The seasonal agricultural workers who travel to Elgin County each year through Canada’s Temporary Foreign Worker Program are a vital part of the harvest at Howe Family Farms.
Howe brothers Rick, 42, Ryan, 44, and Kevin, 38, recruit about 28 workers each year through the Seasonal Agricultural Worker Program (SAWP), a stream of the federal Temporary Foreign Worker Program, to help tend to their 600-acre operation. The farm is perhaps best known for its fresh fruit and vegetable markets, in Aylmer, at 48556 John Wise Line, and in St. Thomas, at 11143 Highbury Avenue South.
The workers, typically aged 20 to 40, come to the Howe fruit and vegetable operation from Mexico, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, and Trinidad and Tobago, supporting the growing and harvesting seasons and complementing the approximately 60 local employees hired during the peak months.
For many of the seasonal workers, the trip to Elgin County has become an annual tradition. Some have been returning to the Howe farm for a decade or more, helping cultivate strawberries, watermelon, cantaloupe, pumpkins, and squash, about two-thirds of which is sold on the wholesale market to companies such as Loblaws and Costco.
Statistics Canada includes the Howe contingent among the 33,500 foreign agricultural workers who come to Ontario each year, according to a 2023 report.
Rick Howe said the seasonal workers form the backbone of the family’s operation, and the Howes frequently share workers with other local farms as needs rise and fall throughout the growing season. The workers appreciate being kept as busy as possible, he said, rather than sitting idle, ruminating on their family life back home.
“The main thing that we need are bodies for picking the produce, but we’ve got guys that are coming up next week (mid-March) because they’ve been setting peat with us and getting our greenhouse plants ready for the last decade or more and they know that entire program,” Rick added in a recent interview.
“We’ve been very fortunate. We’ve got great guys over the years, a lot of them have been coming for over a decade, if not more. They’re the reason that the farm ticks and moves.”
Many of the seasonal workers were originally recruited by Rick’s father Glenn and grandfather Mervin.
“I remember back in the day when there was just one temporary foreign worker that would come up and farm side by side with my dad and a limited crew of locals,” said Rick. “Then it expanded to three, then to over 10, to where we are now.”
The workers are paid the Ontario agricultural minimum wage—currently $17.60 an hour—providing a substantial “boost” to the living standards available in their home countries, he added.
“We’re not minimum wage all season long either,” said Rick. “We create and incentivize programs for harvesting strawberries, so if a guy wants to pick faster, they should be rewarded for that, and there is opportunity to make higher dollars per hour during strawberry harvest.
“It used to be that they could come work for six or seven months and have enough to live off that for a year,” added Rick. “Well, that’s not the case anymore, but the income is a good supplement.
“They still need to do something during the off season,” he said. “A lot of them, when you ask the guys, what’s the first thing you’re going to do when you get back home, they say, spend a week with my family, and then get back to work.”
To ensure quality doesn’t suffer, the Howes use a barcode system that can trace products back to the specific harvester if improvements are needed.
The Howes also provide housing and transportation for workers, giving crews access to the community to doing their shopping, banking and socializing in Aylmer, St. Thomas and London.
“We have a couple different vehicles, and it’s kind of a known thing: be ready by this time, Friday going to town,” Rick explained. Employees are paid by direct deposit now, sparing them long lineups at the bank.
“For the most part, I’d say yes, they’re accepted in the community,” he added. “We do work Sundays, but some Sundays, they’ll say, Hey, can I have a day off? A family that works out of the farm invited me to church with them.’
“So, they are fitting into the community, for sure. Coming up for so many years, they’ve met a lot of people too, and worked with a lot of people,” he said.
“Our farm is one of those places where I meet people constantly who say oh, I picked strawberries for your grandfather when I was a kid. They say that taught me how to work,” he continued. “It’s a great stepping stone and we take pride in that, in creating people who know how to work and are willing to work and we try to reward and encourage that.”
Rick has many fond memories of his family inviting the seasonal workers onto the farm.
“Growing up as a young teen, and working alongside grown men, you learn how to try to keep up, and you learn a lot of other things along the way, different phrases from their country,” he said. “They speak English, they just speak it a lot faster.
“I learned to absolutely love Trinidadian food, or West Indian cuisine, and just became very close with them,” he added.
Some years — particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic when travel was disrupted — the workers spent holidays with the Howes. “There were Christmases spent together with our family, and Father’s Day was the same deal,” he said.
He also reflected on some lessons learned in the fields.
“Working in our watermelon fields, there are beehives, and it’s kind of like, don’t poke the beehive, because they can make your day real difficult,” he said, with half a smile. “We all learned together. Different times of the year, bees get very irritated and you can get the swarm going unintentionally.”
Getting the crews to Canada requires planning, said Rick. The family completes paperwork in October and monitors airline arrivals in the spring.
Southwestern Public Health inspects the operation annually to ensure the workers have safe and appropriate living conditions, including kitchens, bathrooms and sanitary facilities.
Recruitment is subject to a Labour Market Impact Assessment (LMIA), requiring employers to demonstrate that Canadian citizens or permanent residents are not available to fill the jobs before hiring foreign workers. Employment and Social Development Canada ultimately confirms the need for workers.
Service Canada also plays a role in ensuring employer compliance and protecting worker rights, including access to social insurance numbers and employment insurance where applicable.
“It’s not a difficult process,” said Rick. “It’s just a tedious and time-consuming process to get all that done.
“But once it’s complete, we know what we’re getting into come March,” he added.
“I’m all for it. Small agricultural operations like ours rely on these guys to make a living.”
Once the workers arrive, the Howes also commit time to guiding and supporting activities in their off-hours, helping them adjust to life far from home.
“It’s like anyone else,” he said. “Imagine being that far away from your family and everyone that you care about,” Rick said. “When something does happen, it’s more difficult to deal with those things when people are so far away.
“We’re the main constant person for a lot of the guys,” he said, “But we’re human too. We try to be flexible and understanding.”
Five generations of Howe family farming
The Howe family has been farming in Malahide Township for more than a century 150 years.
The family’s roots trace back to William and Esther Howe, who settled in the area after William arrived from England in the 1860s. Their son Alfred Howe and his wife Emma expanded the operation, purchasing a second farm across the road from the original homestead. Around 1919, the family began growing strawberries, a crop that remains central to the farm.
Three of their sons—Herb, David and Mervin—later became the family’s first farm business partners, operating a mixed farm with livestock as well as fruit and vegetable crops.
Mervin Howe and his wife Ferne Alton continued the operation, producing dairy products while expanding strawberry and vine crop production.
Their sons Bruce, Keith and Glenn Howe later assumed the farm and formed a new Howe farming partnership. Glenn and his wife Monica focused on strawberries, melons, squash and pumpkins.
In 1990, the couple established G and M Howe and Sons Ltd., and the Howe Family Farm Market was built near Aylmer in 2010.
Today the fifth generation—Rick, Ryan and Kevin— operates the 600-acre farm, growing strawberries, sweet corn, raspberries and a wide variety of fruits and vegetables.
In 2024, Howe Family Farms received the Lifetime Business Achievement Award at the Elgin and St. Thomas Small Business Awards, recognizing the family’s long history of agricultural entrepreneurship and community presence.
By Joe Konecny, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
Original Published on Mar 18, 2026 at 09:46
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