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Originally published:

NOVEMBER 2021
Vol. 107 Issue 11

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Stories In This Edition

Down to the crunch

Producer prices on the rise

Feeling burned

Groundwater users could lose rights next year

The right thing

Editorial: Freedom worth having

Back 40: The battle continues long after the war is over

Viewpoint: Stories bridge the gap between producers, consumers

Growers wrestle with irrigation upgrades

Wildfire 2021

Abbotsford updates farmland policies

Stormy skies

Ag Briefs: Douglas Lake “right to roam” challenge dismissed

Ag Briefs: Creston food hub opens

Ag Briefs: Food processors receive funding

Ag Briefs: Vanderspek appointed

Summerland grape specialists retire

Grapevine virus spread threatens BC industry

Caught in the act

Abbotsford sheep grower honoured

Tag readers help with livestock recordkeeping

RegenBC kicks off agritech network

Producers silent on Columbia River Treaty impacts

Cranberry fields forever

Manitoba farmers make dreams a reality

Enderby dairy is anything but conventional

Improvement to classification services explored

Up close and personal

Partnering with farmers to reduce food loss

Sidebar: Upcycled food

Slow and steady wins the day for irrigation

Research: Study takes soil health to the next level

Nelson farm builds soil and local community

Cash flow analysis is key to resilience

New app zeroes in on reducing lost produce

Sidebar: Food hub offers room to grow

Farm Story: To hoard or not to hoard: that is the question

Bursary benefits rising farm professionals

Woodshed: So much for a little peace and quiet

Saanichton Farm receives Century Farm award

Jude’s Kitchen: Fall Flavours

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3 weeks 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.

#CLBC #countrylifeinbc #tulipfestival
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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

4 weeks ago

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🚜

4 weeks ago

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

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.
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4 weeks ago

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

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

4 weeks ago

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

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. Agricultures interests will be represented by technical teams within the agriculture ministry.
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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.

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Nelson farm builds soil and local community

Couple reinvests in their market garden

Scott Humphries and Emma Sowiak are the team behind Bent Plow Farm, one of the larger market gardens in the Nelson area. BRIAN LAWRENCE

November 1, 2021 byBrian Lawrence

NELSON – One of the Nelson area’s larger market gardens, Bent Plow Farm, is a model that other farmers and agriculture enthusiasts are excited to see. About 30 people braved heavy rains

September 27 to attend a field day organized by Kootenay & Boundary Farm Advisors and Young Agrarians.

But if visitors huddled under umbrellas against the downpour, Bent Plow owner Scott Humphries says the fields just soak it up.

“This will be dry tomorrow,” he explains. “The drainage is too high. … We could put irrigation on, and in 24 hours it would be dry and wouldn’t get waterlogged.”

It’s a challenge common to growing in a landscape carved by glaciers and characterized by acidic alluvial silt and morainal till.

“The glacier came and dropped stuff, and with its kilometre-thick weight, ground and compacted it,” says Humphries.

Due to the farm’s undulating topography, it’s even a challenge to add nutrients, such as green compost and fish emulsions. Drip irrigation allows too much fertilizer to settle in dips and furrows. This means much of the watering is done by hand.

“We did a lot with watering cans,” he says.

Humphries and his wife Emma Sowiak farmed for two years in the Ottawa Valley before moving to Nelson in 2016. They spent the following year preparing their certified organic 1.5-acre market garden.

“It was just a brown field,” Sowiak says in the shelter of their packing shed. “We’re slowly building it up – our irrigation, our production shed. Even the soil is building up.”

Humphries and Sowiak both began farming early in life, but their formative years were quite different. Sowiak was raised in an intentional community north of Nelson where residents cultivated an orchard and raised chickens, while Humphries’ father ran a seventh-generation 100-acre beef farm in Ontario where he grew up around tractors and hay production.

In 2010, Humphries met a couple running a market garden, an eye-opening experience.

“It was cool to see a different side to agriculture,” he says. “You’re more in touch when your hands are in the ground, as opposed to driving a tractor.”

Sowiak attended university in Ottawa, and later joined an urban farm incubator program in which a dozen farmers shared the workload in exchange for their own plots. Of those, 11 are still farming in various ways — one, for example, grows microgreens, while another has a rooftop garden at Ryerson University.

“It’s been interesting seeing how we all followed different paths,” she says.

After she met Humphries, the couple started the Ontario incarnation of Bent Plow, a name that’s as self-explanatory as it sounds.

“It’s because we had a bent plow his dad found,” says Sowiak. “Working here, too, we’ve bent enough tools.”

“There’s something poetic about the imperfection of farming,” adds Humphries, who tells the guests that he’s pulled up to 1,000 pounds of rocks out of a single bed.

An impressive feature of the farm is a drive-through packing shed, which has a walk-in fridge and dry room, and has power ready for a 15-foot cooler if needed. As much as possible, equipment and supplies are moved around with wheeled carts.

“I highly recommend concrete floors,” says Emma.

In 2018, they began selling at the Nelson farmers market and launched a community-supported agriculture (CSA) program in 2019 for 20 subscribers, a number that grew to 95 this year. Each box contains seven items, with early season boxes containing lettuce and radishes, and later season boxes including pumpkins and beets.

“We’re putting in the seven best vegetables at that moment,” says Sowiak. “It gives customers an appreciation of eating through the season.”

They also enjoy receiving unfamiliar types of produce –“anything with a different size, shape or colour,” says Sowiak – which included pointy cabbage, black futsu squash and shishito peppers.

They also pack 40 six-item boxes, which the West Kootenay EcoSociety purchases to distribute to lower-income families through its Farms to Friends program, helping to dispel a common misconception.

“There’s an idea that local produce is not accessible to lower-income folks,” says Sowiak.

To pack the CSA boxes, they set up four or five tables of vegetables, which two employees pack while one replenishes the stock. When deliveries are made, recipients don’t have to worry that their box will be left out in the hot summer sunshine – Humphries delivers them starting at 2 a.m.

“Everyone gets their box by 7,” says Sowiak. “Our customers really like it.”

The CSA is an excellent way to form stronger ties to the community, and also gives the farmers an opportunity to try growing a wider range of produce in a limited quantity.

“We like the CSA because it’s a nice direct connection to the customers,” says Sowiak.

“You can really grow a little bit of everything,” says Humphries. “And we kind of like to grow everything. It’s nice that there’s something different in the box.”

That also allows for better crop rotation, and makes Humphries and Sowiak better growers.

But she candidly admits they don’t like everything they grow.

“Our staff gets sick of cantaloupe,” says Sowiak, who also notes that she doesn’t like to see anything go to waste.

“I didn’t even like them, and I ate an entire one for lunch,” Humphries says, to laughter from the visitors. “And then I kind of wanted another one.”

A significant advantage of the CSA is that it provides the couple with income up front, rather than relying solely on market shoppers to buy produce.

“It’s kind of like a jump-start to the season financially,” says Sowiak.

That allowed them to make two significant purchases this year: an industrial salad spinner, which can handle up to 15 pounds of greens at a time, and roller tables for a greenhouse, which can be raised, lowered and moved side-to-side to maximize available space.

They also swear by their Polaris Ranger UTV (utility task vehicle), which is used to carry harvested produce to the packing shed and apply compost to the garden beds.

“We don’t carry anything,” says Humphries. “This is the best and most used tool on the farm.”

Despite the rainy start to the evening, the couple enjoyed the opportunity to show off their farm to the visiting group – in smaller communities, lending support and advice to others in similar businesses is a key to success.

“That comes from working collaboratively, not cutting each other down,” says Humphries.

That philosophy applies on the farm, as well, with Humphries and Sowiak each having defined roles – he handles much of the outdoor work, which she joins in while also handling the administrative side.

“I love the challenge of maintaining the infrastructure, and when things go wrong on the farm and fixing it,” says Humphries. “And it’s nice seeing crops grow well that maybe didn’t do well the year before.”

Sowiak says it’s the best of both worlds, “getting to be a small business owner, but also getting to work with my hands. Not many jobs have both of those.”

And the opportunity to work with her husband is special, too.

“We complement each other nicely in this small business,” she says.

 

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