QUESNEL, B.C. – Surrounded by forest and sprawling ranches, Moose Meadows Farm sells agriculture as entertainment.
Owners Ted Traer and his wife, Heloise Dixon-Warren, operate the 65 acre farm west of Quesnel.
“We’re trying to put people back in touch with farms and where things come from,” said Traer.
It is the first certified agri-tourism farm in the Cariboo-Chilcotin region where the public is invited to tour and learn more about where food comes from.
They keep 100 free range laying hens and sell 700 dozen eggs each year. They also have goats, sheep, donkeys, llamas, alpacas, horses and one Highland cow. During the warm months, people can rent the space for children’s birthday parties that includes a farm tour and games.
Read Also
Ag in Motion innovation awards showcase top 2025 ag technology
The 2025 Ag in Motion Innovation Awards celebrated winners across five categories: agronomics, agtech, business solutions, environmental sustainability and equipment.
“The whole time you are marketing to the parents,” he said.
“The kids are the reason the parents are there. You know who is really listening,” said Dixon-Warren.
She is president of the North Cariboo Agricultural Marketing Association, which started in 2006 to promote alpaca fibre, poultry, eggs, meat and vegetables grown locally. The couple also belongs to the B.C. Agritourism Alliance.
“It is very difficult to develop agritourism across the province when each of our regions have very specific needs and have their own identity,” Heloise said. “The Okanagan isn’t going to relate to what we are doing here.”
They tried traditional advertising but found word of mouth and promotion at the farmers’ market worked better. They are also on Facebook and Twitter.
The family, which includes daughters, Amity, 10, and Tyquira, 13, settled in the region eight years ago.
Traer is a woodlot forester for the provincial government. Originally from New Brunswick, he worked his way across the forested regions of Canada until he ended up in B.C. and met Dixon-Warren, who grew up in the Lower Mainland.
The Quesnel property needed work but the couple saw it as an opportunity to fulfill Traer’s dream of growing Christmas trees and Dixon-Warren’s desire to run horses.
Christmas trees are sold off the farm for $5 per foot. That venture led to making Christmas wreaths from pine scraps that sell for about $30 each.
They started with a borrowed wreath making machine and made 50 decorated wreaths. They have expanded to five machines and employ eight to 10 people to help for two months in late fall. They make more than 1,500 wreaths that are shipped all over North America through internet sales.
Wreath making workshops are also held on the farm where they have a small store selling socks and blankets derived from their 21 llamas and alpacas, consignment items from local artists as well as their other venture, birch tree syrup.
They also have a booth at the local farmers’ market with their products as well as manure from the llamas sold as Poop in a Pail.
“All the things we do make money,” said Traer, who also conducts seminars for farmers about what they have learned about agricultural diversification.
“We don’t say do what we do, we say do what works for you,” he said.
Their birch tree syrup venture started about five years ago.
As a member of the Canadian Birch Syrup Producers Association, Traer wants to establish national standards for production and processing. Farmers making birch syrup use the same processing equipment and standards as maple syrup.
They tapped about 250 trees this year in late March and April and made about 50 litres of syrup. Birch requires 120 litres of sap to make one litre of syrup.
“The higher you heat, the more chance you have of scorching it and making tar, but you’re not a true syrup maker until you burn some and I’ve burned some,” Traer said.
They have a sugar making facility on the farm and label their product Boreal Amber. Sales have increased across North America for the product, which was featured at the Vancouver Olympics at the B.C. pavilion.
