Open Farm Day Manitoba, 2012!

Set up and ready to go first thing today!

Today was Open Farm Day in Manitoba, and we opened our farm to the public.  The last couple of years, we've had an Open House late in September for our CSA members and Farmers Market regulars, so we knew how we were going to do it.  We had a couple of tables out, with some of our produce that was fresh and ready to go.  We had some of our neat heirloom tomatoes and rare potatoes out on display.  And we had our hand-made soap, and natural skin care products.  We had our CSA promo board and the few brochures we have left, plus lots of business cards.  We even brought outside the thirty year old aerial photos of the farm, for contrast.  We had no idea how many people we may see during this province-wide event.  We were wondering if we'd just see some of our usual suspects.....especially with Veteran's Way being marked as 'Closed - Local Traffic Only'.

The Squash display, with some heirloom tomatoes!

Well, the goats and us made some new friends this year!  We had a great turn-out; we were very steady all day and met some awesome new people and families!  Yes, we did have a good showing of CSA members, and we did see some of our Farmers Market customers - a number who had never been here before.  But, we loved making new friends, and had sooooo much fun with all the children who came out!  Yes, the goats were a hit!  The chickens got over-fed with scratch treats.  The barn kittens, unfortunately, scratched a few people this afternoon, but they are just not used to so much attention.  Our doggies, Blaze in particular, were in heaven with all the love and pats!

It is so fun to see a child 'meet' a real chicken for the first time!  Some poor families are going to be listening to 'cock-a-doodle-doo' for some time - kids loved the roosters crowing!  So many gorgeous giggles!  Some youngsters were climbing into their cars still crowing - and I'm sure Mom and Dad would have to put up with it at least until the next farm!  For kids the animals were definitely the attraction, but we had some great conversations with Moms and Dads about food, about CSA, about Farmers Markets!  We had some gardeners who loved looking at, trying and talking about growing all our unusual varieties of tomatoes, potatoes and squash, both summer and winter!  We had some grain farmers visit and had interesting conversations about growing a whole bunch of different stuff, rather than one crop.  A fabulous day, all around!

Bad blogger that I am, I got a few photos early and then the camera got rather forgotten in my pocket as I went from hostess to tour guide to shopgirl to the 'Vanna White' of winter squash!  Oh, well!  Fortunately, a few CSA members were around taking some photos (Looking forward to them, Naomi!) And, The Brandon Sun and the Western Producer were here, so there may be a few more photos out there!  Loved hearing, too, about the number of farms people were planning to visit: I hope all the participating farms had as much fun as we did!  Thank you to everyone who came for a visit - hopefully see you next year!