Savour Muskoka Fall 2010 Agriculture Workshops

SAV 114 Raising Poultry


Instruction: The Donkey's Shack & Feedstore

Location: 2532 Doe Lake Road, Gravenhurst, ON

Date: October 30, 2010

Contact: admin@savourmuskoka.com (705)646-7118


Workshop Introduction: SAV 109 is a three hour introductory workshop about raising poultry for food production or as a hobby. A growing number of citizens across the country are choosing to raise poultry on their farms or in their backyards. Lots of people raise poultry for eggs and meat that proponents say taste fresher. Others raise them for pest control, fertilizer and, as the economy continues to struggle, for a cost-saving source of protein. Raising poultry is easy to do and can be fun and rewarding.



 SAV 107 Canning and Preserving


Instruction: Michelle Shabatura, The Farmers Daughter & Ken Schulz, Delta Grandview Resort.

Location: Mark O'Mara Club House Delta Grandview

Date: November 7, 2010

Contact: admin@savourmuskoka.com (705) 646-7118

 Workshop Introduction: SAV 107 is a three hour introductory workshop about canning and preserving locally grown foods. Canning and preserving are great ways to enjoy locally grown foods all year-round. This workshop shows individuals how to can and preserve food themselves to be able to enjoy throughout any season.





Local Food Development brainstorming session
Saturday November 20, 2010


An opportunity to convene with a variety of people, farmers, farm leaders, chefs, farm market managers, District representatives, etc. who are all in positions where they can contribute to increasing and meeting the demand for locally grown products in our area.

 Here is our theme question for Saturday: What are the issues and opportunities facing Muskoka-Parry Sound as we look for ways to expand production, distribution and consumption of local food?

 Hosted by SAVOUR MuskokaDelta Grandview Resort, 939 Highway 60 Huntsville, ON


This event will begin Friday evening 7.00 pm - 9 .00 pm, with an exciting presentation by Dianne Dowling from Kingston's “New Farm” project, including a short film titled “Food Down the Road”. Saturday's meeting will be a little unusual. We will be working in “Open Space”, an unusual way of applying a group's collective energy to a challenge. Open Space has been used successfully with hundreds of groups around the world ranging from corporate bank board members to church leaders to third-world villagers. There is no prepared agenda and no certainty as to where we will end up. We only know the theme, who is coming and what we are interested in. Open Space will allow us to address complex issues with high degrees of innovation and consensus. Be prepared to be surprised, and have fun!

Growing Your Farm Profit Workshop - November 2 and 9

November 2nd & 9th: Growing Your Farm Profit Workshop

Give yourself every chance of reaching your goals by attending the "Growing Your Farm Profits" workshop. This two-day workshop will give you the tools to assess where you are now and where you could be in the future. We invite you and your management team to start the journey towards managing and planning your farm business success. For more information and details, contact Claire Venne at 705-594-9194 or Cochrane@ontariosoilcrop.org.

Walden Fall Fair Farmer's Market - Saturday September 11, 2010

What a wonderful day we had!  The weather was perfect, and all our vendors did very well in terms of sales.  Over 3,500 people came to the fair this year!

Thanks a lot to the folks at Northern Lights Festival Boreal for the use of three of their huge eyecatching tents.  We had 11 vendors and 20 tables under these tents and everyone did a wonderful job displaying their products.

This was the first year for a farmer's market area at the Walden Fall Fair at Anderson Farm, and it was a great start - hopefully we'll have many more vendors next year!  Call or e-mail me if interested!

Spill the Beans Farm and Plain Jane Soap - Chelmsford



Michel Chaumont Apiaries - Lively



Seguin Sugarbush and Apiaries - Lavigne

Our Garden jellies and vinegars - Maniltoulin Island

Ice Lake Cottage veggies - Manitoulin Island

Kids flocked to the pumpkins at Eat Local Sudbury

My organization!

FarmON - CRAFT - Eat Local Sudbury Farm Tours - August, 2010

Week 1, August 16, 2010: 
Heart & Soil Gardens  and FarmYard Gardens

Our crew of interns, Eat Local staff, community food workers, and interested public (roughly 20 of us) left on our mini-bus on a glorious morning from Eat Local Sudbury on Larch St. to our first stop in Chemsford.



Heart & Soil Gardens (my place!) is a big backyard garden where Jerusalem Artichokes, radishes, cherry tomatoes, flowers, and salad crops are grown for market.



We toured the back, and talked about successional baby salad greens cropping - folks had a lot of great questions and ideas.



The other part of the operation is a sprout grow room where sunflower, pea and buckwheat sprouts are grown in trays of soil.



Participants learned about how to sprout their own soil grown seed varieties and tasted some sprouted wheat bread during the coffee break.

The next stop was the FarmYard Gardens site with our host farmer, Dillon Davekis.

Dillon showed us her diverse flock of laying/meat hens housed in a straw bale insulated converted hen house.

Then we toured Foodshed's FarmYard Gardens project garden where 13 interns this year learned how to grow vegetables, learning from Dillon and Project Coordinator Lark Fairgrieve.

Some of the interns were on hand to show us their hard work and talk a bit about what they have learned.

We ended the tour with a walk of the rest of the property and a look at Dillon's amazing 'wall' of raised beds (helps to have a hubby in the earthmoving business!).

After snacks, we hopped back on our mini-bus provided by Lockerby Taxi and returned to Eat Local.



Week 2, August 23, 2010:
Creative Meats and Dalew Farms

The theme of last week's tour was generally vegetables, and this week we decided to focus a little on the meat side of the farming world.  The first stop was Creative Meats, a cooperatively owned abbatoir in the Warren area (East of Sudbury) where many local meat producers have their animals slaughtered.

We met our host Gilles in the storefront part of the operation where their homemade value-added products are sold along with other grocery items.  We then had to put on hairnets and plastic aprons in order to tour the rest of the facility.



Lookin' good....



Okay, sorry, just one more....!

It was fascinating to be led through the entire process - from the slaughter to the packaging - by such a knowledgeable and thoughtful manager.  All aspects of the process were closely monitored for contamination and the slaughter designed to cause the animals the least amount of stress.





While such an experience may be distasteful to some, it is an important step in our local food system, and a necessary education for every meat eater, in my opinion.

 

The next stop on our tour this week was Dalew Farms, in Lavigne (South of Verner).  Dave and Chantal (with help from little Jake!) Lewington were our tour guides here.  

First Dave put us all in his cold storage facility (very welcome on a hot day!) as part of his talk on small to mid scale farming tools.  This is a storage container adapted with a refrigeration unit that is very cost efficient.





Here's Dave showing us some of his tools including a homemade row spacing tool that can be walked on without compacting the soil.

Then we toured the rest of the market garden area where vegetables are grown for the CSA program, Eat Local Sudbury, and for the stall they have set up on the property.

Black plastic is used for several crops, especially those that need a lot of heat - seen here is a plot of strawberries.  The plastic also helps greatly with the suppression of weeds.



Afterwards we toured the fields by tractor and Dave shared his rotational grazing method with us while we watched the pigs eating compost - good family fun!

After questions and snacks, we headed back to Sudbury.  Another great tour - thanks Dave and Chantal!

Week 3, August 30, 2010:
LoonSong Garden

 

Thanks to Orest for his photo and account of the LoonSong Garden Tour:

Thanks for the opportunity to share my photo and as I type the story that accompanies it I'm reminded of that wonderful free trip to LoonSong Garden not so long ago courtesy of Eat Local Sudbury and FarmON Alliance (Amy Hallman--coordinator).

Some 25-odd gardeners, future farmers, students and adventurers enjoyed the hospitality and knowledge of our hosts, Paul Salanki and Heather Thoma. Did I mention it was a freebie for participants? Thanks Amy.

The school bus arrived at LoonSong mid-morning, dropping us off at an organic grain and vegetable farm on Manitoulin Island. Over a period of four or five hours we learned about such things as Community Shared Agriculture (CSA farming), improving tillable land via cover cropping and succession planting, grain milling, greenhouse and vegetable growing, tool selection, recycling dirty oil and even beekeeping.

Lunch in the shade that hot, hot day was a treat with popcorn and organic cranberry juice provided by Amy and fresh cantaloupe from Dalew Farms thanks to Dave and Chantal Lewington (whose farm in Lavigne some of us had the pleasure of visiting the previous Monday). Before leaving Manitoulin we stopped at Farquar's Ice Cream Bar in Little Current for some very welcome treats.

That day's excursion was the third and final trip offered by Eat Local Sudbury and FarmON Alliance this year. I was fortunate enough to make two of them. I learned a lot (like cover cropping my garlic beds right after harvesting with nitrogen-fixing legumes like peas and beans--which I plan to do next year), made some new friends and generally had a great time--hope we do it again next year, and if we do, hope to see you there.

Orest #332

Here's a few more of my pictures of the day:



Heather and Paul

Field of soybeans

Lunch in the shade!

Touring the greenhouse

Grains to be milled

The mill used to grind flour

Learning about working with whole grain freshly milled flour



Farquhar's ice cream stop!



Thanks to Heather and Paul for another great day!

Walden Fall Fair Farmer's Market!

Anderson Farm Farmer’s Market
At the Walden Fall Fair
Saturday, September 11, 2010


New this year at the Walden Fall Fair – a covered Farmer’s Market area featuring 10+ local vendors and food organizations!

Make plans to stock up on local veggies, honey, maple syrup, jams and jellies, baked goods and more. We will have a wheelbarrel service to your car if you can’t carry it all!

Look for the large tent (generously donated to us by Northern Lights Festival Boreal) near the entrance to the fair, beside the vintage car show.



List of vendors (and what they will bring):



Eat Local Sudbury (vegetables and dry and canned goods from local producers)

Beaulieu Farms (corn, beans, potatoes, and a variety of baked goods)

Our Garden (pumpkins, other veggies, and flavoured vinegars and jellies)

Sucrerie Seguin (honey and maple syrup products)

Spill the Beans Farm (potatoes, beans, other veggies, and homemade soap)

Heart & Soil Gardens (sprouts and sprouted wheat bread)

Ice Lake Cottage Farm (assortment of veggies and baked goods)

Grassy Lake Apiaries (honey and honey products)

FarmON Alliance (information for new farmers, gov. publications, and info on

local internship opportunities)

Sudbury Soil and Crop Association (info on membership and local initiatives)


See you there!

Amy.

Sustainable Agriculture Course at Fleming College

http://www.flemingc.on.ca/index.cfm/go/programs/sub/display/code/SAG.cfm



The three-semester Sustainable Agriculuture program is designed for new and
beginner farmers seeking an intensive, applied learning experience in
sustainable, ecological or natural farming methods. Farming practices in
this program are based on the principles of environmental stewardship,
farmer profitability, social responsibility and community health.


Following the progression of the farm year, course work will focus on the
principles and practices of sustainable agriculture, small farm operations
and viability, and the exploration of new and expanding niche markets. You
will also examine strategies for direct marketing and new farm business
models. The culmination of this learning is the development of your own
business case and farm plan. With experienced farmers and practitioners as
your guides, the program is enriched by farm field days, site visits,
community-based learning activities and excellent resource materials. An
18-week summer co-op experience creates further opportunities for
specialization.

Sudbury Soil and Crop Tour a Success!

The happy participants!

On Friday August 6, over 50 people participated in the Sudbury Soil and Crop Improvement Association's Summer FarmTour. A city bus was graciously donated for the purpose of carrying most of us (a few cars had to be added to accomodate the numbers interested) to our agricultural destinations in the Valley.

The tour left from the Sudbury Downs parking lot in the morning and travelled to a Green Mines Green Energy test site on Vale Inco property in the Levack area.  Safety glasses, hardhats and closed toed shoes were a must at this site, and we looked great!

This is one of many test sites around Northern Ontario that is testing the feasibility of growing biomass energy crops on mine tailings sites.  Here, on donated compost material, there was corn, canola and a few types of switch grass being grown.

The next stop was Beaulieu Farms in Blezard Valley for a wonderful lunch courtesy of Soil and Crop with all local ingredients from the farm, then a tour of the crops including potatoes and raspberries.

Valley Growers, a potato growing and processing plant just down the road was our next stop.  We saw the fields, the storage facilities and the washing and bagging operations here. 

The last farm on the tour was Greenzone Farm where elk and deer are raised for meat.  Here the participants saw a control site for the Green Mines Green Energy project, where the same crops are being grown in order to compare the growth of the plants at the mine site vs. a normal plot of agricultural land.

The tour ended at Market Square in downtown Sudbury, where a BBQ was hosted by FarmON and Eat Local Sudbury, using all local ingredients from the cooperative store.  The food was cooked masterfully by the folks from Rollin' Doggies and the Foodshed project showcased its Farm Yard Gardens internship program.

All in all, a great day. 

These tours are so important for the farmers to see what others are doing and how they are doing it, but also of great value to the public (who made up a large percentage of the participants) who do not always get a chance to experience the agri-culture of the area.  These kinds of experiences help to link the urban with the rural and help put a face to those who produce our food.