The experience is called Hills, Hay and Herding
By Diego Flammini
Staff Writer
Farms.com
Imagine if someone approached your gate and offered to pay you to allow them to work on your farm.
That’s exactly what’s happening at an operation in Shamrock, P.E.I.
Rusty Bittermann and Margaret McCallum own Rustaret Farm, a 300-acre 270-head sheep farm that includes Wiltshire Horned, Polled Wiltshire and Katahdin breeds. The couple added Belted Galloway, American Milking Devon and Kerry cattle to the farm in 2015.
They have turned the farm into a working tourist destination called Hills, Hay and Herding.
Visitors come to the farm and spend two and a half hours helping the farmers prepare the barn with fresh bedding, water and hay for when the animals return from the pasture. The visiting workers help herd the sheep and lambs back to the barn.
Margaret McCallum
Brittany Spencer/CBC
“We want people to see that there is more to P.E.I. agriculture than potatoes,” McCallum told Farms.com in an email today. “We have a beautiful farm and we want to share it with others.”
The experience costs $75 per person for groups with two to four people. Groups with five or more pay $60 per person.
The project provides an added revenue stream for the farm and an education for the guest workers.
Some visitors may not be familiar with the effort required to produce a crop or raise livestock, so the short farm experience gives people a glimpse into the daily life of farmers.
“When people can walk among our animals as they graze, they begin to understand that the animals are being sustained by the soil and that their manure in turn helps sustain the soil,” McCallum said. “They leave with a heightened sense of both how hard farmers work and how satisfying the work can be.”
The visitor experience also provides McCallum and Bittermann with time for reflection.
The pair interact with animals daily. But seeing the joy on visitors faces reminds the farmers they’re living a great life.
“The work and knowledge we take for granted is new for many of our visitors,” McCallum said. “Seeing their pleasure at being here and being around our animals helps us pause to appreciate how lucky we are.”
The Hills, Hay and Herding experience runs daily until Sept. 30 from 3:30 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. Anyone interested can book a time through Experience PEI.
Top photo: Experience PEI