Fresh Facts October/November 2012

7/31/2019 Fresh Facts October/November 2012

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Ontario Farm Fresh Marketing Association

Newsletter #282Oct. - Nov. 2012

Volume 27, Number 9

Fresh Facts

Inside this issue:

Membership News 2

My Favourite Take-

Away3

Family Farm meets

the Wired Future4

Overcoming your

Fear of Social6

The Simple Power

of One a Day7

Upcoming Events 8

Providing knowledge and leadership to grow the farm fresh experience.

Presidents Message

Growing up, it didn't seem like our family had a lot of annual traditions. I do rememberthat the few traditions that our parents did manage to develop over the years were espe-cially important to my father. One of those rituals always took place at Thanksgiving.Each year, as my mother laid the final steaming dish on the harvest table, my dad wouldinsist that we go around and each speak about one thing that we were especially thank-ful for that year. No doubt my mother was less enthused about this tradition, as we eachstruggled to come up with an answer while the delicious feast that she'd spent the betterpart of ten hours preparing cooled steadily in front of us. Nevertheless, traditions are

important, and in the spirit of Thanksgiving and the demanding fall season ahead forOFFMA farms across Ontario, I thought that I'd bring back Dad's ritual here in this news-letter. Herewith, a list of the things that I am thankful for at this busy and challengingtime of year:1. I am thankful this fall that October only has 4 weekends. Last year, the calendar triedto trick us with 5 weekends. I know, I know, that extra weekend in October 2011 waslike insurance against the earlier rainy weekends. But wow, October seemed long lastyear. And this year, it isn't going to rain on any October weekends, so 4 will do the tricknicely, thank you.2. I am thankful this fall that we have such a great team to help us with the hectic sea-son. I am especially thankful for those folks on staff who easily know the difference be-tween a pie pumpkin and a pumpkin pie.

3. I am thankful this fall that I wear jeans to work. Whenever I see people who wearsuits or dresses to work I can't help but feel sad for them. Jeans are so comfortable.Jeans are also practical here in the farm bakery. Hot caramel on jeans? Cold wash.Hot caramel on a tie? Problem.4. I am thankful this fall for take-out. Without it, my little family might starve on fallweekends. The irony of this is not lost on me, friends. I know that my job is, in part, tohelp celebrate and share the harvest with our visitors. But often after a crazy day of fes-tival, take-out is what's for dinner.5. I am thankful this fall that we are members of OFFMA. I know that you too are head-ing into a very busy time of the year and somehow, that makes me feel better. I knowthat when I next see you, we'll have stories to share about good weather, bad weather,busy days and slow days. Hopefully you will have a few funny stories too. I like those

best.Ok, so that pretty much does it. There are a few other things that I am grateful for at thistime of year, but this list is starting to get too long for me to explain each of them. Theseinclude, but are not limited to: coffee, my alarm clock, family, granola bars, friends, ba-con, my cell phone, and water. I wish you a very Happy Thanksgiving, and a happy falltoo. I also wish you a busy and prosperous season full of all of the things for which youare thankful. Have fun!

Jesse LauzonOFFMA President


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MEMBERSHIP NEWS

Page 2 Fresh Facts

New MembersWelcome to these new members.Thanks for coming on board. Lookingforward to meeting you in person at anupcoming event.

Bert Gibson

Newcastle, ON 905-987-5090

Associate MemberJac & Trudie Theelen

Red Deer, Alberta 403-309-7356

Lynn Ogryzlo, author of The Ontario Table, is planning to feature on-farmmarkets in her December eZine issue. Please let the office know if you areplanning any special Christmas events this year and I will pass yourname and contact information along to Lynn. The eZine is a monthly piecethat Lynn put together to highlight Ontario farmers and their products. Itis distributed to over 30,000 e-mailboxes.

FARM AND BUSINESS FOR SALEWell established pick your own and direct

farm sales operation located on +/- 95 acres

of productive tile drained land on a pavedroad on the outskirts of the city of Wood-

stock, Ontario.Includes a fruit winery, +/- 10 acres of or-

chard with many younger trees and mostpopular varieties, a new adventure play area,

modern house and buildings. Can be pur-

chased as a turnkey operation.For a more detailed information package,

please email a request [email protected].

FARM FOR SALE RETIRING

Well established BLUEBERRY FARM. 13.5

acres mature blueberries on 62.5 acres. Very

visible location fronting on main road ingrowing tourism area. Go to www.realtor.caMLS# 508849 for details.

Call Marianne (519) 762-0001.

PUMPKINS FOR SALELarge sized pumpkins for wholesale in Elgin

County. Contact Shirley at 519-615-1164.

Orders are taken on a first come first servedbasis.

FOR SALESmall-sized straw bales (24x12x8 inches)

available for $1.75 each. Contact Kevin

Shantz, Shantzholm Pumpkins 519-634-5252 for more info. Great for Halloween

decorating.

WANTEDOn-Farm Markets looking to sell fresh milk

within 100 km of St. Jacobs.

OFFMA member, Eby Manor is a Guernseydairy farm located in Waterloo County. They

have their milk processed and bottled in onelitre glass bottles by Hewitt's Dairy. Currently

Eby Manor has 2% milk, but they are workingon other dairy products as well. If interested,

contact Jim Eby at [email protected]

Congratulations to Rollie

Willis from Willis Family FruitFarm and John Hughes fromSpringridge. They were bothawarded the Queens DiamondJubilee Medal for their dedicat-ed service to their peers, theirCommunity and to Canada.Way to go!! We are proud ofyou.

Effective October 1, 2012,employers are required topost the Occupational Health& Safety Act (OHSA) and anyexplanatory material pre-pared by the Ministry of La-bour. Get your free workplaceposter atwww.labour.gov.on.ca/

english/hs/pubs/posterinfo.phpInspector are now enforcing this re-quirementmake sure you are compli-

ant.


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Page 3Newsletter #282

It seems that not all the regionalawards for Agri-Food Innovationshad been awarded at the time of theprinting of the September newslet-ter. We are very excited to have 3additional OFFMA members recog-nized for their efforts and for beinginnovators on their farms.

Cross Wind Farms Cindy & Kevin HopeCindy andKevin Hopeare passion-ate about their

dairy goatfarm. Theirbusiness hasevolved fromshipping goatmilk to a lineof meat prod-ucts, soap, yogurt and more than adozen flavoured cheeses. In 2010,they constructed a 6,000 square footprocessing facility to meet increas-

ing consumer demand for their prod-ucts. The next year, they added anew vat for yogurt production,opened a retail store and introducedagri-tours on the farm. Today, theirCross Wind Farm products sellacross the province and the Hopesshare their knowledge by offering anumber of hands-on courses andagri-education experiences.

Johnston Cranberry Marsh &Muskoka Win-eryWendy Ho-garth & MurrayJohnstonWith a lifetime ofexperience grow-ing cranberriesand building a

thriving winery and tourism busi-ness in the heart of Muskoka re-gion, Johnston's Cranberry Marsh& Muskoka Lakes Winery went in-ternational. When the governmentof Latvia approached them to helpestablish a cranberry industry, theyenthusiastically said yes. They trav-elled to Latvia to assess which oftheir cranberry vines would be mostsuitable to start this new industry.

In the end, 30,000 tonnes ofvines were shipped to Latviain 2011, and the Johnston-Muskoka team is now talk-

ing with Poland.

Willowtree FarmMarket AlexMcKayWith a few modifi-cations, a corn

planter can become agarlic planter and a tun-nel fan used to dry haycan do double duty on

garlic, too. This marketgardener has moved intogarlic in a big way by us-ing machinery and mate-rials that were alreadyon-farm, rather than buy-ing equipment custombuilt for garlic produc-tion. Besides saving timeand money, the ownerhas a larger garlic crop

with a lower deformityrate, bet-ter weedcontrol and higherreturns.

Agri-Food Innovation Excellence Continues


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Page 4 Fresh Facts

Birtch Farms and Estate Winery ofWoodstock, Ontario, was unsure howto improve its web presence until it re-ceived funding from the Small Busi-

ness Internship Program to hire a stu-dent for a 12-week internship. The stu-dent, working with the companys webdesigner, helped to redesign the Win-erys website and brought innovativeideas to its new online store.

As every farmer knows, crop diversifi-cation can be key to getting goodyields. Dyann and Bob Birtch took overthe family farm in southern Ontario in1978, and since then they have worked

hard to diversify. They built up theirfruit-growing business and branchedout into producing award-winning fruitwines and fruit wine jellies. They alsoopened a retail store to cater to thegrowing number of visitors to BirtchFarm. And back in the mid-1990s, theywere early adopters of Internet technol-ogy when they established a website toreach new markets.

Those were the first years of the dot-

com revolution, and websites were of-ten static electronic storefronts withvery limited capabilities. Today, the

A Family Farm Meets the Wired Future

Internet offers opportunities that wereunimaginable not so long ago: blogs,links to other sites, social networking,video and audio, and more. These de-

velopments have changed the mean-ing of the neighbourhood business.Today, the neighbourhood can be theworld. Unlike other marketing plat-forms, the web provides flexible infra-structure and instantaneous communi-cation between sellers and buyers. Onthe web, the multiplier effect is incredi-bly powerful: one visitors enthusiasmabout a site can draw thousands ofother people.

The Birtches recognized the potentialof e commerce and wanted to grasp it.To do this, they turned to IndustryCanadas Small Business InternshipProgram.

The first step was to determine theirneeds what they wanted to do, aswell as the practical details of who,when and how. It quickly becameclear that the Birtches needed to de-velop their website into a full-service,

online store. We had wanted to dothis for many years, but did not havethe time or the creativity to accomplishthis project, says Dyann.

The dream was a website where peo-ple around the world could learn allabout Birtch Farms and Estate Winery and where they could also pur-chase the Birtches products with justa click of the mouse.

Now that the Birtches knew what theywanted, they submitted an applicationto the Small Business Internship Pro-gram. The Program duly approvedtheir project for funding, and this ena-bled the Birtches to hire a student in-tern who offered the best fit with theirneeds. The intern worked togetherwith Dyann and Bob to determine howthey could improve their e commerce


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activities. Then, with the support of aweb designer, the intern brought thoseideas to fruition.

The newly designed website has manyattractive features. High-resolution

photos give an enticing peek at theluscious products of the farm and win-ery. Tantalizing descriptions whet theappetite. The blog keeps friends up todate on products and allows them tomake comments. The link to GoogleMaps helps would-be visitors get driv-ing directions. And the online store en-ables customers to order some of theproducts and keep coming back formore, no matter what their physicaldistance from the farm.

All in all, the site is a powerful tool forgrowing the family business, whichnow is in its fourth generation.

The student intern helps with the adop-tion of e business strategies to in-crease the productivity and competi-tiveness of small and medium-sizedenterprises (SMEs). Industry CanadasSmall Business Internship Programprovides SMEs with financial support

to hire a full-time post-secondary stu-dent for 420 hours.

To be eligible for this program, yourfirm must: be a Canadian small or medium-

sized enterprise (SME) with lessthan 500 employees;

be incorporated or a sole propri-etorship and for-profit;

have been in continuous opera-tion for a minimum of one year;

have an existing web site andwish to enhance your e-businesscapability;

contribute a minimum of 25% ofthe student wages and relatedexpenses.

What are the benefits of this program?A significant number of SMEs are cur-rently simply connected to the Internet

or are passively on-line, and might notbe taking advantage of the possibilitiesoffered by e-business. The Small Busi-ness Internship Program seeks to im-prove the competitiveness of SMEs bysupporting businesses to actively mar-

ket on-line and improve their competi-tiveness with e-business practices andtechnologies. Your firm will receive fi-nancial support towards the employ-ment of post-secondary students whowill work on e-business projects. TheGovernment of Canada will reimburseup to 75% of the eligible wages andrelated expenses such as statutoryemployee benefits, to a maximum of$10,000. Your firm is responsible forcovering other expenses such as

fringe benefits and overhead costs.Support will be available for twelveweeks.How to apply? SMEs that are planningan e-business project, and would liketo have a student intern help themmake it a reality can submit an applica-tion form electronically, by mail or faxfor project approval to one of the or-ganizations who administers the pro-gram. http://www.ic.gc.ca/eic/site/sbip-pspe.nsf/eng/h_00010.html

The scarecrow nursery at Birtch Farm is always a happening place.


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Page 6 Fresh Facts

Overcoming Your Fear of Socialby Susan Murphy, Jester Creative

The massive transformation taking placein the world of marketing and communi-

cations has thrown a lot of peo-ple for a loop. Many people arelost as to what the next stepsreally are in the online world. In-formation abounds on how to usethe tools of the web to connectwith people and develop betterbusinesses, yet every time Iteach a course or give a speechon social media or technology, Iam astounded at still, how littlepeople really know about thisspace. Im thrilled every time Iam able to open someones eyesto this world and its power.

The tools are only the first step,though. When it comes to actually build-ing things, you need to consider carefullyhow to do it. Goals need to be set butreal, tangible business goals, not get500 Likes on Facebook goals. Strate-gies need to be put in place, and plansneed to be created around how to imple-ment those strategies.

Where things start to get hairy is oncewe start implementing. And by imple-menting, I mean really getting out thereand publishing content and interacting.Thats when, for many people, the realfear starts to creep in. That fear stopsmost people dead in their tracks. Its toodifferent from what they know and areused to. They long for the days wheneveryone sat down face to face (or overthe phone) to have a real conversation.

Why are you following me?Some days I wish wed just do away withsome of the lexicon of the social web.Friends implies a relationship thatsometimes, doesnt really exist. To theuninitiated, Following is just plaincreepy. People find it odd when I tellthem that I have actual friendships withpeople Ive never met in person. Theylook puzzled when I tell them I record a

weekly podcast with someone who lives onthe other side of the world (and weve nevermet either, incidentally). They dont under-stand how I can have close friendships withpeople that I see, maybe, once or twice ayear (if that). Jon and I were good friendsfor almost a year, and until the day we met inperson for the first time, our entire friendshiphad been based in text.

Thats kind of mind-blowing when youthink about it.The whole idea of following and friending isa hard concept for people to understand atfirst, but its the foundation of everything inthe online space. To me, theres not muchpoint in just connecting only with people youknow (though that is where many of us start,and thats fine). If youre going to get anybenefit at all out of your experience on Twit-ter, or Facebook, or whatever, you have tothrow away your inhibitions and get nice andcozy with your natural sense of curiosity. Ifsomeone follows you, dont get weirded out.Click on their profile, and check them out.Click their web site link. Say hello, followthem back. It just might be the start of abeautiful friendship.

Dont talk to strangers.Wait a minute. Werent we always taught notto talk to strangers? The skeptics tell us notto trust people online when we first meetthem after all, anyone can invent whoeverthey are from the safety of their keyboard. Allour lives, weve been conditioned to be sus-picious of anyone we dont know, so its nowonder were freaked out. When youre firstdelving into the world of the social web, itspretty easy to feel like the odd duck. Youve

just walked into a room full of strangers,many of whom know each other already. Itsall just a bunch of knowing looks and insidejokes. Youre the outsider, and it can be pret-ty intimidating to think about inviting yourselfin.

But thats exactly what you need to do.My friend Mitch Joel says that we are in anera now where we dont need permission to


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time. When you post something thatscares you to death, or when you fi-nally say hello to that stranger, oryou step away from the corner of theroom and shake someones hand,things change. From that moment on,

youre part of it, and theres no goingback.

Those of us that cross through ourfear and jump into the stream are theones who will succeed.

Susan Murphy has been working in me-dia and communications for 23 years.She is a partner at Jester Creative Inc.,where she helps people discover and telltheir stories through a variety of media.Her interest in social media is extensive(shes a total nerd her words). Susanteaches Video Production, and Web Me-dia in the Interactive Multimedia Develop-er program at Algonquin College. She isalso the co-host of I Can Haz Podcast, asocial media marketing podcast and onthe Board of Directors for the annualCracking-Up the Capital for MentalHealth comedy festival, featuring some ofCanadas top comics. A busy lady forsure.

be introduced to each other. We are allconnected, whether we like it or not.

We can either stand off in the corner ofthe room and wait for someone to comeand talk to us, or we can step forward

and start shaking hands.

Who succeeds?Strategies are great, and essential, butthey are like the beginning of a rollercoaster ride you know, the part whenyoure climbing and climbing before thatfirst big drop. The anticipation is frighten-ing, but its nothing like what you feelwhen you get to the other side.

Implementation is where things get sticky

and scary and wonderful. Its the otherside of that first big roller coaster hill. Itsthrilling and wild and sometimes com-pletely out of control. Youre strapped in,and you feel safe after all, you have aplan but once the ride actually gets go-ing, the thrill is incredible.

Its exhilarating to finally take the leapand hit the publish button for the first

The Simple Power of One a Dayby Seth Godin

There are at least 200 working days a year. If you commit to doing a simple marketing item just onceeach day, at the end of the year you've built a mountain. Here are some things you might try (don'tdo them all, just one of theseonce a day would change things for you):

Send a handwritten and personal thank you note to a customer, Write a blog post about how someone is using your product or service, Introduce one colleague to another in a significant way that benefits both of them, Read the first three chapters of a business or other how-to book,

Record a video that teaches your customers how to do something, Teach at least one of your employees a new skill, Go for a ten minute walk and come back with at least five written ideas on how to improve what

you offer the world, Change something on your website and record how it changes interactions, Help a non-profit in a significant way (make a fundraising call, do outreach), or Find out something you didn't know about one of your employees or customers or co-workers.

Enough molehills is all you need to have a mountain.


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Oct. 16 Stroms Farm, Guelph, ON - to RSVP,

Contact Gary Johnson, 905-726-3356

Oct. 18 Barrie Hill Farm, Barrie, ON - to RSVP,

Contact Gary Johnson, OFFMA 905-726-3356

Oct. 19 Central Ontario, visit centralontarioagconference.ca or

call 705-444-0557

Nov. 2-11 , Exhibition Place, Toronto, ON

Watch for details at www.royalfair.org

Nov. 48 , Chicago Region, details included with

September newsletter. Bus is now SOLD OUT.

Nov. 14 & 15 , Quality Inn, Woodstock, ON Go to

www.OntarioLavenderAssociation.com for additional information.

Dec. 4-6 , Grand Rapids, Michigan, www.glexpo.com

Feb. 6-12 with John Stanley and

Associates, visit www.johnstanley.com.au for further details

Page 8 Fresh Facts

Ontario Farm Fresh

Cathy Bartolic, Executive Director

2002 Vandorf Rd. Aurora, ON L4G 7B9

Phone: 905-841-9278

Fax: 905-726-3369

E-mail: [email protected]

www.ontariofarmfresh.com

Jesse Lauzon, President

Springridge Farm

Brian Hugli, Vice President

HugIis Blueberry Ranch

Amy Strom, Past President

Stroms Farm

Cara Epp, Associate MemberCara Epp Marketing

Leslie Forsythe, Forsythe Family Farms

Jay Howell, Brantview Apples & Cider

Hollis English, Murphys Farmstead

Colleen Pingle, Pingles Farm Market

Geri Rounds, Rounds Ranch

Steve Smith, Smiths Apples

Carl Fletcher, OMAFRA

(Acting Advisor to the Board)

The last word.The last word this month goes to Nicholyn Farms from the Barrie area. Not only were they part of the

50 regional Agri-Food Innovation Award recipients from across the province, but last week, they were

awarded one of three Leaders in Innovation Awards at the Agri-Food Summit.

This is a HUGE accomplishment that comes with some well deserved recognition.

Congratulations to the whole Van Casteren family.

New this year!

TWILIGHT TOURS

A great way to-get a tour of an OFFMA members farm and facilities,

-grab a bite to eat and-connect with some like minded people

Tuesday, October 16 Stroms Farm, Guelph ON4:307:30

Thursday, October 18 Barrie Hill Farm, Barrie ON4:307:30

RSVP to Gary Johnson - 905-726-3356There is no charge for this event.

Everyone is welcome.

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Fresh Facts October/November 2012