InFocus Magazine

One of the great things about the Comox Valley is the ability to travel the back roads and find just about anything you want to eat.  Take for example Christine Gauvin’s duck farm on Idiens Way in Comox.  Gauvin runs a five-acre operation located just north of the busy intersection of Anderton and Guthrie.  She raises ducks, ducklings and duck meat along with meat chickens, egg hens and lamb—all for sale directly off the farm.

It’s a business Gauvin has been growing for the past nine years, almost entirely by word of mouth.  Officially Gauvin is Christine’s Quackery on Misty Haven Farm.  But to many in the Valley familiar with her product she is better known as “the duck lady.”  Her specialty is Muscovy duck.

For the last two years, Gauvin has produced 500 ducks for sale one of three ways—fresh, frozen or live.  Those numbers make her the largest producer of duck meat on Northern Vancouver Island and one of the few year-round suppliers.  That is, if she doesn’t sell out first.

“I’m sold out,” is the first thing Gauvin says when asked about her business.  “Last three years, sold right out.  People are just waiting for my ducks to get big so they can get here, and I’ve got two big orders to fill in two weeks!”

Gauvin says all of this with a laugh that tells you she’s looking forward to the challenge. And with that you get the sense of how one woman went from a pet duck to a quality, in-demand farming operation in less than a decade.

“I’ve always had animals, my whole life,” says Gauvin.  “And I’ve always loved ducks. My neighbor at the blueberry farm, I was getting one of her kittens because I wanted a barn cat.  So when I went over to pick the kitten up because it was ready to go, and she hollered over the fence at me ‘Do you want a duck?’  I said ‘Sure, why not?’  I took it sight unseen, a big male duck.”

Unfortunately, the duck—which Gauvin named Donald—wouldn’t stay at home.  He would head down the driveway and off the property every time Gauvin put him out. Gauvin decided he was lonely, and got Donald a girlfriend she named Daisy.  Then she read in a book that a male duck could have up to five females, so she got some more females and eventually another male. The inevitable outcome was, of course, babies.  Lots of them.

“I ended up with all these baby ducks,” says Gauvin laughing.   “I thought, ‘Well, now what am I going to do ‘cause I can’t kill anything!”

Instead Gauvin found a facility in Coombs to process her ducks for her.  On her way back she drove past the Kingfisher Resort, and decided to take a gamble.  She stopped in and introduced herself to then-chef Ronald St. Pierre (now owner and chef of Locals Restaurant).  She gave him a complimentary duck, and asked him to let her know if he was interested in buying from her.  He called back the next day, and Gauvin had her first client.  The business has done nothing but grow ever since.

There are her regulars from Vancouver who come every year to stock-up on duck meat. Many of them tasted her product while staying at the Kingfisher.  Other clients are in Powell River, and of course there are the locals.  Then there’s Local’s Restaurant, the Butchers Block and Avenue Bistro, to name a few of the businesses she supplies.  Gauvin can hardly keep up with the demand.

She attributes a lot of her success to timing.  The Muscovy is known as a greaseless duck. It doesn’t have the same oils other ducks use to stay afloat when they swim, and so there is very little oil to cook out of the meat.  That also means Muscovy ducks don’t swim—they also don’t quack, and sometimes aren’t even considered a true duck. The lack of oil makes the Muscovy duck popular with today’s health conscious consumers on the lookout for leaner cuts of meat.

Then there’s the operation itself.  Gauvin’s ducks are free range—they have access to an open air duck barn with feed, but are able to come and go as they please.  The ducks forage on bugs, seeds, roots and stems on the property, and make use of the creek that runs through the farm.  Gauvin’s been told she has some of the cleanest ducks in the business, and she believes that’s a big advantage to her product.

However, it’s Gauvin’s need to keep busy that really drives her entire business. She came to the Comox Valley in 1982 after falling in love with the area on a visit.  She didn’t know a soul, and she didn’t have a job.  But she did have the firm conviction she could find work, even if it was picking strawberries.  True to her belief, Gauvin quickly found work as a cook at the old Wrangler Pub, and was able to pick-up part-time, casual work doing the same thing at St. Joseph’s Hospital.  In 1989 she got on full-time at the hospital, and kept taking night shifts at the pub until it burned down.  In between, Gauvin raised her family, and eventually found herself in a little trailer off Plateau Road.

“It was great, but you go home and what do you do?” asks Gauvin with a genuinely puzzled look on her face.  “I don’t have any artistic talents like painting, so that was out of the question for me.  And I needed something to do.”

She knew that something had to do with animals.  “I’ve always been looking for a place,” explains Gauvin.  “And I saw this place and it was so convenient between here and the hospital.  And that’s how I started.  I took a chance and I’ve been here nine years.”

Her records show a total 31 ducks in May of 2002.  Along the way she added donkeys, pigs, chickens, sheep and cattle.  Her day would start at three or four in the morning with the morning feed before heading to the hospital for 5:00am shifts.  Gauvin would then come home, do the evening chores and eventually head to bed.  A badly healed total knee replacement forced Gauvin to downsize and focus on the smaller animals a couple of years ago.  Today she breeds 12 ewes and a single ram for lamb meat, raises meat birds, and has just added 50 new laying hens to the 50 she already has.  That’s in addition to the 36 ducks (three males and 33 females) that make up the heart of her business.  She’s hoping to produce 700 ducks for sale in the coming year.

Gauvin takes all of her animals for processing herself at a government inspected facility in Coombs (the same facility that processed her first batch of ducks), and bags and labels the finished product before delivering it to customers up and down the Island.  Gauvin is determined as few people as possible handle her meat before it gets to the customer.  She believes fewer hands touching the meat means fewer chances of the product being ruined or contaminated by bacteria.  It’s not unusual for her to meet regular clients in Parksville and Qualicum and sell out of the back of her truck.

It all adds up to a lot of work, but Gauvin is adamant she’s never been afraid of work in her life.  That and her animals provide a kind of stress relief she really can’t do without.

“I’ve not about the money,” says Gauvin.  “We can’t get rich on farming.  It’s just a little hobby.”  But then Gauvin adds, “This is the job I do for myself.  I should have been a farmer’s wife!”

In the end, though, it’s genuine care and respect for the animals she raises that distinguishes Gauvin’s product from anything else available on the Island.  “They get to be a duck (or a chicken or lamb),” declares Gauvin.  “I let them be who they are.  You buy chicks these days and half of them don’t even know what they are.”

At Gauvin’s farm, mother ducks sit on their eggs, hatch their eggs, and stay with their babies for as long as they want, or up to four months when they’re taken for processing (whichever comes first).  Lambs stay with their mothers and are able to nurse until six months of age.

And if an animal falls ill, she nurses it back to health.  Gauvin brought her ram into her house when he fell ill with a leg injury, despite most of her farmer friends telling her to send the animal to slaughter.  She bottle-fed the animal, who is now convinced he’s more a dog than a sheep.  To this day the ram limps, but “he has 13 babies out there so he did okay.”

Gauvin is always cleaning her pens, enforces a no chasing policy that even her two dogs follow, and constantly interacts with her animals.  The familiarity pays off.  Her animals grow up in a stress-free environment, and go to slaughter extremely well cared for.

“They have a right to good feed, a good bed, a good environment, and killed right,” says Gauvin, summing up her personal philosophy of animal husbandry.  “I think that’s what makes your meat taste good.  You get what you put into something.”

To visit the farm stand at Christine’s Quackery go to 2051 Idiens Way, Comox (off Anderton).  Duck meat, chicken meat, and eggs are available year-round.

For more information visit www.christinesquackery.com.

One of the great things about the Comox Valley is the ability to travel the back roads and find just about anything you want to eat.  Take for example Christine Gauvin’s duck farm on Idiens Way in Comox.  Gauvin runs a five-acre operation located just north of the busy intersection of Anderton and Guthrie.  She raises ducks, ducklings and duck meat along with meat chickens, egg hens and lamb—all for sale directly off the farm.

It’s a business Gauvin has been growing for the past nine years, almost entirely by word of mouth.  Officially Gauvin is Christine’s Quackery on Misty Haven Farm.  But to many in the Valley familiar with her product she is better known as “the duck lady.”  Her specialty is Muscovy duck.

For the last two years, Gauvin has produced 500 ducks for sale one of three ways—fresh, frozen or live.  Those numbers make her the largest producer of duck meat on Northern Vancouver Island and one of the few year-round suppliers.  That is, if she doesn’t sell out first.

“I’m sold out,” is the first thing Gauvin says when asked about her business.  “Last three years, sold right out.  People are just waiting for my ducks to get big so they can get here, and I’ve got two big orders to fill in two weeks!”

Gauvin says all of this with a laugh that tells you she’s looking forward to the challenge. And with that you get the sense of how one woman went from a pet duck to a quality, in-demand farming operation in less than a decade.

“I’ve always had animals, my whole life,” says Gauvin.  “And I’ve always loved ducks. My neighbor at the blueberry farm, I was getting one of her kittens because I wanted a barn cat.  So when I went over to pick the kitten up because it was ready to go, and she hollered over the fence at me ‘Do you want a duck?’  I said ‘Sure, why not?’  I took it sight unseen, a big male duck.”

Unfortunately, the duck—which Gauvin named Donald—wouldn’t stay at home.  He would head down the driveway and off the property every time Gauvin put him out. Gauvin decided he was lonely, and got Donald a girlfriend she named Daisy.  Then she read in a book that a male duck could have up to five females, so she got some more females and eventually another male. The inevitable outcome was, of course, babies.  Lots of them.

“I ended up with all these baby ducks,” says Gauvin laughing.   “I thought, ‘Well, now what am I going to do ‘cause I can’t kill anything!”

Instead Gauvin found a facility in Coombs to process her ducks for her.  On her way back she drove past the Kingfisher Resort, and decided to take a gamble.  She stopped in and introduced herself to then-chef Ronald St. Pierre (now owner and chef of Locals Restaurant).  She gave him a complimentary duck, and asked him to let her know if he was interested in buying from her.  He called back the next day, and Gauvin had her first client.  The business has done nothing but grow ever since.

There are her regulars from Vancouver who come every year to stock-up on duck meat. Many of them tasted her product while staying at the Kingfisher.  Other clients are in Powell River, and of course there are the locals.  Then there’s Local’s Restaurant, the Butchers Block and Avenue Bistro, to name a few of the businesses she supplies.  Gauvin can hardly keep up with the demand.

She attributes a lot of her success to timing.  The Muscovy is known as a greaseless duck. It doesn’t have the same oils other ducks use to stay afloat when they swim, and so there is very little oil to cook out of the meat.  That also means Muscovy ducks don’t swim—they also don’t quack, and sometimes aren’t even considered a true duck. The lack of oil makes the Muscovy duck popular with today’s health conscious consumers on the lookout for leaner cuts of meat.

Then there’s the operation itself.  Gauvin’s ducks are free range—they have access to an open air duck barn with feed, but are able to come and go as they please.  The ducks forage on bugs, seeds, roots and stems on the property, and make use of the creek that runs through the farm.  Gauvin’s been told she has some of the cleanest ducks in the business, and she believes that’s a big advantage to her product.

However, it’s Gauvin’s need to keep busy that really drives her entire business. She came to the Comox Valley in 1982 after falling in love with the area on a visit.  She didn’t know a soul, and she didn’t have a job.  But she did have the firm conviction she could find work, even if it was picking strawberries.  True to her belief, Gauvin quickly found work as a cook at the old Wrangler Pub, and was able to pick-up part-time, casual work doing the same thing at St. Joseph’s Hospital.  In 1989 she got on full-time at the hospital, and kept taking night shifts at the pub until it burned down.  In between, Gauvin raised her family, and eventually found herself in a little trailer off Plateau Road.

“It was great, but you go home and what do you do?” asks Gauvin with a genuinely puzzled look on her face.  “I don’t have any artistic talents like painting, so that was out of the question for me.  And I needed something to do.”

She knew that something had to do with animals.  “I’ve always been looking for a place,” explains Gauvin.  “And I saw this place and it was so convenient between here and the hospital.  And that’s how I started.  I took a chance and I’ve been here nine years.”

Her records show a total 31 ducks in May of 2002.  Along the way she added donkeys, pigs, chickens, sheep and cattle.  Her day would start at three or four in the morning with the morning feed before heading to the hospital for 5:00am shifts.  Gauvin would then come home, do the evening chores and eventually head to bed.  A badly healed total knee replacement forced Gauvin to downsize and focus on the smaller animals a couple of years ago.  Today she breeds 12 ewes and a single ram for lamb meat, raises meat birds, and has just added 50 new laying hens to the 50 she already has.  That’s in addition to the 36 ducks (three males and 33 females) that make up the heart of her business.  She’s hoping to produce 700 ducks for sale in the coming year.

Gauvin takes all of her animals for processing herself at a government inspected facility in Coombs (the same facility that processed her first batch of ducks), and bags and labels the finished product before delivering it to customers up and down the Island.  Gauvin is determined as few people as possible handle her meat before it gets to the customer.  She believes fewer hands touching the meat means fewer chances of the product being ruined or contaminated by bacteria.  It’s not unusual for her to meet regular clients in Parksville and Qualicum and sell out of the back of her truck.

It all adds up to a lot of work, but Gauvin is adamant she’s never been afraid of work in her life.  That and her animals provide a kind of stress relief she really can’t do without.

“I’ve not about the money,” says Gauvin.  “We can’t get rich on farming.  It’s just a little hobby.”  But then Gauvin adds, “This is the job I do for myself.  I should have been a farmer’s wife!”

In the end, though, it’s genuine care and respect for the animals she raises that distinguishes Gauvin’s product from anything else available on the Island.  “They get to be a duck (or a chicken or lamb),” declares Gauvin.  “I let them be who they are.  You buy chicks these days and half of them don’t even know what they are.”

At Gauvin’s farm, mother ducks sit on their eggs, hatch their eggs, and stay with their babies for as long as they want, or up to four months when they’re taken for processing (whichever comes first).  Lambs stay with their mothers and are able to nurse until six months of age.

And if an animal falls ill, she nurses it back to health.  Gauvin brought her ram into her house when he fell ill with a leg injury, despite most of her farmer friends telling her to send the animal to slaughter.  She bottle-fed the animal, who is now convinced he’s more a dog than a sheep.  To this day the ram limps, but “he has 13 babies out there so he did okay.”

Gauvin is always cleaning her pens, enforces a no chasing policy that even her two dogs follow, and constantly interacts with her animals.  The familiarity pays off.  Her animals grow up in a stress-free environment, and go to slaughter extremely well cared for.

“They have a right to good feed, a good bed, a good environment, and killed right,” says Gauvin, summing up her personal philosophy of animal husbandry.  “I think that’s what makes your meat taste good.  You get what you put into something.”

To visit the farm stand at Christine’s Quackery go to 2051 Idiens Way, Comox (off Anderton).  Duck meat, chicken meat, and eggs are available year-round.

For more information visit www.christinesquackery.com.

Brian Bloomfield stands in his woodworking shop and surveys an assortment of cedar boards that are neatly laid out against a wall.  The rough-hewn Western Red Cedar is standing vertically—like a dense forest of trees.  Bloomfield examines each one carefully, somnology
sometimes reaching out to touch this one or that, as though the wood might energetically relay a message to him or tell a story.

He has hand-picked every single piece of cedar in his shop.  During the selection process at local suppliers he looks for the best old growth lumber harvested from Vancouver Island.  He has an artistic eye for fine details, matching colors and wood grain patterns, while imagining whether the individual piece of wood is destined to become part of a chair or a table… or something else.

Bloomfield developed an interest in woodworking when he was a boy growing up in rural Manitoba.  His first introduction to the craft was at a church at the age of six.

“I lived in Napinka, a small town of 250 people,” he recalls.  “There were four churches and one offered woodworking projects for kids.  It was there that I discovered that I liked the smell of fresh cut wood.  When I was a little older, I spent endless hours working alongside my grandfather and uncle, both of whom were carpenters.  They stressed to me that anything I build should be built to last.  It is a life lesson that I have never forgotten.”

Decades later, Brian Bloomfield is now the wood craftsman/designer/manufacturer/owner behind a successful Vancouver Island enterprise called Bloomfield Flats Custom Cedar Furniture.  His wife, Judy, “does everything else”—including managing orders and keeping the books from their home-based office just south of Courtenay.  While they are a company of only two, the Bloomfields have built a solid reputation for excellence in custom-crafted cedar furniture.  Their furniture has been sold to hundreds of customers on Vancouver Island and the mainland, as well as clients across Canada, the United States and into Europe.  People recognize a superior product when they see it and appreciate the beauty and durability of Western Red Cedar.

Brian Bloomfield moved from Manitoba to Vancouver in 1979, where he continued what would turn out to be a 35-year career in the aircraft industry.  He also worked hard to build a life on Vancouver Island.  From 1981 through 1989, he commuted from the Comox Valley to his Richmond-based job—often by motorcycle—every weekend.

“We met in 1981, on the lawn of the Heriot Bay Marina on Quadra Island,” recalls Judy, a Vancouver Islander by birth.  “There were a group of us traveling by boat to view real estate on Maurelle Island.  I was looking for a recreational property, not a relationship.  Four years later, we were married.  Our son, Orie, was born in 1989.  Orie still lives on Vancouver Island and has acquired a skill for working with wood from his father—he is a third year carpentry apprentice.”

The chair that would change the course of the Bloomfield’s lives appeared soon after they met. Judy came home one day with a couple of rickety old wooden chairs that she had purchased for $5 each at a garage sale.  She had no idea these ‘treasures’ would be the start of a new enterprise built around her husband’s hobby.

“Sure, the paint was chipped and they wiggled if you sat on them but I knew that Brian might be able to fix the chairs,” recalls Judy with a smile.  “At the time, the only outdoor furniture we owned were two very flimsy and uncomfortable folding chairs.”

“I immediately threw one of the chairs onto our burn pile,” says Brian with a hearty laugh.  “The other—a Cape Cod-style wooden chair—looked interesting.  I brought it into my workshop, dismantled it, analyzed it… and then burned it!  But that chair became the inspiration for a pattern to construct a modified version with twice the thickness of cedar (not fir), a wider seat, extra reinforcements, routered edges, and lots of sanding.  Now, THAT was a thing of beauty!  Thirty years later we are still using that chair!”

‘That chair’ was a welcome addition to the couple’s yard.  It was so comfortable that friends and family fought over who would get to sit in it.  Soon, he had to make more for the yard—and for others.  The orders started coming in.

“Brian, can you make me one just like that but higher for my long legs—or shorter for my short legs?”

“Brian, can you make me one just like that but a loveseat?”

“Please make me two chairs with an attached table in between.”

Lorna Bridge of Country Catering and Brian Walker of Walker Small Engine Repair placed the first ‘official order’ of six chairs.  They still own and enjoy them 28 years later.

The Bloomfields soon realized that they had found a market niche.  They decided that Brian would officially make chairs as a sideline business and attend a couple of events per year to showcase his products.  This would give some focus to the furniture enterprise without cutting into other work commitments and family time too much.  They needed time to work on the hobby farm and to enjoy the cabin they had built on Maurelle Island.

In the mid 1980s, the general public got their first view of what was then sold as ‘BNB Cedar Furniture’—short for Brian N. Bloomfield.  They displayed their wares at the Comox Valley Farmers’ Market and the Filberg Festival.

In 1986, the Bloomfields purchased a 20-acre parcel of raw land from Comox Valley environmental crusader Ruth Masters.

“We had been living in a small house across the road from this spectacular piece of land, located on Fraser Road, just south of Courtenay,” explains Brian.   “We loved the mix of trees and natural pastures and that Millard Creek—a spawning bed for Coho and Chum salmon— ran across the back half of it.  We made a solemn promise to Ruth Masters that we would respect the environmental integrity of the land.”

The Bloomfields then began carefully selecting trees and milling timber from their new acreage. “The land gave us enough lumber to build a workshop, a barn and corrals for Judy’s horses, and a home,” explains Brian. “The first building constructed was, of course, a workshop, so I could continue to build cedar furniture on weekends. The last building to be completed was a large timber frame home. Where possible, I used re-cycled materials, some of which I brought home from the mainland on the back of my motorcycle.”

The farmstead became known as Bloomfield Flats when a family friend made up the name, crafted a wooden sign, and hung it on the entrance gate.  The name stuck.

Years later, the Bloomfields fulfilled the environmental stewardship pledge they had made to Masters when they purchased the property.  They registered the first legal covenant in the British Columbia Agricultural Land Research (ALR)—a designation that ensures the land will remain undeveloped in perpetuity.  Inspired, in part, by Masters’ commitment to environmental stewardship, Brian became a dedicated social and environmental crusader, too.  In addition to many volunteer commitments over the past 25 years, he is the outgoing president of the Millard-Piercy Watershed Stewards, a local non-profit organization with a mission to maintain and restore the watershed.

The Bloomfields would enjoy life at Bloomfield Flats until 2006, when they decided to sell the farm and downsize.  Fond memories and many friends had been made during 20 years of community gatherings and potluck dinners held at the acreage.  The chicken wire backstop and ball diamond that Brian had built in the corner of the hay field had become an integral part of almost every gathering and had provided seemingly endless hours of fun and laughter. But it was time to move.  Considering that they loved living in the rural triangle between Courtenay, Royston and Cumberland, they purchased an existing home with a view of the bay, just down the road from Bloomfield Flats.

Says Judy:  “We enjoyed living in this neighborhood so much, we just didn’t have the heart to leave the area!”

In 2009, Judy left her job with the School District.  One month later, due to the economic downturn, Brian’s 35-year career in airframe sheet metal abruptly came to an end.  Once again, their lives would take on a new direction because of ‘that chair.’

In January 2010, with the help of Community Futures Strathcona, Bloomfield Flats Custom Cedar Furniture became a fulltime business.  Weekdays you will find Brian busy building furniture in his workshop.  Weekends (and some evenings) he, Judy, and their Australian Cattle Dog, Winnie, take a trailer packed with furniture and hit the road.  The product is displayed at venues throughout Vancouver Island.

“The feedback from customers of all persuasions has been nothing short of phenomenal,” says Judy.  “People appreciate Brian’s craftsmanship, attention to detail, design and comfort.”

Over the years, Brian had continued to tweak the design of the Cape Cod/Adirondack or Eastcoast-style chair he had started with until he was 100 per cent satisfied with the finished product.  Now, with more time on his hands for research and development, plus a number of customer requests for a chair that was easier to get in and out of, he designed his own style of seating that he labeled the ‘Westcoast’ chair.  It was officially launched in January 2010.

“My Westcoast chair is ergonomically designed with the seat higher off the ground, a more upright back for better lumbar support and—as requested—it is easy to get in and out of,” explains Brian.  “These comfort and ‘ease of exit’ features are especially appreciated by the Baby Boomer generation.  The Westcoast model has been very well received and now out-sells the Eastcoast chairs.  I also build short or tall versions of my chairs, to custom fit people with longer or shorter legs.”

Brian guides me through his workshop, which is piled high with cedar furniture in various states of assembly. He points to one of his custom-crafted Westcoast chairs. “Please be seated,” he says with a smile.

I settle down into the chair and am amazed how comfortable it is.  Without a doubt, “sitting is believing!”  The only thing that could improve the experience is a cold beer and an ocean view! I get a flashback to when I was pregnant more than 20 years ago.  I had made the mistake of settling down in a low-slung Eastcoast-style chair at a friend’s house.  It took a Herculean effort on my part to exit that chair without the assistance of a crane!  I remind Brian that a wide variety of people will appreciate the ‘ease of exit’ feature of the Westcoast chair, not just Baby Boomers.

While the custom-crafted range of chairs built to accommodate most sizes of individuals remain a customer favorite, Brian also makes loveseats, combination table/chair models, plus a variety of tables, barstools, footstools, garden trugs, and other custom-built items upon request.  For example, he crafted the beautiful 12-foot long cedar banquet table in the lower level of the Old House Restaurant.

“Growing from a side-line business to a full-time venture was a huge leap of faith for us,” adds Judy.  “Thirty years ago we never could have imagined that Brian’s love of building things with wood could be our main source of income.  We are grateful to Community Futures Strathcona, the Comox Valley Home-Based Business Association, the members of the Chamber of Commerce, and the hundreds of customers who have been so supportive of this adventure.”

Brian agrees.  “As we celebrate our 30 years of success this summer, Judy and I extend our sincere thanks to the people of the Comox Valley and beyond for supporting our business,” he says.

“We are confident that our furniture will stand the test of time.  In our ‘throw away society’ it feels good to know that Bloomfield Flats Custom Cedar Furniture will last.”

For more information visit www.bloomfieldflats.ca.