‘Farm to Table’ event, presented by Eek Farms, enjoyed by over 100 attendees at Sherwood Farm Retreat

September 2, 2026 · 0 Comments

By Jim Stewart

The King Chamber of Commerce’s annual ‘Farm to Table’ Event was proudly presented by Eek Farms last Wednesday afternoon.
Over 100 attendees enjoyed the hospitality and bucolic setting of the Sherwood Farm Retreat in ideal late-August conditions.
The event reflected so many of King Township’s attributes.
It showcased the delicious products of local farmers and artisans. The menu featured Herb and Garlic Chicken as well as Grilled and Thinly-Sliced Bavette from Beretta Farms; Roasted Potatoes, Carrots, and Onions from Eek Farms and Fresh Veggies @ 60 Aileen; Penne alla Vodka (Pancetta, Parmesan Rose Sauce), Penne alla Vendura (Rapini and Onions in Garlic and Olive Oil Sauce), or Gluten-Free Penne alla Vendura from Ah Shucks; Crisp Garden Salad from Haven Greens; Fresh Bread and Whipped Butter from Dorio’s Kettleby Bakery; Homemade Dessert Bars and Assorted Cookies provided by Pine Farms Orchards.
Beverages served included Vin Bon Red and White Wine; Craft Beer from Schomberg Brewery; Espresso Martinis prepared by Jakano; and Cocktails and Mocktails provided by Pine Farms Orchards.
In addition to the presentation and enjoyment of the wide-ranging fare, the annual festive gathering reinforced the agri-community’s welcoming ways, and morphed into a compelling forum where visions of the present and future were presented by three engaging speakers.
Mayor Steve Pellegrini emphasized the significance of the convivial gathering: “It’s an awesome event that showcases the great agricultural business in King and their importance. The dinner was excellent – I think it tasted a little bit better because I knew it was all locally-supplied.”
Chamber-affiliated business reps networked amid a late summer festival atmosphere that included live music delivered charmingly by vocalist/guitarist Dylan Hennessy who greeted guests with a range of tunes upon their arrival, and expressed his appreciation for the gig: “This is the kind of event that provides us with a livelihood – that’s the reality of being a musician – but I love interacting with people.”
Interactions were the order of the day and local vendors set up tents in a mini-market in which goods and services were pitched to the King business community. After dinner and the engaging addresses, the Chamber of Commerce membership flashed its fancy footwork with an exhibition of line dancing.
Chamber of Commerce President Ryan Raymond – who is also prepping for the upcoming Schomberg Mug Run at the Fairgrounds on Saturday, September 19 – worked diligently as emcee and kept the evening moving along nicely. He coordinated dinner servings and introduced the evening’s three speakers: MP Anna Roberts (King Vaughan); Ward 6 Councillor and Hostess Avia Eek, and Jay Willmot of Haven Greens delivered the keynote address.
MP Roberts offered a conciliatory and timely message from The Opposition Bench, but led her address with a compliment directed to hostess Theresa Sherwood’s elegant and rustic banquet hall: “Theresa – you’ve got a beautiful, beautiful barn. I am so proud to be here today in the best township in the country. It’s moments like these that remind us of the importance of our farmers. We need to stick together and support our local farmers in these uncertain times.”
The Kettleby resident reminded attendees about the hard work that is carried out by the KCOC and the appreciative Roberts applauded the fine efforts of the last three Chamber presidents: “Thanks to Angelo, Michelle, and now Ryan – you’ve expanded your membership with your hard work, vision, and leadership. We are united as a country and as a people.”
Councillor Eek offered a warm welcome to attendees and worked the audience immediately: “Wasn’t that an awesome, well-prepared meal?” After the appreciative audience’s hearty applause affirmed her inquiry, Councillor Eek’s usual, good-natured humor came shining through in her introductory words: “Farming is a sexy business. When I was dating Bill, I was studying to be a legal secretary, but I wanted to show him what a great kind of farm wife I could be. I’d help out in the fields and attend to chores to impress him. Be careful what you wish for … but to be clear – I am not a farmer. I’m the mouthpiece behind the farmer.”
Councillor Eek brought the house down with her earthy remarks, but she also voiced her empathy for all farmers and the challenges they face, but emphasized the ongoing productivity of farmers on the Holland Marsh: “After immersing myself in agriculture, I learned the playing field isn’t fair and it’s stacked against them.
“I was encouraged to run for council to support the farmers in Ward 6. I’ve attended meetings virtually from a tractor. We are on the Holland Marsh and my husband is a third-generation farmer. We farm 100 acres: 50 acres of carrots and 50 acres of onions. 9.6 million pounds of carrots are grown just on our farm. It’s in the billions when the King and Bradford sections of the Marsh are taken into consideration. The Marsh contributes $1.69B to the agricultural sector of the Canadian economy.”
Despite these astounding production numbers, Eek assumed a cautionary tone and reminded the assembly that “only 5% of Canada’s land is arable – we need to understand that. It’s land that must be protected. Due to climate change and Canada’s shift to a more temperate climate, our country’s going to be in an even better position to feed the world. California is falling off the map as an agricultural leader with all its water problems.”
Her strongest warning was aimed at careless developers: “The people that are developing land for houses on arable land need to pull their heads out of their asses. They shouldn’t be building high speed rail or highways on prime agricultural land – certainly not on Class 1, 2, or 3 land.”
The audience applauded Eek’s timely tone and forceful message. After her address was concluded, Chamber President Raymond suggested that the Ward 6 Councillor has a future in show business as a comedian which drew much supportive applause as well.
Raymond introduced Jay Willmot as the event’s keynote speaker and the Director of Haven Greens and Kinghaven Farms did not disappoint.
Wilmot thanked the Chamber for organizing the Farm to Table event and noted that “some of what’s on your plate came off our line in King City this week. The Chamber asked, and we were glad to be asked. I sit on the board but had almost nothing to do with putting this awesome event together, so let me point at the people who did from the events committee, the executive, Laura, and Chloe who made the awesome salad.”
After connecting the menu to his greenhouse-grown salad ingredients, Willmot addressed the most important members of the audience: “Before I talk about my own place, I’d like to acknowledge the rest of the farmers here. Many of you have been at this longer than I have, on harder ground, without a roof to get under when the weather turns like we do over at Haven Greens. My grandfather bought Kinghaven Farms in 1967 to raise horses. My father ran it for him. Four years ago, I took the barn many of those horses trained in and turned it into Canada’s first fully-automated greenhouse.”
The engaging keynote speaker provided the ‘creation story’ connected to Haven Greens and the old adage of ‘necessity is the mother of invention’ was in play as explained by Willmot: “I’d like to tell you that a bold vision struck by lightning in the middle of the night. Honestly, it was just the next step in a long line of small steps that eventually led to something awesome. I finished university in 2007, came back to work on the farm, and found a business that was running out of road. We came close to shutting it down. What kept us going was solar panels on the roofs of the barns – not exactly farming, but it paid the bills, and paying the bills is what bought us the years it took to get to Haven Greens.”
The founder and CEO of Haven Greens delineated the problem that his greenhouse operation hopes to alleviate and the kinship he is seeking from other farmers: “About 90% of the leafy greens Canadians eat are grown somewhere else. So we went for it. Five acres to start, 12,000 pounds of lettuce a day, every day of the year, no pesticides, and nobody’s hands on it between the seed and your table. I’ve heard indoor farming talked about as though it replaces traditional field farmers, and it doesn’t. Canadian farmers will always grow amazing products in the ground. Greenhouses support that production and allow use to grow domestically, year round. Greenhouse farmers stand alongside your farms. We don’t stand in for them.”
Willmot made an impassioned plea to buy locally amid the trade war and explained the impact of those directed purchases: “In Ontario, every dollar of farming activity turns into close to two dollars of economic activity across the province. That isn’t a Haven Greens number. It’s true of every operation in this room – the beef and the hay, the horses, the market gardens, the carrots, beets, and onions. Somebody buys what you grow, and that dollar pays you, then your feed supplier, your mechanic, the hauler, the shop in the village. Every one of them spends it again, in Ontario. It bears repeating that this only works if the dollar lands here in the first place. Short version – that’s why a night like tonight matters.”
After delineating the benefits of a locally-driven economy, Willmot addressed various elephants in the room. With the prowess of a statesman, the innovative indoor farmer offered hope amid international strife and the dark condition of current Canadian-American relations: “As Canadians, we face a challenge in this moment greater than any I’ve seen in my lifetime, and Canadian farmers have been facing this crisis head on. We face foreign wars, continental trade disputes, and the rise of an ideology by our closest ally that seems to view us more as a resource to be acquired than a sovereign nation or partner.
“Fuel prices are the highest they’ve been in a decade, supply chains we used to count on have all but collapsed, and for farmers, the cost of fertilizer, seed, and packaging have all increased substantially over the last 18 months. In addition to this, the scourge of climate change continues to wreak havoc across global food systems, causing crop loss, degradation of quality, and the destruction of arable farm land at the hands of drought, disease, and pest pressure. However, we are not unequipped to handle this change, even in light of the daunting task of doing so.”
Willmot posited a range of solutions to the daunting problems he outlined and his tone took on that of a clear-minded, agrarian visionary with a potent plan to feed a country, and by extension, the world, echoing Councillor Eek’s remarks earlier in the evening. “Canada published a national food security strategy in June, with substantial nation-building investment proposed to help build a resilient Canadian food system, and the people working on it are trying to get it right … You know I wouldn’t get up here without taking a minute to talk about the importance of the development of a robust electrical grid anchored by clean electrical generation assets. When we talk about feeding a nation year round, we need to view the concepts of farming food, and generating electricity, as one in the same.”
He implored his farming colleagues to “visualize a sovereign Canadian food future that consolidates the concept of farming with energy, to not only feed but also power our strong, healthy Canadian communities. That’s one thing I’d ask the attendees of this dinner to carry forward with them tonight.”
Willmot also rang the alarm about the “average Canadian farm operator (turning) 57 this year” but noted that “one could look at this as a Canadian inheritance looking for an heir.” He made a closing pitch for a new generation to embrace farming: “For a long time, young people have walked away from the family farm, seeing a hard life and a financial burden they don’t want to take on. But walk through Haven Greens and you’ll find robotics, climate control, data science, power systems, and increasingly, artificial intelligence. There’s a young person in this Township who thinks they have to choose between farming and engineering. We’re here to show them that they don’t.”
The powerful stump speech – offering new ways to cope with the onslaught of economic challenges in 2026 – concluded with a hopeful vision wrapped in concise language: “I don’t think the answer is bigger greenhouses. I think it’s whole sites – food and energy together on one piece of ground. Field crops and pasture and orchards alongside controlled growing, with renewable power designed in from the start, and none of it pretending to replace the rest. If we manage that, the return isn’t only economic. It’s affordable food for Canadians, and food insecurity treated as something we decided to end rather than live around. Not to mention, everyone here knows what too often happens to farmland in King Township when the path ahead becomes too dark to do anything other than raise a ‘For Sale’ sign.”
The CEO offered the alternative to that kind of despair: “But there is another way. Today, we ship our greens from Canada’s Pacific to Atlantic to Arctic coast – right from here in King, and we break ground on our second five acres this fall. Last year, we sent a little over 300,000 pounds of greens into Ontario’s food bank network through our friends and partners at Second Harvest, and are deeply grateful for the work they do at that organization because we are nothing in this province and in this country without strong, healthy, resilient communities.”
One hundred attendees took in the soaring words of Willmot on a Wednesday night at Sherwood Farms Retreat and the innovator and visionary doubled down on his connection to the land: “Three generations of my family have farmed here in King, and whatever we’ve managed to build, we built on this Township’s great farming heritage.”
After more hearty applause for Willmot, KCOC President Ryan Raymond closed the event by inviting attendees to help fight food insecurity around the Township by purchasing take home meals for $10 per box with the proceeds going to the King Food Bank. Guests were seen carting out boxes of meals to support the local charitable organization, reinforcing Willmot’s vision that feeding people creates strong, healthy, and resilient communities.