Small Farm Sessions 2022

Are you a small scale farmer in Metro Vancouver or the Fraser Valley? Join us for three interactive online workshops this March and April, connecting small scale farmers with experts in farming and climate change, and soil health and composting.

Tickets are $5 per session.

Sessions, Speakers + Schedules

Restoring Soil Health + Building Living Composts

• Jo Tobias, RootShoot Soils
• Wednesday, March 23rd, 7pm - 8:30pm

Climate Friendly Farming

• Ione Smith, Upland Agricultural Consulting
• Wednesday, March 30th, 7pm - 8:30pm

Flower Farmers Get Nerdy About Soils

• Ellen Polishuk, Plant to Profit
• Wednesday, April 6th, 9:30am - 11am
• NOTE: this session is designed primarily for farmers currently growing flowers, but all are welcome.

Speaker Bios

Jo Tobias, Owner + Operator of RootShoot Soils

Jo Tobias is a regenerative soils and living compost specialist with the primary goal of helping farmers regenerate life in their soil.

She founded RootShoot Soils in 2015 and has since been educating and working with producers in British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan and Ontario. She combines curious exploration with ecology to successfully guide her clients in restoring the symbiotic relationships between their crops and the soil microbiome.

To learn more about Jo and her company, RootShoot Soils, visit www.rootshootsoils.com

Ione Smith, Director + Senior Agrologist with Upland Agricultural Consulting

Ione is a Professional Agrologist with a background in community engagement, agricultural planning, and land resource science. She brings over 17 years of experience and has built a career on developing innovative agriculture and food security plans, climate change adaptation and mitigation strategies, and farm business plans. She has worked with Indigenous communities, governments, and non-governmental organizations to craft actionable recommendations and implement key business strategies to improve and develop opportunities for agriculture and food security. Ione is also Qualified BC Farm Business Advisor, SFU Instructor and currently serves as Vice Chair (South Coast) of the Provincial Agricultural Land Commission .

To learn more about Ione and her company, Upland Consulting, visit https://uplandconsulting.ca/

Ellen Polishuk, Owner + Operator of Plant to Profit

Ellen is a full time farm consultant and workshop leader. She leverages her 35 years of biological vegetable farming experience to help growers around the country to achieve more satisfaction and better profitability from their farm businesses.

Ellen was one of three owners of Potomac Vegetable Farms in Northern Virginia where she grew Ecoganic produce for 7 farmers markets, a 550 member CSA and two roadside stands. Ellen is a co-author of the book Start Your Farm and writes the farmer-to-farmer profile column for Growing For Market magazine. She lives in suburban Maryland with her husband, where she gardens like crazy.

To learn more about Ellen and her company, Plant to Profit, visit https://www.planttoprofit.com/

Sessions Descriptions

Restoring Soil Health + Building Living Composts

• Jo Tobias, RootShoot Soils, regenerative soils and living compost expert
• Wednesday, March 23rd, 7pm - 8:30pm

Having issues with nutrient management / soil health / compost? Look no further! Jo Tobias is here to answer your questions and provide practical methods and workflows to rebuild soil biology and improve plant health.

• Practical and effective soil health assessment of your farm or garden
• Methodologies and workflows to help rebuild your soil biology
• Biological inoculants, such as thermophilic compost, extracts and teas, including management and applications for soil restoration
• Proper applications and assessment of biological inoculants for restoration
• Project case studies including conversations with farmers who began the journey of soil life rehabilitation

Join Jo at this SPEC Small Farm Session and have your questions answered!

Climate Friendly Farming

• Ione Smith, Upland Agricultural Consulting, food system planning specialist and agrologist
• Wednesday, March 30th, 7pm - 8:30pm

Climate change is no longer a future scenario - it's here. What does this mean for farmers in Metro Vancouver and the Fraser Valley, and how can you climate-proof your farm?

This session will explore some of the impacts of climate change on our food system and what we can do to mitigate effects at the farm level. Particular emphasis will be placed on water management, including strategies to both conserve water during a drought and prepare for flooding during the wet season. Additional opportunities to protect ecosystem services on farmland will also be explored.

Biological Flower Farmers Get Nerdy About Soils

• Ellen Polishuk, Plant to Profit, consultant, workshop leader, farmer and author
• Wednesday, April 6th, 9:30am - 11am
• NOTE: this session is designed primarily for farmers currently growing flowers, but all are welcome.

It's easy to fall into the rabbit hole looking at all the flowers on Instagram....so much beauty and inspiration. But until you get your farming in order, you are going to struggle to get profitable amounts of quality stems. Foremost in our sector is Soil Health. It all starts there. Let's get together and talk about how you can implement Healthy Soils principles on your small biological farm. My approach is to make sure we address the fundamentals before we wander off into the "lotions, potions and salves" of products. Join me for a lively discussion!

Thanks to Our Supporters

This year's event is supported by UBC Community Engagement, Vancouver Foundation and Canadian Agricultural Partnerships.