As we celebrate Earth Day on April 22nd, we recognize that the day can easily feel overwhelming and daunting. We all love our Earth and we want to protect it, but a starting point can feel difficult to find. Many of us already engage with environmentally conscious habits, like recycling and composting, using power during off-peak hours, planting trees and native gardens, switching to energy-efficient appliances, and more. But how else can we learn about our local environment, support stewards of our lands, and promote sustainability? One way is to support and shop from your local farmers' markets. 

There is a particular kind of patience required of anyone who shops locally through a Canadian spring.

You will not find strawberries in April. The tomatoes are not ready. The corn is not even a thought yet.

​If you show up to a farmers' market in mid-April expecting the full, overflowing abundance of July, you will leave a little disappointed, and that disappointment is worth talking about honestly.

When you shop locally at the Horton Farmers' Market on Saturday mornings, you aren't just buying fresh, quality food from local farmers; you're also playing an important part in supporting agricultural biodiversity. 

Agricultural biodiversity, often called agrobiodiversity, is the foundation of our food system. It is made up of a wide variety of plants, animals, microorganisms, and ecosystems that make food production possible. But protecting and promoting agrobiodiversity isn't only important for food production; it's also important for protecting the health of our environments, the sustainability of our farming practices, and resilience throughout climate change. 

When winter arrives in Ontario it can feel like life slows down - but for local farmers, it's just a different kind of busy. Whether they grow vegetables, raise animals, or make food products, winter is a crucial time filled with repairs, planning, purchasing, and chores - all of which help determine how the rest of the year will go.

Growing up in London, Roots & Shoots owner and operator Bess Hilton was always surrounded by plants, animals, and nature. Her mother always had a large garden filled with native plants and wildlife, and she has memories of playing in the nearby trees or searching for bugs and butterflies while her mom would be tending to her garden. "My mom would always tell me about how beneficial different creatures were to helping naturally control bugs," said Bess. "We would take walks in the woods and she would point out all the different types of native flowers and plants, and I would search for fossils and stones in the creek." As Bess grew older, she found herself wanting to reconnect with her roots through exploring growing her own plants, just as her mother had when she was a child, and in 2020 she officially started Roots & Shoots. 

​At Good Food Farms, farming is more than a livelihood; it's a mission. Tina, farm owner and manager, launched this farm-to-table social enterprise rooted in a deep respect for the land, food, and the belief that how and where our food is grown is one of the biggest contributors to both human health and the health of our planet.
 
Their current focus is on producing high-quality, free-range, pastured chicken, but their vision for the future stretches far beyond poultry. Tina has plans to scale up and get into more niche crops. Excitingly, they plan on opening their new farm store in Lucan toward the end of the year, allowing them to grow and build something sustainable, rooted in community, and sharing good food farmed right.

​In the tiny village of Crampton, a church-turned-home by Arthur and Sharon Murray serves as
the headquarters of Herb 4350. Their modest side yard, humble in size but well optimized, is
home to most herbs you can think of, including unique offerings in their potager and petal
gardens.

Since 2012, Chuck Magri has been the owner and operator of Wildflowers Honey, located just on the south edge of St. Thomas. "I never wanted to have bees," Chuck said with a laugh. "I actually wanted to start a small agricultural business. . . I looked at a few different options, read some books, and decided to buy two colonies and see how it went. One died and one lived, and I ended up liking it and now it's grown to what it is today." Chuck now has 125 colonies (only a couple more than the two he started out with) spread out across St. Thomas and Elgin County, and he has been a staple fixture at the Horton Farmers' Market since becoming a vendor around 2016/2017. 

You can trace the roots of Howe Family Farms all the way back to the late 1800s, when the first generation settled into the quiet concessions of Elgin County. They grew what the land gave them, probably without imagining that, over a century later, their great-great-grandchildren would be farming those very same fields—with a few modern updates, of course.

Field of Greens CSA Farm may have officially started in 2024, but owners Kimber and Calvin have always had a love for growing their own food and farming. Calvin grew up on a tobacco farm in Ontario, and Kimber always enjoyed having gardens at home; even when they lived in Alberta near the Rocky Mountains 10 years ago. Calvin made sure Kimber could still grow her favourites by building garden beds and elevated eavestroughs. “Short growing seasons and cold, cold winters - and I wanted to grow strawberries,” Kimber laughed. So when Calvin wanted to move home to Ontario, Kimber was excited at the possibility of growing their gardens. After lots of hard work by Kimber, Calvin and his father, Field of Greens CSA Farm in Dutton came to fruition. ​