Sootoday Article – Sylvan Valley Farms & Edible Algoma

By Carol Martin
SooToday.com
Thursday, June 18, 2009

Fledgling farmers Melanie and Martti Lemieux have put down roots in Sylvan Valley, just out behind Echo Bay.

They’ve planted a one-acre market garden of vegetables. And they are preparing for delivery of their Icelandic sheep.

Icelandic sheep, we’re told, are treasured for their meat, fibre and milk.

“The sheep have evolved over 1,100 years under difficult farming conditions in Iceland, with a resultant sturdy and efficient constitution,” says a fact sheet on the breed. “A defining quality of the Icelandic breed is the ability to survive on pasture and browse.”

These very qualities led the Lemieuxes to purchase enough Iceland sheep stock to start a herd in the Algoma area. The sheep will be arriving some time in July, Martti said.

The couple moved from Toronto to Sylvan Valley in October 2008, to farm vegetables and raise sheep, because they started to ask questions about where their food comes from when their first son, Kian, arrived five years ago. “We started as co-producers, purchasing from farmers to prepare our own food,” says Martti, who’s originally from the Sault. “Then, we got into watching them, helping them until finally we became farmers.”

Shortly after Kian was born, Martti and Melanie decided they wanted to return to this area and farm for a living. But it took some doing. Neither of them had any direct experience with farming before Kian was born. But they’ve thrown themselves into it and were happy to find a vibrant community of like-minded people at Algoma University last night.

The Algoma Food Network hosted a public event, Edible Algoma, in the Great West Life Amphitheatre to seek the public’s input on its plans for growth. “The local food movement has planted its roots and is growing bigger each year across Canada and the U.S.,” said incoming Algoma Food Network chair Birgit Kroll. “In the Algoma District, consumers have demonstrated their eagerness to embrace local foods through farmers markets, community-supported agriculture, community gardens and businesses.”

Seeing more people become involved in the network makes Kroll happy.

The goal of the Algoma Food Network is to connect local food producers with consumers, she said, and adding new producers to the network is good for everyone.

Among the issues discussed in the open-forum part of the event were advocacy for local food producers, education for consumers and the area farmers markets.

One participant suggested the Algoma Food Network organize a hundred-mile supper to help raise awareness of local food producers and, at the same time, raise funds for a charity.

Martti Lemieux asked whether organic certification was important and whether there were any other food producers there who were interested in creating some food-processing facilities, particularly a grainery.

The Lemieuxes plan to grow several grain products and are interested in processing their product locally for their own use (to feed their sheep) or to sell locally. “We want to make the farm self-sustaining and more stable, to limit our reliance on outside feed sources,” Martti said. It’s also important for the couple to know where the feedstocks they are are feeding their sheep come from, what they are and what’s been done to them.

The Lemieuxes are starting from scratch at their farm and they’re seeking organic certification right out of the gate. They say their soil is not the best but they are exploring different ways of improving it naturally and they chose the breed of sheep they did so they wouldn’t have to rely completely on grain to feed them.

They also say they want to provide healthy, safe, nutrient-rich foods for all three of their children and for other families in the region. As Kian, Aidan and Nora grow, the Lemieuxs hope they will be nourished by the food their parents grow and by the relationships their parents continue to nourish with other food producers and consumers brought together by the Algoma Food Network.

They hope to grow their farm to include chickens and pigs, while the Algoma Food Network hopes to grow a directory of local food producers and a calendar of events.

Edible Algoma

The local food movement has planted its roots and is growing bigger each year across Canada and the U.S.

Here in Algoma, consumers have been eager to embrace local foods through farmer’s markets, community supported agriculture, community gardens, and businesses such as Penokean Hills Farms.

The Algoma Food Network has worked hard at becoming an invaluable resource to this movement by connecting local food producers to consumers since 2007 and would like to continue this partnership in the years to come.

So to address this growning trend, the Algoma Food Network needs to expand and would like the public to help.

The Algoma Food Network will be hosting a public event, Edible Algoma, on June 17, 2009 7PM at the Great West Life Amphitheatre in Algoma University.  At this meeting, the Network will be presenting its current priorities and will host an open forum. The network is also announcing a change in leadership, with the appointment of Birgit Kroll as chair. Lee-Ann Chevrette, the former chair, has recently moved to Thunder Bay.

The Algoma Food Network is dedicated to building and maintaining a network of local food producers and consumers through education, advocacy, action, and relationship building.

See What Your Neighbour Knows & Grows!

Northern Ontario Agri-Food Education & Marketing Inc. presents a showcase event of local food producers, “See What Your Neighbour Knows & Grows!”

When: Friday, April 24 & Saturday, April 25, 2009
Where: Station Mall Centre Court, Bay Street, Sault Ste. Marie.

See displays by Algoma Sheep and Lamb Producers, Northern Ontario Agri-Food Education & Marketing Inc., Junior Farmers, 4-H, Algoma Cattlemen’s, Algoma Milk Producers, St. Joseph Island Plowmen’s Association, Bison Producers, Alpaca Producers, and more!

Northern Ontario Agri-Food Education & Marketing Inc. educates consumers, processors and retailers on the agri-food industry in Northern Ontario while assisting producers with marketing initiatives.

SooToday Article: Local abattoir is bouncing back

By Carol Martin
SooToday.com
Wednesday, April 15, 2009

Northern Quality Meats is progressing well with its recovery plan and has the support of the farmers who depend on it to get their product to local markets, says Tim Harris, chair of the troubled Desbarats-based abattoir.

Last week several members of the slaughterhouse’s board sat down with the people at Algoma University who are helping them with their business plan.

“Low cash flow since late last year put us in a bind,” Harris said. “We’ve been having some trouble keeping up.”

Harris says it’s too early to speculate on what direction the Sault area’s only abattoir will take in the future.

But there are a few items at the top of his to-do list.

The business plan is the most pressing task ahead for Northern Quality Meats, which currently employs five full-time and eight part-time staff.

During the busiest times of the year, te business has employed more than a dozen for temporary full-time work.

The main goals of the business plan will be to build a market for local meat products, to provide buyers with a consistent supply of product and to find ways to mediate cash-flow issues in a largely seasonal business, particularly by exploring value-added processes.

Harris said cash-flow issues have left Northern Quality Meats vulnerable, and Algoma University is looking into ways to access grants or loans to revitalize it and set it back on the path to viability.

One major contributing factor in the abattoir’s cash problems has been the world economy and demand for leather products.

“It’s normally slower in January, February and March,” Harris said. “That’s why we’ve come to kind of depend on selling hides in China in November.”

But last year, no one wanted hides and Northern Quality Meats took a major hit.

“With these cash-flow problems we haven’t been able to purchase as much product,” he said.

And without a consistent flow of product to the market, the abattoir loses customers when they go looking for what they need elsewhere.

But the abattoir has experienced a high degree of support from the 200 or so local farmers for whom it processes cattle and poultry.

Support that was demonstrated tangibly at a meeting on April 2.

“We had a lot of good general ideas and suggestions come out of our meeting,” Harris tells SooToday.com. “We kind of knew we had support. But now we know for sure where we stand.”

Harris said that several farmers at the meeting offered to volunteer to help with marketing, research and anything else that needed to be done for the business plan.

Some also offered to prepay some of their future processing costs.

Harris said the board we will work with the abattoir manager to collect what is necessary for the successful short-term operation of the plant.

He’s positive that this support, combined with the expertise being offered from Algoma University, will pull a viable plan together in time to revive the abattoir.

It’s vital to area farmers, he said, and to anyone in the area who wants to buy local meat.

“[The next closest abattoir] is just too far away for farmers to send their animals to be inspected, slaughtered and sent back,” he said. “The cost would be prohibitive.”

Northern Quality Meats is not the only abattoir experiencing difficulties, either.

“A lot of abattoirs have closed,” Harris said.

It’s very costly and difficult to keep up with all the ongoing changes demanded by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, and Harris said that other abattoirs simply haven’t been able to continue.

Northern Quality Meats, on the other hand, could be revived just in time to take advantage of a trend toward buying and eating local foods, if a good plan is implemented soon, he said.

Harris said there’s a growing desire to know where the meat we eat comes from, how the animals lived and what’s been done to the meat between field and table.

Northern Quality Meats could be in a position to provide answers to those questions and to the perpetual question of what’s for dinner very soon.

The full text of a media release from Northern Quality Meats follows.

********************
Northern Quality Meats, the only local abattoir within 200 miles, has been dealing with a cash-flow problem.

Like almost all small agricultural operations in today’s environment, it operates on a very narrow margin.

The collapse of the market for beef hides recently as the price plummeted from $35 (once as high as $90) to $5 each hide, created difficulties in what is traditionally the least-busy season, from January to March.

Northern Quality Meats was purchased out of bankruptcy in the year 2000 by 30 individuals, almost all farmers, who believed the facility was crucial to the agricultural community.

The shareholders elect a 10-member board, which administers the business, contributing their time as unpaid volunteers.

Seeking creative solutions, the board invited shareholders and local farmers to a meeting on April 2 in Bruce Station.

Over 80 people attended offering a wide range of suggestions.

One which can be of immediate help to the cash-flow problem was a suggestion that farmers pay now for service they intend to use in the busy season.

The board is processing all suggestions and is developing a business plan with the help of Algoma University and other financial advisors.

The board continues to believe the abattoir is crucial to this area.

Without it, no local meat will be available to Sault Ste. Marie and area consumers without it, and all animals except those for farm families will have to be sent to Sudbury or further for processing.

SooToday Article: Local slaughterhouse on its last legs?

By Carol Martin
SooToday.com
Monday, March 30, 2009

Article Here

Northern Quality Meats, the district of Algoma’s only abattoir, is in big trouble, say several members of its board of directors.

The Desbarats slaughterhouse has been in operation for eight years.

If the plant does go belly-up, no one in this area is going to get local meat and more than a few area meat producers are going to be out of business, warns Russ Christianson, a former general manager of the Ontario Federation of Food Co-ops and Clubs.

Karen Shaule, chair of the Algoma Federation of Agriculture, says it would take the cost of the business plus at least $100,000 in additional upgrades to be re-open Northern Quality Meats if it does close its doors.

But Shaule doesn’t think it would be very likely that the abbatoir could rise again if it goes bankrupt.

Christianson says the pending loss of our area abattoir is the greatest and most imminent threat to local food security and to the formation of healthy, thriving agricultural co-operatives.

“We had a group of farmers come together and throw money in a pot,” said Alf Roberts, a farmer from Sylvan Valley and a member of the abattoir’s board of directors.

“It was getting to be fall time and we had a bunch of farmers that needed animals killed,” he told the two dozen or so people gathered last week at a workshop at Algoma University.

“We had eight out of ten of our ducks in a row, but the ones we were missing were the $30,000 to $40,000 ones for the value-added processes,” Roberts said. “These never did show up. So we’ve been running by the skin of our teeth for the past eight years.”

Another Algoma farmer, Ken MacLeod said that, if there was a sound business plan and someone who could properly manage the plant and market the meat, there are a few area farmers who would buy it tomorrow.

Roberts said there will be a meeting for people with an interest in Northern Quality Meats’ success on April 2 and the plan is to ask all the farmers who use the plant to pitch in another $100 each.

“That will keep us going for the next few months,” Roberts said. “Long enough to work with Algoma University to create a good, solid business and recovery plan for it.”

A steering committee of people in attendance at last week’s workshop was formed with revitalization of Northern Quality Meats its first self-appointed task.

At least three board members from the abattoir were at the workshop seeking ways to save the business.

They sat at the table with steering committee members to begin the work of maintaining and revitalizing the company.

Sault Ste. Marie’s 2nd Annual Seedy Saturday, 28 February 2009

Seedy Saturday is a day for people to share, sell and swap their heritage seeds and stories. Sault Ste. Marie’s 2^nd Annual Seedy Saturday will be held in the Native Centre—G Wing—of Sault College from 10 am to 3 pm.

Last year’s event was organized by Clean North with the help of the Sault Ste. Marie Horticultural Society and Seeds of Diversity Canada and was a great success. People came to swap their open pollinated seeds, attend gardening talks and visit the numerous vendors who offered local and area food and craft items.

“We were excited that there was so much interest in our first Seedy Saturday last year,” says Suzanne Hanna, co-organizer. “We received so many favourable comments that we decided to do it again. By bringing together gardeners, farmers, and citizens passionate about the environment and access to safe, healthy food, we hope to encourage individuals to become involved in growing veggies, sharing seeds with their neighbours and friends and helping to protect agricultural diversity in their own backyards.”

This year Clean North is pleased to announce that Sault College has come on board as one of Seedy Saturday’s sponsors and is offering their site as the new location for this year’s expanded event.  USC Canada, another sponsor, is providing a guest speaker. Kate Green from USC’s Seeds of Survival program will be traveling from Ottawa to the Sault to show the documentary, ‘Hijacked Future’ and speak about food sovereignty and international seed saving efforts.

Little did Sharon Rempel know when she designed and organized the first Seedy Saturday in Vancouver in February 1989 that her “seedy” idea would germinate into over 50 separate annual events across Canada. With the help of Seeds of Diversity, formerly known as Canada’s Heritage Seed Program, volunteer gardeners and farmers work together to grow, propagate and distribute over 1900 varieties of vegetables, fruit, grains, flowers and herbs, many of them treasured family favourites that are not widely offered by commercial seed companies.

The highlight of each and every Seedy Saturday is the community seed exchange that will take place between 12:00-3 pm. If you would like to swap your saved seeds, be sure to bring your labelled envelopes containing open pollinated varieties of seed to the registration desk between 10 and 11 am. There will be seed for sale as well.

Guest speakers will provide information from 11 am to 3 pm on a variety of topics such as seed saving, composting with worms, invasive species, and guerrilla gardening. There will be local and area environmental, food security and gardening displays with plenty of free handouts. The Farmer’s Market and other vendors will have products for sale, Katimavik will be on hand to provide children’s activities and there will even be healthy refreshments for sale at our Seedy Saturday Cafe.

As an added bonus, Cinema Politica will be hosting the viewing of ‘King Corn’, a feature documentary about two friends, one acre of corn, and the subsidized crop that drives our fast-food nation at 7 pm in the Multimedia Centre located in the B Wing of Sault College. Refreshments and a panel discussion will follow.

Our venue is wheelchair accessible and parking is free.

For more information, contact Suzanne Hanna at (705) 759-2893 wildgardener@shaw.ca

 

The Future of Food (a must see film)

What are we eating?

The film “The Future of Food” will be shown this Friday night, (August 1st) at Algoma University at 7pm in the Westlife Amphitheatre (Room NW 200), as part of the Cinema Politica Film Series (www.cinemapolitica.org/saultstemarie) .

The Future of Food offers an in-depth investigation into the disturbing truth behind the unlabeled, patented, genetically engineered foods that have quietly filled our grocery store shelves for the past decade.

From the prairies of Saskatchewan, Canada to the fields of Oaxaca, Mexico, this film gives a voice to farmers whose lives and livelihoods have been negatively impacted by this new technology. The health implications, government policies and push towards globalization are all part of the reason why many people are alarmed by the introduction of genetically altered crops into our food supply.

Shot on location in the U.S., Canada and Mexico, The Future of Food examines the complex web of market and political forces that are changing what we eat as huge multinational corporations seek to control the world’s food system. The film also explores alternatives to large-scale industrial agriculture, placing organic and sustainable agriculture as real solutions to the farm crisis today.

We will be having a special panel discussion after the film, which will include local individuals involved in agriculture in various capacities. If you’re concerned about what is happening to our food system and want to learn more, this is a must see film!

Hope to see you there…please pass it on!

Guest Facilitator: Lee-Ann Chevrette

Algoma Farmers’ Market 1st Family Day Huge Success!

The Algoma Farmers’ Market’s 1st Family Day on Saturday July 12th was a big hit! It was the busiest market day that I have seen in the 5 years that I’ve been involved with the market, and there were more families with children on this one day than I’ve seen cumulatively in that same time. It was great!

Lena’s fantastic face painting was a hit with the kids, as were Halina’s craft table, Kayla’s balloons, the sunflower seed planting and the great music by Jeff! The vendors were very excited to see so many new and young faces, and were also pleased with the increased sales!

Congratulations to Jennie Pearce who did a great job organizing and whose animals (a duck, a rabbit, a rooster and Wilbur the potbelly pig) did a great job entertaining the children!

A lot of families said it was their first time coming out to the Market and they were pleased to see so much yummy food for sale. Many said they plan to come back next week. If anyone has any ideas for fun stuff they can do at the market with kids, please let us know. The kids might be the ‘hook’ to get young families out to the market. We are also looking for some buskers to play music at the market.

Thanks to all who attended and helped make it such a huge success! SooToday did a great story on the event. Here is the link:

http://www.sootoday.com/content/news/full_story.asp?StoryNumber=33278

 

Make sure you look at the additional photos to see all the happy faces on those who attended!

Allard Street Community Gardens Open House Thursday July 10th, 2-4pm!

The Allard Street Community Gardens will be having an open house tomorrow, July 10th, between 2-4pm. They will be celebrating the newly expanded gardens, made possible by the Ontario Trillium Foundation. Come tour the gardens and enjoy some children’s activities, cake and juice.

Hope to see you there!

Family Day at Algoma Farmers’ Market- July 12th, 2008

The Algoma Farmers’ Market and the Algoma Food Network have joined forces to hold the first “Family Day” at the Algoma Farmers’ Market. The goal is to increase the Market’s profile, and to raise awareness about local food and farms, and community food security.

 

When and Where?

Roberta Bondar Park (under the Farmers’ Market Tent)

Foster Drive, Sault Ste. Marie, ON

July 12, 8am-noon

 

Great Activities for the whole family!

 

Available for purchase from local vendors:

Locally grown fresh produce, bedding plants, perennials, flowers, herbs, fresh baked goods, maple syrup, honey, jams and jellies, homemade preserves,

and many beautiful handcrafted items.

 

All activities are free and everyone is welcome!

Free parking¨Wheelchair accessible

 Support our farmers! Buy Local, Buy Fresh from Algoma Farmers’ Market!

Benefit from fresh wholesome foods and products, grown and produced with loving care in your community!

 Make it a weekly Habit!

 For more information contact:

Jennie Pearce, Algoma Farmers’ Market at 253-1745 or

Lee-Ann Chevrette, Algoma Food Network at 254-2821

(www.algomafoodnetwork.wordpress.com/)