Sudbury farmers say it will be a busy Thanksgiving weekend

Shoppers are seeking out local farms to grab the final fixings to set their tables this Thanksgiving weekend in Greater Sudbury.

Thanksgiving preparations are underway at McGrow’s Farms and Gardens, in Garson, and farmer and operator Stuart McCall tells CTV News the lead-up to Thanksgiving weekend has been anything but quiet.

“It’s crazy. We have so many customers coming all the time to pick up veg for Thanksgiving weekend,” McCall said.

McCall says his farm has seen an increase in shoppers looking for fresh produce, meat and eggs to accompany their Thanksgiving plans.

Sophie and Stephanie Cholettee came in to get some last minute items.

“Thanksgiving is this weekend, so of course we’re trying to get a couple goodies for that,” they said.

Local farmers expect a busy weekend with the garden harvest, meat production and holiday shoppers.

“Because Thanksgiving is coming up, it’s been quite busy… We’ve been having issues with labour and that kind of thing and having enough people to actually process the turkeys or process the pork and that has been one of the things that makes our lives much busier,” Teresa Van Raay with the Ontario Federation of Agriculture (OFA).

The OFA said the rising costs are also a factor for meat producers in Ontario.

“The hydros gone up, the fuels gone up, we’ve got extra taxes on that sort of stuff, and of course our labour,” Van Raay added

Area farmers have told CTV News they are thankfully seeing a push to support shopping local this Thanksgiving.

“The last couple years have been really hard, especially on our local businesses,” said the Cholettes.

“So (we) think trying to support local any way you can make a huge difference, so buying food for the holidays is a really easy place to start.”