Life Under The Oak

Karen Bernard is the Wholesale Coordinator for the Cow-Op Online Farmers’ Market.

Life sometimes takes an unexpected turn from a well laid-out plan. Heather Young enjoyed an established chiropractic practice after eight years of study. A third child convinced her that working out of the house wasn’t ideal. While moving her practice to her home may have been an easy solution, Heather has never been about easy. She is about having a long-term goal and the determination and grit to see it through. She had seen firsthand that health outcomes need a stronger foundation in the food we eat and set about establishing an agroforestry farm. She wanted to build on regenerative farming practices that constantly refeed the earth she would harvest from to feed us the most nutritious food available. So she and her husband purchased thirty-five acres of neglected farmland and hacked out thirty years of third growth forest to create a home, food forest, orchards, herb gardens, perennial fruits and vegetables, with pastures for her birds and eventually cows and donkeys. The mountain of wood chips they created is still working hard as mulch on the gardens and for creating hedgerows. In the true style of farm families, a brother and his wife and children live on the property and Aiyana farms the market garden under the name of Acorn Veggies. While the big picture is primarily Heather’s job, the whole family gets involved on one work weekend a

Sands Funeral Chapel

Cremation & Reception Centre-Duncan by Arbor Memorial

Janice Winfrey

Funeral Director tel: 250-746-5212 • fax:250-746-7034 sandsfuneral.com/duncan email:sandsduncan@arbormemorial.com 187 Trunk Road, Duncan, British Columbia V9L 2P1 month with the four adults focusing on one project and the kids providing food and keeping each other entertained.

Four years and untold hours of backbreaking toil later, her dream is taking shape and the fruits of her labour are going to market; maple syrup, hen and duck eggs, and potatoes for now. This year she has planted saffron, asparagus along with more strawberries and hopes to be selling strawberries shortly. Having finally finished the interior of the house, they have moved to farm infrastructure and are hoping to build a sugar shack/commercial kitchen/ wash and pack station in the next couple of years. An unexpected bounty of their hard work is an amazing view of Mount Tzouhalem, Maple Mountain, and the peaks of Salt Spring Island.

Heather’s decision to change everything about the way she and her family live was not an easy one to make or to accomplish. Does she have any regrets? Only that she did not purchase a tractor earlier!

Check out Under the Oak Farm this month on Cow-Op Online Farmers’ Market for fresh strawberries and new potatoes. Log in to cow-op.ca between Thursday at noon to Monday at midnight to place an order that will be ready for pick up or delivery the following Thursday.