Open Farms - COVID style

Jeff Green | Sep 09, 2020

Back in February, Alison Vandervelde of the Frontenac County Economic Development department was working of the County office in Glenburnie, starting to put together the schedule for third annual Open Farms event in early September.

“I thought it was going to be easy this year, we had done all the hard work for two years developing the event, and all we would have to do is repeat the formula and it would be another success since it had been success in year one and a bigger success in year two. Then everything changed,” she said on the phone this week from her home office.

Since then, her work pattern has changed completely

“I think I’ve been in the County office about three times since mid-March. I’ve been all over Frontenac County visiting businesses and making some business videos, and there hasn’t much call to go there.”

And so has the planning for Open Farms.

“When the lockdown hit, we all thought it might not last too long so we waited until late spring, hoping we might have a chance for an in person event. In the late spring we decided to change track and go virtual, rather than holding out hope. That way we had enough time to organise everything properly,” she said.

While the Open Farms events in 2018 and 2019 were focussed on education and helping the farmers who participated interact with new customers and increase sales, the focus in 2020 is more squarely centred on education.

“Given the increased interest in local food this year, we thought we could use Open Farms as a platform for education. It is a goal we hope we can achieve through a virtual event.

After a series of conversations with many of the farm families who were involved with Open Farms in its first two years, a plan for a multi-faceted event emerged.

On Monday, September 14, Open Farms 2020 will be launched when a slew of content, including 14 new farm tour videos, will be uploaded to the Openfarms.ca website. Farm profiles, educational resources, listings of where and how to buy from local producers, and tips for preparing food, will also be uploaded.

Later in the week, the first of 6 live Question and Answer (Q &A) sessions will be available through the Zoom platform.

“When we were planning the Q&A sessions, Mark McGrady from Mapleridge Farms, who is a teacher, encouraged us to make them student friendly, and we ended up deciding to make the three day time sessions student oriented, although they are all open to everyone and can be accessed at Openfarms.ca or through out social media outlets,” she said.

The day sessions will all run between 9:30 and 10:30am. The first one is next Thursday (September 17) is on Growing Fruits and Vegetables, the second on Tuesday, September 22, Raising Animals, and the third is set for Thursday – October 1 and is called Ask me Anything. Each of the seminars will feature a panel of 4 local farmers.

Teachers are encouraged to register their classes for these sessions and submit student questions in advance. Information about registering will be posted on the Openfarms site.

“One thing that this format made possible, was the participation of farmers who are located outside of the immediate area in South Frontenac and north Kingston where Open Farms has been based, or who are not in a position to host a thousand people at their farms in one day,” said Alison.

The evening sessions, which all run from 7pm - 8pm, start on Thursday, September 24, is called Impact of eating locally. The second evening session, on the topic of What Covid taught us about local food is set for Tuesday, September 29, and the final one, on Tuesday, October 6, is Abattoirs, what are they and what's at stake?

Everyone interested in speaking with farmers is invited to register for any the series of Q&A Sessions by visiting InFrontenac.ca/OpenFarmsQA.

Another of the features of the virtual Open Farms is that it will remain available to experience long past the end of the final session on October 6. Not only will all of the content remain on the site, the Q&A sessions will be posted on Youtube and will be accessible from Openfarms.ca as well.