working through Winter - 2019
Can’t say enough how great seasonality is. Being able to shift gears from summer-time pulling weeds to winter-time dreaming about pulling weeds. The change allows for business planning. Setting in motion optimistic wheels, research, and proving the numbers long before spending any real money, thank you spread sheets.
Rosy Farms needs to add freezing processing to the orchard, on top of its typical production orchard tasks. Entering a whole new world of freezing, food safety, and harvesting. Lucky us, haskap growers all stick together, sharing with each other what we have learned to better create a new industry.
The To-Do List
Harvesting Planning - We consulted some harvesting growers to calculate the time it should take to harvest 10,000 haskaps in June. Turing into a junior high math problem, if the harvester travels “X”, the rows are ”Y” long, set up and cleaning of the machine is “Z”, how long will it take? For use 57.5 hours, on a high note. To then research harvesting options like the different types of harvesting machines. In 2018 alone, he went to 9 different orchards seeing different growing methods.
Orchard Trials - Haskap orchard research is not the easiest to come by, especially pruning and fertility. Why wait when you can do it your self! Using the scientific method, 3 randomized trials per testing variable:
Fertility - Granular, Foliar, Fertigation
Pruning Methods - Pruning in the fall 2018
H2O - not watering, 2x watering
Weeding
Manure Pre-Planting
Freezing Facility Design - This has been in the works since the first business plan made in 2015. We are working with an architect and structural engineer to come up with the prints. Stay tuned for more information, because this is more than a few blog articles.
Grant Hustle - There is a lot of opportunity for grant subsidies in agriculture. The hardest part is working with the timing of the grants, they are never open when you need them to be. From that, pre-planning has been EXTREMELY important. Always having at least 3 applications filled out, with quotes and supporting documents, so when the program opens, we are the first in.
Summer Student - This has been a major wall. Trying to think of tasks out side of general farm tasks, desiring to hire a university student with skills that fill the gaps in Rosy Farms. Bringing someone in that will add to the overall business. There are some great grants available such as STEP and Canada Summer Jobs, where the application dead lines are end of January or early February.
Farm Event Planning - Can’t say enough how fun this is! Collaborating with other farmers in creating events. To name a few potential plans:
Alberta Open Farm days
Young Agrarians collaboration - Starting a farm, moving from city life to farm life
U-Pick
Party in my Plants event- come out to the farm and enjoy the orchard
Bar OA Farms Events, who will be growing dahlias on Rosy Farms, Bryanna the owner is a MASTER planner, check her out for all the events she is planning.
This is a very exciting season! So many new parts of the business are coming forth. Creating different challenges and awesome solutions.
Stay Tuned.