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Jennifer Iredale, Curator
Craigflower Living History Farm
Heritage Properties Branch
Province of British Columbia
Craigflower Farm was established in 1852 by the Puget Sound Agricultural Company to supply the Hudson's Bay Company Forts along the Pacific coast of North America; to supply goods for export and to fulfill the Hudson's Bay Company agreement with Britain to begin colonization of Vancouver Island. The Puget Sound Agricultural Company already had farms north of Fort Vancouver on the Columbia River at Nisqually and Cowlitz and with the Founding of Fort Victoria established 4 more P.S.A.C. farms on Vancouver Island - Craigflower, Constance Cove, Viewfield and Langford.
(1)The first ground was broken at 'Maple Point', renamed Craigflower Farm, in January of 1853 Scot, Kenneth McKenzie and his wife Agnes and their 6 children immigrated under the employment of the P.S.A.C. in 1852. McKenzie brought East Lothian farm labourers, farm machinery and supplies with him aboard the Norman Morison on her five month voyage to Vancouver Island. They arrived January 16, 1853 and by the 24th, McKenzie and his men were erecting farm buildings and clearing land for the plough. The first wheat was sown in November 1853. The farm operated under McKenzie until 1865 when his contract with the PSAC was not renewed and he removed to property he had purchased and established his own 'Lakehill Farm'. Craigflower changed hands many times after McKenzie left and farming appears to have ceased by the 1920's. The government acquired the site in 1867 and had the buildings restored by Peter Cotton, architect. The remained few acres were landscaped with cut lawns and hybrid roses. All that appeared to remain of original plantings by 1990 was a plum tree in front, and apple tree behind, 2 large Douglas fir trees, 2 Garry oaks, an Arbutus and native Willow along the bank of the Gorge Waterway.
In the late 1980's, Heritage Properties Branch who operate Craigflower and other provincial historic sites, has been expanding interpretation of its historic sites through living history programs and has been trying to provide a more holistic interpretation of history through restoration of landscapes and gardens. An analysis and recommendations for restoration of the Craigflower Landscape was prepared by Fred Hook in 1989 followed by a Draft Concept Plan for the Craigflower Interpretive Garden by Hook and Slaby in 1991.
The research at this time did not provide much in the way of documentary vegetable varieties, but it did inform us that the major crops at Craigflower were grains, root crops and beans. In the McKenzie Account Book of 1854 he writes that he has on hand from the crop of 1854 49 bushels including wheat oats, turnips, wurzel, tares and peas. He notes that the crop planted in 1855 includes wheat, peas, barley, oats and potatoes and in 1856 includes wheat, barley, peas (grey, white and Maple), tares, oats and potatoes.
With this first garden in the summer of 1991 we planted a garden of heirloom varieties including Tall Telephone Peas, Kentucky Wonder Beans, Scarlet Runner Beans, Walla Walla Onion, White Spanish Onions, Swede Turnips and Maple Peas. The Maple peas were the only variety that corresponded with a documented variety name in the McKenzie archival papers. The other varieties we considered 'representative of what might have been planted in a typical 19th century farm garden.' The list of flower we planted was obtained from Governor Douglas diary which listed marigolds, stocks, wallflower, nemophilla, primula, polyanthus, clarkia, chrysanthemum, and heliotrope as growing in and around Victoria in 1866. I had no references for herbs but cautiously planted a few although I understood the Scots did not use herbs a great deal.
In 1992 we began researching the Craigflower archival literature for references to historic vegetable, grain and fruit varieties that were grown at Craigflower Farm. Besides the Maple Pea, our first documentary reference was a turnip called "Yellow Aberdeen." A letter from Colville in England written to Kenneth McKenzie at Craigflower and dated August 11, 1854 says:
I have written to send some of the gray peas and small beans and 50 lbs each of Swedish and yellow Aberdeen turnip seed. There is so much risk of their not standing the voyage, that it is better to send a small quantity by every vessel and when you get some that will grow, you should sow them in a small piece of ground, well cultivated until you raise a sufficiency for seed, and do the same each year until you establish good stock.
(2)Furthermore, McKenzie notes in his account book entry of Wed May 13, 1857, the sale of 2 lb. Aberdeen Yellow Turnip Seed and 2 lb. of Purple Top Swedish Seed to Duncan Lidgate for $2.00 per lb.
(3)More entries follow for sale of Yellow Aberdeen Turnip to other Craigflower labourers and to the other P.S.A.C. farms.
(4)From this it appears McKenzie was successful in growing the Yellow Aberdeen turnip and in saving seed to sell in the Craigflower Supply Shop.
Saving seeds "was the rule" for 19th century fur traders and colonists. As Narcissa Whitman, immigrant to Oregon in 1836 and visitor to Fort Vancouver writes:
"I save all the seeds of those I eat (fruits, specifically grapes in this quotation) for planting and of apples also. This is a rule of Vancouver. I have got collected before me an assortment of garden seeds which I take up with me (to the mission she and her husband established)".
(4)Having found a documentary reference for Yellow Aberdeen Turnips I went looking in seed catalogues and garden shops for this turnip. It was not listed in any 1990 catalogues, although I found in listed in a Steele Briggs seed catalogue for 1907. In the Steele Briggs catalogue (archival collection, Point Ellice House) are listed Mangels, turnips and Ruta Baga's or Swedes with about 9 - 10 varieties for each category. Compare this with the one or maybe two varieties of turnips offered in today's seed catalogues.
Anyway, on with the search for the elusive Yellow Aberdeen. A search of the Heritage Seed Program Seed Listing and, the Seed Savers Exchange Garden Seed Inventory did not produce the Yellow Aberdeen, nor did letters to the various seed repositories across the U.S. or Canada. However the Canadian Gene Bank Director, Brad Fraleigh and Curator, Guy Baillargeon suggested I try contacting Horticulture Research International in Wellesbourne, England to obtain a sample of seed for "Aberdeen Green Top Yellow Turnip (accession 3272)."
By now it was spring of 1992 and time for planting. So I phoned a request to England leaving a message on an answering machine. I was surprised and delighted to receive a little foil package containing seed for "Aberdeen Green Top Yellow which was, according to my correspondent Dave Astley at the Wellesbourne Research Center, "supplied originally by Barclay, Ross and Hutchison in the U.K."
We carefully planted these few seeds, giving some to Auchanachie Farm in the Cowichan Valley and some to Keremeos Grist Mill in the Okanagan. By growing out in different areas, I hoped to ensure that at least one crop would be good and that seeds could be saved for future crops. They grew big, bonny and beautiful at Craigflower, and we saved seed during the summer of 1993.
Further research was undertaken during the winter of 1992/93 by Sharon Rempel. She looked in depth at the McKenzie records, as well as at other early Victoria farms, such as Dr. Tolmie at Cloverdale and at records pertaining to Hudson's Bay Co. and Puget's Sound Agricultural Company farms across North America. Good exchanges of information were established with Fort Vancouver Historic Park on the Columbia River who also grow an heirloom garden. As well Sharon visited agricultural archives and museums in Scotland, obtaining extensive literature on 19th century farming in the East Lothian area of Scotland, from whence McKenzie and his men came. Her research has compiled an incredible couple of shelves of literature on 19th century British and Colonial farming practices, implements and vegetable varieties.
Sharon's research also gave me the list I had been wanting of documentary vegetable varieties known to have grown at Craigflower Farm between 1853 and 1870.
(5)Searching in the Garden Seed Inventory provided leads to a few of the varieties, but the bulk of them were not there and seemed obscure. I distributed this list at Seedy Saturday in Vancouver in 1993 as well as sending it across North America to the gene banks, agricultural research centers etc. and to the Horticultural Research Center in Wellesbourne, England. It was Dave Astley at the Wellesbourne repository that provided results, sending 13 little foil packages of seeds for us to grow out at Craigflower.
(6) Again, we shared the seeds with Cuyler Page of The GristMill at Keremeos for them to grow out also. For the first time we planted almost exclusively 'documentary varieties of vegetables known to have been grown at Craigflower in the mid 19th century. However, it was the bad growing summer of 1993 and nothing seemed to do very well. We also had problems with teenage vandalism, as the Farm is right next to a highschool and the farm grounds are a favorite student hangout.
In 1995, we found a source for the documentary grains we had been searching for (Chevalier Wheat, Chevalier Barley, Black Tartaran Oats and Talavera de Belle Wheat). England again provided the seed, through the John Innes Research Center. Sharon Rempel found Ashleaf Kidney potatoes, a documentary variety noted in McKenzie's records and also in Emily Carr's father's diary of 1864. Sharon imported them and negotiated their quarantine and growing in British Columbia. We look forward to growing them in the summer of 1997 at Craigflower.
Each year has been an amazing learning experience for Craigflower staff, as we discovered the variety names, realized the extent of 19th century variety diversity, sought and could not find the seeds in present seed catalogues, thrilled to the arrival of the little foil packages, hopefully planted them in the clay soil of Craigflower Farm and watched them once again grow there, overwintered and saved the first seeds. In 1994 we planted the first of the seeds we had saved and watched them grow into another generation of Yellow Aberdeen Turnips.
FURTHER EXPERIENCES, 1996
The Seed Saving program at Craigflower has experienced numerous set backs through the 3 years of it's existence. We have had gardener changes, one very hot, dry spring and one very cold and wet summer, much seed germination failure, cross pollination problems and vandalism. However, we have also had successes, including successful seed saving of the Yellow Aberdeen Turnip (93,95,96) Welsh Onion (94,95,96) Early London Cauliflower (95) and Chevalier Barley (96) - all of which we now offer in the Seeds of Diversity Annual Seed Listings. Following is Head Gardener, Kathy Cruzille's Craigflower Garden Report for 1996.
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