Fraser Common Farm Cooperative
Whole Farm Plan

Welcome:
“I love entering our farm property between the huge cedar trees, and walking past the indigenous hazelnut trees that line the path.  The fertile, damp land is sufficiently drained to be good garden soil.  We have a huge greenhouse for all-weather planting.  The house sits on a gravel hill. There's a small forest of trees in the middle of the property, with an elegant sauna along a path, and beyond that the top garden, fruit trees and berry bushes.  An artesian spring provides lovely water in an undisturbed grove, and provides a lush spot for our Easter sunrise gathering.”
~from an article by founding member Jan Bulman in Bill Metcalf’s Shared Visions, Shared Lives, 1996

Our own Language:
Pods/ podmates:
Farmkeepers:
“the salad company”

We:

  • Are a 20-acre co-operative farm with organic certification
  • Have been in existence since 1977
  • Are home to 13 people aged 5-76, in three households
  • License space to one organic food production company, one woodworker, and one blacksmith
  • Are in transition, re-tooling for the 21st century

WFP Process
Engaging in the WFP process has:

  • Improved our access to our information
  • Catalyzed incipient issues
  • Clarified areas of contradiction and confusion
  • Over the years, our farm has done a lot of visioning, goal-setting, conflict resolution, budgeting, and planning. Because the WFP is holistic, it has brought all of these into one place, along with a detailed inventory of all of our resources, policies, and agreements (land, buildings, leases). This improves accessibility and fairness for everyone.
  • The WFP has also helped catalyze our process: we finally got around to doing some of the tasks we had been putting off. For example, we now have a detailed, up-to-date inventory of the size, structure, and condition of every out-building on our property.
  • Engaging in the holistic WFP has also helped us clarify areas in our agreements and practices that are contradictory or confusing. For example, we operated out of a full consensus model for many years; now we are moving toward decision-making that gives greater weight to those most affected. The WFP has helped highlight areas that we need to revisit and clarify.

Fraser Common Farm Documents

Last Modified: September 23, 2014