Highfield Regenerative Farm is making history

This urban farm is working to decrease food insecurities in the city while building a community that connects Calgarians with their local food network.

Through their vibrant food-focused community, Highfield Regenerative Farm aims to reconnect us with our food, while making fresh ingredients accessible to all Calgarians. With a 90% volunteer-driven workforce it’s their mission to educate, engage, and get people outdoors as they actively participate in their community and something larger than themselves.

"Our vision is to become a community urban farm hub, where people can come and get connected to their local food system, and learn about growing food, soil health, and regenerative agriculture in general. Also how we can support a healthy ecosystem while being productive," says Heather Ramshaw, Highfield Farm operations manager. "We're trying to build a collaborative space where everybody not only feels empowered when they're on the farm but like they're giving back as much as they're getting out of it.

Let’s back up - what is ‘regenerative farming’?

It can be known as a way to work with the environment to grow food,’ but as Ramshaw notes, it goes beyond that.

"It’s recognizing and honouring the fact that we are a part of this system and the environment, rather than working with it. It’s actually based on a lot of traditional Indigenous growing methods that now people are coming back to. We deviated from this with industrialized agriculture, and we’ve seen the negative impacts that it has like degrading soil health, polluting water channels, or interrupting systems."

"We have a lot to learn from the cultures who have been implementing these strategies for a very long time."

This team of farmers is breaking ground — literally — and laying a foundation for urban farming here in Calgary.

As a part of a City of Calgary pilot project, they have worked to transport 15-acres of underutilized land into a working urban farm in the midst of the city. Now in year two, Jack Goodwin, one of the founding co-farmers tells us that they have fifty, 50-foot raised beds growing food this year, much of which will be going to the Calgary Food Bank and the Leftovers Foundation.

"Highfield Farm is the city’s first official outdoor urban agriculture pilot project — on public property. You know as a city program, not just somebody doing it on private land or through backyards or anything like that," says Goodwin.

To clarify, the farm has been given $0 from the city. Rather, they partnered with the Compost Council of Canada and worked collaboratively with the city to in turn receive access to a $2-million property — for dirt cheap.

"We have helped them develop bylaws and rules around what urban agriculture could look like and how you can actually allow people to start these businesses, and in turn, we received access to property that allowed us to start this farm and start a larger conversation surrounding the importance of urban farming.

Goodwin notes that many of his friends in the industry have already gained access to plots along the greenline to start urban farms, and they credit the easy process to the work Goodwin and his team put in ahead of them.

Working toward a goal to help decrease food insecurities in Calgary

"Working with the Food Bank and through my own research, I know that there is an incredible need for food in the city. Back in 2021 when they last released statistics it was something like 10 to 20% of Calgarians felt like they were food insecure, or not able to afford food at any one point in time."

With the pandemic and people losing jobs, Goodwin would be surprised if those numbers are the same if not worse.

"Our idea is to produce fresh food at scale so that we can provide people with calories, flavours, and fresh foods that give them that extra kick on top of the staples that they receive through a food bag."

"You can only eat Chef Boyardee for so many days in a row…"

Creating a collaborative community

Volunteering and becoming a part of the community at Highfield Farm is just one of the many perks of joining their newly-launched membership program.

"You have a sense of pride when you can say ‘I planted that kale’ and you’ve watched the food go from a seed right to the end-user, says Goodwin.

This process allows you to understand the entire food chain — no matter what your experience level in the garden is.

"Even if an experienced backyard gardener doesn’t necessarily understand commercial production, food charity, or what food poverty looks like. So when people come and volunteer they learn something, they see things grow, and they gain that experience that helps our farm gain efficiency size and scale — the fine line that differentiates community gardening and urban farming."

Goodwin and his team of volunteers were able to get a whole 50-foot bed planted of over 400 plants in barely 15 minutes last Friday — talk about some serious teamwork.

Ramshaw adds that it doesn’t matter your experience level to volunteer - everyone is welcome.

"We’ll gauge tasks to the skill-sets we have available. Things like planting and weeding are very basic to teach, even laying an irrigation system. We’d never hand you something and say ‘go use this’ — there’s always a bit of training. It’s also so exciting to see people chatting with each other and folks who aren't as experienced asking questions of the people who have done this before."

"So it's a really cool knowledge sharing opportunity as well."

Be sure to keep an eye out for their food stand launching soon! Here they’ll be selling off extra produce from the farm as it becomes available. You can expect to see everything from garlic to zucchinis to tomatoes to squash and everything in between — yum!

This article was featured in the Calgary Citizen newsletter on June 09 2021. Read the full newsletter here.

Back to all work ⟶