ABOUT US
Anastasia and Aras own and operate Caspian Acres Farm(https://caspianacres.ca/) near Kamloops, BC. In 2015 they purchased a 20 acre property containing marginal dry farmland covered in sagebrush, with very poor soil, to put many ideas of regenerative farming to test, while practicing farming and getting more connected with the land. They started with a few sheep and poultry and soon added pigs and then cows. Currently they have over 30 pigs, 40 sheep and around 500 free range laying poultry. They move the sheep, cows and pigs frequently to build soil. The pigs and poultry are raised without commercial feed and using food scraps which they bring from Kamloops Foodbank and other organizations. Currently they have an established local customer base, most of whom are subscribers who receive regular boxes of meat and eggs.
OUR VISION
Our vision is to live in a self-sufficient farming village, combining knowledge and vision passed down to us from our previous generations with the technologies and tools we have in our hands today, to make a positive change. We are especially interested in working with and learning about living off the land from First Nations in the area who have been taking care of this land for tens of thousands of years, and we will be consulting and inviting indigenous elders to help us in our search for the best piece of property as well as guide us on how to best take care of the land.
WHY
Like many others, last year put all aspects of our life to test and it has shown us where our strengths and weaknesses are. The biggest realization for us is how vulnerable a farming business is if it is owned and operated by only one family. A family can go through many difficult situations in life that require some or all the members to take some time to heal. Farming livestock however is not a type of business that you can just put a pause on. Animals need daily care to be fed and protected, especially when farming outdoors and tightly integrated with nature.
WHO
We are looking to find a few other existing farmers who are interested in joining forces with us so that we can all expand our operations to cover a much larger area of land, but also share infrastructure and resources so all of our lives can be richer and that we can take some time off once in a while. We would like to continue operating a very diversified farm — planting food producing trees and perennials and grazing animals on pastures among those. We are looking for people who run regenerative farming operations that can integrate well with each other and improve soil health. The ideal candidates would have at least a few years of hands-on experience in farming and would have some equity that they could contribute to the purchase of the land with us.
THE LAND
The ideal land would be at least 160 acres and would have a mix of coniferous and deciduous trees. The land should have good aspects with some south facing slopes. Access to year-around water for livestock and irrigation is essential. The zoning should support multiple off-grid dwellings for farm owners and workers. Because we have an established customer base in Kamloops we would like to stay close to this community, however for the right group of people and the right piece of property we are willing to relocate anywhere in BC.
HOW
We are working closely with Land Matcher Tessa Wetherill to figure out the details on what the best resource sharing model for such farming operations would be. We would like to work with the initial group of interested farmers to find out what would work best for everyone.
Website: https://caspianacres.ca/. Facebook: facebook.com/caspianacres
GET IN TOUCH!
This land opportunity is participating in the BC Land Matching Program. Get in touch with the Okanagan Land Matcher, Tessa, at tessa@youngagrarians.org for more information.
The B.C. Land Matching Program is funded in the Okanagan by the Province of British Columbia, with support from the Real Estate Foundation of B.C. and Patagonia.