First annual Urban Farm Festival and Long Table Dinner prove successful

Sunday August 20 saw the first annual Urban Farm Festival and Long Table Dinner hosted at Westerner Park, and both saw great response from the community.

The Festival, presented by Peavey Mart, aimed to educate people on how to bring aspects of farm living into their urban homes. It also encourages the movement towards self-sustainability with presentations on how to grow and maintain producing gardens in an urban setting.

The tradeshow style festival allowed for exhibitors to showcase their products as well as their processes for people to view first-hand. Local producers selling homemade or home-grown products were on hand to answer questions and sell their goods.

A number of free workshops were also hosted throughout the festival and were led by presenters with experience in a number of fields. Some of the subjects of conversation included urban chickens, hobby bee keeping, canning and gardening basics as well as a healthy home workshop discussing chemical use.

The festival coincided with Alberta Open Farm Days which also ran over the course of the weekend. Organizers said the focus on agriculture was intentional in a community that has such deep roots in farming.

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Agriculture Event Sales & Production Coordinator with Westerner Park, Christina Sturgeon, said in a press release that they wanted to show people where their food comes from and help them to understand the benefit of growing their own or supporting local producers.

“Opening our doors and allowing people to experience aspects of the farm life that they can bring into their own homes was a way that Westerner Park could share their agriculture roots with the community,” said Sturgeon.

Westerner Park employees, with the help of Steel Pony Farms, planted their own urban farm near the racetrack in May. This was an effort to show how easy it can be to grow one’s own garden can be as well as the sustainability of the produce it can offer.

The beds were specially designed wicking beds which collect rainwater and water the plants from the bottom up. This aids in the maintenance of the gardens as they seldom need to be watered by hand.

In a further effort to exemplify the sustainability of urban gardening and the benefits to be reaped, Westerner Park collected donations from TJ’s Market Garden to donate back to the community. The collection of 230 pounds of produce was donated to the Mustard Seed and the Red Deer Food Bank.

On Sunday evening, 60 people gathered for the “Taste of Home” Long Table Dinner. The event was held at the Holiday Inn Chalet and featured a meal of mostly local organic ingredients.

After seeing such success over the weekend, Westerner Park staff are already looking at next years’ event and planning how to make it bigger.

“We want to grow the agricultural community within Red Deer and Red Deer County’s urban setting and have people be more aware of where they are getting their food and other products. That is our ultimate goal,” said Sturgeon.