Explore our Local Markets

St. Thomas is the perfect place to shop farm to table essentials. The area has a wide variety of markets, stalls, and farms that offer fresh produce, baked goods, meat, dairy, and cupboard staples. Shopping locally is easier than you might think. Follow me through a day at the markets and see all the goods I pick up to create my own market basket composed of products that are $10 or less.

Horton Farmers' Market

Horton Farmer’s Market runs all year long, but is at its peak time during the summer. With vendor stands inside and outside the Horton building, there is always a wide variety of goods offered every single week! Find fresh produce, meat, cheese, prepared foods & drinks, and artisanal goods all in one spot.

I picked up this delicious coffee cake from Cheffy’s Culinary Creations. Cheffy’s is owned by Jennifer, who freshly bakes everything in St. Thomas right before the market every week! Find Brownies, cakes, cookies, pies, loaves, and more at her stall. She loves taking suggestions on new bakes to bring to the market and talking to her customers.

Horton Market

📍 Location: 10 Manitoba St, St. Thomas

🕒 Hours: Saturdays 8am - 12pm

Briwood Farm Market

Briwood Farm Market has a large outdoor garden center with fresh flowers, trees, vegetable plants, and more. Inside, find a large produce section, deli, and dairy section that also features Mistyglen dairy products and Shaw’s Icecream. Find a variety of bulk products like flour, nuts, seeds, dried fruit, and more. Their pantry section is filled with cupboard essentials along with Dutch and other specialty products. There is always something new to try at Briwood Farm Market.

I grabbed a pack of pepperettes from the deli section. There you can find a variety of fresh, frozen, and packaged cuts. Local sources include Carmichael’s, The Butcher Shoppe, and Sikorski.

Briwood Farm Market

📍 Location: 1030 Talbot St, St. Thomas

🕒 Hours: Mon - Fri 8am - 8pm

Sat - Sun 8am - 6pm

SParta LAvender FArm

Tour the parterre gardens with over 10,000 lavender plants in their field at Sparta Lavender Farm. View their seasonal flower garden, pollinator garden, and butterfly garden. Inside is a small shop with women owned vendors or housemade products from the lavender grown at the farm. Find salad dressings, culinary lavender, soap, facial oil, stain sticks, and more. Owner Karen Parr’s favourite product is their Radiance Facial Serum that she uses daily.

After browsing the gardens, I picked up one of their lavender satchels filled to the brim with dried lavender buds from the flowers picked from their fields.

Sparta Lavender Farm

📍 Location: 47589 Sparta Line, Aylmer

🕒 Hours: Wed - Sun 11am - 5pm

Old Imperial Market

Every Saturday the Old Imperial Market fills with a variety of vendors with farm fresh produce, baked goods, frozen meals, fresh meat, and artisanal goods. One of the highlights of the market is Abby Mae’s Gluten Free Cafe and Bakery, open daily. Find cookies, brownies, specialty coffees, and teas all made gluten-free.

I grabbed a loaf of honey oat sourdough from La Noisette and had to stop for a latte at Abby Mae’s Cafe.

Old Imperial Market

📍 Location: 516 John St N, Aylmer

🕒 Hours: Market - Sat 8am - 3pm

Cafe - Mon - Thurs 7am - 5pm / Fri 7am - 9pm / Sat 8am - 3pm / Sun 8am - 4pm

Clovermead Honey Shop

Clovermead is home to over 24,000,000 bees, who make the delicious honey that the Hiemstra family has been selling for generations. The honey shop offers a wide variety of honey-related products such as spreadable honey, bee pollen, salad dressings, beeswax candles, and more. Behind the honey shop is Clovermead’s Adventure Farm with over 65 attractions, including: play kitchens, play grounds, animal barns, and mazes.

Clovermead offers several varieties of honey, including: summer blossom, sweet clover, thistle, golden rod, autumn flower, buckwheat, and wild blueberry. I grabbed a cute honey bear in their fan favourite summer blossom variety.

Clovermead

📍 Location: 11302 Imperial Rd, Aylmer

🕒 Hours: Mon - Sat 9am - 5pm

Mistyglen Creamery

Mistyglen Creamery is family-owned by farmers who have lived in Elgin County since 1816. Today, the farm focuses on dairy cows, the creamery, and store front. Mistyglen dairy products differ from those at the store due to their processing procedures. Mistyglen Creamery does not homogenize their milk to keep the milk fat whole instead of breaking it apart and re-adding the fat to the milk in order to keep more of the naturally occurring enzymes and properties of the milk that aid in natural digestion. Mistyglen pasteurizes their milk at a lower temperature for a longer period of time, opposed to the faster process of heating the milk to a higher temperature and killing off not just harmful bacteria, but the natural enzymes and properties from dairy that aid in digestion. Owners Kris and Tom are looking to soon expand their farm and amalgamate Kris’ passion for geriatric nursing and implement programs at their farm to help local elderly dementia patients.

I grabbed a container of their infamous cheese curds. Offered in a wide range of flavours from plain to dill to loaded potato. Owner Kris’ favorite is their traditional cup set yogurt that is lightly sweetened with local maple syrup and is a favorite of owner Kris. Be sure to stop by their store and look out for tour dates to get the chance to meet the cows that make your milk including the famous mascot of their farm Jibberjabber the cow.

Mistyglen Creamery

📍 Location: 47008 Yorke Line, Belmont

🕒 Hours: Wed - Fri 10am - 5pm

Sat 10am - 6pm

Sun 9am - 5pm

Mon 11am - 4pm

Howe's Farm Market & Bakery

Howe’s Farm Market & Bakery is full of fresh produce from across Ontario and from Howe’s own farm just outside of Aylmer. Their baked goods section is full of seasonal favourites made from scratch, including strawberry pie in the spring and caramel apple in the fall. Also find shelves full of delicious preserves ranging from pickled beans and relish to peach and blackberry jam. Howe’s is known for their delicious strawberries in the spring and summer and their award-winning pumpkin patch in the fall.

In my basket is a jar of their delicious strawberry rhubarb jam made with strawberries grown on their own farm.

Howe's Farm Market & Bakery

📍 Location: 1143 Highbury Ave S, St. Thomas

🕒 Hours: Mon - Sat 9am - 6pm

Sun 10am - 5pm

Harris Flower Farm

Harris Flower Farm has been in the Harris family for generations. They create beautiful bouquets with flowers they grow themselves on their farm. Find them at the Horton Farmers’ Market every Saturday with beautiful seasonal bouquets of varying sizes and varieties.

Harris Flower Farm also has an on-farm flower cart open Saturdays during their growing season. Harris Flower Farm is well known for their custom event bouquets and wedding floral arrangements. I went to visit their flower cart and picked up one of their mixed seasonal flower bouquets.

Harris Flower Farm

📍 Location: 42488 Ron McNeil Line, St. Thomas

🕒 Hours: Saturdays 9am - 1pm

Ferguson's Produce

Ferguson’s Produce is a local favourite. The small farm stall features fresh seasonal favourites, including their infamous strawberries and corn, sold during the summer. The farm stall is on a first-come, first-served basis, so come early if you want to snag their produce before they sell out.

I stopped by their stall during peak strawberry season and grabbed a freshly picked quart. Be sure to check their Facebook page to see what's in season and check their hours.

Ferguson's Produce

📍 Location: 11026 Wellington Rd, St. Thomas

🕒 Hours: Mon - Sat 9am - 6pm

Sun 10am - 6pm

BURKE'S PRODUCE MARKET

Burkes Produce Market sells produce, artisanal goods, baked goods, frozen meat and meals, and other products from a variety of local vendors, all found in one place. Burkes is well known for their in-house cookies, muffins, protein balls, and other baked goods.

Burke’s Market has a wonderful patio outside and is the perfect spot to grab a snack and sit out in the nice weather and enjoy. For my market basket, I grabbed a bundle of fresh DeBackere Farms asparagus.

Burke's Produce Market

📍 Location: 6548 Sunset Rd, St. Thomas

🕒 Hours: Daily 10am - 5pm

DeBackere Farm Market

DeBackere Farm Market is just outside of Port Stanley and is filled with farm-fresh produce, frozen foods, baked goods, preserves, and other artisanal goods from local vendors. Among their goods, you can find produce straight from their own farm in Elgin County that's been family-owned since 1969.