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July 29, 2015
Inside
Sweet Treat Father and daughter head out on road trip to share in their love of ice cream as an opportunity to spend time together
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Lake Country Car Show Volunteer for the LC Chamber of Commerce and Customs & Classics car show. ...............................
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Flyers ■ Coopers ■ Home Depot ■ Jysk Linen & Furniture ■ Rona ■ Safeway ■ Shoppers Drug Mart ■ Smartsource ■ Staples
SAWYER KLASSEN/CALENDAR
BOB MCCOUBREY at his Lake Country farm has thrown his support behind an incubator farm initiative for the Central Okanagan that could help get more young
people interested in farming.
Farm incubator to grow food bank produce, and farmers BARRY GERDING Feedback will be sought on a new program designed to help introduce prospective new farmers to the local agriculture industry. The program, the incubator farm concept, is the initiative of the Central Okanagan Food Policy Council following a workshop a few years ago. Out of that workshop arose two priorities for what is about to now become the Central Okanagan Community Farm Society: To grow food for food banks and other social agencies with volunteers doing the farming; and to establish the incubator farm plot con-
cept where new farmers could try farming on leased land using shared equipment and benefiting from experienced mentors. Bob McCoubrey, chair of the council, said the society, which will hold its inaugural annual general meeting this fall having now received its charitable donation tax exemption status, has advanced on its food growing mandate. McCoubrey, a Lake Country orchardist, is one of eight founding members of the society. The council created a one-acre vegetable plot in Lake Country and has plans to develop a similar operation in Kelowna next year to address the
food bank and other social agency food needs. McCoubrey said the logical next steps in the incubator initiative will include getting feedback on the interest to participate, finding a landowner who is willing to rent or donate a suitable plot of land for the project, and finding usable farm equipment. He is seeking the involvement of interested farmers, land owner and potential farming mentors. The idea, he said, is for young farmers to work their plots for two or three years and then take that experience to help them branch out on their own. “As we know, the average age of
farmers in the Okanagan today is 60 so we need to get more young people involved. Agriculture is doing great these days, particularly with the grape and cherry crops, but we can grow so many other crops in the valley,” McCoubrey said. “Vegetable growing would be the main focus at the start as annual crops are easier to change over as farmers come and go.” He said tree fruit orchards might be an option one day, but they require a greater investment of time until the fruit actually starts producing an annual
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ISSUE #40