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Tour highlights area farms

Calgary area residents are getting a chance to see what the Foothills has to offer next weekend. The Taste of the South day tour is part of Alberta Open Farm Days events on Aug. 21.

Calgary area residents are getting a chance to see what the Foothills has to offer next weekend.

The Taste of the South day tour is part of Alberta Open Farm Days events on Aug. 21. The eight-hour bus tour departs from Erlton Station in Calgary and gives participants the opportunity to learn where their food comes from and see first-hand how area farms run.

This is the second year the Taste of the South has run. It will take visitors to the Canadian Rocky Mountain Ranch in the Priddis area, the Millarville Race Track, the Eau Claire Distillery in Turner Valley, Diamond Valley Farm east of Black Diamond and the Saskatoon Farm.

“Guests can talk to people who are actually providing their food,” said Lisa Hardy, CAO of the Alberta Association of Agricultural Societies. “It’s our signature event of Alberta Open Farm Days.”

She said the association works with agricultural societies throughout the province and provides the tours as a way to educate people and support their members.

“This year it happens to be the same weekend as the Millarville Fair, which will be a new feature we’re adding there,” said Hardy. “It works really well for us to incorporate one of the major events of one of our members.”

Marilyn Dentinger of Diamond Valley Farms said they are pleased to welcome the tour group for an hour on Aug. 21.

“Basically we want people to understand our lifestyle and see where the food comes from and the care for animals,” said Dentinger. “We make sure the food we provide to people is the very best it can be, right from raising the animals, and we want people to see that.”

She runs the farm with her husband, Rene Dentinger, her brother, Warren Dreger, and sister-in-law Laurie Dreger. The couples came together to purchase the property in 2005.

None of them had ever really farmed before, but they had a desire to raise their own food to the best of their ability, as naturally and organically as possible, she said.

“When we started, my husband and I were just tenants and the owner told us you can’t live in the country without chickens, so he introduced us to raising chickens,” said Dentinger. “My brother would come out to the farm and that’s how it all really started.”

They keep laying hens, meat birds, Tamsworth-Berkshire cross pigs, cows, and sheep – all of which are fed natural, soy-free feed, she said. Their cows and sheep are never given grains, they are grass-fed.

“All our feed is organic, either certified organic or natural,” said Dentinger. “That’s the way our farm has always been.”

The animals are as free range as possible, she said. Even the laying hens are allowed to wander and scratch in the yard rather than being caged.

Though their land is seemingly small – 65 acres – she said it’s large enough for what they do, and keeps them busy all year long.

“You don’t need a huge land base to raise your food,” said Dentinger. “We have enough to raise our own hay and have enough land for the animals to graze.”

She said when it comes down to it, their farm is about treating the animals well and keeping them as healthy as possible to guarantee a quality final product.

This will be the second time the farm has been featured in Alberta Open Farm Days. The first year the program ran, Diamond Valley Farm opened its gates to the public for the entire weekend, but the couples found it was too much at the time.

“We all worked on the farm but we also had full-time jobs, two of us in Calgary,” said Dentinger. “It was too much. Our weekends were too full.”

Now, she and her husband have retired from their other jobs and work full-time on the farm, which allows them to prepare for the farm tour.

It’s important to the family that people see where food really comes from – not just the grocery store, she said.

“We want people to see the real chickens, the cows, the pigs,” said Dentinger. “And we want people to see how we treat them, and how important it is what we feed them. We believe you are what you eat, simple as that.”

Tickets of the Taste of the South tour cost $84. A dining experience tour also takes place the evening before in the Cochrane area for $157.50 per person, or both tours can be taken in for $220.50.

For more information or to purchase tickets visit www.tasteofthesouth.ca.

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