Meet Your Organic Neighbours on a Virtual Farm Tour

By Frances Willick

With a bit of leisure time on their hands, farmers may choose to combine pleasure and work by visiting other farms across the county. Touring farms from the comfort of your study is now possible, thanks to the Virtual Farm Tours available through the website of the Organic Agriculture Centre of Canada.

These tours are verbal and photographic descriptions of Canadian organic farms. Many tours include a welcoming “farm profile” written by the farmer describing the farm, its operations, and its inhabitants. Included in the Virtual Farm Tours are vibrant photographs, often accompanied by captions that give a sense of the character of the farm and its personalities, as well as technical information about the operations.

With “a big hello from our home to yours,” Robert Guilford invites you to take a Virtual Farm Tour of his farm, Guilford’s Organic Seed & Feed. Located in southern Manitoba, Guildford’s produces forage seed, legumes, buckwheat, cereal grain and oilseeds, and is home to a wide variety of livestock. A tour of the Guilford’s farm will tell visitors about everything from the wheat seeding rate experiments taking place on the farm to the delicate relationships between cows, coyotes, and gophers. In addition to the technical information that can be gleaned from the tour, visitors will read about the joys of having supper in the field with the family as well as one magical evening when Robert combined through the night while being entertained by a brilliant display of the northern lights.

Sheila and Ron Hamilton and their two daughters, Erin and Shae, run Sunworks Farm in Armena, Alberta. Sunworks produces a wide range of meat including beef, pork, lamb, chickens, ducks, geese, and turkeys, as well as eggs. The Virtual Farm Tour of Sunworks illustrates how each type of animal is raised, and explores the philosophy behind the farm - the family’s belief in treating their animals as ethically and naturally as possible. All of their livestock is raised primarily on pasture with plenty of access to fresh air, water, and open space. The Hamiltons sell their certified organic products mainly through direct marketing at various farmers’ markets in Edmonton and Calgary.

D-Trois-Pierres Farm, located just outside Montreal, is one of three CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) farms featured in the OACC Virtual Farm Tours. D-Trois-Pierres grows food for customers who receive a pre-packaged weekly box of organic food throughout the growing season. The article and accompanying slide show of D-Trois-Pierres illustrate the amount of work involved in growing, packing, and distributing the wide variety of vegetables typical of CSA farms.

The tour of D-Trois-Pierres was written by farm visitor Don Lotter for the New Farm and is linked to the Virtual Farm Tours on the OACC website. This farm is unique because of its involvement with community and government programmes. D-Trois-Pierres is located within a nature preserve owned by the city of Montreal. It is also the site of a provincially funded apprenticeship programme where youths can learn about organic farming. The Virtual Farm Tour details these programmes, as well as the importance of the Quebec organization, Equiterre, which organizes and supports CSA farms in the province.

For consumers who wonder why a farmer may choose to farm organically, a Virtual Farm Tour of Springwillow Farm in Springfield, PEI, provides an answer. Farmer Raymond Loo describes his connection to the land and his respect for the soil, plants, livestock, and community he lives with. Loo’s approach to farming involves supporting nature’s cycles as much as possible while minimizing the negative effects of agriculture on the environment and on the farm organisms. On his farm, that means a long crop rotation, cautious fertilization, diversity, and direct marketing. The beautiful photographs in Springwillow’s Virtual Farm Tour reveal a thriving and healthy farm.

The types of farms featured on the OACC website include apple, dairy, grain, mixed livestock, and vegetables farms, as well as various combinations of these. The Virtual Farm Tours are not only a means of whiling away rare spare moments; they are also learning tools. Both consumers and other farmers who want to learn about organic practices or connect with organic producers can use the website to get detailed information and make contact with organic farmers.


Frances Willick is a Consultant for the Organic Agriculture Centre of Canada. Please send comments or questions by phone to 902-893-7256 or by email to oacc@nsac.ca.


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