Spring 2026 Farm Update A Season of Seeds, Soil, and Community
The Salt Spring Centre of Yoga Farm Project
A Season of Seeds, Soil, and Community
A Fabulous Beginning
Spring 2026 has arrived at the Salt Spring Centre of Yoga (SSCY), and with it comes an extraordinary season of growth, renewal, and community on the farm. Simply put, by every measure, this has been a fabulous beginning — a season that speaks to the dedication of the farm team and the deep roots that this agricultural project has been putting down, literally and figuratively, in the soil of Salt Spring Island.
The Salt Spring Centre Farm Project is not a hobby garden or a casual experiment in self-sufficiency. It is a real farm, run with professional intent and devotion, guided by the spirit of Ganesha — the remover of obstacles and the patron of new beginnings — whose presence is felt in every row of carefully tended seedlings. What follows is a full account of where the farm stands this spring: the work underway in the greenhouses, the transformation of the fields, the community event that brought dozens of islanders together, and the people who make all of it possible.
A World of Seeds: Life in the Greenhouses
At the heart of any farm season is germination — that almost miraculous moment when a dormant seed, given the right conditions, opens itself to life. This spring, the SSCY farm team has been presiding over thousands of such moments, with seeds planted both by direct sowing and by the painstaking method of placing each tiny seed, one by one, into individual growing cells.
Two greenhouse spaces are alive with this work. The “glass greenhouse” and the Anahat greenhouse together serve as the nursery for the season’s most important early growth. In these warm, carefully controlled environments, temperature and humidity are monitored almost hourly during the germination stage — because this, the farm team knows, is the most crucial period in a plant’s life. A degree too cold, a spell of excessive moisture or dryness, and weeks of work can be lost. The vigilance required is extraordinary.
The diversity of what is being grown this season is a testament to the farm’s ambition. The current list of varieties under cultivation includes 10 species of leeks, 13 varieties of lettuce, 10 tomato varieties, 6 cabbage species, 10 cauliflower varieties, 4 types of rutabaga, 5 red pepper types, 3 green pepper types, 4 radish species, and 5 carrot varieties — and that is only the beginning. All told, thousands of seedlings have been planted and carefully tended to date. This is not a small undertaking. It is the backbone of a food system that will feed the community at the Centre throughout the growing season and beyond.
Preparing the Land: Field Work and Composting
While the greenhouses hum with early-season seedling care, the farm’s outdoor fields have been receiving equal attention. The land has been tilled, ploughed, and weeded in preparation for the season’s transplanting and direct sowing. Manure and mulching material have been delivered to enrich the soil, and composting areas have been established to ensure that organic matter is returned to the earth in a continuous cycle.
The composting work reflects the farm’s commitment to ecological sustainability. Rather than relying solely on purchased inputs, the team is building the kind of living soil that will support productive growing for years to come. This long-view thinking — investing in the land itself — is a hallmark of the approach being taken at SSCY.
An endearing and practical note: the farm team has also been working to keep the Centre’s furry animal residents happy and contained in areas separate from the farm produce. A real farm, as they say, comes with all kinds of neighbours.
The People Behind the Farm
No account of the farm’s success would be complete without acknowledging the remarkable individuals whose expertise, labour, and love have made this season possible. Farming is not glamorous work. It is early mornings and physical effort, problem-solving under pressure, and a daily commitment that does not pause for bad weather or tired muscles. The people named here have shown up for that work with full dedication.
Rupert Adams — Farm Lead
At the centre of everything is Rupert Adams, the head lead farmer. Rupert brings not only professional agricultural expertise but also deep personal investment in the vision of the farm. In an act of extraordinary generosity that speaks to the kind of person he is, Rupert has donated thousands of his own prized medicinal plants to the Centre’s growing collection. He has also entered into a lease arrangement for some areas of the land and a greenhouse to continue his own projects — an arrangement that benefits both parties and deepens the farm’s medicinal plant offerings considerably.
Paz Rainville — Farm Assistant
Paz Rainville serves as assistant on the farm, bringing a wealth of knowledge and a generosity of spirit that has supported the whole team. The role is a particularly vital one on a farm that is building institutional knowledge, Paz’s experience helps ensure that best practices are passed on and that the farm continues to learn and improve season over season.
Dan Jason — Farm Committee Member
Dan Jason, a respected farm committee member and well-known seed saving advocate on Salt Spring Island, has brought his considerable expertise and community standing to the project. His involvement is a meaningful endorsement of what the SSCY farm is building.
Girija Edwards — Orchard Project and Ayurvedic Herbalist
Girija Edwards supports the Orchard Project and brings her background as an Ayurvedic herbalist to the farm’s growing vision. Her involvement is particularly significant in the context of the medicinal plant collection, where traditional knowledge of plant medicine and cultivation practices enriches what might otherwise be a purely agricultural endeavour.
Clare Cullens — Farm Committee Member
Clare Cullens has been a steady and generous presence on the farm committee, providing support wherever it has been needed throughout the season. Her reliability and commitment have been an important part of the team’s functioning.
Michaël — Maintenance Operator, and Ompk/Mark Classen — Tractor Operator
The farm’s operational success depends not only on agricultural knowledge but on the smooth functioning of equipment and infrastructure. Michaël, the Centre’s maintenance operator, has provided indispensable support in this regard. Equally important is Ompk/Mark Classen, the tractor operator, who is described as an experienced knowledge keeper of the unceded territory on which the farm sits — a description that honours both his practical skill and his deep connection to this land.
Jawn and Phoebe — Farm Karma Yogis
A special acknowledgement goes to Jawn and Phoebe, the farm’s new Karma Yogis, who have worked diligently every day since their arrival. The Karma Yoga tradition — the yoga of selfless action — finds perhaps its purest expression in the day-to-day work of a farm: showing up, doing what needs to be done, and finding purpose in the service itself.
A Community Comes Together: March 29th, 2026
One of the highlights of the spring season was a major community planting event held on March 29th, 2026. Organized by Nigel Kay, the event drew 40 local farming enthusiasts and community members to the SSCY property — a remarkable turnout that speaks to the genuine goodwill and interest that exists on Salt Spring Island around this project.
Nigel Kay donated 245 nut trees — predominantly hazel nut — to be planted on the property. Alongside these, Rupert Adams contributed 450 medicinal plants to be established alongside the new nut trees. Together, this represents a significant long-term investment in the land: nut trees take years to reach productive maturity, and their planting is an act of faith in the future of this place and this community.
The event gave the SSCY a meaningful boost of community support. In a time of global uncertainty and unrest, the sight of 40 people coming together to plant trees — an inherently hopeful act — was described by the farm team as a welcomed gesture of love and caring for one another. There is something quietly powerful about a community that plants for the future.
6,000 Medicinal Plants: A Horticultural Vision
Perhaps the most striking single development of this spring is the addition of 6,000 medicinal plants to the SSCY property. These plants, moved onto the land as part of Rupert Adams’ lease arrangement, represent an extraordinary horticultural collection and a vision for what the farm can become beyond its food production function.
The vision is an ambitious one: a medicinal plant collection of this scale creates the foundation for both a solid business venture and an educational platform. It positions SSCY not only as a food-producing farm but as a centre for learning about plant medicine, traditional herbalism, and sustainable growing practices. This kind of educational and economic opportunity, the team believes, will enhance and help secure the long-term future of the Dharma Sara Satsang Society (DSSS), the organization behind the Centre.
For members of the DSSS, the invitation is to come and witness these transformations underfoot — literally. The scope of what is being built here is something that must be seen to be fully appreciated.
From Field to Table: The Kitchen
A farm’s ultimate purpose, of course, is nourishment — and at SSCY, the journey from field to table is a short and intentional one. The farm’s vegetables and fruits find their destination in the Centre’s kitchen, where the produce of all this labour is transformed into meals for the community.
This spring brings a warm welcome to one new additions to the kitchen team. Haitham has joined as the new Kitchen Coordinator, bringing fresh energy and expertise to this vital role. Alongside Haithan, Elise brings her experience from her successful Farm Stand operations, deepening the kitchen’s connection to the farm itself.
The Farm Stand has long been one of the SSCY farm’s most community-facing initiatives, and having someone with that background now integrated into kitchen operations creates a meaningful thread of continuity between growing, selling, and cooking.
Farming is No Picnic — And That’s the Point
The farm team does not shy away from honesty: farming is no picnic. It is hard, physical, demanding work that requires expertise, patience, and an ongoing willingness to learn from both success and failure. Every season brings its surprises — unexpected frosts, pest pressures, equipment challenges, weather that refuses to cooperate. And yet, season after season, the team shows up and does the work.
What the spring 2026 update reveals is a farm that is not only surviving but genuinely thriving. Thousands of seedlings monitored with hourly care. Fields tilled and prepared. Hundreds of trees and medicinal plants in the ground. Forty community members showing up on a March day to plant for the future. A kitchen team ready to bring the harvest to the table. This is what a living, breathing farm looks like — and at the Salt Spring Centre of Yoga, it is growing stronger with each passing season.
For the DSSS membership and the broader Salt Spring community, this farm is more than a food source. It is a statement of values: a commitment to the land, to community, to health, and to the kind of purposeful, rooted living that the Centre has always sought to embody. There is, as the team promises, so much more still to grow — inside and out.
Salt Spring Centre of Yoga Farm Project • Spring 2026