July 28th, 2026

How it Works

It's easier than ever to order online and have us delivered.

The goal has always been real simple - make real food easier to get.
Please note: Everything in this newsletter is available for free delivery, and we update it regularly based on what’s in stock at the hub. Please read all details on free delivery sale page before ordering - 

Min $30 order.

New to Small Scale Farms? Enter 10%OFF before you check out and save 10% off your entire order - AND have us delivered for free!

There have been so many times I thought, this has to be the hardest part.

When I first started Small Scale Farms. When I started learning how to grow food. When COVID turned everything upside down. When I had to pivot from cooking meals to selling produce. Building a food hub. The setbacks. The disappointments. 

The moments when people I counted on didn’t come through.

Every time I think I’ve reached the hardest chapter, life seems to ask for a little more. 

But I’ve noticed something about myself.

When some people feel defeated, they step back. When I feel defeated, something inside me pushes forward. Every disappointment becomes another reason to build something stronger. Every obstacle reminds me why this matters in the first place.

And then days like yesterday happen.

Melanie Beamer came to the hub and offered $30 wellness readings, donating 100% of the proceeds to our Produce Voucher Wall. Because of her generosity, another $240 will go directly toward helping local families access fresh food.

Before Melanie arrived, there was only $10 on the Voucher Wall. Right near the end of the day, three different people had come in and each used a $30 voucher to take home a half bushel of fresh produce.

In other words, that’s exactly what we needed, when we needed it.

Another community member stepping up.

I absolutely love what’s happening.

Yes, building something like this takes work. Yes it’s far more than I ever imagined. 

But watching people rally around an idea bigger than themselves reminds me that it’s worth every difficult day.

So yes. I’m “busy.” But it’s for good reason. This isn’t just about food anymore. It’s about creating a community where people see a need, step in, and become part of the solution. 

Every time someone volunteers, donates, teaches a workshop, buys a voucher, or simply decides they want to help, we’re proving that a stronger community doesn’t happen by accident. 

It happens because ordinary people choose to build it.

And if that’s what all of this hard work is creating…Then it’s entirely worth it.

Locally yours, Small Scale Farms

Our pick-and-pack section is the most affordable way to feed your family.
Come by and fill a half-bushel basket with whatever you'd like from this section, for just $30 - and it helps us keep food moving so nothing goes to waste and prices stay reasonable. Win win.

We have great deals on now at The Hub, while quantities last. 

Plus we have freezers full and our meat sampler bags fully stocked, so you can come try our meat and taste the difference for yourself.

We are open to the public Monday and Tuesday 9-4pm, Wed - Friday 9–5, Saturday 9–4, and Sunday 10–4 - 13145 Lundy's Lane

View Directions To Small Scale Farms

Now just $3 at our market

Our tomatoes and pickling cucumbers have arrived at our HUB! Bushels and half bushels now available.

Tomatoes: Bushel $45, half $25

Pickling Cucumbers: $45 for the bushel, $25 for half

Green Beans: $37 a half bushel

Dill: $5 a bundle 

Pearl Onions: $5 a basket

Local Cabbage Now just $4

Huge Shout Out to Talkin Funny - Always out there trying to make the community a better place!

Start your morning with real food.

Comfort Farms Pork Sausage Patties are made from premium Ontario-raised pork and lightly seasoned to let the quality of the meat shine. They're perfect for breakfast sandwiches, a traditional farmhouse breakfast, or alongside eggs and pancakes.

Raised without antibiotics or added hormones, these patties are made with simple ingredients and are frozen for freshness, making them easy to keep on hand for a quick, hearty meal.

A freezer staple you'll reach for again and again.

Real food, made easy. Add veggies to your order and we’ll bring it straight to your door.

Check out our vegetable section for free delivery.👇

Who Should Control Our Food?

Walk into almost any grocery store today and you'll notice something.

Thousands of products. Hundreds of brands.

But look a little closer, and many of those brands are actually owned by the same handful of multinational corporations.

The same pattern exists throughout the food system. A relatively small number of companies influence the seed, fertilizer, processing, distribution, and retail sectors. As more control becomes concentrated in fewer hands, smaller farms, independent food businesses, and local producers find it increasingly difficult to compete.

When only a few companies control most of the shelves, they also have tremendous influence over what gets grown, how it's grown, what farmers are paid, and ultimately what consumers are able to buy.

That's not resilience.

Nature has already shown us how resilient systems work. They're built on diversity, not concentration.

The same principle applies to food.

A healthy food system shouldn't depend on a handful of corporations. It should include local farms, food hubs, independent retailers, farmers' markets, community-supported agriculture, and yes, grocery stores—but none of them should dominate the entire system.

The more ways food can move from the farm to the people eating it, the more resilient our communities become. More competition creates more opportunity for farmers. More local businesses mean more local jobs. More diversity means fewer single points of failure when supply chains are disrupted.

This isn't about eliminating grocery stores.

It's about making sure they don't become the only gatekeepers between farmers and the people they're trying to feed.

If we want a stronger food system tomorrow, we need to support a more diverse one today.

Locally yours, Small Scale Farms

Locally made mushroom blend designed to support energy, focus, and overall wellness — an easy way to add functional mushrooms into your daily routine.

A few weeks ago, I wrote about a pie graph I had been building around poverty in Ontario.

The reason I started doing it was simple: I felt like we weren’t actually seeing the real numbers anymore.

So I started digging into the statistics myself.

How many people are on social assistance?  How many are on EI?  How many are working part time?  How many are considered “working poor”?  How many people are technically employed but still struggling to survive?

I wanted to understand the actual economic makeup of the province - not politically, not emotionally, but mathematically.

And before I even touched what we traditionally call the “middle class,” I had already landed at nearly 50% of the population living in poverty, near-poverty, or economically fragile conditions.

But after sitting with it longer, I realized I had left something major out of the equation:

The middle class.

And honestly, I shouldn’t have.

Because the more I thought about it, the more I started realizing that the middle class may actually be in deeper danger than many people officially categorized as “poor.”

Not because they necessarily make less money.  But because they have more debt.

Massive debt.

Mortgages. Lines of credit. Car payments. Credit cards. HELOCs, (home equity line of credit). Consumer financing. “Affordable” monthly payments stretched over years.

For decades, credit created the illusion of stability. It allowed people to maintain a middle-class appearance long after real purchasing power began collapsing. And now the cracks are starting to show.

A recent federal report stated that nearly 50% of Canadians belong to the middle class. But that definition becomes increasingly disconnected from reality when you compare incomes against modern housing costs, food inflation, insurance, fuel, taxes, and debt servicing.

Statistics Canada data shows Ontario’s median household income sits around $91,000 before tax. On paper, that sounds solid. Years ago, that would have represented stability. Today, in many parts of Ontario, that income barely sustains a mortgage, groceries, utilities, transportation, childcare, and debt repayments.

Meanwhile, what’s considered “middle class” in Canada is often defined as households earning roughly between $57,000 and $115,000 annually.

But here’s the uncomfortable truth nobody wants to say out loud:
A household can technically be “middle class” while being one missed paycheck away from collapse.

That isn’t stability. That’s leveraged survival.

And we’re starting to see the cultural indicators everywhere.

Travel is one of the clearest examples because vacations are often the first thing families cut when economic pressure rises. Recent reporting shows Canadian travel demand continues to weaken significantly. Statistics Canada reported Canadian return trips from the U.S. fell again in early 2026, continuing a long downward trend. Other reporting found Canadian visits to U.S. metropolitan areas dropped as much as 42% year-over-year.

At the same time, surveys show many Canadians are avoiding travel altogether because they simply cannot justify the expense anymore. 

That matters because the middle class has historically been the economic engine of discretionary spending.

When the middle class stops traveling, stops renovating, stops eating out, stops supporting local businesses, and starts pulling back in fear, the ripple effects move through the entire economy.

And I think that’s the stage we’re entering now.

What concerns me most is that many people still believe poverty looks like homelessness or visible desperation. But modern poverty often looks very different.

It looks like families carrying enormous debt while appearing “fine.” Two-income households unable to get ahead. People avoiding grocery stores because prices trigger anxiety. Parents quietly skipping meals. Adults with decent jobs unable to buy homes. Households financing basic necessities. People one interest-rate increase away from disaster.

In many ways, the middle class became the buffer zone holding the entire economic structure together. And if that buffer collapses, society changes very quickly — not just economically, but socially, psychologically, and politically.

Because once people realize they followed all the rules and still can’t build security, trust in the system starts to erode.

That’s why I keep coming back to local systems. Local food. Local production. Local relationships. Local resilience.

Because the larger the systems become, the more fragile ordinary people become inside them.

And maybe that’s the real story unfolding beneath the headlines right now: not simply that poverty is growing, but that the line between “middle class” and “poverty” is disappearing altogether.

Locally yours, 
Small Scale Farms

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