Some of the hottest tickets on the farm are expected to go fast Wednesday.
A second block of tickets for Lambton County’s third annual Breakfast on the Farm is set to be released at 9 a.m. Wednesday, online at Eventbrite.ca.
Tickets to the breakfast are free, but all 750 available spots are expected be claimed Wednesday, if the experience of the first two years is any measure. An initial block of tickets released earlier this month went quickly.
“People just hop right on there,” Tracy Ranick, one of the organizers.
Breakfast on the Farm is a project of the Sarnia-Lambton Business Development Corporation, the Lambton Federation of Agriculture and the Egg Farmers of Ontario, along with local sponsors.
“Agriculture is such a huge part, and a huge component of our economy,” said Ranick, a community development officer with the business development corporation.
“It’s a way to educate people about what family farming is all about.”
Many attending the breakfast are visiting a farm for the first time, and they may not know that more than 97 per cent of Canadian farmers are family-owned, Ranick said.
“It’s really great to welcome people to a farm and say, ‘Our barn door is open, come on in and have a look,’” she said.
“For us, it’s a great mix of a family-friendly event, an education piece and supporting the local economy.”
This year’s breakfast under the tent, along with farm tours, displays and activities, is being hosted June 18 at the farm of Brian and Joan Pelleboer, at their Stoney Creek Feedlot Ltd., goat and calf operation in Plympton-Wyoming.
The Grain Discovery Zone, a travelling exhibit from the Grain Farmers of Ontario, is scheduled be part of the activities again this year.
Tickets to the breakfast and the farm tours are only available in advance online, and won’t be available at the farm gate on June 18.
While there’s no cost for breakfast, the event collects donations for 4H.
Ranick said breakfast organizers were able to pass along $2,000 to the rural youth program in each of the first two years, and help support “the next generation of farming.”
Ranick said they got the idea for the breakfast from similar events held around Ontario and Michigan. She added sponsorships from farm groups and businesses allow the breakfast to be offered to farm visitors at no cost.
“The commodity groups have been very excited about it and have joined in,” Ranick said.
The Lambton breakfast grew from 500 guests the first year to 750 last year, and again this year.
The menu includes pancakes made from locally milled ingredients, eggs, breakfast sausage from a hog donated by a local farmer, potatoes, goat cheese and local maple syrup.
“It’s a local as you can get,” Ranick.
~Paul Morden~
Sarnia Observer