Honest farming. Honest food.
Here on Scugog Island, our family takes a small-scale regenerative approach to farming to leave the land better than we found it and bring you food you can actually feel good about. We respect and work with the environment to let plants and animals do what comes naturally. Nothing artificial, nothing shortcut.
Currently we’re raising chickens on grass with non-GMO grains for a better tasting and better quality meat. With our artisanal chicken farming practices, taste and see the difference.
Join us on our regenerative journey. We keep an open door policy, focused on transparency and building relationships with our customers. Get in touch and follow along as Yellow Door Acres grows.
The family farm.
Together, my parents Bob and Barb Cowieson, my brother Scott and I (Ryan), have spent the last 10 years bringing new life to an old traditional farm that was on the brink of being condemned.
After living and working in Toronto most of their adult lives, my parents returned to country life and retired to their dream on Scugog Island. My father, born and raised in Port Perry, spends his days tending to our horses and farming our fields. My mother, from the coast of Cape Breton, is our lighthouse in the storm keeping everything and everyone in line.
After undoing years of neglect, our small family farm is finally seeing the benefits of our labour and is here to stay with a more sustainable future for generations to come. To complement the farm, I’ve expanded with pastured poultry and a spin-off business—Yellow Door Acres.
The chicken tender.
In 2019, I quit my corporate job in Toronto and moved into the old farmhouse we’d fixed up and renovated next door. While working in Communications in Toronto for 10 years, I spent most weekends helping around the farm and learning all I could to eventually start my own small farming business. Prepping in 2020 and launching Yellow Door Acres in 2021, I received a licence from Chicken Farmers of Ontario through their Artisanal Chicken Program in 2022 and expanded my production.
Nowadays, while continuing work in Communications and Marketing in Kawartha Lakes, I busy myself tending to and chasing around chickens on grass, offering my local community a high quality meat. It’s chicken today, but my ambitions for tomorrow are much greater. No matter what though, one thing will always remain constant: small-scale, ethically raised and sustainable food the farmer and customer can feel good about.