Island Farms:
Ike's Orchard,"a great life"
By Bruce Mason, Gabriola Sounder
Monday, October 2 2006
When he hung up his professional soccer boots - after three seasons with the North American Soccer League Portland Timbers - Ike MacKay researched an interesting subject for a master's thesis in physical education.
He studied what happened when kids played the game on a smaller field.
"The players touched the ball more, played in position longer and travelled farther during a game," he reported over coffee and Sunday morning chaos of global proportions. "There was also a positive change in attitude among young players on a smaller field," he added.
And so Ike MacKay produced a model for what human beings must quickly learn, or become extinct: less is more.
Weary of growing ferry lineups during the time he spent teaching in Nanaimo high schools, Ike - who was raised on Berry Point - decided to make a profound change in his lifestyle by planting 600 apple trees, one at a time, with a backhoe, in the sandstone on the property that his folks had settled in the '40s.
The story of Berry Point Orchard and Honey is told in small bites, savoured, like a heritage apple, or pear, grown on 2,000 or so trees carefully and lovingly planted on six acres over an indeterminate period of time.
Math is not Ike's strong suit, so let's say, 20 years.
His wife Bojung is fact checking the years - "making a liar out of me" - while passing around steaming hot blackberry muffins right out of the oven, to the delight of this reporter, their wide eyed and energetic young daughter and thr two Woofers, from Korea, Kang and Min.
Woofers are "Willing Workers on Organic Farms." The network extends across 75 countries and Berry Point hosts up to 30 a year, mostly from Japan, Korea and Germany, but they show up from all over the world.
They work in exchange for room and board, see the world and learn the rapidly disappearing art and science of growing food locally.
"They have not only helped make it possible, they often come back and keep in touch," he said, picking up a leather lunged toddler as the ladies wonder in Korean if the person who has invaded their space is a reporter or detective and if he can read his frantic scrawl, and hear the answers to his many questions over the healthy cacophony of their hard working daily life.
It's a piece of cake compared to the time I was introduced to Ike on a first-ever visit to Berry Point Orchard, in December, 2001, only hours after the most destructive storm in living memory on Gabriola.
His woodlot of old growth trees had been decimated by fierce winds, coming from a different direction and tearing apart the island in much the same way as young Kalena is devouring her muffin.
To paraphrase the old saw about lemons: God gave him deadwood, so he built a log home.
"I figured my Dad did it so I could too," Ike recalled. With the help and advice of friends he has created a masterpiece, especially given the fact that it's his first log home, built entirely from trees that were unceremoniously ripped from their roots.
There's not a square inch of dry wall inside the home on a property where they have walked the environmental talk for several generations.
"Mom always used dishwater for the garden and we got by on 1,000 gallons all summer; we've always turned off the shower while we lathered soap," he said.
"I realized that the first 600 trees wouldn't be enough to support me, let alone a family, but I'm a little bit ashamed to admit that I drilled seven, or is it eight, wells as I added more trees.
"Graham Sheehan suggested a holding pond and he designed one. We built it, utilizing 12 foot rolls of liner from Korea, welded together with plastic and I think it was about 40 or so dump trucks filled with clay and sand," he added.
"It will hold up to one million gallons of water, at least 800,000, but the level has been down during the last few dry summers," Ike reported, adding his voice to the growing chorus that recognizes Gabriola has a water storage, rather than a water shortage problem, and that residents must collect rainwater rather than continue to drill and bicker about who "owns" the life sustaining liquid that falls from the sky.
He is working on getting a greater yield rather than adding more trees and he recently sold his cherry orchard. Unlike in the Okanagan, he hasn't received a dime in subsidies and he competes with growers south of the border where George W. and company pour billions into the pockets of big corporate farms.
He worries about the "huge" costs of setting up a farm now and short-sighted cuts to agriculture budgets. And he suggests that taxes be reduced for people who want to grow much of their own food and share what is left over.
During the season he fills his familiar van with apples every week and heads to the big island and the bulk of his customers.
'The financial rewards have been disappointing; it's hard work but a great life," said MacKay. "What made it more profitable was the decision to package apples in smaller one pound bags.
"The heritage apples are often smaller, but parents have learned that their children are only going to eat part of a big apple and throw the rest away."
Advice for small orchard wannabees? Plant fruit trees in your poorest soil, save the best for a garden. And grow apples that don't scab, so you don't have to use pesticides.
When pressed to pick a favourite from the 55, or so, varieties that he grows, he says the best apple is the one that was picked at exactly the right time, something that is increasingly rare.
Don't miss his fruit stand and call him and Bojung - (250) 247-9210 to place 20 pound orders over the winter. They can't guarantee that you will always get all the varieties you want, but that's life and what you will get will beat anything else, hands down.
As we toured the upstairs of the exquisite log home he said: "It's just a practice house. I want to build something down by the water, solar-powered, a small model of environmental friendliness."
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