Kathy Knowles Illustrator:Maya Ichikawa

WANT TO FEAST on a meal from local producers without the planning, preparing and serving? Enjoy a driving tour without being at the wheel? Learn more about the culture and history of Southern Alberta? Honour the 100-mile diet pledge? Meet great rural people and support small, local agribusiness entrepreneurs? Then hop on the tour bus and "Get Outta' Town!" Friday, August 15 and Saturday, August 16 for a few hours of homegrown food and fun.

"Millions of Canadians consider themselves geotourists, interested in an authentic experience-something local, something real," says Allen Gibson, Event Co-ordinator for the past two years of the Get Outta' Town! Country Drives Event. "Agritourism is just another facet of this mass appeal."

It's the fourth year for this initiative that combines likeminded operators from agricultural, rural lifestyle and heritage backgrounds. This evolving event is designed to help agribusiness people join forces to receive more marketing and promotion which will hopefully help them become more sustainable. "Get Outta' Town! began on a very small

scale," Allen explains. "Most of the operators involved are just small business people who are struggling to grow food, market food, package food. They're trying to, in order to survive in today's environment, be a jack-of-all trades and a master of most of them. These people love what they're doing," he adds. "And they put that love into their work and produce." 

For the full story pick up the current issue of Lethbridge living Magazine