Open Farm Day celebrated its 10th anniversary back in September. Over 9,000 attendees paid a visit to 56 Open Farm Day Host Sites this year.

A banquet is being held November 1, 2019 to honour 15 host sites who have participated in the program for five or more consecutive years.

Wendy Bulloch is the Open Farm Day Coordinator with the Manitoba Association of Agricultural Societies (MAAS) which took over the event from Manitoba Agriculture in 2015.

"I think the people that are hosting just are so willing to share and tell their story about agriculture," she said. "They want to engage with the general public. They want to just be able to have people understand what it is they do and how things operate on their farms or to share the history."

Those being recognized for their participation include – Mission Trail Farms of Gimli – the only Host Site to have taken part in all 10 Open Farm Day events. The Bruce Campbell Farm and Food Discovery Centre at Glenlea, Mennonite Heritage Village at Steinbach, Moonshadow Holsteins of St. Labre and Sundance Charolais at Amaranth are each being recognized for participating in nine consecutive events. The Manitoba Agricultural Museum of Austin and St. Leon’s Interpretive Centre & Wind Farm have taken part in Open Farm Day for 8 years. Aurora Farm near St. Norbert, Overby Bison of Inwood and the Pembina Threshermen’s Museum of Winkler share the honours of being Host Sites for 7 events. Poco-Razz Farms of St. Norbert and the Dairy Museum of Manitoba at St. Claude have been successive Open Farm Day Host Sites for 6 years. Blue Diamond Farms Ltd. of St. Francois Xavier, Plum Coulee Prairie View Elevators and Sagehill Stables of Winnipeg have taken part for 5 consecutive events from 2015 to 2019.

Tickets for the event can be purchased by going on line to www.openfarmday.ca.

Deadline to purchase tickets is Thursday, October 24th.