Big Rock Farm, British Columbia

Big Rock Ranch is a beautiful 10 acre property set in the heart of Beautiful Metchosin, just west of Victoria, BC. The origin of the name Metchosin is a Straits Salish word, smets-shosin. The term means “place of stinking fish” or “place smelling of fish oil.” The name arose perhaps after a dead whale washed up on the beach. Sir James Douglas, a Hudson’s Bay Company trader and later governor of Vancouver Island, referred to the area as “Metchosin.” This spelling is used today. Farmers came to the area in the early 1850s. They planted vegetables and fruit trees and raised dairy cattle, pigs and sheep. The expansion of Victoria after the Second World War led Metchosin residents to seek incorporation as a district municipality in order to maintain their way of life.