Restaurateurs, farmers and producers across the region are proving that local food isn’t just a trend — it’s a thriving ecosystem.
Picture yourself: You’re seated at a comfortable bar stool overlooking an open kitchen. From your view, you can see expert hands stripping fresh tarragon leaves from their stems, searing foie gras to be served with preserved peaches right from a Niagara-on-the-Lake family farm, and plating a beautiful dish just for you. No, you aren’t in a friend’s kitchen, you are in one of the coolest spots in downtown St. Catharines, oddBird restaurant.
In front of you, they place a dish that shows off some of the region’s seasonal specialties: a pea purée, topped with charred asparagus, soft boiled egg, trout roe, pickled pearl onions, sourdough crumb and spicy ‘Nduja sourced from a local Niagara supplier. The Niagara asparagus is the star of the plate, but other than the trout roe — which is also sourced ethically and Canadian — this dish contains ingredients that are sourced almost entirely from the Niagara region.
It’s no secret that Niagara is an excellent growing region. According to Niagara Economic Development, thanks to the area’s climate, alongside 200,000-plus acres of farmland and a talent pool of folks with farming know-how, agriculture is a pillar of the local economy and continues to grow each year.
The farmers and agricultural businesses are only one piece of the puzzle. A healthy food system has a “full-circle” moment, starting with the farmers, the food producers, and then to the customer-facing restaurants. Here in the Niagara region, there are advocates of the ‘support local’ movement from every walk of life. Many of them have been championing this movement for generations.
At oddBird, seasonal ingredients shine in vibrant, ever-evolving dishes crafted just steps from where they’re grown. Chefs Justin Duc and Scott White, top left, take a farm-forward approach to flavour — sourcing locally, including from the Duc family’s farm.
An seasonal odd bird
Justin Duc, co-owner and chef of oddBird, is no stranger to farming and seasonality. Growing up on a farm in Niagara- on-the-Lake gave him a first-hand look at sourcing food from the ground up. With his business partner Scott White, they created the concept of oddBird with this seasonality in mind.
“The whole point of oddBird is to be flexible, constantly changing and evolving,” he says. “We are uniquely prepared to deal with local sourcing challenges here. Our menu is designed to change all the time. It was meant to be that we have 10 courses of something, and when it’s gone, it’s gone.” The ever-changing seasonal chalkboard menu includes a variety of meat-heavy dishes with options such as beef tartare with Dijon aioli and crostini, roasted bone marrow, braised short ribs, and its ever-popular buttermilk fried chicken sandwiches.
Duc’s family continues to own a fruit farm in Niagara-on-the-Lake, with his brother planting about a half acre of vegetables on the farm specifically for oddBird each year. Alongside meats, the rotating menu gets creative with seafood and produce. “The hardest challenge we have is honestly in the middle of the summer when the garden and farm is producing the most and I go down to [Niagara-on-the-Lake] and we’ll just load up whatever we have, and then we have to figure out some of the dishes on the fly. That’s kind of the most fun part of it.” In regards to recent political changes within the food system, Duc says “If you’re using things from close to home it doesn’t really affect you as much. Most of our stuff comes from really close by.”
oddBird.
52 St. Paul St., St. Catharines
oddbird.ca | 905.322.4043 | @oddbird.niagara
Upper Canada Cheese in Jordan Station produces award-winning cheeses made with 100 per cent Guernsey milk from Comfort Farm. Cheesemaker Clyde Pereira brings bold creativity and technical mastery to Upper Canada Cheese, transforming rich Guernsey milk into standout cheeses with international acclaim.
Upper Canada Cheese: A staple
One of the local producers regularly on the menu at oddBird is Upper Canada Cheese Company. Located in Jordan Station, Upper Canada has been a staple of the community since its opening in 2005. “We have been here for 20 years in this community. Everybody here knows of this spot and it’s like a landmark location,” says Upper Canada’s cheesemaker Clyde Pereira, but the team also recognizes there are a lot of new-to-the-area people, along with tourists, who may not realize they are more than a retail store.
“I hope people start finding us here and realizing that we are changing our business model, becoming more of a destination spot, trying to expand into more services,” such as its new sandwich menu. “We want it to become an experience,” says general manager Marg Kapitan.
The company has been making a name for itself beyond the Jordan area too, with some of the offerings within the cheese line winning international awards.
“All our cheese is made from 100 per cent Guernsey milk, which contains an A2 protein,” Kapitan says. “A2 is very good for digestive, gut biome, people with intolerance or digestive issues can usually eat our cheese with no problem.” For the Guernsey milk found in these cheeses, the team, of course, sources it locally.
“We have an exclusive agreement with a farm up in Fenwick called Comfort Farm, a very well-known family.” But the local support doesn’t stop there. “Because we have been created as a Canadian and a local company, it’s very important to us to collaborate and support our suppliers, such as Comfort Farm. A lot of our products in our retail store are also local and Canadian. They are all Canadian and about 85 per cent local.”
Upper Canada Cheese Company
4159 Jordan Rd., Jordan Station (Lincoln)
uppercanadacheese.com | 905.562.9730 | @uppercanadacheese
A farm offering comfort
Though the Comfort name is well-known throughout the Niagara community, farmer Bruce Comfort remains humble about Comfort Farms.
“The family farm — it’s been in the family since the beginning of time almost.” Though Comfort didn’t give an exact date, an article with the Niagara Federation of Agriculture states that the original Comfort Farm has been in the family since 1796. To this day, Comfort Farms remains a family-run operation, with Comfort and his family co-farming with his brother and his family.
Best known for its Guernsey milk, which Upper Canada Cheese puts to good use, Comfort says the family-run farm also grows produce, too.
“[In terms of supporting local, it] should be kind of accepted that the producers of any product, they put their heart into it to produce a quality product… they do it, yes, to make money, but to have longevity and continue on,” Comfort says. “It’s not a flash in the pan or a fly-by- night operation, there’s a lot of money invested to make it work. [As a farmer, you] like what you do, but you also feel obligated to continue to produce a quality product.” Just like his family before him and generations to come, Comfort Farms remains an important part of the Niagara region and a healthy food system.
Comfort Farms
1639 Rosedene Rd., West Lincoln
905.562.4252
At the Good Earth Food & Wine Co., a 55-acre fruit farm sets the stage for a true farm-to-table experience, where menus change biweekly and peaches, herbs and other Niagara-grown ingredients take centre stage.
Farm to table
The Good Earth Food & Wine Co. is in a unique position in the Niagara region. It’s “a literal farm-to-table restaurant,” says general manager Matt Loney, and it has a goal of supporting local producers as “part of our driving philosophy” both on the food and wine menus. Located on a 55-acre fruit farm, it been in farmed since the 1900s, but The Good Earth brand was created in the ‘90s by Nicolette Novak and was originally launched as a cooking school. From there, the team created a small restaurant, which grew in popularity and expanded into what it is today a large restaurant, winery and event space. It is owned by Hamilton-area company Carmens Group and specializes in everything from casual live music and wood-fired pizza nights to weddings and intimate dinners in the cooking garden.
The Good Earth collaborates with local farmer Chris Anders, who manages their vineyard and acreage of fruit trees (including selling the product at markets and providing fruit for the restaurant). Anders grows primarily peaches (seven varieties), some European plums and conversion crops. Being that the restaurant is situated on a peach farm, “peaches will play a heavy component in a lot of what we do here for the menu,” Loney says. “Everything we do is as local and seasonal as we can get it — ramps, fiddleheads, strawberries, rhubarb — we also have an herb garden and a big garden in behind the cooking school that we use for the kitchen.”
When asked about supporting locally outside the farm, Loney says, “Chef Andrew Thorne is very focused on what’s representative of the region and the terroir. Our menu usually rotates out every two weeks.” The restaurant offers delicious options such as locally grown Japanese lime cucumber salad with burrata and mint, or locally sourced Iberico Pluma Pork with potato gratin, roasted radish and aji verde. “For the most part, we’re 100-mile [diet] outside of seafood,” Money says, [with a] big focus on what the regional terroir brings to the table.”
The Good Earth Food & Wine Co.
4556 Lincoln Ave., Beamsville
goodearthfoodandwine.com | 905.563.6333 @goodearthniagara
RPM Bakehouse, sister to Michelin starred Pearl Morissette, champions Canadian grains and Niagara produce in pastries such as rhubarb danishes and plum sablé cookies — all crafted with deep ties to local farmers and foragers.
A sister for Pearl
RPM Bakehouse is the sister spot to the well-known Michelin-star restaurant Pearl Morissette.
“It was a good complement to things we were doing at the restaurant, to have another business that was more accessible,” says owner and chef Daniel Hadida. “That was a really important thing for us to have more accessibility in the region we’re in.”
Another motivation behind the launch of RPM Bakehouse? “We had a lot more to say and learn about the state of grains and the infrastructure around it in Canada. We had found really great producers for other ingredients we work with, but with grains we constantly struggled and so we figured the best way to help us learn more about it was to really put ourselves in it.”
For grains, Hadida works with farmers across Ontario and Canada — “The thing we have noticed is that [they] really need support and we try to work with as many people as humanly possible for that.” Hadida says, emphasizing the majority of the menu remains sourced from Niagara or nearby. “Rhubarb is really kicking off right now. We are doing a danish using locally grown rhubarb. We have a custard made with sweet clover and we forage that in the area around us. We have a little sablé cookie made with plum jam and we get the plums from a farm right around the corner in Niagara.”
Working with farmers from Palantine Fruit and Roses, Chez Nous Farm, Elizabeth’s Greenhouses, Johnston Farms and Warner’s Farm, RPM Bakehouse has become a key component of and strong advocate for a healthy, local food system in the Niagara region. “We really act as part of a big community of lots of different people who have shared goals in terms of great quality food, food that’s healthy and supporting your community.”
RPM Bakehouse
3839 Main St., Jordan
rpmbakehouse.com | @rpm_bakehouse
Roots back to 1919
Warner’s Farm is located in the heart of Beamsville.
“In 1919, my grandfather bought the farm and he started farming in 1920,” says Torrie Warner, farmer and owner of Warner’s Farms, says of the inception of Warner’s Farm. On the farm, Warner primarily grows tree fruits, table grapes, some berries, and some vegetables; they also make cider and a few preserves.
When asked about the collaborations between Warner and restaurants and food producers, he says, “It’s a two-way street — I grow product and I have to sell it, and they need product and need to buy it. If we didn’t each exist, neither one could exist. It’s all one big happy family, so to speak.”
Warner says the imposition of tariffs south of the border “has done a huge amount for Canadian unity. If you want to remain Canadian, you still have to buy from your fellow Canadian producers. We have product here [in Canada] and we can produce our own wines, fruits, vegetables, everything.”
Warner agrees that he has seen an uptick in local support over the past few months. “Hopefully the support continues, not just a few months or few years, type of thing.”
Warner’s Farm
4045 John St., Beamsville
warnersfarm.ca | 905.562.5637
“Helping each other grow”
From the local Niagara restaurants to the food producers and the regional farmers, the sentiment echoes across each of the many businesses. It is time to get back to our roots of keeping things local. As Marg Kapitan of Upper Canada Cheese succinctly says, “It comes back to us really supporting each other and helping each other grow. It’s a key time, it’s a stressful time — but it’s a good opportunity to get back to the grassroots.” And these Niagara businesses are doing just that.
