Hooray for Herrle's!

Imagine my surprise and delight when Herrle's Country Farm Market, intended to open mid-June, opened its doors to aisles of gorgeous seasonal local produce on June 2 instead!

Located at 1243 Erb's Road in St. Agatha, Herrle's is a family-run farm that has been in operation for 152 years. In 1964, Howard and Elsie Herrle started a retail farming business when they grew a few acres of sweet corn and sold it from their garage. The Herrle name soon became known for its fresh-from-the-field sweet corn. And six generations of Herrles later, the sweet corn fields mingled with strawberries, peas, beans and pumpkins too.

In 1988, the Herrles built their Farm Market - what you'll see today - which opens from June until the end of October. Field production expanded to add cucumber, beets, spinach, zucchini and squash. Herrle's also built a bakery that same year, and today customers are greeted with the aroma of freshly baked pies, muffins, butter tarts, chelsea buns, and cookies. And raspberry tarts! Oh, I couldn't keep my eyes off those when I visited last Friday.

Another great feature of Herrle's is its pick-your-own-patch option for customers wishing to foray into the fields for freshly picked berries. Although with a motto like "Freshness Makes the Difference," you're sure to be surrounded by freshly-picked freshness in every aspect of the farm store too.

While I was pressed for time on Friday, I couldn't resist visiting Herrle's for the first time this season. I picked up fresh strawberries, peas in the pod, peppers, cherries, mushrooms and asparagus.

To continue on this local and fresh path, today I think I'll venture over to the new Stratford Sunday Slow Food Market at 49 Griffith Road to enjoy more fruits and vegetables of the season. More on that later.

The season of abundant Ontario farm-fresh produce is officially open! And it tastes spectacular.