If you’re looking for healthy, delicious food straight from the farm, here’s a hint. We Farm launched a few years ago as a newsletter to help connect small farmers and consumers, and now there’s a website, too.

We Farm is the brainchild of Jennifer Pittet, and she devotes each issue to introducing readers to local farms, their operations and practices, and offering food-buying, preparation and storage tips.

Jennifer was born in Halifax and grew up in Toronto and Montreal. But since those early urban days, she has spent the intervening years focussed on the needs of small farms. At college, she got involved with agricultural organizations on campus, and after graduation, she became a writer with the Developing Countries Farm Radio Network (now Farm Radio International) – a clearing house of information for small-scale farmers around the world. “I’ve never actually farmed,” says Jennifer, who does garden and keeps a few chickens. “But I’ve visited a lot of farms all over the world.”

She moved to this area a few years back to be closer to her parents, and she began writing for the
Grey Bruce Agriculture & Culinary Association and Foodlink Grey Bruce. Jennifer quickly recognized the frustration many farmers experienced in trying to reach consumers, combined with a lack of awareness among consumers of the many opportunities to buy local food. An important link was missing. Small farms and farm-gate operations didn’t always have the expertise to market directly to consumers, and consumers had no central resource to learn about local farms selling direct to table. She decided to provide the link.

“It’s a tool to connect farmers and their customers,” says Jennifer. “The focus is on how people are growing food and how they’re actually managing their land. I’m trying to get people to think about where their food comes from – what does it really mean when someone says they’re farming organically, for example – and providing tips on things like storage, to make it more feasible to buy more locally.”

We Farm began in 2011, with an email newsletter directed at consumers in Grey and Bruce counties. The newsletter met with great interest, and she quickly expanded to Simcoe County and Waterloo/Wellington counties.

If you’re interested in getting your fill of information on local farm-fresh food, subscribe here.