Vendor Spotlight: DeBackere Farms Inc.

Since 1969, the DeBackere family has been proudly farming in Elgin County just off of Dexter Line in Union. Although they have been providing fresh produce since 1987, the farm originally grew tobacco, until 2005 when Dan purchased the farm from his parents and formally exited the tobacco quota system. The farm then transitioned into 100% fresh vegetables, and gained its food safety certification through the CanadaGap Program under Dan and Joanna DeBackere. 

“That really opened things up for us,” said Joanna. “Prior to that, really our main customers were through a middleman at the Toronto Food Terminal for our vegetables. And so once we became food safety certified, that opened the doors for us to actually go directly to chain stores.” DeBackere now proudly supplies primarily peppers and tomatoes through wholesale with Loblaws, Metro, Farm Boy, and local St. Thomas markets like Briwood Farm Market, their market stand in the St. Thomas Home Hardware lot, and our very own Horton Farmers’ Market.

Despite their large size, DeBackere Farms still hand plants, hand picks, and hand packages all of their produce. “Our farm is so labour intensive, it’s really kind of unbelievable,” said Joanna. All the crops at DeBackere’s are grown from seed, requiring careful planting and transplanting from the germination room, to greenhouses, and then into the fields; all done by hand. Once planted into the field, many plants need to be staked and tied by hand as well, like field tomatoes, to get better airflow, less disease, and better yields. Harvesting is also all done by hand. Everything is picked in the field and brought into the pack barn, where it is washed, graded, and packed. “Everything is just so delicate,” Joanna explained. “It takes a lot of hands to do what we do here. It’s quite a process, and it’s not an easy way to do things, but we love it. We’ve got a wonderful team of people that we work with, and you end up feeding a lot of people and feeling good about it at the end of the day.” Every piece of produce bought from DeBackere has been handled with love and care, and the quality and taste of their produce speaks to the dedication of their craft. 

In addition to hand planting, picking and packaging, the DeBackere’s also cover their fields in blankets to protect their crops like sweet corn. The blanketing allows for protection from frost, and allows them to get into the early market for sweet corn. “Not a lot of people are going to go out and you know, put an acre of blanket down with sandbags to cover the crop,” Joanna proudly explained. “I remember one time years ago I actually got a call from Horton because someone said this couldn’t be our corn, and I said it absolutely is! We do a lot of extra work to have it ready that early."

DeBackere Farms has been coming to Horton for at least 20 years, and they look forward to returning every regular season and seeing familiar faces of customers and market go-ers each Saturday. "It just makes us so happy that our hard work is appreciated," Joanna said with a smile. "The customers are just the best. Through the winter months we miss seeing everybody, then once the season starts again you've got lots of familiar faces and new faces. The enthusiasm from the community to support local and be able to purchase fresh, locally produced food is amazing."​

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One aspect about Horton that Joanna treasures is the ability for market go-ers to be able to see, connect with, and learn from the farmers that grow and produce local foods. “People want to know where their food comes from, and so for them to have the opportunity to speak to the farmers and ask them questions, that’s something you’d never get in a grocery store,” said Joanna. “It’s so common and people always have lots of great questions. I think they appreciate having somebody that can answer those questions for them. We can educate people more on food production, how things are grown, and what issues can cause difficulties with growing.” 

The local support that St. Thomas and Elgin County gives to DeBackere Farms allows them to not only continue farming locally, but it allows them to support their other local farmers and producers, strengthening the community and keeping dollars within St. Thomas and Elgin County. “We want to bring attention to other growers and other local artisans. It’s important that we work together to take care of one another,” Joanna explained. “We all try to work well together because the common goal is to support one another, and in any way that we can. Even on Facebook, seeing that a market is opening it’s perfect; we like and share right? We want everybody to do really well.” 

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The DeBackere family also ventured into creating their own farm market, located on Sunset Drive just before heading down the hill into Port Stanley. “In 2016 we went into business with Dan’s brother Rick and his wife Jen, and we purchased a farm on Sunset,” Joanna happily explained. “That’s where the DeBackere Farm Market is now! So together with them we grow and sell all of our produce from typically mid June to mid October, although it is always weather dependent. We also have our self-serve area open for asparagus now.” 

In addition to their wholesale peppers and tomatoes, the DeBackere’s have always grown lots of smaller volume items for their market and other local markets like Horton. Asparagus is usually their first crop, followed by new potatoes. Other crops the local community has come to love from DeBackere’s include peppers, tomatoes, zucchini, cucumbers, beans, onions, leeks, kale, broccoli, cantaloupe, brussel sprouts, squash, pumpkins, and their beloved sweet corn. For their Farm Market on Sunset, the DeBackere’s are proud to bring in products from other local farms as well, like Howe’s Family Farm strawberries, Harris Flower Farm’s bouquets, and Palmer’s Maple Syrup (who are also fantastic vendors here at Horton). 

“We love what we do, and I think the community definitely loves it as well,” Joanna said with a smile. “We have two sons, they’re 16 and 18 and they love farming, and we certainly hope that they’ll continue our business.”

​We are so grateful to have such incredible local farmers and producers like the DeBackere’s at Horton, and we are proud to support our local farmers, producers, and economy through shopping local.

Paige Palmer, Marketing Assistant

Paige is a proud recent graduate of Western University's Media and Communications (MACS) program and King's University College's Thanatology program. Born and raised in Elgin County, Paige loves connecting with local people and businesses to tell their stories and promote their hard work. A previous St. Thomas Parks and Forestry summer student, Paige loves exploring local parks and trails, capturing some beautiful pictures along the way. ​