With root vegetables, leafy greens, berries, meat, eggs, bedding plants and more, Root and Vine Acres is more than just another farm.
“It’s like a little grocery store,” said Jessica Piccinin, who runs the farm with her grandmother, Joy Tomlinson.
The farm at 2826 Erickson Rd. opened for the season on Tuesday, offering kale, endive, spinach and eggs, as well as bedding and pond plants. Over the course of the summer and fall, tomatoes, onions, leeks, lettuce, radishes, scallions, beets, carrots, cherries, raspberries, blueberries and blackberries — and that’s only a partial list — will be added to what’s offered, as will lamb, goat and pork.
It’s been a part of the family’s life for over 20 years, and Tomlinson now sells the farm’s products at the Creston Valley Farmers’ Market, while Piccinin regularly sells at two in Nelson.
After growing up on the farm, Piccinin wanted nothing to do with it, and headed for Grande Prairie, Alta., to do something completely different — work in the oil industry.
“I got out and thought, ‘I’d better go back because I’ve made a bad choice,’ ” said Piccinin.
She found that she missed the local lakes and river, so she returned in 2008 to work with her grandma, starting Root and Vine Acres a year later. And while farming hadn’t been her thing, taking fresh produce to the market certainly was.
“That’s what hooked me,” she said. “I love going to the market, being social and seeing the same people each week.”
In Nelson, one regular customer was pregnant when Piccinin first met her — the customer’s daughter is now five, and she too enjoys visiting the Root and Vine Acres kiosk.
“That’s pretty special,” Piccinin said.
While the farm used to grow only plants, fruit and vegetables, Piccinin began raising lamb two years ago, and began raising pigs and goats last year.
“I love raising animals, and the fact that I can produce the meat I like to eat is pretty cool,” she said.
She also raises free-range heritage turkeys — usually in the 15- to 18-pound range — and chickens.
“I take pride in the fact that they enjoy a good life,” she said. “They get to scratch and peck around. We want them to work and earn their keep.”
The 10-acre farm is constantly changing to meet new needs. Soon, the pig pasture will move farther back on the lot, and will be replaced by a vastly expanded vegetable garden.
Those changes — not to mention, of course, seeing baby animals running free — help to keep farm life interesting.
“Every year it’s different and I learn something new,” Piccinin said.
And while some of that comes from simply working on the farm, a lot more comes from learning from her grandma, who is always happy to greet customers and offer advice.
“She knows everything about everything,” Piccinin said. “If I can learn a fraction of what she knows, I’m doing good.”