Fandango Farms

Address:

668 Irish Creek Road

Location:

Canada, British Columbia, Vernon

Website:

http://www.fandangofarms.ca/

Contact:

briden [ROOT]

Description:

Fandango Farms is a 110 acre farm, at the back of the Irish Creek valley situated in the North Okanagan, 20 minutes from Vernon BC, Canada. Ed & LeRae Walter purchased Fandango in 1998 and moved from their life in suburban Vancouver to the farm in 1999.

Fandango has a long history, and from what we have been told, was originally homesteaded in the 1890's and so is one of the older farms in the Okanagan Valley.

I think it is fair to describe Fandango as idyllic, literally pressed up against the hills which rise steeply to the West. Irish Creek is a small year round spring-fed creek which tumbles down through steep canyon like topography. Irish Creek is unique in a few ways. It was, when we first moved here, the only un-logged watershed in the Okanagan. This is, alas, no longer the case, but the Irish Creek drainage is still a pristine, rugged and (mostly) untouched by human activity. At the end of the last ice age when the glaciers were in full melt Irish Creek dumped its guts not into Okanagan Lake but into the hanging Irish Creek valley. This gift left behind decent farm-able soil where you might otherwise expect un-tillable mountainous lands. While at present Fandango hays the land, no intensive agricultural activities are in practice.

Fandango is what you would call a hobby farm. Within a year or so of moving to Fandango we had managed to collect an assortment of peacocks, llamas, dogs and a small herd of cats. Our llama collection grew from the original 8 or so to more than 20 at one point. We have since regained our sanity and now have three lovely female llamas who wander the 110 acres freely, a small family of peacocks (and peahens) and couple of cats.

When we first moved to Fandango we brought our silvicultural (mostly tree planting) equipment supply company, BushPro Supplies with us. We built a 4,800 sq. ft. building to house our manufacturing office & warehouse facilities. In the fall of 2004 after about 25 years in business we sold BushPro and semi-retired. BushPro had always been a seasonal business and so for much of the year the building was idle.

I have always liked a good party, especially pot lucks, music and dancing. So gradually over the years we began hosting numerous pot lucks some with DJ,s but mostly these were pretty low key affairs where at some point in the evening we would throw a few CD's on a home stereo and have some fun.

After BushPro was sold, and the manufacturing room started looking suspiciously like a dance floor, a good family friend Enaunda, convinced me to do a semi-serious event where we charged admission and actually paid the musicians for their time and talents.

We hiccupped along like this for many years, throwing one or two “commercial” events a year and hosting numerous pot-lucks.

Things changed in 2009 when we decided to “get serious” about our events. Last year we hosted 5 commercial events & 5 pot-luck community gatherings.

Fandango I guess is no longer a secret, but I believe the same pot-luck – family – loving - energies which started it all going are still the inspiration behind everything we do. Our plans for the future are still evolving but it is safe to say, we will continue along this path (for a while anyway).

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