Sept 29th, 2026

Newsletter

Leslie’s got an abundance of heritage pork sausage that needs to move, so we put together an incredible sausage bundle. As a bonus, she’s throwing in broth bones and alpaca mittens absolutely free so nothing goes to waste. It’s a great deal, and a great way to stock your freezer. 
This is the lowest price we've ever offered sausages from Comfort 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.

View Directions To Small Scale Farms

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.👇

CANADA DOESN’T HAVE A FOOD PRODUCTION PROBLEM. WE HAVE A FOOD CONTROL PROBLEM.
When governments say they are investing in “local food,” I want Canadians to start asking a different question:
Who controls the money?
Canada is spending millions of taxpayer dollars on food security and local food infrastructure. That sounds great. I believe deeply in investing in local food.
But look at how some of it is being structured.
One of the federal government’s newest Local Food Infrastructure Fund programs is worth $20 million. Instead of that money simply reaching hundreds or thousands of independent farms, food hubs and community organizations directly, the government is selecting a limited number of large nonprofit organizations to receive the money first. At that level, applications under $3 million aren’t even considered.
Those organizations then decide where the money goes.
That may be called local food infrastructure.
But it is not decentralization.
And that distinction matters.
Canada already has one of the most concentrated grocery systems in the world around us. Most Canadians buy their groceries from just five major companies - Loblaw, Sobeys, Metro, Costco and Walmart. Our own Competition Bureau has been warning that Canada needs more grocery competition.
Galen Weston’s Loblaws alone operates more than 1,100 grocery stores across this country under banners including Loblaws, No Frills, Real Canadian Superstore, Zehrs, Fortinos, Maxi and others.
And yes, this is the same Loblaw that received up to $12 million from the federal government in 2019 to help replace refrigeration systems in hundreds of its stores.
Think about that for a second.
Taxpayers helped fund refrigeration infrastructure for one of the largest corporations in the Canadian food system, while small independent food businesses routinely build their own coolers, buy their own trucks, find their own customers and carry the financial risk themselves.
Now we are talking about spending more taxpayer money building food hubs and food-security infrastructure.
Fine.
But then we need to ask what we are actually trying to build.
Do we want another system where a handful of organizations sit in the middle and decide who gets access?
Or do we want thousands of independent farms, neighbourhood markets, small food hubs, processors, community kitchens and local distribution networks capable of feeding the communities around them?
Because those are two very different food systems.
I run a small food hub. I see this from the ground every day.
Small farmers don’t necessarily need another enormous institution standing between them and the people eating their food. They need places to sell. They need cold storage. They need processing. They need distribution. They need customers. They need schools, hospitals, municipalities and community organizations that are actually allowed and encouraged to buy from them.
And communities need more than one place capable of feeding them.
That is resilience.
A truly resilient food system doesn’t create another bottleneck.
It creates thousands of doors.
So when a politician announces millions of dollars for “local food,” don’t stop at the headline.
Ask who receives the money.
Ask who owns the infrastructure.
Ask who decides which farmers participate.
Ask whether the investment creates more independent points of production and distribution - or simply creates another layer of centralized control.
Because food security is not just about having enough food.
It is about making sure no handful of corporations, institutions or governments controls the road between the person growing it and the person who needs to eat.
If Canada is serious about food security, start building from the ground up.
More farmers.
More independent food hubs.
More local processors.
More local markets.
More direct purchasing.
More community ownership.
More ways for food to get from the land to the people.
That is decentralization.
And that is a food system worth spending our tax dollars on.
#CanadianFarmers #LocalFood #FoodSecurity #SupportSmallFarms #FoodSovereignty #SmallScaleFarms

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.

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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