Harvest Moon History
The Harvest Moon Society (HMS) is the culmination of over ten years of developing relationships, research and rural revitalization projects taking place in and around Clearwater, Manitoba.
It was founded on the spirit of cooperation, community, camaraderie, and a keen interest in building a sustainable food system for future generations.
The HMS owns and operates the Harvest Moon Learning Centre—the former Clearwater elementary school—and hosts various educational programs, including University credit courses, learning opportunities for local high schools, and community-oriented workshops. The Society also supports a local food initiative and organizes the Harvest Moon Festival.
The HMS recognizes that its goals are only possible if both the human and ecological dimensions of sustainability are carefully tended to. Its motto, “Healthy Land, Healthy Communities”, captures this balance and is becoming well-known throughout the province and country as a result of the group’s successes. The inclusive nature of the Society has been key to this success, as new members with great ideas have joined and helped the organization grow in exciting ways.
Planting the Seed
Robert and Celia Guilford, along with a number of urban and rural folks, coalesced to plant the initial seed that would grow into the HMS. This was a dynamic and exciting process, which brought together a core group of like-minded individuals with a variety of skills that allowed the organization to grow naturally, with both depth and breadth, over time.
The Guilfords had been practicing organic and sustainable agriculture methods for nearly two decades, while working locally, nationally, and internationally to promote and educate others about the benefits of these techniques. Given their commitment to and experience with alternative agriculture, a diverse group of people—from city kids wanting to ‘cut their teeth’ in food production, to University researchers—often contacted them to ‘pick their brains’.
In 1999, they worked with their friend and academic, Stéphane McLachlan (Environment & Geography Professor, University of Manitoba) and together with Char Roland, an experienced gardener and sustainable community designer, they collectively developed the Organic Farm Mentorship Program. They secured funding for the program in late 1999 and in early 2000 it launched, with Roland taking up the coordinator role, working out of the Clearwater Elementary School. The goal of the program was to bring urban dwellers interested in agriculture out to farms to partner and learn from experienced organic producers. The program helped fund wages, start-up costs and administration for building these connections and relationships. A number of young and successful farmers, currently practicing sustainable techniques, first got their starts through this initiative.
“Seeds of Change”
Shortly thereafter, Ian Mauro began his graduate studies, under the supervision of Dr. McLachlan, and together they began researching the impact of agricultural biotechnology on rural communities and the environment in western Canada. In early 2002, along with Jim Sanders, a local filmmaker, they collectively began work on a documentary research film that characterized farmers’ experience with this new technology. They drove across the prairies, hearing farmers’ stories of rural decline, the farm income crisis, and the impact of technology on livelihoods. Andre Clement, a local entertainment producer, became involved in the project, and assisted in the development of the documentary’s soundtrack.
A draft of the film was complete that summer, and the filmmakers wanted to have a screening in a rural community, as a way of seeking feedback from farmers and other affected stakeholders. The Guilfords were contacted to see if Clearwater might be an appropriate venue and, after discussing the idea, it was decided that perhaps a festival should be held with musicians that played on the soundtrack, and have the film screening as part of this larger event.
Seeds of Change
seedsofchangefilm.org
The seed had begun to germinate and the Harvest Moon Festival and Society were born. On the weekend of September 21, 2002, on the fall equinox, the first festival was held and a community of activators, including Mick and Michael Moloney, David Neufeld, Chris Lillies, and many others, started something special.
Initial Growth
Since planting this initial seed, the Society has grown into a healthy non-profit incorporation that is largely supported by the fundraising efforts of our exceptional volunteer base. The HMS was officially incorporated on May 14, 2003, with the mandate to “organize educational, recreational and community projects that seek to revitalize rural communities and livelihoods.” The initial board was comprised of Guilford, McLachlan and Mauro.
The HMS had a big year in 2003. The HMS devised a 25-year-long vision plan, which included a variety of initiatives including procuring and developing the local elementary school into a learning centre, programming University and other education courses, creating a nature trail in the Pembina Valley, and developing a local food system in the area.
Later that year, the HMS purchased the Clearwater Elementary School from the Prairie Spirit School Division as the latter was supportive of the Society’s educational and community-focused mandate. The Harvest Moon Learning Centre was now operational.
Additionally, a swell of committed and very talented volunteers joined the group, particularly Jason Andrich, a local entertainment producer and community developer. With Andrich and Clement co-programming the festival, it took off and the festival entertainment, workshops, and overall experience became more sophisticated. Word was spreading about the celebration and its capacity to build linkages between urban and rural people.
In early 2004, a transparent community consultation process was begun (e.g. meetings, comment box, etc.), which invited feedback from Clearwater residents regarding HMS activities, developments at the learning centre, and local priorities. This was instrumental in building bridges and trust with the local community.
The HMS opened a local bank account as well, given that revenue from the past three festivals was starting to accumulate. Importantly, many local community groups, including the Curling Club, Community Hall, Church, and restaurant, had all benefited financially from previous festivals; the commitment to community economic development was being realized.
That summer, the first “Living Rural Communities and Environments” University of Manitoba course was held. It brought 24 students to Clearwater to live and learn from local residents and to develop urban-rural linkages. A major focus of the course was on food systems, with an emphasis on local produce, and the rural culture that supports this.
Alexis Knispel, graduate student working with McLachlan, began developing the interpretive nature trail with local Roy McLaren. Once again, the festival grew and the commitment to local food was being vocalized via the growing of produce from the Harvest Moon Garden and the festival farmers’ market. It was clear that urban people were excited about the festival and its ability to connect people to local food systems and farming communities.
Momentum and understanding regarding HMS activities were gaining.
Participation = Innovation
The HMS carried out discussions and meetings with Heifer International, particularly Julie Price-Henderson, throughout 2004 and 2005, with the hope of procuring funding for Society initiatives. This was an extensive process, which did not at that time materialize in funding, but laid the basis for the Harvest Moon Local Food Initiative to be successful in procuring Heifer support. Heifer indicated that funds might be available for the Learning Centre.
Throughout this process, Price-Henderson facilitated meetings and visioning exercises that helped the HMS articulate their vision, mission, and activities statement. Once again, the commitment to local foods and the development of “cottage industries and direct marketing opportunities for farmers” was explicitly spelled out in documents developed over this two-year period. The HMS’ interest in creating a local food initiative, linking local area farmers with urbanites interested in the Harvest Moon Festival, was clear.
The group also began work on a set of bylaws in this period, which were finalized by Mauro and Andrich in early 2006 and used as a platform for the subsequent, and ultimately successful, local food initiative’s Heifer funding proposal.
In 2005, people from all over Canada came to Clearwater to participate in a HMS-hosted Permaculture course. It was a very exciting program and, it is believed, the first time that Permaculture had been taught for academic credit.
The local community rallied around the HMS-sponsored CBC Comedy Festival, which was particularly important given that BSE had struck and people certainly need a little laugh.
Guilford met with Ruth Mealy during her time as Business Development Specialist in the Killarney Agricultural Office in the fall of 2005, and Mealy attended the HMS meeting in December 2005, for discussion about how she could work with the Society to further its goals of developing a local food initiative.
Mealy was working on her Masters thesis and was interested in working with the HMS on a pilot project for a Sustainable Development planning charrette; a ‘charrette’ is any collaborative session in which a group of designers drafts a solution to a design problem. Several producer meetings over 2005–2006 led some of the Harvest Moon Local Food Initiative members to the “Buy Fresh, Buy Local” meeting, held in Clearwater in November 2006, facilitated by Mealy along with MAFRI. Some of the meeting attendees then joined the Harvest Moon Local Food Initiave already in action.
The HMS built an adobe oven on the school ground and began officially planning the trail in 2006. The adobe oven workshop was a major highlight: the HMS had received a grant for the trail, and Sherry Dangerfield, an award-winning trail designer, was hired to facilitate a community consultation and development of the trail route and associated signage. That year’s festival was another success.
During the fall of 2006, the HMS and Heifer International recommitted to collaborative project development based on an identified need in the Clearwater area for a marketing system for farm products from small-scale family farmers, and for supporting new and young farmers that want to begin or continue farming in the area. Formalized work on this project started and farmer meetings began in December of 2006. Colin Anderson, from Cypress River, a Masters student at the University of Manitoba, and a member of the HMS, began providing significant support to this project and incorporated the project into his master degree.
With each passing year, the HMS has become more organized and sophisticated in its program delivery.
This was particularly evident at the 2007 Harvest Moon Festival, which was attended by nearly 1,000 participants, many of whom were from Winnipeg and the surrounding area. Workshops at that year’s festival were food-oriented and included a local food panel discussion, adobe bread-baking, and more. Farmers were onsite talking and networking with festival-goers about direct-marketing opportunities; the farmers were very well organized and surveyed consumers about their interests and desires regarding a local food system. Importantly, the festival and Local Food Initiative received a tremendous amount of press coverage, both print and radio province-wide.
Into the Next Decade
The 2011 festival marked its 10th year and was celebrated as a milestone both for the festival and the HMS as a whole. Year over year, regional interest, festival attendance, and the breadth of HMS programming and delivery have increased. New faces work alongside longstanding participants, combining skills, interests, energies and passions with amazing results.
The Harvest Moon Society, its Harvest Moon Festival, and the Harvest Moon Local Food Initiative demonstrate the synergistic ways in which urban and rural peoples can achieve “Healthy Land, Healthy Communities.”
