A Sunday afternoon Family Farm Day at the Horse Lake Community Farm Co-op is food for the belly and the mind.
The purpose behind Farm Day is to invite the public in and show them what the co-op is up to, according to founding member Rod Hennecker.
Members are available to answer questions, something they do with enthusiasm.
“We’re probably a little bit mysterious to some people,” he laughed.
The co-op got its start with the Community Enhancement and Economic Development Society (CEEDS). There are three members left from the original group: Hennecker, his partner Karen Greenwood and Rob Diether.
Their website states that, “growing organic food in a communal and co-operative way, we believe, is the most important contribution we make to the wellbeing of our community and indeed the planet.”
Visitors to the co-op went on nature walks, got a tour of the garden, got a sample of the garden produce and, a favourite with the kids, went on a hayride.
At feeding time visitors were welcome to help feed the sheep.
Plump red raspberries were available for picking to take home and enjoy at the end of the day.
The star of the day was a fresh garden salad prepared on-site by Eleanor Hoglund and Barb Matfin.
Iced tea and homemade cookies rounded off the meal.
All produce is grown organically.
“(Fresh produce) tastes better without the pesticides,” Greenwood said.
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The founders rented the property the co-op is now on from Betty Johnson in 1990, until she decided she wanted to retire and sold the property to the group in 2005.
“We had to dream up some kind of scheme to keep the place as we had farmed it organically for about 15 years,” said Hennecker.
By this time they were well established in the community and had a lot of support. The basic plan was that everybody puts in $5,000, they buy the land and people buy their products.
There are three farming entities currently leasing land from the co-op, but Hennecker aid they’d like to bring on new young people to help run the farm. He said that they’re going to be working with the Young Agrarians to rent farmland to a young family looking to get into organic farming.
Visitors and helpers are always welcome. Call 250-395-4042 or email info@horselakefarmcoop.ca for more information.
fiona.grisswell@100milefreepress.net
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