The Family Behind Maison Fresh

Our family story, as told by Tamas Dombi | October 2026

If you shop at Maison Fresh, you probably know me, my partner Sandra and our son Sasha. I spend most days at the shop, and Sandra and Sasha have built strong connections with our patrons. You may come in for something fresh to take home, but also to see a familiar face, catch up or ask what’s good this week. Those relationships mean a great deal to us. They’re part of why we wanted to work with food in the first place.

Our story began long before the shop, with a wish to live differently.

After five years in Toronto real estate, I was unhappy with the lifestyle and struggling with my wellness. I needed to be closer to nature. A need for a dietary change led me to the raw food diet and, soon after, growing microgreens, initially for myself. Before long, I wanted to grow food for other people, and our farm, Kind Organics, was born. A year into farming, I could hardly believe I was getting paid to grow food.

Sandra brought her own interest in nutrition, homeopathy and wellness, alongside a background in science and later landscape design. Growing food gave those interests a practical place in our everyday lives.

In spring 2009, before we even had a farm, we started seeds in a small second-hand greenhouse that my father helped put up on relatives’ property in the city. Shortly afterwards, we rented a property near the Holland Marsh, moved there and began farming. Sandra helped part time and on her days off from her day job. In 2010, Sandra joined the farm full-time. Her care for what we were growing comes through in something she said while covering crops before a bitterly cold night: she told the plants to “cuddle up with their neighbors to keep warm.”

Kind Organics grew into much more than a place to produce food. Over the years, hundreds of volunteers and interns came from around the world to live and work alongside our family. We shared a kitchen, took turns cooking and sat down to dinner together most days. We wanted to know what had brought people to the farm, what they were curious about and where they hoped to go.

Our connection to the land was spiritual, too: a connection with Spirit or God, and with our own deeper selves. We held circles where people could speak about what was happening beneath the everyday work, listen to one another and feel heard and held. Growing food and sharing a home gave us a way to explore the life we wanted together.

From the farm to the market

Sandra and Sasha became the familiar faces of Kind Organics at Evergreen Brick Works, Dufferin Grove, Sorauren and Wychwood Barns Farmers Markets. Sandra did most of our market days, and many of the relationships we still treasure began there.

Our customers helped make the farm possible. They bought our food, encouraged us and supported our search for a permanent home. We launched our Farm Raising campaign in 2013, offering prepaid produce vouchers. In 2016, loyal customers and The Big Carrot helped us buy a farm near Brantford. At its height, Kind Organics supplied 40 stores and seven weekly farmers markets. But ten years into farming, exhaustion began to set in, and we began to pursue selling the farm as COVID rolled in.

After the farm sale, we took a much-needed break, and a smaller restart of Kind Organics began in 2022. Sandra continued studying plants through landscape design, graduating from Fanshawe College in 2024, while I joined The Big Carrot as their Operations Manager for a brief time.

In the summer of 2025, we opened Maison Fresh in the South Market at St. Lawrence Market, a place I had known since childhood. When my family and I moved to Canada in 1985, we lived across the street in co-op housing, and I attended Market Lane Public School.

Today, Sandra, Sasha and I are the three family partners in Maison Fresh. Sandra and Sasha choose produce from local farms and the Ontario Food Terminal, alongside Kind Organics greens. We are proud to have Emily, Sasha’s girlfriend, run the kitchen, cooking vegan meals, preparing fruit cuts, and making soups and other delightful prepared foods. We also carry selected products from our market neighbours.

To our longtime farm customers, and to everyone who has discovered us at Maison Fresh: thank you! Your visits have helped us make a home here.

We hope to bring Maison Fresh to a couple more neighbourhoods one day soon. For now, we’re glad to see you at the market: to hear what you’re cooking, introduce you to something new and keep sharing good food.

With thanks,

Tamas
On behalf of Sandra, Sasha and our family