Creston food hub opens

A long-awaited food hub officially opened its doors in Creston on October 15, the fruition of eight years of discussion, study and advocacy on the part of locals.

Spearheaded by Fields Forward Society of Creston, the Kootenay Farms Regional Food Hub and Innovation Centre provides local growers and processors with processing equipment and facilities, an aggregation and distribution service, and sales support. Businesses will rent the equipment or hire Fields Forward’s staff on a fee-for-service basis.

The province gave $500,000 to Fields Forward and the Regional District of Central Kootenay this spring to finalize development of the food hub, which locals have been advocating for since 2013. The province is providing a total of $800,000 over three years to support the initiative.

In addition, the Columbia Basin Trust contributed $150,000 to purchase commercial-grade equipment for the facility. The funding follows on previous allocations to support feasibility studies.

“The Columbia Basin Trust has provided Fields Forward with tremendous support over the last three years. We couldn’t have succeeded with this Food Hub initiative without their ongoing interest and support in food security and farming,” says Elizabeth Quinn, executive director of Fields Forward.

The hub is one of six now operating in the province, with an additional six set to come online in the coming months as part of the province’s $5.6 million food hub network.

All hubs are being considered as locations for mobile seed cleaners being developed under the aegis of Vancouver-based FarmFolk/CityFolk, which is leading a BC Seed Hub initiative funded by the BC Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Fisheries.

The project is looking at the potential of adding in-hub infrastructure or mobile cleaning units at food hubs in different regions of the province.

“We have been able to build four mobile seed cleaners,” the society reported last week, expressing appreciation for provincial funding to do so. “In the not-so-distant future, these trailers will be housed at partner locations across the province.”

According to the province, those locations have yet to be determined.

“FarmFolk CityFolk are continuing to consult with different food hub operators to determine which facilities are most interested and appropriately located and sized to include seed processing equipment,” a statement from the agriculture ministry said. “At this time, the Kootenay Farms food hub is not involved but potentially could be in the future.”

1 month ago

It’s been four years since the last tulip festival was held in Abbotsford, but this year’s event promises to be an even bigger spectacle than ever. Spanning 27 acres along Marion Road, Lakeland Flowers will display more than 70 varieties of the spring blossom, including fringe tulips and double tulips, the first of six months of flower festivals hosted by the farm. Writer Sandra Tretick spoke with Lakeland Flowers owner Nick Warmerdam this spring to find out how the floods on Sumas Prairie in 2021 have had an impact on his business plan as he transitions from wholesale cut flower grower to agri-tourism. We've posted the story to our website this month. It's a good read.

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Tulip grower makes the shift to agritourism

www.countrylifeinbc.com

ABBOTSFORD – On a bright sunny day in early April, Nick Warmerdam points out his office window at No. 4 and Marion roads to a spot about half a kilometre away across the Trans-Canada Highway.

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Omg 🥹 Jared Huston let’s go pls

Farming, like any other job.. only you punch in at age 5 and never punch out 🚜 ... See MoreSee Less

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Easton Roseboom Levi Roseboom🚜

The province is allocating $15 million to be administered by the Investment Agriculture Foundation of BC. for a perennial crop replant program benefitting tree fruit, hazelnut, berry and grape growers. The program aims to cover 100% of plant removal costs and 75% of replanting costs. Funds are also available for sector development. The new program replaces a suite of sector-specific replant programs and recognizes the importance of sector adaptation in the face of market, disease and weather challenges. ... See MoreSee Less

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Just a week after the Canadian Food Inspection Agency officials revoked the last primary control zones established in the Fraser Valley to control last fall’s outbreak of highly pathogenic avian influenza, a new detection on April 29 at a commercial premises in Chilliwack underscored the risk of a spring wave. This is the first new detection since January 22, also in Chilliwack, and brings to 104 the number of premises affected since the current outbreak began April 13, 2022. The disease has impacted 3.7 million birds in BC over the past year. ... See MoreSee Less

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Any other details for FVN and chillTV please? radiodon11@gmail.com

The province is contributing $3.2 million for upgrades to the Barrowtown pump station in Abbotsford that was overwhelmed during the November 2021 flooding on Sumas Prairie, part of a collaborative approach to flood mitigation in the region. During a press conference at the BC Ministry of Agriculture and Food offices in Abbotsford today, the province said a collaborative approach that includes First Nations is needed as Abbotsford pursues a comprehensive flood mitigation strategy due to the potential impacts on Indigenous lands. Agriculture's interests will be represented by technical teams within the agriculture ministry. ... See MoreSee Less

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I sure hope part of that money is to educate the people in charge of the pumps and drainage system! They just relayed on computers and weren’t even physically monitoring the water levels. I’ve lived in the Fraser Valley my whole life and the old guys managing that system know how to do it. The new generation just sit behind computer screens and don’t physically watch the water levels. That system works very well when you do it right. The Fraser river levels are very important. The system is designed to drain the Sumas Canal (the part that runs thru the valley) into the Fraser. When they let it get backed up it put pressure on the dyke and the weak part burst. Simple science. And yes, the dykes need to be worked on too. Abbotsford has not been maintaining properly for years.