The ThunderBlogs

It’s not every day that you come across a 22-year-old young man with a pet duck named Charlie stuffed tenderly under his sweatshirt. Then again, it’s not every day that you come across a young man like Jordan Maynard and a local farm like Southlands Heritage Farm.

General Manager and co-founder of the “magical oasis” that is Southlands Heritage Farm, Maynard is in his fourth year of studies at the University of British Columbia where he majors in Land and Food Systems. The Maynard family has lived and worked in Southlands for three generations and in July of 2009, they purchased the land at 6767 Balaclava St., combining a horse riding school, a therapeutic horse riding program and educational courses in urban farming. A new breed of farmers was born.

Maynard’s interest in farming first bore fruit in 2008 when he decided to clear land on his family’s acre to plant an orchard, some blueberries and some raspberries. Growing up on the fertile delta soil that composes Southlands, he was of course always aware that the area was a provincially protected Agricultural Land Reserve, where agriculture is recognized as the priority use and farming is encouraged.

As developers have continued buying plots of land in the hopes of someday being able to parcel off that land into sub-divisions, Maynard began to worry that they might one day get their wish of lifting the ALR status in Southlands. He set about to raise awareness of the importance of supporting local agriculture and when the plot of land on Balaclava Street went up for sale, Maynard and his parents seized the opportunity.

Maynard explained that he sees Southlands Heritage Farm as a learning facility, offering activities such as apple pressing, farm tours, pumpkin picking and a Young Farmers Summer Camp with a whole host of projects for kids. Having played a large role in helping to change the Vancouver bylaw that now enables residents to keep up to four backyard hens, it seems only right that Maynard’s farm also offer a course entitled, “Chickens 101: How to keep chickens in the city for complete beginners.”

According to Maynard, the courses and activities on the farm are designed to engage people of all ages and to make them start thinking and caring about where they are getting their food. “If people don’t understand the value of farming and eating locally,” said Maynard, “then why should they care about a farm in Delta that is going to be paved over into a highway?”