By Vivian Corban, Citizen Journalist

According to an old proverb, “A man may toil from sun to sun, but a woman’s work is never done.”

This is especially true on a farm. And while farm life is hard work for a farm wife, it’s even harder when the farm wife is the farmer.

Meet Evelyn Marsh, owner and sole operator of Marsh Farm in Central Saanich.
Every morning, rain or shine, Tuesday to Sunday, Evelyn gets up at six and heads outdoors, where she seeds,weeds, waters, grows, picks, and reseeds for ongoing crops. She also prepares produce for the sales barn. At eight she opens the gate. Customers can pick what they want, or choose produce in the sales barn. Everything is labelled and she’ll toss in recipes if you’re looking for cooking inspiration or advice. She works the fields and tends to customers all day, heading home for dinner at five, leaving the gate open for the after-work crowd.

“I prepare meals on Monday (her ‘day off’) that can last pretty much all week and then the boys (husband George and twins Gregory and Curtis) warm up the food for me when I come in.” With planning Evelyn can prepare food for five days in the same amount of time it takes to make food for one. “Sometimes I’ll make five or six lasagnas at once … and then pop them in the freezer until I need them.”

At eight o’clock she heads down to the gate to close up for the night.
It’s a lot of work.
So why does she do it?
Well – there’s a story here – and it’s a heartwarming one.

Evelyn Marsh always wanted a big family. So after having a child of their own, she and George adopted not one, or two, or even five children, but eight. She has warm memories of those early years, but notes that there were days when a good sense of humour was critical.
School presented its own challenges, so, “I started home schooling when the twins were in Grade 3 and it didn’t take long before the phones were lighting up and they wanted to know what was going on,” she recalls with a rueful laugh. “I just told them that I was tired of getting phone calls from the school four times a week and my kids were all special, so instead of wasting time having meetings with eight of them against me I would have my meetings with my kids and me.” Altogether, Evelyn home-schooled six children with special needs.
Many would be terrified of adopting so many children who needed so much attention, but to Evelyn it was pretty simple and straightforward. “They needed a family.”

While the children were growing up Evelyn enjoyed taking care of her flower garden, but after seven of the nine had left home she needed something to do with all the time on her hands. Many women may relate to the “empty nest syndrome”, but few would respond in quite the same way Evelyn Marsh did. Realising she liked gardening (“A farm seemed like a good idea,” she laughs) Evelyn started a farm on East Saanich Road near Stelly’s Cross Road which she runs all by herself. Despite the long hours and hard work, she points out, “I love it. It’s very therapeutic.”

While she loves farming and the outdoor life, Evelyn has another special reason for doing what she does.
“I want people to be able to pick their own vegetables the way people used to. It’s really important that people have that place where they can come and connect with their food; where they can bring their kids and let the kids see that food grows on a farm, not in the grocery store.”

There are golf carts for the elderly. “If walking is a challenge they can ride a golf cart and I’ll get it as close to the vine as possible and they can pick from the cart – allows them to harvest their own berries and remember how it was as children when they would go out and pick their own fruit.”
At Marsh Farm Evelyn uses organic farming methods with the help of ladybugs and Mason bees. She grows all kinds of fruits, flowers, vegetables, and herbs, ranging from artichokes to zucchini – even Christmas trees. Pop by today. Get to know your food. Pick a fresh salad for dinner. It’s not really all that much work when you’re only pickin’ for one.