local customers as well. We are a relatively small scale nursery so to avoid disappointment, get your orders in as soon as possible.

What is bare root? Check out our article about this to learn why we grow our trees and plants this way and the many benefits.

We are located on a 16 acre homestead and experimental food forest farm in Calvin, Ontario. All of our trees and plants have been grown, grafted and propagated by us and are grown with a deep reverence for nature. We can attest to the cold hardiness and productivity of our trees/plants because we grow all of them on our site or in other sites within Northern Ontario. If it doesn't survive -40 C and colder we don't grow it! We are passionate about creating food security in our extreme climate and are excited to open individuals' minds to all of the delicious things you can grow in areas that are traditionally thought to be lacking in food production. We are proud of the healthy, loved, naturally grown trees that we care for and truly believe in all they offer the world. All of our trees are grown without the use of synthetic fertilizers, herbicides, pesticides, or coddling. This is actually very rare in the nursery industry, and you can rejoice in knowing that your trees were grown in natural ways. These trees experience nature in all of it's natural glory; for better or for worse. This prepares them for the reality of our world.

The nursery owner and head grower Hailey Van Nood is passionate about growing fresh food, sustainable food systems, and what is possible to successfully grow in extremely cold climates. Her favourite thing in the world is going out into her landscape and picking fresh fruit right off of the tree. She received her Horticulture Technician diploma from Niagara College and has built her entire career around plants in Northern Ontario. She’s obsessed! With experience and knowledge in organic farming, landscape installation and design, wild foraging, permaculture, agroforestry, and nursery production, Hailey built the nursery from the ground up with her partner Shauna McClemens and is so excited to get healthy plant material out to as many Canadians as possible. She is constantly on the look out for interesting edible plants that will survive in our harsh climate and expanding her collection.

Hailey is incredibly inspired by food forest systems that indigenous peoples in North America create and dreams of a world where perennial sources of food surround us in abundance year after year. Where grapes cling to the fences of school yards that kids snack on during recess, where Apple trees drop so much fruit that you almost have to share baskets of them with neighbours, where Hazelnut bushes provide families and wildlife with nourishing proteins and oils- this can be our world! She sees the amazing effects that growing healthy fruit, nuts, and vegetables can have on people, and trusts in these plant and tree beings that deepen our relation to the earth and each other. While her food forest is still in it’s youth, she aims to provide educational tours in the future once it matures more to teach people about the beauty, resilience and importance of these systems. 

A section of our nursery production space in late spring

Incredible amounts of healthy delicious foods are on the horizon…Plant our trees for food, for wildlife, for sustainability, and for generations to come.

We also utilize air pruning growing systems that encourage tap rooted trees to grow elaborate root systems that enable them to adapt to their new surroundings after planting with ease. Growing trees this way allows them to tap into nutrients in the soil more effectively and reduces transplant shock. 

Don’t hesitate to reach out and ask questions! We appreciate your interest and will be happy to share our insights. Email us at sales@northernfoodforest.ca