InFocus Magazine

Abel O’Brennan is a winemaker with a mission.  As the driving force behind the Comox Valley’s newest winery, tablets Coastal Black, life his work is all about broadening the horizons of wine-drinkers (whether they are casual sippers or connoisseurs) by welcoming them to the world of fruit wines.

The term ‘fruit wine’ refers to all wines made with fruit that is not grapes.  It can be made with tree fruits, berries, pomegranates and more—even, in Hawaii, naturally—pineapples.  Fruit wine has been around as long as classic grape wine, but hasn’t (yet) come on board as a full-fledged member of the mainstream North American wine industry.

“I missed the memo that says grapes are not longer a fruit,” says O’Brennan with a good-natured laugh.  There are no grapes in any of Coastal Black’s products, but there are plenty of blueberries, blackberries and raspberries, all grown on the 820-acre Coastal Black farm in Black Creek.

Their newest product is a sparkling blackberry wine.  It joins a blackberry table wine, raspberry table wine, and blueberry table wine, and a blackberry as well as a raspberry dessert wine.  As well, Coastal Black makes three types of mead (spiced, blueberry, and plain) from honey produced on the farm.

“Fruit wines don’t get enough respect here in North America,” he says.  “People think it’s something Grandpa makes in his basement.  They don’t know that these fruits make really excellent wines.  And there’s a misconception that it’s all really sweet, but in fact our blackberry table wine is fairly dry and pairs well with many foods.  It’s our flagship product and is hugely popular.

“If you look at other parts of the world like Finland or Australia, fruit wines are very well established.  In Asia, they love their fruit wines.  Here, it’s a market that is not being capitalized on.”

O’Brennan was interested in filling that market gap, and all the signs seemed to support him.  The farm was already moving into berry production for processing, so using some of the crop for wine made sense.

O’Brennan wanted to work with what grows well on his soil and in his climate.  Clearly, blackberries grow extremely well: currently, Coastal Black has the largest cultivated blackberry crop in Canada.

“The soil isn’t great for grapes here, and it’s hard to find a grape varietal that can be ripened to its full potential in this area,” he says.  Also, fruit wine appealed because it allowed O’Brennan to sidestep some of the solemn, occasionally pompous attitude that tends to prevail around wine.  “There’s such a mystery around wine.  People get all worried and ask what they are allowed to drink it with or what wine they should be buying.  I say, taste it, and if you like it, it’s good wine… no matter how many stars it’s rated.”

O’Brennan, dressed in worn jeans, a T-shirt and a baseball cap, perfectly fits the role of the unpretentious, down-to-earth farmer.  Standing somewhere above six-foot tall, with a good strong frame and capable looking hands, he looks like someone who can fix a tractor, frame a barn, or tell you all about the soil just by squeezing a handful.

He is also, clearly, a capable businessman.  A closer look at his baseball cap shows it sports the Coastal Black logo, a subtle reminder that this is no hobby winery but rather an ambitious commercial operation.  Since opening for business last August, Coastal Black has produced 80,000 litres (that’s 108,000 bottles) of wine and mead.  The winery boasts state-of-the-art equipment which, says O’Brennan, was only possible because of the relatively large scale of the whole operation.

“We definitely jumped into this business with both feet.  I remember when I was starting out, I was chatting with a wine-making veteran, and he said, ‘Y’know how to make money in the wine industry?  Start with a big one.’  We’ve definitely found that to be true.  We have a lot of investment.  Sure, it is a romantic and fun way to make a living, but the reality is that it is a capital heavy business.  We are working with a business plan that has to come to fruition on schedule,” he says, sounding serious, but not worried.

Coastal Black already has loyal customers—“People are buying the blackberry sparkling wine by the caseload,” says O’Brennan.  Their whole product line is available at close to 60 stores across the Island.

And, well before its first birthday, this fledgling winery has already brought in some prestigious awards.  This past April, Coastal Black entered four wines in the Finger Lakes International Wine Competition in Rochester, New York, and all of them won awards: the Blackberry Dessert Wine won gold, the Blackberry Table Wine and the Spiced Mead won Silver, and the Raspberry Dessert Wine won Bronze.

“It was a nice bit of validation.  There were 3,300 wines entered from 18 countries, and 64 wine experts were flown in from all over the world to judge.  Ours was one of only two BC wines to get a gold.  What a feather in our cap!” says O’Brennan.

It’s a pretty impressive start, and there’s more growth to come. The day after I interview him, O’Brennan is heading off to Italy for an educational tour with a company he’s buying a fancy bottling plant from.  “It’ll be the first of its kind on the Island,” he says, enthusiastically.  The winery is currently in the final stages of getting a patio licence, which will mean they can serve wine by the glass to visitors.  He has plenty of plans for the future—a traditional wood-fired oven by the patio, a venue that can be rented for events such as weddings, a new barrel cellar, and more.

Obviously, O’Brennan is as much businessman as farmer.  He is also very much a family man.  At 26 years old, he’s expecting his third child and is a very-involved member of the four-generation extended family that lives and works on the Coastal Black farm.

For O’Brennan, who was born and raised on Vancouver Island, the story began when he joined the Ludwig clan by marrying Amanda Ludwig six years ago.  With that ceremony, he stepped into a story that goes back to 1989, when Terry and Bonnie Ludwig bought a 250-acre homestead with a house and a lot of brushland in Black Creek.  They cleared the land to create pasture, built barns, and brought in a herd of dairy cows.  The farm thrived and at one point they were milking 260 cows a day.

Over the years the Ludwigs expanded, adding land till they had 820 acres.  They also had three kids, Amanda, Daniel and Phil.

In the early 2000s, after going full tilt for over a decade, the Ludwigs began to contemplate making a change.  Their kids were moving into adulthood, and the whole family, including its new member O’Brennan, had a series of conversations about what could happen.  No one wanted to take over dairy farming (O’Brennan is allergic to cows and breaks out in hives when he gets too near them), but there were other promising ideas for the using the land.

Daniel, the youngest son, was a beekeeper who wanted to move seriously into commercial honey production.  Phil, the oldest son, was ready to go forward with his dream of founding a specialty sawmill that would provide custom-cut lumber.  And the O’Brennans were interested in fruit farming and wine-making.

“It wasn’t an easy decision,” says O’Brennan.  “My in-laws had done very well with the dairy farm.  A lot of long conversations had to happen.”

The first fruit was planted six years ago, while the dairy farm was being phased out.

“The year I was 22 was a huge year for me.  Our first child was born, and that was the year we went big into fruit.  We brought a team of Mexican workers here as labor and I had to learn Spanish,” O’Brennan says.  He was also learning how to make wine, under the guidance of a consultant whose help, he says, was invaluable.

“It was a learning curve, I tell ya!” he says, laughing and shaking his head as thinks back on the intensity of that year.

The sawmill and beekeeping operation partner perfectly with the winery.  The bees pollinate the berries, the honey supplies the main ingredient for the mead, and the sawmill provided the lumber to transform the cow barns into the winery and tasting room.

The whole family lives on the property: the original dairy farmers Terry and Bonnie, Terry’s parents, their three grown-up kids, with spouses, and a couple of grandchildren (and more on the way). This set-up seems like an unusual throwback to an old-fashioned world of farming that, if we believe media reports on the dwindling of rural culture, is dying out.

Although statistics have been telling us that young people are leaving the farming life behind to move to cities, O’Brennan offers an alternate point of view.

“That trend is coming to a bit of an end,” he predicts.  “People are realizing the value of producing agricultural products that can be enjoyed.  There so much more awareness about where our food comes from and how it is processed.  If you look over at Europe all their chefs are rock stars and agricultural production is in a whole other league.  That’s the trend we’re starting to follow now.  There’s a new appreciation of farming and the rural life.”

O’Brennan loves his farming lifestyle.  “What could be more romantic than running a winery?  Sure, it can be really, really busy—for instance harvest is an eight-week marathon when we work 18-hour days to bring everything in—but on the other hand things slow down in the winter and we can take a nice family holiday.

“I work long hours lots of the time but I don’t see what I do as work.  Everything I do I’m doing because it’s meaningful to me.  When I bend over to pick up a stone, I’m improving the ground.  I love what I do.  It’s a kind of freedom,” he says.

He also appreciates the way the business allows him to manifest his values around community and environmental sustainability.

“We like to do things naturally here.  We can’t use anything that might be harmful to the bees.  We don’t spray our fruit from blossom to harvest.  We control aphids by releasing ladybugs; in fact, there’s a short video on the website about this, which is kind of fun,” he says.

Another big value for Coastal Black is relationship.  Hosting tours and tastings isn’t just good for sales, it’s a way of creating a sense of community with clients, educating them, and giving them a connection to the land and people that produce the wine they drink.

“These days, people really appreciate knowing the producers of what they consume,” he says.

Coastal Black runs a wine club that anyone can join.  Members get special opportunity to buy exclusive releases, enhanced flexibility in booking tours, and a 5% discount on all purchases.  As well, Coastal Black donates an additional 5% of all wine club member purchases to one of three charities (chosen by the member): the Canadian Cancer Society, the Vancouver Children’s Hospital and KIVA, a global organization that provides micro-loans in developing countries.

“We’re grateful to be able to support these charities,” says O’Brennan.  “Everyone knows someone who’s been affected by cancer.  And what is more important than the health of our kids?  The KIVA grants often go to support agriculture, which is very close to our hearts here.”

There’s no doubt that all aspects of O’Brennan’s work lie very close to his heart.  He’s doing something he loves, with people he loves, in a place he loves.  And at the end of a busy day, when he sits down finally to sip a glass of wine and look out at the incredible view of the mountains, he surely can feel he’s fulfilling his mission.

 

Coastal Black Estate Winery is located on Endall Road in Black Creek.

coastalblack.ca
Driving through Fanny Bay on Highway 19A you will see the Ironwood Farm BC Organic sign in front of what looks like a normal rural property.  There are no fields in sight from the road, information pills
online only a large greenhouse can be seen in the background, a house and a few outbuildings.   However, behind that modest exterior image lies a thriving farming operation run by Bryne and Barbara Odegard.  For most of the year the farm is also home to many travellers from around the world.

The Odegard’s moved to Fanny Bay in 1996 from Parksville where they had operated a one-acre market garden and nursery.  Bryne had been a troller fisherman on the West Coast for more than 20 years and a combination of factors lead to the decision to make the switch to farming.

“The industry was dying and it wasn’t much fun anymore,” Bryne says.  “I was noticing that all my friends were dying at sea.  It didn’t make sense, you know, everyone else was dying, maybe I’m going to die out here, you know.  The more that died the less I enjoyed the idea of it.”

Barbara fills in the rest of the thinking behind the transition:  “We wanted our daughter to have a healthy life and we thought this was a good lifestyle.  Plus we love plants and growing.  We realized that as we were married and spent more time together that our real passion together as a couple is growing things.  Love it, you know, love, love, love it!”

When they found the 11.5 acres that had been fallow for 10 years but still had good soil and water potential, they knew they had found the key to launching their dream of becoming full time organic farmers.  Established in 1948 by Mildred Halgren, the farm had mostly produced hay and housed goats.   The Odegards loved the farm and the unpolluted Fanny Bay area right from the moment they saw it.   They chose to name it Ironwood Farm because they felt it signified strength.  Ironwood is also one of the names for a native hardwood bush that is best seen in June when it produces sprays of white flowers.

The mice had to be evicted from the house and the floors needed more support, but eventually they had a comfortable home and were able to focus on developing their crops.  “It takes time to get to know your piece of land and weather patterns,” says Barbara.  “When you first start out you want to do everything and you realize very quickly that there are many factors that don’t make things work.

“Number one you take stuff to the market and you realize people don’t want that.  One thing we have learned is that consumers are very stuck in their ways and it is a challenge to get people to eat a vegetable that looks even a little bit different from what they are used to.  And then we learned very quickly too that you have people say, “Oh you have to grow lemon cucumbers, everybody will buy them!”   How many times did we try doing stuff like that?

“So we’ve learned over the years what does well here, what crops you get good money from, what crops keep producing for the minimum output” she adds.  “We always indulge in a few new things every year because you can and its fun to, but, by in large, it took about 10 years to figure out what is going to make you the money and what will the land produce for you.  They have to go together.”

Their mainstay crops include lettuce, greens, rhubarb, leeks, spinach, chard, kale, green onions, tomatoes, cabbage, broccoli, arugula, squash, zucchini, radish and parsley.   They also grow bedding plants, potatoes, various fruit and, occasionally, they have sold eggs and organic chicken.  Over the years they have experimented with selling directly from the farm and while they are not currently doing that, it remains in the planning mix.  Mostly they sell off-farm at the Comox Valley and the Tofino Farmers’ Markets.  They also supply goods to a local food box program, Sunshine Organics, and the Tofino/Ucluelet Culinary Guild.  The purpose of the 65-member Guild is outlined on their website:  “As members of a dynamic culinary community, our mission is to work closely with each other and our region’s farmers, fishermen and foragers to provide unique food experiences that rely on sustainable farm/boat-to-table practices and the freshest local ingredients prepared with integrity and passion.”

Passion is something Barbara and Bryne have in great abundance when they talk about farming and living sustainably.  Given our cool spring I thought asking about how they deal with the weather might dampen their enthusiasm.  Not so, as Bryne responds: “We grow so many things that something is always happy.  Luckily this year we planted a lot of stuff that likes the cool weather.

For example, “We knew that it was La Nina this year and that it was expected to be a cool spring, so you sort of consider that and don’t think that you’re going to be planting something that really likes the heat early in the year.”

Adds Barbara:  “We are constantly paying attention to the weather forecast for sure, and as far as planning months ahead that is difficult, but I think this is where the small market farms really have an advantage because we potentially prepare ourselves to grow everything.  The diversity makes it like Bryne says—something will always grow.  As long as you have all the bases covered and you get it out there and get it in the ground, if we don’t get the heat and the zucchinis don’t grow then you’ve got lettuces, etc.”

One topic that definitely brings out their passion is when they describe the difference that working with “WWOOFers”—World Wide Workers on Organic Farms—has made to Ironwood Farm and their lives.  WWOOF was originally founded in Britain in 1971 as Weekend Workers on Organic Farms.  The organization has spread out across the globe and is now referred to as World Wide Workers on Organic Farms.  The Canadian branch of WWOOF was formed in 1985.  In return for volunteer help, WWOOF hosts offer food, accommodation and opportunities to learn about organic lifestyles.

The Odegards found out about WWOOFers from a presentation at a Courtenay Earth Day soon after they started Ironwood Farm.  They signed up to be hosts the next year.  Barbara laughs, noting that “we realized very quickly that we couldn’t do it alone!  But, I think a lot of farms like ours find they’re in the position that you don’t make enough money to pay people to help you and a lot of people don’t want to do this kind of work.”

The first year they hosted a young couple from Ontario.  It was quite a task to figure out how to utilize their help.  Fifteen years later, Ironwood Farm is an extremely popular destination for people from all over the world.  They host three to five people at a time, and ask workers to make a minimum three-week commitment, and if possible to arrive on a Sunday and leave on a Saturday.

Barbara handles the scheduling and both of them work directly with the WWOOFers because the vast majority of them have never worked on a farm or done any gardening at all.

Arranging a good mix of applicants is what Barbara strives for because she believes one of the biggest joys of having WWOOFers at their farm is helping them to learn about each other.  The day I visited there were WWOOFers from Japan, Germany, Italy and Belgium.

Many WWOOFers stay in touch and some have returned to visit to underscore in person how pivotal their experience at Ironwood Farm has been for them.

“We’ve really gotten to realize what an amazing experience the kids are having here and how it is impacting their lives,” says Barbara.  “It is a humbling experience.  They are realizing there are more ways to live than to just think about how much education do I need to be a doctor, lawyer or accountant?  And, is money the only thing I need to be thinking about?  What about, how do I want to live in the world?”

She cites as an example a current WWOOFER, Hiro Ozawa, a 26-year-old man from Japan.  “He says we have totally changed his life,” says Barbara.  “He says he has become organic man.  He never thought about it, and he’s a chef working with food, and he never thought about how different food can taste when it is grown by hand.”

Ozawa is from near Tokyo, Japan.  He tells me he decided to try WWOOFing because as a chef he wanted to learn more about growing herbs and vegetables.  Before coming to Ironwood he made a bicycle journey from Alaska to San Diego.  So he is fit, but at Ironwood Farm, he says he has become more fit and he has learned a lot about good food and working.

Alice Cazzola, pronounced Alicea, is visiting from Turin, Italy.   At 19, many of her friends thought she was crazy to come to Canada to work on a farm.  I asked what she thought about her experience.  “You need much patience but it gives you satisfaction,” she says.   “You can see the result of your work.  Maybe with other jobs you don’t see so clearly.  And it is manual work.  Not only mental and thinking so you need both your brain and your body.  Sometimes jobs are too much in one direction but here you have a good mix.   Maybe the right one, I don’t know.”

Anna Pape, also 19, from Germany, adds:  “I like the moments when we have good laughs and sharing the dinners and sitting together at the table.   It’s always fun and interesting.”

There are journals filled with enthusiastic messages written by WWOOFers about their time at Ironwood Farm.  It is obvious that it is an arrangement that works well and adds a unique dynamic to this farming operation.  Barbara summarizes its importance: “Here was a way for Bryne and me to get some help and to teach at the same time, and, to give something back.  It has become such a huge part of our experience.  We probably would not be farming if we did not have these, mostly young people, coming here.”

Farming is a difficult life.  Few farmers in Canada can make a living without working off the farm.  The Odegards have faced these challenges and they continue to try to creatively overcome them.  In addition to their daily farm work, they contribute to organic growers’ organizations, sit on boards, teach courses and give lectures.

After 16 years of running Ironwood Farm they still love each other and love what they’re doing.  Would they, I asked, suggest that others give farming a try?

Bryne’s answer epitomizes the essence of my visit to Ironwood Farm:  “I don’t know if I’d recommend it to anyone, but, there’s lots of satisfaction.  Just when you put the seed in and three days later it has popped up.  It’s a pretty good feeling to see that new energy coming out of the ground again and again and again.  And when you transplant something and it rains the next day or that night and everything just gets their feet and they take off.  That’s a good feeling too.  Or, you run the hoe down the row and you’ve killed millions of weeds in five minutes just by walking with the hoe and they’re all dying.  You know.”

 

FMI go to ironwoodfannybay.blogspot.com or search for them on Facebook.  Purchase their produce at the weekly Comox Valley Farmers’ Market in Courtenay.

 

 
riving through Fanny Bay on Highway 19A you will see the Ironwood Farm BC Organic sign in front of what looks like a normal rural property.  There are no fields in sight from the road, for sale
only a large greenhouse can be seen in the background, approved
a house and a few outbuildings.   However, behind that modest exterior image lies a thriving farming operation run by Bryne and Barbara Odegard.  For most of the year the farm is also home to many travellers from around the world.

The Odegard’s moved to Fanny Bay in 1996 from Parksville where they had operated a one-acre market garden and nursery.  Bryne had been a troller fisherman on the West Coast for more than 20 years and a combination of factors lead to the decision to make the switch to farming.

“The industry was dying and it wasn’t much fun anymore,” Bryne says.  “I was noticing that all my friends were dying at sea.  It didn’t make sense, you know, everyone else was dying, maybe I’m going to die out here, you know.  The more that died the less I enjoyed the idea of it.”

Barbara fills in the rest of the thinking behind the transition:  “We wanted our daughter to have a healthy life and we thought this was a good lifestyle.  Plus we love plants and growing.  We realized that as we were married and spent more time together that our real passion together as a couple is growing things.  Love it, you know, love, love, love it!”

When they found the 11.5 acres that had been fallow for 10 years but still had good soil and water potential, they knew they had found the key to launching their dream of becoming full time organic farmers.  Established in 1948 by Mildred Halgren, the farm had mostly produced hay and housed goats.   The Odegards loved the farm and the unpolluted Fanny Bay area right from the moment they saw it.   They chose to name it Ironwood Farm because they felt it signified strength.  Ironwood is also one of the names for a native hardwood bush that is best seen in June when it produces sprays of white flowers.

The mice had to be evicted from the house and the floors needed more support, but eventually they had a comfortable home and were able to focus on developing their crops.  “It takes time to get to know your piece of land and weather patterns,” says Barbara.  “When you first start out you want to do everything and you realize very quickly that there are many factors that don’t make things work.

“Number one you take stuff to the market and you realize people don’t want that.  One thing we have learned is that consumers are very stuck in their ways and it is a challenge to get people to eat a vegetable that looks even a little bit different from what they are used to.  And then we learned very quickly too that you have people say, “Oh you have to grow lemon cucumbers, everybody will buy them!”   How many times did we try doing stuff like that?

“So we’ve learned over the years what does well here, what crops you get good money from, what crops keep producing for the minimum output” she adds.  “We always indulge in a few new things every year because you can and its fun to, but, by in large, it took about 10 years to figure out what is going to make you the money and what will the land produce for you.  They have to go together.”

Their mainstay crops include lettuce, greens, rhubarb, leeks, spinach, chard, kale, green onions, tomatoes, cabbage, broccoli, arugula, squash, zucchini, radish and parsley.   They also grow bedding plants, potatoes, various fruit and, occasionally, they have sold eggs and organic chicken.  Over the years they have experimented with selling directly from the farm and while they are not currently doing that, it remains in the planning mix.  Mostly they sell off-farm at the Comox Valley and the Tofino Farmers’ Markets.  They also supply goods to a local food box program, Sunshine Organics, and the Tofino/Ucluelet Culinary Guild.  The purpose of the 65-member Guild is outlined on their website:  “As members of a dynamic culinary community, our mission is to work closely with each other and our region’s farmers, fishermen and foragers to provide unique food experiences that rely on sustainable farm/boat-to-table practices and the freshest local ingredients prepared with integrity and passion.”

Passion is something Barbara and Bryne have in great abundance when they talk about farming and living sustainably.  Given our cool spring I thought asking about how they deal with the weather might dampen their enthusiasm.  Not so, as Bryne responds: “We grow so many things that something is always happy.  Luckily this year we planted a lot of stuff that likes the cool weather.

For example, “We knew that it was La Nina this year and that it was expected to be a cool spring, so you sort of consider that and don’t think that you’re going to be planting something that really likes the heat early in the year.”

Adds Barbara:  “We are constantly paying attention to the weather forecast for sure, and as far as planning months ahead that is difficult, but I think this is where the small market farms really have an advantage because we potentially prepare ourselves to grow everything.  The diversity makes it like Bryne says—something will always grow.  As long as you have all the bases covered and you get it out there and get it in the ground, if we don’t get the heat and the zucchinis don’t grow then you’ve got lettuces, etc.”

One topic that definitely brings out their passion is when they describe the difference that working with “WWOOFers”—World Wide Workers on Organic Farms—has made to Ironwood Farm and their lives.  WWOOF was originally founded in Britain in 1971 as Weekend Workers on Organic Farms.  The organization has spread out across the globe and is now referred to as World Wide Workers on Organic Farms.  The Canadian branch of WWOOF was formed in 1985.  In return for volunteer help, WWOOF hosts offer food, accommodation and opportunities to learn about organic lifestyles.

The Odegards found out about WWOOFers from a presentation at a Courtenay Earth Day soon after they started Ironwood Farm.  They signed up to be hosts the next year.  Barbara laughs, noting that “we realized very quickly that we couldn’t do it alone!  But, I think a lot of farms like ours find they’re in the position that you don’t make enough money to pay people to help you and a lot of people don’t want to do this kind of work.”

The first year they hosted a young couple from Ontario.  It was quite a task to figure out how to utilize their help.  Fifteen years later, Ironwood Farm is an extremely popular destination for people from all over the world.  They host three to five people at a time, and ask workers to make a minimum three-week commitment, and if possible to arrive on a Sunday and leave on a Saturday.

Barbara handles the scheduling and both of them work directly with the WWOOFers because the vast majority of them have never worked on a farm or done any gardening at all.

Arranging a good mix of applicants is what Barbara strives for because she believes one of the biggest joys of having WWOOFers at their farm is helping them to learn about each other.  The day I visited there were WWOOFers from Japan, Germany, Italy and Belgium.

Many WWOOFers stay in touch and some have returned to visit to underscore in person how pivotal their experience at Ironwood Farm has been for them.

“We’ve really gotten to realize what an amazing experience the kids are having here and how it is impacting their lives,” says Barbara.  “It is a humbling experience.  They are realizing there are more ways to live than to just think about how much education do I need to be a doctor, lawyer or accountant?  And, is money the only thing I need to be thinking about?  What about, how do I want to live in the world?”

She cites as an example a current WWOOFER, Hiro Ozawa, a 26-year-old man from Japan.  “He says we have totally changed his life,” says Barbara.  “He says he has become organic man.  He never thought about it, and he’s a chef working with food, and he never thought about how different food can taste when it is grown by hand.”

Ozawa is from near Tokyo, Japan.  He tells me he decided to try WWOOFing because as a chef he wanted to learn more about growing herbs and vegetables.  Before coming to Ironwood he made a bicycle journey from Alaska to San Diego.  So he is fit, but at Ironwood Farm, he says he has become more fit and he has learned a lot about good food and working.

Alice Cazzola, pronounced Alicea, is visiting from Turin, Italy.   At 19, many of her friends thought she was crazy to come to Canada to work on a farm.  I asked what she thought about her experience.  “You need much patience but it gives you satisfaction,” she says.   “You can see the result of your work.  Maybe with other jobs you don’t see so clearly.  And it is manual work.  Not only mental and thinking so you need both your brain and your body.  Sometimes jobs are too much in one direction but here you have a good mix.   Maybe the right one, I don’t know.”

Anna Pape, also 19, from Germany, adds:  “I like the moments when we have good laughs and sharing the dinners and sitting together at the table.   It’s always fun and interesting.”

There are journals filled with enthusiastic messages written by WWOOFers about their time at Ironwood Farm.  It is obvious that it is an arrangement that works well and adds a unique dynamic to this farming operation.  Barbara summarizes its importance: “Here was a way for Bryne and me to get some help and to teach at the same time, and, to give something back.  It has become such a huge part of our experience.  We probably would not be farming if we did not have these, mostly young people, coming here.”

Farming is a difficult life.  Few farmers in Canada can make a living without working off the farm.  The Odegards have faced these challenges and they continue to try to creatively overcome them.  In addition to their daily farm work, they contribute to organic growers’ organizations, sit on boards, teach courses and give lectures.

After 16 years of running Ironwood Farm they still love each other and love what they’re doing.  Would they, I asked, suggest that others give farming a try?

Bryne’s answer epitomizes the essence of my visit to Ironwood Farm:  “I don’t know if I’d recommend it to anyone, but, there’s lots of satisfaction.  Just when you put the seed in and three days later it has popped up.  It’s a pretty good feeling to see that new energy coming out of the ground again and again and again.  And when you transplant something and it rains the next day or that night and everything just gets their feet and they take off.  That’s a good feeling too.  Or, you run the hoe down the row and you’ve killed millions of weeds in five minutes just by walking with the hoe and they’re all dying.  You know.”

 

FMI go to ironwoodfannybay.blogspot.com or search for them on Facebook.  Purchase their produce at the weekly Comox Valley Farmers’ Market in Courtenay.

 

 
Driving through Fanny Bay on Highway 19A you will see the Ironwood Farm BC Organic sign in front of what looks like a normal rural property.  There are no fields in sight from the road, ask
only a large greenhouse can be seen in the background, erectile
a house and a few outbuildings.   However, order
behind that modest exterior image lies a thriving farming operation run by Bryne and Barbara Odegard.  For most of the year the farm is also home to many travellers from around the world.

The Odegard’s moved to Fanny Bay in 1996 from Parksville where they had operated a one-acre market garden and nursery.  Bryne had been a troller fisherman on the West Coast for more than 20 years and a combination of factors lead to the decision to make the switch to farming.

“The industry was dying and it wasn’t much fun anymore,” Bryne says.  “I was noticing that all my friends were dying at sea.  It didn’t make sense, you know, everyone else was dying, maybe I’m going to die out here, you know.  The more that died the less I enjoyed the idea of it.”

Barbara fills in the rest of the thinking behind the transition:  “We wanted our daughter to have a healthy life and we thought this was a good lifestyle.  Plus we love plants and growing.  We realized that as we were married and spent more time together that our real passion together as a couple is growing things.  Love it, you know, love, love, love it!”

When they found the 11.5 acres that had been fallow for 10 years but still had good soil and water potential, they knew they had found the key to launching their dream of becoming full time organic farmers.  Established in 1948 by Mildred Halgren, the farm had mostly produced hay and housed goats.   The Odegards loved the farm and the unpolluted Fanny Bay area right from the moment they saw it.   They chose to name it Ironwood Farm because they felt it signified strength.  Ironwood is also one of the names for a native hardwood bush that is best seen in June when it produces sprays of white flowers.

The mice had to be evicted from the house and the floors needed more support, but eventually they had a comfortable home and were able to focus on developing their crops.  “It takes time to get to know your piece of land and weather patterns,” says Barbara.  “When you first start out you want to do everything and you realize very quickly that there are many factors that don’t make things work.

“Number one you take stuff to the market and you realize people don’t want that.  One thing we have learned is that consumers are very stuck in their ways and it is a challenge to get people to eat a vegetable that looks even a little bit different from what they are used to.  And then we learned very quickly too that you have people say, “Oh you have to grow lemon cucumbers, everybody will buy them!”   How many times did we try doing stuff like that?

“So we’ve learned over the years what does well here, what crops you get good money from, what crops keep producing for the minimum output” she adds.  “We always indulge in a few new things every year because you can and its fun to, but, by in large, it took about 10 years to figure out what is going to make you the money and what will the land produce for you.  They have to go together.”

Their mainstay crops include lettuce, greens, rhubarb, leeks, spinach, chard, kale, green onions, tomatoes, cabbage, broccoli, arugula, squash, zucchini, radish and parsley.   They also grow bedding plants, potatoes, various fruit and, occasionally, they have sold eggs and organic chicken.  Over the years they have experimented with selling directly from the farm and while they are not currently doing that, it remains in the planning mix.  Mostly they sell off-farm at the Comox Valley and the Tofino Farmers’ Markets.  They also supply goods to a local food box program, Sunshine Organics, and the Tofino/Ucluelet Culinary Guild.  The purpose of the 65-member Guild is outlined on their website:  “As members of a dynamic culinary community, our mission is to work closely with each other and our region’s farmers, fishermen and foragers to provide unique food experiences that rely on sustainable farm/boat-to-table practices and the freshest local ingredients prepared with integrity and passion.”

Passion is something Barbara and Bryne have in great abundance when they talk about farming and living sustainably.  Given our cool spring I thought asking about how they deal with the weather might dampen their enthusiasm.  Not so, as Bryne responds: “We grow so many things that something is always happy.  Luckily this year we planted a lot of stuff that likes the cool weather.

For example, “We knew that it was La Nina this year and that it was expected to be a cool spring, so you sort of consider that and don’t think that you’re going to be planting something that really likes the heat early in the year.”

Adds Barbara:  “We are constantly paying attention to the weather forecast for sure, and as far as planning months ahead that is difficult, but I think this is where the small market farms really have an advantage because we potentially prepare ourselves to grow everything.  The diversity makes it like Bryne says—something will always grow.  As long as you have all the bases covered and you get it out there and get it in the ground, if we don’t get the heat and the zucchinis don’t grow then you’ve got lettuces, etc.”

One topic that definitely brings out their passion is when they describe the difference that working with “WWOOFers”—World Wide Workers on Organic Farms—has made to Ironwood Farm and their lives.  WWOOF was originally founded in Britain in 1971 as Weekend Workers on Organic Farms.  The organization has spread out across the globe and is now referred to as World Wide Workers on Organic Farms.  The Canadian branch of WWOOF was formed in 1985.  In return for volunteer help, WWOOF hosts offer food, accommodation and opportunities to learn about organic lifestyles.

The Odegards found out about WWOOFers from a presentation at a Courtenay Earth Day soon after they started Ironwood Farm.  They signed up to be hosts the next year.  Barbara laughs, noting that “we realized very quickly that we couldn’t do it alone!  But, I think a lot of farms like ours find they’re in the position that you don’t make enough money to pay people to help you and a lot of people don’t want to do this kind of work.”

The first year they hosted a young couple from Ontario.  It was quite a task to figure out how to utilize their help.  Fifteen years later, Ironwood Farm is an extremely popular destination for people from all over the world.  They host three to five people at a time, and ask workers to make a minimum three-week commitment, and if possible to arrive on a Sunday and leave on a Saturday.

Barbara handles the scheduling and both of them work directly with the WWOOFers because the vast majority of them have never worked on a farm or done any gardening at all.

Arranging a good mix of applicants is what Barbara strives for because she believes one of the biggest joys of having WWOOFers at their farm is helping them to learn about each other.  The day I visited there were WWOOFers from Japan, Germany, Italy and Belgium.

Many WWOOFers stay in touch and some have returned to visit to underscore in person how pivotal their experience at Ironwood Farm has been for them.

“We’ve really gotten to realize what an amazing experience the kids are having here and how it is impacting their lives,” says Barbara.  “It is a humbling experience.  They are realizing there are more ways to live than to just think about how much education do I need to be a doctor, lawyer or accountant?  And, is money the only thing I need to be thinking about?  What about, how do I want to live in the world?”

She cites as an example a current WWOOFER, Hiro Ozawa, a 26-year-old man from Japan.  “He says we have totally changed his life,” says Barbara.  “He says he has become organic man.  He never thought about it, and he’s a chef working with food, and he never thought about how different food can taste when it is grown by hand.”

Ozawa is from near Tokyo, Japan.  He tells me he decided to try WWOOFing because as a chef he wanted to learn more about growing herbs and vegetables.  Before coming to Ironwood he made a bicycle journey from Alaska to San Diego.  So he is fit, but at Ironwood Farm, he says he has become more fit and he has learned a lot about good food and working.

Alice Cazzola, pronounced Alicea, is visiting from Turin, Italy.   At 19, many of her friends thought she was crazy to come to Canada to work on a farm.  I asked what she thought about her experience.  “You need much patience but it gives you satisfaction,” she says.   “You can see the result of your work.  Maybe with other jobs you don’t see so clearly.  And it is manual work.  Not only mental and thinking so you need both your brain and your body.  Sometimes jobs are too much in one direction but here you have a good mix.   Maybe the right one, I don’t know.”

Anna Pape, also 19, from Germany, adds:  “I like the moments when we have good laughs and sharing the dinners and sitting together at the table.   It’s always fun and interesting.”

There are journals filled with enthusiastic messages written by WWOOFers about their time at Ironwood Farm.  It is obvious that it is an arrangement that works well and adds a unique dynamic to this farming operation.  Barbara summarizes its importance: “Here was a way for Bryne and me to get some help and to teach at the same time, and, to give something back.  It has become such a huge part of our experience.  We probably would not be farming if we did not have these, mostly young people, coming here.”

Farming is a difficult life.  Few farmers in Canada can make a living without working off the farm.  The Odegards have faced these challenges and they continue to try to creatively overcome them.  In addition to their daily farm work, they contribute to organic growers’ organizations, sit on boards, teach courses and give lectures.

After 16 years of running Ironwood Farm they still love each other and love what they’re doing.  Would they, I asked, suggest that others give farming a try?

Bryne’s answer epitomizes the essence of my visit to Ironwood Farm:  “I don’t know if I’d recommend it to anyone, but, there’s lots of satisfaction.  Just when you put the seed in and three days later it has popped up.  It’s a pretty good feeling to see that new energy coming out of the ground again and again and again.  And when you transplant something and it rains the next day or that night and everything just gets their feet and they take off.  That’s a good feeling too.  Or, you run the hoe down the row and you’ve killed millions of weeds in five minutes just by walking with the hoe and they’re all dying.  You know.”

 

FMI go to ironwoodfannybay.blogspot.com or search for them on Facebook.  Purchase their produce at the weekly Comox Valley Farmers’ Market in Courtenay.

 

 

If you’re driving along Forbidden Plateau Road these days, you may have spotted the newest addition to carver Kevin Lewis’ front yard—a towering cougar come to life from a tree felled by a friend in Comox.  The animal stands stretched on its hind legs, head peering over the top of the log and paws draped in front.  Its tail flows down the back following the grain of the wood in a sinuous and life-like curve.  In fact, the wooden animal is about the same size as an actual cougar, and if you stand beneath his gaze you might just get the sense the dangerous predator is watching you.

It is a remarkable sculpture, made all the more spectacular by the fact that it was carved with a chainsaw.  The cougar, though, is just one in a menagerie of real and fantastical creatures that make-up Lewis’ work and fill his front yard gallery.  Dragons, fairies, turtles and bears are just a few of the things that peek out of the landscaping, and show their creator’s talent with a tool most of us have only seen used to cut things up.

Granted, cutting things up is how it all started.

“I started carving when I started falling trees,” says Lewis matter-of-factly.  “I knew I was going to need another lifestyle.  Fallers are a dying breed.”  Of course, that’s only the first part of the story.

“I always collected the small lead figures (the kind used in fantasy role-playing games) and painted them.  Then as I was falling and running the chainsaw I just wanted a big one,” says Lewis with a laugh.  “Nobody did chainsaw carvings of fantasy figures.  All I saw was bears and eagles everywhere.  I just wanted more mystical creatures—gargoyles, unicorns, dragons.  And I couldn’t afford to buy them.”

His first large piece, in 1997, was a gargoyle he carved using his big falling saw.  A dragon soon followed.

“From then on I was hooked,” says Lewis.  He invested in carving bars—fine nosed blades that allow for much better detail than a regular chainsaw blade—and never looked back.

At first the carving was just a hobby, a way to bring the many fantasy worlds and creatures in Lewis’ imagination to life.  Then came an opportunity to move to Newfoundland.   Lewis made the decision to leave logging and make a living carving.  He packed up his van, his dog and his chainsaw and drove across the country.  Once in Newfoundland, he parked the van at the side of the road, got himself some driftwood and a generator, and started carving.

The response from Newfoundlanders was immediate and strong.  Lewis suspects it has to do with the fact that typical Newfoundland yard art includes plywood shapes and figures.

“So when they saw sculptures…” says Lewis, his voice trailing off with the bemusement of someone still surprised by how successful he’s been.

In Newfoundland Lewis took to carving smaller pieces, focusing on the dwarves, fairies and the mystical creatures he loves.  His goal was volume and affordability.

“The $80-$100 price range was my bread and butter,” says Lewis.  “It kept me going. They’re so poor out there, but they’d spend that money on a small dragon for their yard.” Occasionally someone would spend several hundred dollars on larger pieces.  This came in especially handy the day Lewis’ chainsaw died, leaving him to wonder how he was going to support himself if he couldn’t carve.

“A guy came in and bought something like $600 worth of my work,” says Lewis.  “Just like that I had enough to buy a new chainsaw.”

Then there were the requests.  “I had a fellow show up with a block of wood and two burls on it and he said ‘I see an ET in this boy’,” says Lewis, putting on a Newfoundland accent.  “I’ve done Yodas, ETs—a bit of everything.”  He was even asked to people’s homes to carve the stumps of old yard trees—something he still does today.

In spite of his success in Newfoundland, and the great practice he got turning out hundreds of pieces, Lewis eventually felt the desire to come back home to the Comox Valley where he grew up.  He put his chainsaw and dog back in the van, took a detour through the United States, and came back to the Island to start falling again.

This isn’t to say Lewis was done with carving.  Instead, the faller lifestyle—and a conscious decision to keep his bills to a minimum—let Lewis spend part of the year in the woods working and the rest of the year carving the wood he collects from his job’s reject pile, on the beach or from friends.

It’s a balance that seems to work.  In 2005, he used his time off to travel to Toronto to visit his cousin, a fellow chainsaw carver.  Just like Newfoundland, the trip was something of an eye-opener.  The two of them worked side-by-side, Lewis making his fantasy creatures and his cousin creating more typical chainsaw art: bears.

“When I started carving, I swore I would never carve a bear,” says Lewis.  It was what everyone else was carving, and didn’t appeal to his fantasy tastes.  Knowing this, Lewis’ cousin challenged him to a sales comparison, and when they added up their receipts Lewis had sold $6,000 in fantasy figures to his cousin’s $30,000 in bears.

“So after that my cousin said you have to learn to carve a decent bear,” says Lewis with some ruefulness.  Lewis did learn from his cousin, and the decision opened up his repertoire and range of buyers.  One of his most popular and talked about pieces today is an octopus carved from a piece of yellow bird’s eye cedar with multiple burls, and done at a friend’s request.  Photos of the piece show how Lewis matched the natural curves and fluidity of the sea animal to the curves and grain of the burls.  The creature is gorgeous in its detail, right down to the abalone eyes, and looks ready to move along the ground.

The funny thing about Lewis and his work, though, is he has no formal training and even scoffs at his own artistic abilities.  “I’ve never taken an art class,” he says.  “I have no artistic skills that I know of aside from running with the chainsaw.  If I draw out a plan of what I want to carve, it looks like little stick figures everywhere.”

Instead, Lewis finds images of what he wants to do and just goes from there.

“I’ll look at the pictures for the first 20 minutes of my carving,” explains Lewis.  “It seems like it takes me about 20 minutes—which is one full tank of gas—of just chipping at the block of wood and then after that it’s just like I’m reading the best book ever.  I start flipping the pages and the story unfolds.

“And once I see that in the wood, there’s no stopping.  I just go hard.”   In Toronto he completed a large dragon in one 18-hour marathon session, stopping only for some food and water.

“But once I get going on a piece it is very quick,” says Lewis.  “Because in chainsaw work you move the wood fast.  Get the wood out of the way.  Get those pieces to bring out that form and that creature I am trying to bring out in the wood.  The faster the better.”

In fact, visualization plays a huge role in Lewis’ work.  “If I go driftwood hunting I look for noses and faces,” says Lewis.  “Say you see a big root on the beach and you look for a nose, the next thing you know the face follows.  So I try and look for noses and a lot of times it might be the nose of a dragon or some fairy creature.  It seems if I start with the thing that protrudes the most on the creature then I’ll see a flow in the wood.  That’s how I look for things.”

He also spends a lot of time moving his hands in the air, mimicking his saw blade.

“I don’t want to start it until I’ve got in my head my moves,” he says.  “When I start moving my hands like little karate chops, I just see how I want the piece to form, where I’m going to do my cuts.  It’s almost like training in my mind.”

That preparation shows up in the quality of Lewis’ work.  Lewis is determined that every piece he does is the best he can possible do.  He pours his love of fantasy and chainsaw carving into each piece.  And he wants the people who buy his work to love it back.

“The thing is with me I think it turned out so well because I carve what I’m really interested in and what I’m passionate about,” says Lewis.  “I think if I were just to get into chainsaw carving and try and carve bears I wouldn’t be as good of an artist.  If I’m doing bears and eagles I’m making them my own.”

“I just like people to come here and enjoy what I’ve done, look around the gallery and just appreciate something new,” he continues.  “There is so much stress in life and people don’t go outside of that.  Fantasy opens up doors of possibilities for people, and broadens their range of thinking.”

To view Kevin Lewis’ work, visit his outdoor gallery at 4010 Forbidden Plateau Road, Courtenay. Admission is by donation and tours are welcome.  For more information visit his website at: kevinlewiscarvings.ca.
If you’re driving along Forbidden Plateau Road these days, visit
you may have spotted the newest addition to carver Kevin Lewis’ front yard—a towering cougar come to life from a tree felled by a friend in Comox.  The animal stands stretched on its hind legs, esophagitis
head peering over the top of the log and paws draped in front.  Its tail flows down the back following the grain of the wood in a sinuous and life-like curve.  In fact, viagra dosage
the wooden animal is about the same size as an actual cougar, and if you stand beneath his gaze you might just get the sense the dangerous predator is watching you.

It is a remarkable sculpture, made all the more spectacular by the fact that it was carved with a chainsaw.  The cougar, though, is just one in a menagerie of real and fantastical creatures that make-up Lewis’ work and fill his front yard gallery.  Dragons, fairies, turtles and bears are just a few of the things that peek out of the landscaping, and show their creator’s talent with a tool most of us have only seen used to cut things up.

Granted, cutting things up is how it all started.

“I started carving when I started falling trees,” says Lewis matter-of-factly.  “I knew I was going to need another lifestyle.  Fallers are a dying breed.”  Of course, that’s only the first part of the story.

“I always collected the small lead figures (the kind used in fantasy role-playing games) and painted them.  Then as I was falling and running the chainsaw I just wanted a big one,” says Lewis with a laugh.  “Nobody did chainsaw carvings of fantasy figures.  All I saw was bears and eagles everywhere.  I just wanted more mystical creatures—gargoyles, unicorns, dragons.  And I couldn’t afford to buy them.”

His first large piece, in 1997, was a gargoyle he carved using his big falling saw.  A dragon soon followed.

“From then on I was hooked,” says Lewis.  He invested in carving bars—fine nosed blades that allow for much better detail than a regular chainsaw blade—and never looked back.

At first the carving was just a hobby, a way to bring the many fantasy worlds and creatures in Lewis’ imagination to life.  Then came an opportunity to move to Newfoundland.   Lewis made the decision to leave logging and make a living carving.  He packed up his van, his dog and his chainsaw and drove across the country.  Once in Newfoundland, he parked the van at the side of the road, got himself some driftwood and a generator, and started carving.

The response from Newfoundlanders was immediate and strong.  Lewis suspects it has to do with the fact that typical Newfoundland yard art includes plywood shapes and figures.

“So when they saw sculptures…” says Lewis, his voice trailing off with the bemusement of someone still surprised by how successful he’s been.

In Newfoundland Lewis took to carving smaller pieces, focusing on the dwarves, fairies and the mystical creatures he loves.  His goal was volume and affordability.

“The $80-$100 price range was my bread and butter,” says Lewis.  “It kept me going. They’re so poor out there, but they’d spend that money on a small dragon for their yard.” Occasionally someone would spend several hundred dollars on larger pieces.  This came in especially handy the day Lewis’ chainsaw died, leaving him to wonder how he was going to support himself if he couldn’t carve.

“A guy came in and bought something like $600 worth of my work,” says Lewis.  “Just like that I had enough to buy a new chainsaw.”

Then there were the requests.  “I had a fellow show up with a block of wood and two burls on it and he said ‘I see an ET in this boy’,” says Lewis, putting on a Newfoundland accent.  “I’ve done Yodas, ETs—a bit of everything.”  He was even asked to people’s homes to carve the stumps of old yard trees—something he still does today.

In spite of his success in Newfoundland, and the great practice he got turning out hundreds of pieces, Lewis eventually felt the desire to come back home to the Comox Valley where he grew up.  He put his chainsaw and dog back in the van, took a detour through the United States, and came back to the Island to start falling again.

This isn’t to say Lewis was done with carving.  Instead, the faller lifestyle—and a conscious decision to keep his bills to a minimum—let Lewis spend part of the year in the woods working and the rest of the year carving the wood he collects from his job’s reject pile, on the beach or from friends.

It’s a balance that seems to work.  In 2005, he used his time off to travel to Toronto to visit his cousin, a fellow chainsaw carver.  Just like Newfoundland, the trip was something of an eye-opener.  The two of them worked side-by-side, Lewis making his fantasy creatures and his cousin creating more typical chainsaw art: bears.

“When I started carving, I swore I would never carve a bear,” says Lewis.  It was what everyone else was carving, and didn’t appeal to his fantasy tastes.  Knowing this, Lewis’ cousin challenged him to a sales comparison, and when they added up their receipts Lewis had sold $6,000 in fantasy figures to his cousin’s $30,000 in bears.

“So after that my cousin said you have to learn to carve a decent bear,” says Lewis with some ruefulness.  Lewis did learn from his cousin, and the decision opened up his repertoire and range of buyers.  One of his most popular and talked about pieces today is an octopus carved from a piece of yellow bird’s eye cedar with multiple burls, and done at a friend’s request.  Photos of the piece show how Lewis matched the natural curves and fluidity of the sea animal to the curves and grain of the burls.  The creature is gorgeous in its detail, right down to the abalone eyes, and looks ready to move along the ground.

The funny thing about Lewis and his work, though, is he has no formal training and even scoffs at his own artistic abilities.  “I’ve never taken an art class,” he says.  “I have no artistic skills that I know of aside from running with the chainsaw.  If I draw out a plan of what I want to carve, it looks like little stick figures everywhere.”

Instead, Lewis finds images of what he wants to do and just goes from there.

“I’ll look at the pictures for the first 20 minutes of my carving,” explains Lewis.  “It seems like it takes me about 20 minutes—which is one full tank of gas—of just chipping at the block of wood and then after that it’s just like I’m reading the best book ever.  I start flipping the pages and the story unfolds.

“And once I see that in the wood, there’s no stopping.  I just go hard.”   In Toronto he completed a large dragon in one 18-hour marathon session, stopping only for some food and water.

“But once I get going on a piece it is very quick,” says Lewis.  “Because in chainsaw work you move the wood fast.  Get the wood out of the way.  Get those pieces to bring out that form and that creature I am trying to bring out in the wood.  The faster the better.”

In fact, visualization plays a huge role in Lewis’ work.  “If I go driftwood hunting I look for noses and faces,” says Lewis.  “Say you see a big root on the beach and you look for a nose, the next thing you know the face follows.  So I try and look for noses and a lot of times it might be the nose of a dragon or some fairy creature.  It seems if I start with the thing that protrudes the most on the creature then I’ll see a flow in the wood.  That’s how I look for things.”

He also spends a lot of time moving his hands in the air, mimicking his saw blade.

“I don’t want to start it until I’ve got in my head my moves,” he says.  “When I start moving my hands like little karate chops, I just see how I want the piece to form, where I’m going to do my cuts.  It’s almost like training in my mind.”

That preparation shows up in the quality of Lewis’ work.  Lewis is determined that every piece he does is the best he can possible do.  He pours his love of fantasy and chainsaw carving into each piece.  And he wants the people who buy his work to love it back.

“The thing is with me I think it turned out so well because I carve what I’m really interested in and what I’m passionate about,” says Lewis.  “I think if I were just to get into chainsaw carving and try and carve bears I wouldn’t be as good of an artist.  If I’m doing bears and eagles I’m making them my own.”

“I just like people to come here and enjoy what I’ve done, look around the gallery and just appreciate something new,” he continues.  “There is so much stress in life and people don’t go outside of that.  Fantasy opens up doors of possibilities for people, and broadens their range of thinking.”

 

 

To view Kevin Lewis’ work, visit his outdoor gallery at 4010 Forbidden Plateau Road, Courtenay. Admission is by donation and tours are welcome.  For more information visit his website at: kevinlewiscarvings.ca.

The body is a rich Devon Cream hue, thumb with immaculate chocolate-brown fenders and radiator cowling and it rolled down the Oshawa production line in 1916, gerontologist
the year my late father was born.

The McLaughlin-Buick owned and painstakingly restored by Phil McLaren of Astra Bay, was a pure labor of love.  A testament to the effort put into its restoration is that the old touring car looks like it could have rolled down the line last week, its vintage lines notwithstanding.

But it is only when one takes a ride in the old car that one really appreciates its venerability and understands how far technology has moved since that year half-way through World War One.  Don’t expect many hi-tech or modern innovations like a synchromesh transmission.  The three-speed gearbox demands the skill of double-declutching. Disc brakes, meanwhile, were far in the future in 1916, and braking power relies on two wheel mechanical brakes applied to the massive 30-inch wooden-spoked rear wheels only.

But, it was nevertheless a delightful ride I took with McLaren while I was researching this article.  I wouldn’t have missed sitting up as high as I was and waving at the folks along the way who acknowledged us as we chugged through that seafront neighborhood in Comox.

Needless to say the locals are not strangers to the McLaren McLaughlin.  Not only is it a familiar sight in the neighborhood but also elsewhere in the Valley, where it does popular duty at graduation events bringing prom-dressed young people to their ceremonies.  Brides love it, too.  And it has long been a mainstay at the various parades in Valley communities.

One appealing aspect of the McLaughlin-Buick for McLaren is that it is a Canadian vehicle.  The company began to turn out vehicles in 1907 as the result of collaboration between Sam McLaughlin and General Motors’ William Durrant of Detroit.  While it is directly tied in with General Motors’ mainstay, the regular Buick, the McLaughlin (which continued to be manufactured in Oshawa until 1942) boasted certain unique attributes, McLaren says, including the fact that considerably more wood was used in its construction.  After World War Two, McLaughlin evolved into GM Canada.

There was a time in which the so-called Big Three auto manufacturers produced a number of Canadian versions of the more commonplace American ones, such as the Meteor and Monarch by Ford, and the Acadian and Beaumont by GM.  However, the McLaughlin was the first to boast a uniquely north of the border provenance.

How did McLaren’s involvement with this venerable vehicle come about?  Well, in the first place it was something of a natural for the man who was automotive instructor at Vanier Secondary throughout his teaching career.

A career that saw the students in his shop turn to such projects as restoring vintage fire engines for Comox, Courtenay, Union Bay and CFB Comox.  During one memorable year (1994-95) the students also produced a competition level dragster that still races and still is to be found in the Comox Valley.

“Since retirement (in 1999) I’ve been doing mainly car stuff,” McLaren says.  “It’s not too different from when I was working, except now I’m doing it for me.  Or, rather for ‘us’, since Ardie (his wife) really enjoys the cars and is hugely supportive and helpful with the projects I’ve worked on.”

He notes that in gratitude for her stalwart support in his automotive endeavors he completely redid the kitchen of their Astra Bay home for her.

As far as the cars go—and there has been a number of them he has completely restored over the years— the McLaughlin-Buick was the first big project to be completed.

“Actually I started in 1966 or ’67 on a 1929 Willys Whippet,” he says.  “I got it up to a running frame, but I was always searching for parts to complete the project.  I was told there was a Whippet near Sunnydale Golf Course, so I went to have a look. What I found was a McLaughlin-Buick in pieces.  It had been shipped out from Portage La Prairie.”

The next weekend he took Ardie for a ride to see the vintage touring car, such as it was. He notes—not a man to sit around and waste time is he—that he was also building the new family home at the time.  To make a long story short, he decided to acquire the old tourer and to see what he could do with it.  This also marked the end of his involvement with the Whippet.

“I sold the Whippet for the price of the tires for the Buick,” he says.  “It was $1,500 for the five tires.  That’s still a fair amount of money, but it was a lot of money back then. The Whippet was never completed, but I’ve heard that it’s still around the Valley somewhere.”

He began to work on the McLaughlin-Buick in about 1977, he says, and it was finished by 1991, in time for his son Michael’s wedding.

“The hardest aspect of completing the car was the search for parts,” he says, noting that these were pre-Internet days, so word-of-mouth and other tips had to be relied upon, was well as car restoration publications.  “The McLaughlin was Canadian and in that was slightly different from American Buicks.  So, we had to search through the verbal network.”

He adds that while waiting for parts to complete the big project, he also restored an MG Midget for his son, Mike.

“Mike was always interested in the car restoration and it got him into his career in bodywork, which he still continues with.

Shortly after the completion of the McLaughlin-Buick McLaren, with his Vanier automotive class, undertook a unique project that was right up the alley of the students of the program—the completion of the aforementioned dragster.

The dragster, he says, raced a few times and then it was retired to the automotive shop at the school.  Eventually he decided it was time to offload it so he gave it to two of the students who had worked on it in the day.“It has raced quite successfully since that time,” he says.  “It was really a gratifying project because its creation, with huge parental as well as community support really gave some new life to my teaching career as I neared my time of retirement.”

And then there are the other cars, and the element that becomes apparent in talking to McLaren is that there is a ‘labor of love’ element in all his projects.   Which brings us to the 1950 Plymouth he restored to assembly-line calibre.  Yes, it was just a standard and rather prosaic ’50 Plymouth—at best never a terribly exciting car—but, there was a symbolic virtue to the vehicle for McLaren.

“It was a direct facsimile of the car my parents first bought after the war, when I was a young kid,” he says.  “So I found one of the same model and I restored it for them in the late 1980s and gave it to them.  They were thrilled.”

The Plymouth, since his parents have passed on, now sits back with the next generation McLarens, in what is quaintly called the ‘Hobbit Garage’ (for good reasons, because that is just what the structure resembles), right alongside the McLaughlin.

During that time he also restored a 1957 Morris Minor convertible to like-new condition.  The Morris Minor is a particular favorite vehicle of his, and he currently has the hulk of one sitting at his place for which he has great plans and when completed might provide the basis for yet another story.

A gem of a vehicle is his 1961 MGA, and this was to commemorate his fond regard for the memory of a late colleague at Vanier, Doug Hibberd, who had originally planned to restore it before ill-health took over.

He has a photo scrapbook showing the shape of the MGA at the time he acquired it from Hibberd’s widow, Margaret.  It was literally a rusted hulk and he was told by others in the field that the undertaking would be too great to bring it up to even a moderately decent standard.

Just the challenge he wanted.  He had the car for six years before turning his hand to its restoration, and then spent a further eight years restoring it to mint condition, a process which included both repairing, filling and even turning out facsimile body parts.  But in the end it was done.

“Marg Hibberd was the first person to ride in it,” McLaren says.  “She calls the car ‘Doug’ after her husband, and I even made a plaque with his name that is affixed to the dashboard.  It’s won a few awards over the years, including first-in-class.”

The final car (currently) is a 1956 Austin Healey.  Ardie, he says, had always wanted a Healey and he had always wanted to restore one for her sake.  Incidentally, she chose the color of the car.  They are not easy cars to find, however, find one he did.  The one they did find was unique in that it was produced in only the third year of Healey production.  This was before Healey was powered by the big six cylinder engines of the later 3000 model.

“It’s called a ‘100-4’ and that’s because it’s supposed to be capable of 100 miles an hour, with a 2.6 litre four cylinder engine,” he says.  “It’s a rare model and considered one of the most desirable Healeys; a big dollar car.  It’s a competition model and even has the fold-down windscreen for racing.”

At the moment of acquiring the Healey, McLaren says he tossed up between a Healey and a Jaguar XKE.  He’s happy he opted for the Healey.  Next project is the one that involves the Morris Minor mentioned earlier.

Needless to say, car restoration is a highly demanding and very expensive hobby.  The McLaughlin, he says, because he could do so much of the work himself, cost him about $9,000 from start to finish.  Many, however, demand a considerably larger outlay of money.

“Among restorers and collectors, the really old cars are losing their value,” he says. “They’re not as drivable as newer models, even models from the 1950s, which have smoother rides and are often air-conditioned.  People want some of their creature comforts when they’re on a long road-trip to a meet.”

McLaren is a past-president of Valley Vintage Wheels Car Club, an organization that has been going since the mid-1970s.  As with other car clubs in the area, VVW vehicles, including some of the exotics, like McLaren’s McLaughlin-Buick and a Stanley Steamer, are regular participants in local parades and tours, as well as the annual Comox Nautical Days Car Show, which takes place this year on the BC Day long weekend.  VVW can be reached at 250-338-2366.  The other major restoration car club in the area is Comox Valley Classic Cruisers, which concentrates more on the hot rod genre.  Find out more at cvclassiccruisers.com.  This year their 25th annual Graffiti Bash and Cruise is on July 23 and the Show and Shine is happening in Downtown Courtenay July 24.