Farm fresh: Milton man shares secret to scoring $40 grocery bill

A chef from Trinity Bay is fulfilling his dream of becoming self-sufficient by making the most of the land he grew up on.

In an interview with CBC Radio's St. John's Morning Show, Trevor Adams of Milton said his yard is filled with sheep, chickens and turkeys — one of which weighs about 42 pounds. 

"We get so many recalls on food today, it's kind of scary," said Adams, who's a chef by trade.  

Adams lives on the land with his wife and two young children. His brother lives next door. 

"I grew up here and now I give my kids a chance to do the same," he said.

Q. What sorts of fruits and vegetables do you grow?  

On the vegetable side, I'm new ... [I grow] the staples for Newfoundland like potatoes, carrots and turnips. My wife is more of a greens person so she likes her spinach and lettuce and Brussels sprouts. We do all kinds of herbs and stuff — I'm a chef by trade. And we have a greenhouse full of tomatoes. 

I'm very fortunate because this piece of land where I am is surrounded by a little bit of a hilly area. We're really down in the valley, which gives us a few more degrees that surrounding areas don't have.

We're about 5 or 6 degrees above everybody else so I can grow things such as plums — we've got white and purple plums here. I have cherries here, I have an abundance of pears and apples, and there's a peach tree too. My brother who lives next door got a good crop of grapes last year, and all kinds of berries — strawberries and raspberries too. And we're in Milton, Newfoundland … [Not] Milton, Ontario.

Q. What made you want to start growing your own food? 

What really did it for me was a couple of years ago, my father-in-law got cancer and the doctors told him to stay away from certain foods such as red meat and flours, different things … It kind of sent red lights out to me. If he's not allowed to have it because he has cancer, why should I be eating it? Or, more importantly, why am I giving it to my kids?

I try to stay away from genetically modified foods as well. All of our animals that are here on our little homestead, I call it, none of them are genetically modified. I try to stick to heritage breeds as much as possible. 

My three-year-old, for the last year or so, just about everyday he'll come out with me and water the animals, put the food down for them. Both of us take our sheep and our goat for a walk every morning and every afternoon. And the little girl, she wants to, but she's still a little bit unstable on her feet so we have to carry her with us. 

Q. How much money do you think this saves your family on groceries? 

I just started about two months ago. I asked my wife to start keeping the receipts because I want to compare it to years before.

I actually put a bet up with my parents that mine would be cheaper than theirs, and I've got a family of four and they've got just the two of them.

Right now, we're averaging $20 to $40 a week in groceries. It's stuff like [baking] flours, milk and stuff — staples that we've got to have. We're hoping next year, as far as milk and cream goes, we want to use our sheep to its full potential.

Q. Does any one project stand out as being a surprise success? 

We have many projects here. I put in a pizza oven, [but] that's more of a pleasure thing, not a necessity. But we found that to keep things really sufficient, there's one fundamental thing and that was the cellar, a root cellar.

There's many around Newfoundland but there's none [other] that I know of here. [With] the budgets and everything we get today, it's very steep for families. We're doing this willingly but we really believe that, in time, more people are going to have to do it. 

This interview was edited for length and clarity