Big Dream Farmer
May 22nd, 2015
In 1999, Nathalie Chambers and her husband David Chambers restored and transformed his family’s Madrona Farm in Victoria into a model of sustainable agriculture. Madrona Farm then became newsworthy when the Chambers family decided to sell the property to the province’s Land Conservancy (TLC), a non-profit, charitable land trust.
After a successful fundraising effort, TLC purchased Madrona Farm whereupon the Chambers family can now lease Madrona Farm back from the TLC–with the agreement that the property will remain agricultural land in perpetuity. Chambers’ Saving Farmland: The Fight for Real Food (Rocky Mountain $25) describes the process of overcoming obstacles and further outlines stories of commonly shared land, international trusts, regained farmland and heroic figures who have led the way.
Nathalie Chambers is also the founder of the Big Dream Farm Society. For fun, she has also been involved in the annual Chef Survival Challenge during which chefs compete in a farm-themed obstacle course. Competitors “hurdle, hang, crawl, zip line, navigate boats to condiment island and then race around the farm to pick the vegetables they need to create a culinary masterpiece… all on survival camping gear.” Saving Farmland is co-written with Robin Alys Roberts and Sophie Wooding. 9781771600736
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