Farms and more to open doors this weekend

By Lethbridge Herald on August 13, 2025.

Alexandra Noad
Lethbridge Herald
Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

Alberta is celebrating local agricultural businesses this week with the Open Farm Days initiative and several farms, flower fields, breweries and wineries in the Lethbridge area are jumping on board to showcase what they have to offer.

Local Food Week takes place each year during the week of Aug. 11-17 to encourage buying local.

On Saturday, eight area farms and distilleries will be hosting tours. including Coaldale and District Agricultural Society, Theoretically Brewing Company, Farming Smarter and The Lilac Row.

For those who like to kick up their feet with a cold one, Theoretically Brewery will be hosting free drop-in tours for the entire family, including dogs, from 11 a.m. until 4 p.m. which will teach visitors the history of beer in Alberta and how they have sustainably brewed their own beer for the last decade.

Kelti Baird, co-founder of Theoretically Brewing, says she hopes the tours will provide insight as to how beer is made and how it has remained a popular drink throughout the years.

“One of the reasons we do tours is to educate people on the brewing process and the history behind why beer has been such an important beverage over the course of human history.”

She pointed out before industrialization, beer brewing was extremely local and hopes to instill the importance of supporting local breweries.

Theoretically Brewing not only supports local by purchasing their hops and wheat from area farmers and process the beer in a local facility, they also give the spent grain back to local pork farmers.

Baird says they hope to drive home the message that supporting local breweries is the most sustainable way to purchase beer.

Farming Smarter also hopes to educate visitors about what goes on behind the scenes of the food that ends up on the table by becoming an interactive learning hub for people of all ages from 11-3 on Saturday.

Jamie Puchinger, assistant manager at Farming Smarter says they plan to create a learning adventure for visitors covering many topics of farming and agriculture in a hands-on environment.

“The topics vary from current production practices like spraying and seeding, to the equipment and technology involved.”

Farming Smarter will have booths from a variety of different partners which will make the science behind farming easy to understand.

This year’s theme is “Water, the Lifeblood of Every Farm,” which will highlight the irrigation sector which is crucial to local farmers’ success.

More information on all of the participants on Saturday can be found albertaopenfarmdays.ca/ofd-farms.