Makaria Farm is 10 acres of A-1 land in the Agricultural Land Reserve (ALR) in Cowichan Station, just south of Duncan on Vancouver Island, in British Columbia.
We proudly continue the family tradition of mispronouncing Makaria as “ma-CARE-ee-ah.” We do not judge those who prefer alternate pronunciations.
The Farmers
photo by Share Organics
Brock McLeod and Heather Walker own and operate Makaria Farm. We walked onto 10 acres of raw pasture in June of 2007, and have been busy developing our farm every day since.
Brock’s been a teacher, a ski-bum, and a trade policy advisor for the provincial government. Heather’s an editor, writer, and professional communications gal, and the founding member of the Renaissance Women. We both love eating food we’ve grown ourselves, and developing ventures like our Island Grains project (launched in 2009) and Cowichan Seeds (to be launched in 2011/12).
We are very interested in agricultural issues: we are actively involved in the Cowichan Agricultural Society & Farmers’ Institute (Heather was the Secretary from 2009-2011). We attend numerous agriculture events and public meetings throughout the season, advocating for sustainable agriculture in the Cowichan Valley.
For more information on the history of Makaria Farm, please read our story here.
The Farm
Makaria Farm is an organic farm. We follow Canadian Organic Standards and do not use any pesticides, fungicides, herbicides, sprays, chemical fertilizers, genetically modified seeds, etc. We build our soil through cover crops, crop rotation, mulch, and compost from organic materials on our farm. We feed our animals certified-organic feed, as well as grains and vegetables we’ve grown ourselves. Our layer hens free-range widely.
We are proud to offer quality products for a fair price. Our CSA program is an excellent way to obtain the best of our harvest at an economical cost. We try to educate our customers as well as ourselves, and offer a Garlic Growers Support Group (at no charge) as well as our Island Grains program.
Our farming practices and business achievements have been recognized by our community in a number of ways: we’ve received awards, scholarships and grants.
