“Everything you can imagine is real.”
- Pablo Picasso
Who's behind Handpickt -
David: Born in Tillsonburg, Ontario, David was running before he crawled :) Brought up in a farming environment from an early age, he has years of farming experience including managing a 200 acre farm in Aylmer and a Tobacco farm in Zimbabwe, Africa. Living in the Shuswap on and off since 1995, David is now the proud owner and director of farming at Fissipes Farm.
Mary: A transplant to the North Shuswap, British Columbia from Southern California, Mary (Mehrnaz) was born in Tehran, Iran. She studied Anthropolgy at U.C.L.A. and continues to explore the world, often sharing her experiences through pictures and words. She was told to pursue farming after taking an extensive career placement test in junior college but didn’t get around to it till 20 years later :)
Combining Farming, Art & Community
FARMING
A lifelong dream realized for owner David Dyck, joined by partner in farming Mehrnaz, Fissipes Farm was acquired in 2013 in the Meadow Creek valley in Shuswap, BC. It has taken time, a few years, to clear the land, renovate the buildings, and get the farm ready for growing food. As anyone who has farmed or work land will know, work on a farm is never completed! But after 2 years of prepping the land and infrastructure, we were ready to put in our first main crop. There is a story behind why we chose garlic as our main crop… but I will get to that later :)
We planted our first 1/4 acre of garlic in 2015 ( see blog section for pictures and story ). We grow all sorts of other food on the farm as well, including a wide variety of tomatoes, peppers (hot as well as sweet), onions, carrots, brassicas, basil and more. We are passionate about continuously learning how to better grow, harvest, process, store and preserve food. We have built up to growing 2 acres of garlic in 2018 and are focused on having a bio-dynamic farm using no pesticides, no fungicides and only natural fertilizers on the land.
ART
The idea of Fissipes Gallery was born as both Dave and I gravitate to artists wherever we find ourselves. We wanted to create a place to share and promote works of art.. what better place than at the 22 acre farm! Our vision is to build a simple but beautiful gallery overlooking the length of the property, beside the pond we have created at the edge of the garlic fields. Ultimately our plan is to have events where we will collaborate with local artists, artisans and other farmers to present farm to table dinners featuring local food and art!
COMMUNITY
The blog section plans to cover various relevant subjects - from farming adventures at Fissipes Farm (annual or biannual garlic updates) to stories and news on Handpickt artists, as well as other inspiring stories from my community or wherever I find myself on my travels
Think of Handpickt as a place to follow farming adventures and be inspired by art & nature. Hope you enjoy the site and our garlic!