We wanted to combine our business interests with our passion for farming. Kyle is a 6th generation farmer on the Saanich Peninsula. There is nothing like seeing your efforts grow before your eyes. Seeing acres of grain grow to perfection is what drives us.
When it comes to the grains we’re growing, the beer starts here. Beer has been around for thousands of years for a reason. It’s good, it’s simple, and it makes us happy. It brings people together, and cultures together. The grains used to make beer and other distilled beverages are also a dependable crop and they used to be grown on Vancouver Island but fell out of favour.
In farming, there is so much to do. There are not many job in the world that require you manage multidisciplinary tasks, including the weather, mechanical breakdowns, crop failure, agronomy, soils, marketing and sales. There is always room for improvement, its a creative endeavour.
Over the past number of decades the saanich peninsula has been well regarded for its berries, vegetables, corn, and forage. Unbenonst to many there was a long standing history comprised of thousands of acres devoted to cereal grains. Bringing back these crops returns the diversity of crop rotations required for sustainable agriculture.
Another important focus is our devotion to bees and pollinator insects. In this regard we plant flowering crops of sunflowers, flax, phacillia and others annually for their pollen and nectar requirements as well as facilitating pollination for our neighbouring farmers.
We are also one of the few places in Canada that can grow winter barley other winter cereals. The benefits of these crops include usuage of natual winter precipitation and provide a green living cover to protect the soil over the winter months. There by saving more water for our favourite beverages. Winter cover crops are important to mitigate soil erosion and compaction from the increasingly extreme weather events due to climate change.
