WINDERMERE â Taking on the business of your parents isnât for everyone, but for Winderberry Nursery and Edible Acres Farm, Cafe and Catering co-owners Lin Egan and Anna Steedman, it was the perfect fit.
âI love growing things â I love growing flowers and I love growing food,â says Egan. âItâs exciting and also stressful owning your own business. But there are moments of adventure in that. I love being able to raise our kids here on the farms, and around plants and flowers.â
âI can definitely second the growing thing,â adds Steedman. âThereâs a feeling you get when you walk into a greenhouse thatâs full of growing things.â
Their parents, Jack Steedman and Glenda Wah, bought the nursery in 1984 when it had just 2,500 square feet of greenhouse space. The sisters started working at the nursery with summer jobs fresh out of high school, Anna more begrudgingly than Lin. Both eventually attended college before returning to Winderberry â Egan with her husband Oliver and Steedman with her partner Randy MacSteven â to carry on and expand their parentsâ operation.
âIt was a bit of a succession plan,â says Egan. âOliver and I bought the property from them several years before we purchased the business from them. We had made the decision many years before; it just took a long time to actually do it.â
They began expanding the retail greenhouses in 2008 and now have 25,000 square feet, 10 times the space in 1984. In addition to flowers and bedding plants, it also offers tree and shrubs.
âThey were operating a level they were comfortable operating at,â says Egan. âWhen we came in and took over managerial roles, we expanded how much we were growing. Our mom said, âIf youâre coming into the business, you have to bring a stream of income.ââ
Lin had earned a degree in sustainable agriculture at UBC, eventually working on the UBC farm, while Oliver had studied economics, worked in landscape irrigation and construction, and drove a forklift. Their combined skill sets suited their new endeavour at Winderberry, as well as the creation of Edible Acres.
âWhen we moved back from Vancouver, Oliver and I started a little farm garden plot,â says Egan. âWe grew too much.â
That led the couple to develop a CSA program, which now offers weekly produce boxes to up to 40 members during the height of the growing season. The farm now has about five acres set to produce, and having water rights to Windermere Creek ensures irrigation is always available.
âThis is kind of our saviour,â says Egan.
The cafe, now in its sixth year, came later, a logical pairing of the abundance that Lin and Oliver were growing and the catering company run by Steedman and MacSteven.
âWe had this vision of combining the two because we were growing all this food,â says Lin.
Steedman had her sights set on veterinary medicine, but an unexpected pregnancy changed her plans, and she stayed with the farm, working in the greenhouse in the spring and catering with MacSteven in the summer. The couple eventually joined Lin and Oliver as co-owners, and the partnership is now in its third year.
MacSteven attended George Brown College, and later cooked at Fairmont Château Laurier and the Fairmont Banff Springs before becoming the executive chef at Panorama Mountain Resort. His passion for cooking developed early in life, with a desire to expand his palate beyond his motherâs cooking.
âI was tired of her food,â he says. âI love my mom, and I love her food. My brother and I started making our lunches in Grade 5. In high school, I started taking home ec, and just started cooking and baking.â
At Edible Acres Cafe, MacSteven uses as much seasonal farm-fresh produce as possible in his breakfast and lunch menus. The 50,000 garlic bulbs planted each fall, comprising 20 varieties, inspired him to save the often discarded scapes from the compost heap, creating the Great Scape garlic dip line, sold in eight Kootenay grocery stores. The dips proved so successful that Edible Acresâ scapes are now supplemented with those from other growers.
Prior to the pandemic, the owners enjoyed planning events so that customers could experience the farmâs bounty in a fun and lively atmosphere. These have included live music and dancing in the greenhouse, Scotch tasting with a paired menu, and âfield dinnersâ in tents set up among the crops.
âWe got meat locally, but they were very veggie heavy,â says Steedman of the dinners.
Edible Acres Farm is certified organic, the only one in the Columbia Valley, as are the farms that supply it. Certification required little change in growing practices, but allows the farm to verify its products.
âMy parents never used any pesticides or chemicals,â says Lin. âWe wanted to have some sort of verification. At that time, everyone would say âorganicâ, and as a consumer, I would question it. If youâre certified, then yes, you are.â
The certification is almost necessary when interacting with dozens of customers each time Edible Acres attends one of the several farmersâ markets in the region, including Invermere and Kimberley.
âWe wanted to stand out,â says Oliver. âNot everyone knew who we were. To the new person who arrives to our booth, it means something. If you’re selling to local people that know you, itâs not as important.
âOne lady asked today, âHow organic are you?â Right there, that was kind of a reason. We donât have to explain every time. Weâve spent a lot of time educating people what organic is.â
âWeâve âveg-umacatedâ a lot of people,â jokes MacSteven.
That education doesnât apply only to the end result. They also promote soil health when customers pick up new plants and shrubs.
âWe encourage people to start from the ground up, and invest in their soil,â says Oliver. âWe make our own soil. Thatâs unique. A lot of greenhouses just use pre-mix. That works the same as the cafe â everything is made from scratch.â
Their soil even includes certified organic coffee bean chaff from Kicking Horse Coffee.
âThatâs a cool little symbiosis,â says Oliver.
That high-quality soil ensures a good start for the farmâs bedding plants, all grown from seed, both for walk-in customers, as well as commercial clients including towns, golf courses and hotels.
âOne of our popular crops is non-stop begonias, and we start those in the first week of December,â says Lin. âThatâs one of our baby crops. We could easily order in from suppliers. Some years, if we lose a crop, we order from suppliers. But theyâre not as good a quality. When we start 10 seed trays of begonias in the basement, we have more control.â
Customers appreciate that dedication to quality, which builds on the tradition of service started over 35 years ago.
âBecause our parents held out for us, itâs kind of a legacy,â says Lin.
âWe definitely want to continue the feeling they created,â says Steedman. âWeâve started to see a change. People used to walk through the door and ask for Jack or Glenda. Now theyâre asking for us. Thatâs kind of cool.â