The third annual Young Agrarians Farmer Mixer in the Peace Country is coming up! If you are a farmer, passionate food lover, grower, or a farm dreamer, join us! These two days will be filled with networking, skill-sharing, and farm inspiration to help you grow your own farm business and brand your farm story. Meet with other farmers and share your story, your ideas, struggles, and successes. Find mentors and supporters, engage in new opportunities and get to know your farming companions in the Peace Country.
When: Saturday, February 22 – Sunday, February 23, 2020
Where: Camp Tamarack, Grande Prairie.
Follow Highway 40 south, turn east onto secondary Highway 668, turn south onto Range Road 62 and you will find the camp on your left side. Find it on Google Maps.
Cost: $75 + GST/person
Includes overnight accommodation and meals sourced from local farmers. If you are unable to join us for both days, we have a day rate available as well. Work trade positions available, contact Lilli.
Registration: Buy tickets for Young Agrarians Peace Country Winter Mixer 2020!
Saturday Potluck: Meet interesting folks at our Saturday evening potluck dinner! It is open to everyone, feel free to bring your friends!
MINI-MARKET: Do you have farm products for sale or to trade? We’ll set up some tables for you to share what you grow. Find some great Xmas gifts or fill your fridge and freezer. Bring items to trade or for sale for the mini-market.
YA- Kids: Bring your family with you! For the first time we have YA-friends joining our Mixer to help to look after your kids, so you can be all ears during the speaker sessions!
>>Please share our Facebook event and invite your friends!<<
Event Contact: Lilli Klamke @ albertapeace@youngagrarians.org or 7806252011
The following topics will be part of this year’s workshop:
- Farm Finances: Choosing Profitable Enterprises
- Business Model Canvas
- Farm Branding and Marketing
- Northern Roots Family Farm successful farm start-up story
- ALUS & CAP- Environmental Stewardship Programs
- Starting out with Poultry
- Echo Hills Farm successful farm start-up story
- Luna Field Farm successful farm start-up story
- Bess Legault- Farming with kids and her successful farm start-up story
Farmer Slide Shows: Sign up (e-mail: albertapeace@youngagrarians.org) for our traditional Farmer Slide Shows – 10 slides per farm!
ACCOMMODATION & MEALS
- Delicious lunches and Sunday morning breakfast featuring local ingredients will be provided
- Rooms are shared. 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 do fewer dishes!)
- Potluck dish for our Saturday night potluck social – invite your friends!
- Bedding, pillow, towel, toiletries.
- Your best (or worst) farm photos for our Farmer Slideshow
- Notebook for soaking up all the farmtastic wisdom!
Workshop Schedule:
New this year: Mini-Workshops!
We’re shaking up the format of the Mixer a bit by including a series of mini-workshops where you can get some hands-on learning of relevant farm skills and knowledge. On Saturday and Sunday afternoon there will be two rounds of mini-workshops. We will have four mini-workshops to choose from, which means you get to participate in two of those mini-workshops. Check out the list below!
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Meet our Guests:
Pasture Based Farming and Sharing Her Farm Story- Lydia Carpenter, Luna Field Farm, MB
Lydia Carpenter, through her learning and farming experience, Lydia has come to realize that pasture-based farming and food production are viable livelihood activities for young people in Canada. Farming allows her and her partner Wian to work together, problem-solve, learn from others, learn from their environment, and provide their community with healthy food. Lydia is challenged everyday to make decisions that impact how they care for land, animals, family, and friends.
“I am interested in whole-farm systems and soil health, farm succession strategies and how to create community in rural Canada.” Lydia C.
Starting out with Poultry – Wian Prinsloo, Luna Field Farm, MB
Wian Prinsloo, as long as he can remember Wian wanted to graze livestock. He began farming in 2005 after moving to Canada from Pretoria, South Africa. Over the years Wian had the opportunity to raise chickens, turkeys, ducks, pigs, sheep, goats and cattle. Since the spring of 2012, he has been farming with his partner Lydia in Western Manitoba where they raise their livestock on pasture using adaptive multi-species grazing.
“I am interested in regenerative agricultural practices, species and habitat conservation in harmony with food production and perennial agricultural systems.” Wian P.
Dale Schaub & Jenine Campbell-Cove – Business Link
Ever wondered what it takes to get a farm business off the ground? Learn how to utilize the Business Model Canvas to develop your idea or transform an existing one. In this workshop, you will learn how to use this visual chart to describe, design, challenge and pivot your farm business model.
Dale Schaub is a Business Facilitator for Business Link. At Business Link, he counts new business funding, grants, regulations, contracting, marketing, and cannabis as areas of expertise. His past start-up experience includes owning and operating a delivery business for 6 years.
Jenine Campbell-Cove is the Owner of Feisty Solutions Inc. and through Business Link she operates as Indigenous Business Facilitator. She is passionate about her culture and has an extreme desire to help entrepreneurs reach their goals by being the trusted link of outreach for the indigenous communities in the Treaty 8 region.
Education Through Podcasts: Derek Leahy, Director at Rural Routes to Climate Solutions
Project Manager. Writer. Farmer. Currently, leading Rural Routes to Climate Solutions, a central Alberta-based project providing opportunities for agricultural producers to learn how to benefit from climate solutions. Derek organizes farm field days and workshops and hosts and produces a podcast series for the project.
Specialties: Writing, management, event planning, communications, audio production and hosting, campaign strategy, project design.
Gardening, Flowers and Pastured Pork- Sharing Her Farm Startup Story, Sarah Grant, Echo Hill Farms, AB
Sarah Grant farms at “Echo Hill Farms”, which is located in the sandy hills of Bad Heart, Alberta. Sarah and her partner raise a variety of heritage breed pigs for pastured pork sales and are entering into their second year of specialty field cut flowers for market. They practice an ethical and sustainable approach to agriculture with regeneration and revitalization as their focus.
Heritage Breeds and Woolen Stories about Her Family Farm- Amy Lewis, Northern Roots Family Farm
Amy Lewis and her husband Mike run a small mixed farm called “Northern Roots Family Farm” located north of Peace River. Their focus lies on a diverse farm with heritage breed animals. Not coming from a farming background they jumped right in, driven by the desire to feed their family, friends, and community nourishing food.
Share Your Story: Branding and Marketing- Brianne Nettlefield, Producer & Director, TellStory, AB
Brianne Nettlefield, after completing a BA in Cultural Studies at UBC and a certificate in directing for film at Langara College she began her first long-form documentary film, Show Me What You Care About (SMWYCA) in 2012. Brianne left her job as a research assistant at the University of British Columbia (UBC) to move back to northern Alberta where she could focus on bringing her passion for storytelling home. Let’s dive into telling YOUR story and how to market it.
Alternative Land Use Services (ALUS) & CAP- Environmental Stewardship Programs- Denika Piggott
Denika Piggott is currently working as a Landscape Technician I at the City of Edmonton. As a former ALUS & CAP Program Coordinator, she will give us an overview of the programs in Alberta at the Mixer. Denika developed a strong passion and curiosity for sustainable agriculture and the environment while growing up on a small farm in Southern Ontario.
FarmHer’s- How To Run it all: Farming with Kids- Bess Legault, Hip Peace Produce, BC
Bess Legault, owns, operates, educates and raises a family like many of us. Bess farms in the Peace Country by Fort St. John and is part of NEAT- Northern Environmental Action Team. She is not only growing food but also highly engaged in building community.
Choosing Profitable Enterprises – Dana Penrice, Young Agrarians Prairies Program Manager, MB
Dana Penrice, where would the next generation of ecological farmers in Alberta be without her?!
Now Dana is active across the borders of the Prairies, not only with Young Agrarians but also as Holistic Management Canada Coordinator. “Choosing Profitable Enterprises” is a core of each business, Dana will walk us through some important facts about farm finances to help you grow your own farm as a business.
All are welcome; we are looking forward to seeing you!
A big Thank You to our sponsors:
