A look inside Greenhill Produce in Chatham-Kent, July 22, 2015. (Photo by Mike Vlasveld)A look inside Greenhill Produce in Chatham-Kent, July 22, 2015. (Photo by Mike Vlasveld)
Chatham

Buy Local Buy Fresh Hosts Round The County Tour

Buy Local Buy Fresh is inviting Chatham-Kent residents to explore local farms during the Round the County Tour this Sunday.

KFA Director Mary Anne Udvari says there's a total of 44 participants throughout the municipality on the self-guided tour, which runs on Sunday from 10am to 4pm. She says people who come on the tour can find local in-season produce, meats, and other specialty items.

"It's educational because people have a chance to go right to the farms and they can see how their food is grown and how it's produced. Of course, the social aspect is really great as well. You can meet the farmers, and sometimes they are your neigbours right next door and you didn't realize what they're producing,"explains Udvari.

Udvari says the tour has been happening every year in the municipality for nearly a decade. Though, this year, the KFA is celebrating a brand-new edition of the Buy Local Buy Fresh map.

Louis Roesch works for Roesch Meats and More, one of the participants on the tour. He says initiatives like these to increase awareness of local farms and producers are so important.

"Agriculture is well over a $3-Billion industry in Chatham-Kent alone. We're kind of the number one so we need to push agriculture more, we need to get more integrated systems, [and] we need to get more processing done with food and different grains in this area. It creates jobs that would be year round," says Roesch.

More information about the Buy Local Buy Fresh map and Round the County Tour can be found online.

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