The Warner family has managed Aidie Creek Gardens near Englehart for over sixty years. This Northern Ontario enterprise has evolved from a small strawberry patch into a diverse agricultural and festival destination .

From an abandoned bush to 19 greenhouses

Aidie Creek Gardens, situated in the Temiskaming District, began as a modest five-acre vegetable and strawberry patch in 1968. Charlie Warner, who holds a Bachelor of Science in agriculture from McGill, established the business on what was previously an abandoned property. According to Northern Ontario Business, the site originally featured dilapidated buildings that required a complete rebuild from scratch.

The facility's growth was significantly accelerated by a grant from the Ministry of Natural Resources , which allowed the business to focus on reforestation seedlings. This move enabled Aidie Creek Gardens to produce as many as two million seedlings annually between the 1980s and 2019. Today, the operation has expanded to include 19 greenhouses, providing a controlled environment to mitigate the region's unpredictable weather.

The pivot to Fall Fun Days and 15 acres of strawberries

Diversification has been the primary survival strategy for the Warner family due to the limited local population. Charlie Warner noted that because the market is small, the business cannot rely solely on bedding plants or strawberries. To maximize revenue, the farm now manages 15 acres of pick-your-own strawberries, with 10 acres kept in rotation at any given time.

The farm also utilizes its acreage to host the Fall Fun Days festival, a month-long event that launched in 2017. This seasonal pivot includes a four-acre corn maze, a four-acre pumpkin patch, and various activities like the Aidie Creek Ninja Warrior obstacle course. By blending traditional agriculture with experiential tourism, the business attracts visitors from across the entirety of Northern Ontario.

A 1,966.5-pound record-breaking pumpkin

The success of the farm's seasonal offerings was highlighted by a massive agricultural milestone in 2024. Charlie Warner grew a 1,966.5-pound pumpkin, which officially broke the record for the largest pumppkin ever grown in Ontario. This achievement grew out of a personal hobby of Charlie's before it was integrated into the farm's commercial appeal.

Can the third generation sustain the Warner legacy?

The future of Aidie Creek Gardens rests on the shoulders of the next generation, though several operational hurdles remain. While Jeff Warner’s daughter has recently begun her first steady job at the business, the long-term succession plan is not yet detailed in the report. Furthermore, the business must still contend with the persistent challenges of a short growing season and the difficulty of finding reliable workers in a remote area. It remains to be seen if the third generation can scale the business further while managing these systemic northern agricultural pressures.