Spring is just around the corner and there is plenty to get excited about this season at Innisfree Farm. After extensive training at Kew Gardens in London, owners Chanchal Cabrera and Thierry Vrain are very pleased to announce that Innisfree Farm has achieved international recognition as a Botanical Garden with a specialty in food and medicine plants. Watch for lots of changes over the next few years, starting this season with an even greater emphasis on education.
Have you always wanted to grow a garden but don’t know where to start? Are you curious about identifying local plants, and harvesting berries and barks for food and medicine? Maybe you enjoy good food and good conversation or maybe you are looking for love? If you said yes to any of these then you need to pay a visit down to the farm.
Starting March 22 with the first of the Holistic Gardening series, and March 24 with the first of the Beginning with Herbs series, then continuing almost every week through late fall, you’ll find something on offer that is exciting or interesting or delicious — or all three!
The Holistic Gardening series with Master Organic Gardener Connie Kuramoto will teach you everything you need to know for a successful harvest this year. From seed selection to soil amendments, from sheet mulching to making compost, these short and simple classes are designed to demystify gardening and get you started growing food.
The Beginning with Herbs series runs three times this year and will empower you to take better care of yourself and your family with natural medicines. Including practical recipes, herb walks and medicine making, this is a great way to introduce herbal medicine to your life.
Coming later in the season there will be Food as Medicine cooking classes, visiting lecturers in herbal medicine, a twice monthly dinner salon series and even Weed Dating where we will encourage you to find love among the cabbages.
As well, the farm shop opens on Saturdays in July, August and September with a wide array of herbal products as well as delectable fresh vegetables. This year we will also be offering afternoon teas in the gardens.
For more details, dates and registration for any of the above offerings, go to www.innisfreefarm.ca or call 250 336 8768.
— Innisfree Farm