A group of “young hustlers” are fighting the decline of the small farm with their popular corn stand on Bathurst Street, on the border of Aurora and King City.
The stand has been running for around 13 years, according to manager Carter Beswick, who has been running the stand for the last four years. The corn is grown in the fields off of Bathurst where the corn stand is set up.
Beswick doesn’t own the land, but for five to six weeks of the summer, he’s out at 8 a.m. picking corn fresh for the stand.
“Everybody loves our corn, because it’s obviously fresh and it’s actually sweeter than most others, the corn type is super sweet peaches and cream — that’s the exact name of it. It’s planted around early May, and we do it in stages so it lasts us until the second week of September.”
Beswick describes himself and his friends who run the stand as “young hustlers who want to stay busy and work.”
Outside of corn season, Beswick also does landscaping work on the farm where the corn is grown, as well as on another farm. He also does car detailing on the side and just finished studying at Western University.
“We take our customer service very seriously and we take our corn very seriously,” he said. “It’s fun though because you get to socialize with everyone, too.”
The stand has proved popular with Aurora residents, earning rave reviews on social media.
“It’s amazing, it’s a great bargain too,” said Aurora resident Paul Riley.
While Beswick’s stand on Bathurst is doing well, York Region residents may have noticed fewer corn stands popping up in recent years. The numbers paint a grim picture.
The number of farms is declining faster in Ontario than the average national rate, according to Statistics Canada data from 2021.
In 2021, there were 48,346 farms reported in Ontario, down from 49,600 in 2016. That rate of decline of 2.5 per cent was slightly higher than the national average of 1.9 per cent.
Nationwide, the two decades prior to 2021 saw a 23 per cent decline in the number of individual farms in Canada, with 189,874 individual farms in 2021 versus 246,923 individual farms in 2001.
Despite having a few balls to juggle, Beswick is determined to keep the stand running.
“We have a lot of loyal customers that really love us, and that’s why we really haven’t shut down because we don’t want to let everybody be upset that, because everybody loves to see us out, for the five to six weeks that we are.”
The stand sells corn by the bag, with a baker’s dozen costing $10 and half a dozen costing $5, with payments in cash only.
Beswick said the corn is picked from 8 to 10:00 a.m. each morning, and is then sold from 10:15 a.m. to 6:15 p.m.
The stand is located at 16188 Bathurst St.
