Date for Phased Re-Opening of St. Jacobs Farmers’ Markets
Outdoor Market Phase 1 Re-opening Thursday June 4th
Indoor (and Outdoor) Market Phase 1 Re-opening Saturday June 6th
Hours of Operation 7:00am to 3:30pm
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Use the map below to plan your farm gate stand tour through Waterloo Region. Find everything from fresh produce and meat to flowers and maple syrup.
Please note, many farm gate stands in the region are closed on Sundays.
Tebe Farms - 519-696-2363
Faul Farms - 519-632-7678
Oakridge Acres - 519-632-7653
Shadynook Farm - 519-696-3060
Barrie's Asparagus Inc - 519-621-9409
Gillespie's Garden - 519-622-2294
summer sausage, maple syrup, eggs
Ament Line at Empey Road - maple syrup, honey, eggs
Herrgott Rd at Broadway St - rhubarb, asparagus
Herrgott Rd at Lawson Line - maple syrup, non-GMO eggs
rhubarb
asparagus, rhubarb
honey
maple syrup, honey, summer sausage, apple butter
eggs
near Bonnie Lou's - Home-made tortillas
at Yatton Road - free-run brown eggs
beef steak roasts, pepperettes, summer sausage
at Balsam Road - free-run Omega-3 eggs
free-run brown eggs
maple syrup
maple syrup, maple butter, “maple leaf sugars” (honour stand)
rhubarb, apple butter, maple butter, maple syrup
eggs
maple syrup, pies, jams, jellies, relishes, apple butter
maple syrup, rhubarb, pies, potatoes, corn
at New Jerusalem Road - maple syrup, brown eggs, jams
pork chops and bacon
eggs, honey, and pre-ordered meat - in the barn (honour style)
The Kittels - fresh garden produce all year - asparagus, rhubarb, beans, tomatoes, corn, and more
summer sausage, maple syrup, pepperettes, honey, eggs
brown eggs
Nith Valley Apiaries - honey and honey products
strawberries (fresh and pick-your-own)
chicken, rabbit, duck, turkey, sausage, summer sausage, pepperettes, eggs, honey, bacon, flowers
Edwards Family Organics - certified organic chicken, pork, beef, eggs and farm fresh lamb
Eby Manor Milk
wide assortment of produce, open Thursdays noon to 7
flowers and fresh produce, near Roy Schmidt Road
Vegetables - Open Year Round
Good Family Farm Pumpkins
Breslau Farm - Meat
Hilltop Acres Poultry
Snyder Heritage Farms - Meat
Garlic, honey, and Christmas trees (seasonal)
You can’t drive very far in Waterloo Region, especially in Woolwich and Wellesley townships, without coming across hand-painted signs for brown eggs and maple syrup.
Farm gate sales and “honour stands” are a part of the countryside. The county lines and township roads are chock-a-block full of laneways which lead you to honey, summer sausage or sweet corn and where you leave your money in a box and “on your honour.” And just as visible are the signs “No Sun Sales,” a hallmark of local food fresh from the fields but which will not be sold on Sunday in the religious observance of farm families of Mennonite faith. It’s a unique aspect of Waterloo Region’s rural communities.
Photo by Jayden Shelton
Esther Weber has been selling extra produce from her farm that’s located between St. Jacobs and Elmira. She says over the course of 15 years it has continued to be a popular business venture that makes her a little additional money.
“It’s a small extra income,” she says. “And it’s nice to talk to visitors. They’re usually looking for fresh produce with no additives.”
Photo: Andrew Coppolino
Even just a short trip over a few hundred metres along Northfield Drive in Woolwich, which eventually takes you past Scotch Line Road and Line 86 and near West Montrose and Conestogo, can have a significant yield of a variety of farm gate goods such as maple syrup, maple butter, apple butter, rhubarb and summer sausage. Head west and pick up Herrgott Road and journey south and you’ll be in the area that shows signs for Wallenstein, Hawkesville and St. Clements: be on the look-out for asparagus, honey, pies, free-range brown eggs and pepperettes, among other goods depending on the season.
Weber says she usually sells strawberries, rhubarb, peas and corn. She adds that many other farms in the area do the same, often giving the children responsibility for the production and sales.
(One interesting note: at 19 Ruggle’s Road in Floradale, in Woolwich Township, a block or so from the popular Bonnie Lou’s Café, there’s a roadside stand for homemade tortillas, a foodstuff from 4,000 kilometres away firmly ensconced in the heart of Mennonite country. In the 1870s, traditionalist Mennonites from Manitoba moved to Mexico to establish traditional colonies; many eventually migrated to Canada, including as recently as the 1980s.)
Recently, the traditional farm gate sales stands and honour boxes have given way to more formal but small on-farm stores. Emerson Bowman has a 100-acre farm on Line 86 west of Elmira. He and his sister have run the “retail” side of the business together for about a decade.
“People come in looking for this and that. I’d say it is still very popular by the volume of sales that we do,” Bowman says.
They sell their own beef, summer sausage and free-range poultry and eggs. “We get a lot of regulars from Elmira and K-W, but we also have people from Toronto, Oakville and Hamilton,” adds Bowman. As is the case with his farmgate sales, these are generally cash-only (sometimes cheque) businesses.
Check out Hessen Strasse Road, Ament Line and New Jerusalem Road: the names themselves conjure a less familiar era and geography where time moves a little more slowly – and where, in just a few square kilometres north of the cities of Kitchener and Waterloo, the bustle of hundreds of thousands of people at work and play in an urban setting gives way to a relative calm, where the hay and soy beans blow in the wind alongside the gravel road that leads you to some of the freshest, purest food in the province.
Photo: Andrew Coppolino