Anneth Farm Christmas Dec 14th Featuring paintings by Victoria Artist Shelley Hordiyuk

Dec 14th 10 am to 4 pm at 9420 West Saanich Road

As you can tell we are this is not our regular market! We are proud to be featuring 9 gorgeous pieces by Victoria based artist Shelley Hordiyuk. You can visit her website at https://shelleyhordiyuk.com.

In addition we will have some of our delicious lamb for sale, frozen and dried Anneth beans, dried and fresh herbs, preserves, pies and baking. Try our “Easy as pumpkin pie” package which includes a frozen pie shell and frozen puree from our yummy Musquee d’hiver pumpkins. A recipe is included.

We will have some limited edition Anneth aprons and photography by Stan Vuksic and Krista Chase.

Come and get your Christmas spirit refreshed at our lovely farm.

Anneth Christmas Market December 14th, 2019. Mark your calendars!

Change is afoot at Anneth. In the past we have closed down in October and re-opened in May but not this year! We are hosting an amazing Christmas Farm Market. all day Saturday December 14th. We will be located nearer the farmhouse in our warm and covered garage at 9420 West Saanich Road. Here are some things to look forward to:

1) Your favourite Anneth Farm Produce: Pies, frozen and fresh, Frozen Lamb, Frozen and dried Romano type beans, fresh and dried herbs, and preserves. We will have some special baked treats for your Christmas entertaining. And for those of you who want to make your Christmas dinner easy we will have a “Easy as pumpkin pie” gourmet package including a frozen pie shell and frozen Musquee d’hiver pumpkin puree complete with an easy to follow recipe.

We will have carded wool and locks from our lovely sheep for any spinners or felters out there.

Chris will have a few pieces of reclaimed farmhouse furniture for sale and Stan will have some of his lovely photography.

Be the first to own one of our Anneth Farm aprons - (although Stan really was as I gave him the prototype for his birthday )

In addition we will be raffling off some amazing gluten free Christmas puddings and proceeds will go to the Mustard Seed food bank.

2) We are very excited to be featuring some gorgeous art by Victoria artist Shelley Hordiyuk. For sale will be 9 of her lovely pieces. To get a sneak preview go to her website https://shelleyhordiyuk.com/.

3) We have invited a few of our favourite artisans to join us so keep your eyes on this blog for updates.

This will all be rounded out by yummy holiday nog, music and the warm welcome of our friends and neighbours

So come by for a dose of farm style Christmas!

PLEASE NOTE: We will be taking preorders for fresh and frozen pies and the “Easy as Pumkin Pie Package” and can be contacted at annethfarm@gmail.com to arrange pickup at the market.

Closed for the Season (Almost)

The weather is turning cooler and its is time for things to get a little quieter, our goats and sheep to get a little pregnant and for us to start planning for next season. Our last appearance at the North Saanich farm market will be this Saturday September 21st. We still have bits and peices left especially garlic so please e mail if you have questions. Our horse boarding area will soon have two openings coming up so let us know if you are interested. We are planning some amazing and lovely surprises for next year so keep your eyes on this space!

Life after Flavour Trail Weekend

The North Saanich Flavour trails weekend is over but the pride in our community lingers on. We would like to extend our gratitude to the organizers who take on a gargantuan task but what a great result. So many people get a chance to visit with the growers, artisans, producers and others who make up our vibrant little part of the peninsula.

Here at Anneth farm we are pausing to take a breath (yes, really) in order to reflect on the late summer and autumn-such beautiful seasons here. This is the time of year we are just hitting our stride, continuing to harvest our juicy tomatoes and cantaloupe, beans, eggplant and pumpkins. Our garlic is cured and ready for packaging. Our lamb will be delivered to our customers at the end of this month and then it is time to turn our attention to wool production.

Over at the barn, our beautiful mare, Nel, will be going to Nanaimo to have surgery for a benign growth on her ovary and will be back in the barn Wednesday to begin her recovery. Sam is back in action training for a couple more dressage tests in September. And because we don’t have enough to keep us busy :) we have a new great dane puppy nemed Monty (short for Montenegro) who some of you met over the weekend.

Anyway, we will keep the stand closed to replenish until 11 am Thursday of this week. Following that we will try to open at noon Tuesday to Friday until the 20th of September. As many of you know you can e mail us at annethfarm@gmail.com for some orders. Right now we have bulk garlic available - if you by 3 pounds or more the price is $13.00 per pound (compare to regular $1 per ounce or $15.00 for single one pound bag). Please email if you would like to order.

A reminder that if you would like to book a farm tour with us, the details are available on the website (annethfarm.com) and must be arranged through e mail. We can customize to some extent to fit your group and payment is in advance.

This weekend, so many people asked us why we do what we do, and it is true that farming involves many hours of work, especially at this time of year. But that question is easy to answer. Because we love it.

Farm "To Do" List

Yup, that’s our latest “to do’ list. Because tasks on the farm never end and there is never really a time you can ever dust off your hands and say “all done”. And sometimes the same task appears on the list for days, even weeks, in a row and the list begins to own us even when we are the ones who wrote it. It begins to feel like some evil living external thing that is glaring at us in judgment.

So I tore it up. And I would like to make a new one.

FARM TO DO LIST:

1) Get right with God. (I am showing my Christianity here so apologies to my atheist friends who may not feel this one is relevant!)

2) Get right with myself. Cut myself some slack, show myself loving kindness and compassion.

3) Get right with my partner. Check in with him, cut him slack and show him loving kindness and compassion.

4) Get right with my family and friends and all those relationships that nurture and support me. Tell them I am grateful. Work peacefully alongside them and with them.

5) Get right with our creatures… treat all those living things in our care, (ie.horses, sheep, dogs, chickens, goats) humanely and make sure they get all the things they can’t ask us for : Food water, shelter and safety.

There it is - all those other frantic activities are just the stage on which my new list is practiced and carried out. And for those of you who took the time to read this, did I mention I am grateful for you?

Full of Beans

We have bulk beans available at an outrageous sale price this week. Freshly picked for you, Our beans are not only delicious they come with a story. The original bean seeds arrived with Stan’s family in the late 30s from Eastern Europe. They are akin to a soft buttery Romano. You can cut them and eat them raw in salad, cook them soft and serve with olive oil and garlic (see under recipes), or you can order one of our 12 pound boxes for freezing over the winter. They are a nutritious bargain at $20.00 per box. They need no blanching to freeze- just cut one tiny end off and pop into zip lock bags. Just email us at annethfarm@gmail.com or text Chris at 250 885 2384 to order - they are going fast at this price. Remember , our produce is all grown naturally and chemical free. Unfortunately we cannot come to the North Saanich Farm Market this week but our farm stand is open all weekend , including Saturday morning, so do stop by. Try our amazing peppers, (sweet and hot) tomatoes, eggplant, zucchini, shallots, blackberries, and more.

The Best Farm Hand is the One that Leaves.

There you have it - that is the core of our Anneth Farm HR policy. When you think about it, you could list any number of qualities that would encompass the perfect farm worker. Dedicated, focussed, intelligent, thoughtful, motivated, industrious, caring, physically fit, independent, communicative, enthusiastic, disciplined, mature, open to feedback, keen to learn.

Hmmm - come to think of it that might be a description of a fantastic electrician, physician, financial advisor, teacher, police officer, CEO, writer, or future prime minister of Canada.

Those who have come to look after our animals and garden have, for the most part, been very young, with their lives in front of them. They are at school or university, or feeling themselves at a crossroad. of “what comes next”. And this is on the backdrop of a world of uncertainty; political, emotional, financial, and environmental. Maybe our little plot feels tangible and authentic in a way that the future does not. There is something pretty tactile and present about gardening and feeding creatures. But the barn and veggie patch are little educational institutions in themselves, inspiring the development of not just skills, but character traits such as patience, responsibility, ingenuity and compassion. The animals are not always easy, and the cranky ram likes to take a run at you from time to time, raccoons leave a trail of chicken carcasses. While it is idyllic on some days, schlepping hay bags and shoveling manure in the pouring rain can wear a bit thin.

And then there is the matter of that tricky thing called communication and what happens when things don’t go right., when things aren’t “perfect”, those times when we have to figure out how to deal with error or human conflict. Because, I can tell you, the most imperfect things on the farm are its owners. We think we know the “best way” of doing things, but there has never been a farm worker who has not improved the farm in some way before they leave. We try to be great bosses but life happens and we become tired, cranky or impatient and have to have what we famously call around here a “redo”. But man, perfection is a lofty and disappointing goal. I sure hope that despite our bumbling attempts to be “the bosses”, that the message struggling to emerge from it all is this: it is ALWAYS ok and human to make mistakes, experience struggle, or have conflict and these very experiences are the substrate for learning. In fact I hope that that the clear take-away is that learning IS the real work. Every time Stan and I think, “hey, maybe we’ve finally nailed this”, whether “this” be building a shed or building a relationship, we screw up in some way. But please let the gift we give our farm family be our willingness to never give up trying to gain wisdom and improve, to find empathy, to ask for forgiveness, and to forgive.

And so we have to say to those who come here to help us that working for us is just such a short segment of the journey. There is so much more for you, more to learn both formally or informally, to experience and to contribute not just locally but globally. We are the tiniest of stops along the way. And we love you all and miss you all. But the most loving words we can say to you are “Good Bye”

Make a pit stop at our farm gate this morning! (Saturday July 27th, 2019)

Stan and I are unable to be at our beloved North Saanich Farm Market this morning (so sad) but our farm gate is open at 9420 West Saanich Road ALL DAY! So if there is something you cannot live without, stop by! It is self service so bring your change. We have some beautiful eggplant, cherry tomatoes, peppers, beans, garlic, zucchini, eggs and more. Chris is intermittently avilable so if you have questions text 250 885 2384

New Thursday Markets for Anneth Farm-Thursdays 4:30 pm to 7:30 pm

Starting this week we will be hosting 3 Thursday evening markets right at our farm gate. We will feature all of our delicious produce and will be there to help you-this will be a full service market- we can answer your questions about the produce and make change etc. We are hosting these special markets because we are unable to serve you at the North Saanich farm market for the next three weekends.

We have chosen Thursdays for 4:30 to 7:30 because we thought you might like to combine this with trip to the Sidney street fair. Head up to Sidney to enjoy the buzz then cruise by Anneth for produce.

Weeding Made Wonderful

Thank you to everyone who came to the farm today and made the ordinary job of weeding extraordinary.