Our Story
We’re just a few friends who want to feed you!
Besties Cooperative Farm is owned and operated by Curtis Reynolds, Michael Gavin, and Nicole Boere. In 2022, an organization called Young Agrarians tied us together for a summer of farming, food, and days in the dirt. A shared love of feeding friends and community has kept us together ever since!
Now, we’re starting a new project together: a farm cooperative! We’re growing food just for you on 3 acres of Treaty 7 land in De Winton, Alberta - a stone's throw south of Calgary. We believe that good food comes from healthy soil and is handled with care from seed to table. We maintain that food should respect the land, people, and mouths it meets, all while nourishing your body and soul. We grow prairie hardy produce using ecologically informed practices to feed our Calgary community using a working cooperative model!
We love this place: the critters, the crawlies, the land, and we love what we do. Our dream is to participate in a robustly diverse, equitable, and resilient, localized food system. One that is composed of small, community-integrated farms that work in reciprocity with land and community. We aim to highlight the bounty of the prairies and honour the labour of farm workers; to link communities of food growing, food eating, and food sharing besties.
If you’re into this too, sign up for a CSA produce box or catch us at a market near you!
Let us feed you <3
We acknowledge that we each live, work, and connect deeply on Treaty 7 land, traditional territory of the peoples of Blackfoot confederacy: Siksika, Kainai, Piikani, Stoney Nakoda Nations: Chiniki, Bearspaw, Goodstoney and Tsuut-ina Nation as well as Metis Nations of Alberta (Districts 5 and 6), people who have lived on, celebrated, and tended to this land for generations. We believe in our responsibility to care for and connect with the land and people who call this place home and to live in reciprocity with the future in mind.
Meet the Besties
Client and Vegetable Coordinator
Nicole Radish Boere
I love to cook and eat, but most of all to feed people near and dear to me with food grown right here! After a “temporary” move to Calgary 3 years ago to learn more about urban agriculture, I’ve found myself still living it up in this wonderful place 3 years later with new fun still coming regularly. I love long table dinners, saving seeds, my bike (and great bike paths). When I'm not cooking, preserving the 10 million garlic scapes that Michael has planted and harvested, or thinking about co-ops you'll find me in a patch of sun with fruit in my pockets or by the river. Maybe we've already crossed paths...can't wait to share the delights of seeds and sun with you soon! Ah!
Creative Director
Curtis Pumpkin Reynolds
I love growing food on the prairies, especially with my besties Nicole and Michael! We share an interest in organic regenerative methods of growing and I look forward to sharing and connecting with you through our new farm. My personal favourite things to grow are tomatoes, winter squash, plums and pears. I have a fruit orchard planted and might do a fruit csa program though our co-op in the future ;) (ask me about prairie grown plums)!
During the winters I am a metalsmith and gem cutter making jewellery. You can find my fruit orchard on insta @fab_farm and my jewellery practice as @curtisrjewellery. See you in the spring when things are sprouting!
Lead Farmer + Speed Picker
Michael Tomato Gavin
I grew up always out in nature, camping or playing with bugs in the yard. My family has gardened since before I was born and I started early. One of my favourite places was the greenhouse my dad built, in the winter it could convert into a mobile ice fishing shack!
I have a BSc in Ecology from the University of Calgary and have enjoyed working in pollinator research.
Research, while great, didn’t feel impactful enough for me and so I started moving towards regenerative farming. With regenerative farming I’m able to implement and directly address the ecosystem problems we face today while improving food security.
I ran an Urban farm in Calgary called Root and Regenerate urban farms for the last 5 years. I'm so happy to be working on our new farm with my friends!
Why a Cooperative?
We’re a worker cooperative!
At Besties Cooperative Farm, the Besties are the people who grow your food and are the same people who own and operate the farm. Unlike a typical business, we operate using a non-hierarchical framework to democratically make decisions that decide the direction and operations of the farm.
You know how they say, “If you want to go fast, go alone, but if you want to go far, go together?”. For us, the cooperative model is fair and responsive to the needs of the owners/employees (us), the land, and the community we serve. It balances the social, economic, and environmental needs of our networks, recognizing that our diverse knowledge, skills, and decision-making power are better…together! As a cooperative, we contribute to the development of a robust, diverse, and resilient localized food system. One where we advocate for meaningful work in agriculture and actively create more space for young and new farmers in Canada. We do this by modeling alternative work structures and ecologically informed growing practices on the prairie landscape.
We’re inspired by other worker cooperative farms like Agricola Cooperative Farm, Beetbox Farm, Tourne Sol, Krautgaart, as well as other communities and people seeking fair and just economic models.