Ask the Farmer

questions people actually ask

• Is this a real farm, or more of a garden?

  Honestly, both. We have a quarter-acre in Parksville — six raised beds, a small greenhouse, three orchard trees (two Gravensteins, a Bartlett pear, an Italian prune), and a lot of ambition. We grow garlic and kale and more tomatoes than two people can reasonably eat. We don’t sell anything, we don’t raise livestock. It’s a hobby farm in the truest sense — we grow because we love it, and Daisy makes sure we never take it too seriously.

• What grows best on Vancouver Island?

  Garlic is king. Plant Music hardneck in October, harvest in July — it practically grows itself. Kale overwinters without complaint and tastes sweeter after a frost. Tomatoes thrive if you give them a south-facing bed and start them early (March, under lights). Peas go in February and are done before the slugs know what happened. And the fruit trees — apples in Zone 8b are extraordinary. The Gravenstein ripens in August and tastes like nothing you’ll find in a grocery store.

• What’s the hardest part of growing here?

  Slugs. There is no gentler way to say this. The Pacific Northwest slug population is enormous, organized, and patient. Iron phosphate bait helps. Beer traps help more. Ducks help most, but we don’t have ducks. Beyond that — the shoulder seasons are trickier than people expect. April can feel like spring for two warm weeks and then dump a cold rain for ten days. You learn to keep row covers handy and never plant a tomato before the May long weekend, no matter how confident you feel.

• What does Daisy actually contribute?

  Daisy provides essential morale support and quality-control supervision. She inspects every freshly dug bed by standing in it. She monitors the rabbit situation from a distance (they have come to an arrangement). She alerts us to eagles, ravens, delivery trucks, and her own reflection in the greenhouse glass. She has never, not once, successfully caught a rabbit — but she runs with tremendous conviction. She is very good at her job, whatever her job is.

• What should I plant first if I’m just starting?

  Garlic, in October. It goes in the ground, you forget about it for seven months, and in July you pull out the most satisfying thing you’ve ever grown. Then kale — Lacinato or Red Russian, both thrive here and both overwinter. From there: peas in February, lettuce in March, whatever you love to eat in May. The key is not to start too big. One four-by-eight bed, done well, will teach you everything and produce more than you expect.

• How much time does it actually take?

  More than you plan, less than it feels like. The busiest period is May to August — there are weeks where you’re out there every day. But a lot of that is optional: an evening pulling weeds, a morning harvesting, a Sunday afternoon just looking at things that are growing. In the off-season, it’s very light — ordering seeds in January, pruning in February, starting seedlings in March. The honest answer is: it takes as much time as you want to give it, and then a little more.

• What do you do with everything you grow?

  We eat most of it. We preserve what we can’t eat fast enough — garlic hangs to cure in the greenhouse, tomatoes become sauce and passata, kale goes into the freezer. What we can’t eat or preserve we leave on the back fence with a note. It goes quickly. There’s something deeply satisfying about a winter dinner where every vegetable on the plate was grown within twenty feet of the kitchen door.

• Do you go to the Parksville Farmers Market?

  We go as customers, not vendors. The Parksville Farmers Market runs Saturday mornings on the Parksville Community Park, and the Qualicum Beach market runs Saturdays too. Both are excellent — good local producers, honest prices, and the kind of conversations you can only have when someone grew the thing you’re holding. We go for bedding plants in spring, asparagus in April, garlic scapes in June, and local honey year-round. Daisy sometimes comes. She is very popular.