A History of Farming on Salt Spring: An Evening with Usha Rautenbach and Charles Kahn

6pm-8pm • January 27 • Salt Spring Centre of Yoga • Sliding Scale

Salt Spring Island’s foodways have supported people for thousands of years. Yet today, most of the food we eat is imported. Understanding how we arrived at this moment requires looking closely — and honestly — at the island’s agricultural past.

On January 27, Usha Rautenbach and Charles Kahn will lead A History of Farming on Salt Spring, the second part of a two-part series exploring how food systems on the island have evolved over time. This evening, following Chris Arnett’s exploration of Indigenous Foodways on January 20th, will focus on the farming practices and foodways brought by settlers, including Hawaiian, Japanese, and Black farmers, and how these communities shaped Salt Spring’s agricultural landscape.

From Indigenous Food Systems to Settler Agriculture

Long before settlers arrived, Indigenous peoples thrived here through sophisticated food systems grounded in stewardship, seasonal knowledge, and intimate relationships with land and water. The arrival of settlers introduced new crops, labour systems, and land-use patterns — displacing, and becoming layered onto existing Indigenous landscapes with profound and lasting consequences.

By the late 19th century, agriculture had become central to Salt Spring’s economy. By the turn of the century, the island was producing food at a scale that earned it a reputation as a bread basket of the province.

Historical records documented in Mort Stratton’s Farms Farmers Farming, 1859–1939 offer glimpses of this productivity. Orchardists exported thousands of forty-pound boxes of apples annually between the 1890s and early 1900s — the legacy of Salt Spring as the Apple Capital of Canada remains in the wide variety of heirloom apples still growing in orchards around the island.

Usha Rautenbach: Bringing Agricultural History to Life

Usha Rautenbach’s contribution to Salt Spring’s farming history is both scholarly and deeply practical. She played a key role in bringing Mort Stratton’s research to publication, meticulously indexing the Farms Farmers Farming manuscript and providing critical background on the island’s agricultural development.

Usha approaches farming history as living knowledge. Her work highlights how settler communities brought skills, crops, and labour that became woven into Salt Spring’s food system. Her ability to connect archival research with lived experience helps illuminate whose stories were recorded, whose were marginalized, and what lessons remain relevant today.

Charles Kahn: Context, Continuity, and Change

Charles Kahn brings decades of historical research and community involvement to the conversation. As the author of Salt Spring: The Story of an Island and a former president of the Salt Spring Historical Society, Charles has spent years documenting how land use, agriculture, conservation, and community values have shaped the island.

His perspective situates farming within larger social and economic forces — from land ownership and transportation to policy decisions and conservation efforts. Charles helps connect individual farming stories to the broader evolution of Salt Spring, offering insight into how past decisions continue to influence food security and land access today.

Why This Conversation Matters Now

As Salt Spring Island faces mounting challenges around climate resilience and access to farmland, understanding the island’s agricultural history is key to charting a way forward that works both to repair Indigenous relationships and cultivate food justice. 

This series, part of Salt Spring Farmland Trust’s Root to Bloom series,  invites participants to reflect on how Indigenous food systems, settler farming practices, and diverse cultural contributions have shaped the island’s foodways — and to consider what can be learned from that history as we imagine a more resilient and just food system for the future.

A History of Farming on Salt Spring is an opportunity to deepen our understanding of place, land, and community — guided by two of the island’s most knowledgeable stewards of agricultural history.

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