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Fresh takes on farming food

Various forms of chemical free farming take root in the Pemberton Valley
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Out at Miller’s Farm, the home of Pemberton’s Across the Creek Organics, two 27-year-old women sit across a huge communal dining table and explain why they have chosen the demanding, labour-intensive work that is organic farming.

Many farmers are born into the profession, but Noémi Touchette and Christine Lepage were not. The two Quebecois women never expected to end up farming in the Pemberton Valley on Bruce and Brenda Miller’s farm. Now, with more than a decade’s combined farming experience, they can hardly imagine doing anything else.

"Working on the farm and seeing the way things grow, it encourages us to keep working to make the earth healthy," says Touchette.

Lepage, a former Montreal-based graphic designer, points out, "Here, you live it. You see what happens to the environment if you don’t treat it well."

It’s late May and many of the 500-acres that comprise Bruce Miller’s Across the Creek Organics demonstrate a lushness that speaks of what happens when respect for the environment is as important as getting your crops in on time.

Organic, bio-dynamic, natural–what do these farming terms mean when it comes down to the choices the average consumer makes while standing in the produce section of the local supermarket?

For one thing, these terms describe food that has been grown without the use of the chemical fertilizers and insecticides commonly found in conventional commercial farming. Fans of chem-free produce will tell you that those adjectives are also synonymous with an end product that is not only healthier, but also tastier. And a number of farms throughout the Pemberton Valley are proving that farms can produce fruits, vegetables and in some cases, meats, the organic way as a viable business model.

Nestled against the mountains that frame Pemberton Meadows Road, Helmers’ Farm is as beautiful a landscape as you’re likely to find. Jeannette Helmer and her adult daughter Anna greet me when I arrive, look at my Fluevog loafers and immediately offer me a pair of gumboots. Before long, farming terms I’m only vaguely familiar with are flying. These women know their business inside and out.

"Doug’s over there plowing under the green manure crop," Jeannette offers, pointing out her husband working in the distant field.

Green manure is the term for crops, such as rye, clover and various grasses that are grown with the sole purpose of being plowed under to fertilize the field. It appears to work beautifully. Without the aid of chemical fertilizers or animal manure to replenish the earth’s essential nutrients, the Helmers are growing some of the tastiest potatoes I have ever had.

"The first year we came up here to grow, we just put in carrots out there, every carrot came up and it was a foot long, I was just flabbergasted," remembers Jeannette. Today the farm grows a variety of crops including garlic, asparagus, salad greens and heritage potatoes.

Sitting in the kitchen of the Helmers log farm house, drinking coffee poured from a mottled blue tin coffee pot while eating a nut-encrusted sweet roll made in the oven of a wood stove, ignore the electric lighting and it could as easily be 1905 as 2005. However, once I hear Jeannette Helmer pitch her family’s organic produce to a representative from Rocky Mountaineer, I am catapulted back into this century. She is as astute a businessperson as any contemporary CEO: she knows her product, its value, its place in the market and its potential.

"There are specific crops that could be grown in a small way in Pemberton just for this rail tour," Jeannette Helmer suggests.

As she talks to Ian Robertson, Rocky Mountaineer's director of sustainable development, his eyes begin to reflect her enthusiasm.

If Helmer has her way, folks will be munching on Pemberton potatoes as the luxury touring train winds through the valley on its new Fraser Discovery route to Jasper launching next May. Preferably, those tubers will be among the dozen varieties that Jeannette, her husband Doug and daughter Anna cultivate on their 76-acre farm.

And if this happens, passengers will be guaranteed that they will be eating an extremely pure product.

"We’ve never used anything on this land," explains Jeannette Helmer. "And nothing’s ever been used on it because we cleared it ourselves."

"When we got here, we didn’t really know anything. We just tried to find what worked. I remember planting a quarter-acre of potatoes and all our kids helped," she says of their "trial and error" agricultural education.

Those potatoes sold out quickly at farmers' markets in Vancouver, so, the next year they planted a half-acre and slowly, but surely, the farm grew. Today they grow about eight acres of heritage potatoes.

Influenced by the 1960s seminal organic text, The Silent Spring , they eschewed even common gardening cheats such as spraying fickle roses against pest infestation. They had a path and they were committed.

Today farming remains a family affair for the Helmers. Daughter Anna was managing the produce department for a Capers Community Market in Vancouver before heading north to take a hands-on role in the family business. The organic supermarket had long been a supporter of the fledging farm, being the first retailer to feature the Helmers’ produce at its flagship Dundarave store in West Vancouver. Taking on a job with the earth-friendly retailer seemed like a good fit for their environmentally-minded daughter. However, the long hours and the stress of the demanding job began taking its toll on Anna. One day when her parents walked into the store after a weekend of attending farmers’ markets, the light went off.

"My parents looked completely exhausted, I was feeling the same way in my job and I thought, ‘I should be home helping them. That’s what makes sense,’" says Anna Helmer.

While Anna is the only daughter who works full-time on the farm, her sisters, Lisa and Jennie, and their partners also put in time on the farm when harvest necessitates. Jennie also operates the greenhouses where the salad greens grow.

Helmers’ Organic Farm is the oldest in the valley, certified shortly after the couple cleared their land in the 1980s.

Certification, which allows the producer to use the distinctive green check mark logo, assures that the consumer is getting a product that is genuinely organic and in compliance with the Certified Organic Association of British Columbia (COABC) criteria. As well as ensuring an absence of synthetic pesticides, herbicides, fertilizers and GMOs (genetically modified organisms) membership in COABC expresses a commitment to sustainable health and productivity of the ecosystem. Farms express this commitment by embracing philosophies such as soil regeneration, water conservation and animal welfare. Where does animal welfare fit in? In this case, animal welfare not only covers the humane treatment of animals, but also makes a provision that animals not be fed by-products of other animals – an important food-chain consideration. The practice of adding animal protein – specifically sheep with "spongy brain" disease – to cattle feed spread Mad Cow disease through the British beef industry. This was also the root cause of Canada’s own Mad Cow crisis, which has cost ranchers across the country over $3 billion in lost sales to the U.S. and Japan.

According to a 2003 Synovate Research survey, 53 per cent of British Columbians buy organics at least occasionally. Many of these purchases are made in traditional supermarkets. The more avid consumers of organic produce choose outlets such as farmers’ markets and direct-to-consumer sales, such as the 21-week Harvest Box program offered by Across the Creek Organics. For between $20 to $35 a week, depending on size of box and method of delivery, Sea to Sky corridor consumers can get enough farm fresh organic produce to last the week.

"It’s enough food to fill a small truck over the season," estimates company owner Miller. "It’s a lot of food."

And it’s food produced the old-fashioned way.

The fact that organic farming is traditional farming, is a point Bruce Miller of Across the Creek Organics drives home. A third-generation farmer and graduate of Olds College’s agricultural management program, Miller is equal parts farmer and businessman. And in an industry with uncontrollable variables such as weather and fluctuating marketplace requirements, both skills are essential to success. So are nerves of steel.

"I think I have a temperament that’s well-suited to the ups and downs of farming," say the congenial Miller.

The type of farming Miller is doing on his 500-acre farm is not all that different than the type of farming his grandfather made his living at when the farm began operating in 1912. Then, as now, the emphasis was providing quality, healthy food for people. But Miller’s grandfather’s competition was other farms, Miller’s is convenience. To get around this, Across The Creek Organics introduced a home delivery/vegetable pick up subscription service four years ago.

"When we started our Harvest Box program we had eight customers," says Miller. "Now we have more than 100."

Pemberton resident Alison Jensen was one of the original eight who came on board four years ago when Miller and his wife Brenda, began offering the service.

Committing to 21 boxes of food may be a little daunting considering that summer is peak vacation time, but Jensen said she never had any trouble getting someone to take her order. In the event orders aren’t picked up or are undeliverable, Across the Creek donates the food to a needy, local family.

"I used to put in a garden myself, but this is easier," says Jensen with a laugh.

The mother of a now adult child who had immune problems, Jensen didn’t want to feed her son food that had been contaminated with pesticides. The health factor was compounded with the issue of value. The amount of food packed into the Across the Creek boxes more than fed her family of three, and the emphasis on seasonal vegetables meant that she had to be more creative.

"When I’d get my Harvest Box on a Thursday, I’d immediately open it up and plan my menus for the week around what was inside," says Jensen, adding that to aid in preparing more unfamiliar produce the Millers include recipes in the boxes.

While receiving a mix of vegetables that aren’t the same as you might pick up on your weekly trip to the supermarket might prove a little frustrating at first, the contents of the Harvest Box reflect what grows when.

"Everything tastes better in season," says Miller. "A strawberry shouldn’t be red on the outside, white on the inside and taste like cardboard."

While the peak seasons of various vegetables may prove a bit of a challenge for the typical cook, that same restriction is chafing to Miller.

"If a restaurant wants to put an item on their menu for the summer that features ‘Pemberton spinach’, I have to guarantee that I can provide spinach throughout the entire summer, and I can’t. It simply won’t grow because it gets too hot," says Miller, who estimates that upwards of 25 per cent of his sales are to Whistler restaurants and caterers.

One chef who is thrilled with the opportunity to use organics is Grant Cousar of Whistler Cooks. While he has incorporated organics in his cooking for the past 15 years, they have become a major staple of his business in the last five years.

"It’s definitely a selling point," says Cousar.

Cousar cites the Pemberton Valley’s unique microclimate – particularly the intensity of the sunlight – as an important factor in producing excellent quality fruits and vegetables. The fact that those vegetables can be delivered to his business in less than an hour ensures that he is able to cook with food that is truly at its peak.

"I would say that 90 per cent of the time going local and organic means I’m using a much better product than I could get elsewhere," says Cousar.

He points out that the majority of organics – 80 per cent according to COABC – are shipped from California. The long journey aside, Cousar has other concerns about the quality of Californian organics.

"The rain falling on Pemberton had to be at least 10 times cleaner than the rain falling in California."

The idea of using locally produced organic produce also fits nicely with Cousar’s commitment to "slow food" – a food movement originated in Italy’s Piedmont region that opposes fast food and promotes dining as a source of both pleasure and education. The educational component of the Slow Food Movement comes from learning about issues such as the importance of responsible environmental stewardship and land conservation.

The Slow Food Movement is built around a philosophy to which both Miller and the Helmers subscribe. But the Helmers are interested in taking their interest in "slow food" and organic farming one-step further by investigating bio-dynamic farming.

Developed from a set of lectures presented by German philosopher Rudolph Steiner, "bio-dynamics" takes into account the basic laws of nature and applies them to agriculture. Instead of a prescribed set of techniques, bio-dynamics is a set of principles that promote a holistic approach to farming. While bio-dynamics is a concept currently of primary interest to farmers, many will be familiar with one of Steiner’s other developments: The Waldorf School. The educational system, employed at Whistler’s Alta Lake School, endeavours to teach the "whole child", ensuring such innovative ideals as kids learning to "read" nature as fluently as they read books.

Bio-dynamics ensures that the land is well cared for, that waste is minimal and the farmer learns to "read" his land and respond accordingly. Bio-dynamic certification is available in B.C., but only a handful of farms currently qualify.

"It’s an ongoing journey," says Anna Helmer of achieving bio-dynamic status. "There’s always something more you can do."

Bio-dynamic farming is an idea that North Arm Farms owner Jordan Sturdy also likes, in part because he finds one of its proponents, Mary Forstbauer of the Bio-Dynamic Agriculture Society of British Columbia, to be a compelling speaker and critical thinker. The fact that there are no hard and fast rules as to how to attain bio-dynamic farm status is also appealing.

"It’s about trying thing to see what works best. It’s not a list saying you should do this and do that. Of course, there’s a list of what you shouldn’t do," says Sturdy. "But they seem a lot more flexible."

The idea of maximizing a farm’s potential through careful management and maintenance of the land is particularly enticing when that farm consists of 45 farmable acres.

Sturdy purchased the farm in 1991. For the past 10 years, he has been engaged in what he terms natural farming. That first year Sturdy made $4,000. The farm sells 90 per cent of its produce through its onsite market, as both raw produce and ingredients in the excellent baked goods and preserves that are made on the premises. The remainder of sales come from restaurants and farmers’ markets.

This year will be the first that he has been exclusively using organic fertilizers. Switching over has meant a considerable expense. First off, the fish fertilizers he is using until he can grow green manure crops are twice as expensive as non-organic fertilizers. Second, in order to grow fertilizing crops, he has had to reduce his marketable crops from 40 acres to 25 acres – a whopping 40 per cent reduction.

Although he’s applying more organic practices to his farming, he was no immediate plans to become certified. Investigating the process a number of years back has clearly left a sour taste with the tough-minded skeptic.

"The principles are good, but when you start understanding how things work, you become more skeptical. I mean, is developing this fish fertilizer truly a sustainable practice?" queries Sturdy. "Where do they get the fish? Is it scooped up in a net and then just all ground up?"

He’s currently looking into trucking up poultry manure from the Fraser Valley to fertilize his fields.

Years ago, Sturdy investigated becoming a certified organic supplier, but he found the requirements stifling – particularly having to develop five-year crop plans.

"I don’t know what I’m going to plant in five years, sometimes I don’t know what I’m going to plant in five days," laughs Sturdy.

The combination of laborious paperwork and an inspector he didn’t see eye-to-eye with made him decide to follow his own route. Lack of certification aside, Sturdy has every confidence in the quality and the healthiness of the product he cultivates.

"We’re open to the public, I’ve got nothing to hide," says Sturdy. "You can see what we’re doing. You can see how we do it and why. I let people make their own decisions."

As we conclude our interview, the chef from Araxi’s Restaurant pulls up. Clearly, Sturdy isn’t the only one with confidence in the more than 100 varieties of herbs, berries, flowers and vegetables that flourish on his farm.

To find out more about Across the Creek Organics, or to sign up for the Harvest Box program, visit www.acrossthecreekorganics.com .

Helmers’ Farm produce is available at Pemberton Valley Supermarket as well as Whistler, East Vancouver and Dundarave farmers' markets. Selections from all of the farms can be enjoyed in various Pemberton and Whistler restaurants.

North Arm Farm, located between Pemberton and Mount Currie at 1888 Sea to Sky Highway, is open daily throughout the summer and fall.



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