For two decades Sandra May Blodgett has lived in Paisley and for just about that length of time, she has wanted to create community with food. She’s finally realized her dream with Orchard’s Landing Paisley, a hub for food and food-connected entrepreneurs.

Located on the main street of Paisley, with green doors and windows plastered with flyers for all the events going on in this Bruce County town, Blodgett flies in for our interview with a big smile and stocking feet. She has been cleaning her fish fryer at home in Paisley and meets me at the front door, full of energy and eager to show the foodstuffs on the shelves.

There are jams, maple syrup, pizzelles, sauces, bowls, aprons and empty tables that will be filled with produce as it starts emerging from the fields and gardens. Bikes against the wall don’t seem to fit the brand  but she’d recently hosted a bike maintenance workshop with a local entrepreneur so the bikes are there as part of the community model she envisions for the space.

The vision has been a long time forming.

Blodgett is an early childhood educator and was the long-time promoter and organizer of Paisley’s farmer’s market before it folded. “Farmers need to be on the farm and in the field,” says Blodgett. “They don’t have time to sit in booths and sell what they grow.”

Still, she really believes in the concept of a farmer’s market and that every town should have one for people to buy local, to appreciate the agricultural community and have access to fresh, healthy food. Blogett wanted a space where she could make it easier for both farmers and customers to meet in the food space. A few years ago, a “seriously supportive municipal councillor” called Blodgett and said, “there is a space for your dream.” 

The storefront and building Blodgett was about to invest in had housed an acupuncture clinic in the front while the back was, well, a little dilapidated. But it was space. Lots of space to have a foodstore in the front, and an indoor farmer’s market in the back. For the past two years, Blodgett has been slowly working towards that goal and this year, the whole back is being opened up to accommodate fresh foods as well as offering an inspected kitchen for growers to process their fruits and vegetables into value-added products such as jams and sauces. One client created diffused oil in the kitchen.

Describing herself as a community facilitator, Blodgett says she likes to ask people “what are you good at?” Her next question is then, “How can you use what you are good at to make money?” She likes to encourage creativity and now has the space to sell the results. 

Blodgett tells the story of Emma Thornton, a young entrepreneur who answered the first questions by saying “crocheting”. Thornton liked to crochet little animals but she only did it for friends and family. She had four left. Blodgett placed them in the store and they sold! Encouraged by this little step, the crocheter upped her game and sold 32 last year. Thirty crocheted animals do not a full-time job make, but as a side hustle, it’s a little something that many creators are looking for.

Blodgett also encouraged youth to get their first business experience at Orchard’s Landing. She has a 14-year-old client who makes freeze-dried candy under the label Sunshine Sweets. The student needed a machine to make her product and first-year sales were so good, she was almost able to pay off the machine in one year.

A lot of crafters approach Blodgett but crafts do not fit Blodgett’s vision.  To her, Orchard Landing is about food so the only crafts she accepts have to be food-related, such as the crocheted farm animals, handcrafted aprons and wooden bowls featured in the store. Everything in the store is made by locals.

“Tourists really want something genuinely made in Bruce County,” says Blodgett. “They don’t want to go to commercial grocery stores.”

Most of the food sold at Orchard’s Landing Paisley does come from the local Mennonite community. She also sells fish, farm-fresh eggs and local fruits. Blodgett is currently looking for a sweet corn supplier to round off her farm food offerings.

    She continues to offer hands-on experiences as well. The next workship is a Power of Planting event where Sophie of Sophie’s Tropical Plants is going to teach participants how to care for and divide plants.

     Food and community are vital to Blodgett who shares that she lived in poverty for 12 years of her life. “I lived off the land and I knew how to do it because when I was a kid, if we did not grow it, we did not eat it.” When Blodgett became a mother and her husband had seasonal work, finances were tight. They shared a car so when he went to work, she was at home on the farm. While she knew how to grow food, she admits “I did not have the skills on how to make money.” 

   Education via courses, applying for grants and online research have now given her these skills and she believes her purpose is to connect people with food, their community and opportunities to make money. 

  “That is so impor-tant to me,” she says. 

   Blodgett doubts she’ll ever be rich but with her husband now working full-time, a job and now Orchard’s Landing, she is finding her way. “I can live on a  shoestring. I have done it my whole life and I can truly make something out of nothing.”

This year, she is adding a business partner who shares her passion. This will help with the workload and the shared synergy of ideas promises to grow the business. 

Blodgett says Orchard’s Landing is a place to come in and feel comfortable. “You will be amazed by the amount of talent in Bruce County,” she says. And if for some reason, you don’t find anything to buy, it doesn’t matter. Just come see it, she says.

“All day long I sit here and watch people park across the road to head into the convenience store beside me but they don’t come in here. I’m telling you that nutrition is here and sweet is here too. And there’s still room for your ideas and to work in this kitchen,” she concludes. ◊