Hoenhorst Farms to host Breakfast on the Farm with Farm and Food Care Ontario

Emily Stewart, Echo Correspondent

Anyone curious about dairy farming can learn more about the practices, equipment, and livestock, all while enjoying a delicious Ontario-made breakfast.

Innerkip’s Hoenhorst Farms will have Farm and Food Care Ontario’s Breakfast On the Farm come to the property on June 14 from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. The event will allow attendees to tour the dairy farm on 675725 16 Line RR 1, Innerkip, with opportunities like checking out tractors and farming equipment, and seeing cows walk up to Lely robots to produce milk on their own time.

Guests will also enjoy an all-Ontario-made breakfast featuring a peameal bacon, egg, and cheese breakfast sandwich, apple cider, milk, asparagus and strawberries. Other farmers and more than 100 volunteers, most having an agricultural background, will also attend. Breakfast on the Farm will help Hoenhorst Farms honour 100 years of farming.

"We had wanted to open up our doors for a while to the community but realized that we need a professional team on our side to do it. So, Farm and Food Care came on and I think it's the perfect fit,” said Hoenhorst Farms owner Cox Hensink.

Wensink is a fourth-generation dairy farmer and grew up with her parents operating the farm until she took the reins.

"Dairy farming is in our DNA and so it's something to be very proud of that it's carried on in the family for this long,” she said.

Wensink said opportunities like Breakfast on the Farm educate those without agricultural backgrounds about farm practices and food production.

“People tend to be very curious about where their food comes from and I think the questions come from a very good place,” she said. They are usually very excited when to learn there is a farm close by, and just like any business, we can't always host on-the-fly visits. We really want to reach out to the community and have a day where they could come and see how food is grown and raised in Ontario."

Farm and Food Care Ontario has several outreach programs, like the Real Dirt farming magazine, farm tours for culinary students and Farm Food 360 at fairs. Farm Food 360 is a virtual-reality program capturing 27 different farms and giving guests a chance to use VR to see what it’s like to live and work on a farm.

Christa Ormiston, communications manager for the organization, said Breakfast on the Farm events are also important in fostering connections with the agriculture industry that may not otherwise happen.

“As time continues to march on, many of us don't have the connection back to having access to a farm. Many of us had grandparents or great-grandparents who farmed, but as we move into future generations, we’re seeing less and less opportunity for people to connect with farmers and to actually step foot onto a farm, so this is a really important opportunity that really facilitates connection and engagement,” explained Ormiston.

Farm and Food Care Ontario hosts three Breakfast on the Farm events a year, with one in Norfolk County in August and another as part of Kitchener-Waterloo’s Oktoberfest events in October.

Tickets for Breakfast on the Farm are $5 for adults and free for children. More information and online ticket purchases can be found by visiting https://www.farmfoodcareon.org/breakfastonthefarm-innerkip.