Despite the name, Newmarket's Strawberry Creek Farm Market on Davis Drive has more than just strawberries for sale.
“Sometimes our name works against us ... because people come in, ‘oh, we thought you just had strawberries,’” Kevin Grose said.
He runs the business alongside his wife, Mary-Anne, and their son, David.
While the farm offers pick your own strawberries when they’re in season from June to mid-July, that’s not all they have.
At the same time as strawberry season, they have pick your own peas available and throughout July, they also have pick your own raspberries, which get a second crop in September. In the fall, they also have pumpkins and pre-COVID, they offered wagon rides.
Another attraction they’ve added is a sunflower patch.
“We had a patch last year and it was real popular, so this year we cut a trail through it,” Kevin said, however, due to the heat, the sunflower season is just about done.
The family found having the flowers gave people a reason to stop, especially as farms have become a popular destination for Instagram pictures.
“You see them posing for pictures as much as picking,” David said of their visitors.
“As farmers we think, really?” Mary-Anne said, but she added that it’s great for business.
A big part of that business involves the farmers market on site, where they also sell food grown at another farm they own in Mount Albert.
Like many smaller farms, they also supplement their stock with items that Kevin picks up several times a week from the food terminal in Toronto.
However, the family finds some shoppers are surprised that not everything is grown there and Kevin said the grocery stores spoil people a bit.
“People come in the first of June and say ‘do you have any sweet corn?’” he said, adding that corn isn’t ready to be harvested until August.
Now, they take steps to help educate people on where their food is coming from.
“In the market we have items that we don’t grow but we put on the sign we’re they’re from,” Mary-Anne said.
David added that “people find that interesting to know where all the stuff is from at least, because nothing is really from outside of Ontario.”
They have also put up a large map of the province on the wall so people can see where exactly the produce they’re buying was grown.
On top of the fruits and vegetables, they also have other goods like jams and canned products from a group of Mennonite women in the Guelph area and dairy products from Sheldon Creek Dairy in the Alliston area.
That includes unique S’mores milk, which Mary-Anne called the dairy producers “flavour of the month.”
For the Grose family, at the end of the day, the most special thing is the people.
Kevin said they have a great staff of young people who are hard working and lovely.
“Anyone who says young people aren’t good doesn’t know the right young people,” he said.
For David, while many people wouldn’t want to spend their days working with mom and dad, he said it’s a dream come true.
“I grew up wanting to farm,” he said. “It’s a lot of fun working with these guys, so it’s been nice that way.”
The farm is located at 17471 Woodbine Ave. in Newmarket, with the entrance off Davis Drive. The market is open between June and October from Monday to Saturday, from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.
