The Mustard Seed Street Church of Victoria operates the
Hope Farm Healing Centre in the Cowichan Valley, just outside of Duncan. The farm is an addiction rehabilitation centre. Their mission statement is: 'Hope Farm is a restorative farming community grounded in Christian practice that offers a sanctuary of hope.' Our programme centres around our four core values of 'faithfulness, community, stewardship, and shalom.'
The farm is operated on private donations, fundraising, and revenue generated from good old fashioned farming. The farm grows crops like wheat and barley, raises chickens, sheep, cattle, sells eggs and grows greenhouse nursery stock. They also host a great outdoor dinner/silent auction with live music around the end of harvest season. All of this keeps Mike Burdge, the farm manager/pastor, very busy as there's no shortage of things to do on a farm.
For me, it is quite a relaxing atmosphere to take photos. I try to capture what is happening at the time or season. It also has it's challenges. For example, taking photos of lambs is not as easy as one might think. It takes a while (like 40 minutes) for the sheep to accept you near the lambs before decent shots can be taken. The cows are more quick to warm up to. They only take about five minutes to gain the trust of. Chickens run up to you right away, assuming you have food, just like my crazy Lab-mix.
(from last year's barley harvest)
(from last year's silent auction/dinner)
It feels good to take photos at Hope Farm as I can see the progress they're making and the good they are doing for people. So go out there, buy some free-run eggs or chicken and you'll know the money is going to a worthy cause.
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