Darryl Silver of Sydenham Passes

Jeff Green | Feb 07, 2024

Darryl Silver was a man of many skills, and year-round he was a big part of the Sydenham community. In spring, he sold a wide assortment of flowers and vegetables started in his greenhouses, as well as shrubs and other decorative plants imported from Southern Ontario growers. In summer, he made sure he had fresh corn throughout the growing season, as well as berries, peaches, tomatoes and a variety of vegetables.

Always, Darryl could be relied upon to have the freshest of produce. Come fall, it was pumpkins, bins of apples and winter squash, split and greenhouse-dried firewood. In December, Christmas trees.

He dealt with grace and humour when dealing with city-folks who sometimes made outlandish complaints; “My dinner party was ruined because some of the kernels (on the cobs of corn) weren't all in straight rows.”

It was Darryl who donned a hazmat suit to clean up the hogweed-infested wall at the high school (two and a half truckloads of deep-rooted plants). He composted them before they went to seed, and replanted the tiers with tough and attractive perennials.

Knowledgeable about local history, he filled his barn with an eclectic assortment of antiques, and volunteered as one of the experts at the SF Museum’s “Treasures in the Attic” event last June.

Darryl died January 28: he will be greatly missed.

There will be more information later from his family about the celebration of Darryl’s life they plan to hold near the end of July at the greenhouse and barn.