Picture Perfect
Oh man, growing up on Oldfield road near Victoria BC was amazing! Everyone who knows that road knows! The old Dogwood Farm in the bottom of the little valley next to Bear Hill was a bulb farm way back before I was born and before it became my grandparents farm (I think in the early 50’s). To this day, spring still sings out loud with cheerful clumps of bright yellow daffodils blooming in a couple of the fields along the road. There’d often be a photographer crouching in the grass by the fence waiting for the “money shot” of the woolies with new lambs grazing in the daffodil dotted pasture. It was picturesque.
Ginger Beer & Strawberry Shortcake
Summer time brought hayfields and sweet fresh fruit. Strawberries and raspberries, blueberries and even kiwi fruit, peaches and cherries, and those wild tart huckleberries and sweet sun ripened blackberries! Ginger beer and strawberry shortcake with whipped cream (the real stuff) – those were the refreshments of the day for the haying crews. Classic! Still my favourites! Those thorny blackberries would never give up their sweet berries without a bit of a fight. Scratched up arms and legs were part of the bargain if you went into the patch wearing shorts and tank tops in the heat of the summer. The blackberry pies were worth it!
Farm Stands
Oldfield road had it all (and still does)! A 6km long, straight & narrow road with no shoulders, a few hills in both directions to challenge the cyclists and small farms of all kinds all the way along. Many orchards and Ponchet’s nursery, fields of vegetable and berry crops, fruit trees, flowers, chickens, sheep, goats, cows, horses, lamas, honey bees! Farm gate stands all along the way. Seasonal delights and daily staples on offer and something a little different at every stand. You could even get bags of beautiful well rotted horse or sheep manure! Feed bags from Buckerfield’s farm and garden store repurposed to be filled with manure and sold by entrepreneurial farm kids for something like $2.50/bag on the honour system. Babe’s Honey Farm without a doubt was the best smelling farm in the area! Back then they were located just off of Oldfield Road on Walton Place. If you ever get a chance to tour the processing facility of a honey farm, the “sense”ible thing would be to do it! In Terrace we’re lucky to have lots of honey options thanks to folks like Rushing River Apiaries who have built a great business producing honey while also inspiring and educating folks to be beekeepers.
u-Pick
Along with the bounties sold at the farm stands, there were u-pick opportunities where folks could pick their own berries straight from the field! I still love picking berries and made sure to plant my favourites, blueberry bushes and raspberry canes near the dahlia patch here at Medeek Meadows. Raspberries are a July treat for a few weeks for us in Terrace, while blueberries keep us snacking and picking from July into September! They are such a forgiving fruit in that regard. A nice long picking window. Snacking on sweet berries while working in the dahlia patch is my kind of delightful! Be sure to plant some of those bushes & canes! Spotted Horse Farm and Nursery in Terrace can hook you up with some great varieties.
Some flower farms now even offer u-pick! For those farms, it can be a great way to offer an amazingly fun flower “experience” to customers, while earning income for the farm. Some farms are able to take it a step further, inspiring creativity & learning by offering flower arranging & educational workshops. We regret we are not open to the public, do not offer tours or workshops, and do not offer any dahlia u-picks. Sorry!
Why don’t all flower farms offer these options? Insurance costs can be prohibitive & resources scarce. It has to make sense on the business end of things. It has to be a good fit for the farm. While those options haven’t been in the cards for us, do know, we’d happily partake if we stumbled upon a dahlia tour or u-pick! There is so much magic to be enjoyed wandering thru a patch of dahlias, especially for folks who can’t grow their own. Tours, u-pick and a dahlia show garden have been on our list for possible future endeavours, but execution has so far eluded our capacity. Kudos to the gardens and farms across North America who make it work! We’re still over here dreaming and happy to be living a healthy spoonful of our dahlia dreams.
Follow your Dreams!
Enjoy the Dahlia!
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