Join Young Agrarians on farms across the Columbia Basin for an event series this season featuring 7 farms and even more food and farming entrepreneurs!
The 2020 event series will be focused on collaborations with the YA Business Mentorship Network (BMN) and B.C. Land Matching Program (BCLMP) participants, like-minded community organizations and community leaders. Here’s a quick look at the dates and places we’ll be visiting. Read on for more information about each event!
*Please note our Summer 2020 event series has been postponed. Stay tuned for updates by subscribing to our Columbia Basin/Kootenay newsletter!
POSTPONED – TBA 2020
ZeroFox Farms, Harrop
POSTPONED – TBA
Featherstone Farm, West Creston
POSTPONED – TBA
Linden Lane Farms, Krestova
POSTPONED – TBA
McCormack Farm, Burton
POSTPONED – TBA
Terra Firma Farms, Revelstoke
POSTPONED – TBA
Thimble Hill Nursery, North Shore
POSTPONED – TBA
Bent Plow Farm, Blewett
TBA, Winter 2020
YA Mixer, Nelson
2020 Event Series
TBA 2020 ~ Land Social
ZeroFox Farms, HARROP
If you’re curious about what land matching and sharing is all about, join us for an event all about land! ZeroFox Farms is operated by Krista, an enterprising farmer who found land through the BCLMP. The farm is heading into its second season growing edible perennials, shrubs and medicinal herbs on the leased land in Harrop, thanks to the generosity of the landowners participating in the program! Read the full event blog and information here.
TBA 2020 ~ Biodynamic Growing
Featherstone Farm, WEST CRESTON
This event is all about biodynamic growing! Jana runs Kootenay Nips Botanicals from Featherstone Farm, where she also has mentored young farmers and was recently matched with a land seeker through the BCLMP. The farm has small livestock, a market garden and produces medicinal herbs. They are welcoming YA and friends to see how things are done at their place in picturesque West Creston, where most of what they consume is grown on-farm, in an ecologically conscious manner.
KLAS Tool School III
Linden Lane Farms, KRESTOVA
Following two successful Tool School events, we’re meeting once again at one of the Nelson Farmers Markets largest market garden vendors, Linden Lane Farms, to talk tools with the Kootenay Local Agricultural Society. Matt is currently participating in the BMN and will give us a tour of his impressive and growing certified organic farm, where one of the KLAS tool libraries is also housed. Learn about how to rent affordable tools and best practices for their use!
Holistic Management
McCormack Farm, BURTON
A farm nestled in the hillside overlooking Arrow Lake, McCormack Farm is not a stop to miss! Forest is a fourth generation farmer focused on regeneratively-produced grass-fed beef, pastured chicken and eggs, vegetables, fruit, and nuts that are sold at markets in Nakusp and New Denver. We’ll talk low-impact animal handling and rotational grazing at this event collaboration with Kootenay and Boundary Farm Advisors.
Mountain Farming
Terra Firma Farms, REVELSTOKE
Revelstoke isn’t a community necessarily known for its abundance of local food production, given its mountain aspects and rocky soil. Despite challenges, there are some local farmers like Terra making a go of it, with increasing interest from local land seekers and in local food production. We’re teaming up with the Revelstoke Local Food Initiative for a tour of Terra Firma Farms, a small-scale, certified organic farm that specializes in garden transplant and heirloom vegetables, selling at local markets.
Soil Building and Perennial Crops
Thimble Hill Nursery, NORTH SHORE
Thimble Hill Orchard & Nursery is a small-scale plant nursery and mixed orchard specializing in edible and useful trees, shrubs, and perennials. Kim runs the operation, which is just north of Nelson. She is passionate about soil, perennial food systems, and regenerative farming. She has participated in the BMN and also spoke at our recent Farming Fungi Forum about mycorrhizal networks benefits for agricultural soils.
Harvest Bonfire
Bent Plow Farm, BLEWETT
We’ve been lucky enough to have a bonfire event to cap off the harvest season for the last two event series. We’re excited to gather this fall at Bent Plow Farm to celebrate the end of the farming season. Emma and Scott participated in the BMN four years ago, are staples at the Nelson markets and offer a certified organic CSA. Emma currently sits on the Kootenay Organic Growers Society Board as the Vice Chair.
Winter 2020 ~ YA Mixer
Location & Date TBA
Following the success of our Columbia Basin Mixer last October in Rossland, we’re organizing another two-day event full of workshops and networking opportunities, which will take place next winter somewhere in the Central Kootenay. Stay tuned for more information on this event as it’s released.
CURIOUS ABOUT 2019 EVENTS? CHECK OUT THE SERIES RECAP!
GOT LAND? WANT LAND?
Through the B.C. Land Matching Program, Young Agrarians is offering support to farmers looking for land for their farm business and landowners looking for farmers to farm their land. The Columbia Basin Land Matcher will be attending the event to answer any questions about accessing land through this program. For those unable to join us, you can send a message to hailey@youngagrarians.org for more information.
Events in the Columbia Basin are funded by Columbia Basin Trust. The B.C. Land Matching Program is funded in the Columbia Basin by the Province of British Columbia and supported regionally by Columbia Basin Trust and the Real Estate Foundation of BC.
THANK YOU!
The Columbia Basin event series is made possible with funding from Columbia Basin Trust.