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July 14, 2006
Growing your food naturally
Saanich Organics helps bring healthy choices to the table.
CAROL SOKOLOFF
It's strawberry season, and who can resist the sweet red globes
that tantalize with fragrance and color? But you don't see many
of those in the produce section of the grocery. Instead, we are
offered half-ripe, pale imitations with no fragrance and a cardboard
consistency. That's because most of those berries have been grown
in California or Mexico, picked when still hard and white and shipped
long miles by truck to our grocery shelves.
In the garden of her organic farm on the Saanich Peninsula, just
outside Victoria, Rachel Fisher plucks a few ripe specimens from
her strawberry patch. The berries are warm with the heat of the
sun, have a lovely fresh scent and burst with flavor in the mouth.
They have been lovingly grown without chemical additives, fertilizers
or pesticides and eating them, one remembers how a strawberry is
meant to taste.
Fisher was raised in Victoria, in a family long connected with Vancouver
Island's only synagogue, Congregation Emanu-El. After graduating
with a degree in anthropology, she became involved in environmental
issues, such as the protection of the old growth forest of the Walbran
Valley. Wanting to find work that contributed to environmental awareness,
Fisher learned about an apprenticeship program in organic farming
run by an organization called SOIL (Stewards of Irreplaceable Land).
Through SOIL, she apprenticed at an organic farm in Sooke for a
single growing season. Since then, she has been running her own
organic farm on rented property, first in Sooke and, for the past
seven years, on the Saanich Peninsula.
In February of this year, Fisher and her partner, Grant Marshall,
finally found and purchased the perfect piece of land, close to
the Saanich Inlet. There, they have established Three Oaks Farm,
named after the three large, old Garry Oaks that grace the property.
"It's been good to start out on a new place, knowing everything
that I know now," Fisher reflected. "I've had a long time
to develop my ideas and think about what I want."
With her two-year old son Elias in tow, Fisher showed off the acre
she has cultivated out of a former hay field, first building a large
fence to keep out the marauding deer. Here, she grows a bountiful
harvest of vegetables and fruits to supply the many Victoria restaurants
that feature exotic, locally grown organic greens and vegetables.
In addition to strawberries, Fisher has cultivated salad greens,
red, white and striped beets, broccoli, peas, spinach, winter and
summer squash, zucchini, carrots, eggplants and 20 different kinds
of tomatoes (including some heritage varieties that have almost
disappeared).
Many Vancouver Island chefs, involved in what is known as the slow
food movement, prize the baby squashes and radishes
Fisher produces, for their flavor, texture and appearance on the
plate. A group called the Island Chefs Collaborative works closely
with growers such as Fisher. These chefs are willing to pay a good
price to support the local organic farm industry – a fact reflected
in the quality of the food at some of the island's finest restaurants,
including Brentwood Bay Lodge, Re-Bar, Zambri's, Vista 18 and the
Marriott and Grand Pacific hotels.
You certainly don't have to be an executive chef, however, to enjoy
the benefits of organic produce. Along with two other nearby farms,
Fisher is a partner in Saanich Organics, which offers a weekly produce
box delivery every month of the year except January. Saanich Organics
also acts as a distributor for other growers and has a stall at
Victoria's popular weekly Moss Street summer market.
While Fisher spends her days building fences, picking berries and
watering the crops, she is also concerned about the larger issues
of how and where we get our food. The philosophy of organic farming
stresses the need for soil enrichment and crop rotation to avoid
the pests and diseases that make the use of chemical additives and
pesticides necessary. For that reason, Fisher has built an innovative
moveable greenhouse (cleverly resting on metallic skis), so that
different areas of the land can be cultivated with different crops,
and sheltered as needed.
Responding to a question about the Torah instruction to observe
a jubilee year every seven years, during which the land is not cultivated,
Fisher agreed it was in keeping with the ideas of organic farming.
"Feed the soil and the plants will be healthy," she said,
quoting what might be one of the 10 commandments from the organic
farmer's Torah.
On the subject of kashrut laws, which perhaps are based on similar
ethical and health concerns as those of the organic foods movement,
Fisher noted that, "We need to talk about how we kill animals,
but also how they are raised. The factory farms are wrong and the
diseases we are dealing with, such as mad cow disease, show that
this is the wrong method."
The next time you bite into a strawberry or toss greens for a salad,
perhaps consider spending a few cents more to support a local grower
who is nurturing the soil, protecting the integrity of our rural
areas, supporting families by farming in a more sustainable way
and bringing you food that will not only satisfy your hunger, but
also improve your health. Your taste buds, your body and your community
will all receive the benefits of this choice.
Carol Sokoloff is a Victoria freelance writer and author.
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