We moved to the Similkameen Valley in 2009 in search of a better lifestyle without knowing exactly what form that would take.

At first, we refuged with a relative whose family had been farming the Valley for decades. We helped out a little whilst trying not to get in the way. We had scant farming experience but we were not without skill.

A time later farmersdotter came across a modest, “for sale by owner, as is where is” money-pit of a farm in Cawston.

The potential was there. Hidden behind broken single-pane windows, seesaw floors, soot-stained walls, and pink bathroom fixtures. It was playing hide-and-seek among the tired and crumbling finishes of varied dilapidated outbuildings.

The whole farm, like us, was prime for a re-fit.

Someone said the place had good bones. In one of the outbuildings was a massive, purpose built wood-fired oven. Don’t come across that every day.

We convinced ourselves that we could make this work. After all we had some aptitude, some skill and after two years of unemployment some motivation.

With resources dwindling we bought the farm.

To be sustainable we needed an income from this project.

Let’s figure this out.