Tag: education

Junction Farm Fest

This past Saturday, we loaded up our homemade livestock pen and our two lambs and made the trip in to Toronto for the Junction Farm Fest. Organized by Lynn of Local Food Plus, the idea was to bring a little bit of farm in to the city. We were a bit worried about how the heat would affect our fuzzy little lambs, but we figured that they were traveling in the back of an air conditioned car, and would have ample shade and water, so off we went. We were stuck in traffic briefly on the 401, and I think that we managed to entertain our fellow drivers who glanced over at our car and saw two lambs staring back at them.

The livestock display was set up in the parking lot of Metro Police 11 Division, and many officers were on hand to help out and learn, including Chief Bill Blair. The chief dropped by our booth and asked a lot of insightful questions about our farm. I told him how nice it was that the police hosted the livestock part of the festival. He told me that police were exempt from the “no livestock allowed” bylaws in account of their horses, and that this was the only place where we could legally have our animals.

The chief was one of well over a hundred visitors that we had the chance to talk to over the course of the afternoon. Lots of kids and adults alike were curious to come and see (and pet) our lambs, and led to a lot of interesting conversations about sustainable livestock, and sheep as an alternative to lawn mowers.
The wool carding and felt making demonstration was a huge hit. Visitors had a look at some of Jennifer's felted creations, and got to try their hand at needle felting.
We are really grateful to Local Food Plus for the opportunity to come and meet so many farm friendly people, and to Butcher By Nature for sponsoring our booth. See you again next year!