Sarbat Farm (@sarbatfarm<\/a>), northeast of Brampton, has just over 5,000 followers on TikTok alone, watching reel after reel of daily life on the farm and chickens roaming the land.\u00a0Driving there, in early August, I got to see it in person, this time from the front seat: fields filled with fresh garlic and serrano chilli peppers, tractors moving through the land and families arriving to buy produce \u2014 and a taste of home.<\/p>\n South Asians were farming in Canada in the early 1900s<\/p>\n The connection between farming, food and migration has existed in Canada for more than a century. Tarlok Singh Sahota is the director of the Lakehead University\u2019s agricultural research station in Thunder Bay, Ont., and studied agronomy at Punjab Agricultural University in India. He says Punjabi farmers have been involved in Canadian agriculture for generations, particularly in British Columbia.<\/p>\n Historical records compiled by the South Asian Studies Institute at the University of the Fraser Valley show that by 1909, 35 South Asians were working on farms in Mission and Matsqui in B.C.\u2019s Lower Fraser Valley. By 1923, records<\/a> listed 25 farms among businesses owned or operated by the province\u2019s relatively small South Asian community. The earliest record in Ontario is 1914, when a group of Sikh men worked as farmhands on an estate near Pickering, east of Toronto.<\/p>\n Today, Statistics Canada data<\/a> shows 8,960 Sikh people worked in agriculture in Canada in 2021, representing about 2.1 per cent of people working in the industry. By comparison<\/a>, 771,790 Sikhs live in Canada, making up 2.1 per cent of the country\u2019s total population.<\/p>\n \u201cFarming is in our blood, so they started owning farms or farming as soon as possible so they could do it,\u201d Sahota says.<\/p>\n In places such as Brampton, which 340,000 South Asians call home, that history of farming is meeting a growing market for vegetables that are everyday ingredients in Punjabi kitchens, Sahota says, but less common on conventional Ontario farms.<\/p>\n Many of these vegetables can require intensive watering and care to ensure a controlled and reliable moisture supply, separate from natural rainfall throughout the growing season, he says.<\/p>\n There is also the knowledge that comes from understanding the crop itself, what it looks like, how it grows and when it should be harvested.<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s why most of these things are grown by Punjabis or Asian communities,\u201d Sahota says.\u201cFor most people here, this is a specialized cultivation, specialized farming. It is what you call high-value crops in a way.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Whether farmers can grow those crops commercially ultimately comes down to demand.<\/p>\n \u201cBecause there\u2019s a big population, then there\u2019s a demand,\u201d Sahota says of Brampton. \u201cWhatever you grow, if there is no demand, you won\u2019t grow that.\u201d<\/p>\n Family, friends and farming outside Brampton, Ont.<\/p>\n Jaswinder Singh Sran came to Canada in 2008. His 19-year-old son, Gurveer Singh Sran, says his father grew up farming in India and had long dreamed of doing it again.<\/p>\n Gurveer remembers hearing stories about his father operating a combine \u2014 the machine used to harvest a variety of crops from oats to rice and more \u2014 when he was about 18 and travelling to other parts of India where farmers would pay him to harvest their crops.<\/p>\n \u201cMy dad always had a dream to farm in Canada,\u201d Gurveer says. But it would be years before that opportunity arrived.<\/p>\n The family started farming the 400-acre property in 2020. There is a whole team behind Sarbat Farm, from those tending and harvesting the vegetables that sprawl across tree-lined fields, to the people selling the goods at a farmstand on the property. When I visit on a Sunday, it\u2019s teeming with customers, filling bags of green chickpeas and pattypan squash, under a big, white tent.\u00a0<\/p>\n Balkaran Dhillon is also a part of that team. He bought land in 2017 that became the site of Sarbat Farm.<\/p>\n Dhillon, too, grew up farming in India. \u201cWhen I was three years old, I always went with my parents to sit with the tractors and grow vegetables and other crops like wheat, mustard, chickpeas and cotton,\u201d Dhillon says.<\/p>\n He moved to Canada in 2001. Dhillon met Jaswinder, who was doing general contracting work, in 2020. They set about starting the farm together.<\/p>\n The name Sarbat derives from the phrase \u201cSarbat da bhala\u201d in the Punjabi language, Dhillon says, which translates to \u201cblessings or welfare for all.\u201d They chose the name to reflect their desire to help feed everyone.<\/p>\n Adapting farming practices for the climate and environment<\/p>\n While much of the team at Sarbat brought knowledge of farming from India to Ontario, it has required adaptation.<\/p>\n The biggest difference, Dhillion says, is the weather.<\/p>\n \u201cIt is hard, especially because of the very small [growing] season and winter,\u201d Dhillon says.<\/p>\n But they have found ways to stretch the growing season and learned some of the local norms for seasonal planting. Garlic is planted in the fall, Dhillon says, whereas in India bulbs could be buried into the winter months. Some plants are started in greenhouses in February, allowing them to be transplanted soon after temperatures rise in the spring.<\/p>\n A couple years after starting the farm, the owners converted to organic farming practices, Sarjeet Singh Jhabelwali, another family friend who oversees some of the farming operations, explains.<\/p>\n \u201cWe want to prove that farming can be done without chemicals and fertilizers. Farming can be done without tampering with nature,\u201d he says in an interview, conducted in Punjabi.<\/p>\n For Jhabelwali, the approach is part of a broader vision for agriculture that he wants the community to understand, particularly younger generations.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are polluting the environment. Species are disappearing,\u201d he says. He attributes this, in part, to the use of pesticides. Health Canada studies and regulates pesticide use<\/a> \u2013 what is allowed and how much \u2013 but generally recognizes that pesticides are one of several factors contributing to the loss of pollinators<\/a> and other impacts on humans and the environment.<\/p>\n Dhillon says avoiding pesticides makes the work more labour-intensive because weeds have to be removed by hand rather than sprayed, but it\u2019s better for the environment and creates jobs.<\/p>\n He estimates the operation employs about 40 to 50 people, many of them relatives, friends and older workers who already know how to farm.<\/p>\n For Gurveer, who helps during the summer and around his school schedule, the fields represent both his father\u2019s past and something his family could carry forward.<\/p>\n \u201cEverything is hand-cultivated, so just seeing the fields itself, without any weeds, without using pesticides, that\u2019s a big achievement,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n Passing farming knowledge to a new generation<\/p>\n The farming knowledge at Sarbat, and other farms in the area, may be coming from an older generation, but the way the farm reaches customers is distinctly modern.<\/p>\n Sarbat Farm began using TikTok to promote its produce in 2024. At first, the family simply experimented with posting videos. Then one went viral.<\/p>\n \u201cOur main message is to attract people toward pesticide-safe food produce because there\u2019s definitely a taste difference,\u201d Gurveer says.\u00a0<\/p>\n But Jhabelwali sees the social media presence as more than advertising. He says about 50,000 people visited the farm last year and expects that number to double this year. The more people who see the farm online and visit in person, he says, the more opportunities there are to show people how their food is grown.<\/p>\n \u201cThe people who visit will come and see how the vegetables are being grown. The new youth who come will gain awareness,\u201d Jhabelwali says.<\/p>\n He believes younger generations are particularly well-positioned to seek out that information. \u201cOur new youth have good language skills and command. They read and write. They use ChatGPT and search for everything we\u2019re talking about,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n The farming tradition once passed primarily through generation to generation can now reach thousands of people through a phone screen. And those screens are, perhaps surprisingly, bringing people back onto the land, Jhabelwali says.<\/p>\n \u201cThe community is what supports us,\u201d Gurveer says.<\/p>\n Dhillon notices it most among older visitors. They come to see the tractors. They walk through the fields. Some want to pick their own vegetables \u2014 an experience the farm has been considering expanding.<\/p>\n \u201cA lot of people come here to refresh their memory,\u201d Dhillon says.<\/p>\n Gurveer hears it directly from visitors.<\/p>\n \u201cPeople feel connected with their roots here,\u201d he says.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cYou don\u2019t get to feel that a lot in Canada.\u201d<\/p>\n Rajpreet Sahota is a community and policy reporting fellow. Her position is funded in part by the Canadian Race Relations Foundation. As per The Narwhal\u2019s editorial independence policy<\/a>, the foundation has no editorial input.<\/p>\n ![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/DSC01162-1-scaled.jpg\"\/)
Gurveer Singh Sran is the son of Sarbat Farm owner Jaswinder Singh Sran. He says the farm will continue to be run by the family and friends.<\/p>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/DSC01313-scaled.jpg\"\/)
On farms in Punjab, peacocks and other animals are a common sight, with their calls often part of the morning routine for people who live there. At Sarbat Farm, in Brampton, Ont., peacocks are kept next to the owner\u2019s home, on the farm property.<\/p>\n![\"Four](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Sarbat-Farm-Sarjeev-Singh-Chavliya-Gurvir-Sarin-Balkaran-Dhillion-in-the-field-of-crops.jpg\"\/)
Sunpreet Kaur Sran, left, Gurveer Singh Sran, Sarjeet Singh Jhabelwali and Balkaran Dhillon all help with day-to-day operations at Sarbat Farm.<\/p>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/DSC00980-scaled.jpg\"\/)
A tractor sits in one of the fields at Sarbat Farm, where it\u2019s used to till and prepare the soil for planting, as well as help maintain the fields throughout the growing season.<\/p>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/DSC01079-scaled.jpg\"\/)
Gurveer Singh Sran helps older workers clear weeds and harvest vegetables at Sarbat Farm. It is one of several farms in and around Brampton that employ older generations who grew up farming in India and say the work provides both employment and a connection to home.<\/p>\n