about us.
Hey thanks for being here! A little about us. Farming and Gardening has been in my Ukrainian family blood for many generations. My grandparents immigrated from Ukraine and farmers and homesteaders on the Prairies in northern Saskatchewan. My father immigrated too and had an amazing green thumb! Eventually they all migrated to Northern Ontario where I came into the picture growing up alongside my grandmother and parents who gardened regularly. The majority of our respective properties were gardens so being around food cultivation was norm. Farm to table was a common element, and frankly, I thought everyone did this to be honest. I carried on the tradition of food growth once I sprouted a little taller and became an adult. When I lived in an apartment, I grew food on the balcony. And when I moved into my first home in Nanaimo, BC, I converted almost my entire backyard into vegetable gardens and fruit trees. From there, I moved to a 2.5 acre space in Errington, BC in 2002, and slowly built up the land into vegetable gardens, fruit orchards complete with greenhouses. Sales at farmers markets became the norm, all the while holding a larger vision of a much larger space and ideas of how we could reach more people both with food sales but also with education around food sustainability. We finally found a much larger acreage on Gabriola Island - a little Gulf Island off the coast of Vancouver Island, BC. An extra ferry ride to get there, but it's serene and there's a lot of farming that happens here that's for sure. So now we are on 5 acres, complete with a greenhouses, ever-growing food patches, herb gardens and fruit orchards.
So how did AngelStar™ come to be? To be honest, growing food and being on the land was equivalent of experiencing Heaven on Earth, so AngelStar™ was just the perfect name courtesy of my daughters. End of story. Oh and my little granddaughter has joined the fold, and helps out quite a bit on our little patch of Heaven on Earth. Never too young to begin ;-)
Our vision here over the next five years is to build up our orchards with dozens of varieties of fruit as well as expand our 5 acre piece of land which will include vegetables, herbs of all kinds - speciality, medicinal, as well as culinary. We are particularly blessed to be surrounded by 120 year old apple trees (yes literally!) and currently have over 40 varieties and counting. And that's just the apples. :-) Part of our 5 year plan, also includes setting up a brick and mortar shop on our farm. The 10 year plan (if we can get to it sooner) is start up a food box program and run health retreats and classes to teach people all about farm to table living and how that can positively impact health and wellness.
For the record, every product we make (other than the food that we grow), is made, bottled and/or packaged in a commercial kitchen off the farm premises.
In the meantime, we hope you will stay with us as we journey along on this wonderful Island. And keep checking our On the Farm page for updated information on what is available throughout the year, or our Online Shop for our curated gourmet goods.
Yours in Good Health from The Ukrainian Gourmet ™
//Olena
