Eat Local Caledon and the Albion Hills Community Farm have joined together to create an innovative program for youths that are interested in food and faming. HAYville, which stands for Harvesting Agricultural Youth, is a program for 12-19 year olds in Caledon. Through this program, participants gain insight, knowledge and skills towards a potential future food and farming career. Activities and workshops involve farming, cooking and preserving (value-adding), community engagement, marketing, business planning and more. As part of the HAYville program, there are a variety of Ag-Venture workshops and events taking place from now until mid-December. The events are free and are also eligible for Secondary School Community Service Hours. Please sign up for these events via email to eatlocal@eatlocalcaledon.org.
Saturday, October 15th, 1pm-4pm, Albion Hills Community Farm, 16555 Humber Station Rd. Learn to build a simple “root cellar”/winter storage system. At this farm workshop, participants will gain hands-on experience in building a simple and versatile winter storage system for root vegetables and squashes. Winter storage is a must for every year-round farm business, and comes in handy for every household that lacks a root cellar!
Saturday, October 22nd, 10am-5pm Albion Hills Community Farm, 16555 Humber Station Rd. & Palgrave Community Kitchen, 34 Pine Avenue. HAYville Ag-Venture Day. During this day of on-farm and in-the-kitchen adventure, participants will take part in a corn maze scavenger hunt, learn to build a compost pile, enjoy a complimentary local pizza lunch, and work in groups to invent and create a healthy & local Halloween treat and corresponding marketing plan. A presentation of these business ideas will take place at 4pm, and parents are welcome to be there to sample some of the treats!
Sunday, November 6th, 1:30pm-4pm, Palgrave Community Kitchen, 34 Pine Ave., Palgrave. Learn to cook with pumpkins. Halloween is over, but what about all those leftover pumpkins? Well we don’t want them to go to waste, so instead, we are having a pumpkin cooking extravaganza. Learn how to make pumpkin puree, soup, hummus & bread, and even how to perfect roasted pumpkin seeds.
Wednesday, November 16th, 6:30pm-9pm, Spirit Tree Estate Cidery, 1137 Boston Mills Road. Youth Entrepreneurship – Part I: Food & Farming Entrepreneurship in Action. Participants will take a tour of Spirit Tree Estate Cidery and learn about what it takes to start and operate an innovative food and farming business. We will also hear brief presentations from other youths that are small-business owners. And to top it off, Spirit Tree pizza for dinner!
Wednesday, November 30th, 5:30pm-8pm, Small Business Enterprise Centre, 18 King St. East. Youth Entrepreneurship –Part II, Creating a Business Plan. In this workshop, led by the Small Business Enterprise Centre and Eat Local Caledon, participants will learn the fundamentals about starting their own business and creating a business plan.
Saturday, December 3rd, 11am-4pm, at the Palgrave Community Kitchen, 34 Pine Avenue. Holiday Cookie BEE. 'Tis the season for festive baking! Learn how to make 5 different types of cookies that are perfect for holiday festivities and gifts, all featuring LOCAL ingredients.