Farms at Work has launched another produced designed to improve access to farmland for new farmers while fostering collaboration and innovation. The project is still in the planning stage with a few participants, but the intention is to develop a hub providing opportunities for community members, aspiring farmers and local groups to grow food, develop skills and explore small-scale farm business ideas.
The concept centres around small, dedicated plots of land made available for hands-on learning with access to shared farming infrastructure such as a greenhouse, cold stage spaces and possible some tools where ecological farming practices are used to contribute to the establishment of secure and resilient community food supplies.
The land for the project has been secured, and consists of six acres on a farm owned by Jason McIntosh located on Matchett Line in Peterborough County. McIntosh is described as a very supportive and engaged landowner, who is providing the land at a minimal cost as well as access to existing, on-site infrastructure and equipment, which significantly reduced the financial risk of the project. All plots have access to water but must establish their own watering system.
The entity is in the beginning of a controlled pilot.
In April they hired Andrea Hicks to manage the project. A trained biologist, Andrea operates a small-scale floral business in Peterborough called Emergence Flowers where she grows a wide variety of flowers which are hand-picked to season bouquets or to provide regular flowers to subscriber. In this project, she is charged with developing detailed plans for education, mentoring, acquiring capital infrastructure and embarking on a more formal intake of participants for the 2027 season. Hicks is looking to offer targeted work-shops, facilitate bulk purchases of inputs such as soil amendments.
There are other community farm models operating in Canada, including BeetBox Farm in Ottawa, Farm Folk/City Folk and Glen Valley in B.C, which operate Community Supported Agricultural programs where customers sign up for regular product purchases. The Farms @ Work Community garden is following the lead of Just Food Farm in Ottawa, which has operated a start-up farm program on 150 acres since 2013.
Among some of the participants who have signed up so far are new arrivals to the region who are seeking to establish crops that are not commonly available here, to answer a longing for familiar food from their home countries.
In his executive summary of the Community Garden project, Jamey Couglin explains the motive behind this project, saying “Peterborough County faces a structural failure in its local food system: new farmers are not entering the sector at the pace required to replace an aging farm population, largely due to lack of affordable land, startup capital, and credible pathways to test viable farm businesses. At the same time, the region significantly underproduces fruits and vegetables relative to local demand, despite having available idle farmland and accessible markets. The proposed Community Farm addresses these gaps by creating a low-cost, low-risk platform where prospective farmers can access small plots, shared infrastructure, and business training to test whether they can operate viable farm enterprises. Community growers and programs growing to meet household needs can also be accommodated….it goes beyond simple access to farm-land; it is a structured ecosystem that recognizes the community continuum from informal food growing to independent farm ownership, with an emphasis on the transitional opportunities along the spectrum when people learn together.”
Despite the low upfront cost, there is no illusion that this will become a self-sustaining commercial model in the near term, but the project leaders hope that the project yields non-financial returns by increasing the number of new farm businesses, expanding local food production, improving access to land for new farmers and strengthening regional food security.
To learn more or to get involved, visit www.farms@work.ca/new-farmer/community–farm/.