Our Story
Farming. It’s a big part of our past, our present, and our future…and not just ours but everybody
About 50 years ago, a stone’s throw from this current farm a boy was born to hard-working Dutch immigrant dairy farmers. As the boy grew up and worked alongside his family, he gained respect and appreciation for agriculture and the agriculture community.
That respect and appreciation for agriculture still run deep with Bill Vanderkooi who established Bakerview Farm and that same respect and appreciation is alive and well on the farm today.
The current location of Bakerview Farm was previously farmed by the late Albert Witteveen (1938-2020). Albert had lived on site and daily made visits to the farm and walked through the barns to ensure all was running smoothly.
What began as a dairy farm with a herd of milking dairy cows and a few barn cats are so much more today. You can also find a flock of chickens, a herd of beef, a petting zoo of various farm animals including goats on a grass roof, a hive of bees, a patch of berries, a calf barn, an anaerobic digester and a hydrogreen system and we continue to try and improve upon current farming practices for a bright future.
All we do here at Bakerview Farm is because we have an amazing team of people that make it possible.
Dairy
Bakerview Farm is home to a herd of dairy cows and the EcoDairy. EcoDairy is an agritourism destination that invites people to experience a working farm and helps visitors make the connection to where food comes from. EcoDairy hopes to inspire agricultural advocates as well as provide year-round comfort and care for our cows.
The milk produced on the farm is then processed and bottled and packaged, and you can find EcoDairy Milk and Ice-cream at Natures Pickins, the on-site market and Vitala yogurt are also used at Booster Juice locations across Canada.
Beef
In the grassy green pastures, you may notice some hefty black cattle grazing. These are the Hanks Grass Fed Beef cattle that are raised here on the Bakerview Farm. Hank’s Grass Fed Beef is the leader when it comes to bringing high-quality, locally-sourced beef to customers who want to serve only premium cuts of meat to their families. We’re part of Vitala Foods, an innovative, agricultural foods company.
Hens
Everybody loves a little freedom. Bakerview farm are home of Free Bird free range hens. The Free Bird flock live in an enhanced, free-range barn with lots of space to run, fly(almost) and socialize. When you visit our farm, you can see Free Birds and experience an egg collection tour through EcoDairy are purchase a bright red carton of farm fresh eggs at the onsite market.
Berries
You can’t get fresher than picking your own blueberries and blackberries to take home with you. Beyond the park is our no-spray U-Pick field featuring some of the biggest, juiciest blueberries and thornless blackberries around. In season you can come to Nature’s Pickin’s to get set up to U-pick or purchase the freshly picked berries at the market.
Honey
What’s all the buzz about? Bakerview has onsite behive boxes located a safe distance from our farm guests. Honey bees are an essential part of our farm ecosystem, they produce sweet honey but also keep our park, fields and patch fruitful and alive with color as they pollinate the plants.