Local farms open their gates to food enthusiasts

Andrea Lamarre

A Mecca of fresh produce and other edibles lies just a few kilometers outside of Guelph, if you’re willing to make the romp. On Sept. 24, farmers in the area opened their gates to local food enthusiasts, allowing visitors to roam around the rows of squash and to visit with the cows. Each year, Guelph-Wellington’s Taste-Real brand, the big name in local food in the area, hosts the Rural Romp to promote awareness of the types of food produced locally and to make this food accessible to the public.

Ian Milne has been involved in the Rural Romp for several years, and enjoys the opportunity to showcase the farm he runs with his wife Pearl.

“The rural romp certainly highlights us. We make contacts, and people come back,” said Milne. “It’s been a steady stream of people here from ten thirty in the morning. There seems to be quite a bit of interest in the cattle, and the beehives, the gourds and the gardens.”

In recent years, other local farmers have noticed an upswing in the focus not only on local food, but on agricultural practices as well.

“There is more of an interest in how food is raised, and that’s what we’re after,” explained Nick Dalton, who owns Magda Farm with Vera Top. “It’s about more than just local food: we raise our animals humanely in the kind of space that they want to have. We don’t do any confinement raising.”

Dalton stressed the fact that, in pursuing local and sustainable food, it is important to think not just about where our food comes from, but how it is produced. As visitors got the chance to be up-close and personal with the chickens roaming the expanse of farmland, his meaning is reinforced.

The Romp is just one event in Taste-Real’s efforts to promote local foods. Farmalicious, an ongoing event where restaurants across the city showcase local fare, was at the University of Guelph last week, offering students a taste of the region. Through events such as the Romp, farmers and city-dwellers alike can’t help but notice the focus on all things local.

“I would say in general everybody is interested in local food,” said Adam Thatcher of Thatcher Farms. “Even if they don’t come back here, they go somewhere local. It’s just growing, it gets bigger and bigger.”

Though the next Rural Romp isn’t until the spring, many of the farms featured on the route are open year-round. For those wishing to get closer to the source of their food, there are few better opportunities-the offerings are fresh and the farmers are friendly.

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