LAND OPPORTUNITY: Market Garden for Farm Gate & Farm-to-Table Cafe

Posted by Hailey Troock on January 18, 2021 2 Comments

We have more land opportunities than what is listed here! Get in touch with a Land Matcher at land@youngagrarians.org to access our full land inventory and B.C. Land Matching Program support in your region. Check out photos and video from virtual and in-person tours of the farm in this blog post!

ABOUT THE LAND

This land opportunity is located on a commercial farm in the Columbia Valley, between Golden and Radium, in the rural community of Spillamacheen. The property is immediately adjacent to the Pacific Flyway & Columbia Wetlands.

The land has several pasture gardens, including 3x 15′ by 50′ tilled gardens and one 15′ by 25′ bed, with two Farmer’s Friend caterpillars/hoop houses developed and negotiable. There are also at least two 15’x50′ plots additional available to be tilled and a sloped hill that could also potentially be used.

The north forest would support a forest farm concept. The land owners are implementing permaculture activities throughout the season — chickens and goats will be working the gardens. Trickle creek adjacent and a mountain spring plumbed to several locations for irrigation. There are a number of outbuildings and sheds — a new steel frame build was installed in the pasture last fall.

The projects on the farm follow the seasons:
Spring
April through Mid-May (6 weeks)
Garden Wake-up: Pre-seeding. Prep irrigation and soils for garden and orchard. Screen compost. Erect hoop houses.
Cafe Wake-up: Raised beds pick-up. Prepare mint tea gardens. Landscape — pruning, tidying flower gardens, setting outdoor furniture.
Tiny Barn Wake-up: Turn over deep bedding and compost. General repairs and restock. Start outdoor spa project.*
Forest Wake-up: Clear, buck, and split dead fall for next winter’s firewood. Plan goat trails. Prep vintage trailers for Hipcamp guests.
Early Summer (6 weeks)
Mid-May through end of June
Gardens: Compost, plant out, test/activate monitor irrigation and weather, weeding.
Cafe: Plant out mint gardens. Culinary exposures (–breads, mint tea bar, and cherry goat milk caramels, vegetable handling)
Tiny Barn: Start weekly goat and chicken permaculture rotations.
Prepare solar array infrastructure. *
Forests: Complete outdoor spa project.
Map mushroom and fungi operational process and field notations (pilot project). *
Mid Summer (6 weeks)
July- Mid August
Gardens: Daily farm-to-table harvests begin. On going nurturing.
Cafe: Egg collecting. Mint tea harvests. Landscaping. Vegetable preparation and handing. Weeding.
Tiny Barn: Continue small livestock rotations. Continue compost program. Continue/complete solar project build. Inoculate forest fungi. Move firepit and build “bar” tables.
Late Summer/Early Fall (8 weeks)
Mid-August through Mid-October
Gardens: Final summer and fall harvests. Disassemble hoop housing. Bio-intensive preparation for winter (composting, bed prep, fallow crop planting). Blow out irrigation. Prep tiny orchard for fall/winter. Harvest mushrooms/fungi.
Cafe: Preserving and canning. Fall landscaping. Final mint tea harvest outdoors/Cultivate to indoor operations.*
Tiny barn: Prep deep bedding and shelter for winter.
Forest: Prepare final notes and recommendations for forest fungi project.
* Denotes new project for 2022

ABOUT THE OPPORTUNITY

This opportunity is ideal for experienced farmers who are interested in having a secured market for their produce through the farm’s farm gate sales (Fri-Sun potential) and farm-to-table cafe (daily, seasonal). There is potential for housing on site for the right single farmers or couples. 

There is also a separate ‘live’ garden market opportunity, a very small but productive apple and cherry orchard 300m away at our restaurant, the Spilli Station Cafe. There is also a commercial kitchen at the cafe. The location has highway pullout and parking options. The TransCanada Highway diversion closure will push an incredible volume of traffic past the farm starting in 2021.

GET IN TOUCH!

This land opportunity is part of the B.C. Land Matching Program. If you are interested in this land opportunity, please contact hailey@youngagrarians.org.

Check out the U-MAP Listing at: https://maps.youngagrarians.org/locations/56608-ISO-Experienced-Farmers-for-Small-scale-Commercial-Market-Garden-Farm-Gate-Operation-

To learn more about the BC Land Matching Program and other land opportunities, visit https://youngagrarians.org/tools/land/

The B.C. Land Matching Program is funded in the Columbia Basin by the Province of British Columbia, with support from Columbia Basin Trust and the Real Estate Foundation of BC.

You may also like:

2 thoughts on “LAND OPPORTUNITY: Market Garden for Farm Gate & Farm-to-Table Cafe”

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.