FARM NEWS

Special Delivery Schedule For Easter 🐰

We want to make sure everyone can get their orders for Easter Sunday so we'll be offering Saturday morning delivery only for both Nelson and Castlegar. There will be no Sunday delivery this week.

 

 

Looking For Perennial Or Edible Trees & Plants For Your Property?

Brian and Krista run Zero Fox Tree Crops out of Harrop. They specialize in growing and selling perennial and edible trees and plants.

They’re first generation farmers who started growing edible perennials on a piece of leased land they found through the Young Agrarians land matching program in 2018. 

They have located valuable trees in the Kootenays, collected seeds from them and are now selling trees and plants grown from those seeds. How cool is that!

 

What’s new on the farm

Since we last checked in with y’all last year we had another great growing season in 2023 that resulted in the most diversity and quantity we’ve ever grown on our little chunk of land. 

We grew over 60 types of plants with new additions like Hican, Paw Paw, elderberry and cornelian cherry. We also harvested root divisions from our medicinal herb patch like arnica and skullcap as well as edible perennial tubers like ground nuts and chinese artichoke.

 

What are you looking forward to

This year we are continuing to add to our diversity of selections with rooted cuttings of cultivar goumi and hardy kiwi and will also be grafting a bunch of apples, pears, plums and cherries from old heritage fruit trees we found around the kootenays.

Last fall we’ve rounded out our air prune beds by adding another 12 and are looking forward to having those all produce healthy plants like saskatoon, persimmon, oaks and lots of other species. 

What is some advice you would give to people just starting to get into building a food forest

I think the best thing to do is to get your hands in the ground without fixating on the perfect design or plant selection. You learn so much and get a ton of feedback from digging holes for planting trees like soil composition, moisture pockets and where its just not feasible to plant because of copious rock deposits. 

Experimenting is great but try to keep your experiments cheap and numerous by finding affordable plants and putting out lots of them into your landscape. Keep on the lookout for productive plants in your neighborhood and make a plan to collect their seeds and propagate them, its easier than you think and you’ll end up with more plants than you know what to do with.  

 

What are your top 5 edible perennial plants for growing in BC

Hazelnut- Hazels are easy to grow and highly adaptable to many soil types. They produce a staple crop of nuts and produce in less than 5 years. I think the future of food security will see nut oil presses in community tool libraries and big nut processing parties every fall. 

 

Chestnut: Chestnuts should be thought of as the bread tree because they produce a starchy nut that can be turned into flour for baking with and providing a staple carbohydrate that doesn’t require annual land disturbance. They also grow quickly and start producing in less than 7 years. There are lots of hybrid chestnuts to choose from and when get to experience a mature tree loaded with nuts a true feeling of abundance is obvious. 

 

Elderberry: These berry producing shrubs are fantastic for many reasons. Besides the obviously delicious berry that does require a bit of processing, these stout bushes produce medicinal flowers for our consumption as well. Elderberry is a great wildlife support plant as well as being an all star biomass producer. Chop and drop techniques are used to cut elderberry back once mature and can really add a lot of organic matter into a food forest system. 

 

Black Currant: These delicious uniquely flavored berries are a staple of the old world and were present in most European gardens for many centuries. Black Currants produce early season berry crops and interestingly don’t get bothered much by deer so you don't have to worry about fencing. They are easy to propagate from cuttings so once you get some in your food forest you’ll have a lifetime supply to plant around your property. They’re great for eating fresh, freezing for winter consumption, jams/jellies and even making into wine. 

 

American Plum: These thorny wild plum family members are hardy as it comes. The reason I love growing these in the Kootenays is because they can handle the inevitable bear damage that fruit trees attract. Because of their ability to send up multiple shoots they can take being toppled over and also bear some decent spikes that deter browse from deer. They act as a great root stock for other plums if you’d like to graft onto them and produce delicious small plums that have a decent shelf life when you’re trying to get everything processed. Highly disease resistant and cold hardy these plums will grow in a wide range of soil types.

 

NEW PRODUCTS 

Spicy Capicolli Sourdough Croissants 

Description: Imagine the look on your family's face after you reach into your oven and pull out a tray of fresh, golden brown, authentic, Spicy Capicolli Sourdough Croissants.

The smell of fresh baked croissants, bubbling cheese and savory capicolli meat is mouthwatering. When you take a bite the thin layers of pastry crackle in your mouth. The croissant is buttery, sweet and yeasty. The inside is stuffed with gooey sharp cheddar cheese and ham covered in mildly spicy chili peppers (also know as capicolli).

These are seriously good croissants that you would typically have to travel to a French bakery to get. Instead, in just minutes, you could be serving them in your very own home.

 

About Luv Affair Pastry

Luv Affair Pastry was created by local baker Mike. He has spent many years perfecting his recipes. He originally started off selling his pastries at the Nelson farmers market. He then had a pop up at Au Soleil Levant for many years. Mike makes some of the best pastries we've ever had so we were excited when he decided to let us carry his products!

Details: Comes in a box of 2 or 4 frozen, unbaked croissants.

 

 

Spicer Farm Carrots (Freshly Dug)

Description: If you've ever heard of Spicer Farm in Nakusp, you've probably heard about Janet Spicer's legendary carrots. What makes them so good?

Apparently she leaves her carrots in the ground all winter long and only harvests to order. This not only keeps them as fresh as possible, the cold weather also concentrates the sugars in the carrots, making them sweeter than your typical storage carrot.

They are more expensive because they require more labour to harvest, however these are fresh, premium carrots.

Details: Sold per pound.

 

Free-Range Eggs From Sunshine Valley Farms 

Description: Sunshine Valley Farms is a small family farm run by Patrick and Angela out of Creston.

Every egg is still handpicked to personally guaranteed a high-quality egg fresh from their farm. Their hens live in a computer-controlled climate where everything possible is done to provide the perfect conditions for them. 

They have access to pasture where they can scratch in the dirt or hunt for bugs in the grass and alfalfa. In the barn, there is enough perching so each bird can roost and get a good night's sleep.

Details: Large sized eggs. Sold per dozen

 

NEW RECIPE

Carrot Cupcakes 🥕

Treat your family to a homemade batch of fresh carrot cake cupcakes this Easter!

These cupcakes feature our freshly-milled Soft White Wheat flour, carrots and a wonderful spice mix of nutmeg, cloves and cinnamon. The result is a soft, moist cake with a classic carrot cake flavour.

On top is a swirling dollop of vanilla bean cream cheese frosting. The tangy cream cheese frosting mixed with vanilla bean and a sprinkling of freshly grated nutmeg on top makes for a dangerously delicious combination!

READ NOW 

 

FOOD FOR THOUGHT 🍎

How 4 Companies Control The Beef Industry 

This is a great video by Vox about how consolidated our meat industry has become and how dangerous this situation is.

Corporations want to own and control all of the food that we eat. And for the most part they've accomplished their goal. Just a few companies produce the vast majority of the meat that is available.

When food production becomes centralized and industrialized you end up with mega farms, environmental pollution, animal cruelty, low-quality food, poor food security and less small rural businesses. 

Working with animals is hard work, building a butcher shop or processing facility is expensive, regulations make it difficult and costly to process animals and skilled butchers are hard to come by.

This is why it's so important to support small local producers like Devin and Brittani, owners of Granby Meat Company and PV Ranch out of Grandforks. 

They are third generation ranchers and one of only a handful of local butcher shops here in the West Kootenays.

Without hardworking farmers like them, taking risks in order to provide high-quality, sustainable food and jobs for the community, we would all be left at the mercy of big corporations. 

 

🍅Save up to $200 by joining our Farm Membership! 🍅 Farm Members play a vital role in our farm business. By paying for food upfront you allow us to invest in seeds, new tools, equipment, ingredients, and infrastructure which greatly improves the overall financial stability of our farm.

CLICK HERE TO BECOME A MEMBER

 

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