Shady Grove is both a turkey farm and a maple syrup producer.

Heather and Dan Goetz have been producing turkeys for Sanagan’s for the last few years now, and without question they are the most consistently delicious birds we have had the pleasure of offering our customers. The birds are drug free, grain fed, and raised in a large barn which transitions into the neighbourhood skating rink once the holidays are over. I shared a couple of drinks with Dan and Heather once at an Ontario Meat Conference (yes, that does exist), and we joked about how the sizes of birds is the hardest thing to nail down in the turkey business. Customers want certain sizes, but nature doesn’t always cooperate. Luckily for us, we have developed a very cooperative relationship with the Goetz’s.

SHADY GROVE

I have known Shane and Brenda Forsyth since before I opened the shop.

I should rephrase that – I have known of the Forsyths since before I opened the shop. I first was introduced to Shane when I attended a Grey-Bruce Agricultural Meeting in the month leading up to opening our little store. Shane has a seriousness and dedication about him that is inspiring, and I knew I wanted them to be our lamb supplier. They raise predominately Dorset lambs – in Brenda’s words “we tend to stay away from animals raised for the show ring as those don’t necessarily reflect a good carcass”. The lambs are raised with their mothers and on a little pasture before being processed – they shoot for around a 50-pound carcass, which in our experience offers a delicious, and just meaty enough, lamb.

FORSYTH

We have been a supporter of Murray Thunberg since he was delivering his Heritage Chicken Eggs himself to the shop years ago.

Since then, Murray has become our principal supplier of Heritage pork. Murray prides himself on only raising registered hogs, which means that you can trace the lineage of every chop that you get from his pigs. Many farmers raise Berkshire or Tamworth hogs, but few go that extra step to ensure the breed lines don’t get muddied along the way. Murray is a familiar face to many of Toronto’s farmer’s market shoppers, and he himself has grown to now own one of Hamilton’s premier butcher shops. His energy is infectious, and we are proud to partner with him as he grows.

I have been working with the fine folks at West Grey Beef since I was a chef at Walter’s Falls Inn, just outside of Owen Sound.

West Grey Farms raises steers that are predominantly Black Angus, which are hardy animals, well suited to our Canadian climate. The animals are raised on pasture for most of their lives, before being finished with a steady amount of grain and corn to promote intramuscular fat, which leads to the delicious marbling we love so much here in North America. Their beef is well known throughout the Grey Bruce region, an area of Ontario that has been well recognized for producing some of the finest beef in the country.

We started working with Mennonite family John and Tanya Gerber’s excellent pork after an enthusiastic recommendation from Jeremy, our good friend and owner of the Packing House. Jeremy has been a cook, a butcher, and a charcutier, and his passions led him to starting a company that sources excellent meat from great small farmers in the area. Jeremy supplies us with many of the game birds we sell at the shop, and his search for Hungarian Partridge led him to the door of Tanjo Family Farms in Millbank. They have been raising partridge, ducks, and hogs for years in an open barn environment. Their hogs are fed non-GMO feed, and they are raised on deep straw. Really nice animals from really nice people.

The four Van Groningen boys are well known in the Ontario meat industry.

VG Meats has been raising cattle since the seventies in the Simcoe region, and their commitment to small herd, high-care beef is evident in the flavour and tenderness of the steaks and roasts. In fact, they have developed their own “Tenderness Tested” beef, a program they developed themselves that ensures a juicy steak, every time. Their farm has grown over the years to include a processing plant, where they make delicious all-beef hot dogs for us, as well as being able to process whole pigs raised down the way by their friends the Van Den Brook family. If you ever have the pleasure of meeting any of the brothers, you will be drawn in by their enthusiasm to their work, and their fierce commitment to quality.

As anyone who has been fortunate enough to discuss meat with Dean from Ontario Harvest will tell you, this man is all about the integrity of well raised meat.

Ontario Harvest was started by friend and farmer Neil. I knew Neil for years – he is an elk farmer first, but started Ontario Harvest when realizing the demand that chefs and butchers have for high quality, locally raised, game, beef, pork, and poultry. If you’ve eaten at any of the top restaurants in Toronto, chances are you’ve had meat that was sourced by this man. Neil was a real one - a man with the greatest integrity and passion for Ontario meats.

We tragically lost Neil a few years ago, but Dean and his team have taken up the task of celebrating all Ontario has to offer, and we look forward to continuing our great relationship.

John and Sharon Hardwick of Beverly Creek Farms have been humanely raising lambs in Millgrove for years, since their son Trent (now fully involved in the family business) was a young lad.

Working with small farms has its unique challenges. For example, I have a restaurant customer who needed a large quantity of lamb shanks. Trent and I worked together to get our customer the shanks that were available, then we guided the chef to start looking at different braising cuts like neck and side ribs, based on what the Hardwicks could supply. At Sanagan’s we only work with small operators, and if that means selling out of one cut, we see it as an opportunity to try something new. At the end of the day it’s better for the customer and better for the farmer, and we like it that way.

A relatively new addition to our roster, we started working with Road Trip Farms to supply us with Muscovy ducks when our previous farmer closed their business (farming ain’t easy). We were lucky to meet Pete Drost and his family, who have been in the poultry business for decades. They started their duck farm in the Niagara region after realizing the demand for these birds, that are naturally fatty and delicious. We sell all of the parts, obviously, and their duck is also our choice for all of our in-house charcuterie products, from duck confit to smoked breast.