By Hans Peter Meyer

Special to The Record

Roderick Lane grew up on his father鈥檚 land, what is now home to Forbidden Fruit Farm. 鈥淲hen I returned to the Valley I was pretty clear that  I wanted to start a farm. I really believe  that farming, some form of agriculture, is where we have to move to.鈥�

Forbidden Fruit Farm is primarily a fruit and nut orchard.  Roderick is differentiating the farm from others in the region by producing a line of plant-based fertilizers.

The fertilizers came from necessity. The farm needed soil improvement, and there is no easy way to do that organically. 鈥淚 spent years importing fertilizer - bringing things like seaweed and fish onto the farm.鈥� This wasn鈥檛 working to his satisfaction, and he turned to an old method: using on-site ingredients to create plant-based fertilizers.

Live-culture fermentations 鈥渇eed the soil at the microbial layer,鈥� he explains. 鈥淲e don鈥檛 have to import granules or chemicals. We can build the soils right on site, from plants grown here.鈥� Forbidden Fruit produces five types of tea, each addressing a different part of the plant growth cycle, and some designed to help resist insects and disease. The comfrey, for example, is especially good for tomato production.

How important is the Comox Valley Farmers鈥� Market?

鈥淚t takes time to build up your soils, build up your seed stocks,  build up your crops,鈥� Roderick says. The market has enabled him to get started without having to buy heavy equipment or go into debt. 鈥淚t鈥檚 an incubator to help farmers get up and going. You can be a small producer and still survive. It鈥檚 very, very important.鈥�

This is  part of a series about the Comox Valley Farmers鈥� Market by Hans Peter Meyer

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