Facilitators: Jackie Labonte and Marie Louise

Join us in celebration as we open the Three Sisters Garden at The Brown Homestead for the 2026 season and plant the first seeds. All are welcome to share in this experience and learn from our Indigenous Knowledge Keepers Jackie Labonte and Marie Louise. 

Join architectural stained glass artist Mackenzie Campbell for an illuminating lecture on the craft of stained glass and a live demonstration of conservation techniques. 

Open by donation, space is limited. Sign-up to save your spot. 

The Brown Homestead is pleased to join the St. Catharines 50+ Active Living Information Fair at the Dunlop Drive Older Adult Centre.

We’ll be there to highlight our volunteer program, and to encourage folks to join our upcoming programs and events. This event is geared towards adults 50 and over and their family, friends, and caregivers to our information fair focused on staying active, healthy, and connected. Admission is free.

We Lend a Hand Documentary Screening and Filmmaker Q&A 

We’re joining a special screening of the documentary We Lend a Hand: The Forgotten Story of the Ontario Farmerettes directed by Colin Field at the FirstOntario Performing Arts Centre  The screening will be followed by a Q&A period with the filmmakers. Opening remarks and Q&A period led by The Brown Homestead Executive Director Andrew Humeniuk. 

The documentary  reveals the true and forgotten story of the Ontario Farm Service Force, which put 40,000 volunteer teenage girls to work between 1941 and 1952, arriving from different parts of Ontario and Quebec to many locations in Southwestern Ontario. They were called The Farmerettes. Their job: to ensure critical food production during the most perilous period of modern history. 

With no prior farming experience, their hardships were tremendous. For long months, they worked under relentless weather conditions and schedules. Yet they single-handedly managed to produce hundreds of thousands of tons of food that were shipped off to the frontlines to feed starving European populations and even prisoners of war.   

Through reenactments and unique archival images, We Lend a Hand: The Forgotten Story of Ontario Farmerettes recounts the story of these magnificent young women, now in their late 90s, bringing back their most cherished memories while reminding us –  perhaps for the last time – that service comes in many forms.

This event is presented by Vineland Growers’ Co-Operative, Historical Society of St. Catharines, and Niagara Federation of Agriculture with The Brown Homestead as a promotional partner. 

Tickets are $12.50 (plus $2.75 handling fee, plus HST).

Seeds of Change: Agricultural History Speaker Series

Discover how evolving agricultural technology has changed the way we grow, harvest, and sustain our food, and also shaped our relationship to our food and the people who grow it, over a series of thoughtful and engaging conservations.

When Tonya wrote Farm : Lot 23, she went back into her childhood memories of the farm where she grew up: “I let myself drop into the smells, sounds, feelings and the mystery of that place. In doing this work I was reminded that when we are anywhere, we are in relationship to all that is there. We are never only on the land, or working the land or extracting resources from it. We are with it and however we are with it affects us, just as it affects the land and all that lives there. I believe that we are always with the land in ways that fall outside of the narratives the dominant culture gives us.”

Tonya will share some poems and talk a little about her understanding of her relationship to the farmland where she grew up.

Then Tonya will invite those in attendance to spend time remembering and writing about a childhood relationship to land. Maybe it's one memory in particular, the way an apple eaten off the tree tasted, or the mourning doves that woke you up, the sticky feeling of dandelion milk drying on your fingers? 

Tonya will be leading this event virtually via Zoom and we will send out a Zoom link a few days prior to the virtual event, to all who signed up.

This event is free to join. Find more details and save your spot on our Grow@ the Homestead webpage.

Seeds of Change: Agricultural History Speaker Series

Discover how evolving agricultural technology has changed the way we grow, harvest, and sustain our food, and also shaped our relationship to our food and the people who grow it, over a series of thoughtful and engaging conservations.

After what we hope to be a nourishing and rewarding growing season, join Jackie Labonte and Marie Louise in closing the Three Sisters Garden as a community. Together, we will offer our thanks and share in singing and drumming. All community members are welcome.

This is a free event, and we hope to see you there!

From growing up on a small Quebec dairy farm; to undergrad and masters degrees in Agricultural Engineering and Engineering; to a career as an Extension Agricultural Engineer with OMAFA; and now in semi-retirement as a Sustainability Auditor with Ontario's grape and wine industry; Hugh has witnessed and participated in almost every technological change on the farm you can imagine. Hugh will show dozens of photos of what he’s seen on the farm over the past 50 years, and peer into what he sees coming.

This event is free to join. Find more details and save your spot on our Grow@ the Homestead webpage.

Seeds of Change: Agricultural History Speaker Series

Discover how evolving agricultural technology has changed the way we grow, harvest, and sustain our food, and also shaped our relationship to our food and the people who grow it, over a series of thoughtful and engaging conservations.

Guided tours begin every hour, on the hour at the front of the John Brown House. Tours are approximately 60 minutes. We recommend booking your tour in advance of your book to save your spot, as tour space is limited.

Families are invited to The Brown Homestead for outdoor autumn fun happening all day on Saturday, October 4. Youngsters can join a Storytime Circle at 10 a.m. led by St. Catharines Public Library, followed by nature-inspired arts, crafts and discovery. Families can drop-in anytime until 3 p.m. to take part in a craft with the Garden City Gardeners, help us harvest from our community-based garden, learn how to break and hackle the flax grown on our site with Historian Dr. Ali Macdonald, and explore our pastoral historic site with self-guided scavenger hunts and other activities. 

This family-friendly event is part of Culture Days.

Visit the St. Catharines Public Library website to register for the storytime.

Guided tours begin every hour, on the hour at the front of the John Brown House. Tours are approximately 60 minutes. We recommend booking your tour in advance of your book to save your spot, as tour space is limited.

Join us for a unique, hands-on Timber Framing Workshop at The Brown Homestead.

Participants will help us build a principal scissor truss for the future pavilion planned for our property.

• Learn the fundamentals of traditional timber framing through a blend of hands-on learning, demonstrations, and expert-led discussions.

• Work alongside skilled practitioners to assemble a principal scissor truss—a key structural element in the Pavilion project, a timber-framed gathering space we aim to complete by 2027.

• Gain insight into truss systems, traditional joinery, timber selection, and the sustainability and durability of timber frame structures.

• Learn about the evolution of the craft of timber framing, and why this skill is relevant to our building industry today!

This workshop is more than a lesson in building techniques—it's a unique way to connect with our region’s built heritage, explore historic and sustainable building methods, and take part in a tangible community project.

Coffee, tea, and lunch are included in the registration cost! $70 per person.

Special Note: Due to the nature of the workshop, participants must feel comfortable lifting 50 lbs., and steel-toed shoes are required to be worn at all times.

Register Now - Only 10 Spots Available! Purchase tickets for $70 below

To celebrate Culture Days, we’re sharing the not-so-secrets of the heritage trades with a special Open House.

You’ll get an exclusive, behind-the-scenes look as students of the Willowbank School of Restoration Arts complete their timber framing course on site, building a scissor truss using traditional joinery techniques. Take in the careful restoration of our historic 1850s Dairy, marvel at the craftsmanship of heritage woodwork, and see how our wallpaper project is reviving the charm of historic interiors.