OCTOBER 2017 • COUNTRY LIFE IN BC


43 Day at the Farm educates, entertains despite rain


Rope tricks and russets on display at annual awareness event


by RONDA PAYNE DELTA – What do potato-


digging, a talent show and roping practice have in common? Not a lot, but the 12th annual A Day at the Farm event, hosted by Delta Farmland and Wildlife Trust at Westham Island Herb Farm, combined them all. The annual event took place this year on September 9 but the rain didn’t stop one of the regular presenters from doing what he’s always done – roping. Alex MacDonald spent his time at the event teaching kids (and a few interested adults) the craft he is passionate about but feels may die off. He’s done roping demonstrations at A Day at the Farm every year for more than a decade – likely since the whole thing started. “I kind of doubt it, in this


day and age,” he says, when asked whether the youngsters he’s teaching has a future in roping. “You have to have horses and exposure to cattle.” MacDonald lives in


Abbotsford and says he was raised in the city but he was fortunate to have horses and cattle nearby for most of his youth. One wonders, if he could be a city-slicker who took up roping, couldn’t eight-year-old Aliya Levitt? She was enjoying the roping practice and had pretty good success lassoing the plastic horned mini-bull with MacDonald’s trained hands to guide hers. “It’s really fun,” Aliya says, adding that it was the first time she’d ever tried roping. “You have to practice a lot,”


MacDonald notes. “You start roping with cattle.” Although he lives in the


city, MacDonald still has quite a knack for the hobby and enjoys sharing it with youngsters.


Taters ‘n’ tots


Wayne Austin loves watching kids’ faces when they see first-hand where potatoes come from. He’s managed the Westham Island event’s potato dig for the last two years. Austin helped 11-year-old


Owen Faulkner with the finer points of potato mining. Owen wasn’t new to the activity, though. He’s done it before and his dad works for BC Fresh.


“I did it once a couple of


years ago,” Owen says of his potato harvesting career, adding that all his friends know potatoes come from the ground “cause they’re in Grade 6.” Owen’s favourite way to eat potatoes is fried and he doesn’t care if they are red, white or russet. He even helps his dad at the BC Fresh booth at the event and gets asked a number of questions which he can answer. “Things like, ‘How are they


picked the best?’ ‘Are they organic?’ and ‘What kind of stuff is sprayed on them?’” he says people ask when he’s helping in the booth. For Austin, it’s not just his


love of gardening that makes the potato dig so enjoyable. “I like watching all the


kids,” he says. “The expression


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Rain made an untimely appearance during the annual Day at the Farm at Westham Island Herb Farm in Delta, September 9, after a summer void of precipitation. ADRIAN MACNAIR/DELTA OPTIMIST PHOTO


on their faces when the potato comes up out of the ground. They realize [potatoes] don’t come in plastic containers.”


Talent show Another activity kids and


youth took part in was the


talent stage. Dubbed the “locally grown talent show,” it provided entertainment for the visitors and a place for kids and youth to show off their abilities. The talent show rounded out a full-roster of entertainment that went on throughout the day.


Unfortunately, the weather


didn’t help attendance and Sharon Ellis, owner and operator of Westham Island Herb Farm, notes that while the number of booths and activities on-site was about the same, attendance was about half of previous years.


The Agri-Food Indust y


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