Meet Marylynn Hunt!

One of the best compliments that St. Mary’s Spring Estate Farm owner Marylynn Hunt can get is having customers come back again and again for her farm’s eggs, produce and other food products. Another is having her customers recommend the farm’s products to someone else. Marylynn’s business has, in fact, been built mainly on word-of-mouth since she first started it in 2011. It’s one of the perks of doing business in a smaller community, although many of Marylynn’s customers come from other communities too. “I’m able to get to know my customers and what they like,” she says. “Business is always personal because everyone knows each other,” and she likes being able to grow, plant, pick and produce the kinds of things that local people really want to buy and eat.

One of the reasons that Marylynn started her farm business was because of the unreliable delivery of fresh produce to the island from the mainland. Marylynn’s hope is that increased farming and a growing public awareness of the importance of eating locally-grown foods will make it easier and less expensive for Haida Gwaii residents to get produce that is truly fresh and high in nutritional value. Marylynn’s garden has expanded every year since 2011, and the farm recently added fruit trees which she hopes will be producing fruit over the next few seasons.

Marylynn originally came to Haida Gwaii on vacation and immediately fell in love with the area and decided to stay. She was drawn particularly to the scenic beauty of the pastoral farmland and the spectacular beaches. In fact, when Marylynn isn’t busy in her garden (which is often these days), she likes to spend time on the beaches that she loves so much.
St. Mary’s Spring Estate Farm may be best known for its chickens, but guests will find an ample variety of farm-fresh products on the farm as well as at local shops and Farmers’ Markets. St. Mary’s Spring Estate Farm yields dozens of eggs each day from its 90 heritage-breed hens. Lots of room to roam and forage and a comfortable, spacious chicken coop leads to production of a higher-quality, more nutritious and better-tasting egg. You can also find their eggs at Isabel Creek Store in Daajing Giids.

During the growing season, St. Mary’s Spring Estate Farm also produces and sells an array of home-grown, fresh vegetables, available to the public at the Masset Farmers’ Market on Fridays, the Daajing Giids Farmers’ Market on Saturdays and the Tlell Farmers’ Market on Sundays during their regular seasons. Customers can also subscribe to receive a basket of fresh garden produce every week delivered directly to their doors. Additionally, the farm makes artisan jellies and jams all from wild berries grown right on Haida Gwaii as well as goat’s milk soap created using the farm’s own goats.