"We are beautiful people because our land is beautiful" - Pauline Terbasket of the Sylix Nation

This weekend myself and @offgridninja attended a wonderful annual event, the Okanagan Young Agrarians Winter Mixer. 

The Young Agrarians is a community organization focused on uniting all age groups and demographics in pursuit of food sovereignty.  They hold events across Canada throughout the year, such as farm tours and events like the annual Winter Mixer! They also are dedicated and passionate people who work to connect young agrarians with land and resources in order to promote local food sovereignty and community (they have apprenticeship opportunities and the like). You can find out more about them and their events across Canada on their website!

I am so glad to be involved with this wonderful organization and volunteer and attend at many of their events throughout the year. However, the Winter Mixer really is the highlight! 

 It is a community networking gathering of like-minded individuals involved in all sorts of causes surrounding agriculture, from homesteaders to market gardeners to financial advisers! The two day event includes absolutely delicious food, incredibly awesome people and various workshops to attend and learn at. This is my second year attending and volunteering for the event and no less magical then last year! 

It really is a winter mixer, but the warm hearts here keep us cozy <3 Learning and working with views like this never gets old.

This year the event was held at the Summerhill Pyramid Winery. We were also pleasantly reminded that the event took place on the unceded traditional territory of the Secwepemc First Nation. In fact, all of us in the Okanagan and farther are farming and living on this unceded territory of the Sylix First Nations. The reminder of this really caused me great joy, I love it! 

The people involved with the Young Agrarians take this seriously as a reminder to be good stewards of the land, and the entire organization is focused on organic and sustainable practices. It really is a gathering of beautiful and like-minded people! Everyone in attendance was warm, kind, respectful, understanding and knowledgeable in diverse ways. 

I really am lucky to be able to attend this event for free, in exchange for some volunteer hours. It is how I prefer to attend all events honestly, because you are able to see the inside of the event, the behind the scenes stuff, and it sure does feel good to help out! 

Opening ceremonies with Pauline and Dixon Terbasket, Welcoming the Young Agrarians to Sylix Territory and sharing stories with us! The second photo is from the Young Agrarians Instagram for a second view of the opening ceremonies.

I am glad to take my Steemit friends on a journey to Summerhill Pyramid Winery for this wondrous event, and I am grateful that I can share some information and inspirations I gained from the event as well. I am also lucky to have permission to post some videos of the workshops I attended, such as the fruit tree pruning workshop and soil science! 

These snippets of knowledge and passion from the Young Agrarians will be what makes up the next few blog posts I create. I hope to spread awareness about this awesome organization and its efforts and talk about issues such as food sovereignty and local, healthy food. 

Thanks for tuning in Steemit friends, stay tuned to see original content directly from the Winter Mixer! I am excited and glad that I can share all of this with you!

*all photos are mine or from Canva.com, unless otherwise stated*