By Reilly Armstrong
By the time the first shoppers wander beneath the trees at Byron Linear Tramway Park on Saturday morning, many of the farmers waiting behind the market’s white tents have already been working for hours.
There are vegetables to harvest and pack, animals to feed and move, trucks to load and stalls to assemble. Then, for six hours each Saturday, the people who grow, raise and make the food become its salespeople, too.
For many vendors at the Westboro Farmers’ Market, what sits on their tables represents far more than a product for sale. It is the result of months — sometimes years — of work, and a livelihood built from the ground up.
Jaymie Thurler knows firsthand how much work goes into getting food from a farm to a market table.
The owner of Rutabaga Ranch grew up on a dairy farm in Brinston, about an hour south of Ottawa, where farming was part of everyday life.
“I did that my whole childhood… that’s what my parents did, what my brothers do. And I wasn’t in line to take over the family farm, cause I was a girl,” said Thurler.
“I just kind of fell into vegetables, and it seemed like the easiest, cheapest entry point for us to become farmers.”
Thurler and her husband, Robert Henderson, eventually found their own way into agriculture, purchasing a property in Brinston in 2019 and building Rutabaga Ranch into a certified-organic vegetable farm. Today, the farm grows more than 45 crops, including some less commonly grown locally, such as organic ginger.
Despite the financial and personal challenges that come with starting a farm, Thurler says she has no plans to leave agriculture. Part of the reason is the life she wants to give her young son.
“I want him to be outside. I want his feet on the earth. I want him to protect his little time on earth to just be as a human should be.”
For some of the farmers who arrive in Westboro each Saturday, market day begins long before the tents go up.
Trevor Cooper starts around 6 a.m., moving his sheep and pigs onto fresh pasture before packing up for the trip to Ottawa.
Cooper, owner of Terraform Farm, has been farming and selling at farmers’ markets since 2016. He raises grass-fed Katahdin lambs and heritage pigs, using rotational grazing practices that regularly move the animals onto fresh sections of pasture.
Despite the long days, Cooper says coming to Westboro gives him something farm work often does not: face-to-face interaction with the people who eat the food he raises.
“That’s the real value of coming to the market, is getting to have that contact,” said Cooper. “(It’s) kind of my outing and socialization for the week.”
The connection goes both ways.
Vendors say Westboro customers have become a dependable part of their businesses, showing up each Saturday even when the weather is less than cooperative.
“Rain (or) shine, this is where they come to spend some money and get good food… Westboro really shows up,” said Thurler.
After nearly a decade at the market, Stuart Oke, co-founder of Rooted Oak Farm, says one of Westboro’s greatest strengths is its location. Rather than being separated from the community, the market unfolds each Saturday in the middle of a residential neighbourhood.
“What’s good about this market in particular is that it’s situated in the middle of a neighbourhood. Lots of people come here weekly and are doing their shopping. It’s part of their routine, which is what you want,” said Oke.
“People that are sort of interested in knowing how their food is produced – there’s accountability here, because all the producers that sell here are the ones who grow it.”
That model is at the heart of the Ottawa Farmers’ Market organization, which operates Westboro along with markets at Lansdowne, Main Street, Orléans and Barrhaven. The organization is producer-only, meaning the people behind the stalls are the people who grew, raised or made what they are selling. Products also come from within 100 kilometres of Ottawa.
For shoppers like David Hadden, that local connection is part of the appeal. He and his wife have been coming to Westboro for years.
“These are the local spots now,” said Hadden. “You’re just supporting your local community… the local farmers.”
For Greer Knox, that connection between producer and customer is something she has watched develop almost from the market’s beginning.
Knox, who sells homemade pickles, jams and jellies, was among its earliest vendors. She believes being able to meet the person responsible for the food on the table is central to what a farmers’ market should be.
“What I really like about it is that there’s no reselling. You know where it comes from, you meet the farmer, you meet the processor at the market. (I think) that’s very important – that people know where their food is coming from. And understand that local is healthier,” said Knox. “It’s authentic, too.”
To Knox, supporting local agriculture is about more than what shoppers take home in their bags each Saturday. It is also about whether small farms can continue to exist.
“If people don’t buy from and support local vendors, you will have no local farmers,” she said.
When Knox first began selling at the market, she was looking for a way to help support the rescued horses on her North Gower farm. Over the years, she says she has watched markets create opportunities for a new generation of farmers.
“The average age of a farmer in this area was probably close to 60. And so, farming was going to die out,” she said. “We’ve encouraged young people to get into farming… there is an opportunity to make a good living as a farmer.”
For David Bailie, who runs Vintage Soil Farm with his partner Isabelle Rodé, those relationships are ultimately what make the long hours worthwhile.
A farmers’ market allows producers to do something that is largely absent when food travels through conventional grocery-store supply chains: meet the people who ultimately eat what they grow.
“It’s cool to see people coming back week after week, (who) come back year after year,” said Bailie. “(To) see people, see the relationship they’re having with our food – we’re literally feeding our community.”
The Westboro Farmers’ Market runs Saturdays from May through October, from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. at Byron Linear Park.