Farms in Mountain View and Red Deer counties are teaming up with dozens of others across the province for the inaugural Alberta Open Farm Days on Aug. 24 and 25.
The two-day Alberta Open Farm Days, which will see farmers and ranchers across Alberta open their gates free of charge to the public, is being promoted as a collaborative pilot project presented by the Government of Alberta, Ag for Life, the Alberta Culinary Tourism Alliance, the Alberta Association of Agricultural Societies, Travel Alberta, and more than 40 farms and ranches across the province.
The project partners point out that tourism in Alberta's rural communities contributes more than $1.5 billion to the provincial economy each year. They added that Alberta is home to 20 per cent of all farming operations in Canada and 10 per cent of all agriculture and food-related tourism businesses.
“Open Farm Days gives Albertans an opportunity to discover the province beyond the city limits,” said Verlyn Olson, minister of agriculture and rural development, earlier this summer.
“This event will highlight the tremendous work our farmers and ranchers are doing to grow the province's agriculture, agri-food and ag-tourism industries.”
Blaine Staples, co-owner of The Jungle Farm, located north of Innisfail, noted it is an opportunity for urban residents to find out the real story behind farms.
“There is a lot of things out there on the Internet and in the press that are not necessarily true. I had a lady email me to say there are 36 different fruits and vegetables that are genetically modified. That is totally wrong,” said Staples, who is planning a special event for Alberta Open Farm Days.
“I'm 56 years old and when I was in university the statistics showed that 80 per cent of Alberta were one generation off the farm, and that has really changed over the last 30 to 35 years. It is probably now the vast majority of people are more than one generation off the farm now.
“Most people just don't know where their food comes from. There are kids out there that don't realize that potatoes come out of the ground, and peas are grown above ground.
“It is a chance for people to see what farms are like and how their food is grown and become more aware of agriculture, and find out what those yellow fields all over Alberta this time of year are and what comes out of them.”
Mary-Ann van Oeveren, co-owner of The Blooming Fields – a popular 27-acre vegetable farm north of Didsbury, said Alberta Open Farm Days is a good opportunity for small-scale farmers like themselves to show Albertans how they can make their distinctive mark in the province.
“It is not only the big crop farms but the small ones like us that can make a living on just 27 acres,” said van Oeveren, who also noted the two-day event is an opportunity to educate the public.
“We once had one girl who came here who thought potatoes grew on bushes, and we had a group of kids who came here a few years ago and only one in 20 knew how potatoes grew. The rest just did not know.”
John Mills, the owner of Eagle Creek Farms and the Bowden SunMaze, said the event is a way to spread his personal philosophy of getting more people to pay more attention to local food and what farms can offer.
“I believe in farming. I believe in what we do. I hope we can attract some people from other parts of the province,” said Mills, whose SunMaze opens Aug. 6.
“It is fun to be open to the public and have this provincewide initiative to promote and showcase farms across Alberta. I enjoy the tours and what we do to make food and farming fun and reconnecting with the public. To have the open days to promote that is fantastic.”
For more information on Alberta Open Farm Days visit the event website at www.albertafarmdays.com
