Open Farms To Return To a One Weekend in 2025

Jeff Green | Feb 27, 2025

In a report to Frontenac County Council last week about the outcomes of the 2024 version of Open Farms, Community Development Officer Debbi Miller revealed plans for a major change in 2025.

Open Farms had morphed into harvest season long event, Open Farm Days,  which ran from late August into early October, to capture the harvest for a wide variety of different products that art grown in Frontenac County and rural Kingston.

But, as Miller reported to council last week, participants and stakeholders said that by spreading out Open Farm Days over a longer timeframe, with multiple small events, there had been a cost in terms of focus. While the added marketing had helped bring attention to the events that made up Open Farms days, Open Farms itself was not getting enough attention by the public.

So, changes are being made.

“We’ve discussed streamlining, the approach to bringing it back to being one weekend instead across six weeks, so we can really focus on having a festival feel of a weekend,” she said.

The current plan is to have a weekend event that will kickoff on Friday afternoon with a launch event that will take place at the farmer’s market in Harrowsmith, similar to what took place last year, and then having through the weekend a signature on-farm event that would be at one arm where there are various things happening. Farmer’s markets would continue to be a highlight through the weekend. Also encouraging restaurants in Frontenac County and Kingston to offer Farm to table offerings on the weekend.

“The 2025 Open Farms initiative represents a refined approach to promoting agri-tourism and local connections in Frontenac and Kingston. By streamlining goals, improving collaboration, and focusing on a unified event format, the County and its partners aim to enhance the experience for both participants and attendees,” said Miller in her report to council.”

The event will also return to its original name, Open Farms.

Another change for 2025 is that one of the four partners that helped fund and organise Open Farms, will no longer be involved. Citing budgetary concerns, the City of Kingston will no longer be involved in Open Farms.

In 2024, the city spent $5,000 on promotional materials and signs at high profile locations in the City and site signs for locations at Open Farm Days events.

Open Farms continues to be an event based both in the city and the county, with Tourism Kingston partnering with both Frontenac County and South Frontenac Township to stage the event. Tourism Kingston is funded by the City of Kingston, but has its own board and operates as an arms length corporation with members of Kingston City Council serving as appointees to its board of directors.

A lot of the details about the weekend, including the host farm, are still to be worked out by the organisers. The Frontenac Plowing Match has partnered with Open Farms over the past few years, and the Plowing Match took place on the September 8 last year, but the schedule for plowing matches in 2025 has not yet been released by the Ontario Plowmen's Association, although it is expected within the next two weeks.

In order to facilitate Open Farms for this year, a new position within the Open Farms organising sructure has been developed, that of community advisor. There will be one advisor from the farming community, one from the markets, and one from the culinary community.

“While we go to the whole organising group when a major decision needs to be made, the advisors will be able to provide ongoing feedback from the perspective of their own community,” said Miller.

The Marketing effort, which will be ongoing all summer, will point eyeballs to an updated Openfarms.ca website, which will provide information not only about the Open Farms weekend of September 5-7, but other similar events and experiences in the region throughout the summer and fall harvest season.

Details about the location and offerings that will be part of Open Farms 2025 will be released in the coming months.