Ontario Farm Fresh Marketing Association

Newsletter #307 September 2015 Volume 31, Number 6

Fresh Facts

Inside this issue:

Membership News 2

Food Premises & Kitchens….What You Need to Know

4

Member Market-place Opportunities

6

F2F University Workshops

8

Surviving a Year of Audits

3

President’s Message I am going to keep this short because we are all limited on time during this busy season. Summer is ending, a new season begins. I’ve never lost the sense of renewal September brings as the schools open their doors again. The pump-kins are starting to turn orange and our corn maze opens Labour Day weekend adding another attraction to our mix of activities. The downside - the summer students are off to attend their university classes but they are going with excite-ment and anticipation. It is sad to see them go, hopefully they will keep their promise of returning for busy weekends. This year there have many new beginnings with OFFMA members - at least six weddings amongst our members and their families. Beautiful nuptial pictures are scattered throughout this issue. We’ve almost recovered from our own son’s August wedding here on the farm. Hosting his celebration prompted us to clean up and landscape a neglected area of our farm as well as get our wash-room trailer up and running. Many members have said that their farms never looked as good as they did for a family members’ wedding. Although we are open to the public, weddings are extra special and we all want everything to be perfect. We are now working on developing packages for weddings, family events and corporate meetings to make use of our new venue. OFFMA is always looking forward, planning for the future to help you stay cur-rent and knowledgeable. We have had the soft launch of our new website and it will be officially launched in mid-September, just in time for the harvest sea-son. It has a new, clean look that is very easy to navigate. There are so many resources on it available to you, so be sure to check it out. If you want to see the new ‘Hayloft’ at our farm come out to the Farm 2 Fork University Workshop Jim and I are hosting on September 24th – Everything you ever wanted to know about cookies. Details of the other workshops are on the back page on the newsletter. Make sure you take some time to get out and visit with other on-farm marketers. You never know what you will pick up. Oh, so much to look forward to as the Harvest Season starts. May your fall harvest be bountiful and enjoyable. Leslie Forsythe OFFMA President

Providing knowledge and leadership to grow the farm fresh experience.

MEMBERSHIP NEWS

Page 2 Fresh Facts

Classifieds FOR SALE: Pumpkin cannon including the cannon itself on wheels, connection hose and air hold tank which is on a farm wagon running gear. Asking $1600.00 for everything. Con-tact Hugh & Anne Nauman, hnau-man@sgci.com FOR SALE: Delhaven Orchards Ltd., Blenheim, ON Frozen, pitted sour cherries available for wholesale and retail Call 519-676-4475 or e-mail delhaven@ciaccess.com ADD A LITTLE MAPLE TO YOUR SHELVES! Fulton's Pancake House & Sugar Bush has a wide selection of wholesale Maple prod-ucts that your customers will fall in love with! From jams and fruit syrups, to lip balm and body lotion! Everything is pro-duced on-site using local produce and our secret ingredient... MAPLE SYRUP! Call 613-256-3863 or email info@fultons.ca to place your order! FOR SALE: Hugli’s Blueberry Ranch in Pembroke has its own line of wholesale gourmet blueberry products that include bbq sauce, jam, syr-up, hot pepper jelly, pure juice, dressings and salsa. For inquiries, contact Judy at info@blueberryranch.ca *These products can also be found in the Members’ Marketplace on the OFFMA website. Classifieds are free for members. Send your information to the OFFMA office and it will be included in the next news-letter.

Farm Wedding Bells The last few months have seen many OFFMA members and their families cel-ebrating weddings. It seems to be the year to get hitched. Congratulations to all the newly-weds. Wishing you lots of happiness, good health and successes in all your endeavours as you start a new life together. Congratulations to Jaycee Murphy and her new husband, Gavin Grusnick. Jacey is the daughter of Shawn and Mark Mur-phy. They transformed the potato storage area into a stunning wedding reception venue on August 15th. Congratulations as well to the Miller Fami-ly. Ron and Suzy spruced up the farm for their son, Simon’s wedding on August 22. there has been some pressure to offer the venue to other couples as well, but Suzy is not interested in doing that. Scan the newsletter to catch a glimpse of the other happy couples.

New Member—welcome to Danielle Danielle Arva Earthly Delights Mount Pleasant, ON 519-732-3477 www.facebook.com/daniellesvegetables Earthly Delights real strength is vegetables, all kinds of vegetables. Zucchini, Tomatillo Toma-toes, Swiss Chard, Arugula, Kale, Bell Peppers, Carrots, Onions, Beefsteak and Cherry Toma-toes, Hot Peppers and Arugula Plants fresh and ready for home-cooked meals that will add great flavour and colour to every cuisine! Also on offer at Earthly Delights, you can find herbs, flowers, jams, baked goods, handmade cutting boards and serving platters.

CONGRATULATIONS to Colleen McKay, Your Farm Market and Emily Morri-son, Morrison Berries Country Market on being selected as participants in Class 16 of the Advanced Agricultural Leadership Program (AALP). A 19 month program for emerging leaders from agriculture, agri-food and rural sectors of Ontario. Can’t wait to see what you learn.

Page 3 Newsletter #307

It’s been a year of audits for us at Spirit Tree. We’ve been through a CRA, WSIB, LCBO and Minister of Finance Wine Tax audit. We’ve learned a lot along the way and hopefully this is the last for us for awhile! Wanted to share some of our learning with the member-ship. Typically you’ll have a few weeks notice prior to the audit and get a list of every-thing they want to see. Don’t wait until the last minute to start looking for rec-ords in case you need to get missing copies from the bank or suppliers. Be prepared for the audit to take a lot of your time. CRA spent two full days on-site scanning materials and then fol-lowed up by phone and email with questions. A POS system definitely makes life eas-ier in being able to pull historical num-bers when asked. Have a system for archiving records –

be sure to keep all daily cash register receipts, business & personal bank-ing records, bills, invoices, etc. At the end of each year, pull all records and file them according to month and year. You’ll appreciate this during an audit. Our latest audit picked random months from 2011 until 2015 and asked to see all records. Audits can be a positive experience. As a result of our WSIB audit, our business was reclassified, reducing our rate by a couple of percentage points. Remember that the auditor is doing their job and is not “out to get you”. Be honest and use the opportunity to ask questions on how you could be doing things better. We’ve put in place many new protocols as a result.

Surviving a Year of Audits By Nicole Judge, Spirit Tree Cidery

Logan Martin and Ainslie DeBoer joined hearts and hands on July 10, 2015 at Elevation Church in Waterloo. Logan is the son of Steve and Rose Martin from Martin’s Family Fruit Farm.

B.C. Study Tour November 9—13

Detailed information and a regis-tration form have been included

with this newsletter. Deadline for the registration is

MONDAY, OCTOBER 19th. This promises to be an incredible

tour. We will also be making a side trip down to Seattle and the Pike

Place Market. Sign up TODAY!!

OFFMA’s website re-fresh is complete! Take a minute on the next rainy day and have a peek. Check your listing to make sure consumers can find you by the various products you offer.

Page 4 Fresh Facts

Requirements for the operation of a food premise and safe handling of food fall under the Health Protection and Promotion Act, Regulation 562. A "food premise" is defined broadly in the Act to mean a place where food or milk is manufactured, processed, prepared, stored, handled, displayed, distributed, transported, sold, or of-fered for sale, but does not include a private residence. Regulation 562 contains specific re-quirements for building maintenance, equipment, food handling, mainte-nance and sanitation in relation to food premises. Farms selling only their own farm products in the form of honey, maple syrup, or unprocessed fruits, vegetables and grains may be exempt from certain requirements un-der this regulation (Section 3(1) para-graph 4). Here are some basic rules-of-thumb for a food premise: All requirements under the On-

tario Building Code must be met.

Pets are not allowed in a food premise.

Vector management is crucial (insects, rodents, birds and rep-tiles).

If you’re an aspiring food entrepre-neur, it’s important to be aware of fa-cility requirements for a food premise. These include: Washable walls and ceilings; Washroom facilities for each

gender; and Hand wash stations that are

separate from sinks used for cleaning utensils and product.

Frequently Asked Questions 1. What’s the difference between a “certified kitchen,” “commercial kitch-

en,” “inspected kitchen” and “food premise?” Nothing! Different names, but all refer to a kitchen or food area that is subject to inspection. 2. Can I sell jam, pickles, cookies and pie at my on-farm market or roadside stand if they are prepared in my home kitchen? No. A home kitchen that is used for domestic food preparation is not a legal food premise. However, it may be pos-sible to build a food premise in your home, provided that it is allowed within the local zoning and can be established in a secure way that meets the guide-lines for a food premise. 3. My home baking and preserves are very popular with customers. How can I continue making and selling these products without having to invest in a food premise? Look for an existing food premise in your community that you can rent. Churches, non-profit organizations and service organizations may have a food premise that are not used to their full capacity and restaurants may be willing to rent their kitchens after hours. Com-munity kitchens and commercial food processing facilities, such as White Hat Kitchen in Barrie and the Ontario Agri-

Food Premises & Kitchens….What You Need to Know By Phil Dick, Business Resources Specialist, OMAFRA & Jessica Kelly, Direct Farm Marketing program Lead, OMAFRA

Page 5 Newsletter #307

Food Venture Centre in Colborne, ex-ist to allow farmers and food entrepre-neurs to rent kitchen time. 4. Where do I find for more information about food premise? Your local public health unit is a great resource for information about kitchen facilities that will meet regulations and keep your customers safe. The OMAFRA website also includes information about facilities and regula-tions for food businesses: www.omafra.gov.on.ca/english/food/industry/bdb-start/firststeps.htm Editor’s Note: The Food Premise Act is provincial regulation; however inspec-tion and enforcement are done by mu-nicipal health units. Municipal health units may vary in how proactive they are in working with on-farm markets.

Daniel Forsythe and his bride, Jocelyn Kal-deway, got mar-ried on August 15th. The recep-tion was at the Forsythe Family Farm in the new-ly renovated ‘Hayloft’. Daniel is the son of Leslie and Jim Forsythe.

Fresh Facts Page 6

Check Out Member Marketplace Opportunities by Carl Fletcher, Farm Fresh Enthusiast

Looking for unique Ontario Farm Fresh products to compliment your own great produce and processed products for sale at your farm market? Looking for new market opportunities for your own further processed prod-ucts? If so, then check out the Member Mar-ketplace which you can find through the Members section of the OFFMA webpage. Well if your mouth doesn’t start water-ing just reading the product categories list of: Butters and Spreads, Cakes and Pies, Cider Preserves, Jams and Jellies, Sauces and Dips, Sparkling Cider, Spic-es, and Sweet Stuff, then it will be by the time you have checked out the wealth of tasty products available! Member Marketplace is a relatively re-cent OFFMA opportunity and the follow-ing eight OFFMA members have listed products that you might be interested in: Brittle’s and More & the Fudgery Shoppe, The Cider Keg, Fultons Pancake House and Sugar Bush, Harvest Goodies, Hugli’s Blueberry Farm, Sheldon Creek Dairy, Spirit Tree Estate Cidery, and White Meadows Farms. Here are some comments from some of these participants on their Member Mar-ketplace experience to date. “The Members Market has been a great place to showcase what products we offer in an online presence. When a cus-tomer googles our business, the more information they are shown the more likely they will connect with us. The Marketplace has been a great way to connect and engage a customer before they have a chance to try our products.” Marianne Den Haan, Sheldon Creek Dairy. When asked have you ordered products from other members who have listed

products on the Members Marketplace? Marianne replied, “We have been able to find customers through this data base which has helped us grow our network and business. Once we have this connec-tion we often find ways we can partner as well as purchase from our customers the various items they are selling. A great example is pairing our yogurt with the many granolas made by our differ-ent customers.” Heather Fraser of Wheelbarrow Or-chards and Harvest Goodies reports “receiving new orders and reorders as well” as a result of listing products on the Members Marketplace. Finally Nicole Judge of Spirit Tree Estate Cidery encourages other OFFMA mem-bers to get on board -“Member Market-place is a great idea – would be fantas-tic to have more member farms taking part.” The products, packaging and label de-signs you see on Member Marketplace may also inspire some ideas of your own. So how can I get some of the great products listed on the Member Market-place? After checking out the products on the Member Marketplace you need to con-tact the farm selling the products di-rectly to place your order and arrange delivery. Tell them you saw the prod-ucts listed on Member Marketplace as it is always good to get feedback on how products get noticed. How can I get my products listed on Member Marketplace? Contact the OFFMA office. The Member Marketplace is one oppor-tunity among the many benefits of your OFFMA membership. Check it out today!

Newsletter #307 Page 7

OFFMA has been working with Foodland On-tario towards a new resource for our mem-bership. The Monster Mural is now available. Monster Murals are a huge colouring sheet depicting the various food grown and pro-duced in Ontario. It is almost 3’ by 5‘ in size, so several children and adults can add their own personal colour touches to the piece. The murals are a great educational tool. As a farmer you could talk about the various crops and products while children are colouring the various items. They can be used as part of your school tour, perhaps as a take home for the class. If you are doing birthday parties on the farm, you may want to offer this as an optional activity. An e-blast was sent out at the end of August, asking members to order for their on-farm markets. They come in a mailing tube with 8 images on a long roll per tube. The murals and mailing is free right now but after this initial mailing there will be a charge for the mural and distribution of them. The murals were shipped in the first week of September. If you would like some but did not receive any, please contact the office and let them know how many tubes you would like BEFORE FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 25, 2015. A HUGE thank you to Foodland Ontario for helping to make this project a reality.

Niki Hilton married David Downer on August 22 in Thornbury. Niki is a long time employee of Springridge Farm. For those of you who have been on a few OFFMA bus tours, she also did an excellent job of passing along commentary from the front of the bus.

Page 8 Fresh Facts

Ontario Farm Fresh Cathy Bartolic, Executive Director 2002 Vandorf Rd. Aurora, ON L4G 7B9 Phone: 905-841-9278 E-mail: info@ontariofarmfresh.com www.ontariofarmfresh.com

2015-16 OFFMA Board of Directors Leslie Forsythe, President Forsythe Family Farms Nicole Judge, Vice President Spirit Tree Estate Cidery Brian Hugli, Past President Hugli’s Blueberry Ranch Kristin Ego MacPhail, Ego Nurseries Ltd. Hollis English, Murphy’s Farm Market & Bakery Cara Epp, Associate Member Edana Integrated Marketing Steve Martin, Martin’s Family Fruit Farm Dana Thatcher, Thatcher Farms Karen Whitty, Whitty Farms Jessica Kelly, OMAFRA Advisor

Farm 2 Fork University Workshops —mark your calendars Cost for each workshop is $10 per person. Sept 24th 4pm to 7pm – Everything You Ev-er Wanted to Know About Cookies Forsythe Family Farm, Greenbank Do you sell cookies at your on-farm market. Are you baking them from scratch? Is someone else making them for you? Come out for the great cookie debate to be held at Forsythe Family Farms. OFFMA has invited our Business Members who offer cook-ie dough packages to attend the workshop as well and weigh in on the benefits of their products. Lots of cookie pros and cons to consider. Come out for a delicious evening. Light dinner to be served.

Oct. 19th – Making Fruit Leathers Waddell Apples, Seeley’s Bay Marita and Charlie have been making fruit leathers with their own fruit for a while and it is one of their best sellers. Come out and connect with other on-farm marketers. Learn how to make a unique value added product. We will also be screening the FISH video. It is a fun way to help your employees change their attitudes and improve the customer service at your on-farm market

Oct. 29th—Decorating with Winter Greenery Heeman’s Greenhouses & Strawberry Farm More and more people want their homes to look lovely all year round including the win-ter. And more and more people are looking for an activity or experience that they can share with their friends and/or family. Heeman’s does an outstanding job with their win-ter deco workshops and you will have a chance to experience what they offer on Octo-ber 29th. Added bonus will be a sample from their brand new Berry Café.

Dec. 3rd—Pizza Night Spirit Tree Estate Cidery Join Nicole and Tom as they lead us through pizza making on a wood burning oven. You’ll be surprised at what exactly you can put on a pizza and how great it will taste

when it is baked in their oven. A great opportunity to re-connect with OFFMA friends, tour an on-farm market and hash out some of the challenges and success-es of the past year. Be sure to mark your calendar for this one.

Alex Chesney and Nathan TeBokkel tied the knot on June 14 in a beautiful barn depicting a true farm ceremony. Alex is Rob Chesney’s daughter. Rob owns Thames River Melons.

The Last word goes to Seth Godin this month…  When considering a new project, it might help to make three lists: 1.  A list of everything that has to be true for this to be a good project 

(things you    can look up , research or otherwise prove). 2.  A list of all the skills you don’t have that would be important for this pro-

ject to work (things you can learn or hire). 3.  And a list of everything you’re afraid of, or things that are essential and 

that are out of your control……...on paper, it’s a lot easier to find the real truth.