It’s mid-April and the first signs of growth are sprouting from the soil at Terra Firma. Twigs of garlic are poking out from the ground and inside a greenhouse, the first leaves of rows of salad greens are beginning to show themselves. Transplants from an indoor nursery have been brought outside, ready to be planted. Off to the side, a brood of chickens is pecking away inside their pen.
“I wish we had more to show you,” Robert Jay, who along with his wife Terra Park runs Terra Firm, tells me.
It won’t be long before Terra Firma will be in full bloom – a sea of greens stretching across an acre of land just south of Revelstoke on the west shores of the Columbia River.
Terra Firma started five years ago as a result of Park and Jay’s ever expanding garden. They both come from farming backgrounds – Park’s father grew up as a farmer in Alberta and Jay’s family operates some orchards in the Okanagan. The garden they grew together kept expanding and eventually they bought the property where Terra Firma is situated to grow even more.
“It evolved over time,” said Park. “We were both passionate about gardening and it got bigger and bigger every year until we had a surplus to sell.”
It might have seemed like a questionable decision buying several acres of land on the shady side of a valley with poor soil, but the two have made it work – first by clearing out all the trees and rocks, and second by improving the soil
“Because it’s so dark here in the winter time we start seedlings in February,” said Jay. “We start those indoors under the lights and as soon as we can, we move them outside.”
Terra Firma grows 30 varieties of tomatoes, many different kinds of squash, salad greens, kale, peas, carrots, onions, beets, garlic and more. They have 70 chickens producing eggs and plan to get more.
Inside a large barn on their property there’s row upon row of plants sprouting up under artificial lights to get a jump start on growing. Once it starts to get sunny in the spring, they spread ginseng tarps across their fields to melt the snow faster. Once it warms up outside, they start planting outside and inside their greenhouse. “We’re planting more everyday outside and everything else is started indoors,” said Park.
The farm is constant work for the two of them – planting, re-planting, weeding, dealing with pests and, of course, harvesting. The big harvest day is on Friday, the day before the farmers market when they’ll spend from early morning until night fall picking and packing food. They’ll keep harvesting until the heavy snows come at the start of winter.
The results of their work are on display every Saturday at the farmers market in Grizzly Plaza. Their stall is the first you’ll see when approaching via First Street – selling transplants early in the spring and then a plethora of produce later on as their own harvest matures.
They also sell produce through Mountain Goodness and occasionally to local restaurants.
Transplants are also a big seller for them, representing about 30 per cent of their business in only a short part of their season.
Eventually, Park and Jay want to double the size of Terra Firma to two acres. They also want to run a nursery at the farm and do plant sales directly from the property; and host school groups and other events.
Meanwhile, they’ve successfully turned a passion and lifestyle into a business. “We both love doing it,” said Park. “We just wanted to wake up every morning and this be our job.”
