By Riley Murphy

Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

Albion Hills Community Farm (AHCF) has been hosting harvest festivals intermittently for almost ten years. Before COVID, they held quite large Garlic and Honey festivals, and each year, they work to bring them back to what they once were.

This year, the day was complete with multiple vendors, including Palgrave United Community Kitchen, GoodLot Farm, a local woodworker, and a pizza chef cooking pizzas right on the property.

The day, of course, wouldn't be complete without copious amounts of garlic, honey, and bees.

On other days at the farm, attendees can take educational visits to observe the farm's bees.

However, at the festival, the organizers brought a frame of bees to the attendees to tie in the educational aspect that the community farm always hopes to bring.

Karen Hutchinson from AHCF shared that they tried to embody local through the event.

Lots of products available were from neighbouring areas and farms.

“Garlic is a crop that so many different cultures use in their cooking. It's just one of those touchstone foods that everybody seems to use, that's sort of why we started growing it,” explained Hutchinson.

Attendees could also explore and walk the allotment gardens and see how each person does their garden.

“What I like to tell kids when they come to the farm is that we all eat a little bit differently and usually we grow a little bit differently and we eat what we like to eat,” explained Hutchinson. “The whole point of the community farm is that we explore how to get people to get in touch with their food. We give them the opportunity to experience local by either growing, buying, or coming to an event or a workshop or a school visit.”

Hutchinson says that their whole mission is education.

“The focus is supporting the next generation of environmental eaters because eating locally is an environmental action because we support our agriculture community,” she says. 

“We're just rebuilding the local food system, one garlic clove at a time.”

Building on the education aspect, when attendees approached to see the honeybees, they were also met with information and the chance to learn more.

The display featured multiple aspects, including what a hive looks like, as well as the importance of solitary bees and native pollinators.

Visitors could also check in at the farm's Pollinator Waystation, as well as take part in fun arts and crafts for kids.

Allison Leroux, owner of Crowded Table Pizza, was crafting pizzas based on the day's featured ingredients: honey and garlic.

“My immediate reaction was, yes, absolutely because there're so many great recipes with both honey and garlic that can go on to a pizza so I was really excited to try some out,” says Leroux.

She shared that through this, she was able to experiment with different ingredients and feature as many local and Ontario farmers and suppliers as possible.