When the Hadhad family relocated to Canada in 2016 after losing their home and business in Syria, all they hoped for was a chance to rebuild their lives in peace while their son, Tareq, could study medicine. Their home in Damascus was destroyed by bombs, as was their factory, the second largest chocolate producer in … Read more
Nature’s Garden Seed Company is located in Mill Bay, British Columbia, Canada. They’ve been making high quality products for nature lovers for over 30 years. Their greeting cards each contain a strip of post-consumer waste fibre paper, embedded with flower or herb seeds. These make great gifts for anyone wanting to experience the rewards of … Read more
We just received an order of pottery from Susan Robertson! Susan is an internationally recognized ceramic artist from Saskatchewan Canada, that we’ve been featuring in the shop for many years. She’s always coming up with new designs that reflect her sense of humour and love of nature. Each unique piece is made of stoneware clay … Read more
We’ve got everything you need to set up and customize a great quality bird feeding station that also keeps the squirrels off of your feeders! If you want to use a pole we start at the ground, and find the right spike for your soil type. Next you add the pole, making it whatever height … Read more
Just recently we were at the gift show in Toronto, and were able to find some new artists to feature in the shop! Here are some of the new and wonderful finds we’ve ordered. They’re not in the shop yet, so consider this a tease! Amanda Brown of Scarlett Dahlia Artistry in Saskatoon, hand dyes, … Read more
We’ve been shopping!! It’s that time of year to see what our artists are adding to their repetoire and we’re pretty excited to have our orders in! At Avant-Garden Shop, we’ve spent the last 22 years stocking our shelves to reflect our landscape. Anytime we can replace an internationally-made item with a Canadian-made one, we … Read more
We’ve been hearing a lot about “buy Canadian” lately. It’s so great to see this support coming to the forefront. We have so many talented Canadian artists in our country, so why not support them? We have beautiful works from artists across the country. Over the 22 years that we’ve been in business we’ve been … Read more
Solmate’s successful reduction of waste in textile production reminds us that every company makes a deliberate choice how (or if) they want to be part of the climate change problem or solution. They also prioritize employee wages and benefits. These choices are why we’re featuring them in our Minding Our Business profile series. Minding … Read more
artFrom coffee and clothing to fabrics and original arts and craft works, you may be noticing more and more products on store shelves (ours, anyway) that are marked as “fair trade” items. So, what does fair trade mean? Fair Trade Explained The best way to define fair trade is as a movement seeking social, economic … Read more
A Great Time to Fall for Birds Fall migration season is a great time for watching for new and unusual birds as they leave the north, continuing to follow the food in warmer climates. In some cases, their destination is right here in central Ontario, like northern juncos, for instance, whose arrival is the … Read more