Kootenay Farm Directory: Spring 2020

It’s March 2020 and in the face of a global health crisis, we’re experiencing some supply chain disruptions and an increased local demand for healthy food. It’s more important than ever to support your local farmers! Food producers have had to quickly pivot their business models and sales channels to adapt to the evolving market and regulatory conditions.

If you are located in southeastern BC and are looking for ways to connect directly with farmers and food producers in your area, consider joining a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) program for weekly boxes, purchasing online for delivery, pick-up or from your local Farmers’ Markets, which will remain in operation as essential services, like grocery stores, and may be available as online marketplaces.

Of course, grocery stores remain open and are an amazing service to our communities. They may stock local products, they keep members of our communities employed and they provide us with many of the essentials that are not (yet!) produced locally. Some of our favourite local food retailers across the region include Ellison’s Market (Nelson), the Kootenay Co-op (Nelson), le Marche Gourmet (Revelstoke), Evergreen Natural Foods (Slocan Valley), Stoke Markets (Kimberley) and Eat Pure Mountain Market (Golden).

There are many farms, however, that you will not find in these stores, and grocery stores often don’t deliver! So, below you’ll find a working list of businesses that offer direct local food sales through CSA, online sales, delivery or pick-up. You can find information on how they’ve adjusted their plans to make their products available to you! If they’re currently out-of-stock due to rapidly increasing demand, ask how you can stay in touch to support them in the future!

There are lots of farms in the region listed on the Young Agrarians U-Map and you can find information specifically for the Central Kootenay in the Central Kootenay Farm and Food Directory, published by the Central Kootenay Food Policy Council.

If you’re a producer with your products available through these channels, get in touch (hailey@youngagrarians.org) to be added to this list, the more the merrier!

In absolutely no particular order (so you need to scroll until the end)…

BOUNDARY

The Diggers Farm, 25km up the Granby River from where it joins the Kettle, grows a wide variety of market veggies, which you can order online. They grow regular annual vegetables using organic standards with a hope of transitioning to more permanent perennial systems.

Boundary Hill Farm in Grand Forks offers chemical-free, naturally grown meat, vegetables and fruit. If you live in Grand Forks, the farm offers free delivery to your home or workplace. They have farm gate sales, sell online and are offering a box program this year.

Mehmel’s Ranch in Grand Forks has naturally-raised Black Angus and Black Angus Cross beef for sale online. They do deliveries to Grand forks, Christina Lake, Trail and Castlegar on set days. They’ll have veggies for sale later in the season as well.

Settle Down Farm in Grand Forks is offering a weekly harvest box program, with registration available online and has pick-up and delivery options on Tuesdays to Christina Lake and around Grand Forks. Starting in June for 15 weeks, you receive a box each featuring 7-9 different seasonal vegetables, coming from a variety of 30 different crops including staples like head lettuce, beets and carrots, to seasonal favourites like cherry tomatoes, melons and many more (including emailed recipes)!

Greenwood Garden Goodies grows market veggies in season. The farm is offering a pick-up box and microgreens from their website.

Leanna’s Lil Market in Christina Lake is a market garden that also offers farm-raised beef and pork with deliveries to Grand Forks, Christina Lake, Trail and Castlegar on set days.

The Kettle Valley Food Coop in Grand Forks allows you to place an order online from Thursday to Monday and pick it up on Thursday. The Coop is an amazing local resource that sells products from a wide variety of local businesses, including staples at the local Farmers Markets.

ARROW LAKES

McCormack Farm in Burton will be selling their eggs, grass-fed beef cuts, pork cuts and chicken through delivery only, with free delivery on orders over $50 from Burton to New Denver.

Intentional Peasants Farm in Edgewood is almost sold out of root crops for the season as of March 2020, but they still have some carrots and parsnips available for bulk delivery in the Arrow Lakes region. They will be starting a CSA veggie box delivery program in Edgewood and potentially Fauquier and Burton starting in June and will be back at the Markets when they’re open!

Track Street Growers in Revelstoke is offering free delivery of their syrups, sauces and body care products to the Revelstoke area. Email them at trackstreetgrowers@gmail.com for delivery.

Terra Firma Farms in Revelstoke just sold out their CSA fo this year, but get in touch so you’re first in line for their veggies next season!

Wild Flight Farm is a certified organic farm that does deliveries every second week to Revelstoke of their vegetables and culinary herbs through an online order system. Sign up for their newsletter for updates.

WEST KOOTENAY / SLOCAN VALLEY

Linden Lane Farm offers helpful information about CSAs on their website! The certified organic farm has an 18-week CSA delivering from Krestova to Crescent Valley, Nelson and Castlegar. Though it just recently filled up, they are looking to open more spots, so get in touch to be added to the waitlist. The farm offers two sizes and each box has 8-12 items each week and includes roots, herbs, salad and table greens, as well as hot house veggies, legumes, fruit and unique varieties like watermelon, okra, tomatillos and edamame. They also offer herb transplants, organic sweet potato slips, many small fruits, tree fruits and edible perennials on their online nursery available in May!

Red Lion Organic Farm in Salmo sells certified organic seed and culinary garlic online and by delivery in the Nelson area.

Bent Plow Farm in Blewett is a certified organic farm offering produce delivered to your door! The farm has a 20-week CSA of delicious vegetables. Their CSA box can provide over 50%-70% of your weekly vegetable needs for less than $30 a week and includes a small delivery fee. They cover all areas between the Junction to 6-Mile on the North Shore and Ymir.

Dutch Girl Peonies is a Kootenay Mountain Grown farm that offers fresh cut flowers for weddings and retail sales of plants, root divisions, and blooms. To ensure long lasting quality of their blooms, they do not merely place the buds in water before shipping. They are accepting orders for the fall of 2020; you can email directly with any questions: info@peonyfarm.ca.

Hoedown CSA is a market garden that offers weekly veggie delivery to Nelson and pickup at the farm in Krestova. You can send an email to hoedowncsa@gmail.com to be added to the mailing list. You’ll be the first to know when the farm has their produce ready, but there’s no obligation to order.

Salix and Sedge Farm in Salmo is offering delivery to Nelson of their certified organic salad greens and spinach, as well as pick-up at their farm. You can use their online order form and join their mailing list here. They are opening a self-serve farm stand this spring; hours will be posted soon on their Facebook page. If you are heading to the grocery store, their produce is also sold at the Kootenay Co-op, Ferraros and Ellison’s.

Happy Hills Farm in Rossland is offering all kinds of ways for people to access their food, including a new online farm store! Their farm stand is open on Saturdays now from 10:00-4:00 pm. A staple of the Rossland Mountain Market, the farm offers a full, half and unboxed summer CSA shares, with a good variety of seasonally available vegetables and fresh herbs, with at least two varieties of fresh greens. Boxes will contain 7 – 12 items, and will vary seasonally from week to week.

Fairway 4 Farm has a farm gate pick-up, farm stand and weekly deliveries to Slocan City and Winlaw. The farms offers a variety of greens, herbs and vegetables including bok choi, radishes, turnips, tomatoes, cucumbers, sprouts, squash, peas, onion, kale, spinach, asparagus, peppers, eggs and much more! You can also call to order directly by phone: (250)226-7767.

Honeydew Gardens in Thrums offers veggie and herb seedlings that are grown without the use of synthetic or chemical pesticides or fertilizers.  You can contact the farm directly at fresh@honeydewgardens.ca for current availability and your plants will be ready to pick up in April and May.

Ravine Creek Farm in Appledale offers weekly mixed vegetable boxes for 20 weeks from May to October. The KOGS certified organic farm can be reached by phone and email (250-226-7333 or email ravine.creek@gmail) to set up payment for their CSA by cheque, cash or e-transfer. If you’re in need of an alternate payment schedule, please get in touch directly to discuss options. Boxes can be picked up weekly at either the farm or from their stand at the Baker St. Market on Wednesdays, where they will also be accepting coupons through the Nutrition Coupon Program!

Earth Temple Gardens is a beautiful farm located in the Lardeau Valley. The farm offers deliveries to Nelson that are dropped off at Organic Matters. They have a large selection of salads, greens and root vegetables, and also have bulk amounts of certain produce if you are interested in making fermented veggies like cucumbers, dill, napa cabbage, basil etc. You can send a message to order online or email earthtemplegardens@gmail.com directly.

Half Moon Herbals in Johnson’s Landing offers annual CSA Herb Boxes, which can purchased at any time throughout the year. Annual Memberships get you 4 Herb Boxes in total, delivered to you each season with the best selection of medicinal herbs and remedies home grown and prepared at their farm & apothecary, designed to match the needs of the season.

Crooked Horn Farm in the Slocan Valley runs a 24-week certified organic CSA starting mid-May until the end of October, with some members continuing until November, depending on availability. They offer a regular box and a small box. You can expect vibrant salad greens, rainbow carrots, crunchy peas, juicy cucumbers, fragrant tomatoes, dreamy potatoes and more!

Aurora Gardens is an ecological farm on the North Shore of Nelson that has been in operation for 15 years! The small market garden takes phone orders for delivery around Nelson and offers vegetables, berries, herbs and edible flowers.

Little Piece of Paradise Farm in Vallican is a new farm producing dried and fresh culinary and medical herbs that will be ready for sale early summer. They are in the process of obtaining organic certification. They’re offering to grow herbs by request for their community so if you’re looking for specific herbs please contact them now to ensure they are growing them for you this season!

Glade Organics in Tarrys is a certified organic market garden between the Junction and Castlegar. They will be open May-October on Tuesday evenings, offering a farm stand from 3:00-6:00 pm to the public and extending its farm gate hours this spring.

Mr. Mercy’s Mushrooms in Kaslo is dedicating extra time for production of medicinals (such as reishi, turkey tail, and perhaps cordyceps), and are figuring out the logistics of creating a line of dried products. They are planning a direct-to-customer box program (CSA), potentially including produce from a variety of farms. They want your input on how you’d like to see them do business and grow food this season. You can email Robin at robin@mrmercysmushrooms.com.

Hummingbird Farm in the Slocan Valley is offering a certified organic flower subscription that includes the farm’s most rare and unique stems in big stuffed bouquets. Subscriptions run all season in 4-5 week increments that range in price.

Forrest Farms in Salmo has pasture-raised livestock and offers farm-gate and online sales of goat milk soap, eggs, meat and more.

Stone Meadow Garden in Tarrys has summer subscriptions available for weekly or bi-weekly pick-up of their gorgeous flowers. Starting mid-June, the farm prepares unique, seasonal, hand-tied bouquets and offers 5 weeks of spring flowers. They have a farm stand for pick-up or pick-up on Wednesdays or Fridays in Nelson or Castlegar.

Thimble Hill Nursery on the North Shore will offer self-serve farm-gate sales of veggie starts and perennials in May and a large plant sale in Fall 2020 with all their grafted fruit trees, nut trees, fall vegetable starts, and other perennial stock.

Nancy’s Nurseries in Pass Creek is offering veggie starts for sale with set delivery date options in May for the communities of Nelson, Trail, Castlegar and Crescent Valley. Most of their seeds are open-pollinated and they use certified organic fertilizers, giai all purpose, worm castings and sea kelp for their starts. Email rejeanne.boucher@gmail.com to set up a delivery.

Painted Rock Farm in Castlegar sells veggie starts, veggies, eggs and pork. You can email castlegarfarm@gmail.com to place an order.

CRESTON VALLEY

Cartwheel Farm offers deliveries of their certified organic produce, a variety of hand-picked vegetables, herbs, and fruit. The farm offers a weekly or bi-weekly delivery during the growing season, which is generally 24 weeks long and takes places every Wednesday to Creston, Erickson, Canyon, Lakeview-Arrowcreek, Wynndel, Sirdar, and up the East Shore to the Ashram.

Blueberry Patch Farms has an online ordering system that allows you to order naturally-grown frozen blueberries, strawberries and our other farm made products.

Kootenay Natural Meats is offering a “drop at your door/cooler” service. They holistically manage their acreage and breeding stock, consisting of an Angus based herd of cows, hair bred sheep and Tamworth heritage pigs. The farm offers beef, pork, chicken, turkey, lamb and rabbit, as well as eggs and honey.

Robertson Estate has been selling to discerning customers since 2006. Most of their vinegar goes to high end restaurants through the Kootenays and Alberta but you can also purchase it online, for pick-up or delivery. Contact them through their website.

Ki Mana Acres has a new service that allows for online pre-orders and orders, with free doorstep delivery! The farm sells microgreen-fed free range eggs, fresh pea shoots, pasture raised whole chickens and heritage pork.

Root & Vine Acres has put together an order and delivery in town, you just need to send them a message. The farm is offering pasture-raised pork chops, roast, ham, dinner sausage, dry cured salami, smoked salami, free range chicken, duck and goose eggs. They can also deliver a fresh batch of biscuits or a loaf of sourdough bread.

EAST KOOTENAY

Kootenay Farm-to-Folk is a popular local business that offers weekly and single food boxes of locally-sourced food from many producers and farms in the East Kootenay. Orders are placed online, can be picked up in Cranbrook and delivered for free to Cranbrook/ Kimberley every Friday and the Elk Valley/ Crowsnest Pass every Saturday.

Cutter Ranch in Fort Steele offers pasture-raised lamb, pork and beef. You can purchase right from their online store.

Last but certainly not least in our books, Winderberry Farm in Windermere (where the featured image was taken!) is offering their certified organic CSA this season. It generally runs for 10 weeks from July to September and includes legumes, root vegetables, herbs, hot house veg, green and more.

WANT TO BECOME EVEN MORE CONNECTED TO HEALTHY, LOCAL FOOD? 

Join our Young Agrarians e-newsletter to receive updates on farm and food related content, resources, news, podcasts, educational opportunities and so much more. If you’re in south eastern BC, select Kootenay-Boundary as your bio-region.

Join our regional YA Facebook group where information is shared regularly. 

Consider getting involved with a food or farm related organization – many support local farmers and feed our communities and are always happy to have more volunteers! You can find programs like this and many more working in food security and sovereignty.  Search “Kootenay” on our U-Map through this link and you’ll find a list of community food organizations you can support! If you belong to an organization in need of more volunteer support, create your own listing!

GOT LAND? WANT LAND? 

Help us support local food production! Through the B.C. Land Matching Program, Young Agrarians is offering support to farmers looking for land for their farm business and landowners looking for farmers to farm their land. The Columbia Basin Land Matcher will be attending the event to answer any questions about accessing land through this program. You can send a message to hailey@youngagrarians.org for more information.