Our Team & Directors

Max works with his wife Shelagh in their market garden called Earth’s Mirth just outside of Lanark Village in eastern Ontario. Earth’s Mirth grows vegetables to sell at the Almonte Farmers’ Market and for a food box program. His first paying job was harvesting and processing garlic on a large organic farm in the area. For two years after high school he worked as a paid intern/apprentice on a bio-dynamic farm. There he found a lifetime interest in sustainable farm practices by helping tend to pigs, goats, diverse vegetable crops, and by working with horses. For the past 15 years Max has worked at Kiwi Gardens where he currently manages production of ornamental perennials, maintenance of display gardens and retail sales at the nursery. Max has been selling Kiwi Gardens’ plants through farmers markets for many years.

Len Van Hoffen is the Vineyard Manager at Southbrook Organic Vineyards, a pioneering 57- acre biodynamic, organic, and regenerative organic vineyard in Niagara-on-the-Lake. A lifelong horticulturist, Len has extensive experience growing a variety of crops, including nursery stock, greenhouse plants, athletic turf, and wine grapes. A graduate of Niagara College with a background in Horticulture, Viticulture, and Winemaking, Len combines traditional expertise with innovative sustainable practices. Since joining Southbrook in 2019, he has been dedicated to enhancing biodiversity, improving soil health, and implementing low-impact farming techniques to produce premium wine grapes while preserving the vineyard ecosystem. His initiatives include introducing a wildflower habitat to support beneficial insects, advancing cover cropping strategies, and increasing carbon sequestration through regenerative farming. In his free time, Len can be found in his vegetable garden, and camping with his wife Kelly.

Michael Watson is a University of Guelph Agricultural College graduate and 6th generation farmer who has worked with his wife Sukyi for the last 20 years in the York and Niagara regions. Since 2005, Michael has established farming operations including tender and small fruit, field and greenhouse vegetables, floriculture, and herb production. Michael has a focus on financially viable sustainable agriculture, adopting a pesticide-free strategy in 2015, and introducing biological controls to greenhouse operations in 2022. Michael and Sukyi faced the expropriation of their farm house in 2022, triggering a relocation back to Niagara-on-the-Lake, where they currently reside. The focus now is redeveloping a neglected nursery into a new farm model, coinciding with the 200th year of Watson family farming in Ontario. As a new member of the board, Michael is interested in supporting first-generation farmers who don’t have the same family farming history or mentorships to rely on.

Claire Perttula (she/her) started farming in 2017. She loves growing potatoes and raising grass-fed beef. Right now, Claire is the Food Justice Projects Coordinator at Malvern Family Resource Centre in Scarborough, Ontario, where she manages Malvern Urban Farm and its accompanying farmers’ market. Claire works with 40+ community members and a staff team of 3-6 depending on the time of year to cultivate 2 acres of public land with lots of diverse vegetables and a new 1200 cell hydroponic microfarm. Claire is also a PhD student at York University studying food systems planning and policy and the succession crisis.

Amy is a first-generation farmer who, alongside her partner Patrick, runs Sideroad Farm in Grey County, Ontario. They grow certified organic vegetables, cut flowers, and raise pasture-raised pork and chicken and focus on direct marketing. Amy’s farming journey began in 2009 in British Columbia, where she developed a deep passion for ecological agriculture while starting a farm with a couple of friends. Amy is passionate about building a resilient local food system and ensuring that future generations have access to opportunities in agriculture in our communities.

Orlando oversees FoodShare’s food growing projects across the city – turning under utilized schoolyards, hydro corridors, and parks into vibrant and productive urban farms and community gardens. Orlando is passionate about food justice, and community leadership, and provides lots of resources and support for communities to design, implement, and run their own growing and composting projects. He is a trained agronomist with an incredible depth of knowledge in all aspects of growing food.