We are doing something special

Winter is the time for...banking! This year, we have decided to establish leads for each category of farm task in order to increase our efficiency. Under our new structure, I am leading our business management and marketing activities. So, I've been working on various spreadsheets and documents as well as talking with banks about business banking. It may sound boring, but I am loving it!

Anyway, I was recently in a conversation with a friend of mine who is a financial advisor. I spent a long time explaining our business model. Although we are a for-profit business, our plan is to slowly sell our equipment to the Barrowtown Agricultural Development Society so that it can be shared with other new farmers. We also have to think about succession planning so that our land is shared, either through incorporating new business partners or by welcoming other farm businesses onto our site. After awhile she stopped me and said, "You guys are doing something really special!" I had to agree. Even if it is challenging to set up, at the end of the day it will be worth it.

I feel very lucky to be part of such an exciting and unique project. This year feels much less scary to me and I can't wait to get seeds in the ground again!

Like Kids in a Candy Store

Last week Hannah, Jamie and I sat down for a planning meeting over some pizzas and managed to plough through our 2010 seed order.

There's something about doing a seed order that gives me that kid in the candy store feeling (or perhaps more appropriately, the Amy loose in an online shoe store type feeling). Its January, and it seems like the possibilities are endless as to what we can do this year. Last year we literally did not get seed in the ground until after June 1st, and we still managed to pull off 10 weeks at the market and even more for our CSA customers. This year, the seeding has already started with the garlic in the ground last October, and the first of our transplants will be started sometime in February if all goes well.

With the addition of a hoop hoop house on the site we have expanded our crop selection quite significantly to include things that should grow well under plastic, as well as added many more crops that for us will be experimental. Our main train of thought(s) when going about deciding what to plant is first, thinking about what we, and our foodie friends, want to eat. Then we reflect on what have seen at the markets in abundance, and what (if anything) we thought was missing from farmers markets. Jamie then adds in fancy knowledge about industry trends and new and unusual crops, and then we also consider that we have several different marketing streams - CSA, farmers markets, and bulk sales to customers for pickling and other needs. Lastly we take into account our previous growing experience. What crops did well on the site, held up well at the market and were worthwhile, financially, to grow.

I wont go into the varietal details of what we have decided to grow this year, otherwise this blog post would be far too lengthy, but for those who are interested here is a run down of the crops we have decided upon for 2010.

Lettuce, greens, beans, swiss chard, summer squash, scallions, storage onions, cabbage, carrots, peas, cauliflower, potatoes, beets, broccoli, kale, cucumbers for slicing and pickling, corn (eating, popping and decorative!), some lovely oriental vegetables like choi and daikon, spinach, winter squashes, pumpkins (this time ones that are good for eating and carving), brussels sprouts and sweet potatoes

and for the new stuff

eggplants (we only managed to grow a few last year), garlic, tomatoes, tomatillos, cape gooseberries, hot and sweet peppers, fennel, parsnips, celery, okra, collard greens, watermelons! cantaloupes! honeydews! turnips and leeks.

We are also doing cut flowers which are great at the market, but also for the bees and several varieties of herbs.

The list is long...and somewhat daunting. But this year already seems so much less scary than our first year and I am pretty confident that we will be able to pull it off. The beauty of starting off is that everything is one big experiment, so if we screw up somehow, we can just chalk it up to a learning experience and do differently next time round.

The pic is of Hannah diligently taking notes which no doubt helped us in our planning for this year. (Photo by Dave P.)

-Amy

Wintery Farm

I haven't been out to the farm at all in the last month so it seemed like a good idea to head out there yesterday to check things out.

It looks so different with all the leaves off the trees, but still beautiful.

Still some food left - kale, carrots, cabbage and broccoli

Jamie has been busy tapping some of the maples on the farm. He is hoping to make some maple syrup and I am hoping to eat it.

December was a bit of a lull in our farming year with Hannah away and both Jamie and I taking a break from veggie planning. Come January the work starts up again and we are hoping to have more of a head start than last year. More updates then.

Happy Holidays!

Amy

We Are Gourd Enthusiasts

So I have to make a confession. We planted WAY too much squash in our first year. So much that some of it has ended up in a compost pile. I know...I know. It's embarrassing, especially when we know that there are people who would want and need it. Anyways, what's done is done for this season and we will smarten up next year, I promise.

To be honest with you I didn't know all that much about winter squash this spring when we were planning what to plant. Gourds, to me, were somewhat mysterious vegetables that pop up for awhile at the grocery store in the fall and mostly old people ate them. The only winter squashes I think that I have ever eaten were spaghetti squashes, which my mom forced on us as an alternative to pasta when she went through a Suzanne Sommers diet phase, and butternut squash, which I liked mostly because I imagined they tasted like butter.

So this year turned out to be a big squash experiment. It turns out that one squash plant produces A LOT of squash. And you can imagine what that translates to when you plant over 1000 square feet of winter squash. Although we did our best to sell, give away, pawn off, and eat all the squash we had, we just couldn't get it off the field in time.

Needless to say, next year our strategy for squash will be much different. For one thing we certainly won't plant as much. I am thinking one or two 100' rows per variety.

I have also been trying my hand at saving seed and collecting some different and unusual varieties of squash that will look beautiful on the market table. Thanks to my partner Bryce, who found this awesome little farm stand in Richmond, we have managed to collect Red Kuris, Shamrocks, Carnivals, Delicatas, Cinderella pumpkins and these gourds that when dried have a hard shell and are good for crafts.

This is certainly a tasty way to acquire seeds as we are eating our way through each squash and saving the seeds as we go. My favorite so far is the Delicata squash which tastes similar to a sweet potato when roasted and has a thin skin that you can eat.

The other awesome thing you can do with all winter squashes (not just pumpkins) is roast the seeds with a bit of salt and eat them. We have gotten really into this around the house lately, so much so, that Bryce made us take home a bunch of orphan pumpkins from the farm last weekend just so he can keep eating seeds throughout the winter.

If any of you happen to get your hands on some leftover pumpkins or end up buying any winter squashes I highly suggest you save the seeds and eat them! I soak mine in a salty brine overnight and then roast them on a cookie sheet for 45 minutes or so at 250 F. Delicious.

So it turns out that there is more to winter squash then we thought. Live and learn. Next year we will aim for less volume and more diversity. Hopefully by then more people will catch our gourd fever and give this awesome winter vegetable a chance.

-Amy

Giving thanks #2

We had our wrap up dinner for the 2009 growing season last weekend at Jamie's home. Our families, who have all helped us out a lot, and ourselves celebrated with a delicious menu that very closely resembled Thanksgiving dinner #2 (and dinner #1 for Hannah and Dutch, our US counterparts).

-a local turkey from a friend/farmer, skeeter farm butternut squash soup, skeeter farm delicious indian spinach, sweet potatoes (not from skeeter farm because we ate all of them already), stuffing, cranberry sauce etc etc and a chocolate zucchini ganache cake. The cake was one that I made many times throughout our growing period this summer and its definitely the most delicious way to eat zucchini that I have found. I felt pretty silly going to the grocery store to buy zucchini just so I could make it for this dinner considering the ridiculous quantities of zucchinis we had just a couple of months ago. Cake recipe here - try it next year when we start pawning off our squashes on you. http://www.mybakingaddiction.com/2009/09/chocolate-zucchini-cake.html

We certainly have a lot to be thankful for this year including success growing vegetables and flowers that most of us hadn't tried before. Our only crop that failed to produce was Okra (although we got some beautiful flowers), some crops had mixed results, but overall we were pleasantly surprised with our growing abilities.

Another thing to be proud of and thankful for is the financial success of our business. In our first year of business start up, we have almost broken even. We have done our best to keep our costs low, but still needed to invest in some critical infrastructure for the site including irrigation, hand tools, site clearing and preparation, etc. I think we were surprised at the amount of revenue we were able to pull from the field this year, and we certainly think that we will be in the black next year with the combination of enhanced growing and marketing techniques as well as reduced capital expenditures.

We are also very thankful for the amount of community support that we have received this year, from customers, farmers, and other community members alike. Most recently, the BC Healthy Living Alliance recognized Skeeter Farm by awarding us an Innovative Community Capacity Building Award. The award, which speaks to our efforts in trying to support and encourage new farmers just like ourselves, came with a financial award which will be put to good use in building up the infrastructure on the site. We are hoping to purchase a used hoop house which will allow us to extend our growing season, plant a wider range of crops, start some transplants and allow us to properly cure some vegetables like winter squash and garlic.

It is pretty clear that "wrapping up" one season just means that it is time to start planning and working on the next. This last week we put our heads together to work on planning for the 2010 growing season.

We have decided that it make sense to assign each farmer a lead on certain farm tasks so that we aren't all expected to be working on everything all at the same time. Some of the categories for leads that we came up with are: business management, marketing, communications, site maintenance, vegetable planning and field work, as well as value-added processing and events/outreach (the latter two categories would be a new area for us). It has become clear that the three of us won't be able to tackle everything that we want to see happen at Skeeter Farm and so we have made the decision to start looking for a fourth business partner for the next growing season. Stay tuned as we will probably have more to say about that in the near future.

There are many things that need to be accomplished between now and the start of the next growing season including: writing a business plan (we were just winging it for the first year), planning for our CSA program which we will be introducing in 2010, planning crops and making our seed order, revamping our market booth, creating new communications materials, hopefully conning someone into making us a website, and working on securing some equipment and more infrastructure for the site. I don't think we are going to twiddling our green thumbs too much this winter!

Hopefully we can continue to update readers about what is going on during our offseason but if you are curious, please don't hesitate to get in touch with us at skeeterfarm (at) gmail.com

Creative Work With Vegetables

Some of the results of our first pumpkin patch! Submitted by some of our more creative customers...

Putting our Field to Bed

It has been a race against the clock as we get ready for winter! Just a few weeks ago I could head to the farm after work and still have plenty of hours of daylight to get things done. Now I run out of the office and arrive at the farm with only about an hour of light left.

I have been surprised about how much work is involved with putting the field to bed. We have busily been pulling out finished crops, tilling, planting garlic, seeding cover crops, and talking about our plans for next year. I am also surprised about how many veggies are still out there and looking excellent- our broccoli, cauliflower, kale, cabbage, and carrots have never looked so good!

This past weekend, we invited people out to the farm for our pumpkin patch. It was wonderful showing off our beautiful site and watching little ones pick out their favourite pumpkin and play in the mud. We also got lots of work done!

Top 10 Reasons Why I Like What We're Doing

The growing season is drawing close to the end for this year. With only a couple more weeks left at the Farmer's Market and maybe a couple more weeks of harvest boxes after that we have begun to wrap things up at the farm, and have started thinking/talking about what the future holds in store for us Skeeter Farmers.

One thing is clear - all three of us want to continue on this business adventure, at least in to year two. To me that means that despite the low returns experienced in the first year of a business start up, we are all getting something out of this experience. I know for myself, I get a lot of things out of farming the way that we are doing. So here are my top ten reasons why I like farming like we are out at Skeeter Farm.

1. I get to hang out with cool folks like Jamie and Hannah and everyone else that has come out to the farm to lend a hand or offer advice or support in some way. Farming and food has certainly proved to be a common love that brings together folks, who wouldn't necessarily find common ground in other situations. Farming and food has and still is building a community of local food supporters and enthusiastic eaters some of which have gathered at Skeeter Farm.

2. We get to eat like farmers. There is nothing more satisfying than a meal made mostly out of things that you grew yourself, and the rest sourced from places you know and trust. Between produce from the farm and our home garden we have spent less money on food from the grocery store than I can ever remember. I should add that I have significantly upped the amount of Timmys in my diet, but that is excusable when you are a farmer, right?

3. As small business owners we are doing it all. We make all the decisions about what happens on our farm and how our food is produced, and although we get advice from many different people, we are ultimately get the say in how the farm and business is run. This really speaks to the independent side of my personality, which sometimes can get lost in the typical work setting.

4. More on the business front: in addition to learning (sometimes by trial and error) how to do the actual farm work, we are doing our own marketing and promotions, communications, product pricing and facing, financials, business planning and showcasing, team building, reflections and all the other fun stuff that comes with running a small business. All of these aspects are made more exciting when business meetings take place outside surrounded by pretty plants and tasty food to snack on.

5. People think we are cool(er than we actually are). But honestly, people think that because we are selling them vegetables or have a little dirt under our fingernails that we are really interesting or doing something that so few people do so it must be really hard and worth some sort of hero status. Jokes on them because we actually think THEY are cool ones for buying our stuff, we are just dorks who like vegetables and digging in the dirt.

6. There is a lot to be said for working with your hands. In general, I don't think that we get to do enough of it these days. There is nothing more satisfying than doing a hard days work and being able to actually see your results.

7. This next reason is probably more specific to our farm - but I have had some pretty cool wildlife sightings this year so far. The most recent one was a black bear that came sauntering down the laneway to the farm. There has been little otters frolicking in the canal, eagles and hawks daily, and amazing amounts of dragonflies, bees, lady bugs, butterflies and other little critters.

8. I haven't had to wear business casual much at all this summer. And that is a beautiful thing.

9. I am exercising my body in ways that results in more than just toned muscles. And I haven't had to pay for a gym or try to work it in to my schedule. Similar to those folks who ride a bike when they commute, staying in shape just becomes part of your lifestyle and it all just starts to make sense.

10. Good, clean, fresh, and delicious food is one of the only things I think I would feel good about selling to people I like and love. If I could find a way to make it my career, I feel like it would be an honest and important living, which is all I could really ask for.

Box vs. Market

There is no denying that something magical happens at farmer's markets. Friendly folks set up beautiful booths showcasing items that they produce and people of all stripes show up to look, chat, sample, and of course, purchase things. I have loved almost every moment of being at the market- arranging our veggies in little baskets, smiling at babies, explaining to little girls why they can't just plant one of our big sunflowers in their yard and expect it to grow taller...



However, doing the market well takes a lot of time. To prepare for the Abby market, at least two of us have to spend a full day harvesting and then a full day setting up and staffing the booth. In addition, keeping the booth looking good throughout the market means bringing more veggies with us than we will sell.



Filling veggie boxes is not quite as magical as being at the market, but it sure is efficient. We get to give our box customers whatever is convenient for us to give (while honoring some special requests) and we make a guaranteed amount of money for each sale. Most importantly, we get to fulfill the weekly veggie needs of each box customer, providing a real alternative to other sources of food. There is something really satisfying about that.



Ultimately, I think it makes sense to continue utilizing both marketing methods. Having a presence at the farmer's market is a great way to market our veggie boxes, not to mention that the booth itself makes a great veggie box pick-up/drop-off location. Certainly, different methods suit different types of customers. Luckily, our veggies taste delicious regardless of whether they come out of a bag or a pretty little basket!

Pretty Things at the Farm

Indulging in a particularly lazy Sunday and will continue that trend with a lazy blog post filled with photos of the farm.

A couple of photos by Betty Johnston, a lovely photographer who came to the farm the other week.

Corn is an amazing and delicious grass. Did you know that the silky part at the top of the ear is actually a flower?

2 of our 17 potato varieties.

What seems like acres of winter squash thriving at the farm. (Photo by Jamie).

The scenic laneway onto the farm. Watch for bear scat. (Photo also by Jamie)

Skeeter farmers/documentary stars. Stay tuned for Jayne's documentary on our first year farming. (Photo by Gavin).

Retired parents make great farm labourers. My mom and I planting sweet potatoes (Photo by Jayne).

A regular market goer enjoying the fruits of our labour. (Photo by Dutch).