With the goal of reacquainting city folk with their country cousins who grow their food, the Harvest Moon Festival is entering its seventh year.
The three-day annual event, which is always held under the full moon at harvest time, runs Sept. 12-14 at Clearwater, Man.
With only 1,000 tickets available, the organizers aim for an event small enough for families to enjoy, but large enough to offer participants an exciting weekend getaway.
Jason Andrich, the Winnipeg-based co-ordinator of the event, said this year’s mix of music, back-to-the-land workshops and farm tours will also kick off the launch of the long-awaited Harvest Moon local food initiative.
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Almost two years in the making, the small-scale food network aims to link up 10 family farms and rural food processors with customers in Winnipeg who seek quality, natural food.
In keeping with this theme, the slogan on posters advertising this year’s event is who’s your farmer?
“Everybody’s got a lawyer, an accountant, a plumber. But who’s your farmer? Who is the person who grows your food? If you don’t already have a farmer, we have 10 here who would love to help out and get to know you,” said Andrich.
“Know the person who’s growing your food instead of just relying on Safeway or Sobeys.”
The stars may be finally coming into alignment for the local food movement, said Andrich.
News of the listeriosis outbreak, which so far has claimed at least eight lives and sickened many more, he noted, is just the latest in a procession of food safety scares linked to the industrial food system.
The latest tragedy could prove to be a watershed moment for urban consumers who have become fed up with the status quo and are ready to start supporting a local food system based on trust and personal relationships, he added.
“People want to be a part of a small-scale food system, where the chain is short and the money doesn’t get put into too many hands except for the farmer, the processor and the guy who drives the truck,” said Andrich.
He is helping to hammer out the details of the distribution system, in which city customers place orders for meat or produce with farmers, then get together at one location and pick up their goods.
Clint Cavers, who with his wife, Pam, and their three daughters operate Harborside Farms near Pilot Mound, Man., said the festival is all about having fun and learning about sustainable agriculture and how rural and urban people can work together to keep small communities alive.
“It’s not rock ‘n’ roll saving farming. It’s a group of people getting together to listen to good music and celebrating our food.”
Cavers opened an on-farm meat shop about a month ago that serves 90 local families.
He processes one beef animal and three to five hogs per week, as well as 1,000 pastured chickens the family raised this past summer.
Contrary to popular belief, he said, city folk are interested in learning more about farming, adding that his farm, which raises organic beef, pork and chicken, has hosted numerous tours.
The rising cost of fuel and its impact on food prices is also getting people’s attention, he said, and more urban people are willing to go the extra mile to secure a reliable, alternative supply of safe food for their families.
Colin Anderson, a former farm kid who is now a student at the University of Manitoba, has been involved as an urban member of the Harvest Moon Society since it was founded in 2002.
He said there is a growing awareness among city dwellers of the urgent need to preserve small farms and farming traditions.
The activities planned for the festival weekend reflect these concerns, he said, and include everything from hands-on jam making, a songwriting workshop, wilderness survival skills and a panel discussion on global oil supplies and the future impact on society of rising energy costs.
“For the festival, it’s about physically bringing people out to rural areas, but it’s also about bringing rural issues into the mind-set of city dwellers,” said Anderson, who grew up on a farm near Cypress River, Man.
“We need urban allies. That’s something that becomes increasingly important when only two percent of people are farmers and only 20 percent of the population lives in the country.”
Anderson spent the past summer travelling across Western Canada collecting footage on sustainable, small-scale farmers and rural issues for a proposed 45-minute video documentary.Its aim is to investigate the role of grassroots alternative food networks in facilitating urban-rural connections, rural renewal and food security, he said.
