Impact

Weekly Wrap Up-Eastern Ontario and Toronto

There is nothing like coming home after a few weeks on the road. Cooper slept for three days straight. I stayed down in Kingston for a couple of nights to catch up with my grandparents and cousins. Feeling so blessed to be part of such a supportive and loving family. My cousin and her husband are going to record the music for the Farm Talk Radio podcast going forward so stay tuned for that! I also had a great few days talking about dreams and future plans. Exciting opportunities on the horizon kept my inspiration levels high.

“When will you learn that the more you take means the less that you’ll have at the of the day
Stillness of the mind is so hard to embrace, freedom of the heart is what we crave and when we sit by the river with a cup of tea watch the movement of the tide in the gentle breeze
Pelican drifting slowly looking for a feed like Mr. Percival to Storm Boy you to me
Kookaburra calls just like he knows and I call right back yes I’m home
He’s been with me he’s watched me grow through those rainy days and those rocky roads”
-Xavier Rudd, Storm Boy

Knuckle Down Farm
I had a chance to sit down with Peter Wills of Word and Data, and Knuckle Down Farm, to discuss the Farm Talk Radio website and our plans for the platform going forward. So much gratitude for Peter Wills, and the rest of my back end team, Aaron Lai and Robin Clark, on the audio and visual side of things, and the many others who have helped this project take shape.

Impact Fest

Toronto has been a whirlwind of packing, networking, recording podcast episodes, and socializing. One of the big highlights of the past couple of weeks for me was Impact Fest at CSItoronto. I had the privilege of sitting in on two workshops, one by Johl Ringuette of Nish Dish and the other by Mira of Action Against Hunger. They covered so many important points talking about food security and empowering choices around food. I left feeling motivated, hungry to get more involved and be part of these groundbreaking conversations.

100 Candles, 100 Friends of Farm Talk Radio, and $100

One of the other highlights was seeing Corin Raymond play to a packed Cameron House on his birthday. He is one of the most creative and present in the moment artists I have ever had the pleasure of watching preform. He is a fantastic songwriter in his own right and he also celebrates so many other Canadian artists who write about the small time. If you haven’t seen him play you must go check him out!  The GoFundMe campaign is a new experience for me. It is also something I am not entirely comfortable with. I wrestled with the idea for a while and in the end decided that to be able to build this platform, to have the conversations at the levels that they need to be had, and to share these incredible stories of local heroes and agents of change I had to at least try! At the moment our goal is to raise $10,000, that is to help offset the costs that have already been put in to bring Farm Talk Radio to this stage, the remaining funds will allow us to continue to build this platform to the best of our ability.

What’s Next?

I capped off a busy week by recording two more podcast episodes yesterday. Chef’s and local food advocates, Lewis Robinson and Johl Ringuette sat down to share their incredible stories. I can’t wait to share them with you!

Today I am meeting with Jamie Ashforth to pick up some beautiful cards for my “postcard from the road idea”. Donate $100 or more to the fundraiser campaign and you get a beautiful personalized card from the road with one of Jamie’s images and with a limited edition Farm Talk Radio Bumper sticker. This is an opportunity not to be missed!

That is all for now folks, I will start winding my way out West early next week. Stay tuned for more updates from the road!

Share this post

Farm Talk Radio Logo

Welcome

Our goal with Farm Talk Radio is to tell a story across ​Canada, weaving a mosaic of landscapes that focus on the people, places, and things that inspire change — To give airtime to the hardworking men and women who are feeding the bodies, hearts, and minds of our great country. Farming can at times be a lonely and isolating profession. It is one filled with numerous hardships. The long hours, physically demanding work, and constant struggle to work in harmony with Mother Nature take their toll. Furthermore, the ever-changing extremes of climate change will only add to these pressures. Not to mention, the financial risk of being an entrepreneur and running a business to feed and support yourself and your family. Yet this is a field of work that continues to attract some of the most incredible and inspiring change makers that I have been fortunate enough to meet. Spend a weekend at your local farmers market and you’ll know what I am talking about. Because of this, it will be an honour to sit down and listen to them and help them tell their story. Farm Talk Radio explores the challenges these agents of change are going through and the gifts that this journey has brought them. And we’d like to share all of this with you.