Below Okanagan College, three farmers work hard to maintain their flowers, bees and vegetables.
Orchard Green Farms isn’t quite an orchard, or a typical farm full of cows and chickens.
Co-owners Jenny Fehr, Maddy Fehr, and Amy Kermosiev run the little farm themselves, and they all have other part-time commitments.
“I think it’s so good to have women run a farm. You don’t see that — that’s not a traditional image. We can do it. I’m actually amazed at the things we can do. I can grow all these vegetables myself,” said Jenny Fehr.
The 0.75-acre farm in Coldstream has been operating since 2014. It sells a variety of vegetables and flower bouquets, as well as honey when the bees feel like producing.
The Fehr family grew up around an orchard and has a passion for the lifestyle.
“We’ve always been people who like to have our hands in the dirt,” said mother Maddy.
The idea started with their grandparents, who had an orchard business and inspired the family to carry on their own farm business.
“We wanted to keep the idea of the farm, the orchard farm,” said daughter Kermosiev, who works part-time at Swan Lake Nurseryland.
“The kids grew up driving tractors. We wanted to keep the history of the business,” said Maddy, who teaches music lessons in the fall.
The green in the name is not only about stainability either.
“The reason why we have the word green in our name is because a green, in England at least, is a gathering space,” said Kermosiev.
They wanted to recreate that feeling and have a quaint set-up with chairs and a table. At one point, they wanted to have tea available but decided against it due to the heat.
The farm supports sustainable practices and doesn’t use pesticides.
“Everything that’s done here is done by hand,” said Maddy.
“It’s a lot of hard work moving big bags around,” said Jenny.
Jenny looks after the vegetables, though they all share the work, while Kermosiev loves working with the flowers which she turns into bouquets.
Fresh garlic, basil, and peas are some of the items available at their Wednesday market, which is held in the parking lot of the college from 3 to 6 p.m.
Jenny, an aspiring elementary teacher, is passionate about working with kids and gives children tours on occasion.
She found it funny that some kids didn’t know about farm life, having only visited a grocery store for food.
“It’s important even just learning what a zucchini is,” she said.
The farm also supplies vegetables to the college for Basket Case Picnics.
They hope to continue to grow the business but it’s about producing quality not quantity, said Jenny.
Their season runs until the end of September.
