By Karen Dallimore, Words for Hire

What happens when you nod your head and smile at a produce auction? You end up with a carload of pumpkins! Clare Illingworth was one of nine who toured the Elmira Produce Auction Co-operative (EPAC) and enjoyed lunch at the Crossroads Restaurant in Elmira in October. Welcome to those who were attending their first ECFWA event!

EPAC sale manager Noah Gingrich answered our questions after the morning sale. As Noah explained, the produce auction is one-of-a-kind in Canada, modeled after those in the U.S. where 63 such auctions now run; before EPAC there was no real outlet beyond the farm lane for local produce.

The first sale was held in 2004 with 40 consignors and has grown to approximately 90 consignors this year, with auctions running up to three days a week, starting a few weeks before Mother’s Day to target flower sales and continuing through until the end of November. The buyers are typically market operators and some small independent grocers. EPAC is Mennonite owned and welcomes sellers from as far away as Aylmer as well as some more distant specialty crops such as peaches from Niagara.

Noah told us there are still on-going changes every week as the auction evolves. In the first year the challenges included everything from figuring out how to pack and grade the produce to convincing local council to support the initiative. “The township made us jump through hoops,” he said, “they had no faith in us at all.”

The sales were originally held at the Waterloo Market back when the present site was just a grassy field. Council eventually climbed on board and EPAC had no problems with recently expanding their present building.

ECFWA member Jackie Fraser joined Noah to answer questions from the group after the auction. Jackie is the Executive Director with AGCare but she also owns Fraberts Fresh Food in Fergus and frequently buys produce at the auction. While she still needs to go to the food terminal for some produce, she appreciates the ‘one-stop shopping’ of the auction and has never been disappointed with any of her purchases: “I love having this in my backyard!” She’ll display the ‘Buy Local, Buy Fresh’ logo on EPAC produce in her retail store.

As an example of what the auction has meant to local farmers, Jackie pointed out that ten years ago no one was growing tomatoes locally in greenhouses; now there are a couple of dozen growers doing just that. She’s noticed that the quality is continually improving as the growers are learning too and they’ve increased their production because there’s a market now.

The pumpkin purchase was deliberate, by the way - Clare leads a teen group with the Big Sisters of Guelph who will now have 25 pumpkins to carve for Hallowe'en.