Mentoring: the hands-on way to learn about farming

Monday, February 20, 2012

A growing number of would-be farmers are looking to mentoring programs to learn about small-scale farming before taking the plunge

by MIKE MULHERN

When Lindsay Higgins travelled to B.C. to learn to farm, she was looking for the kind of guidance that was scarce in her own farming neighbourhood. She wanted to know about small-scale vegetable farming with some lessons about poultry thrown in.

Higgins, 29, was one of five people in 2011 who were mentored in the StepUp program, one of a number of programs that teach people how to grow and market locally and directly. And she is one of the few who is starting out with a farm. Most begin by renting.

Their objective, when they do buy, is closer to 10 acres than 100 and they're willing to plant, hoe, harvest and market to reach their goals.

"I have some sort of a farming background. My family has farmed for years, but it is a different type of farming," Higgins says. Since her neighbours are involved in large-scale, commercial enterprises, she felt she needed some guidance in the development of a small-scale, organic vegetable business.

Higgins' mentor was Lori Gillis, who runs a two-and-a-half acre farm near Qualicum Beach, B.C. With that small holding, a licensed abattoir, some meat chickens and laying hens, a farm store and community shares, she is able to make a living and even hire staff.

Higgins is one of a growing number of people engaged in a type of farming that plugs into urban Canadians' desire to buy locally produced food directly from people they know and trust. Before leaving for B.C., she and her husband had already started a small vegetable business on the 45-acre farm they bought in 2009 from her grandfather.

They went with a Community Shared Agriculture (CSA) model. Also known as Community Supported Agriculture, CSA farmers receive a set fee from customers prior to the start of the growing season. Customers receive shares (produce) in the farm's crop and they also share in risks like weather.  

Higgins delivers vegetables to 18 clients in the Stratford, Baden and Kitchener area. Devoting most of their land to a soybean crop, they utilized just three-quarters of an acre for their vegetable garden in 2011, but Higgins expects to add to that in future years, especially when it becomes a full-time job for either her or her husband.

While there is a farmers' market and slow food market in Stratford, Higgins says she will stick with the CSA model. Slow Food organizers define their goal as "food that tastes good, is not harmful to humans, animals or our environment and for which producers earn fair wage."

Interestingly, the couple sent out direct mailings and advertised online in the community section of Kijiji and it was through Kijiji that most of their CSA customers found them.

Whether it's StepUp, FarmStart or Farmers Growing Farmers, the mentoring programs attract people interested in small-scale farms who intend to market direct to the community either through CSA programs, buyers groups, farmers markets, on-farm stores or a combination of all four. No one talks about selling to large grocery chains or through third parties.

Everdale Environmental Learning Centre is near Hillsburgh. The farm, a registered charity, mentors people in programs such as StepUp and through on-farm programs like the Organic Farming Certificate program and its own Farmers Growing Farmers program. Farm manager Carl Leslie says they grow about 10 acres of vegetables, 20 acres of grain, 100 acres of hay and 30 acres in pasture. People being mentored do hands-on work, while also learning about farm and crew management.

"Part of my job is working with people who want to learn about organic agriculture," Leslie says.

"Their objective, long-term, is to begin their own farm business." As part of the training, they involve people in the two farm markets Everdale attends in Toronto and CSA programs on the farm and in Toronto.

Two recent Everdale graduates are Robert Campbell and Peter McClusky, both from Toronto and both with corporate backgrounds.

Campbell, 47, is a former insurance actuary married to a university professor. He took a one-day workshop in 2009 at Everdale called "So You Want to Be a Farmer."

"It was sort of a romantic vision we had," Campbell says. "Once we found out how much my income would drop, we decided to put that (farming) aside, but my priorities changed over the following two years." Campbell "switched careers" in April of 2011 and signed on to a seven-month internship program at Everdale. He planned to move to Waterloo from Toronto at the end of 2011 and to shop for a farm in the range of 10 acres in the spring of 2012. "I'd like to have a little more land – 30 or 50 acres," he says. "But I could get by with 10."

At Everdale, Campbell took the Organic Farming Certificate program. He says he learned that "there's a difference between gardening and farming." He also learned about soil, soil chemistry, composting and cover cropping, but there was another side to the program which he also found valuable.

"We do something like 20 field trips to other farms," he says. "It plugs you into the network of organic farmers." While not all the farms were certified organic, "they are all following organic principles."

His marketing approach will be "direct to customer or final eater." He plans a combination of farmers' markets, CSA and buyers groups. "I might work with the corporation I used to work with. I would get a group of people who are interested in buying fresh produce and send out an email with a spreadsheet saying, 'Here are the half dozen crops I have available this week.'" Once the spreadsheets are returned, he would then box to order and deliver.

Marketing is also a key component of Peter McClusky's farm plan. McClusky, 49, was born and raised in Ontario, but spent 15 years working in New York City.

When he left in 2009, he says he wanted to do something different, so he turned to farming.

McClusky helped another farmer at FarmStart, a not-for-profit with land in Brampton that it rents by the quarter-acre or full acre. While he was helping, he bought some garlic seed and planted his first crop on rented land. He later enrolled in the Farmers Growing Farmers program at Everdale.

In September 2011, McClusky held his first garlic festival in downtown Toronto. The one-day festival attracted 22 other garlic growers and McClusky is planning a second festival for next September.

In 2010, he planted 10,000 cloves. In 2011, he upped this to 25,000 cloves on a half-acre of land he rents.

He expects his garlic business to build through the festival and a blog; http://www.peteronthefarm.blogspot.com/ . In addition, he is selling directly to Toronto chefs. The price, he says, ranges from $6 to $15 a pound, depending on packaging.

Since garlic doesn't require a lot of care once it is planted and mulched in the fall, McClusky also manages a farmer's market during the summer season and he is looking for other crops to grow, possibly mushrooms.

He has no immediate plans to buy land. If he does buy land, it will be a minimum of 50 acres, he says. "You need that kind of size. I'd have some animals on it." In the meantime, he is "looking at other things" to fill in the time. BF
 

Where you can find a farm mentor

FarmStart, which has offices in Guelph, is a not-for-profit organization leasing 60 acres in Brampton from the Toronto Conservation Authority. FarmStart allows people to begin with a quarter-acre and they can stay with the program for up to five years.

During that five-year period, they can graduate to one acre with access to hoop greenhouses and equipment sheds. The cost is $500 to $600 for the quarter-acre and $1,000 to $1,200 for an acre for a year. FarmStart program co-ordinator Sri Sethuratnam says it leases land to people who come to them with some background information and the desire to learn to farm. At the moment, the organization is setting up a more formal mentoring program it hopes will connect learners with farmers.

"We see a need," Sethuratnam says, "especially when people have done a quarter of an acre and are moving to an acre, to have access to a mentor farmer – not someone who has done it for 30 or 40 years, but someone who has done it for eight or nine years and who is not very far from their (startup) stage." They expect to start mentoring in 2012 with a small pilot project involving four mentor farmers.

FarmStart can be contacted at www.farmstart.ca or by calling 519-836-7046.

StepUp program co-ordinator Jennifer Hardy-Parr says StepUp brings participants and on-farm mentors together for eight weeks. They set learning goals that may include any farm or farm-business management practice.

Applicants have to be Canadians, 18 or over, who are interested in agriculture. There are no academic requirements and a farm background is not required. Those being mentored do not have to pay to be part of the program and they have the option of negotiating with their mentors to be paid for the work they do when they are training. The program provides travel expenses up to $1,000 and there is a $2,000 stipend for mentors.

StepUp is run by the Ottawa-based Canadian Farm Business Management Council (CFBMC), partnered with the Canadian 4-H Council, Canadian Young Farmers' Forum, and Canada's Outstanding Young Farmers' Program. The program begins in April, but people who want to be part of the program, either as a mentor or for training, can apply at any time. The number of spaces is limited.

Contact StepUp program co-ordinator Jennifer Hardy-Parr at stepup@cfbmc.com.

Everdale Environmental Learning Centre near Hillsburgh offers a number of programs and workshops as well as mentorships for people in programs such as StepUp.

Among Everdale's offerings is a full-season Organic Farming Certificate program. There is also a farm management program called Farmers Growing Farmers, which runs on weekends from October through March each year.

Farmers Growing Farmers co-ordinator David Alexander says the full program is 10, one-day, in-class sessions, plus a farm tour.

"Each session has a different focus," Alexander says, "from the very general visioning goals, enterprise selection, and then we move through a whole range of topics designed to help build a comprehensive farm plan." They include marketing, finances, spread sheets, risk management, regulations and record-keeping. Enrolment is limited to 15. The full program costs $1,400.

The Organic Farming Certificate (OFC) program begins in April and ends in November.  Because students live on the farm, enrolment for the OFC program is limited to eight. The cost, which includes room and board, is $3,900.

Everdale can be reached at 519-855-4859 or via email at info@everdale.org. BF