Year-end party for CRAFT in South Frontenac

Jonathan Davies | Nov 25, 2015

Farmers gathered November 9 at Long Road Eco Farm near Harrowsmith for a year-end farm tour, with a cooking class, potluck lunch and open stage variety show. The event wrapped up the eastern Ontario CRAFT's (Collaborative Regional Alliance for Farmer Training) season of on-farm educational opportunities, which included tours as far north as Maberly (Ravenfield farm), with visits to farms in Inverary (Edible Forest), Battersea (Patchwork Gardens) and into Kingston Township (Farewell Farm), among others.

The CRAFT chapter is seated in Kingston, but welcomes farmers from as far as are willing to travel to a given tour. Monday's event drew farmers from as far west as Prince Edward County, and as far north as Jasper, as well as the many more that came from within the Kingston area.

Ontario currently has two chapters: one in eastern Ontario and another serving mainly the southwest. While the latter has focused its efforts towards facilitating internship opportunities in its network of farms, the east has focused more on education in the form of farm tours and workshops. Farmers benefit from learning from other farmers with similar challenges and values (most member farmers are either organic or ecologically-focused).

The season-ending party coincided with a slowing workload on many farms as field production wanes for the season. Around 20 people attended, and participants learned how to make Chinese dumplings and steamed buns in a workshop led by local farmer and food vendor Xiaobing Shen. After a late-morning tour of the farm, attendees enjoyed lunch and music by several talented farmers, as well as guest performance by Kingston-based singer-songwriter David Parker, who performed songs from his most recent CD release, "Calm Me Down".