FAQ

Frequently Asked Questions

 Where are you located?

Our farm is located in Glenville, Nova Scotia. It’s a little hamlet between Mabou and Inverness on the island of Cape Breton.

Are you open to the public?

We don’t have a farm shop at this time. Come see me at the Mabou Farmers’ Market on Sundays from June to the second week in October.

Do you do bulk orders or wholesale?

At this time, we don’t do wholesale. We can do larger volume orders providing we have a lot of lead time to ensure we grow what we need and have the time to produce your products.

Are your products certified organic? Will they be?

No, our products are not certified organic, and it’s not likely they will be due to the size of our business and the complexity of the process.  However, we practice natural and organic farming methods and always prefer bees to toxic chemicals! You can read more about us here.

I first bought from you when you were called La Femme Nikketo. What happened?

Thanks for your continued support! After three years of operating and growing under La Femme Nikketo, making sugar-free products, we decided to expand our products and shift our brand to be under the name of our farm, The Farm in Glenville, focusing on our farm-to-table products. We will, of course, continue to produce our popular sugar-free products.

So many of your products are sugar-free; when will the sugar products be on your website?

Since this is a new direction, products will be added as they are produced throughout the season. This season is hectic (ok, they’re all crazy busy), but we’ll get there.

My sugar-free jam looks separated; what do I do?

Our sugar-free jams are natural products. Because we are sugar-free and use all-natural products, sometimes ‘fruit float’ can happen to fruit like strawberry or rhubarb during the canning process, leaving pulp at the top and jelly on the bottom. If this occurs with your jam, don’t worry; it’s just as delicious as all our other jams. When this happens, we encourage our customers to dig in and mix it up!!!

What does it mean you’re sold out for the season?

We are a farm-to-table business that strongly believes in growing what we make. Rarely, if other local growers have supplies beyond our own, we may top up (this is true with Blueberries, as our bushes are young and our neighbour has acres of stunning wild blueberries!). We try to estimate demand and expand our crops as we grow while minimizing food waste. So, when we run out, that’s until next year’s harvest.

I just bought something from you at a market. Will those items be on your website?

Yes and no. For the most part, my products will make it to my website.  If you are reading this and we are still in a growing season, I usually am so busy farming, making, and selling at my local farmer’s markets that I don’t have a chance to update my website. However, once the farmers market ends Thanksgiving weekend (the second weekend of October here in Canada), I usually put aside time to update the website with all the current products. If you follow me on Instagram or Facebook, I post when that happens.
But—there’s always a but. At times, I test new products there. If you see something unique at a market, feel free to contact me to inquire if I’ll continue producing the item. Additionally, for the most part, I don’t sell individual lollipops online.

Why don’t you use the same sweetener in all your sugar-free products?

Sometimes, I feel that producing sugar-free goods requires being part magician, chemist, and explorer. There are so many sugar-free sweeteners out there, and not one of them behaves exactly like sugar. Each has its positive and negative qualities depending on the application. For instance, I use a lot of allulose, but never in hard candy. It would never become hard in candy-making because it loves water too much.

Are there sugar-free sweeteners you don’t use in your products?

Yes, there are a few. I don’t use artificial sweeteners at all. Next, I’m not a fan of stevia because of the aftertaste, so I don’t use that either. Also, I don’t use xylitol as it’s toxic to dogs. I love dogs and have an adorable retired racing greyhound who is an expert at catching what falls on the floor before anyone can get to it first — he’s that fast. As such, if I don’t have any food with xylitol in my house, just in case it could fall on the floor and be consumed by my super-fast houndie, I won’t put it in my products just in case for your puppies, too. Finally, I don’t use products like maltitol or mannitol, as they are notorious for upsetting the stomach.