Twenty high school students from across Saskatchewan tour the Rayner Dairy barn at the University of Saskatchewan as part of the Farm to Fork event. (submitted photo/USask)

By Alice McFarlane

Farm to Fork

Connecting students to agriculture

Mar 11, 2020 | 4:53 PM

A special event yesterday in Saskatoon gave 20 high school students an up close look at various aspects of food production.

The students from around Saskatchewan participated in the Farm to Fork program organized by the Sun West Distance Learning Centre based in Kenaston.

The Centre’s agriculture coordinator Lori Gasper said the day focused on beef and eggs.

“We started our day at Star Egg and we got to have a full tour of their facility which was wild just to see what 1.4 million eggs coming in the door looks like,” Gasper said. “Then we went over to the Rayner Dairy barn where we got to look at both the conventional and the robotic side of the barn.”

Gasper said the tour continued with a cooking session with Chef Shaun McConnell where the students made scotch eggs, pasta and a milk-based pudding.

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“The kids get to cook with a real chef in a real commercial kitchen which has been fantastic. Having the kids, the producers and some folks from behind the scenes in the ag industry here, it’s just been a wild day for lots of good conversation about food and where it comes from.”

Loreburn student Lance Hefervez was part of the tour. He came from the Phillippines three years ago and is very interested in cooking.

“Basically it started when I moved to Canada. My parents are always busy, they’re always out and I’m always by myself at home. Food is really close to me. I love eating food. Having no one to cook for me I have to do it myself,” Hefervez said. “There’s a restaurant that I decided to work in by our town and the chef there was really nice and he inspired me to get into more cooking.”

Hefervez said his long-term goal is to become a chef.

“I’m planning to go to culinary school. After I graduate, I’m planning on working for a year to save some money. Then after that year I’m gonna go to school, probably going somewhere outside Saskatchewan. I want to be known around the world. I don’t want to be just an average chef, I want to be someone that everybody knows.”

Hefervez is the type of student that Saskatchewan producers want to interact with. Two farmers spoke to the students following their cooking session. One of them was Saskatchewan Cattlemen’s Association (SCA) Zone 8 director Brian Cole from St. Brieux. He spoke to the students about his farming operation.

“We run a cow-calf operation near St. Brieux in the R.M. of Three Lakes. We graze pretty much year round and during the winter months we graze the cows on corn,” Cole said. “They hardly ever see a pen so it’s a natural habitat. We’ve got some of the poor land that’s in grass, the way it should be. The cows just make that land better. We’re proud of what we do.”

Cole said SCA is always interested in talking to consumers of all ages.

“We want to promote our product, which is beef. Anytime we have an opportunity to come to these things and teach kids the benefits of protein and beef in the diet, along with all the other stuff that we grow here in Saskatchewan, like the the grains that go with it and the vegetables,” Cole said. “It’s just a good balanced diet that you should be on and we want people to know that.”

The Farm to Fork event coincides with Canada’s Agriculture Literacy Month. SaskCanola, Saskatchewan Egg Producers, SaskMilk and the Saskatchewan Cattlemen’s Association were the program sponsors.

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alice.mcfarlane@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @AliceMcF