LAND OPPORTUNITY: 3.25 acres for Turn-key Vegetable Production on Indigenous-led Tea Creek Farm – Kitwanga, BC

Lease 3.25 acres for Turn-key Vegetable Production on Indigenous-led Tea Creek Farm – Kitwanga, BC. This is an excellent opportunity for a farmer seeking access to a turn-key operation, with options for additional paid work opportunities.

We always have new land opportunities coming into our inventory, some of which aren’t on our blog yet! Get in touch with a Land Matcher at bclmp@youngagrarians.org to learn about the latest opportunities and to access free B.C. Land Matching Program services in your region.

ABOUT THE LAND

Located in Kitwanga, BC, within the territory of the Gitxsan Nation, 3.25 acres of land are available for lease. The land available is within a beautiful 160-acre property that offers bountiful mixed forest and cultivated fields with multiple water systems nearby and a creek running through. The land to the west side of the creek will continue to be run by Tea Creek. The 3.25 acres to the east side of the creek are for lease: two large fields featuring loam soils on gently sloping grades.

The farm has previously produced over 20,000 lbs of food annually and has all the equipment and infrastructure necessary to continue running the same numbers.

The land is managed by a non-profit Indigenous food sovereignty organisation: Indigenous Food Sovereignty Assn, which focuses on service delivery and projects at Tea Creek. Tea Creek is an award-winning, Indigenous-led, culturally safe, land-based Indigenous food sovereignty and trades training initiative, led by Jacob and Jessica Beaton and family. They want to see the land continue to produce much needed local and nutritious food for the Gitxsan and local area community they distribute to.

This lease opportunity is complementary to the Tea Creek Training program, which is creating meaningful opportunities for Indigenous people to grow their food sovereignty. The incoming farmer(s) are not required to participate in the training program.  

ABOUT THE OPPORTUNITY

This is an excellent opportunity to start or expand an operation on an established farm, for a farmer who has experience leading a commercial farming operation, and who is looking to live remotely.

This lease opportunity comes with a BIG paying customer that will buy 20-30,000 lb of veg production, according to an agreed on crop plan with the incoming farmer(s). For the past few years, the 3.25 acres have been producing storage crops including potatoes and onions, as well as mixed vegetables, that are distributed to local communities through a free CSA pick up. This is a funded program, and Tea Creek would continue to purchase these main crops from the farmer(s) who take on the lease. 

There is an additional opportunity for extra revenue, on top of the turn-key vegetable production, to participate in training as a mentor/ instructor in the Tea Creek training program.

There is plenty of high quality equipment available on-site, including tractors, a bed maker, transplanter,  seeder,  and cultivators, all of which the incoming farmer(s) would have access to. And, there are skills and tools onsite to support the farmer(s) to maintain the equipment. The incoming farmer would also have access to infrastructure such as barns, sheds and cold storage. Irrigation is in place and a creek, Tea Creek, runs through the land.

The land, infrastructure and equipment available are best suited to vegetable production.  The lease is open to livestock as well – chickens, turkeys, pigs, sheep, etc – but they don’t have permanent fencing installed. 

There are many modalities of growing food incorporated into their farming practice including machine maintained fields, hand maintained fields, hand maintained food forests and harvesting from the lands and waters. This multi-dimensional approach to farming is an important part of the site,  and the incoming farmer(s) would be required to honour and incorporate into their practice. This system is in place to nurture the lands the farm is situated on, and nourish the communities it is a part of.

ABOUT THE IDEAL CANDIDATE

The ideal candidate would be an experienced farmer with 3-5 years in a lead role on a similar scale commercial vegetable farming operation.

The incoming farmer(s) must be self-aware and able to follow cultural protocols of respect for the land and Indigenous peoples. They must be educated on the history of colonization and the ongoing challenges that Indigenous communities face as a result of colonization. This might include lived experience as an Indigenous person, or experience working alongside Indigenous communities as a non-Indigenous person. If you are unsure, please reach out to Young Agrarians to ask more, including for referrals to courses such as kinSHIFT’s Elements of Truth. 

Jacob, Jessica and their team are looking for farmers who’d be super excited to be inter-dependent with their award-winning programs!

Learn more about Tea Creek and the Indigenous Food Sovereignty Assn, and watch the Tea Creek Film here.

GET IN TOUCH!

This land is available through the B.C. Land Matching Program. For more details, check out the UMAP Listing for this property.

If you are interested in this land opportunity, please reach out to meghan@youngagrarians.org with the link to this post and share your thoughts on each of the following topics:

• Your farming experience – how many years, what type(s) of operations?
• Your plans for the land – what do you think about the opportunity to grow food for local distribution, to participate in supporting Indigenous food sovereignty? Are you interested in growing crops other than vegetables?
• Your experience working alongside Indigenous communities?
• Your interest and experience in rural and remote living?

For more land opportunities, and to learn about the B.C. Land Matching Program, please visit youngagrarians.org/land.

The B.C. Land Matching Program is funded in Central & Northern B.C. by the Government of Canada and the Province of British Columbia under the Sustainable Canadian Agricultural Partnership, a federal-provincial-territorial initiative, with additional support from the Real Estate Foundation of BC.