News/Events - April 2014

Large Wholesale Local Food Contracts Open for Bidding (Apples, Carrots, etc.)

Find Local Food

Find Local Food: YWCA Peterborough Haliburton Seeking 2,000+ Lbs of Local Produce for School Nutrition Program

Several large contracts for local food have been posted today in the recently-launched Find Local Food section of our website. YWCA Peterborough Haliburton is looking to source over 1,400 lbs of apples and over 700 lbs of carrots as locally as possible. They are also in need of spinach/mixed greens as well. The produce purchased through these contracts will be put towards the YWCA's School Nutrition Program. 

Turn around time on these contracts is going to be pretty fast. They need responses back by Tuesday April 22nd, and require delivery on both May 7th and May 14th.

If you've got storage crops left from last year, and/or a greenhouse full of early-season greens, take a look at the posted contracts and give Robin Adamson a call if you're interested in entering the bidding process.


Farmers, Sign Up Now To Receive Updates on New Contracts

Find Local Food has been designed to build connections between wholesale food purchasers and farmers in order to strengthen the local food sector in our region. This new system is a simple, innovative way to help create commercial relationships and provide new market access to farmers throughout east central Ontario. Best of all, it's free for everyone to use!

The way it works is this: wholesale purchasers (like buyers for hotels, schools or restaurants) post Requests for Local Food on our website. Farmers and producers who have subscribed to receive Find Local Food updates will be sent an automatic e-notification every time a new Request is posted. If a farmer is interested in bidding on the contract, all they need to do is reach out to the person listed on the Request Form and begin hammering out the details.

Click here to sign up for automatic Find Local Food Notifications

Although these most recent contracts are for fruit and vegetable products, there's no reason why the next round might not include any agricultural products produced in our region (like meat or honey, for instance). So if you're a grass-fed beef farmer, or an artisan goat cheese maker, or an urban beekeeper, or a wild edible forager, you should sign up now to receive notifications of new contracts as they're posted. 

If you have any questions about Find Local Food, please contact Jay Adam

Ecology Park: Edible Tree Grafting Workshop

There are more ways to produce healthy, edible trees than planting seeds. Join Andy Harjula and GreenUP for the second installment of the Planting our Fruiture workshop series to learn the art of grafting! 

Ecology Park - Tree Grafting Workshop

Upcoming Workshop: On-Farm Food Safety

On-farm food safety

Attention Food Producers: 

Farms at Work is hosting an OMAF On-Farm Food Safety Certification Workshop


When: Monday April 14, 2014

Time: 9:00am - 4:00pm

Where: Centreville Presbyterian Church - 1679 Zion Line Millbrook, ON

Cost: $50 (includes lunch and workshop materials)


If you are growing and selling food, minimizing your on-farm food safety risks is a high priority.  If you have on-farm workers or are scaling up, it becomes even more important to have routines in place.  Come to this workshop to learn practical approaches from OMAF staff to address your 3 top on-farm food safety risks- worker practices, water use and cleaning and sanitation, as well as information on funding to help you implement your food safety plans.

You will receive the following on-farm food safety resources:

  • On-farm Food Safety Good Agricultural Practices manual ($25 value)
  • 9 different Food Safety posters
  • USB with useful Factsheets and food safety resources
  • Certificate for the workshop attended
  • Self-assessments and action plans to help strengthen your Growing Forward 2 application

Pre-registration is required, and seating is limited.

To buy tickets: www.onfarmfoodsafety.eventbrite.ca

For more details, contact: jay@farmsatwork.ca  | (705) 743-7671