Students in M.M. Robinson Secondary School's Community Pathways Program took first place for their sweet cucumber pickles in the School Groups competition at the Royal Agricultural Winter Fair, the annual farm and food fair at Toronto's Exhibition Place.

The Museums of Burlington, which runs the city's heritage museums, shared the news and congratulated the students in an Instagram post.

The museum and the students work together through the Heritage Garden Initiative, a partnership with the school's Horticulture Therapy Program, part of the same program. Horticulture therapy uses gardening to help people build skills and well-being. Under their teacher's guidance, students visit the garden twice a week starting in April. They germinate seeds at school, then till the soil, transplant seedlings, water, weed and harvest.

The garden is also a history lesson. Students plant crops the Ireland family would traditionally have grown, using the 1861 Agricultural Census in the museum's collection as a guide. What they harvest goes to the Burlington Food Bank.

The garden began as a passion project during Covid-19 and has grown into a shared community space. The museum ties it to the work of M.M. Robinson teacher Heather Howell, who received the 2025 Governor General's History Award for Excellence in Teaching, a national honour for history educators.

The project is supported by The Weatherdon Fund for Early and Lifelong Nutrition, a fund set up at the Burlington Community Foundation, a local charity that manages donors' funds for community causes. The museum plans to expand what the garden offers with workshops on gardening, eating seasonally, seed harvesting and making preserves.

The Royal Winter Fair continues at Exhibition Place until Sunday, Nov. 15.