How does your garden grow?
For many South Georgian Bay farmers, a late frost followed by balmy temperatures have brought forward a bounty this year, but getting the food to market has brought some challenges.
Meanwhile, the Collingwood Farmers’ Market has also seen some challenges this year due to changing provincial regulations and necessary COVID-19 protocols limiting the number of vendors that can sell, and the number of customers coming through to buy.
Susan van de Pest and her husband Gijs are familiar faces at the Collingwood market, as the couple have sold their cabbages, kale, pole beans and leaf vegetables there for 13 years. The couple own Sunrise Gardens, live in Collingwood where their greenhouse is located, and commute to their full farm in Markdale.
“We carry just about everything. I do all the seedlings in April. Generally on May 24, we put them in the ground,” said Susan van de Pest. “On June 3, we got snow in Markdale. For two other nights, it froze. We lost a lot of our cucumbers, zucchini and Zinnias.”
“Luckily I had some spares, so after the freezing I replanted. It put us a little bit behind in time,” she said.
Van de Pest said she and her husband have seen this year’s weather fluctuate in extremes, from drought, to multiple days of rain and thunderstorms, which brings its own set of challenges for farmers.
“It means it’s harder to work your land after the rain, but there is also an abundance of pests,” she said, adding they’ve seen an uptick in earwigs and Japanese Beetles – which they hadn’t seen before at their farm.
“Things have been uneven in the growing season,” she said.
While Sunrise Gardens isn’t certified organic, van de Pest says they don’t use pesticides or herbicides on their crops.
For the 2021 season, the Collingwood Farmers’ Market is limiting the number of vendors, and shopper capacity.
Van de Pest says this has had a minimal impact on their sales, as they’ve built relationships over the past 13 years with regular customers who make a point to visit their booth often.
“It has picked up. It’s changed the profile,” said van de Pest. “(Vendors) used to include people with crafts, or baking things. People could sit down at tables and eat. You could bring your dogs in. It was a social event, a really fun thing. Now, that’s not happening.”
“Now, you can now take things home and have a real feast, which is good,” she said, with a laugh. “It has changed. We’re blessed that after 13 years, we have some good clients.”
Van de Pest also notes more people are getting more knowledgeable about their food, and she welcomes the opportunity to talk about the growing process.
“I enjoy the social aspect of the market. I think we’re going to see more steps like that in the future,” she said. “I think the trend now is buying more local where you know the farmers.”
Sam Ball, manager of the Collingwood Farmers’ Market, says the market is currently operating with a reduced vendor capacity due to COVID-19 restrictions.
“It’s about half the amount we normally have. Usually, we have about 80 (vendors). Now, we’re at about 35,” he said. “We have tons (of vendors) who are wanting to get in.”
While there aren’t yet set-in-stone plans to open up the market to more vendors as of Friday when the province moved into Step 3 of reopening, Ball says the market may open up to more vendors as the summer progresses and rules from the Simcoe Muskoka District Health Unit change.
Ball says the turnout at the market has been good and steady so far this season.
“Because we have it fenced in there is an entrance and an exit monitored by a security team, as we can only have 175 people in the market at one time,” said Ball. “We have crazy lineups every weekend down the street.”
“It’s hard to say if it’s more or less than non-COVID years,” he added. “As things start to open up we are hoping to open up the area a little more and let more people in. It’s been successful so we’re hoping we can keep moving at this pace as the summer progresses.”
Andrea O’Reilli is marketing manager for Georgian Hills Vineyards and Ardiel Cider House, who are vendors at the Collingwood Farmers’ Market.
O’Reilli said the grape crops haven’t been impacted by this year’s weather, but the apple orchards have been impacted by the early spring in March, followed by some frost in May/June. However, she noted that this hasn’t impacted how much cider they have been able to produce.
“The weather has treated the grapes very well. It’s a great crop with great sugar (levels),” she said.
While O’Reilli says any loss of sales at the farmers market has been made up for through an uptick in people wanting tastings and tours at the vineyard, overall she says they have noticed more people taking an interest in locally made wine.
“There’s been an increasing demand for more local,” said O’Reilli.
New this year due to changes to provincial regulations, the Collingwood Farmers’ Market has welcomed craft breweries and distilleries into the market mix.
“It’s been fantastic. We didn’t know what to expect. From the very first weekend, the response has been fantastic,” said Scott Brown, co-owner of Black Bellows Brewing Co. “We’ve loved being able to make that connection with people.”
While tastings are not permitted at the market, Brown says it’s convenient having the brewery merely a block and a half away.
“We can really tell the story of the beer rather than when it’s just sitting on an LCBO shelf,” he said. “We can just say, ‘We’re a block and a half away, come sit on the patio and sample some of these beers.’”
Local bakery, Bad Vegan, has also seen a dip in sales at the market, however that dip has been balanced by an increase in sales through their bricks-and-mortar location on Pine Street, which opened in February 2020.
“It’s been interesting. We sat out last summer because we didn’t know how everything was going to work out (with COVID) so we didn’t want to commit,” said co-owner Jon Palmer. “It’s great having our own space.”
Palmer says his experiences at the market this year have been positive.
“Everybody seems safe and comfortable, and that’s what matters. Entering the market has been good for us this summer. It’s a boost in exposure. Some people didn’t even know our store existed,” he said. “It’s been great seeing people’s faces again.”
