Calling all farm dreamers and food growers! Join us for our 2nd Young Agrarians Winter Mixer in Alix, AB for two days farm inspiration and skill sharing to help you grow your farm business. There will be workshops on getting your farm started, farm financial planning, direct marketing, and stories from successful farm start-ups. Meet with other farmers and share ideas, struggles and successes. Find mentors and supporters and learn what works right here in Central Alberta.
And come for the fun! There will be farmer slide shows, the Farmer’s Library, campfires and more!!!
When: Saturday, January 12 – Sunday, January 13, 2019
Where: Deer Valley Meadows Camp located half mile south of Highway #11 on Range Road 230, near Alix, Alberta. Find it on Google Maps.
Cost: $75 + GST/person includes overnight accommodation and meals sourced from local, ecological and organic farmers. Work trade options are available. Can’t make it for both days? A day rate is available too.
REGISTER: Click here to buy tickets!
Looking to connect with others attending? Check out the event Facebook Page
Questions? Please contact Erika: centralalberta@youngagrarians.org
ACCOMMODATION & MEALS
- Delicious lunches and Sunday morning breakfast featuring local ingredients will be provided (please inform us about dietary restrictions in the registration questionnaire)
- If you are staying overnight, guests are asked to please bring their own bedding, towels and toiletries. Rooms are shared with space for 2 – 4 people per room. Showers are available to guests. Please inform us that you are staying overnight in the registration questionnaire. Rooms are available for Friday and Saturday night.
- Travel mug for your coffee or tea (this will help us to do fewer dishes!)
- Potluck dish for our Saturday night potluck social – invite your friends! A small kitchen will be available for heating up food and refrigerating potluck dishes.
- Bedding, pillow, towel, toiletries.
- Your best (or worst) farm photos for our Farmer Slideshow
- Your favourite farm books to recommend for the Farmer’s Library
- Notebook for soaking up all the farmtastic wisdom!
- Warm, winter clothing for walks outside and tobogganing
- Yoga mat and stretchy Wranglers for Farmer Yoga Sunday morning!
WORKSHOPS & SPEAKERS
From 10,000 Feet Down to Your Farm Expense Spreadsheet: Getting a Handle on Your Farm Finances
Art Lange is a farm business consultant that is passionate about helping farmers become competent in financial planning. An agriculture graduate from the U of A, Art is a city kid that loves farms and food production. Art’s goal is to help farmers become profitable and develop an appreciation for the business planning process. Learn about setting up effective bookkeeping systems, finding an accountant and positioning yourself with a good business plan.
Making Your Marketing Work in the Midst of Your Super Busy Farming Life!
Denis and Andrea Forstbauer organically farm 2.5 acres of cultivated land growing fresh, delicious produce for their local community and raising their 5 kiddos together in the heart of Central Alberta. They sell at farmer’s markets, to restaurants, and through their CSA program. They are passionate advocates of eating locally grown, knowing where your food comes from, and engaging people in the process of how food begins in the garden right up until it’s sitting on their plate. In just a couple of years since their farm’s inception, they have grown a large social media following and developed a unique way of using Andrea’s photography and artistic interests to boost the marketing of their farm
Holistic Land Design for the New Farmer
Takota Coen’s life mission is to regenerate the health of the planet and its people. His family’s commitment to increasing the biodiversity of their land and the nutrient density of the food they produce since 1988 has garnered international recognition and numerous environmental awards. In addition to farming, he also works with farmers and homesteaders across Canada to help them design for healthier land, healthier profits, and the time to enjoy both. He holds a Permaculture Design Certificate from The Permaculture Research Institute, a Holistic Management Certificate from Holistic Management International, and a Red Seal Journeyman Certificate for Carpentry.
It Takes a Village to Raise a Farm: Working with Others to Grow Your Farm & Lighten the Load
Jenna and Brett Hauck from Lazy T Farm run a cattle ranch near Halkirk, AB. Jenna is the 5th generation on this ranch that has been passed down each generation through the female successors. Jenna and Brett have started their own herd of cattle and have started a pasture poultry enterprise. They are part of the Prairie Farm Project working with other farmers in their area to market their products and work on farm projects together. When not on the farm, you can find Brett and Jenna in their VW van cruising the backroads.
Communications for a Functional Farm Team
Mike Kozlowski brings his experience as the owner of Steel Pony Farms, a market garden near Red Deer, Alberta. All farms involved people whether it’s you and your customers, employees, apprentices, land owners and land renters, building relationships is the foundation of a great farm team. Mike will share his lessons learned from years of experience working to build great teams on his farm and building good relationships with the people involved in his farm.
I Fell In Love With Flowers and Found Myself Farming
Ang Hall and Ashlea Kooman found each other over a love of flowers and partnered to create Meadow Farm Florals. They own and operate a small scale flower farm growing intensively and employing organic and regenerative principles operating just south of Red Deer. They believe gorgeous plants begin with healthy soil and never spray or apply chemicals or harmful additives on the small plot that they are lucky enough to steward.
Kolby Peterson, Farmer, Yoga Instructor, YA Apprenticeship Program Coordinator
Kolby is passionate about helping shape and rebuild responsible connections with the land, and regenerating our soils and communities through ecological agriculture. One of the ways she enjoys seeing this happen is by showcasing the bounties that come from regenerative farms – bounty in the form of knowledge, nutritionally dense food, and beauty. She loves to cook meals with ingredients grown on her farm or by neighbours and friends, and given the chance, will proceed to tell you about each one (ingredients and farmers, that is). Kolby has found much fulfillment in applying her B.Sc. in Environmental Science to her work within rural extension, in supporting new and aspiring farmers through the Young Agrarians program, and in farming using nature as inspiration. Currently, Kolby is farming intergenerationally in the Peace Country, using (real) Percheron horse-power wherever possible, and endeavouring to co-create a co-operative farm.
How awesome is this! I’d love to go but I can’t be in two awesome places at once. Please keep me in the loop for further gatherings. Good Note Community Farm, 20 min. Southeast of Edmonton
It would have been great to have you Maryann and to hear about all your good work on your farm! Hopefully we’ll see you out at another event.
Hey there,
I am Kunge from Tanzania,East Africa,I real come to like this blog of Young Agrarian,A commitment you are doing in moving forward agriculture for youth.
I wish i can find youth who we can organize and talk to do farming together as in my country i have huge family arable land and i have decided to make it productive,but what am missing here are people who committed and have passion in agriculture so that we can work together.
I am writing this to any one who would to join to make the world free from hunger toward 2050.