Ontario's Marsh Muckers
The community of people - affectionately known as Marsh Muckers - who live and work amidst the black soil of Ontario's fertile valley known as The Holland Marsh.
Darryl Rutledge plays road hockey with his 7-year old son, Raine, in the late afternoon sun in 2007. The family lives in the house behind, surrounded by the dark soil until the fertile fields turn green with fresh produce.Peter Power/The Globe and Mail
Many of the homes and farm buildings stand in stark contrast to the dark earth that is the key to their livelihood.Peter Power/The Globe and Mail
Victor Cooper, 43, a seasonal worker from Trinidad, in his 9th year of working for Paul Sopuch and Sons farm, clears wood from the fields that has been pushed up through the soil by the frost. Most of the marsh is ancient forest and swampland.Peter Power/The Globe and Mail
Victor Cooper, 43, a seasonal worker from Trinidad, in his 9th year of working for Paul Sopuch and Sons farm, clears wood from the fields that has been pushed up through the soil by the frost. The wood, cleared annually before planting is from the ancient forests that once stood where the marsh is now.Peter Power/The Globe and Mail
Mary Naso, of A&M Naso & Sons, sits in a greenhouse transplanting seedlings. Because of the short growing season, many of the crops begin their growth as seedlings inside greenhouses.Peter Power/The Globe and Mail
Mary Naso displays a leaf lettuce seedling while transfering them in a greenhouse owned by her family on the Holland Marsh. She and her husband, Albert, have been operating A&M Naso & Sons on the marsh since 1977.Peter Power/The Globe and Mail
Seasonal workers carry trays of leaf lettuce seedlings out to fields belonging to Green Acres Incorporated, which is owned by the Gaetano Brothers. The seedlings are transplanted by a machine designed and build specifically for work in these fields.Peter Power/The Globe and Mail
A tractor pulls a planting machine designed and built by the Gaetano brothers who own Green Acres Incorporated. This field is being planted with leaf lettuce seedlings.Peter Power/The Globe and Mail
A seasonal worker's colorful boots keep her feet dry while planting seedlings by hand.Peter Power/The Globe and Mail
Seasonal workers remove Pig Weed from a carrot field in July. Farmers prefer to remove this persistent weed by hand, and avoid using herbicides.Peter Power/The Globe and Mail
Anderson Williams, 27, from Trinidad, spends six months in Canada, and six months at home. He and others were removing pig weed from a carrot field.Peter Power/The Globe and Mail
Carrots in large wooden crates wait to be picked up after being harvested from the field.Peter Power/The Globe and Mail
A drainage ditch cuts between two fields on Hol-Mar Farm. The celery field on the right is being harvested for export to the United States.Peter Power/The Globe and Mail
Rex Sugrim, who has worked in the Holland Marsh since 1998, bought this five acre piece of land in 2007. He is picking kale for sale at the Newmarket Farmers Market while sons, Nicholas, left, and Alexander, fool around.Peter Power/The Globe and Mail
Ray Ranjid, pausing during work in one of his fields, says, "Nobody owns the land. God owns the land. You only farm the land for a while." He is originally from British Guyana but emigrated to canada 30 years ago, and has been farming ever since. He sells most of his produce at the Ontario food terminal, but says that he "hardly makes anything."Peter Power/The Globe and Mail
Wendy Vanderbrug, who works in various fields of Holland Marsh during her "semi-retirement," says that she is proud to be a Marsh Mucker. "Marshmuckers feed millions of people and that is something to be proud of," she says. She is picking onions by hand from the headland of the field (the first 10-15 ft) so the harvester can enter the fields without destroying any of crops.Peter Power/The Globe and Mail
Seasonal employee, Jacobo Perez, 39, from Mexico, drives the celery harvester at Hol-Mar Farm. His "lucky" stuffed rabbit toy dangles on a wire near his seat.Peter Power/The Globe and Mail
A carrot is just visible above the soil in the row next to be cultivated during harvest time at the Visser Brothers Farm.Peter Power/The Globe and Mail
Workers operate equipment to harvest cello, or jumbo carrots at the Visser Brothers Farm. The farm was started by the brothers' father in 1954.Peter Power/The Globe and Mail
Bicyclists pass by the crews working on Visser Brothers farm as they exchange wagons in a carrot field during the harvest.Peter Power/The Globe and Mail
Farmer Rex Sugrim, who has worked in the fields since 1998, and bought himself a five acre piece of land in 2007, looks over a vegetable washer that he'd recently purchased. It works fine, he said, but he wasn't sure how he was going to move it to his property.Peter Power/The Globe and Mail
John Riga, behind middle,who owns and operates Riga Farms Ltd. with his two brothers, checks in on some of his workers in a field where they were harvesting radiccio traviso by hand. Riga says that they try to produce smaller amounts of a variety of crops that they try to sell locally to chains like Sobeys, Metro, Loungos, to name a few, rather than sell huge amounts of one crop and have to export it.Peter Power/The Globe and Mail
Large wooden crates of onions sit in a field awaiting transportation after their harvest.Peter Power/The Globe and Mail