Wisbey’s Veggies

Bruce Wisbey grew up in the Okanagan on a tree fruit and asparagus farm.  He took a degree in agriculture at UBC and worked for the Ministry of Agriculture for five years. With farming in his blood, he then decided to go into farming full-time.  He has had his farm in Abbotsford for thirty years and has always grown vegetables.  He loves to see things germinate and growing the healthy food he can supply to his customers. 

Bruce is not afraid to try new things and he is always trying new varieties of vegetables.  He is trying to grow vegetables that will keep as continuous a supply as possible in his market and he’s always trying new stuff from the seed catalogues.  As he has a direct market, he is not worried about shelf life, but can aim for sweetness. For example, he grows Nantes varieties of carrots that are super sweet and crunchy but are not commercially available.  They make California carrots seem woody by comparison.  Cauliflower and broccoli are another vegetable interest of Bruce’s; he plants them every two to three weeks and chooses about ten different varieties so there is always fresh broccoli and cauliflower, with that extra hand grown touch, in his market.  One of his fun vegetables is his giant cabbage, a tradition started as a rain accident one year.  They sell for a dollar a head and are perfect for sauerkraut and cabbage rolls.  Bruce also grows a variety of hot peppers, lettuce, pickling cucumbers, pickling beets and more.  In all, he grows about twenty five different types of vegetables and more than 100 different varieties of vegetables in total. 

Wisbey’s Veggies is located on Number 3 Road, just east in Abbotsford.  This store has a down home country atmosphere.  Here you can find all the wonderful vegetables that Bruce grows, everything you would find in a vegetable dictionary to a culinary herb store.