It’s Briwood Farm Market Growing Up On The Farm; local families building the future of agriculture – one generation at a time . . . fueled by Kubota.
Today we are looking at Mazak Farms and Greenfields Therapy Farm.
Diversification is the name of the game at Mazak Farms.
Established by Rick and Mary Mazak over 50 years ago as a horse farm just north of Talbotbville, the operation is now owned by their daughter Sarah, and her husband Barry Harrison.
Mazak Farms is committed to sustainable, organic farming with crops that include certified organic asparagus and rhubarb, along with garlic, pastured poultry and free range eggs.
All of it available in their farm store, with the music garlic available online.
And don’t forget the wood side of the business: a variety of wood chips for meat smokers and locally harvested hardwood for fireplaces and furnaces.
And now we’re starting to transition into our next stage, confides Sarah, “which is still continuing to produce organic produce, but also our therapy program, Greenfields Therapy Farm. So if you’re not changing and evolving, then you’re not moving forward.
“It’s hard to make change on a farm, especially with a well-established family business. But in this day and age that we live in, change has to happen.”
Sarah observes that now she is able to bring her two worlds together.
“My farm where I grew up, where we’re now raising our family and my professional side, which is as a recreation therapist. And I’ve had clients who have come out and said, oh my goodness, I forgot what birds sounded like. And they come out and they just feel a sense of peace and they have some space.
“They have some freedom. They have the ability to just be. And they’re not listening to sirens. They’re not listening to traffic. They’re not listening to their neighbors fighting. They’re listening to roosters. They’re interacting with nature.”
So, who takes advantage of a visit to Greenfields Therapy Farm?
“We’re seeing really great results and we serve anyone from the age of eight and up. So we’re seeing children who are struggling in school and we’re seeing adults with PTSD and we’re seeing everybody in between.
“We just recently put in some new pathways to make the farm more physically accessible. So we hope to expand our programming as we go.
“People don’t often realize how much tension they’re holding in their bodies until they come to a place where they can take a deep breath, let their shoulders relax, interact with some animals that don’t care about what’s going on in their life. They’re just here in the moment with them.
“And we’re pretty proud of the work that’s being done around here. And every therapy session is different. I’m not sitting across from you at a table with a clipboard writing notes and you’re feeling the pressure to give me the right answer.
“Sometimes we don’t talk at all. Sometimes we just are. And there is no right or wrong way to be. And we incorporate a lot of movement, a lot of nature, a lot of animals in the work that we do.
“The really great thing about our services is they are covered by most people’s health benefits through the workplaces. And we also offer experience programs as well, so we have a children’s program that we call junior farmers that we run through the summer. That provides children with an experience of being on the farm using their bodies engaging with nature.
“Sometimes we’re digging holes and planting trees. Sometimes we’re picking tomatoes from the garden. Sometimes we’re brushing the horses. But just to give kids some exposure to farm life. To play on the ground. To take some risks, to move their body, to climb some trees and some fences and be independent, right?
“We need that in today’s world. It’s important that we remember that we are raising children to be independent adults. And we give them that sense of independence out here, supervised and managed, of course. But they have a lot of freedom out here, which they don’t always get.”
So whether you visit to pick up farm fresh and hand-picked with love organic asparagus or to shed that overwhelming anxiety, Mazak Farms at 40075 Longhurst Line is an inviting place to shop, explore and heal in a peaceful setting.
For more information on Mazak Farms, visit http://mazakfarms.ca
And to learn more about the services at Greenfields Therapy Farm, visit http://greenfieldstherapyfarm.ca
You can listen to some of our interview with Sarah below.
Written by Ian McCallum
