Stepping back in time to ensure a more sustainable future.
It’s a concept that’s taking hold at Farm Two53, an 80-acre operation east of Millarville owned by Travis and Deanna Thiessen that showcases the possibilities of permaculture, regenerative agriculture and homesteading in Foothills County.
“At Open Farm Days, we were open 9 to 5 on the Saturdays and Sundays and it was crickets,” Deanna says. “Until the tours, people would come specifically for the tours.
“I think there’s a shift in a lot of people’s thinking where they’re trying to learn about this. They’re embracing this homesteading, permaculture and regenerative ag lifestyle where they want to eat a little bit healthier, want to know what’s going into their food.”
The Thiessens bought the farm in 2019 at a Ritchie Bros. auction, the winning bid number was, you guessed it, 253.
“It was a 1950s farm and it was a feedlot and they had a bit of a dairy operation off here and it was much bigger than the 80 acres that we have,” Travis says. “When we bought it, buildings were old and dilapidated, land was conventionally farmed.
“And everything needed a little life breathed into it and we felt we were the ones that could take on that task.”
Research through the Foothills County office also revealed interesting history behind the property.
The Knoepfli sisters, whose father Jacob was a big builder in the 1920s in Calgary and credited with construction of the historic York Hotel, purchased the then 520-acre parcel in 1951 from Robert Turner, one of the brothers Turner Valley is named after. Turner’s homestead was called the Clydesdale Ranch and was based a couple of kilometres from the Thiessen home, but was a part of the plot at that time.
“They set out to build this mid-century modern house,” Deanna says. “And I think the reason they chose that, we talked to some older neighbours and they said here was this flat, mid-century modern house being built in the middle of the country where Highway 549 at that time was a gravel road, they thought these new neighbours were crazy.
“But I think it’s because their dad was a builder.”
Not a farm girl
Deanna grew up in North Battleford, Sask., a community of about 13,000, and wasn’t exactly a farm girl.
“This past year I had two of my childhood girlfriends that don’t even know each other, they both sat me down and said, ‘Are you OK? Are you happy?’” Deanna says with a laugh. “Just because it’s such a vast change from the person that I used to be. This has been all-encompassing and a really awesome, empowered journey.”
Travis, a Pittsburgh Penguins draft pick who enjoyed an over decade-long professional hockey career, grew up on a grain farm just outside of Kerrobert, Sask.
“We’re doing things much different than the way we farmed when I was growing up,” he says. “It was a conventional farm and when I was on the farm it was just on the cusp of chemical application, cultivation and tillage was a normal thing then.
“The permaculture, regenerative ag theme is a complete 180 from that. We do things quite a bit different here, and on a smaller scale.”
Bill Mollison first coined the term permaculture and defined it as “the conscious design and maintenance of agriculturally productive systems which have the diversity, stability, and resilience of natural ecosystems. It is the harmonious integration of the landscape with people providing their food, energy, shelter and other material and non-material needs in a sustainable way.”
Travis describes permaculture as mimicking what you see in nature and aligning with how things happen naturally.
“If you go out to Kananaskis, you’ll see a whole diverse array of plants, trees and different kinds of vegetation,” he says. “Whereas in conventional farming, if you see 160 acres of just canola, it takes a whole lot of inputs to make that happen. Those inputs are via synthetic fertilizers, chemical application, and the reason it needs all those inputs is because it’s an unnatural thing, we refer to it is a monoculture species, as opposed to the diversity you would see naturally.”
Farm Two53 is about 70 per cent pasture, the remaining 30 per cent devoted to annual crops. The latter is then converted to pasture in the fall.
The farm raises chickens, turkeys, yearling steers each spring, pork pigs every second year with the animal waste converted to compost.
Intensive grazing
Other permaculture practices at the farm include intensive grazing, where cattle is moved daily into small paddocks in tighter areas so the nutrients are spread easily across the soil and the animals aren’t cherry-picking what they’re grazing on.
“This is meant to mimic how the bison roamed across the prairies hundreds of years ago,” he says. “They were constantly being pressured by predators so they would often times not return to an area for a year to re-graze that.”
They’ve employed a similar strategy with broiler chickens where a chicken tractor was constructed out of wood and wire.
“It’s the same principle,” Deanna adds. “Where they’re in a condensed area and picking all of the good bugs and the nutrients out of that piece of soil and then they’re moved daily to a new patch.”
It took time for the practices to take effect.
The first garden planted into dead soil didn’t exactly prove bountiful.
“It was really challenging even sinking a spade into the ground because there wasn’t a lot of soil organic matter,” Travis says. “We really struggled growing even potatoes, which are a pretty easy.
“The soil was quite compacted from heavy equipment (with big cracks in it) so we were working to remedy that by adding compost to the gardens. In our annual gardens, we do a raised bed, no till strategy and have been doing that for three years now and it has been a lot easier managing.”
Food forest
One acre on the site is dedicated to a food forest with 1,500 fruit trees, a big annual garden along with a second garden planned for this spring as well as a geothermal passive-solar greenhouse.
“We’ll be growing both annual vegetables as well as we’re going to try and grow some tropical species like pineapple, orange trees, avocado, kiwis,” Travis says. “That will come online this spring and we’re excited to see how we can take advantage of the extra growing season.”
The latter is an impressive facility that will test the limits of an Alberta winter using heat generated from nine-foot deep soil along with a wood-fired rocket stove to get through those cold-spells southern Alberta is known for.
“It’s really a condensed acre where I’m going to be shopping for half of my grocery store,” Deanna says. “That’s the fun part with Travis venturing into this geothermal passive-solar greenhouse is that it will extend our growing period.”
What’s grown and cultivated is put to use in a lasting way.
Deanna dove into the world of preserving food with two feet.
The Farm Two53 cellar boasts everything from a variety of vinegars, pickled eggs that can last for a quarter-century, to dry-aged herbs, spices along with canning any vegetable under the sun.
Farm Two53 is also building a full-fledged bed-and-breakfast on the site that will showcase those old homesteading essentials.
“We’re basically going back in time,” Deanna says. “To the traditional ways of life. I always equated homesteading to the pioneers that came across in covered wagons in the 17 and 1800s and did the really hard work of breaking the land and building something from nothing.
“What I’ve come to learn is the modern definition of homesteading is not the same, it’s a way of life and going back to traditional practices and ways of doing things that are slowly being forgotten.”
An interior designer by trade, Deanna has helped transform the old homestead while staying true to what it would have looked like at the time.
“It’s been a slow process because we’re not just restoring buildings, we’re also restoring the land,” she says. “It seems like in the winter months when we can be indoors, that’s where we head, and in the summer months we’re outdoors and focused on growing our food.
“We’re restoring the old-house to the old 1950s glory and it’s just been a never-ending project.”
Alberta Open Farm Days
The Thiessens dipped their toes into the Alberta Open Farm Days, an annual rural showcase of agriculture, not sure what to expect.
Hundreds of visitors, in fact.
“We weren’t sure what response we would get; permaculture is a relatively new term and a lot of people aren’t familiar with it and maybe that’s what was intriguing,” Travis says. “That first year we had about 600 people come through. I was doing three walking farm-tours a day and I couldn’t believe it.”
Those experiences have guided their direction with Farm Two53 planning to expand its offerings with the addition of regenerative agriculture tours as early as this summer.
“I think the pandemic made it very clear that, generally speaking, the food system is somewhat fragile,” Travis says. “We’re currently producing 75 per cent of all of the food we eat and we have a goal of increasing that to 90 per cent.
“Those old traditional skills are way too valuable to be lost so if we can use those, celebrate those and even teach those, I think we’re headed in the right direction.”
From an energy savings perspective, the farm is powered by a 14.2-kilowatt solar photovoltaic array which is producing 120 per cent of its electrical needs.
One of the beauties of permaculture is it’s not size-specific, Travis adds, and can be utilized in both rural and urban settings.
“There’s condominiums downtown where people can practice permaculture principles,” he adds. “With food scraps, you could get some red-wiggler composting worms and feed the worms and then you’re producing worm casting which are a perfect fertilizer. There are people producing a good part of their vegetables and some of their fruits that they eat in high-rise condominiums.
“And then the scale goes right up to thousands of acres.”
For more information, check out the farm on Instagram @FarmTwo53. There will be a how-to YouTube page launched shortly in addition to a website FarmTwo53.com that’s set to go live in April.
