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| Small-lot agroforestry works on Gabriola Island |
As a small-lot farm, home to the Gulf Islands’ first agroforestry demonstration site, owners Jeff Rietkerk and Sonja Zupanec, with support from the BC Agroforestry Industry Development Initiative, have transformed a 4 acre, fallow hay field, into an organically-managed alley cropping system of nut trees with specialty foods and flowers between the trees, and overlaid with a silvopasture system utilizing laying hens and sheep.
The farm has achieved its goals of:
- Growing diverse, organic, seasonal cut flowers for the local market;
- Growing and processing Styrian pumpkins and other seed crops;
- Supplying the community with fresh eggs from pastured chickens;
- Providing leased pasture grazing for owners of livestock that need to rotate animals or give their pasture a break; and,
- Growing and harvesting a wide variety of nuts in the long term as the farm transitions from annual crops to tree nuts.
The transformation to agroforestry has had its challenges, as well. The production area for nuts was limited in size to the area on the property that had soil conditions most favourable for growing the trees and other annual or perennial crops. But by careful planning at the outset, the alley design used was situated in those portions of the fields where soil conditions and irrigation needs were most straightforward. Also, by employing 'hugelkulture mounds' they were able to take advantage of the biomass available on hand to enhance soil conditions and enrich their generally nutrient-deficient soils. They experimented with grazing sheep in the early stages of the project, but soon realized that too much additional protection of the nut tree seedlings was required to prevent long-term damage. Pastured laying hens however, have been an ideal addition to the tree alleys and Jeff and Sonja plan to experiment with pasturing sheep and pigs again in the future using electric fencing and rotational grazing once the trees have grown past their vulnerability to animal impacts.
The project has been enormous undertaking for the family farm, and they worked near around-the-clock to prepare the fields and planting holes to give the best start to the nut trees. This investment in their future is now thriving and they see a bright future, as the old hay field transforms into a productive orchard. Jeff and Sonja expect to begin harvesting nuts in about 7 years for most of the varieties they have planted, and they have already been approached by local health food advocates to secure nut orders once they have a marketable crop on hand. While they wait for the nut crops to come to fruition, they continue to reap the rewards of an agroforestry approach, by marketing crops from the alleys (flowers, seed crops and eggs) and selling to a local market rife with buyers who appreciate, local, sustainably grown products.
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