About Cady Ann and Deeper Roots Farm
At Deeper Roots Farm, we are centered in growing food staples of the African Diaspora. In the past few years we’ve grown Jamaican Callalou, Jamaican Sorrel and even Bitter Melon yet we get feedback from other community members stating that “I thought the Callalou you had was the one we eat in Trinidad” or other lectures of bringing in more foods to get a better representation of the community we are serving.
In turn, this year we’ve expanded the range of foods to include Shadow Benny, Poi, Garden Egg among other staples. This is what we consider to be our role in food sovereignty. Often, farm fresh and local produce do not have the selection of goods that we carry which we feel is a contributing factor to Black people not attending farmers markets to the same degree as their white counterparts. After we’ve been seen carrying Jamaican Callalou, we’ve seen repeat customers who buy these cultural staples. This relationship between community member and farmer is what I find to be very important in championing food sovereignty.
One disadvantage however is that we are a growing farm, thus we’re not able to access certain infrastructure like a greenhouse or a hoop house in certain cases. These infrastructure is helpful in us extending the very short season in Canada. The tropical foods that we grow require longer seasons and more sunlight. One thing that we will do as we continue to grow is to get these infrastructure, get more land to grow more food and further broaden the range of cultural staples that we grow. That way we are not limited to late summer and Fall to get the produce that our community loves.
Where can we find Deeper Roots?
We are at a farmers market hosted at the Artscape Wychwood Barns every Saturday and do a Bi-weekly Sunday market at the Afro-Caribbean Farmers Market and Deeply Rooted Farmers Market. Hope you follow us and watch us grow because we have quite exciting things in store for the future.
Learn more about Deeper Roots Farm here.
