Chatsworth Farm Honoured With Northern Alberta Farm Family Award

On February 7th, at the Alberta Association of Agricultural Societies (AAAS) Convention in Edmonton, the Wasylik family of Chatsworth Farm were one of the 2025 Northern Alberta Farm Family award recipients, nominated by the County of Vermilion River.

For Rick and Johanna Wasylik, who started farming together in 1994 the year after Rick bought the land, and their children Charlotte, Nick, and Alex, who now farm with them, the Farm Family Award recognizing Chatsworth Farm is a very special honour. The family are joined by Charlotte’s fiancé Rob McClymont and Alex’s fiancée Bre Waltz.

Rick said, “It’s been a lot of hard work and long days to start a farm from scratch, and we’re proud of what we’ve accomplished so far and especially of the kids who’ve each made, and continue to make, such incredible contributions as we become a second-generation farm.”

Rick, whose grandparents all farmed but whose parents did not, had dreamed since childhood of having a farm, and finally made that a reality when he was 34. He and Johanna, who was born and raised in New York City, were married the following year and immediately started creating a farm in the old Chatsworth school district northwest of Vermilion. 

In recent years, Nick and Alex have built their own purebred beef herd, have started breeding and offering early calving heifers for embryo transfer recipients through the Rusylvia sale, and also do a great deal of custom farming. Charlotte directs the farm’s social media, sharing ag education and daily activities with their followers; created Chatsworth Farm’s farm to table program delivering their meat and eggs to customers across Alberta; and oversees the Wasyliks’ Open Farm Day event, which sees farms across the province open their gates to visitors every August, so that Albertans can connect with the farmers who grow and raise their food. 

It is this spirit of connection that led the County of Vermilion River Agricultural Service Board to nominate the Wasylik family. Through education, transparency, and generosity, Chatsworth Farm has become more than a place of production. It has become a bridge between rural and urban.

The Wasylik Family is grateful to the County of Vermilion River for the nomination, to AAAS for the award, and to their local community for the support and encouragement.

Farm Family Awards have been long apart of the Alberta agricultural landscape with Red Deer being the dividing line between the North and South regions. Because of some changes to the program in 2024, the North region was left without the award, so AAAS’s integration of the Northern awards into their convention, to continue to recognize and celebrate Alberta farms and families, is a tremendous support to agriculture in our province.