Terrace, February 13th, 2020

Incorporating Organic and Good Agricultural Practices

Thank you so much to the 60+ people who managed to clamber out of the snow on Saturday, February 1st to come to Terrace Food Association and Green Skills‘ (Anna Silva) partnership event, Incorporating Organic and Good Agricultural Practices, at the Sportsplex. Most of you came for the day, with a few who chose to come in either the morning or afternoon, and hopefully either way were able to enjoy the excellent soups at lunch made by the Field of Faith ladies to whom we extend a heartfelt thank you.

We chose a broad ranging title for the event so as to include a variety of topics from which we could all learn, whether or not we were a farmer/producer or backyard gardener or even someone who was starting on their own garden journey, and to bring us all together in the middle of winter for a chance of a glimpse of spring, even if it was in our own minds. So we all had our minds broadened one way or another from the five excellent presentations that were given: John Stevenson, Regional Agrologist from Smithers; Jolene Swain, Organic Farmer; Kevin Murphy, Organic Farmer; Judy Walker, Backyard Grower; Carol and Gunther Rauschenberger, Permaculture. The bottom line running throughout the whole day was about the soil. It’s all about the soil.

From the responses to the written survey that 25 of you generously completed, we see that there is a strong need to know more and this we can do from our own knowledgeable farmers and gardeners here in Terrace. We have the people and the resources. Your generous comments and appreciation about your day at the event definitely confirmed that we all want to get our hands into that beautiful soil.

THANKS: We thank Anna Silva as event facilitator in kindly keeping us all on time during the day; to Rue Ottens for her very competent handling of the sound system and visual presentations; to Denise Gagnon and Vicky Serafini for their warm welcome on the registration desk; to Carol Rauschenberger for donating a succulent oregano plant for an informal free raffle; to Ralph Ottens, Judy McCloskey, Jesse McCloskey for help with set-up the previous day; and to all you wonderful people who stayed at the end to stack the chairs and tables and leaving the room looking pristine. We thank Ruth Wright and Jane Dickson of TFA for organizing this event with Anna. Finally we thank all the sponsors and supporters, specially BC Ministry of Agriculture and City of Terrace.

We are very happy you came and shared your time with us and made this community event successful and fun.

The speaker’s presentations are available for download here: https://bit.ly/2OXYor3

You’re invited to TFA’s AGM on Monday, February 24th, 5:30 pm at the Library Meeting Room and to the Spring Gardening Fair and Seed Swap on Saturday, March 21st from 11:00 am to 2:00 pm at the Community Room in the Skeena Mall.