Saanich Organics is a co-operative vegetable-marketing business that operates in the Victoria region, an epicentre in Canada for small farms that are selling directly to their communities. Saanich Organics works for three reasons: first, we, the owners, are compatible and complementary; second, geographically we are close to each other and to a booming market; and third, our combined resources have enabled us to gain efficiencies of scale and to be resilient in a very insecure niche.
We are fortunate to have a physical location that contributes to the success of our business. Our mild climate is conducive to the year-round growing of diverse crops. We live in a wealthy and progressive area. Residential customers are drawn to our produce for a variety of reasons: environmental commitment, health, and politics. Our chef customers also have various reasons for buying from us: some are capitalizing on the trend of culinary tourism, others share our commitment to building a sustainable local food system. All of our customers value the superior taste of our fresh, well-grown produce.
Saanich Organics has grown in the secure and sheltered environment of Northbrook Farm in the Mount Newton Valley near Victoria. Access to land is a major issue for new farmers in this region. Land prices are high and leases can end abruptly. It has been a boon to be able to build a greenhouse, invest in irrigation and soil amendments, and be confident that we won’t lose those investments. We have the additional benefit of low-rent access to a garage that serves as our box-packing facility.
You may not have such a progressive population around you, but take stock of what could work for you. Know that the organic market is growing and that there are opportunities for aspiring farmers. Unlike us, you may have the great advantage of affordable, fertile land. However, if your geographic location isn’t ideal, it may be even more important for you to co-operate with other farms around you.
Our friends and mentors, Tina Baynes and Rebecca Jehn, began Saanich Organics in 1993 in order to sell their produce directly to customers through a weekly vegetable home-delivery service. When they sold us the business in 2002, not only did we purchase a box program, we also inherited a business that was run with the utmost of integrity. Their customers received only the highest quality vegetables, grown and harvested by two women who were meticulous and passionate about healthy food. We had big shoes to fill and felt a combination of excitement and trepidation about running a business with such an admirable history. From the box customers’ point of view, little has changed. We still run the box program with the basic structure that Tina and Rebecca established. The business has now grown to include sales at farmers’ markets and to restaurants and grocery stores, as well as L.J., our experiment in co-operative greenhouse-crop production. (See Rachel’s diagram in Appendix C.)
Saanich Organics included a combination of physical assets and goodwill. The physical assets were sixty wooden boxes, a commercial salad spinner, a few Rubbermaid bins, and plastic bags. More important by far was the intellectual property, including the customer list, the business’s good name and reputation, and the administrative system. We hired an administrator to run the business side, and she computerized the system that has since undergone many incarnations.
Now that we have a professional bookkeeper to keep us on track, we laugh at how loose we allowed the finances to be in the early years. At that time, we really never knew if the ink was black or red. As long as our administrator said there was enough money in the account to pay the farmers, we didn’t ask questions. Years ago, Rachel and Robin realized that if they didn’t set financial goals for their own farms, they wouldn’t achieve them. Similarly, Saanich Organics didn’t make money until we turned our focus to our finances. We now have monthly financial meetings where we review detailed accounts of each part of the business. While Saanich Organics now reliably produces a small profit, it is not the bulk of our income; it functions primarily as a vehicle for selling our produce efficiently, thus making our farms more profitable.
Saanich Organics’ mission is to make the small organic farms in our region financially viable by efficiently selling high-quality produce at prices that reflect the cost of production. Forming our own distribution network has given us more control over the market and over the prices we receive for our produce. Selling solely to a for-profit distributor wouldn’t provide us with a viable return. By welcoming other farmers to sell through our network, we handle a volume of produce that allows us to hire out the chores of marketing and delivering. We are able to sustain our low markup and take on additional employees at a fair wage to further lighten our workload. We have the option to free up more time for farming, or take on paid positions within the Saanich Organics structure. By cooperating, we achieve greater efficiency, increased production, cost savings, and a better quality of life.
Before addressing the reasons behind Saanich Organics, it seems logical to address the reasons behind our farming. None of the three of us had any background in agriculture, nor any formal farming training. Yet stubbornly, against the grain, we started our farms from bare pasture and never looked back. This life choice was a complicated synthesis of politics, practicality, and soul searching. It stemmed from a desire to have a light environmental footprint, a fear of having a desk job, and a search for a meaningful life balance. Since then, our passion for food production has broadened to notions of social justice through food sovereignty, and concern for the plight of farmers around the world.
The timing was exactly right for our entry into the field. The market for organic produce was just taking off, and the momentum behind the sustainable-agriculture movement was captivating. Leaders in the organic movement were making compelling arguments against the domination of conventional agriculture and the multinational corporations that fuel it. This left a lot of room for new farmers to re-create agriculture that suited their bioregions, their scale, their values, and their customers. Times were changing and we were riding on the cusp. We were physically exhausted and sleep deprived, but mentally engaged and grinning from ear to ear.
The mainstream media often tell hard-luck stories about agriculture; articles about drought, mad cow disease, and chronic financial losses lead one to think that farming is hopeless. This bleak outlook is real for many farmers, but it is not our experience. A climate that allows year-round growing, combined with open-hearted farmers and educated, health-conscious consumers make this area a perfect breeding ground for the organic movement.
In a shift back to a sustainable-farming model, organic farmers are encouraged to use our common sense and to rely on our community, rather than calling in experts for advice. Whereas specialization was once a virtue, organic farmers delight in diversity and in the complexity of natural systems. Whereas physical labour was seen as drudgery, organic farmers enjoy the physical nature of the work—being outdoors, eating with the seasons, and feeling connected to the land. Whereas farmers used to be seen in a derogatory light, organic farmers are emerging as heroes and being positively portrayed in the media.
It wasn’t all bliss by a long shot. Seven-day workweeks all summer, balancing farming with other jobs, crop losses, and not enough infrastructure on our farms caused stress and despair. The desire to succeed added a layer of anxiety to the practical challenges, and the urge to save face was strong in light of all the family members, friends, neighbours, and strangers who said it couldn’t be done. Financially, it seemed impossible in the beginning. Robin didn’t even keep records for her first two years because she didn’t want to know about all the money she wasn’t making; Heather calculated her wage at about $5.00 an hour, if she didn’t include expenses.
The three of us met through farm community gatherings, and we were all former suppliers of Saanich Organics under the previous owners. We had attended work parties together and were all vendors at the Moss Street Community Market. But the notion of working together had never occurred to us until Rebecca and Tina approached us offering to sell Saanich Organics. At that point, Saanich Organics operated only the box program, the vegetable home-delivery service that went to twenty families once a week.
Rachel was the driving force behind the purchase because she recognized the value of having control over the market as a distributor rather than just being a contract grower. She felt that the box program should thrive, given the healthy state of the local organic food movement. Robin was wary of taking on the tedium of administering the box program because she had seen firsthand how much time Rebecca and Tina spent on the ledgers and maintaining customer lists. Heather felt that working together would be more work than farming alone. However, when faced with the prospect of being at the mercy of middlemen, taking on paperwork didn’t seem so bad. We all agreed that Saanich Organics filled a valuable need, both for the farmers and for the customers. We wanted to honour Tina and Rebecca’s vision and carry on the good work they had started.
The market for organic produce had increased tremendously in the nine years Saanich Organics had been in operation, and this gave us flexibility in restructuring the business. First, we could add a reasonable markup to the produce without fear of losing customers. Second, we didn’t have to compete with each other for precious restaurant contracts because we recognized that the market was now big enough for all the produce we could grow.
The first decision we made together was to hire an administrator, Brenda, and our trusty delivery guy, Tim. The many hours we had seen Tina and Rebecca put into the box program didn’t appeal to us, so we thought we’d hire Brenda to take care of all of that. We naively thought it would be no more work than before: we’d tell Brenda what we had available for the box, and she would do the rest. We look back on that conversation and laugh. Brenda went above and beyond the call of duty, but we were so scattered that she could never really get us on track. It became apparent (when Brenda announced her resignation) that we had to be more hands-on. Although the administration does not provide a full-time job, there are endless little details to track. Much of the work can’t be taken care of during regular office hours, so the administrator can end up feeling that she’s always on call. When Brenda left, we hired a professional bookkeeper and started paying Heather to do some of the administration.
One of the major problems that plagued Tina and Rebecca was lack of produce to sell, especially in low season. Delegating marketing and delivering meant that we could spend more uninterrupted time on the land, becoming better growers and increasing the output of our farms. Timing is everything in farming. During high season, each additional hour spent in the field can translate into substantial increases in production. The increase in volume and diversity of produce has, in turn, allowed us to attract and retain more customers, and to provide them with better service.
We had been running the box program for a few months when Heather’s husband, Lamont, was approached at the market by a chef looking for produce. Lamont proposed the idea of collectively supplying a restaurant. Since we all met weekly with our harvests for the box program, it wasn’t a big leap to begin harvesting extra produce for a restaurant. Soon, all the growers were “sharing” our restaurant contracts, as we recognized it was truly a win-win situation. From the farmers’ perspective, there was less pressure to come through on an order since others could fill in if there was a shortage. For their part, the chefs enjoyed the greater selection and reliability. Our restaurant sales grew rapidly, and soon comprised a third of our business.
Being able to count on regular demand for larger volumes changed the way we worked. Rather than farming tiny patches of assorted crops, we were able to think in terms of our hundred-foot beds. We used to wait for each beet or carrot to be sold before we replanted a patch, but we can now clear out entire beds of crops as soon as they are ready, and optimize succession planting to ensure we make the most of the growing season. The larger volume of produce sold brought greater returns and let us hire field staff, and having extra hands on the farm gave us another quantum leap in terms of our ability to maximize production.
The residential box-delivery program is made more efficient and less onerous by Saanich Organics’ co-operative structure. Many of our residential customers are in the box program because they want contact with their farmer. We appreciate this contact, but it can be a challenge to maintain during the busy growing season. When Saanich Organics purchased a cell phone, the administrator could take calls in the field. Finally, box customers could call us and actually talk to someone in person instead of leaving a message. We publish a weekly newsletter for our box program and this results in a stronger farmer-customer connection. When time is short we can call on each other for help with administrative details.
Working together also lends itself to information-sharing and emotional support. Local expertise on organic vegetable production is still quite limited. While the community is very supportive, and open to sharing what they know, having an inner circle of colleagues who are skilled professionals is invaluable. When we’re packing up produce, there can be six to ten farmers in the room. We often discuss our challenges or successes in the field and offer each other suggestions and advice. When one person has learned a new source of seed, or has tried a different technique, she will tell us about it. This openness and desire for collective success is an important benefit of co-operation. We inherited this atmosphere of openness from our mentors, and strive to maintain it and pass it on to the younger farmers who have joined us.
Each of us is personally ambitious and is proud of successes on her own farm, but this is different from being competitive. There is plenty of ambition at Saanich Organics, and farmers delight in wowing each other when we meet to pack produce orders, but there is a sincere interest in the well-being of all other farmers in the community. Our successes benefit all of us, so we each feel satisfaction and joy in seeing the others’ bountiful, top-quality vegetables. Each of us knows that the quality of our produce will reflect on the others, and this sense of responsibility drives our quality up.
Farming can be very trying, and with high season comes long hours. Seasonal challenges, like spring slugs, unpredictable frosts, or excessive rain, can add to the stress on families as they try to cope with the workload. Mid-summer is especially hard because, in addition to the regular growing and harvesting schedule, the timing is tight to get winter crops in the ground to ensure fall and winter harvests. While this is not as frequent as in the early years, farmers can show up at packing time in tears and near the end of their ropes. Having an understanding support network so readily available has been a lifeline, and a stabilizing force within the group. Supporters and the supported change roles, creating closeness and soliciting opportunities for emotional release and problem solving.
The aim of the box program is to get fresh produce directly to residential customers with minimal packaging and effort, and to provide stable demand and income for farmers. Customers who subscribe to the program pay for ten boxes at a time. They can choose a delivery either every week or every second week. The box contains six to ten produce items, with a value of $26.50 plus a $3.50 delivery charge. We run the box program for eleven months of the year, taking a break from Christmas until the end of January.
This method of sales was inspired by Community Supported Agriculture, although Saanich Organics doesn’t operate as a CSA for two reasons: flexibility and finances. Our box customers want flexibility because some of them travel and grow their own gardens. Farmers want the flexibility to experiment with growing some high-value crops in small quantities, not all of which would be suitable for box customers. For example, pea shoots are delicious garnishes for restaurants and are quite lucrative in small patches. Salsify, quinoa, and okra are not on your average family’s menu, but may appeal to chefs, so allotting field space to crops like these is a smart financial strategy.
The three-part marketing format (box program, restaurant sales, farmers’ markets) rewards experimentation, because chefs are very willing to buy out-of-the-ordinary items at high prices, and then farmers’ market and box customers benefit from the proven winners that are grown in larger quantities the following year. Eggplant and peppers used to be rare treats, but now they are regular items in our boxes. Having different markets fosters and rewards diversity, whereas the classic CSA format fosters stability.
Our box contents vary widely with the seasons. We used to worry about filling winter boxes, but now they are bursting with root crops, hardy greens, greenhouse-grown salad, stored apples, potatoes, and squash. We add variety by including produce that we freeze in the summer months, such as berries, tomatoes, beans, and shredded zucchini. Early spring is our most challenging season because the winter crops are mostly sold and the summer crops are just being planted. At this time we rely on quick-growing crops like radishes, turnips, spinach, and the first velvety chard. Before long, the wonderful diversity of the summer crops kicks in and the boxes overflow with colourful summer favourites. The challenge of fall is choosing between the seemingly endless possibilities for each box.
The box program has grown in popularity over the years. It used to be a big challenge to get a customer to sign up for a weekly box of seasonal vegetables; the cost, the inability to choose what comes in the box, and unfamiliarity with certain vegetables were all barriers to joining. Now a lengthy wait-list for the program develops over the winter months until we can take on more customers each spring. As news of the environmental and social benefits of eating locally builds, so does interest in our food. The customer base used to be rather transient as people tried out the box for novelty but customers are now staying on the program longer. Currently, there are ninety subscribers to our delivery service.
The box program requires more administration and labour per unit of produce sold than restaurant sales but we consider it our bread and butter because it is a consistent market for a large volume of produce. Chefs can be fickle, and produce managers irregular, but the box customers are a dependable counterbalance to the rest of the business.
The name “commercial division” started as a joke because it was a single box of produce that went to one restaurant. Little did we know what was to come: thirty-five restaurants, a contract with a major grocery store chain, and two weekly sales. There is a group of chefs in this region called the Island Chefs’ Collaborative (ICC), who are very supportive of farmers because they believe in the value of local production. They are also building the culinary tourism trend on southern Vancouver Island. The chefs feature local producers on their menus, give out micro-loans to new farmers, and share the names of dependable suppliers. It is largely for this reason that the Saanich Organics list of restaurant contacts continues to grow.
Dealing with restaurants has its pros and cons. The pros are that creative chefs can often use unusual items in small amounts, they will buy in bulk so that the farmer doesn’t have to weigh and bunch individual items, and they can often use last-minute surplus items. Restaurants tend to be less price sensitive than retailers. The drawback is that chefs can be inconsistent. They are often very enthusiastic the first couple of times a crop is offered but their interest can wane before it has finished producing. Furthermore, their business can fluctuate from week to week, leaving us in the lurch if it happens to be slow. Chefs leave restaurants frequently with no notice, so consistent orders can end abruptly. On the flip side, often those chefs will turn up at a new restaurant, bringing us a new customer.
We have buffered ourselves from this shock by taking on a roster of thirty-five or more restaurants; it is important to keep many customers on the list to deal with fluctuations in volume. It takes a while for new chefs to wrap their heads around the idea that we do not have a set product list, nor an infinite supply of each item. They are accustomed to dealing with suppliers who are pulling from warehouses rather than from fields but once they get used to our system and appreciate the quality of our produce, they often become the best advocates for our business.
During high season (May through October), the commercial division has two sales each week: Tuesdays and Fridays. For the Tuesday sales, farmers call in with their lists of available produce on Friday. For the Friday sales, farmers call in on Tuesday. When making an offering, the farmer goes out to the field and estimates the quantities of crops that will be ready for harvest, and most importantly, what they physically will have time to harvest in the forty-eight hours prior to the sale. Estimating field contents is both an art and a science. Rachel tends to be the most careful and exact of the three of us. She likes to physically look at each crop. Heather is more likely to look at what she offered the previous week and adjust up or down depending on her impression of how the crops are growing. Robin knows that others tend to be more conservative than she is, so when her farmhand does the estimates, she simply adds 30 per cent to push them to harvest more.
After a morning on the phone, and a long day in the field harvesting her own produce, Chrystal would oversee the Saanich Organics packing room and write out restaurant invoices.
The administrator compiles the offerings into a spreadsheet (see Sample Sales Spreadsheet in Appendix C) and then calls the restaurants to take the chefs’ orders. Once the sales are complete, she divides up the orders as fairly as possible between farmers and calls each farmer with his or her harvest list. The list itemizes each crop, with the amounts intended for each restaurant or grocery store, or the box program. The sales calls to restaurants and the planning of the boxes are done at the same time. This allows the administrator to read weekly trends in restaurant purchasing early in her calls and route the produce accordingly so that everything gets sold.
The farmer harvests, washes, and bunches the produce as required and delivers it to the “boxing room” (Heather’s garage) by 4:30 pm on Mondays and Thursdays. Clipboards, each one with a restaurant’s packing list, are placed in a specific order around the room. When each farmer arrives, he or she puts his or her produce in boxes and labels them according to their destinations. We reuse wax-coated cardboard boxes that we pick up from other organic retailers; this saves money and reduces waste. The wax treatment makes the boxes waterproof and they are the standard in vegetable packing. We avoid wax boxes from conventional sources because they can have chemical residues. Once the specified item is packed, the farmer checks it off on the packing list. When the box packing is done, the boxes are numbered (1 of 4, 2 of 4, et cetera) to ensure that Tim, the delivery person, can track each box. The box-packing room gets very chaotic during the height of the season. There are often ten farmers and farmhands, along with kids underfoot and dogs trying to weasel their way in. The more organizing each farmer can do before arriving, the better.
Before the day is done, farmers check their invoices against the master list so that any necessary changes can be made, and totals are recalculated to account for shortages, substitutions, or last-minute sales. Saanich Organics’ core growers are paid once a month, while occasional suppliers are paid each time they deliver. Despite our best intentions, every week there are discrepancies between what was ordered and what was harvested. By the end of Monday night, often as late as 10:00 PM, we are all exhausted and just want to get home to bed. However, if we don’t take the time to double-check everything right away, details get missed, invoices are inaccurate, and painful forensic accounting follows.
Sales days are a lot of work, but we are moving a lot of produce. Each sales day in the height of the season, from July to October, we are packing up nearly $5,000 worth of produce in commercial sales alone (the box sales are an additional $1,500). Tim has had to remind us repeatedly about the basic rules of produce-boxing. We often lose sight of the fact that he has to use every square inch of his cube van, and that poorly packed produce can be damaged before reaching its destination. In the middle of a day when he has to make up to seventy stops, one flat of spilled berries or smooshed tomatoes can push him right over the edge (and rightly so!).
The Moss Street Community Market takes place every Saturday from April to November on the grounds of a school in an affluent neighbourhood of Victoria. Each of us had attended the market as individual vendors, and it was an important step in our co-operation when we began sharing a market table.
Attending the farmers’ market is a mixed blessing: we get premium retail prices and a valuable chance to interact with customers and other farmers, but preparing for the market is an onerous task, and attending every week is a large time commitment and output of energy. Leaving the farm for a whole day at the height of the growing season is difficult. Now we take turns at the market. Each of us attends every third week, and sells the produce from all three farms. Certainly this makes market day more complicated. There’s a lot of produce to cram into one market space, and the farmer must track inventory and divide the money at the end of the day, but it is well worth the effort.
Over the years, the volume of customers at the market has increased tremendously, and the amount each customer is buying has also increased. It seems that while previously people bought one or two items, now they are shopping for their weekly groceries. It used to be that the market was barely worthwhile when time and effort were factored in, but it now rivals the box program for volume of sales. During peak season, the farmers deliver two or three pickup loads to the market for the four-hour sale. There are up to three people behind our stand and often an extra person out front restocking the rapidly disappearing produce. There have been days, especially during strawberry season, when the lineup has been thirty people long.
We think this growth is due not only to the growing awareness of the importance of buying local food, but also to the admirable philosophy of our market. All the produce vendors are organic and all the vendors can sell only what they themselves have produced. There is a spirit of co-operation between vendors to have prices reflect the real value of food. Farmers don’t dump produce, and out of respect for our livelihoods as farmers, no one tries to undercut another’s prices. The physical layout of the market works well; it has a nice aesthetic, with a playground in the middle and musical entertainment. The customers appreciate both the atmosphere and the authenticity that comes from buying directly from the producers. Tens of thousands of dollars change hands every week, creating a vibrant local economy. If anyone wants to start a successful market, Moss Street is an excellent case study.
All the vendors at Moss Street are successful, but we feel we have an edge because of our sense of aesthetics. The more colours, shapes, and sizes the better. Group like items together; this will prevent things from being overlooked. Bounty sells, so load up your table! The more you bring to the market, the more you’ll sell, because people like to choose from a big pile. You want people’s eyes to be able to flow easily from one end of the stand to the other, to give them an overall sense of all that is there. Use the vertical space: we have three layers of display to keep everything within sight and easy reach. We’ve noticed that there are “magic spots” on the table where things seem to sell more quickly. Be attentive, and rotate things that aren’t being seen to those spots. Everything you handle will be noticed, so pick things up and move them around. Don’t sit down. Above all, allow people to see your natural enthusiasm for your product: give samples and cooking tips; get to know your regular customers’ names; have your farm name clearly displayed; bring a photo album or “brag book.” Anything that connects customers to your farm is indispensable. Try to get the same spot every week so customers will know where to find you, and attend the market regularly so they know they can depend on you.
In 2008 we tried a second market, which was in our rural area. We were excited about selling closer to home, but we were disappointed in the volume of sales. There was a big cultural difference between this market and Moss Street. Customers were looking for cheap produce and the farmers were only too willing to oblige. The clientele was much older, and they were less passionate about the produce. We had noticed all these qualities about this market previously but we thought that we could change it with our presence by either attracting our usual clientele or by changing the clientele that was there. In retrospect, this was naive. We’ve since joined another farmers’ market in Victoria that is proving to be lucrative. This experience taught us that there are different types of farmers’ markets, so when you’re deciding where to sell, invest some time in visiting the markets in your area before making your decision.
By the end 2003, our second year of running Saanich Organics, we had a vague notion that the business had made some money, and that there was potential in our working together to grow and sell more, and to achieve greater financial success than we could on our own. The main challenge we each faced was building our own farms to the point of financial sustainability. A related challenge was having a sufficient selection of desirable crops, especially in the winter, to keep clients interested in regular, year-round delivery. The investment of Saanich Organics’ profit (with a further personal investment from each of us) in the purchase of a hundred-and-sixty- by twenty-foot greenhouse was an attempt at solving those problems.
The greenhouse was erected on Heather’s land, and the long, thin structure quickly earned the nickname “Long John” or “L.J.” After the six-month epic of erecting the greenhouse (see Robin’s chapter), we were in the salad greens business. In the first year, the three of us did a lot of work unpaid, but we hired a woman to do the harvesting. Volunteer work makes the books look good, but we were exhausted; even the financial success was compromised because we didn’t have the time or energy to maintain the crops to their optimum potential. We got the greenhouse seeded during work parties, but never managed to stay on top of the weeding. This meant that our employee, Alex, spent much of her time sorting through the greens she had cut, picking out weeds. The situation got worse week after week, but because our own farms were our first priority, it was difficult to find the time to till in beds and replant them on a consistent schedule. Lack of attention is costly, and this was enough to convince us that we couldn’t do it on our own. The following year, we hired more people to work in the greenhouse and paid Rachel to manage the project.
This pattern of experimentation has repeated itself with each division of the company. For one or two years, we would do all the work for free. This was a natural inclination for us because on our own farms, we had never tracked our hours. In retrospect, this may have been the only strategy we could have used to build the company—the attitude of faith supported us in what we were doing and gave us the time we needed to learn. Now, when we’re hiring, we have the experience of having done the jobs ourselves, and are able to direct other people.
In the context of large conventional farms that are propped up by annual subsidies, and small farms that rely on free labour from family and travelling volunteers, it was revolutionary to us that farming could be done in a way that paid everyone involved a decent wage. In order to warrant a full-time greenhouse manager’s time, the project we still call L.J. spilled out of the greenhouse to encompass field crops. We hoped that along with their regular salad orders, chefs might be tempted to buy our other offerings. We now have a quarter-acre in strawberries and a half-acre in annual vegetables, as well as a rotation of salad greens and nightshades, such as peppers and eggplant, in the greenhouse. In essence, L.J. started with a ten-year jump on each of our own farms because we were bringing our knowledge and passion to the project. More than just a section of the farm, Long John is an experiment in collective growing, and a culmination of our years of experience.
As Saanich Organics grows, we’ve found ourselves in the unexpected position of being employers. It’s strange being on the other side of the fence. Part of our motivation in running our own businesses was to avoid working for “the man.” So now, we’re learning how to run a successful business without becoming “the man.” We have an advantage in that not so long ago, each of us worked at low-wage jobs, and we are mindful of the cost of living and of the need to create a meaningful and respectful work atmosphere. We strive to give our employees responsibility, to share our passion, and to allow them to participate as fully as possible in the joy of farming. One challenge has been to realize that we can’t expect the same level of emotional investment from an employee that we ourselves have in our farms and in Saanich Organics.
Another challenge is placing the right person in the right job. We hired a farmer acquaintance and fell in love with her passion for the work; her job was to do both field work and administrative work. We assumed that because she was smart, hard-working, and eager, she could do anything. We needed a computer-savvy, organized, personable administrator, but the questions we asked, in checking her references and interviewing her, were all about interpersonal skills and work ethic. Instead of “Is she fun to work with?” we should have asked, “Is she detail-oriented, and how are her organizational skills?” We wasted a month and caused her a lot of grief before we realized we had the perfect person in the absolutely wrong job. Once we sorted this out, we had a passionate, self-directed, efficient fieldhand who worked with us for two years. We’d jump at the chance to work with her again.
Sometimes we become too close with employees. The season begins, and some workers are either slow or unreliable, or both. They are almost always urban young people who have little experience with hard, manual labour where speed is of the essence. Of these people, some catch on to the work quickly, but others don’t, and the problem is magnified by both practicalities and emotions. Mid-season, it is difficult to find the time to rehire, so we hold out hope that the employees will improve. We are also empathetic and emotive. We care about our employees, and when we see them in challenging personal and/or work situations, it becomes more and more difficult to fire them. Conversely, we have also had the deeply satisfying experience of seeing people completely fulfilled and even transformed by their experience on the farm. It is hard, but we know we need to fire those who aren’t working out sooner, so we can give the opportunity to the right person. As Heather said to Robin, “You’ve got to channel the ‘man brain’—is she doing the job or not?” Perhaps this problem goes all the way back to the hiring process, and we continue to tweak our method to try to filter out slow, flaky, or overly needy people.
We wish we could say that after several years of hiring employees and apprentices, we know what we’re doing. However, the truth is that we’re still surprised sometimes. Occasionally we’ll hire someone who appears solid: confident, tough, hard-working, committed to ecological agriculture, and passionate, only to have them quit a few weeks in. More often, we’re surprised the other way. One spring, a box customer, Karlyn, called to inquire about apprenticing opportunities. She came out to meet us, and we decided on a rotating schedule where she’d volunteer on all our farms. After each of us met her, we compared notes, and all said things like, “Well, she said all the right things” and “She’s not looking for a paid job, so we don’t have anything to lose.” None of the three of us thought she’d stick around long. For one thing, there was her appearance: she was tall, slender, and urban-chic. Not only that, but she had makeup on! And as Lamont said, “She smells too good to be a farmer.” We also thought her plans were unrealistic. She had rearranged her life to require less money so that she could volunteer nearly full-time while maintaining a couple of shifts a week at her lucrative pub job. We expected that she’d burn out, realize she needed more money, and/or get bored when the work got monotonous and difficult.
Well, from the first day she walked onto the farm until the bitter end of the season, Karlyn was a lifesaver. Not only was she competent and hard-working, she was also one of those people who made everything she touched easier. Whenever a situation seemed difficult, she was the one to say, “Why don’t I just . . .” and the problem was solved. Karlyn definitely helped us see, and question, our first impressions.
More than once, we have made the mistake of assuming that the same things that motivate us motivate our employees. We are gradually learning that some people want more direction rather than more responsibility, and that asking people what they want is easier than trying to guess. We are learning that we need to give all our employees a vision of the big picture, which involves the sometimes-monumental task of freeing up time for meetings.
At a workshop on employee relations, the presenter suggested that employers look around their staff rooms to make sure they are warm and inviting. Robin and Heather looked at each other in shame as they realized that our employees didn’t even have chairs to sit on to eat their lunch, unless someone pulled up a wheelbarrow. Now they have a covered area with table and chairs, a hand-washing sink, and a message board. We’ve also improved our system for distributing excess produce among the staff. We make a more conscious effort to express our appreciation for their important role, with occasional surprise gifts and a year-end feast.
Our employees bring more than their labour to the farm: they bring their diverse personalities, their enthusiastic energy, their new perspectives, and their refreshing sense of fun. We have momentum in the community that helps bring in new employees. Our current employees are invaluable for sending good people our way, and returning volunteers and apprentices have also become valued employees.
Saanich Organics makes money in three ways: from the box program, commercial sales, and Long John. Although we also sell at the farmers’ markets together, those sales go straight to our own farms, not through the business accounts. We want to make it clear that our farms are our primary sources of income. The efficient marketing provided by the Saanich Organics structure makes this possible. Restaurants form the bulk of Saanich Organics’ business, followed by our box program, the farmers’ markets, and a few stores. We like this diversity of outlets because it gives us some security. As consumer trends change, some markets will become more or less important, but we won’t lose all our markets at once.
Our sales through the box program and the commercial division are marked up to cover our costs and make a modest profit. We went into this business because we wanted to be farmers. We want the farmers who sell to Saanich Organics to get a fair return on their produce, so we offer them a good price and keep our markup as low as we can. That being said, we also value our time. We want to make sure that the business does not lose money, that it makes a modest return to compensate us for the many hours we spend packing orders, planning, hiring, and taking care of a million details. Our contentment with modest profits and slow growth is contrary to conventional business wisdom. Most distributors aim to buy low and sell high. We aim to buy high, and sell slightly higher.
Indeed, more business-oriented friends and acquaintances have often expressed amazement when they realize we have a waiting list for our box program and that our chefs can’t all get all the produce they want. “Why don’t you expand by buying from more farmers or importing produce?” they ask. Above all, we are farmers first. We want to spend our time growing food, so profiting from the marketing end of the business has not been a priority. The distribution is necessary, and we certainly want it to be as efficient as possible, but our goal is to make our primary income from growing produce, rather than from distributing it.
Saanich Organics’ biggest expense is the cost of the produce that we buy from our own farms and the other farms that sell with us. We mark up the produce that we sell through the box program by 30 per cent. Produce that goes to commercial sales is marked up by 15 per cent. The difference reflects the additional work involved in organizing and packing the residential boxes. These markups pay for administration, bookkeeping, delivery, help in the packing room, rental of the garage, office supplies, and hydro.
Long John makes money by selling produce to Saanich Organics as if it were a farm on its own. Long John’s biggest expense is labour, followed by soil amendments and equipment. Our starting wage for farmhands in 2010 was $10.50 per hour (the minimum wage in BC is $8.75 per hour). Returning employees get raises. Each year, Long John gives us grey hairs by going deep into debt, sometimes by as much as $8,000, before sales finally surpass expenses around August.
Another major expense is delivery. Tim earns $3.25 per residential delivery, which is paid by the customers. For commercial sales, we pay him 4.25 per cent of the gross sales and we recover about half of this cost by charging the clients $5.00 per delivery. We used to have a complicated formula for paying Tim, which included gas surcharge, hourly wage, and a per-stop fee. The percentage system is a vast improvement because his earnings are directly proportional to his work. (See Appendix C for Saanich Organics’ Income Statement from 2008.)
Our ability to work together and to share a vision for the future is the main reason that Saanich Organics works. We share the dream of making a living from farming. At a workshop on business management, we learned a classification tool that divides people into four personality types: analytics, drivers, expressives, and amiables. According to this scheme, a functional business requires all four types. We identified ourselves as three of the four personality profiles, while each of us has elements of the fourth. This may help to explain why we work so well together.
Rachel is an analytic. She is logical and she takes the time to understand all the elements that contribute to a problem. She believes it is important to do things right, and is emotionally reserved until decisions are made. Heather is a driver. She is practical, efficient, and task-oriented. When she has a vision, she can see the steps that need to be taken and can delegate so that everyone feels involved and inspired. Robin is an expressive. She is an idea-generator and has energy for expansion and change. She enjoys setting the course, and then looking to the others for guidance on how to make it happen. All three of us have components of the amiable character type. We are relationship-oriented, empathetic, and able to see other viewpoints.
Another factor in our compatibility is our stage of life. We met when we were struggling to make our new businesses work. We were all working hard, but felt overwhelmed by the many different tasks involved in both growing and marketing, and we hoped that working together would make our businesses more efficient. Heather and Rachel dreamed of having children, and they were looking for ways to run a farm with a family. We were all looking for the quality of life we wanted out of farming, and were open to change. We all had a similar desire for financial stability but were content to follow a cautious growth strategy. Nine years later, we have matured together and still share a similar outlook.
Our co-operation has evolved over a decade. When we started working together, none of us had any idea how Saanich Organics would evolve. We have good communication, we love to work hard, and we trust each other’s intentions. We have also been incredibly lucky to be surrounded by a nurturing and talented community. We inspire and challenge one another; we support each other and celebrate our successes together.