Round balers were featured as part of farm machinery demonstrations
two days in a row at Agrifest, August 5-8 in Canning, N.S. (RD
photos) |
The worst thing about Agrifest
was you couldn't really tell people ahead of time what it was
going to be like, let alone how popular. There'd never been anything
like it in the Atlantic provinces or maybe in Canada.
Even so, they're saying about 10 thousand people came through
the gates over the four days of the farm-to-consumer festival.
It took place Aug. 5-8 on a 50-acre chunk of Lyndhurst Farm on
the outskirts of Canning, N.S. |
Growers take notes during a presentation
by AgraPoint International's tree fruit specialist Bill Craig. |
Fresh lamb kebobs and sandwiches served
up by Northumberlamb's Manager Mike Isenor backed by stalwart
volunteers like Trevor Richardson in this photo, were a hit in
Agrifest's food court. There, visitors were offered a wide variety
of foods from Thai noodles to corn on the cob; pulled barbecued
pork to huge servings of strawberry shortcake. |
There were big circus tents
and smaller tents, fabric quonset huts, and rows of machinery.
There were acres of demonstration plots growing everything from
garden weeds to grains and forages and vegetable crops. There
was a food court and an entertainment stage under yet another
tent. There was a corn maze and an ice cream vender with a line
of customers like a funnel cloud pulling folks out of the passing
crowd.
Agrifest was over so many acres there was never a sense of crowding,
except perhaps in the "lecture tent," I'll call it,
when Pete Luckett was on deck. The vegetable and fruit street
vendor gone uptown with his Pete's Frootique stores and TV shows
and speaking engagements filled every seat. |
Numerous demonstration plots provided opportunity
for Agrifest visitors to see and compare vegetable varieties. |
Engage is what Luckett does,
and engage was the intent of AgraPoint's Agrifest. Bring farmers
and consumers together, and have a program that entertained and
informed at many levels.
The nearest thing to Agrifest might be the hugely popular Maine
Organic Growers Association Common Ground Fair. That's it. A
Common Ground Fair for straights, though in fairness Agrifest
organizers opened the door to all comers. A booth promoting GMOs
would be a duck out of water at the CGF, but was welcomed at
Agrifest along side vendors of radical publications and promoters
of organics.
AgraPoint International is a company of consulting agrologists
established and supported largely by the Nova Scotia government
to provide services once delivered through a typical department
of agriculture extension service. Eventually, in theory at least,
the company will be sustained through fees for services. Now
it's a mixture of fees and public funds and the challenge is
how to ice a 10-layer cake with half a cup of frosting.
In Quebec and elsewhere in the wake of extension service decapitation,
one answer to the more-with-less dilemma has been to deliver
services to groups rather than individuals. Agrifest provided
a grand opportunity to do just that. Rather than send your experts
all over hell-and-gone for on-farm visits, bring everyone together
where you've lots of experimental plots and experts on hand to
deliver messages that might otherwise have to be repeated over
and over again.
Despite what was earlier said about the difficulty getting the
idea of Agrifest across to the public, many visitors came armed
with notebooks and pencils. They knew what was coming. So you
would see a crowd gathered around Bill Craig, say, AgraPoint's
man about tree fruit production, and nearly half were taking
notes.
There was an attempt, and successful to a point, to focus AgraPoint's
message to farmers and larger growers on the weekdays, leaving
the weekend for gardeners and consumers. With that in mind, tillage
and forage harvesting equipment were the focus of demonstrations
Thursday and Friday. Those wanting to know about lawn, garden,
and estate-scale tractors and materials handling machinery wanted
to be on hand Saturday or Sunday. |
The Annapolis Valley is famous for farming,
and one good reason is apparent in this soil profile that's deeper
than your average swimming pool. Below, hand-made barrels with
sapling staves manufactured on site by the Ross Farm Museum were
a popular trophy with many Agrifest visitors. |
As success of the event became
evident, talk turned to the next Agrifest. Where? When? Some
said next year, make it an annual event. Others talked about
moving to other venues; Nappan, perhaps, or Truro, bringing it
closer to farmers and consumers from Prince Edward Island and
New Brunswick. But it's hard to pull an Agrifest together every
year, and besides, look at the decades of success of the bi-annual
Atlantic Farm Mechanization Show in Moncton. It could also be
hard to find a site like the Peill family's Lyndhurst Farm with
acres of near level, open fields.
AgraPoint staff met soon after the festival to compare notes
and go over exit surveys. "The event hit the mark for what
we hoped to do," said Dale Kelly, AgraPoint's CEO, noting
that 100 percent of exhibitors said they had "met their
objectives" at the event.
"Organizers deserve a lot of credit," said Valley Farm
Equipment's owner, Eric Bent, a New Holland dealer. "I was
very impressed, and surprised. Way more show than I expected
it to be. I'd liked to have had more time myself (to take in
what was there)." |
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| Today opinion points to Agrifest
2006 at Lyndhurst Farm. Exactly where and when could change,
but it seems certain Agrifest won't go down in history as a one-hit
wonder. DvL |
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