best foot forward
despite a long cold winter and an even longer and colder spring, i was more prepared than i have ever been for the 2025 growing/farmstore season. critical pieces of equipment had been repaired and were ready to roll; the farmstore had some amazing finishing touches added and i was excited to show them off; and, perhaps most importantly, i had received, after 3 long years, conditional approval to fully and legally operate my farmstore. living, as i do, on the niagara escarpment, my farm is governed by the most powerful land management body in ontario, the niagara escarpment commission. as part of the approval process, detailed information/drawings were provided, site visits and communications were made and ultimately approval from the town of grimsby, niagara region and the nec was granted. it was a long and thorough process. this conditional approval (conditional on one small fix with three years to complete) was received on april 30,2025.
you can imagine my surprise when, on june 4, 2025, i received a letter from the attorney general's office, the ontario land tribunal department, with the word, in 48pt bold font, EXPROPRIATION ACT.Â
life does not prepare you for these types of things. but prepare i did. i read everything i could about this act and prepared myself for the preliminary case conference which was to take place on july 23, 2025. i put aside fear, anger and contempt and, during the conference, my research benefitted me and i was able to make two very important points: one, the ontario land tribunal is a conglomeration of many entities including the conservation review board, the environmental review tribunal, the local planning appeal tribunal and the mining and lands tribunal - did you notice the absence of the word 'agriculture' there? two, costs. it was determined that the appellant, the party disrupting my 3 year odyssey of providing information and proving i was a worthy enough person to operate a commercial entity on the niagara escarpment, would be held responsible . Â
i have to tell you that when the mediator answered me that all costs would be the appellant's responsibility, the expression on that party's face was priceless. idiot.
a tribunal hearing was set for late september. thankfully, on august 15th, i was informed that the appellant withdrew their concerns and the entire boondoggle was dismissed.
where we are today
with my typical 'can do' attitude, i set the opening date for the farmstore as october 11th. 'i can do it' was my battle cry and despite a couple of major domestic issues on the proverbial front burner this year, i pressed on and, quite honestly, i think i had one of the best growing seasons i've ever had. the place looked gorgeous this year! now, i am not a 'glass half empty' type person but anxiety and doubt crept into my thoughts and i found myself in a not-so-optimistic place. right now as i type this there are tears running down my face - not really crying just some weird, deep emotional release that happens when i think about this situation and the stress it put on me. i have not reconciled with the fact that someone, an entity that i do not even know, would pursue such a damaging attack on me.Â
now, here it is mid october and, unfortunately, i will not have the farmstore open as intended. this situation with the attorney general's office has not broken me - not even close. it has, however, temporarily put me off my stride and i just need a little bit of time to get into the right frame of mind. i want to extend an in-person retail opportunity to you all and until such time as i can again, i know you will find what you are looking for on the website. we have a new parcel courier granting us freedom from canada post so please order with confidence. curbside pickup is always an option as well and you can choose that as you are checking out.
at the end of the day i feel so blessed. since 2008, i have grown so much as a person and my skill level in creating pure plant extracts/products keeps going from strength to strength. as vauxhall has grown, i am so grateful to have collected, and retained, the most amazing customers. thank you for giving me a minute to process/regroup and for your continued support for our nutrient-dense, botanical forward topicals that keep you looking and feeling great.Â
moving forward
a funny thing happened during this journey. i hatched an alternative way to share the farmstore/products/customers as well as to learn new things. i reached out to a local make up artist and shared with her my desire to use customers as models who would demonstrate the five steps to perfect skin but also explore the gardens to showcase our magnificent supply chain. if you haven't already seen the fabulous results of this endeavour then i ask you to please check out our instagram: @vauxhallgardensgrimsby. i am excited to begin to weave this 100% vauxhall content throughout the website to show how results driven performance really looks like. check out a few of our vauxhall 'local beauties' on our home page.
i am grateful for your support and take the responsibility of creating botanical forward, ontario grown skin care with great honour. i am confident that our topical products are best-in-class for â¨skinâ¨hairâ¨wellness⨠and i will prove this by showing you what i see: an amazing customer/support tribe who literally walk the walk and, in doing so, have that vauxhall-glow, that sheer radiance pure phytonutrients provide - you see it, right?
