Apart from scavenging the reduced produce rack at the stores or picking up my regular bag of bokchoys. For the past few years, I have also been picking up a bi-weekly vegetable basket in the summer - early fall time from Brenda, owner of Black Sheep Farms in Chelsey.
You don't have to go to Chelsey, if you are in around the GTA, there's a few spots you can pick up from. I pick up mine from a home in Milton. Funny story, an old colleague of mine is a friend of the home owner. Small world!!
Honestly, not only is it just about supporting our local farmers and getting to know where your food comes from. Brenda gives us a bi-weekly update on her farm, farm life, what is growing and education on sustainable farming practices .
Some of you may know that I have been doing some work to get more fresh local food into our long term care homes on our menus. This got me to start looking to get more local produce personally. I started researching around for different CSAs (Community Supported Agriculture), tried different local food boxes. I actually found a farm that I was debating on going, but as I do, I dug deeper to find that the owner's values was not something I would support, so I continued to search.
I came across Black Sheep Farms and after reading her blogs on Just Black Sheep. I was amazed at the incredible and courageous leap that she took, leaving her job in Toronto to pursue this farming journey. I knew, I wanted to support Brenda. It's so fascinating to know exactly where the strawberries came from, the stories of how the bokchoy was grown. Basically from seed to my belly! And pre-covid, Brenda hosts an open house every fall, so that you can actually see where you got your food from! I just love having that connection which you don't get from other mainstream food baskets and grocery stores.
But if you are interested, the last email I got from Brenda, she had a couple spots open for new members! :) Please visit her site if you are interested!
I like ribs