Fairburn Farm Culinary Retreat and Guesthouse

Fairburn Farm Culinary Retreat and Guest House is located in a natural environment on 130 acres, allowing guests the opportunity to stroll between pastures enjoying mountain views, a meandering creek, peaceful forest and historic farm buildings. The sprawling south facing verandah is the perfect spot to curl up with a book, or relax and talk over a glass of local wine. In the spring of 2005, the manor house was re-modeled and re-opened under the direction of chef, culinary activist and cooking instructor Mara Jernigan. Here, she has formed a unique partnership with Darrel and Anthea Archer, the farm's owners, and operators of the Cowichan Water Buffalo Dairy.

Mara has expanded the services at the guest house to include culinary getaways, Sunday lunches, cooking classes and dinners for her in-house guests. The gardens overflow with vegetables and culinary herbs, and Mara's rare breed San Clemente goat and Navajo Churro sheep graze in the historic apple orchard.

Sunday Lunch on the Farm:
Special Sunday lunches commence on the June 29th and take place until August 31th. These leisurely six course set menu lunches are held on the lovely verandah of Fairburn Farm with sweeping views of the pasture and grazing water buffalo, the gardens and the mountains. Our Sunday lunches are reminiscent of the Sunday family meal in Italy and will always feature a hand-made pasta course. There will be one seating only at 1:00pm, by reservation. The cost is $85.00 + tax and gratuity.

Cooking Classes:
In addition to our Field to Table Saturday cooking classes, Chef Mara Jernigan offers Basic and Advanced winter cooking classes and 5 day Spring and Fall Culinary Boot Camps. The next dates for the Fall Boot Camps are Sept 22-27th and Sept 29th-Oct 4th

Fairburn Farm Culiinary Retreat's bootcamps were named in 2008 in Gourmet Magazine as one of the Top 45 Culinary Vacations in the World!