How Toronto’s own city farms were crowded out

It’s only been a few decades since Toronto farms and dairies kept the city well fed and its stores stocked with local produce. Food grown on the farms of Don Mills had fewer than ten miles to travel before winding up on the shelves of downtown grocery stores. Dairies advertised the names of the Toronto farms and even the breeds of cow that produced their milk: varieties such as Donlands Dairy’s Golden Guernsey 2% were common not that long ago. Wheat was harvested at Don Mills until the 1970s, milled into flour and baked into goods on the shelves of every supermarket in town.

These days, when the 100-Mile Diet encourages us to reduce our environmental footprint by eating food grown close to home, it’s tantalizing to realize that Torontonians once enjoyed a “10-Mile Diet”. Author Scott Kennedy remembers those days, and has taken great care to make sure that these farms and farmers are not forgotten.