Seminar 2007 Report
 
It was a gala, a 20-year anniversary party! It was multifaceted, it was elegant, and it was a prime opportunity for learning and networking. It was all about friendship and purpose. We were situated in a luxury resort, the Hills Health Ranch near 100 Mile House, the site of the first ever BC Farm Women's meeting 20 years ago. We simply had such fun together.
 
Here are the highlights. In lieu of the usual farm tour, Friday was set aside for workshops. Sharon Isaaks conducted a watercolour painting class. There was color everywhere. Everyone had a great time trying out their painting talents. Sharon was a great inspiration in our seminar planning sessions as well and supplied our very intriguing table centre.
 
Judy Turnbull is a dog trainer par excellence and her specialty is stock dog training. She put on 2 workshops, one in the morning and one in the afternoon, along with her three amazing border collies and her three also very well trained sheep. She even brought along a board game to help us get the concept of how to teach commands to a dog.
 
Mona Illerbrun did a workshop on worm composting. She brought along her worms and explained how they compost the soil for you to use in your gardens.
 
Jane Kerner spoke on planning and financial help for lower income farm families. Donna Barnett, Mayor of 100 Mile House, opened the Saturday morning session by saying, “The agriculture industry is one of the hardest there is. The heart and soul of our country is food. I drive by and see Chris and Helen Horn out in their field chasing cattle. Helen does whatever she has to do to keep the farm going. Her son is there helping her, but nowadays we can't usually get our young people to come and work. We have to teach the kids today about food and farming. Here in 100 Mile House we do have a wonderful farmers market, as well as a community garden and a community kitchen. We need to continue to provide that.”
 
Health Panel: This brilliant panel was made of pharmacist Gordon Dickie, our own Higher Ground Health Food proprietor and yoga instructor, Heidi Read, and Tatjana Bates, a community nutritionist for Interior Health-Williams Lake and the Cariboo. Gordon spoke on what a pharmacist does, the importance of his communication with doctors (their handwriting!) and his customers, givng them necessary information about the drugs they are taking. Heidi expressed her sincere thanks to all the farmers for their hard work providing wholesome healthful food for us. As a yoga instructor, she matches up good food with good body mechanics. Tatjana Bates brought useful information about the government's concerns that Canadians be provided with proper nutritional advice and a sense of food security. She also spoke about the new school nutrition food policy.
 
The next day we were educated and entertained by several speakers:
 
Alison Roberts is an expert in promoting alternative energy sources and an expert on order and elimination of clutter. “It is ALL about LETTING GO”. She became a professional organizer after going through her own process with her own clutter. It starts with spending. People often don't link their spending habits to their clutter. She said valuable farmland is being paved over for storage units and it is time we gave up our label as consumers. Clutter is simply a byproduct of our consumerism. For more ideas on how to beat clutter, find Alison at www.clearoutclutter.com and her book at www.cluttersdirtysecret.com
 
Heather Pritchard is the executive director of FarmFolk/CityFolk with 40 years experience assisting non-profits, cooperatives and small businesses with their financial planning, organization development and personal management. She discussed the vital connection between the farmer and the consumer and stressed how important it is that we know where our food comes from. She spoke of the joint venture between FarmFolk/CityFolk and The Land Conservancy. Find out more at www.ffcf.bc.ca and The Land Conservancy at www.conservancy.bc.ca
 
We had the pleasure of a slide show and talk by Chris Harris, a well-known freelance adventure photographer and the publisher of the series “Discover British Columbia” books. “Spirit in the Grass” has just been released. It is a magical trip through the Cariboo-Chilcotin grasslands, supported by the Grasslands Conservancy Council based in Kamloops. For more on Chris Harris, visit www.chrisharris.com
 
Heloise Dixon-Warren is a director on the executive of the BC Agri-Tourism Alliance. She and her husband, Ted, own & operate Moose Meadows Farm near Quesnel, BC., a 65 acre farm that produces diverse saleable items from the farm. She spoke on the possibilities available to those looking for a niche market. She and her husband gave a demonstration of making Christmas wreaths as an example of their seasonal diversification.
 
Dan Ohler is a speaker, author and he is Thinkin' Outside the Barn. Dan's presentation had us on the edges of our chairs, literally, at one point. Through his insigts and humour, Dan encouraged us to apply the basics of human psychology.
 
The seminar theme was “Agriculture: Past, Present and Future”. For the Saturday evening banquet, many of the BC Farm Women were in long old-fashioned dresses from a bygone era. The evening was masterfully MC'd by Brent Rutherford and his tales of the early pioneer history of the area gave us chills they were so realistic. Our evening speaker was Chrlie Wyse, MLA for the Cariboo South. The banquet evening was topped off with a hilarious presentation from some Swedish farmwoman named Olga (Dan Ohler in drag), the Desert Bloomers Can Can girls, pioneer poetry by Mike Huntley, a silen auction and the grand hat competition, representing past, present or future farmwomen.
 
Sunday morning we met for the Annual General Meeting and heartfelt good-byes until 2008 for some of us. The BC Farm Women's Network is alive and well.

Sponsorship Acknowledgment

This event was funded in part by the Investment Agriculture Foundation of BC through the Agri-Food Futures Fund, Women in Agriculture Initiative, a joint venture between Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada and the BC Ministry of Agriculture and Lands.

We wish to also acknowledge the following sponsors:

Bank of Montreal
Dow Chemical, Kelowna
Bartlett, Kelowna
Williams Lake & District Credit Union
John Giesbrecht
BCID Fund
Fred Welsh
Douglas Lake Equipment
Sabine Voss
Canadian Farm Business Management Council
BC Livestock Producers
Williams Lake Veterinary Hospital

Thank you to the following list of sponsors for donations of prizes and silent auction items:

Nakitsilik Outdoor Adventures
Moose Meadows Farm, Quesnel
Hemingways
Royal Bank
Save On Foods, 100 Mile House
Sharon Isaaks
Birchview Countrywide
Tasco
Wells Hotel/Barkerville
Kootenay Lake Lodge
Farm Credit Canada
The Western Producer
Westwold Carrot Company
Growers Supply, Kelowna
BC Tree Fruits
Hawthorn Acres B&B
United Carpet
100 Mile Truck Repair
100 Mile Feed & Ranch Supply
Beaver Valley Feeds
Prestige Hotels & Resorts, Rossland
Cariboo Feed & Ranch
Rona
Greenway Equipment
Costco
Wal-Mart
Tim-BR-Mart, 100 Mile House
Terracana Resort
Valemount Pines Golf Club
Best Western, Valemount
Chartreuse Moose, 100 Mile House
Purity Feeds
Carson Dorward
O'Neil Creek Trucking
Petro Pass, 100 Mile House
Safeway
CEEDS
Hub International Barton Insurance
The Horse Barn
Memory Lane Custom Framing
BC Chicken Marketing Board
BC Turkey Marketing Board
The Hills Health & Guest Ranch
Sitka Log Homes
Sunrise Ford
Ministry of Forests
Evelyn Crawford