Category: The Farmer Stories

I’m drawing a map. I’m talking to Josephine Hill and she’s telling me about Ragley Organic Farm, which she and her husband, Rob, operate in East Sooke on the Southern tip of Vancouver Island. I say, “so you’ve got a twisty windy driveway off the road.” She says, “Well, its not real twisty, windy.” Beginning to feel a Monty Python skit coming on I reply, “how twisty, windy is it?” She explains, “its not real twisty, but it’s long, about a quarter mile, and it sort of goes up and it winds a little bit.” Okay. She fills in the picture a bit more. “You get to the ‘Y’ in the road and if you go to the right you […]

» Read more

BoskyWoods Organic Farm rambles at the end of a small rural road off a dogleg in a secondary highway north of the township of Langley in the Fraser Valley. In many ways it is a great location. It’s close to the #1 Highway, the Fraser Highway and fairly central in the Valley so there is good access to just about anywhere in the southern part of the valley. There is a pleasant buzz of small plane traffic on the flight path to Langley airport. An unusually warm March breeze swirls among the trees. The late afternoon sun slants across the landscape and glints off the standing water in a drainage slough. Jim Boughen sips homemade wine as we talk. Jim […]

» Read more

When Bruce Miller says “Across the Creek” he is referring to across Ryan Creek where he would wander the large wooded area for big adventures as a boy. More recently, he bought that piece of land and his big adventure is farming about 200 of his family’s 500 acres and doing it completely organically. There are about 50 acres growing organic cabbage, rutabagas, table potatoes and seed potatoes for the wholesale market and the rest is growing market vegetables for market and a CSA harvest box program, and premixed salads for local restaurants in the Whistler area. Miller is a third generation farmer and, being the only son, basically inherited the family farming business. He is fond of the saying, […]

» Read more

Real Food For Real People Glen Valley seems to be a little glitch on the map—an area with no major roads through it, no gas stations, major crossroads, industrial estates or fast food outlets. Driving through it is not easy as many roads end abruptly or veer in odd directions due to quirks in the landscape. This is an area that has not been heavily rationalized for vehicle traffic or the needs of a fast paced, commuter oriented lifestyles. It is a place where the noise of traffic doesn’t penetrate and it is best not to be in a hurry. Stephen Gallagher seems like an anomaly here in this quiet valley. He is a great bundle of energy and enthusiasm. […]

» Read more

Glen Valley Organic Farm Co-operative is a spectacular 50-acre farm in the low lands beside the Fraser River. Off in the distance there is the sound of boats working the river and small-aircraft pilots practicing their maneuvers well out of the flight path of the major airports. The rumble and rattle of trains is constant and often not-so-distant, the tracks running along the northern edge of the property. John Switzer farms about 40 acres of the co-operatively held land, working thick top soil laid down by the workings of the river over the thousands of years since the last ice age. Geographically, Glen Valley is a long way from Carbury, Manitoba where John grew up. But Carbury is farming country, […]

» Read more

Beekeeping is an ancient art. The art of beekeeping goes back not just centuries, but millennia, into our pasts. Honey is prized not just by humankind but by bears, apes and dozens of other animal species on the planet. Just as agriculture is the cornerstone of all civilizations, beekeeping is the cornerstone of agriculture. It could even be argued that modern flowering plants evolved in the presence of, or at least parallel with, pollinating insects—bees. The structure of the honeycomb has appeared continually in art and engineering throughout the centuries. It wasn’t until the industrial revolution that honey was supplanted by “neat and tidy” white sugar and beeswax by “clean, modern and efficient” petroleum products—principally paraffin. The health benefits and […]

» Read more

The decline of family farms in Canada is very real. However, as many farmers are demonstrating, it is not inevitable. Cowichan Bay Farms on Vancouver Island is an exciting example of a modern heritage farm, incorporating many new ideas about farming, marketing and sustainable agriculture. Lyle Young operates Cowichan Bay Farms, a fourth generation family farm, along with his wife Fiona and three children. As a child he visited the farm only sporadically but it made a strong impression on him. “We used to come and visit my grandparents here when I was a kid, two or three times a year. I loved this place. It was just magical for me” he recalls. “They had an enormous amount of respect […]

» Read more

The Fraser Valley, as a whole, is the best agricultural land in Western Canada. This is precisely the reason that so many people settled in the area a hundred or so years ago. Today, this land is highly desirable for a number of uses other than agriculture—industrial parks, large warehouse retailers, housing subdivisions, and gated communities are all part of the picturesque, rural landscape in the Fraser Valley. These physical pressures coupled with long term economic and political trends—sagging prices, competition from California and Mexico, and a prolonged decline in the skilled labour pool—have created deep changes in the way farming is practiced here, and in many other regions throughout the world. Alyson Chisholm is one farmer who knows this […]

» Read more