Check out all the new nursery stock that has been added for the spring season. There are some really interesting plants, including novel hardy citrus and other rare fruit trees.
2011 North Central Road. Denman Island. BC
About Us
TreeEater Farm and Nursery
We are a small family farm. We care about food, making more food and empowering others to do the same. We maintain a large annual garden, livestock, several acres of orchard trees and rough pasture that is inter-planted with young nut trees. Almost all of the trees we sell are growing out at our place and we are constantly sourcing new species and cultivars to test out.
The nursery began inadvertently while Peter was building up the farm. He set out to try to find some of the weird plants mentioned in the first generation Permaculture textbooks and it quickly became obvious that apples and a few plums and pears were the only species that were available locally.
Since then we've had about 20 years of experimenting, building relationships with plants and refining who grows best in the region and what they need to thrive here.
The Nursery
The nursery is an outgrowth of the farm. The business is fairly unique for two reasons. One, Peter is managing the entire nursery process himself with casual seasonal help. He grafts the trees, responds to emails, does the taxes, orders and start the seeds. The second reason we're unique is that we both produce plants and we sell plants. That might not sound strange but most nurseries these days are specialized into just production/wholesale outfits or else resale/retail businesses. What were doing is much more complicated but it allows us to offer a huge diversity highly curated plants. You'll see it in the catalogue!
Peter Janes
My last 20 years of life have been focused on skill development. All of this learning has been directed at growing the farm and growing the business. Logging, milling, building, fencing, amending, planting, cultivating, irrigating, tinkering, repairing, husbanding, hunting and processing. You name the country skill and it has been learned and practiced around here. The future for me is diverging into other planes: the esoteric internal, the development of community in the face of restrictive laws and cultural individualism, and more time crafting in the shop. Just have to, ah. build the shop first...
Instructor and host of ES380, UVIC Field School “Creating Alternatives to the Dominant Order” with Nick Montgomery
Author of “Fake Plants Never Die, an Eclectic Technical Tnstruction Manual, Essays on Pre-Apocalyptic Adaption” 2023. Night Forest Press.
Instructor of “Propagating Woody Edible Perennials” An Online Course with Regenerative Living Online
Owner/Operator of TreeEater Farm and Nursery with 20 years experience in homesteading and property development
Guest Instructor for “How to Start Farming” with the Young Agrarians
B.A. in Anthropology and Environmental Studies. UVIC
Graduate of the COLT program (Canadian Outdoor Leadership Training) at Strathcona Park Lodge with employment experience as a wilderness guide and educator
Robert and Priscilla Janes
We started the TreeEater Project with our son, Peter, in 2004, with 40 acres of mostly forest and little or no infrastructure. Our vision has evolved to embrace the magic of food trees, the importance of food security, and the grandeur of the forest that surrounds us. As the world confronts the climate crisis and the loss of biodiversity, not to mention the litany of other issues, we are working hard to steward a thriving, multi-generational, collaborative enterprise - committed to sustaining harmonious relationships between people, land, trees and animals.
Robert is a museum scholar/practitioner and Priscilla is a potter and art teacher. Together, we provide resources, perspective, and commitment to the well-being of this 21 st century enterprise.