Harrowsmith Magazine
spring planting guide
Harrowsmith Magazine is a national Canadian consumer lifestyle magazine that focuses on healthy, grassroots and sustainable living, homesteading and cultural exploration. It is published four times a year and also produces The Harrowsmith Almanac, the only annual almanac written by Canadians, for Canadians.
History
Harrowsmith was founded in 1976 by James M. Lawrence, who produced the first issues in his home in Camden East Ontario and named it after the nearby town of Harrowsmith. It was a platform for environmental topics and a back-to-the-land ethos, a concept that was both unique and popular—within two years, the magazine had 100,000 subscribers. Lawrence’s Camden House Publishing also published books, and launched Equinox: The Magazine of Canadian Discovery.
In 1988, Lawrence sold both magazines to the Canadian media company Telemedia, which launched an American addition of Harrowsmith and added the words "Country Life" to its title. The American edition reached a paid circulation of 225,000 and, in 1995, Telemedia launched a complementary television show. In 1996, Telemedia folded the American edition and sold Harrowsmith Country Life, and Equinox, to Montreal’s Malcolm Publishing. In 2000, Malcolm folded Equinox and sold its mailing list to Canadian Geographic.
In 2009, Harrowsmith Country Life had a circulation of 125,00 and revenues of $3.2 million.
“Harrowsmith Magazine” enters the record as spring planting guide. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Harrowsmith, Magazine and spring can confirm, complicate or overturn.
Why this record matters
“Harrowsmith Magazine” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Harrowsmith, Magazine and spring provides the most credible route into that argument.
The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Apr 21, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q5666667. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1976, 1988, 1995 and 1996.
Overview language is designed for orientation and should not be treated as a substitute for the evidence cited beneath it. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.
- Subject orientation
- Search vocabulary
- Locating named sources
The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Harrowsmith Magazine”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Harrowsmith Magazine primary sources, Harrowsmith Magazine archive and Harrowsmith research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Harrowsmith Magazine”?
- What terminology or title could unlock a more precise catalogue search?
- Which institution is responsible for the underlying evidence?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Harrowsmith Magazine” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.