Okanagan Agroforestry Field Day, Oct 18

Friday, October 18, 2013  1:00 to 4:00 pm
Hosted by Curly Frog Farm, Kelowna and Marshall Farms, Winfield

Join us for an informative afternoon discussing alley cropping, nut orchards, exotic fruit and hardwood production.  Free to attend.  RSVP Brenda at 250 491 3404.

Agenda

1:00 - 1:20 pm Curly Frog Farm, 395 Hereron Road, Kelowna

• Brenda Dureault, Curly Frog Farm: Welcome and introductions; motivations for using agroforestry in small-lot agriculture.
• George Powell: BC Agroforestry Industry Development Initiative (AIDI): Overview of agroforestry and the AIDI.
• Dave Trotter, BC Ministry of Agriculture: Agroforestry development work around BC and its potential applications in the Okanagan. 

Okanagan Alley Cropping Demonstration

1:20 - 2:30 pm Tour of the Curly Frog Farm Alley Cropping Demonstration

• Brenda Dureault, Curly Frog Farm: Lessons learned in establishing black walnut and pawpaw trees: sourcing material, planting, irrigation, weed and pest control.
• Sandra Mah, Regional District of Central Okanagan: Gellatly Nut Farm Regional Park as a source for high quality Okanagan-adapted Carpathian (English) walnuts, Chinese chestnuts and hazelnuts (filberts).

2:30 - 3:00 pm Travel to Marshall Farms (see below for driving instructions)

3:00 - 4:00 pm Tour of Marshall Farms, 12349 Lake Hill Drive, Winfield

Marshall Black Walnut Stand Planted in 2000

•  Jeff Marshall, Marshall Farms: Welcome and introduction to Marshall Farms (a third generation family-owned Okanagan orchard).
• Michael Carlson, scientist emeritus, BC Ministry of Forests, Lands and Natural Resource Operations: History of black walnut in the Okanagan, including Gellatly collection and Purdue University materials testing; variation in growth and form traits of black walnut families planted at Marshall Farms.
• Jeff Marshall, Marshall Farms: Overview of black walnut orchard management, including irrigation, fertilization, spacing and pruning.

Please Note!

This field day is free to attend, but you must provide your own transportation to Curly Frog Farm and Marshall Farms.  Please ensure you dress appropriately for the possibility of inclement weather and have sturdy, water-proof footwear.

Curly Frog Farm also raises poultry.  If live or work on a poultry farm or have recently visited, or will visit a poultry operation after the field day, please refer to the following and observe standard biosecurity protocols to prevent the potential transmission of disease between flocks: http://www.inspection.gc.ca/english/anima/biosec/aviafrme.pdf

Driving Instructions Curly Frog Farm to Marshall Farms:

1. Drive west on Hereron Rd to Hwy 97N.  
2. Turn right (north) onto Hwy 97N and drive 14.6 km through Winfield to Oceola Road.  
3. Turn left on Oceola Road and proceed 1.1 km uphill.  
4. Turn right on Lake Hill Drive and then after 50 m turn right to enter Marshall Farms (the first driveway on the right-hand side).  
5. Proceed downhill approximately 200m to a parking area adjacent to the walnut plantation.

6th Annual Silver Hills Ranch Biodiversity Tour and Social

Silver Hills Ranch is holding its 6th annual biodiversity tour on Friday September 6, 2013.

The tour is Silver Hill Ranch's way of bringing together people who have common interests in agriculture or the environment to their back yard for good conversation and a walkabout. The Hesketh family's ranch is located on the edge of the Monashee Mountain Range. The ranch is along the Upper Shuswap River across from the community of Cherryville. This location borders near the confluence of the Okanagan, Shuswap and Kooteney watersheds, and provides a unique landscape that supports a wide variety of biodiversity. While you are there, you can take a walk, or perhaps a hayride, and look at how Silver Hills Ranch is making efforts to work with Mother Nature, versus against her, as they go about the business of raising commercial beef cattle. Silver Hills Ranch uses a Holistic Management style in looking after the land because the primary resources of the ranch are water, grass, and trees, and they realize that everything hinges on these resources' success for the ranch to be successful.

The Hesketh family have invited a few friends and associates to present some of their words of wisdom on subjects like Agroforestry. This year’s keynote speakers are George Powell, Project Development & Communication Services Manager for BC Agroforestry Industry Development Initiative and Lisa Zabek, Interior Agroforestry Specialist with the BC Ministry of Agriculture. Have you heard about maple wine, or birch syrup, or have you considered growing Christmas trees? George and Lisa are a wealth of information on these and other emerging sectors and opportunties to integrate agriculture, rural diversification and conservation practices.

Other topics that will be discussed include range management, watershed management and an update on the reintroduction of fish passage to the upper river. Discussion and participation are encouraged by all attendees as this tour is about sharing knowledge while learning from other points of view in a 'hats off' type of environment.

This year the focus will be on the need for collaboration between stake holders. In his roll with the Farmland Riparian Interface Stewardship Program (FRISP), delivered through the British Columbia Cattlemen’s Association (BCCA), Lee Hesketh has relied on his rural perspective when mitigating or moderating conflicts between stake holders. Far too often a misunderstanding and conflict is created by lack of knowledge, poor communication, and the concern for one’s self-gain. Lee's ranching background has taught him that more hands make less work. By encouraging people to work together and to look for answers versus problems during challenging times, a lot can be achieved even with diverse interests.

Lee's ultimate goal is to have attendees leave with a greater understanding, appreciation, and respect for the ranching sector's ability to protect and contribute ecological diversity on the landscape through integrating ourselves with the environment while preparing food for our plates.

In hosting this event on a Friday, Silver Hills also encourages those of you who are travelling some distance for work the opportunity to add some personal time to the trip. The Heskeths encourage people to bring family or friends along and enjoy the hospitality of the ranch by staying over night. As in past, they’ll be opening their backyard to free camping and will have a community fire for those wanting to sit and relax under the stars after the day's events. Those who have musical talent are encouraged to feel free to entertain. Lee and family encourage sustainability, which means they supply the location, access to barbeques, and outhouse, but you bring the rest.

For those wanting to make it a weekend event, the Wild Salmon Music Festival is being held in Lumby over the weekend as well. It is a great grassroots music festival featuring local bands and promoting the return of Salmon to the upper reaches of the Shuswap River. For those just wanting to take a break and relax, the river should still be warm enough for swimming if we have sunny skies, plus the ranch has lots of hiking opportunities for those with a little extra energy. There is even a 9-hole golf course across the river in Cherryville in walking distance if you don’t mind wading the river.


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This tour is part of the extension series, "Riparian Stewardship Through Agroforestry".  Partial funding for this work has been provided by the BC Agroforestry Industry Development Initiative (AGF1304)

Cattlemen's Agroforestry Tour a Great Success

Over 140 participants from around the province and Alberta enjoyed an informative and educational afternoon learning about the opportunities for BC's ranching sector to benefit from including agroforestry in their operations.

Tour participants enjoy a refreshment break at the Coldstream Ranch

Lee Hesketh, manager of the Farm Riparian Interface Stewardship Program, and organizer of the tour noted, "...it was an excellent opportunity for cattle producers from around the province to see examples of agroforestry in action, and hopefully stimulate ideas of how these multiple use systems can be adapted to work at home."

The tour, held in conjunction with the 85th Annual BC Cattlemen's Association AGM in Vernon, BC focused on successful examples of agroforestry used on ranches and Crown lands to diversify production, and to generate economic, conservation and social benefits.

Additional photos from the tour can be found here: www.agroforestry.info/p/photos.html 

Okanagan Farm Demonstrating Alley Cropping with Black Walnut and Pawpaw

Diversification, building connections and demonstrating the feasibility of agroforestry methods are a few of the motivations behind a Kelowna family farm's alley cropping project.  With funding from the British Columbia Agroforestry Industry Development Initiative, Curly Frog Farms will explore a more economical, sustainable way of conducting agriculture through agroforestry.

Curly Frog will transform approximately 1.5 acres from pasture on a high water table to an alley cropping system utilizing black walnut and pawpaw tree rows.  Black walnut produces a high quality, high value wood, much in demand, as well as a source of supplemental income from the nuts as food or seed.  Only 1.4% of the wood processed in BC is hardwood, thus an opportunity exists to diversify the wood market with increased regional production.  Pawpaw produces a unique and unusual fruit which looks like a mango and tastes like a mix of guava and banana, and comes with many potential health benefits.  Currently demand exceeds supply in Canada and if production results from this demonstration are favourable, the Okanagan could become a new regional production centre for this fruit.

Black walnut produces a high quality, high value wood, much in demand

By design, the alley cropping set-up at Curly Frog will create beneficial synergies.  For example, alder trees will be planted within 1.5-m of the other crop trees to supply nitrogen to the soil, to act as a nurse crop to help the black walnut grow straight, and when the alley tree crops begin to mature, the alder will be cut for firewood.  Pawpaw will be planted in between the black walnut trees.  Pawpaw can be found in the wild growing under black walnut and should therefore be able to survive juglone sensitivity (black walnut can produce allelopathic effects on neighbouring plants) and the dappled shade of the walnut overstory.  In order to graft the pawpaw trees to produce known quality and character, Kentucky State University has graciously consented to contribute bud wood from their horticultural research station. 

Synergies are also hoped to develop through the choice of herbaceous crops in the alleys.  As a natural pest control strategy, beneficial insect plants (e.g. yarrow, dill) will be planted between the tree rows to help with pest control and promote biodiversity during the establishment of the trees.  Other potential benefits of this farming system may come through improved economics.  Alley cropping allows you to grow high value crops on less land while sharing the same farm infrastructure (e.g irrigation).

It is hoped this project will serve as a pilot to connect the forest industry, the agricultural industry and environmental concerns.   Once established, the farm will be open for tours that will focus on production methods, resources and costs.

Curly Frog Farms is a family-run farm whose overall purpose is to provide an environment in which spiritual, physical, mental, emotional and financial needs can be met.  Their goal is to integrate people, habitat and agriculture in order to gain a better understanding and appreciation of the environment.  The farm is located on 26 acres in Kelowna; 7 acres are wetland, pond and brook with an existing 2 acres of black walnut and Christmas trees planted beside it.   Another 2 acres of chestnut, oak and yellow horn are in the works slated to be completed by this fall.

For more information on this project or Curly Frog Farms, please visit: www.curlyfrogcreations.com/Farm.html