Haliburton Community Organic Farm is a publicly-owned farm within the Agricultural Land Reserve (ALR). The farm was saved from development by a group of concerned citizens and the District of Saanich, who purchased the land. The Farm is now being developed as a community and educational certified organic farm.
The farm is 4.09 ha (approximately 9.3 acres), and is located on the south side of Haliburton Road (741 Haliburton Road) in Cordova Bay, which is a neighbourhood in Saanich, BC.
The farm was previously zoned P-2 (Utility Zone) and has been rezoned to a new Rural Demonstration Farm Zone. It contains an underground water reservoir and a farm centre (house)on the west part of the site, a forested area on the southern part, and various fruit and berry orchards. It has a sunny southern exposure and the soil is designated class 2, on a scale of 1 (the best) to 7 (the worst).
Fifty years ago, Haliburton Farm, or Four Winds Farm as it was then called, supplied fruit and vegetables to the neighbourhood and provided jobs for a family. Before 2004 there has been no active farming on the land in over 30 years, yet the fruit trees continued to produce bountiful amounts of cherries, pears and plums. Also, the farm had been used to graze sheep during the spring & summer, which was helpful in keeping invasive species, such as broom and Himalayan blackberry, from taking over the property.
Today it is on the way to being a thriving community farm, one of 14 community farms in Canada, 7 being on Vancouver Island. There are 5 separate businesses operating under the umbrella of the Haliburton Community Organic Farm Society.