The Rural Voice, 2004-11, Page 23Schmidt, they organized their first
"Introduction to Ecological Farming"
short course at the Armow Hall near
Kincardine. They had 85 people pre -
register but on the day of the event
130 people packed the hall. There
was a whole busload of students from
Sir Sanford Fleming Community
College where an organic program
was being started.
It was a two-day course so people
from a distance were billeted with
farmers but there were so many
people there weren't enough billet
spaces. They booked a hotel in
Kincardine for the overflow. Despite
the fact they provided accom-
modation and a full course dinner
and that they charged only $20 for
the two-day course, they had so
much volunteer help they ended up
with a profit of $850.
About the same time they
organized their first spring
conference at Ethel, co-sponsored by
Oak Manor Farms, and 180 people
showed up. Next came a fall
conference.
As Zettel says, the organization
became a lifeline for
exchanging information for
farmers leaving behind the
comfortable infrastructure of regular
commercial farming. Each year a
number of tours of organic farms are
held to let farmers see what other
organic farmers are doing to solve
problems that may be similar to their
own.
Andres recalls the excitement of
an early farm tour at his farm and
Hack's. Two busloads from Quebec
swelled the audience to 360 people.
"It was a day you can hardly
believe," he says, the excitement
rekindled in his voice at the very
memory.
It's these farm tours that provide
the fondest memories for Phil Beard,
who joined the board in the 1980s.
"We took staff from the World
Wildlife Fund on a tour of some of
the organic farms and they were just
blown away by the numbers and
diversity of birds that they saw," he
remembers, indicating the health of
the environment.
Beard was part of a board of
directors set up to share the workload
for the Andreses with people like
Zettel and the McQuails.
Mike Pembry, who had his own
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