New vendors at the Frontenac Farmers Easter Market

Mar 31, 2016

When friends and family get together to celebrate the Easter long weekend, food is always a going concern. For that reason, vendors at the Frontenac Farmers Market have been putting on an annual Easter weekend event, which was held at Prince Charles Public School in Verona on March 26.

Debbie Harris, long-time manager of the market, was pleased with the turn out and said the idea behind the Easter market is to give buyers a chance to purchase food locally grown and raised for their Easter celebrations. “This event is also a great outing for local people who may be entertaining guests for the weekend; it gives them something to do and a chance to get out and purchase a few things that might come in handy for their Easter meal and celebrations” Harris said.

Sixteen vendors took part this year and up for grabs were fabulous meats like Easter hams, lamb, plus locally grown veggies, and a wide assortment of home made comestibles like jams, pickles, and candies. Home baked good like pies, hot cross buns, and monkey bread were also bountiful, and not to be missed were home-made perogies, organic soaps, spring seeds for growers, a wide assortment off art and craft items including home-spun yarns and more.

Together with the long-time regular vendors, the Easter market introduced some new and notable sellers to the market’s loyal clientele. David Bates and Lucinda Thum, owners and operators of Bramble Heights Farm near Parham, are two first time vendors to the FFM. Their booth attracted much attention due to their unique products that include their pastured heritage pork, Muscovy ducks, geese, chicken meat and egg products and much more. The couple’s motto of “Happy Animals, Heritage Lifestyle” is as unique as their off-grid farm and hand built 176 square foot cabin located on their 30-acre farm property near Parham, where they have a single solar panel, and still pump their water by hand.

Old-style farm practices are first and foremost at Bramble Heights, where Bates and Thum raise a wide range of heritage breeds of pigs, ducks, geese and chickens both for meat, eggs and breeding stock. “We have a really old traditional style of raising our animals, who are all free range and ecologically raised”, Bates said. “We have a unique approach to raising our animals and as a result the products we sell, for example our pork, is especially tender, flavorful and juicy and our bacon is really something special”.

The two have been farming for the last four years and they offer up a unique range of items including their “flock in a box” selection of fertile hatching duck and chicken eggs. They decided to join the farmers’ market not only to bring their goods to market but also to meet people in the community, to make contact with other farmers in the area, and to build up their animal stock, which they will be selling during the market’s upcoming regular season.

“ We are hoping to introduce people to the idea of local food and the unique “happy” animals that we are raising”.

The two also sell birch syrup, a wide selection of plants and local trees like beaked Hazelnut as well as locally grown produce, seeds and more. Judging by how fast their ducks and geese flew off the shelf on Saturday, these two farmers, new on the scene with the FFM, will no doubt be attracting many more shoppers when the regular market season opens in May.

For more information about Bramble Heights visit www.brambleheights.com and for more information about the FFM visit

www.frontenacfarmersmarket.ca and follow them on facebook.