A day in the life of organic farmers

Times Reporter

 

This Sunday, August 19, four organic farmers are inviting people to spend the day touring their farms. Winters’ Turkeys in Dalemead, Heritage Harvest Farm located northwest of Strathmore, Cam’s Carrots near Carseland and Poplar Bluff Farm from Strathmore have all banded together to bring the farm tours to those interested. 

“When we got together and talked about it we thought, well why don’t we do this on our own. The idea is to make the community more aware that there are organic farms here, and that there’s really good food being produced out here,” said Rosemary Wotske, with Poplar Bluff Farm.

“This is the second time we’ve done it and the comments we got the first time from the people who participated were all so positive. It’s just not something that they get exposed to and they learn a ton more stuff about what actually happens in the agricultural industry and specifically how their food gets grown,” said Mark Gibeau of Heritage Harvest Farm. 

Organic farming is a niche market that is growing in popularity. Gibeau explained that the difference, other than not using pesticides, is the different method of getting soil fertility. 

“Where conventional farming they basically buy fertilizers and those sorts of things. In the grain farming industry we rely on recycling our straw and then we buy some kind of fertilizers that are made out of bone meal, blood meal, feather meal that kind of stuff, some other kind of organic soil enhancers,” said Gibeau.

“Basically we want to get that whole biological system in the soil working in that natural rhythm rather than trying to compensate for it by using other kinds of fertilizers.”

Going organic was the best fit for Gibeau who, after 40 years of being out of farming, decided to buy a small section of land across from his home when the opportunity arose. Being a small land owner and trying to run in the conventional system wouldn’t work so he looked at the niche market, which is why Heritage Harvest Farms only grows organic and nothing but heritage varieties of wheat. 

Wotske knew from a young age that she wanted to spend her life on the farm. “What drove me to keep trying new things was a love of good food. I began farming organically because I felt bad every time I used a chemical. Then I noticed that food tasted better without chemicals too,” said Wotske. 

In ’85 she bought the farm and it was ’98 when she went certified. She grows a number of different varieties of potatoes with up to 30 kinds a year. This year she is down to a manageable 16 kinds. 

Cam of Cam’s Carrots, grows five different coloured carrots. Three are the fresh eating variety, and two are cooking variety. He also grows beets, gold beets, candy stripe, red and white beets and parsnips.  

With a majority of the buyers market coming from Calgary, that’s where tickets are being sold, and participants will be picked up from the Chinook LRT station. Last year was the first time they did the four farms and there were 30 to 35 people. Cam said they are nearly double that this year. 

“Its another opportunity for people from the city to just get exposed to some of the different agricultural kinds of things and it’s a target market as well. These are people who are more likely a little more in tune as to where they shop and what they buy,” said Gibeau. 

Tickets are still on sale and can either be bought at Community Natural Foods, Sunnyside Natural Market, or Amaranth Whole Foods for $35 each. Wotske said locals interested could contact the individual farmers, but said it is probably worthwhile to have someone drop them off at the pickup point. The tour is from 10 a.m. until 6 p.m.