Deacon Vale Farm
The farm behind Farm Gate Store…
The Farm’s Story
Deacon Vale Farm came into the family in 1995. It was already a farm, already growing, already working.
Shanti and Don had the farm certified organic and kept it that way for more than a decade, until the paperwork started taking more from the farm than it gave. They chose to put that energy back into the land. The certification is gone; the way they farm hasn’t changed.
For Shanti, it happened almost by accident. She fell in love with the property, which happened to already be a farm, and dove into learning to run it. She had always been a gardener before that — but not a farmer, not yet, not until falling in love with this Mayne Island farm.
If you know Shanti, you know she’s a deeply caring person, and caring for the land is a natural extension of that.
She’s also deeply artistic: an incredible weaver (see her work below), with a love of colour that shows up everywhere. Ask her why dahlias, and she’ll tell you they’re the tarts of the flower world. Showy. Gregarious. Rambunctious.
For Shanti, caring for the land has never been only about healthy soil and good food. It’s also about creating beauty, which she does with almost everything she touches, dahlias included.
From the fields to the deli counter
Don farms too, though his heart’s always leaned toward the food itself. Farm-to-table is a trend now — but it’s what he loved long before that word existed.
He trained as a classical chef at the Dorchester in London, ran Horizons in Vancouver, and later opened his own award-winning restaurant, the Mocha Cafe. After 24 years in restaurants, he left the city for a different pace - one where cooking could stay something he loved, not a task.
For Don, food is an art form and an act of love - or, as one of his grandkids puts it, his love language. It’s clear to anyone who knows him: the store and the deli are a success because he’s cooking for his community, for the people he cares about.
These days, he still splits his time between the fields and the deli counter.
The commercial kitchen
Just beyond the gardens sits the commercial kitchen. This is where the salsa gets made, and the jams, and the hot sauce - everything bottled starts here. It’s where produce that has just been picked gets washed and prepped before it heads to the store. It isn’t a facility. It’s a working part of a working farm and home.
Beef, pork, lamb, chickens, an extensive garden - the farm has grown into many things over thirty years. The cows and pigs are gone now, but sheep and chickens remain, and everything is still grown and raised organically - caring for the land, the consumer, and everything in between.
The gardens. An extensive garden of kale, beets, beans, squash, leeks, tomatoes, zucchini, peppers, cucumbers, chard and more, with heritage varieties wherever possible.
The orchard. Apples, quinces and Asian pears, and the fruit behind Mayne Island Apple Juice.
The dahlias. Over 100 varieties in Shanti’s dahlia bed.
Sheep and chickens. Hens for eggs, and sheep for lamb and wool. The wool is sheared on the farm and sent to a mill in Alberta to become duvets.
Hay. Grown and baled on the farm.
The commercial kitchen. Where the harvest becomes salsas, jams and jellies, chutney, relish, pickles and hot sauce, in small batches each year.
Much of it makes its way to Farm Gate: fresh produce daily in season, eggs, lamb, Shanti’s summer bouquets, and each year’s batch of preserves
What the farm grows…
Fresh produce
and the pantry shelf
The farm’s produce comes into the store daily, whatever’s in season: apples, quinces, Asian pears, kale, beets, beans, squash, leeks, tomatoes, zucchini, peppers, cucumbers, chard and so much more. Because we grow heritage varieties whenever we can, you may find some you’ve never seen before — and flavours that remind you what real, fresh-picked produce is supposed to taste like.
Next to the produce, you’ll find the bottled goods from the farm’s commercial kitchen, made fresh each year in small batches:
Salsas & sauces — Salsa, Salsa Verde, Tomato Sauce, Cranberry Sauce, Knock Your Socks Off Hot Sauce
Jams & jellies — Damson Plum Jam, Pear Ginger Jam, Black Currant Jam, Kiwi Lime Jam, Marmalade, Red Pepper Jelly, Jalapeño Jelly
Pickles & condiments — Bread and Butter Pickles, Farmhouse Relish, South Indian Chutney
There are often others too, made just once depending on what’s abundant that year. Once a jar’s gone, it’s gone until next year’s harvest.
Winter on the farm
When the gardens slow down and the last of the bottling is done, Shanti turns to her loom. Winter is weaving season at Deacon Vale. She weaves scarves, blankets and tea towels by hand, and turns panels of her weaving into pillows. The same love of colour that runs through her dahlia bed runs through every piece.
She never repeats a pattern or colourway, so every piece is one of a kind. You’ll find them at Farm Gate.
Can I visit the farm?
We get asked often whether people can visit the farm, or take a tour. We understand the appeal! But Deacon Vale is a working farm, not a visitor site, so unfortunately, tours and visits aren’t something we offer. What we can promise: everything it grows and makes finds its way to the store for everyone to enjoy.
Come find it all at Farm Gate Store on Fernhill Road. See what’s cooking at the Deli, or meet the other local growers and makers on our Vendors page.
