Farmers

About our owner farms and our partners 

YYC Growers is a cooperative owned by member farmers from Calgary and surrounding area. In addition to the member farmers who own YYC Growers, we also partner with other farmers and producers. Together our collective provides a resilient, diverse, year-round, local food supply for our communities, and works together to advocate on important agricultural issues.

Whether member farms or non-member partners, each of the farms we work with has their own context (urban vs. rural, soil vs. aquaponic/hydroponic) and different methods to enact the best growing practices for their particular context. For example, our soil farmers work hard to regenerate soil health and sequester carbon through a variety of methods: no till, cover crops, adding organic matter—and more

Some of our farms and partners are precluded from official organic certification because they are hydroponic, raise livestock, or because they are urban. Many of our farms do carry organic certification, however; Our Family Farm, Eagle Creek, Lunds Organics, Mans Organics, Poplar Bluff—to name a few. 

YYC Growers puts transparency first, and we want our customers to know how their food is grown. All of our farms are GMO and glyphosate free. 

We meet and travel to our farms and would encourage you to do the same. For specific questions you may have about our farms, feel free to contact our farms directly or email info@yycgrowers.com.

  • Chef's Farmer

    Owned by Josh and Sarah Spackman, Chef's Farmer is an urban farm that started in Calgary's West-Hillhurst neighborhood. They use donated yards for food production, soil repair, and neighborhood beautification. They’ve curated 1/4 of an acre from the donated yards in Hillhurst, St. Andrews Heights, and Banff Trail neighborhoods.

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  • Deepwater Farms

    Deepwater Farms was founded in Calgary, Alberta in 2015. It started as a passion project to bring the farm closer to people and people closer to their food. They grow baby greens in an indoor, controlled environment, and sell their produce locally. Grown in a hydroponic system that delivers the perfect amount of nutrients in an optimal environment.

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  • Eagle Creek Farms

    The Mills family began farming their land in 1921 and have carried on the tradition for four generations. As the Mills learned more about sustainable farming and environmental impact, they began a long period of transition and in 2018 they became Certified Organic.

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  • Leaf & Lyre Urban Farms

    Leaf & Lyre is a regenerative farm based in Bowness, Calgary. Rod Olsen (aka the “Rodfather”) is the founder and he tends the soil by reducing tillage, adding compost, and cover cropping. They uses a method called SPIN (Small Plot INtensive) to use private and shared yard plots—typically using ~30 different back yards.

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  • Little Loaves Farm

    Little Loaves Farm is a family farm located NW of Sundre Alberta. They strive to provide both great food and a restored environment. They specialize in raising great tasting and well tempered yaks, and growing fantastic potatoes (many of which pair very nicely with yak).

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  • Micro YYC

    Vanessa Rosewood is the founder of Micro YYC. The company grows and distributes microgreens to stores, restaurants, and markets in Calgary, and beyond. They grow year-round, indoors, in soil, without the use of synthetic inputs. Seeds are certified organic whenever possible.

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  • Our Family Farm

    Our Family Farm is a small organic family farm about 25km from Calgary and 4km out of Okotoks. They don't use any herbicides or pesticides on our food. They are certified organic and believe that considering and respecting the biosphere goes a lot deeper than that. They are continuously working towards greater sustainability and are stoked on permaculture.

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  • Pennybun's Mushrooms

    Pennybun’s Mushrooms is an urban farm founded by Jessica Lypkie and Dirk McCabe. Their greenhouse specializes in oyster and shiitake mushrooms and source other specialty mushrooms such as morels, porcinis, and chanterelles from select forgers in B.C.

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  • Shirley's Greenhouse

    Located east of Didsbury, Shirley’s Greenhouse manage 38,000 square feet of greenhouse space that provides fresh produce year round. They follow an approach known as Integrated Pest Management so they can grow their veggies without the use of synthetic pesticides. You could pick a tomato straight from the vine and it is ready and safe to eat!

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  • Steel Pony Farm

    Mike's Kozlowksi was inspired to grow food back in 2005 when he was challenged with the question about why we are shipping our food from all over the world when we can grow it ourselves. That question took him all over Canada where he learned from experienced farmers. Steel Pony utilizes cover cropping, soil amending, and no-till production.

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  • Root & Regenerate Urban Farms

    One of the longest-running urban farms in Calgary, Root and Regenerate practices “no-dig” regenerative farming in Calgary yards to promote soil health and microbial life, transforming sodded grass space (which drains resource is) and turns it into thriving productive vegetable gardens that regenerate soil and ecosystem.

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