Elphinstone Farm field trip report
On the weekend of May 16th 2026 we gathered a bunch of techy, farmy and artsy nerds at the Elphinstone Farm on the unceded territory of the Sḵwx̱wú7mesh nation to learn and share ideas.
Over two days we set up a greenhouse, planted tomatoes, learned about mesh networking, wetland agriculture, iNaturalist and Mycelial networks, shared food and danced around the fire.
Greenhouse planting party
Folks started arriving at the farm throughout Friday with campers and tents. With the caravan and a circus tent set up as the event location there was definitely a carnival vibe in the air.
Everybody got to work right away to set up one of greenhouses for a first season of growing in many years.
We wheeled in dirt and compost and at the end of the day had two rows of tomatoes planted and watered!
Field trip
The next day everything was ready to welcome the ~50 people that came in from around the lower mainland and the Sunshine Coast to participate in the events throughout the day.
Mesh Curious Workshops
Kicking the day off, Emily and Jacob talked about decentralized, offgrid networking technology with Meshcore and how to start setting up a resilient network on the Sunshine Coast. Learn more about Mesh networking and how to get involved on our Mesh Curious Page!
Wetland Agriculture
Arturo Farias talked about the farmland with an eye to constructing a chinampas style wetland agriculture. Chinampa is a technique used in Mesoamerican agriculture which relies on small, rectangular areas of fertile arable land to grow crops on the shallow lake beds in the Valley of Mexico.
Arturo shared his previous work in water reclamation around Mexico City and his own successful experiments building chinampas to sustainably grow their own food without the need for fertilizer or pest control.
Citizen Science with iNaturalist
Matthew Forster onboarded us to the iNaturalist platform, a citizen science platform to identify and catalog wild plants and animals. He explained some of the community practices and set up some fun challenges for the day, all while surrounded by the dogs that were visiting the farm that day.
Farm tour
With iNaturalist freshly installed on our phones, our hosts Ivar and Janai took us on a tour through the Elphinstone farm. It is still nascent as a farming operation, but it's a beautiful space and they were happy to share their vision and ideas.
Mycelial Networking
In a cozy conversational setting, Mendel Skulski from the most excellent Future Ecologies took us on a captivating conversation about mycelial networks and the beauty - and weirdness - of the mushroom world.
Fire dance
With everybody still buzzing from the things learned and interesting conversations had throughout the day, we lit a fire and celebrated a successful day with dancing and music by Le Laboratoire Sonore until late at night.
Winding down
The next day after a hearty breakfast and teardown, three of us made an attempt at hiking the north side of mount Elphinstone. It was still quite snowy towards the end so we didn't make it all the way but we still got some beautiful views over the farm towards the lower mainland.
On the way back we shared the logging road for a bit with a black bear that was wandering the other direction.
Last but not least, many thanks to our hosts Janai and Ivar for making this happen and being so welcoming to everybody! I am looking forward to more events in the future!
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