THESE SISTERS ARE ALL EARS
All decked out in their bunny ears on are, from left, three-year-old triplets Catherine, Arianna and Elizabeth Foote, and their big sister Victoria, 6. The girls were waiting Thursday to get their pictures taken with the Easter Bunny at West Edmonton Mall
BON ACCORD Three-day-old twin goats wander clumsily inside a pen, thrilling visiting children who are charged with naming the adorable farm additions.
“I would call her Precious,” said 10-year-old Sienna Rose, standing Thursday inside the enclosure at Prairie Gardens and Adventure Farm.
The Bon Accord property will be the site of a four-day Hop! Easter Festival that includes daily pancake breakfasts, Easter egg hunts and hay rides from Friday through Monday.
And there will be many baby animals, including rabbits, lambs and chicks.
“It’s a season for rebirth,” said farm owner Tam Anderson. “It’s so important for kids to be able to be outside and play and learn a little bit about how food grows.”
Ahead of the Easter festivities, a group of girls toured the various farm stations Thursday. Inside one greenhouse, they gathered around planted white flowers.
Anderson offered the group a chance to taste the wax begonias, which are edible. Rose took a bite, before scrunching up her face from the sour taste.
“I don’t like it,” she said. She tried a second flower variety, this time the pink tuberous begonias. “This one tastes better,” she said.
Anderson said her goal is to bring people back to the land.
“There are 150 varieties of vegetables on the farm,” she says. “Lots of kids have never been out of Edmonton and it’s their first time in the countryside.”
She said Easter is an opportunity to teach kids about how plants grow.
“Alberta has this beautiful black top soil; where we are, it is about two feet deep,” she said. “That respect, understanding and stewardship of the land ... is so important.”
Weekend visitors can expect a visit from the Easter Bunny and traditional egg hunts inside a hay maze, Anderson said.
“That is always a hit,” she said, adding that everybody gets a prize.
But she knows no attraction can compete with the baby animals.
At the chick station, Lauryn Coard, 12, gently holds a fluffy newborn.
“It’s important to hold them so you don’t drop them,” she said. “This one is falling asleep.”
Prairie Gardens and Adventure Farm is located at 56311 Lily Lake Rd. in Bon Accord, about 40 kilometres north of Edmonton. The Hop! Easter Festival starts with a pancake breakfast at 9:30 a.m. and ends at 4 p.m. each day from Friday to Monday. Visitors can check the website at prairiegardens.org or the farm’s Facebook page for updated information Friday morning. In the event of snow Friday, the farm will be closed.