Family Day 2025

Happy Family Day!

From our family to yours

Happy Family Day! Alex here again with another story to share. First, though I hope you are enjoying a day full of fun and relaxation with your family members.

In honour of Family Day (and Valentine’s Day last Friday!), we wanted to share the special origin story of one of our favourite preserves: Strawberry BBQ Sauce. We’ve shared this story before, but wanted to fill in a few details and even share some photos! What can I say, I’m feeling the love.

On June 14, 2015 we hosted one of my favourite parties ever — our wedding! Fun fact, our wedding day was a Sunday, as Saturdays have always been for farmers’ markets.

It’s hard to believe, but this coming June 2025 will mark 10 years since then. You’ll notice a few themes throughout the below photos, and it’s moving to see how the parts of the farm we loved most back then have grown into foundations of our work today.

The day started off a bit rocky, due to a rainy forecast! Like any respectable farming family, we were keeping a close eye on the radar, and we’re no strangers to working with what Mother Nature has to offer. So, we popped up the umbrellas for photos, and, although our plans for an outdoor ceremony were dashed, the rain cleared up just in time for the reception and we were able to celebrate without any concern.

In retrospect, I often wonder what we were thinking hosting a wedding in June. Nowadays we barely get a chance to celebrate. It’s prime strawberry season, after all! We weren’t living and working on the farm full time yet though, and Rob *did* always say that June was the prettiest month of the year — still lush and green from spring rain, before things dried out and turned brown later in the summer.

Plus, strawberries played a very important role in our wedding day! They were served as part of our cocktail hour, included in one of our signature drinks (a Strawberry Gin Smash), and were a key part of dessert. I’m not a fan of wedding cake, but I DO love pie. So we did things our way! I baked and froze pies leading up to the wedding day, along my grandmas and Uncle Randy (the other pie bakers in the family). Today we churn out thousands of fruit pies a season, and I even have a pie tattoo!

Our wedding favours were tiny jars of our Melon Blossom Honey. Very fitting, given that Nathan now oversees all of our beekeeping operations!

Finally, back to the berries. Like I mentioned earlier, strawberries were a key part of our wedding day. And the last way we incorporated them was through our first-ever batch of our Strawberry BBQ sauce. Sadly we don’t have a photo of that, but it will live on forever on our shelves and farmers’ market tables. We love cooking with it at home, and we now serve it alongside our burgers and fries at our Farm Food Truck.

10 years later, and we continue to Eat, Drink, and Be Married

Now, for today’s pitch! If you’re curious about our trying our Strawberry BBQ Sauce, or any of our other preserves, we’re delighted to be introducing our Preserve Subscription.

Preserve Subscription Details

Each week from May - November (7 months/28 weeks in total) one unique farm preserve will be delivered to you or the lucky recipient you are purchasing for. Preserves include a mix of jams, jellies, pickles, sauces, and spreads that are all made fresh from produce grown on our farm:

• Blueberry Jam

• Raspberry Jam

• Strawberry Rhubarb Jam

• Strawberry Jam

• Champagne Mustard

• Horseradish Mustard

• Hot Mustard

• Strawberry BBQ Sauce

• Salsa

• Hot Sauce

• Onion Scape Jelly

• Red Pepper Jelly

• Candied Jalapeno Syrup

• Corn Relish

• Candied Jalapenos

• Pickled Asparagus

• Spicy Pickled Scapes

• Sweet & Savoury Pickled Scapes

• Dill Pickled Beans

• Spicy Pickled Beans

• Pasta Sauce

• Dill Pickles

• Melon Blossom Honey

• Honeycomb

• Creamed Honey

• Caramelized Honey

• Maple Syrup

• Surprise Addition

This would make a perfect gift for Mothers’ or Fathers’ Day, or for someone who loves to cook and try new flavours.

Please note these are listed in no particular order, and don’t necessarily reflect which week you will receive which item!

Valued at nearly $300, available for $260 until the end of March

Friday Florals

Good morning friends of the farm! It’s Farmer Alex here to bring you all things flowers this fine Friday. I’m often the one sending out emails, but thought I would make that extra clear today, as flowers are special to me.

Growing up, I had two avid gardening grandmothers to look up to. They both had big beautiful gardens that I loved to play in and explore, and they generously shared their flowers with me, our family, and community. Their love of flowers continued into my adulthood as well, and I was lucky enough to be able to share this with them once I started my own flower garden back in 2021 — more on that in a moment. For now, meet Grandmas Nancy and Annie!

Below left is a photo of Grandma Nancy and me in front of her beautiful home garden. If you look closely, you’ll see that she’s holding some weeds in her hands — she’s always on the lookout for pesky ones to pull! The below right photo shows Grandma Annie, proudly sitting in front of the gardens that she maintained at our home farm after she moved nearby in her later years.

Today, Grandma Nancy often has little jars of tulips and daffodils ready for visitors to take home with them when they stop by for a chat. We sadly lost Grandma Annie in spring of 2023, and we think of her every time we look out at the beautiful space she created.

Thank you to my grandmothers for showing me the magic and delight of flowers. I admire you both so much and am endlessly grateful for the patience, perseverance, and dedication you’ve taught me through gardening.

Now that you’ve seen the gardening superstars who came before me, I’ll tell you a bit about my own flower growing journey.

That first season in 2021 was all about learning. I selected easy-to-grow varieties like Cosmos, Sunflowers, and Zinnias, found a spot for my small plot, and got to work seeding, transplanting, watering, and caring for my little beauties. After a near disastrous number of weeds that first year, I added a layer of landscape fabric in 2022, and it was a real game changer. In 2023 I decided to add some Dahlias to the mix and learned how to dig up the tubers in the fall and store them over winter. We successfully re-planted the tubers in 2024 and now have a very large collection stashed away for our upcoming season in spring 2025. I’ve also added a few other varieties along the way: Asters, Calendula, Carnations, and bouquet fillers like Tanacetum and Feverfew.

I mostly grow flowers because I love them, a love I inherited from my grandmothers and one that I delight in sharing with others. If you invite me to a backyard BBQ or Sunday brunch, you better believe I’ll be showing up with a jar for your kitchen table! I also love to fill my own home with them, scattering random jars and vases across as many surfaces as I can. Plus, they come in handy when decorating for farm events and brightening up our On Farm Market. I was even lucky enough to be in charge of florals for some dear friends’ engagement party last fall (pictured in the below in the top right photo).

Today, my dogs Blueberry and Peach love to wander through the flower patch and explore just like I did through my grandmas’ gardens.

I decided to share my love of florals a little bit further by opening them up to our loyal customers, first on a small scale throughout 2022 and 2023, and then more regularly in 2024 with the introduction of our Flower Subscription, a service we are excited to be offering again in 2025.

Learning how to harvest, style, and safely deliver jars of flowers took some time and practice. I had some fabulous team members helping me along the way (shoutout to Chloe, pictured below left, and Melissa!), and like all family businesses some late nights calling in Nathan, Maria, and Ella for back up. We battled rainy days, endless mosquitos, and some pretty intense heat. We had so much fun along the way, though!

And so, that brings me to today’s pitch: would you consider purchasing a 2025 Flower Jar Subscription? Because I mostly do this for fun, there are a limited number of subscriptions available. Last I checked there were 60 left, and once those are gone, they’re gone for good! Unlike our other crops, which are grown on a larger scale, we’re working with just one small flower patch! We did steal a couple more rows out of our rhubarb patch last year, though, which we plan to do again in 2025.

Flowers are one of the smallest parts of our farm business, and honestly not the most profitable, but they bring me so much *joy*. Now more than ever we could use more joy, right?

A Flower Jar Subscription would make for a perfect gift for a friend or family member, or a self-care treat for yourself. Order ahead for a birthday, Mother’s Day, or just-because.

A link to the Flower Jar Subscription is included below, as well as some important pricing and timeline details. If you made it this far, thank you so much for following along.

Annual Flower Jar Subscription Details

With our farm fresh Flower Subscription, 1 jar (375mL size) of flowers will be delivered to your door each week from July through September (Months 3 – 5). These flower jars will contain a selection of flowers grown & harvested on-farm. Sunflowers, zinnias, cosmos, dahlias, and more will be included!

A one-time, up-front payment is required to secure you three months of weekly flower delivery.

2025 Home Delivery Subscriptions

Thames River Melons Home Delivery

From our Farm to your Front Door

In 2020 we offered our first ever season of home deliveries. At that time we had just one option for delivery — our Market Box! This service was so popular that we decided to extend it to following seasons, and have continued to grow our delivery options over the years. 2025 marks our sixth season of delivering to your home, and we’ve added even more exciting services for your convenience. We can’t wait to get started again!

Below you will find details outlining delivery options, prices, and a timeline. We encourage you to take time to review, as well as check out our Delivery FAQ Page. If you have additional questions though, don’t hesitate to reach out!

What we really want you to know is that everything we offer for delivery is grown, raised, made, or baked here on our farm, using our very own ingredients. We are incredibly proud of what we offer, and even more grateful that you choose to support our family’s farm and feature our food on your tables.

Our 2025 Home Delivery Service will once again be offered for 28 weeks: 7 months, 4 weeks per month. Deliveries begin the week of May 5th and end the week of November 10th. A more detailed outline of the timeline is included at the end of this overview.

For now, Annual Subscriptions are available for purchase. These subscriptions offer the absolute best value, with built in discounts in exchange for up-front, in-full payment. Just like 2024, we will have 3 subscriptions to choose from that can be delivered to you:

• Market Box Subscription

• Beef Subscription

• Flower Subscription

…PLUS 3 exciting new ones:

• Farm Kitchen Subscription

• Fill Your Freezer Subscription

• Preserve Subscription

For both Market Boxes and our Beef Subscription, there will be 2 registration options: upfront in-full payment, or a monthly subscription. Either way, there will be 3 size options.

Our Flower Subscription is offered for a shorter time frame (12 weeks), and is only available for the full season.

Farm Kitchen, Fill Your Freezer, and Preserve Subscriptions are available for the full season only, and span all 28 weeks of our delivery season.

Once our regular delivery season commences, monthly and weekly farm fresh items can also be ordered. for delivery from our fields to your front door. These options include:

• Monthly Subscriptions (Market Box & Beef)

• Bulk produce

• Black Angus Beef

• Baked Goods

• Preserves: jams, jellies, pickles, & sauces

• Farm Merch

We will continue to utilize our upgraded delivery notification system this season, which has been working very well for us since 2022, thanks to its smooth and detailed customer service experience.