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2023

Organic Stories: Level Ground Coffee, WSANEC Territory

in 2023/Climate Change/Crop Production/Current Issue/Fall 2023/Grow Organic/Marketing/Organic Community/Organic Stories

The Coffee Company that Wants Us All to be on Level Ground

Darcy Smith

Can coffee be sustainable? If you have ever asked this question about your morning cuppa, you are not alone. It’s a question Stacey Toews, co-founder of Level Ground Coffee Roasters, gets all the time. People “feel helpless in the global machine,” says Stacey. But one of the great joys of his work is getting to show people that “you are largely in the driver’s seat when it comes to coffee.”

At least, he clarifies, if it’s organic. He’s done the math: “with what goes into the life of coffee, from an emissions standpoint you can’t redeem coffee grown using chemicals.”

After a year of living and volunteering in Asia, Level Ground was born out of Stacey’s desire to “have a life purpose that would be aimed at bringing possibility and abundance into circumstances that looked dire and difficult.” The day he returned to Canada, Stacey met his wife and Level Ground co-founder Laurie Klassen, who shared his drive to “level the playing field,” says Stacey.

“At the simplest level, often life isn’t fair,” says Stacey. “Global trade is tipped in favour of a certain group.” This led to the premise of Level Ground: “we asked ourselves, ‘How do we run a business that creates positive impact from inception?’ We wanted to have a positive social impact with farmers who could be our partners, and with consumers.” Coffee was an ideal product because people reach for it each morning: “People can say, my daily rhythms have a positive effect.”

Level Ground staff help load coffee headed from the co-op to export in Peru. Credit: Level Ground Coffee Roasters.

Now 27 years old, Level Ground has what Stacey describes as “a pretty unique mix” of a business model: global connections for sourcing, a local roasting facility and tasting room in Central Saanich BC, and distribution to everywhere from universities, high end restaurants and cafes, and grocery stores.

Level Ground’s approach from the onset has been to humanize trade. “There are real people producing the everyday consumables of life,” says Stacey. “Any way we can make it less about an economic choice, and more a human decision, the more we can flavour the idea that sustainable, mindful global consumption can be powerful and positive.”

“We jumped into the fair-trade approach from inception in the late ‘90s,” Stacey says, “with the primary driving aim of providing coffee growers with a stable income that recognizes the living wage needed for a small-scale farming family to make a go of it.” Level Ground buys a million pounds of coffee annually, sourced from 5,000 small-scale farming families, who are members of 12 co-operatives. Each farming co-op can have 200 to 2,000 farmers in a common geographic region, where the climate is similar. Most of the farmers are cultivating under 10 acres.

The farmers Level Ground works with belong to progressive co-ops, and are using organic and permaculture techniques to produce the precious coffee berry. Coffee is grown on steep slopes at a high elevation, requiring a cool climate in otherwise equatorial, hot countries. The coffee cherry is the primary crop, growing on trees spaced a couple metres apart and reaching heights of two metres. Like other fruit crops, it takes two to five years to start harvesting the coffee berries once seedlings are planted. The berry has to ripen slowly to develop the precious fats and oils that give coffee its distinctive flavour.

Stacey Toews visiting with a small-scale coffee grower in Peru. Credit: Level Ground Trading.

While coffee berries are harvested over a period of a few weeks, coffee trees have needs throughout the year-long production cycle: shade, mulch on ground, organic compost, pruning, ideally right after harvest has ended.

“There are a lot of challenges to small-scale coffee farmers being organic,” Stacey says. Some of these will sound familiar to farmers in BC: neighbouring practices, lack of resources, a difficult transition period where yields may be lower without the premium organic price to make up the difference.

“Fertilizer is big driver of productivity of plants,” says Stacey. “Farmers who move away from fertilizer will see their yields go down. When the message coming from consumers is ‘Be organic, you guys who grow our food,’ that can be interpreted as ‘You want us to make less money’.” Even with the premium price of organic coffee, organic may not pay as well if there are fewer pounds to sell.

The steeply-sloped terrain provides one challenge to organic production: “Imagine having a compost pile and during the rainy season all the nutrients just wash away,” Stacey says. To solve this problem, farmers dig pits for their compost. Another creative practice employed by organic growers: coffee trees require shade, so farmers will plant nitrogen-fixing leguminous trees spaced throughout their coffee trees. Not only do they provide the much-needed shade, they also offer mulch, a habitat for birds, and through their roots one healthy tree can put a tonne of nitrogen into the soil per year.

The co-ops have agricultural technicians who work with the farmers to develop methodology that will result in higher yields and a better-quality crop through organic practices. These technicians will often visit member farms at critical points in the growing cycle. Stacey says this allows them to become familiar with on-the-ground challenges: erosion, pests, disease, pruning and mulching techniques. “The collective wisdom from a handful of technicians visiting the 1,000 plus farmers in any given co-op hones their knowledge of what is, or isn’t working at different elevations, including the best varietals of coffee to plant.”

Brewing up fresh espresso at the Level Ground tasting room. Credit: Maylies Lang.

Once the berries are harvested, farmers are on a tight timeline. The ripe red coffee berries are brought to the co-op’s shared infrastructure, where they must be pulped the same day of harvest. Then, the coffee berry, with pulp removed, is fermented for 18 to 24 hours as naturally occurring bacteria in the air break down the exterior mucous coating of the berry. The fermented seeds are then dried in the sun, before being prepared for shipping.

Coffee usually starts to ship from a co-op three months after harvest ends, giving the co-op time to focus on processing the ripe berries. The next stage is all about sorting, sampling, and quality control in order to fulfill contracts arranged well before harvest.

Stacey describes the procedure for sampling: “when they have a prospective lot of coffee designed to fill a shipping container and go to Level Ground, they use a hollow metal tool and stab every sack so that a few beans come out.” The resulting 700-gram sample is representative of every sack. Half of the sample stays at co-op, and the other half is sent to Level Ground, so the roasters can look at the green product and check for any defects. They then do a very light roast and “cup” it to get a quality score. At the sample stage, “we use the lightest roast to not cover up the characteristics of the beans, both bad and good,” Stacey says. This gives them the most insight on the beans’ potential and cup score. If everything checks out, the co-op will prepare a full shipment.

The Level Ground roasting facility in Saanichton, BC. Credit: Maylies Lang.

“Every coffee cherry is hand-picked. There are two beans from each cherry, handled manually or mechanically to be processed, and cupped and scored by the co-ops lab and Level Ground,” before arriving by ship, Stacey says. “We open the doors of each shipment to several hundred families contributing to what’s in a container.”

The annual coffee harvest is the primary, if not only, crop for which these families are receiving cash. The world price for specialty coffee is traded per pound in US currency. “The price is noted hour to hour each business day,” says Stacey. “In our company’s history, I’ve seen it be as low as 40 cents and as high as three dollars for one pound of coffee. It’s generally a volatile market.”

Stacey emphasizes that travel doesn’t always make a product unsustainable. It’s a common misconception, he says. “There is far more carbon footprint adding milk to coffee than the coffee itself. You can drink five americanos or drip coffees for every latte.” Level Ground buys full containers to get the most efficient inbound shipping via container ship. The footprint of inbound coffee is one sixth that of outbound trucking of roasted coffee, says Stacey.

While the farmers are doing their part to grow organically, Level Ground works on sustainability in their own community. Their new facility and patented roasting technology, which recaptures heat used in destroying volatile organic compounds (VOCs) produced as part of the roasting process, has allowed them to reduce their natural gas usage by 43 percent.

“I feel pretty confident to say, if you’re living in BC and buying coffee from Level Ground, all our steps and procedures result in it being the most sustainable coffee in the marketplace,” says Stacey.

The world has changed since Level Ground roasted its first bean back in the late ‘90s, and, while the core values have remained the same, Level Ground is changing with it. Like many others, Stacey describes the inevitable pivot during Covid-19: “Much of what had been a backbone of our business evaporated in a two week stretch, and many of them have never come back to being what they were before.” He continues, “What’s become normal to us is a crazy amount of adaptation that I would never have foreseen two to three years ago.”

Stacey has also witnessed a trend over the last decade to single-serve coffee. “After years of the quality of coffee improving, convenience became the key.” That means the drive to produce quality coffee decreases in favour of convenience. But Level Ground, as a “pro-farmer voice” in the coffee industry, “wants to find high-quality accessible coffee”—the best of both worlds. This tier of coffee is also the bulk of what farmers can produce, meaning it’s the best bet to get the farmers a living wage.

On the production side, there is “huge unpredictability on farms,” says Stacey. As is the case everywhere, “farmers are aging, and the climate is changing.” The elevation required for the coffee trees keeps getting higher. “Arabica coffee is running out of real estate,” says Stacey. “If grandpa and grandma had a great location, and the third generation is now farming, they may be below the optimal elevation.” Arabica is also susceptible to new pests and disease.

“So much has changed,” Stacey emphasizes. “Our model for purchasing coffee, of working with community, of managing teams—we didn’t have a grid for what we’re doing now on so many levels.”

And while the only constant in the future might be constant change, Stacey is optimistic: “Ultimately our goal is more farmers, more hope, more possibility. I have a friend who says, ‘The person with the most hope in the room controls the narrative.’ If our approach is about fairness, respect, honouring others, and sustainability, most people will say, ‘That’s the community I want to live in’.”

levelground.com

Darcy Smith is the editor of the BC Organic Grower, and a huge fan of organic farmers. She also manages the BC Land Matching Program delivered by Young Agrarians.

Featured image: Coffee bean processing at Level Ground Coffee Roasters. Credit: Maylies Lang.

 

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Biodynamic Farm Story: Where Anna Anticipates Some Free Time (Questionably)

in 2023/Current Issue/Fall 2023/Land Stewardship/Organic Community/Standards Updates

Anna Helmer

Well, on the other hand, when a major crop flops, the harvest isn’t going to amount to much and that frees up a certain amount of time…

Welcome to my head space right now: consumed with our carrot crop catastrophe. You’ve joined me at a positive moment in the endless cycle of despair and future free time optimism. Stick around and we’ll get right back to wallowing in the carrot field of broken dreams, where I am often to be found pacing through the sparse carrot stand feeling bewildered and disappointed, trying to unravel the mystery. Eventually I wander far enough towards the east end of the field where things are not nearly so bad, and the mood improves. Not to the point of giddy elation, mind you—just a sort of contented, if somewhat resigned, reflection on all the free time coming my way.

It won’t be free time, in the strictest sense. I won’t be wandering around with nothing to do all fall. The time will be filled, allocated to something other than carrot harvesting and washing—perhaps directed at a variety of farm projects. I also may binge-watch a season of something instead of just watching the first episode and then googling the outcome, for lack of time. Oops. That was meant to be kept private, but here you are still following along my inner journey.

Sounds quite fun, doesn’t it, puttering about? I hope I don’t start a rush to declare crop flops to generate free time. There must be another way, but it hasn’t presented itself. Feel free to try it out on your own farm. Results may vary.

And it’s not like there are no carrots at all in the field. I think half the crop will make it to harvest. That is still quite a bit as we connived to plant a larger area this year, without admitting to it. Plenty of carrots to harvest, which happens to be my favourite farm job of fall. As I mentioned earlier, I haven’t figured out what happened to the other half. The possibilities are myriad, and I won’t go into all the details here unless I need to boost my word count.

I think this column is still called Biodynamic Farm Story and I really ought to stick to the mission. I am having trouble getting to the Biodynamic bits because biodynamics always gets kicked to the curb when the farm is particularly extremely busy, as has been the case this summer.

Most of the summer was spent with me making a strong case for auntie of the year honours: nieces and nephews galore on the farm. Most of them teenagers. Not much intrinsically biodynamic about teenagers. They were eager to work, though, so I helped with that. And they added a lot of youthful energy to the farm, compelling me to contribute a fair amount of middle-aged lady energy to balance it all out. Draining.

That effort was nothing, however, compared to wallowing through the process of achieving our CanadaGAP certification. This was a very distinctly non-Biodynamic effort. We are now awash in hand-sanitizing wipes, spotless harvest bins, and signs, including a “No Smoking” sign on the inside of the cooler door. And we now have over 30 active forms. Rudolph Steiner never mentioned anything about forms.

I am burying the following comment deep in the article as it is still quite an incomplete private thought: we are a better farm for having gone through the CanadaGAP certification process. I still think it’s a travesty of food safety justice that an essentially harmless little farm like ours is required to slog through the same process as a massive producer who needs help keeping the listeria and E.coli off the leafy greens, not to mention actually requiring a no-smoking-in-the-cooler sign.

However, there have been many unanticipated side benefits, coming because of the hours we spent striving to comply. We did a major clean-up, and that has helped considerably with not only airflow, but also freeing up all kinds of space in which to put things. We have better lighting now, the importance of which, for those possessing deteriorating eyesight, cannot be overstated. Our handwashing and toilet facilities are dialled, and I think our crew really appreciates this effort.

It must be said, however, that it all came at the expense of farming, especially the carrot farming. Instead of irrigating the heck out of them to get the pelleting to dissolve, I was going to the dump and reading the CanadaGAP manual. Instead of spending hours setting up the mechanical weeder to do the best job possible, I was going to the dump again, stencilling pallet numbers on the cooler floor, or printing and laminating signs. Instead of doing the one pivotal hand weeding that became necessary, I was carefully accumulating and sorting forms and checklists into piles called Ongoing, Weekly, Monthly, and Annual.

And instead of diligently and regularly applying BD 500 and BD 501, which I should have realized early in the season were going to be required to help the crop contend with heat, smoke, drought, and inattentive farming practices, I was just plain otherwise occupied. I found it very hard to tear my mind away from what seemed like daily new CanadaGAP compliance conundrums, discovered as we deciphered the manual or performed the latest self-audit.

So, it all boils down to this: I am not too disappointed over the reduced carrot yield. We’ll sort it out financially, and the crop we have will still allow me to enjoy my favourite job of fall. Sometimes it doesn’t even feel like work.

I’m being positive again. How annoying.

helmersorganic.com

Anna Helmer farms in Pemberton and is not sure she would have been able to handle this summer in her 30s.

Featured image: Some acceptable carrots. Credit: Moss Dance

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Agriculture and Conservation at Alaksen National Wildlife Area

in 2023/Climate Change/Crop Production/Current Issue/Fall 2023/Land Stewardship/Living with Wildlife/Tools & Techniques

Jordy Kersey

The Alaksen National Wildlife Area (Alaksen) is a protected wildlife area in Delta, BC that utilizes agricultural production to provide habitat for migratory birds and other protected species. The area is unique in that the farmland is used to produce forage and habitat for the migratory waterfowl as well as cash crops (annual vegetables).

Maintaining economic and agronomic viability alongside wildlife and habitat conservation is increasingly challenging due to climate crisis pressures, high-water tables, and soil degradation. Due to recent mandates, Alaksen farmers are now required to eliminate farming practices that adversely impact the environment and breadth of species that inhabit the wildlife area. Alternatively, they are moving towards utilization of organic-regenerative methods that are less deleterious and impactful. There is a need to determine how organic-regenerative management methods can effectively be implemented on these farms to sustain production, but also reduce degradation of habitat into the future.

Over the last four farming seasons, agricultural scientists from the Sustainable Agricultural Landscapes Lab at the University of British Columbia (UBC) and the Institute for Sustainable Food Systems at Kwantlen Polytechnic University (KPU) have evaluated conditions and challenges impacting crop production at Alaksen, as well as the crop rotation scheme that is currently used. A range of plot-level studies have been conducted to assess the feasibility of an organic-regenerative farming method and to better understand the interactions between farm activities and wildlife habitat provision.

Cabbage plots at Alaksen. Credit: Jordy Kersey.

Following a baseline assessment, a suite of projects to bridge the gap between meeting production goals and maintaining conservation of wildlife habitat and waterfowl populations have been conducted using organic-regenerative approaches. These projects include (but are not limited to): evaluation of organic insect and weed pest management alternatives; development and evaluation of alternative tillage and organic amendment regimes; investigation of some alternative crops and their market potential; and an evaluation of alternative cover cropping approaches. This project is set to continue into the next five years, with research directed at specific organic-regenerative farming methods that have been observed to be promising in this environment and ultimately to investigate a whole farming system that employs organic-regenerative farming practices.

These organic-regenerative methods have potential to not only reduce the environmental harm of the farming system, but also promote soil health and support successful vegetable crop production. Organic-regenerative management may help to increase soil organic matter which can improve soil aggregate stability, and in turn improve soil water dynamics. Increased soil organic matter is also associated with building of soil health and is an indicator of soil fertility. Reducing the synthetic inputs to the system may help to reduce residual pesticides and herbicides within the soil profile and those lost to surrounding water ways. Migratory waterfowl depend on these fields as habitat and farmers depend on these fields for income, so replacing synthetic inputs with organic alternatives and cultivating a healthy soil to effectively support crop disease, weed suppression, and avoid soil degradation is imperative for both wildlife conservation goals and sustained production.

Trial plots at Alaksen. Credit: Jordy Kersey.

In contrast to many of the potential benefits of transitioning to certain organic-regenerative practices, there are also concerns that may constrain adoption in some areas, including providing adequate crop nitrogen through organic amendments, avoiding an excess or deficit of phosphorus, retaining comparable crop yields, and effective replacement of herbicides with increased tillage intensity.

Application of organic amendments compared to the typical synthetic NPK applied at Alaksen did not significantly reduce growing season plant-available nitrogen nor did it reduce onion and cabbage crop yield over the two years this experiment was conducted. We did, however, find differences in weed pressure with varying tillage intensity. Plots with application of conventional herbicide had significantly less weed pressure and required less labor than plots with no herbicide application. However, increasing tillage intensity also reduced weed pressure, indicating that greater tillage intensity (more passes) may be an effective replacement for weed suppression in these systems. This was particularly apparent in alternative crops such as butternut squash, with the plant structure shading out most weeds by the middle of the growing season. Further research must be conducted to determine how an increase in weed pressure with the elimination of herbicide would impact farm labour costs and how strongly the weed pressure impacts crop yields of other rotation phases.

Onion harvest. Credit: Jordy Kersey.

In addition to alternative farming practices, changes in crop and cultivar selections at Alaksen may reduce growing season constraints, leading to reduced reliance on conventional pesticides and improved cover crop establishment. Adequate cover crop establishment is required to provide sufficient forage for migratory waterfowl over-winter; however, climactic variability in shoulder-season rainfall can cause significant issues for germination and canopy coverage. Transitioning to vegetable crops with shorter periods of maturation could provide farmers with additional days or weeks to get cover crops planted and well-established before shoulder-season rainfall sets in. Crop diversification offers additional potential for improved farm profitability and risk mitigation. Historically, farmers on Westham Island integrated crops such as peas and beans into their cropping systems, but as bird pressures have increased these regimes have often been abandoned. Identifying crops or cultivars that perform well in organic production systems, are disease resistant, and suitable to the unique environment at Alaksen is very important moving forward and in transitioning to a more sustainable cropping regime.

Alternative crops were observed to grow successfully at Alaksen compared to typical rotation crops, such as cabbage, throughout this experiment. Butternut squash, onions, and radishes were three crops that did well throughout the 2021 and 2022 growing seasons. Butternut squash yield was high but the growing season long, as the crop was ready for harvest in early October. While in that year the shoulder-season was dry, in wetter years this may cause problems with harvesting and getting cover crops planted, if rains were to set in during September. On the other hand, radishes were mature and harvested in early July. This would provide ample time for sowing and establishing winter cover crops; however, also poses the issue of barren soil for a portion of the year, until sufficient water is available for cover crop germination. Further research into the marketability of these alternative crops is still needed. The success of alternative cover cropping mixtures to withstand migratory bird grazing pressure is currently being assessed from the data collected over the past two winter seasons.

Moving into the next phase of this experiment we hope to identify combinations of organic-regenerative farming methods that synergize well in this environment for the most beneficial outcomes both in terms of production and wildlife conservation. Farm management at a plot-scale is often very different than field-scale so it is important to
recognize the need for scaling before conclusions can be made. There is also a need to investigate alternative rotation regimes and the economics of organic verses conventional production to contextualize the outcomes of this research within the Alaksen farming system. We are hopeful this research has and will continue to be insightful and provide alternative farming system management to Alaksen farmers and other interested growers in the lower Fraser Valley region.

Jordy Kersey (MSc) is a current PhD candidate in soil science working with Dr. Sean Smukler at UBC in the Sustainable Agricultural Landscapes Lab. Jordy’s research is focused on the impact of regenerative agricultural practices on climate breakdown mitigation and adaptation in the lower Fraser Valley, British Columbia. Specifically, Jordy is investigating how agricultural management practices influence soil carbon and nitrogen cycling, greenhouse gas emissions, and soil water regulation. Jordy is passionate about working towards a more sustainable future and finding meaningful ways to improve agricultural systems to combat climate crisis while continuing to feed our world. Beyond academics, Jordy is an avid cookie baker, traveler, and enjoy long hikes through the forests of the Pacific Northwest.

Featured image: Research plots at Alaksen National Wildlife Area. Credit: Jordy Kersey.

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Nutrient and Nitrogen Management

in 2023/Climate Change/Crop Production/Current Issue/Fall 2023/Grow Organic/Preparation/Soil/Tools & Techniques

Stacey Santos

Since 2012, Niki Strutynski and her husband Nick Neisingh have grown organic mixed vegetables at Tatlo Road Farm, located south of Crofton on southern Vancouver Island. With years of experience working on other organic vegetable farms throughout BC, plus Niki’s degree in Agroecology from UBC, they have created a robust nutrient and nitrogen management program to boost their farm’s fertility and yields, carrying out a soil test every two to three years depending on the area.

In an episode of Organic BC’s Organic Innovation Series, Niki took viewers through the program, highlighting their system for tracking nutrients and making decisions around nutrient applications. To complement the learnings from Niki’s on-farm system, Josh Andrews from the BC Ministry of Agriculture and Food dove deeper into why nitrogen management is important, and took viewers through a “how to” of a post-harvest nitrogen test.

Nitrogen Management in a Nutshell

Because nitrogen is the nutrient that is most-used by crops, it’s the one farmers need to build in soil in the highest quantities. It’s also a tricky one! Nitrogen is fairly mobile in the soil and has a lot of different forms, so having it in the right form for the crop at the right time can be particularly difficult.

On one hand, you want to make sure crops have enough nitrogen available to achieve optimum growth and yield. You also don’t want to overapply, because during the rainy winter months nitrogen can actually leach into groundwater (which has been a problem in certain areas of the province). Ultimately, you want to control the amount of nitrogen you’re applying so there’s as little left over at the end of the growing season as possible.

With nitrogen management, we normally talk about the agronomic rate—the rate at which the crop gets just enough nitrogen for optimum growth, but not an excessive amount. You can think of it in terms of the four R’s: the Right Source at the Right Time using the Right Rate and applying it in the Right Place. If you follow these guidelines, you can generally get good growth and yield.

Nitrogen Sources to Consider

As you work to meet the agronomic rate for nitrogen application, the calculation is not as simple as figuring out how much nitrogen your crops need. You must take into account residual nitrogen, as well as other sources of nitrogen. Cover crops and fertilizers like feather or bone meal will all contribute to nitrogen in the soil and impact the amount of nitrogen you want to apply.

The amount of nitrogen in the soil at the beginning of the growing season depends on the region and the type of operation. Drier regions, like the Interior, might have more residual nitrate from the previous growing season because of less soil leaching. And while Tatlo Road Farm receives a lot of precipitation, their organically managed soils are probably getting a fair amount of nitrogen from mineralization of soil organic matter.

Developing a Nutrient Management Calculator

For Tatlo Road Farm, the practice of calculating nutrients goes back to their first year, when they had a soil test done through a local agriculture supply business. Soil tests will show the levels of different nutrients along with recommendations about what quantities of amendments to apply. The results for Tatlo Road Farm were mostly expected—low nitrogen, which is common after a rainy winter—however, the report also featured the lowest phosphorus results the agriculture supply business owner had ever seen.

At first, to save money, Niki and Nick applied only a portion of the recommended quantities and blanket applied it on the entire growing area. But after a season of low yields, they increased the quantities and only applied it to the beds. This helped tremendously, and moving forward, they took a more calculated approach to the amount and location of applied amendments.

To help nail down the numbers and cut down on wasted money and nutrients, they worked with a soil scientist to interpret the results of their soil tests and create a nutrient calculator spreadsheet. “We use a combination of products to meet our specific demands based on the soil test,” Niki explained. “If we were just to choose one standard NPK (Nitrogen-Phosphorus-Potassium) product it wouldn’t meet our demands. I might be either short on one or over-applying another.”

“Let’s say I need 27 pounds of fish meal to meet my nitrogen needs. I might go ahead and apply that, but if I do I might over apply phosphorus. So instead, I’m going to see what happens if I apply nine pounds of fish meal, and then [the calculator] tells me the amount still remaining that needs to be applied and met by something else.”

Soil Mapping and Nutrient Calculations

All of the soil on Vancouver Island was mapped in the 1970s, and you can still look at those maps today. They show five different types of soil converging on Tatlo Road Farm’s seven-acre property—an accurate assessment, as Niki can see and feel the soil transitions.

Niki and Nick test based on the different soil type areas. Using the test results, they feed the recommended pounds per acre per crop type into the spreadsheet, which then shows how much of a specific amendment product to apply.

The spreadsheet essentially includes the same columns as the lab results, with ideal ranges pulled from the BC Ministry of Agriculture and Food. Each tab in the file represents a different field or soil type area—one test for an entire area of fairly similar soil type and also potentially similar crops. From there, they can enter a suite of different amendments and figure out how much they need to apply on a bed per bed basis.

“We have this cheat sheet in our workshop,” said Niki. “Staff can look at it and go, ‘Oh, I’m amending a bed in field three. How many pounds of each thing do I need to mix together?’”

What Niki really likes about the spreadsheet is how she can change the quantities of the amendment. If the amendment changes, or if she tries a new product, it factors in how many pounds to apply.

Cover Cropping

Tatlo Road Farm implements cover cropping wherever they can. Among the many benefits, cover crops take nitrogen up from the soil, fix nitrogen, and add other nutrients in the spring. As a bonus, because the farm doesn’t get snow cover, the cover crops also act as winter protection to minimize both leaching nutrients from the soil and compaction from the rains.

As Josh explained, “When you terminate the cover crop, it will supply nitrogen to [the summer] crop. We won’t say that 100% of the nitrogen in that crop will become available, but usually somewhere between 25% and 50% of it probably will. That can offset the amount of nitrogen fertilizer or supplemental nitrogen that you need to add for your summer crop.”

When they are not able to establish a cover crop in time for winter, Tatlo Road Farm uses tarps. Tarps help protect the soil from heavy rains and decrease the amount of nitrogen that leaches away over winter. When they pull the tarps off, the soil is “lovely” and ready to go, without needing to wait for cover crops to break down.

Post-Harvest Nitrogen Testing

At the end of the year, taking post-harvest nitrate tests will allow you to see how well you’re meeting the targets.

Post-harvest nitrate testing has two purposes: one is environmental, measuring the amount of nitrate that is susceptible to leaching during the dormant season, and the other is for the farmer’s own agronomic purposes, measuring whether too much or too little nitrogen was applied and how it affected yields.

The best time to do a post-harvest nitrate test is as soon as the crop comes off at the end of summer, or the beginning of early fall when all of the nitrogen in the soil that was going to become available to crops has become available. The timing depends on the region you’re in, but you need to do it before the nitrate is leached down through the soil profile. With coarse soils, you should test before 75mm of cumulative precipitation, and with finer soils before 125mm of cumulative precipitation.

Our soils can teach us so much about how to be better stewards of the land, and when we can listen and interpret the information held in those soils, they will in turn provide us with better yields. We hope Niki’s learnings at Tatlo Road Farm encourage you to dial in your own nutrient management systems!

How to Take a Soil Test

To obtain a soil sample, use a soil probe for the most uniform samples. Don’t have access to one? Ask your regional agrologist if you can borrow theirs! You’ll also need a bucket for mixing the samples together and a plastic baggie for sending your sample to the lab.

When taking samples, the first thing you want to do is divide the area into sampling zones with the same soil type, crop and management. For example, if you have a bunch of different rows of veggies you can group them together by their nutrient demand. Take about 15–30 samples throughout the sampling zone, tossing each sample into the bucket. Before bagging up around a pound of soil for the lab, mix and break up the samples as best as you can.

Learn more by watching our Organic Innovation Series: Nutrient and Nitrogen Management – Tatlo Road Farm: youtu.be/MAwrXt66KD0

BC Nutrient Calculator: nmp.apps.nrs.gov.bc.ca

Stacey Santos is the Communications Manager for Organic BC. She lives, writes and gardens in the beautiful and traditional territories of the Lekwungen peoples, who are now known as the Esquimalt and Songhees Nations.

This project was supported by the BC Climate Agri-Solutions Fund. Funding for the BC Climate Agri-Solutions Fund was provided by Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada through the Agricultural Climate Solutions – On-Farm Climate Action Fund.

Featured image: Mowing buckwheat at Tatlo Road Farm. Credit: Tatlo Road Farm.

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Growing Greener: Organic Farmers Lead the Way in Environmental Stewardship

in 2023/Current Issue/Fall 2023/Land Stewardship/Soil/Tools & Techniques/Water Management

Valerie Maida

Conservation and agriculture can sometimes seem to be at odds. Conservation can be seen as trying to prevent development and control activities on farms, while agricultural development of natural areas for new farms can destroy habitats, leading to frustrations on both sides. However, farmers are naturally caretakers of the land, managing the soils and water on their properties to ensure their fields will continue to be productive long into the future. There are many opportunities for conservation groups and farmers to work together that benefit both farms and the natural environment. That’s where the Okanagan Similkameen Stewardship Society (OSS) comes in.

OSS works with private landowners to partner in conservation and enhancement of wildlife habitats on their properties. Through their Wildlife Habitat Steward program, the organisation supports landowners with recognition, technical support in habitat enhancement projects, management plans, and assistance with implementation of best management practices for wildlife on their properties. Being a Wildlife Habitat Steward does not mean farmers can’t “use” their land. Wildlife Habitat Stewards still maintain their agricultural, tourism, and other land use practices on their properties while implementing best management practices for wildlife.

OSS has recently undertaken a large project in Summerland’s Garnet Valley working with a community of private landowners to control yellow flag iris at its most upstream extent in Eneas Creek. Yellow flag iris is an invasive plant from Eurasia and Northern Africa. It was originally used as an ornamental pond plant but with a complete lack of natural controls or predators, it escaped and spread across North America. At some point, the iris was planted near Eneas Creek and it has since proliferated down the creek.

Valerie Maida installing benthic barrier. Credit: Okanagan Similkameen Stewardship Society.

For property owners, the main concern with this invasive plant is that it forms dense mats across and into the water, causing the creek channel to narrow, and significantly increasing flood risk. Yellow flag iris also changes the environment both in the stream and along the banks, reducing the number of insects, which in turn reduces food for fish, birds, and other animals. It is almost unkillable—cutting, digging, and tilling do nothing to stop its growth, and any effective herbicides cannot be used near water. The only effective way to handle large infestations is to smother the plants under heavy impermeable tarps. An infestation like this one can seem impossible to manage because it is spread across so many properties.

To tackle the yellow flag iris infestation, OSS helped to create a community of stewards in the Garnet Valley to work together to do what no one landowner could manage on their own. Starting the project upstream and working downwards, OSS was able to work together with farmers both organic and conventional, as well as homesteaders, hobby farmers and others to eradicate the yellow flag from one kilometre downstream of where the original infestation started, with agreements and plans in place to continue the work for at least another 750 metres. The yellow flag iris isn’t dead yet, but it is covered and has stopped being a seed source for the rest of the creek.

Two of the wonderful landowners that we have had the pleasure of working with are Thomas and Celina Tumbach. They are owners and operators of LocalMotive Organic Delivery service and Garnett Hollow Farm, a ground crop farm tucked alongside Eneas Creek in Summerland’s Garnet Valley. They are strong believers in the organic movement and started LocalMotive nearly 20 years ago in an effort to help develop local food distribution networks and connect organic farmers with consumers in BC. For them, farming organically alongside nature instead of against it just comes naturally.

“The Tumbachs have left a significant portion of their riparian area [dense forested area around a creek or wetland] intact,” says Alyson Skinner, Executive Director with OSS. “Their participation in the program was a natural fit considering their commitment to organics and to working with nature instead of against it.”

The Tumbachs with their Wildlife Habitat Stewardship Sign. Credit: Okanagan Similkameen Stewardship Society.

Undeveloped natural areas are highly beneficial around farms. They can help prevent soil erosion, filter chemicals from water runoff, and also help protect against weather events like flooding and high winds. Intact habitats can even help improve overall production on the farm. The diversity of trees, shrubs, and flowers in high-quality habitats maintains higher numbers of native pollinators and other beneficial insects such as lacewings, butterflies, and ladybugs and the additional pollination and pest control comes with little to no outside effort. Awareness and appreciation of the intrinsic value of wild spaces on the farm are starting to gain momentum among farmers.

“Nearly half of the 130 landowners we have participating in our Wildlife Habitat Steward program are growers and producers,” notes Skinner. “Big or small, organic or conventional, they have all taken steps to improve their land stewardship, providing benefits to wildlife and production. Much of the time, like at Thomas and Celina’s, stewardship means they just allow the habitats to exist and contact us for advice or if a concern arises. Other times, we help folks improve habitat by installing nest boxes for owls and songbirds and basking platforms for turtles.”

OSS’s community of stewards in the Garnet Valley started with Steve Lornie and Christine Coletta of Okanagan Crush Pad Winery. Right from the beginning, they wanted to farm their 320-acre Garnet Valley property with as little impact on the land as possible. After going organic and getting the vineyards started they turned their attention to the far west corner that had a fallow hayfield with Eneas Creek running alongside it. Realizing it was too wet for grapes and that habitat restoration was the best use for the area, they contacted OSS for help and signed on to the Wildlife Habitat Steward program.

Over the following three years, over 2,000 native trees and shrubs were planted throughout the hayfield to help return it to the riparian forest it once was. The importance of the project quickly became apparent when, for two years in a row after the restoration started, the floodplain fulfilled its purpose by holding and slowing down millions of litres of water from rushing downstream when Eneas Creek burst its banks during freshet.

Following Okanagan Crush Pad and LocalMotive/ Garnett Hollow, a dozen properties along the Eneas Creek corridor now call themselves Wildlife Habitat Stewards. This collective effort means that over two kilometres of Eneas Creek is being cared for by growers, both organic and conventional, as well as homesteaders and others. In addition to the benefits this provides to the community, it has also created unique opportunities to undertake a shared concern in the watershed.

The stewardship community in the Garnet Valley is a good example of the growing trend among farmers and homesteaders to embrace stewardship of their land and natural habitats. These individuals recognize the importance of working with nature, not against it, in their agricultural practices. Through their participation in programs such as the Wildlife Habitat Stewards, these farmers and landowners have collectively made a significant impact on wildlife in the Garnet Valley while also reaping the benefits of maintaining natural areas around their farms.

Growers in the Okanagan and Similkameen region who are interested in OSS’s Wildlife Habitat Steward program can contact info@osstewardship.ca or 250-770-1467 to learn more about the program, or to arrange a zero-obligation site visit with a biologist to discuss what stewardship could look like for their property.

osstewardship.ca

Valerie Maida is the Stewardship Officer for Okanagan Similkameen Stewardship, a non-profit that works with landowners and managers to conserve and enhance wildlife habitat on their properties. The team at OSS collaborated on this article.

Featured image: Yellow flag iris in bloom. Credit: Okanagan Similkameen Stewardship Society.

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Meet the Ministry: Amy Norgaard

in Climate Change/Current Issue/Fall 2023/Meet the Ministry/Organic Community/Organic Standards/Soil

Emma Holmes

As BC’s organic industry specialist, I have been able to meet many members of our organic community across the province. I also get to collaborate with other experts at the Ministry of Agriculture, and am keen to highlight them and the important work they do, so you can get to know them—and hopefully collaborate with them too! This issue, I interviewed Amy Norgaard, the Ministry’s Climate Change Extension Specialist.

Emma Holmes (EH): Hey Amy, I’m excited to be talking to you today! Let’s kick things off. When did you join the ministry and what is your role?

Amy Norgaard (AN): Thanks for having me. I love sharing about my work. I joined the ministry two years ago and my role is climate change extension specialist.

EH: You studied at UBC’s Faculty of Land and Food Systems. What were your favourite classes from your time there?

AN: Yes, I was at UBC for quite a few years. My bachelor’s is in agroecology and my master’s degree is in soil science with a focus on nutrient management on organic vegetable farms. In terms of my favorite classes, it’s hard to choose one!

When I think about my time at UBC, I mostly think about the experiential learning approach, where I was working with either community partners or on a research project or on problem-based case studies that have been created for active learning. But I think there’s two classes that I’d probably choose as my favourites.

My very first soil science class, Soils 200, was life changing. Maybe that is an overstatement, but at that point in time I was still trying to figure out what I was doing and why I was studying agriculture. Taking that soil science class changed my trajectory and definitely is why I am here now, as a soil scientist so many years later. I just felt like that class explained so much about how the world works.

EH: The class was life changing for me too. It got me excited about soil science and put me on my current career path.

AN: Yeah, it was a pivotal class for so many people. It really was.

The other class was a directed studies during my undergrad, which basically meant I chose a topic of study and I created my own learning goals. I didn’t actually have a course to attend. Instead, I spent half of my time at the UBC farm looking after the chickens and collecting and washing eggs and getting them ready for sale. And moving the chickens and rotating them through both their paddock and then following the vegetable rotation. And the other half of my time was doing a literature review about the benefits of rotational integration of poultry into vegetable production systems, in terms of economics, animal welfare, and impacts to soil properties like nutrient cycling.

And as part of that, I did interviews with producers who were rotating poultry in their vegetable fields. I’m grateful that producers shared their time and knowledge with me. I was just a young undergraduate looking to talk to some farmers about their experiences and challenges and I remember after those interviews I sent each of them a handwritten thank you card with 20 bucks of my own cash in it. Because of course, I didn’t have a stipend from the university. It wasn’t much but I’m always appreciative of people who are willing to share their time and knowledge.

EH: That was thoughtful of you. And then you did your masters and worked quite closely with several organic farms. Tell me more about that.

AN: So my master’s project started in 2018 and I worked with 20 producers across three different regions: Pemberton Valley, Vancouver Island, and the Fraser Valley. I did two years managing on-farm trials of three different nutrient management strategies. Jordan Marr interviewed me on the Organic BC podcast so people who are interested in more details about the project should check that out.

Throughout my research I really got to know the producers well. I visited their farms about four times a year for two years. I used to make this joke “the only person who’s busier than a farmer in the spring is the researcher who’s trying to chase 20 farmers to align with when they’re applying nutrients and when they’re plowing and planting.”

This project just deepened my respect for how knowledgeable and creative farmers are. They’re always doing their own research and testing out new changes, even if they don’t call it research. It really reinforced that support for food producers is not a top-down process. It’s not that knowledge is held in institutions, like universities or government, and that we need to come in and share information. It’s about sharing between producers, academics, and agrologists. Everybody has a different piece of the puzzle and our role, as a researcher or an agrologist, is to create tools or resources or ways to think about things that help producers do their work. That could be an online tool or researching a new practice that a producer is interested in, or a wildfire preparedness planning guide. It is any or all of those pieces. Producers already have so much of this knowledge and capacity, and it’s just helping them put all the pieces together or give them a missing piece. Or maybe setting up farmer-to-farmer gathering opportunities so they can glean those important lessons learnt from each other.

EH: Ministry agrologists have diverse roles, and your title, climate change agrologist could be interpreted quite broadly. Can you speak a bit to some of your current projects?

AN: Yeah, of course. I would say given the fact that my area of work is “climate change,” which in itself is quite broad, I definitely have a variety of projects. My projects right now range from program reporting, greenhouse gas emissions research, farm and ranch wildfire resiliency planning, and we’re also just starting a knowledge translation project to help move research from the hands of academics or researchers into the hands of producers, in a way that works better for producers.

That last one is a smaller project, but I think it has the ability to kind of scale up over time and be really impactful in the long term. We’re creating a process for research briefs that researchers at universities and other extension agrologists can use to succinctly and effectively translate their research in a standardized way and in language that makes sense to that target audience. The goal is to make agricultural research more accessible and useful to producers.

I laugh when I think about the extension products I created when I was finishing my masters. I think this templated process would have helped me to translate my research more effectively, and will help future researchers going forward.

And of course, linking those briefs to any podcasts, videos, or other relevant resources.

EH: What makes you excited about your work?

AN: My goal, or what would make me so happy, is a situation where I’m at a conference or at a field day, and I overhear producers talking about a tool or resource I’ve developed, and they’re saying how it’s made their day-to-day a little bit easier or has had a positive impact on their operation in some way. It’s not that I need the credit for it, I just want to feel like all these hours I spend at work might actually be making a difference!

Emma Holmes is the Organics Industry Specialist with the BC Ministry of Agriculture and Food. She studied Sustainable Agriculture and Soil Science at UBC, and then farmed on Salt Spring and worked on a permaculture homestead on Orcas Island. She now lives in Vernon and loves spending time in the garden. She can be reached at: Emma.Holmes@ gov.bc.ca

Featured image: Amy Norgaard in the field. Credit: Garnett Grove

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The Right Question is: How Much Do You Want to Spend?

in 2023/Ask an Expert/Current Issue/Fall 2023/Organic Community

Karen Fenske

My husband and I were told in our late 20s that we would need $1.7 million to retire. We were shocked, we chuckled, we talked about what we wanted in life, and then we lived it. It is a complex process to provide a useful answer to how much money you will need to for retirement. “What AMOUNT do you need to retire?” is the wrong question. A better, simpler start to retirement planning is to develop a conversation that you revisit annually using facts and your best guess.

Contemplate these questions with your partner, a blank piece of paper, or me:

Your Values

  • If you value family and relationships you may choose to help your adult children and grandchildren. How much will you give them and when? Will you let them live with you or you will pay for family vacations or swimming lessons or ski passes?
  • Do you value fitness, health, leisure, etc.? Will you buy new skates, beach towels, skis, clubs, kayaks, e-bikes, or a cottage on a fishing lake?
  • Maybe you value taking care of your aging parents. Will you spend time cutting their lawn, taking them on holidays with you or ensuring you have a home where you can all live?

Your Dreams

  • You hope for a beautiful, new home built on your property/acerage while your kids take over your farm/operation. How will you achieve this?
  • Do you want to travel the globe and ride camels, or roam across Canada? Will you stay in hostels or resorts? Do you need a new RV or a “previously owned” version?
  • A new workshop with all the bells and whistles is in your future. What do you want to spend on this?
  • A beautiful smaller empty nest is on the horizon. What do you need to spend to prepare your home for sale? What will you have in your savings account once all is said and done?

Your Debt

  • Will you roll into retirement with a mortgage? For how long?
  • Will you have credit cards bills, car loans and lines of credit to pay?

Your Health

  • What are your personal habits and your genetics? Will you live to 100 or not?
  • Will you need to consider the cost of a senior residence and/or long-term care?
  • You may be in tip-top shape and perfectly healthy but accidents happen, and the gradual progression of some diseases will impact your finances.

Your Goals

  • Do you have them written down? Have you researched them? Have you put a price tag on them and put them on a timeline? You can.

While you do not have complete control of how life rolls out, you do have control over the choices you make which will result in having more or less to live on. Our plans for retirement have been adjusted a few times with more or less in the picture—and you will still find us Sunday afternoons talking about what the future could look like.

fenskefinancialcoaching.com

Karen Fenske is the founder of Fenske Financial Coaching. She uses all the experience, education, and skills in her toolbelt to help improve the financial well-being ofher clients. The goals of sustaining organizations and BC agriculture continue to be dear to her heart.

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Organic Stories: Northbrook Farm, WSANEC Territory

in 2023/Grow Organic/Land Stewardship/Marketing/Organic Community/Organic Stories/Spring/Summer 2023

Neither Bored Nor Lonely

Collaboration & Community

By Moss Dance

On a sunny day in light spring, I called up Heather Stretch at Northbrook Farm for a chat. The sun was shining in WSÁNEC territory on the Saanich Peninsula, and I could hear that she was busy working on something in the background while we dove into her story of farming, collaboration, community, and the organic movement.

Heather Stretch is a well-known figure in the organic world—she recently served on the Organic BC board as president, building on her 23-year history of collaborative farming. Northbrook Farm is one of the three farms that make up Saanich Organics, along with Three Oaks Farm (Rachel Fisher), just down the road in Saanichton, and Sea Bluff Farm (Robin Tunnicliffe), a little further afield in Metchosin.

The trio of farmers who began Saanich Organics (Heather Stretch, Rachel Fisher, and Robin Tunnicliffe) have been active in the organic community for many years. They also wrote a book called All the Dirt: Reflections on Organic Farming, which is part memoir, part practical guide for beginning farmers.

Sarah Mastromonaco and Steven Hung in the fields. Credit: Maylies Lang.

The spirit of cooperation that infuses Heather’s work is in full bloom at Northbrook Farm. The total size of the property is 20 acres—Heather and her spouse Lamont co-own the land with Heather’s aunt and uncle, Brian and Jane Stretch. On the land, buzzing like a hive of productive bees, businesses and farming friends flourish. Northbrook Farm comprises seven acres of the property, and the land is shared with Square Root Farm, an organic vegetable operation run by Chrystal Bryson and Ilya Amhrein. Rebecca’s Garden, run by Rebecca Jehn, also has a large plot to grow some warmer climate seed crops at Northbrook Farm. Brian and Jane Stretch have a plot where they grew cut flowers for many years—they now lease this area to Mayan Vered, of Flowerface Farm. Finally, Saanich Organics has a shared plot on the land, including a large greenhouse, affectionately named Long John, or LJ for short.

Of all of the agreements she has with farmers on the land, the lease arrangement with Rebecca’s Garden is Heather’s favourite: “no money changes hands at all,” she says. “Once a year, Rebecca brings me some preserves, and if it’s been a good seed year, she’ll bring me some seed, and we always have an amazing feast.”
With all of this activity, and all of these people on the land, I asked Heather what day-to-day life is like on the farm. Heather says she’s “neither bored, nor lonely.”

The Roots of Northbrook Farm

It wasn’t until Heather was in her early twenties with a freshly-minted English degree that she realized farming would be a great career for her. “Most people would assume that someone who starts an organic farm had a pre-existing passion for growing. In my case, that came later.” Heather writes in All the Dirt: Reflections on Organic Farming. “My uncle offered me land to farm, and until that moment, I had never considered farming. From the moment he mentioned it, though, it seemed like a perfect fit for me.”

Misty morning at Northbrook Farm. Credit: Maylies Lang.

The promise of working outdoors, growing food, an environmentally sustainable career, and the ability to include family in her work life convinced Heather to accept her Uncle Brian’s offer. When she met her husband Lamont, she says, “the poor guy fell in love with a woman who already had a plan.” Luckily, Lamont decided to move from North Carolina to the Saanich Peninsula with Heather to pursue her dream of farming.

“I had the great good fortune to have free land to farm for my first three years,” writes Heather. “Lamont and I decided to buy my grandmother’s portion of the land that we now share with my aunt and uncle. Fortunately, she gave us a great deal, because otherwise we probably wouldn’t have been able to afford to buy land in this area.”

Northbrook Farm’s name is a nod to Lamont’s lineage. Northbrook is a region of rural North Carolina where his father was born, and it also suits the sunny parcel of land with a brook running through it.

Trust Equals Success

Saanich Organics was founded by Heather, Robin, and Rachel’s farmer mentors, Tina Baynes and Rebecca Jehn. Heather, Robin, and Rachel purchased the business from their mentors in the early 2000s.

Sales are conducted through a CSA program, restaurants, and grocery stores. Saanich Organics’ marketing strategy has evolved with the growth of everyone’s life situations and land base. For example, Heather says, Robin moved out to Sea Bluff Farm about 10 years ago—a huge size upgrade from her original one-acre plot. “There were some adjustments there to figure out how to increase sales,” says Heather, “and we had to figure out how the business would work when the contributing farms were at very different scales.” Navigating big changes in a collectively-owned business isn’t easy, and Heather points to trust, friendship, and communication as important factors in managing growth and transition.

Green beans ready to harvest. Credit: Maylies Lang.

The Saanich Organics team have come up with a creative solution to account for the different scale of production at each of their member farms. Sea Bluff Farm has a very popular farm stand in Metchosin, so Robin also has the ability to market extra produce on her own. Rachel and Heather attend the Moss Street and James Bay Markets in Victoria. This helps to evenly distribute the marketing according to the scale of each farm. When needed, Heather and Rachel will occasionally send products to sell on the Sea Bluff Farm stand.

“Twenty-two years into our business partnership, we certainly trust each other’s intentions,” Heather says. “Obviously, we disagree sometimes, and we may question each other’s decisions—but the one thing we never do is question each other’s intention behind the decision.” The foundation of Saanich Organics is friendship, and the clarity of trust and relationship is the spring that has fed the business over two decades.

Support & Mentorship

In the early years, Heather found support from the organic community, her husband, family, and business partners. She got involved with Islands Organic Producers’ Association (IOPA), and as she moved through the certification process, she found support in the organic standards.

“When I started farming, the certification system gave me a framework to learn about what organic production was, and to learn what best practices were,” says Heather. “The framework of the standards was my first primer on how to make choices to manage fertility and soil health.”

Going through the certification process and getting involved with IOPA brought other benefits as well. “The community that this all brought to me was important. I went to an IOPA AGM before I had even planted my first seed, and the people that I met on that first day became my first friends and mentors in the community.”

Heather acknowledges the local organic farming mentors who nurtured her along, including Rebecca Jehn (Rebecca’s Garden), Tina Baynes (Corner Farm), Mary Alice Johnson (ALM Farm), and Dieter Eisenhawer (Eisenhawer Organic Produce). Along with these mentors, Heather acknowledges her business partners Robin and Rachel as major pillars of support.

Family photo. Credit: Northbrook Farm.

Financial Realities

For the first three years at Northbrook Farm, Heather managed the farm on her own, with help from Lamont. After that, they began to invite farm
apprentices in, and this morphed into paid farm hands, managed by Heather.

“In 2021, I decided to hire a field manager, because I didn’t want to feel guilty every moment that I wasn’t on the farm,” says Heather,

She’s been enjoying the challenge of learning how to effectively mentor farm managers. The most difficult part is making sure the managers have all the information they need to be successful, but at the same time, giving them some space to experiment. Heather says she’s trying to strike a balance “where I’m neither micromanaging, nor abandoning the farm manager.”

This is easier said than done due to the incredible financial pressure on the farm, Heather says. “The financial margins on a farm are so non-existent that there really is no room to say, oh, we’ll just let them figure it out and experiment.” With the increasing overhead of wages, supplies, and inputs, Heather walks this tightrope with grace, and respect for her employees.

Due to the rising costs of running a business, Heather says, “the sad reality is that the financial aspect of the farm is no less challenging than it was in year four or five. The farm makes way more money than it did in year five, but I don’t.” In short, the farm has made a huge increase in gross sales, but has not increased in profitability.

She clarifies that it’s her spouse Lamont’s off-farm income that allows the family to have the lifestyle that they enjoy. That being said, she continues, “the farm is my business, my career, and my job. And my career is not as financially lucrative as my spouse’s.”

“I don’t want anyone who comes to this farm to think, ‘Oh my gosh this is so awesome, you can have a farm and raise three kids, one’s away at school, one plays competitive sports, that this is all happening on a farming income.’” Heather quips, “I do not pay to raise my own children.”

Marissa Carlberg harvesting salad greens. Credit: Maylies Lang.

Raising Kids and Vegetables

After her first year of farming, Heather was pregnant, and she received a crash course in farming full-time with a child. Five years later, Heather was farming full-time with three tots in tow.
She remembers one day when the kids were little, and it was a really bad year for mummy berry— Heather has a big blueberry patch. “I was walking by the greenhouse that Saanich Organics employee Mel Sylvestre was handling, and Mel hollered, ‘Hey Heather, the blight has just started in the tomatoes,’” Heather laughs.

“The kid was screaming, and I was exhausted,” she continues, “and I remember being so disheartened, and thinking, what am I doing?”

She thought about it for a moment, and realized, “I couldn’t think of anything else I would do. And that was almost the worst part, feeling like, ‘I’m in this too deep.’ And I didn’t have any reserves left in my body, mind, or spirit to step back and think, maybe I should not be farming right now.”

A few years later, someone Heather knew who was farming and pregnant said she wouldn’t be growing in the coming season, and that she would put everything into cover crops and take a maternity leave. Heather says, “my kids were elementary school age by that time, and my jaw dropped. It never actually occurred to me that I could take a break!” Her first baby was born in early January, and in early February she was starting seedlings. “I was doing crop planning right after I got home from the hospital with my baby,” she remembers.

Heather with cauliflower. Credit: Northbrook Farm.

Memorable Moments and People

Heather says the most joyous memories she has are “visual snippets.” Some of her best memories are “walking down to feed the chickens in the morning and seeing the early sunlight sparkling through the dew on the kale leaves.”

Her biggest treasure is “the composite joy and the sense of richness that I get when I step back and think of all the people who have come through the farm.”
“It’s not just because I got to work with Jay Williamson of Tendergreens Farm, and Josh who now runs Fat Chance Farmstead in Kingston, and Mel Sylvestre who now runs Grounded Acres on the Sunshine Coast,” she says. The network of farmers she has worked with over the years, “like Crystal and Ilya of Square Root Farm, and Rebecca Jehn, and first and foremost Robin and Rachel,” have brought a sense of richness to Heather’s life.

Similarly, Heather has played an important role in mentoring many farmers and apprentices: “Having the brilliance of these young people come through my life every year is a huge gift.” She says, “the apprentices and farm hands who have come through, whom I’ve gotten to spend a season or two with in what is often a very formative period in their lives—that’s where the really deep satisfaction comes in.”

Heather says that when her children were young, the farm hands and apprentices were a positive influence. “They were able to learn from, and respect many different people. That’s one thing I am really proud of at Northbrook Farm, is how many LGBTQ folks have worked here.” Heather continues, “that’s been a huge benefit to me and my family, because my kids have never been without the knowledge that being LGBTQ is a perfectly normal way to be in the world.”

Northbrook Farm and Saanich Organics are known throughout the local 2SLGBTQIA+ community for their support—they even sponsored the Rainbow Chard Queer Farmers Collective in the Victoria Pride Parade. It all started with a few employees early on having a great experience, and sharing that with others in their circles through word of mouth.

Organic Isn’t Just a Word

Besides her passion for environmental sustainability and community, the marketing advantage of certification appealed to Heather. “Even before we had mandatory organic, if you’re going to use a word as important as ‘organic,’ all legal requirements aside, it begs the question, what do you mean by that?”

“The definition of organic cannot be a simple one, and that’s how the standards have evolved, to define this term, organic,” says Heather. “Without that definition, the word is meaningless. Whenever we separate the word ‘organic’ from the [practice of the standards], it harms all of us. Organic is an agreement that we make among ourselves.”

Knowledge and practice of the organic standards requires lifelong study, expertise, and experience that is hard to convey to customers in a short conversation. “I don’t have time to have a conversation with every customer about exactly what all my soil fertility practices are, and what crop rotations look like on my farm,” emphasizes Heather. “More importantly, our customers should not have to be experts in agriculture to feel like they can eat good food, and make healthy and environmentally responsible choices.”

Heather points out the common misconception that “knowing your farmer” can replace the need for organic standards. “To say that a conversation between farmer and consumer replaces the need for organic certification is completely wrong,” she says. “Just because a person knows me, or because I’m nice, doesn’t mean I’m employing best practices. It does not guarantee that I am not using pesticides or chemical fertilizers.” Organic certification takes the guess-work out of relationships between farmers and consumers.

Pillars of Support

Heather Stretch has contributed a lot to the organic community in BC over the years. “I farm because I’m passionate about the food system,” she says. “In the beginning, it just felt like it was incumbent on me and everyone else who cares to step up. The longer you’re involved, the more you realize [the work is] important and interesting. And farmers are fun people to work with. Organic BC has given me the gift of community all around the province.”

“My pillar of support is the organic community in BC,” says Heather, “and the organic community needs the pillar of support that is Eva-Lena Lang. Eva-Lena is the unsung hero of the movement— she keeps this ship afloat through really turbulent waters.”

“There are also the wise, indefatigable women who somehow manage to spread joy at the same time as they spread wisdom,” says Heather, “like
Rebecca Kneen of Crannog Ales, and Anne Macey. They show up decade after decade, doing difficult and often boring work—but they bring joy when they do it.”

“And now the younger men like Jordan Marr and Tristan Banwell,” she continues, “and Tristan’s wife Aubyn needs a shout-out—she’s the reason that Tristan can do this work. All of our pillars of support have support underground that we may or may not see.” This underground support is so important to the success of farmers, whether in the field, or in community work.

The Future of Northbrook Farm

“Over the years, my role is changing,” Heather says, “I don’t do much seeding, weeding, thinning, or harvesting anymore. I do the business planning, the marketing, the bookkeeping, the purchasing, and everything that needs to happen on weekends, like watering.”

When asked what she’s excited about for the future for her farm, Heather talks about her commitment to increasing profitability to achieve her goals of higher wages for employees, and to retain workers for many seasons to come. Heather wants her farm manager role to be an employment opportunity that lasts more than a year or two—she’s hoping to “provide career track employment for farmers, rather than just seasonal work.”

Meanwhile, in the field, Heather is excited about her overwintered cauliflower, “because it’s such a rare and wonderful thing when it actually works!” She gushes, “the way the cauliflower heads just pop out of the leaves—one day there are these plants with no white showing and the next day you go down to look, and there are beautiful cauliflower heads!”

Heather is always up for an experiment, “This year I’m trying a crop of main season cauliflower, which I’ve never succeeded in. Hope springs eternal!”

Hope truly does spring eternal in the fields at Northbrook Farm, where community and collaboration have created a rich tapestry of people and food that will benefit generations to come.

Moss Dance is the layout designer for the BC Organic Grower, a once-and-future vegetable farmer with a big garden, and a newly practicing acupuncturist on the territories of the Hul’qumi’num and SENCOTEN speaking peoples on Salt Spring Island.

Featured image: Salad green harvest at Northbrook Farm. Credit: Maylies Lang.

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Creating a Movement to Decolonize Agriculture

in 2023/Indigenous Food Systems/Spring/Summer 2023

By Natasha Anderson-Brass

Boozhoo/Aaniin. My name is Natasha Anderson-Brass. My traditional name is Ozaawaa Giizhigo Ikwe (Yellow Sky Woman). I am Saulteaux from the Key First Nation and Ukrainian on my father’s side, and French Canadian on my mother’s side. I am an auntie, cousin, sister, friend, food grower, and artist. I give thanks to all my ancestors, teachers, mentors, aunties, uncles, elders, and friends who have and continue to guide and support me. I am the owner/operator of Minwaadizi Farm. Minwaadizi is a small-scale certified organic market farm and community space, located on the unceded traditional territory of the K’ómoks First Nation.

I started Minwaadizi in 2022 because of my passion for growing local organic foods for my community, as well as my desire to create opportunities for other Indigenous peoples to connect with and care for the land because there is, by design, a lack of Indigenous people represented in the agricultural system. Historic government policies affected (and continue to affect) Indigenous peoples’ access to farmland, tools, and markets. For example, the Indian Act (1876) prohibited First Nations homesteading and restricted the sale of First Nations agricultural products. According to a 2016 Census, less than 3% of the agricultural population identifies as Indigenous.(1) In order to have an equitable food system for all, we need more Indigenous people stewarding land in ways that make sense culturally for them.

Natasha Anderson-Brass. Credit: Lime Soda Photography.

My entry into farming was not an easy one. I didn’t grow up with generational wealth. My father was taken from his birth family at three years old as part of the 60s Scoop.(2) The consequence of this being that I didn’t have a connection to my Indigenous culture or family ties until my early 30s. Like many others, I faced challenges in my life and relationships because of the traumas I have experienced and the intentional disconnect to my Indigenous ancestry because of colonization. It took me a long time to know who I am, what I want out of this life, and how I could be of service to my community. The effects of colonization still linger on in me today, and I have to work hard to overcome my own inner trickster voice of fear, shame, judgement, and doubt. At the same time as facing barriers to achieving my dreams, I was also afforded many privileges and I feel it is important to recognize those as well. Having lighter skin, being able to get a university education, being raised by both my biological parents, having the financial stability to take unpaid or low paying farm jobs to learn the skills I needed, and having a connection with my Indigenous culture, even if later in life, just to name a few.

I think Minwaadizi came into being as a result of the barriers and privileges I have faced. I want it to be easier for other Indigenous people to pursue their dream of growing food for community. I also know that community is key and that anyone who joins me at Minwaadizi will be a teacher for me as well. Indigenous people must be given the space and opportunities to realize our potential, because we have so many talents and such important knowledge that needs to be shared. I believe that caring for the land, growing nourishing foods, and practicing culture are powerful ways to heal from the effects of colonization. My hope is that Minwaadizi can grow to provide spaces for other Indigenous peoples who want to learn about growing food while practicing Indigenous ways of connection to themselves, the land, their community and the Great Mystery of life. I want Minwaadizi to be a place of reciprocal learning and sharing and a place of healing through putting energy and intention into caring for the land.

Natasha Anderson-Brass in the field. Credit: Minwaadizi Farm.

I am very grateful to be where I am today, but the biggest and perhaps not surprising challenge facing Minwaadizi is long-term sustainable access to land. For reasons I mentioned above, I do not “own” or have title to the land where I grow food. I have a one-year lease, so the future of my farm business is uncertain. In addition, the land where I farm is unceded territory, meaning Indigenous sovereignty has never been extinguished. This means I am occupying stolen land. I am constantly asking myself what I can do to be reciprocal in my relationships to the land and the people who are its original stewards? (I write “are” intentionally because Indigenous people are often referred to in the past tense, as in we once existed but now do not. We are still very much here in the present and should be referred to as such!) I am just beginning to build meaningful relationships in the community here, and hope I can continue to learn and grow in a good way.

You may be facing some of these same questions yourself, and wondering what you can do to decolonize agriculture. I think that in order to decolonize agriculture, we need to support Indigenous-led businesses and organizations who are on the ground doing the work to decolonize, and support Indigenous peoples to realize their dreams. There are so many programs and workshops to support the non-Indigenous population with “Reconciliation;” we need more endeavours by and for Indigenous people to support our own healing journey.

At the same time, we need to look inward and decolonize ourselves and our relationships with each other. I listen to my aunties and elders and do my best to follow their teachings. I have and will continue to explore my past traumas and work to heal them. I encourage you to do the same. Find out who your ancestors are and talk to them, sit with your aunties, uncles, elders, and youth, and really listen to them. Ask the hard questions and be deeply honest with yourself about your impact on the world. Get creative and explore art or whatever connects you to spirit. We (Indigenous and non-Indigenous) have all been persuaded by the illusion of disconnection that is perpetuated by colonization and our colonial mindset. Indigenous peoples continue to be targeted and harmed by ongoing colonization. We all need to step up, right now, and take responsibility for ourselves, each other, and Mother Earth if we want to create a better world. If we can connect to our inner spirit and begin to heal from within it will create a ripple effect.

To quote the remarkable Sherri Mitchell, Weh’na Ha’mu’ Kwasset (She Who Brings the Light):

“Every living being has its own vibrational tone. When these tones are combined, they form the voice of creation. If we learn to listen closely, we can begin to hear that voice and allow it to guide our steps through life.”

– From Sacred Instructions: Indigenous Wisdom for Living Spirit-Based Change by Sherri Mitchell, published by North Atlantic Books, copyright © 2018. Reprinted by permission of publisher.

You matter. The world needs your medicine.

Miigwetch for reading my words, Natasha Anderson-Brass.

Natasha Anderson-Brass farms at Minwaadizi Farm on the traditional unceded territory of the K’ómoks First Nation. Follow her journey on Instagram: @minwaadizi_farm

Featured image: Semaa (tobacco) plants growing strong at Minwaadizi Farm Credit: Minwaadizi Farm.

References
1 Statistics Canada. (2016). Census of Population. statcan.gc.ca/n1/pub/96-325-x/2019001/ article/00001-eng.htm
2 Meera Baswan and Sena Yenilmez. (2022). “The Sixties Scoop”. The Indigenous Foundation. theindigenousfoundation.org/articles/the-sixties-scoop

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Winter Grazing in a Rotational Grazing System

in 2023/Grow Organic/Livestock/Spring/Summer 2023/Tools & Techniques

By Stacey Santos

Spray Creek Ranch, located in Northern St’at’imc Territory near Lillooet, BC, has operated as a cattle ranch since the 1880s. Over the past decade, Tristan Banwell and his partner Aubyn have managed the land and transformed it from a traditional cow-calf operation to a diversified, regenerative organic farm with cattle, sheep, pigs, poultry, horses, and a trusty herd of guardian dogs.

One of their key practices is rotational grazing— frequently moving cattle through pastures to allow forage to recover and regrow. It’s a practice they started at the end of their first summer at the farm, and they immediately saw the value in being able to control the cattle’s impact on the land

In a recent episode of Organic BC’s Organic Innovation Series, Tristan took viewers on a journey through a year on grass for their cattle and shared winter-specific tips, techniques, and equipment.

Benefits of Rotational Grazing

Rotational grazing offers big returns when it comes to plant, animal, and soil health.

Plant health: When animals munch on plants without giving them a chance to grow and redevelop their leaf area, the plants are weakened and forced to recover from their root reserves instead of using their photosynthetic capability to grow. With rotational grazing, the goal is to move the animals before they take that second bite, and then backafter the plants have recovered.

Animal health: When animals are frequently moved from pasture to pasture, they have fewer chances to ingest and complete parasite life cycles. And there’s a nutritional benefit too: animals preferentially graze all of the highest quality forage first (a bite off the top of every plant) and if left in one location, over time they’ll eat poorer and poorer quality forage and their nutritional plane will decline. But if you move the animals frequently, they’ll escape this longer period of decline and will have improved health and more consistent weight gains thanks to a consistent supply of nutrient-rich regrowth.

bit.ly/organicbcpodcast50 Under a rotational grazing system, cattle distribute their manure evenly throughout the farm, resulting in increased soil fertility. And, plants that have more extended rest periods grow bigger and deeper roots, which increases organic matter in the soil.

When to Start Rotational Grazing

Spray Creek Ranch starts when there’s enough growth in the spring to turn the cows out and start grazing, and typically a little earlier than general recommendations. By setting back some of the forage growth, they’re able to stay ahead of the growth, which will be mature and seeding out before they know it.

They start in the area with the most residual left over from the previous year to balance out nutritional needs, giving cattle the opportunity to have a bite of new spring growth and a bite of dried out stockpile (a technique that also reduces the “green fire hose” effect caused by high-protein spring feeds!).

As the forage quickly grows in May and June, the cattle are still moved frequently but the paddock sizes become smaller to ensure the cattle are clipping off about two-thirds of growth in each paddock as they go.

July and August bring lots of nice green growth, but lots of mature grass as well. This is an opportunity to make a deposit into the soil. With frequent rotations in tight paddocks, everything that’s not eaten is trampled down to feed the soil. In mid-August, the cattle are brought to Spray Creek Ranch’s mountain grazing lands, where they’ll stay until October. With no cattle on the farm, the pastures are able to regrow as much as possible and ideally remain in a vegetative state as they go into fall dormancy. When the cows return from range, the winter stockpile grazing program starts, with cattle grazing primarily on dormant season grasses. If they run out of stockpiled forage or the snow gets too crusty and the cattle can no longer graze through it, they’ll be switched to hay.

Stockpile Grazing

There are a lot of reasons to do as much stockpile grazing as possible, but the biggest reason is cost savings. The highest expense in a typical cattle operation is winter feed costs. Every day that your cattle are grazing in a field that you didn’t have to use a machine to harvest or feed, you save quite a bit of money.

The goal with stockpiling is to go into winter with as much stockpiled vegetative forage—tall grass that hasn’t yet gone to seed—as possible. But it doesn’t just happen!

“You have to plan for it in advance, and planning for stockpile grazing starts during the growing season,” says Tristan.

During the high growth period in the summer, the fields are grazed or hayed to keep the plants in vegetative growth. That’s different from the typical goal of going into the winter with as much hay as possible, so at some point you need to stop grazing the field and let it regrow and stockpile.

A good time to start stockpiling is early to late August. If you start too early, the grass will grow large but then go to seed and the quality of the forage will diminish. The ideal is to go into winter with a tall, vegetative sward of grasses that haven’t gone to seed yet—tall enough that it will hold up in the snow and be visible to the cattle.

Equipment

Tristan uses the same electric fencing equipment in the wintertime as in the summertime: a quarter-mile geared reel (with a hook on the end to energize the polywire) and a battery powered hammer drill with a long masonry bit to put the posts into the frozen ground.

For more tips and crucial considerations on electric fencing for rotational grazing systems, be sure to listen to episode 50 of the Organic BC Podcast, in which Tristan interviews fencing expert Axle Boris of Fencefast: bit.ly/organicbcpodcast50

Bale Grazing

Once stockpile grazing needs to be stopped, either because forage ran out or conditions aren’t permitted anymore, you can shift to a technique called bale grazing.

Rather than rolling out bales of hay for the cows every couple of days, set out bales in a grid pattern across a whole field in one go—laying out one to two months of feed—and picking a field that will benefit from a fertility boost from the residual hay and cow manure.

“Since we don’t use fertilizers, being an organic farm, we like to put the fertility back on the field that it came from,” says Tristan.

Other perks of bale grazing are that you don’t have to go out in inclement weather (you can pick a nice day to set out bales), you don’t have to fire up your tractor when it’s minus 35, and you can easily go away for a period of time.
There are cost-saving benefits from the producer side as well—moving bales around is expensive!

Winter Watering Systems

Spray Creek Ranch is lucky to have gravity fed irrigation systems running off two mountain creeks behind the farm. They use this network all throughout the farm in the summertime.

In the winter, they have a few natural water sources, including a warm spring, but they’ve also installed a few automatic waterers, fed by a three-quarter inch water line deep in the ground to prevent freezing. To help keep the plumbing system toasty, Tristan keeps the water trickling with overflow running into a pit drain—a technique that works well with gravelly, sandy soil. At lower temperatures, he also uses a water heater and trace cable along the pipes.

Always a Work in Progress

There’s so much complexity in diverse farms like Spray Creek Ranch that use agroecological systems of farming.
“Sometimes I think about our farm, that’s been a work in progress since 1880,” says Tristan. “We’re never going to be at the end point. There’s always more we can learn. We’re always iterating, adapting, and observing the outcomes of our management choices. When you’re rotational grazing, every single day is a chance to observe the animal impact on your systems, and every year is a chance to set goals for how to improve it.”

Learn more by watching episode four of Organic BC’s Organic Innovation Series featuring Spray Creek Ranch: Winter Rotational Grazing Systems: youtu.be/QMlZvYteZfc

Watch more videos from Organic BC: youtube.com/thisisorganicbc

Rotational Grazing & Methane Reduction

Charlie Lasser runs Lasser Ranch, an organic ranch just outside of Chetwynd with 900 head of cattle on over 5,000 acres. He’s a pioneer and leader in the organic community and continues to innovate his practices, including feeding seaweed to his calves!

Calves burp out about 400 litres of methane each day. To combat these powerful emissions, Charlie feeds seaweed to his young stock, which reduces methane in their systems and helps the animals gain more weight. A win-win all around not just for producers, but also for the climate and the planet.

Learn more in episode five of Organic BC’s Organic Innovation Series: youtu.be/RZW28V05vcU

Stacey Santos is the Communications Manager for Organic BC. She lives, writes and gardens in the beautiful and traditional territories of the Lekwungen peoples, who are now known as the Esquimalt and Songhees Nations.

This project was supported by the BC Climate Agri-Solutions Fund. Funding for the BC Climate Agri-Solutions Fund was provided by Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada through the Agricultural Climate Solutions – On-Farm Climate Action Fund.

Featured image: Tristan Banwell with winter grazing cattle at Spray Creek Ranch in Lillooet. Credit: Spray Creek Ranch.

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