DIDSBURY, Alta. – A passion for healthy eating is the driving force behind the Blooming Fields in central Alberta.
Mary-Ann and Pim van Oeveren set up their tearoom, plant nursery and U-pick gardens to allow people to visit and choose what they eat.
“People like to know what they’re eating,” said Pim, citing the trend toward consuming locally produced goods.
Citing the farm’s logo, “nurturing plants and people,” Mary-Ann said they like both equally. The café offers menus featuring their own produce and other Alberta products and serves fair trade coffee.
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“I like the plants and want to have the people part too,” she said.
Alberta’s environmental farm plan program is supporting their efforts to create a sustainable farm site by providing funds to control erosion, manage drainage on their sloping land and plant shelterbelts.
The van Oeverens created two large dugouts to supply the needs of the garden centre and use drip irrigation to supply water where needed.
They catch black flies in glass jars filled with rotting meat and plan to build a bat house to catch mosquitoes.
Two alpacas help keep the tall grasses mowed.
Behind the family’s two-storey home and attached tearoom and gift shop, a rail container car buried under wood chips serves as cold storage to save trees and cuttings over the winter. In summer they grow their plants in high tunnels and avoid heated greenhouses.
“When you start to heat it, the cost is too big,” said Pim.
The van Oeverens have asked the local municipality not to spray their roadside ditches to avoid water contamination.
They monitor their plants and treat only when there is damage.
“I like to stay away from it; otherwise it upsets the whole balance,” Pim said.
Each partner focuses on their area of expertise: she in the tearoom, bookkeeping and public relations and he in the gardens, nurseries and greenhouses.
Their children are pursuing their own careers. A son operates a nursery at Ponoka while a daughter is in university in British Columbia.
Pim and Mary-Ann have deep roots in horticulture. Both have related degrees from Holland.
The pair operated a landscaping business in Abbotsford, B.C., after immigrating, then moved to Alberta in 2002.
Pim once grew fruit while Mary-Ann taught classes in floral design at Olds College and she continues to make wedding floral arrangements.
Drought challenged their early years here, most of which were spent toiling to transform 27 acres of barren landscape into a nursery and lush garden filled with rows of U-pick fruits and vegetables from strawberries and black currants to onions and beets.
“It’s hard to keep it all going, but there is always a reason to come,” said Pim.
As a steady trickle of people arrive, Mary-Ann explained that visitors come to pick or to eat but also to spend a day in the country.
“People come here for the experience,” she said.
“People seem to relax here sometimes for hours.”
The centre opens from May until September and over Thanksgiving and Christmas, offering flower design classes and accommodating large groups for meals. The van Oeverens participate in the Country Treasures weekend, which offers maps of farms to visit one July weekend each year.
They also maintain a website at www.the
bloomingfields.com.
Their business, which employs four local students and a seasonal worker from Mexico, focuses on retail and wholesale marketing of plants and related landscaping materials like bark. Pim supplements the business with off-farm mowing jobs.
In winter, the work shifts to planning and preparing for the coming growing season. That means visits to other garden centres and trade shows to network and keep abreast of trends. Pim also serves on the board of the Alberta Farm Fresh Producers Association.
“You can learn so much by visiting and talking to people,” said Pim.
“Then you don’t have to find out the wheel for yourself,” added Mary-Ann. “It’s always in our nature to look around and see.”
