Farm stands, u-pick, CSA boxes and agritourism

What a farm stand can sell

BC’s food premises rules don’t apply to a place that sells only whole fresh fruit and vegetables, or only prepackaged food that doesn’t need refrigeration. Anything beyond that brings in Island Health, a licence or both.

On ALR land: how big the stand can be

If everything you sell is produced on your farm, the Agricultural Land Commission sets no size limit, and your local government can cap the building area or site coverage but not prohibit the stand. A farm spread over several parcels counts as one, whether or not they touch.

Sell bought-in goods too, and the whole retail area — indoors and outdoors — is capped at 300 m², with at least half of that area kept for products from your own farm or a co-op you belong to. Parking, driveways, offices, washrooms and processing or storage space don’t count toward it.

Making jam, juice or other products from your own crops is a farm use when at least half of what you process, by volume or weight, comes from your farm. A café or restaurant is not a farm use and needs the Commission’s approval.

Off ALR land, your zoning bylaw decides. In Saanich, for example, a roadside stand counts as accessory produce sales, needs an annual business licence, and may have one sign up to 0.185 m² attached to the stand.

U-pick, farm tours, events and farm stays

On ALR land, agritourism is a permitted use when the land is classified as a farm for property tax, the public is invited, and nothing permanent is built for it — a tent up for more than 90 days counts as permanent. The regulation lists farm tours and demonstrations, hay, sleigh and tractor rides, petting zoos, corn mazes using corn grown on the farm, and harvest festivals and seasonal events that promote your farm’s own products.

U-pick isn’t named anywhere in the regulation or the Commission’s policies. Customers picking and buying your own crops most plausibly counts as farm retail sales, which needs no farm classification — that is our reading, so ask the Commission if your plans go beyond picking and paying.

Farm classification includes a minimum farm income: $2,500 a year on 0.8 to 4 hectares, $10,000 under 0.8 hectares, and more on larger farms. Local governments can still regulate parking, lighting, hours and noise. Serving food to visitors is food service: a commercial kitchen on ALR land may process your farm’s products but not serve meals, and serving at an event needs Island Health’s approval.

CSA and subscription boxes

No rule is written for CSAs, so each thing in the box follows its own rule — this is our reading of those rules:

• Whole produce: no permit, delivered or picked up.
• Ungraded eggs: only if members collect the box at your farm or home. A drop-off point in town, or delivery, falls outside both the grading exemption and BC Egg’s rules; graded eggs can go anywhere.
• Farmgate meat: only from your farm store or at a market, so not in a delivered box. Farmgate Plus meat can be shipped within BC.
• Jam, baking and other prepared food: only from an approved kitchen.
• Keep anything perishable at 4°C or colder, and frozen food at −18°C or colder, on the way.
• Calling the box “organic” needs certification.

Well water, if you process food on the farm

A well that serves only your own home is outside the drinking water rules. Once it also supplies a farm kitchen, a processing room or a cut-and-wrap room, Island Health treats it as a water supply system: it needs an operating permit and its own approval, and regular testing for coliform bacteria and E. coli. There is no fee for a system with fewer than 15 connections. A Farmgate slaughter site needs a water test with its application, and regular testing after that.

Signs by the road

Outside a municipality, a sign on or within 300 m of a highway needs the Ministry of Transportation’s approval, and the ministry doesn’t permit private advertising signs. Its Service and Attraction signs are the official route for tourist attractions and artisans; ask your district transportation office whether a farm qualifies. A stand’s driveway onto a highway can be up to 9 m wide, with parking on your land so customers don’t park on the shoulder. Inside a municipality, its sign bylaw decides.