Kernels of success for Norfolk County popcorn farm

Blair and Livia Townsend thought they had a winning sales pitch — popcorn made in Ontario, with kernels grown, packaged and shipped from their family farm in Norfolk County.

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But this was the 1980s, when Canadian popcorn was unheard of and the local food movement was years away.

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“Grown in Ontario wasn’t a selling feature — although I thought it was,” Blair said from inside the climate-controlled manufacturing headquarters of Ontario Popping Corn Co., between Long Point and Tillsonburg in Norfolk’s west end.

“Big companies didn’t care that it was grown in Canada … It was just all about ‘how much is it?’”

So the Townsends, who turned to popping corn as an alternative crop to tobacco, hit on a different selling feature — their popcorn wouldn’t get stuck in customers’ teeth.

That’s because Uncle Bob’s — the brand name is a tribute to Blair’s father, Robert, the family’s popcorn pioneer — specializes in white hull-less popcorn.

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The average popcorn kernel has 14 layers of skin, while Uncle Bob’s signature white popcorn only has seven or eight thinner layers — and instead of staying whole when the kernels pop, the hull shatters into tiny pieces.

That is a godsend for people who typically avoid popcorn due to braces, dentures, or just the annoyance of having to reach for dental floss after having a snack, said Tanner Townsend, Uncle Bob’s marketing and sales manager.

“People really appreciate it. We get compliments all the time,” he said.

The hull-less variety is selectively bred for that trait, and the Townsends use Norfolk’s porous sandy soil to grow a popcorn consumers can’t readily obtain from the United States, which dominates the global market.

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The “weak” white popping corn plant tends to fall over when dry, Blair explained. In the southern “corn belts,” where soil has poor drainage, cobs rest against the wet earth and spoil.

“Whereas on the sand here, even if it fell over and lay down and it was raining, within an hour the water’s gone,” Blair said.

Over time, the Townsends expanded the operation, using tobacco money to build a 25,000-square-foot facility where they clean, sort, store, pack and ship popcorn to wholesale and retail customers.

“We have corn going out the door every single day,” said Mitchell Townsend, who oversees operations at the plant.

At 360 acres, this year’s popping corn crop was the biggest yet.

“We’re technically the largest popcorn farm in Canada,” Tanner said, admitting that sounds more impressive than it is, as the “handful” of other popcorn growers in the country farm less than 10 acres each.

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A slow boil

Canada’s largest popcorn farm “started as a hobby to keep me busy in the winter,” Blair Townsend said.

Popcorn had been grown years prior at farms farther west along the lake in Leamington and Blenheim, he said, “but in Norfolk, it had never been grown before. So we decided we would try it.”

A few years and some promising results later, Blair took over the fledgling business from his father in the mid-1980s, still farming tobacco and “messing with” a small acreage of popcorn in the off-season while traveling to the United States to research the crop.

Livia worked off the farm in dentistry, lessening the financial risk should public interest in Blair’s new “hobby” not explode right away.

The family committed to popcorn full-time after their final tobacco harvest in 2008 — more than two decades after founding Uncle Bob’s.

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“I said then I would give it five years,” Blair recalled.

His timing was impeccable, as Norfolk County was about to rebrand as “Ontario’s Garden” and launch a marketing campaign highlighting the wide variety of fruits and vegetables grown on Lake Erie’s sandy shores.

Clark Hoskin, then the county’s director of tourism and economic development, approached the Townsends about Uncle Bob’s being a poster child for the local food movement.

“They were awesome. Clark just worked and worked and worked at it,” Blair said.

Hoskin, today an economic development consultant, told The Spectator popcorn was a perfect fit.

“Because it’s fun. Everyone of all ages loves popcorn,” he said.

“And just the thought that it’s grown on a farm not far from Lake Erie got people excited.”

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The Townsends “were very enthusiastic” promoters of local agriculture, Hoskin said, recalling how Blair brought his popcorn to an early edition of the Routes to Roots Film Festival at the Strand, an independent cinema in Simcoe that now exclusively serves Uncle Bob’s at its concession stand.

The county’s efforts to teach urban eaters where their food comes from Led to Uncle Bob’s popcorn — topped with gin and tonic flavoring — being served as an appetizer at a Toronto International Film Festival event.

“Being able to say it’s local, but also putting in that creativity, and having a farmer who’s willing to be out there and promote their products, that helps tell the story and bridge the gap between the farmer and the consumer,” Hoskin said.

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Kernel close-ups

The Townsends grow seven types of popping corn, including eye-catching blue, red and purple varieties sold on the cob and meant for the microwave.

After the harvest, kernels are dried in large bins and readied for their close-up in an optical sorting machine, where each kernel is scanned from several angles as it is carried along a conveyor belt by dozens of air jets.

The machine is programmed to eject kernels that are broken, discolored, too small, or marred by blemishes and scratches.

“Ironically, when it’s really going, it actually sounds like popping popcorn because of all the air jets,” Tanner said.

Only the largest and prettiest kernels are reserved for wholesale and retail customers, while rejected kernels are sold as animal feed.

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Fifty-pound bags of kernels are sent to movie theaters and kettle corn makers, while Norfolk-grown popcorn has popped up at grocery chains like Zehrs, Loblaws, Foodland, Farm Boy and Peavey Mart.

In October, Canadian Manufacturers and Exporters (CME) — a national association of manufacturers — announced Uncle Bob’s was a finalist for an Ontario Made award, which recognizes retail and manufacturing excellence in the province.

Uncle Bob’s made the short list from hundreds of entrants across all manufacturing sectors. Winners will be announced Dec. 5.

Canadian popcorn production may still be “a drop in the bucket” globally, as Uncle Bob’s cannot compete with major American growers on price and volume, Tanner said.

But in Ontario, more and more consumers are making the switch to hull-less Norfolk County corn — and Blair Townsend’s hobby has become a going concern.

“It’s not a common product, and it gives us a huge advantage,” he said.

JP Antonacci is a Local Journalism Initiative Reporter based at the Hamilton Spectator. The initiative is funded by the Government of Canada.

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