DECEMBER 2022
CELEBRATING 143 YEARS AS CANADA’S PREMIER HORTICULTURAL PUBLICATION
THEGROWER.ORG
CALL TO FARMS
Canada’s Outstanding Young Farmers: the young and the restless
Canada’s Outstanding Young Farmers Competition honours those between the ages of 18 and 39 for their courage and chutzpah in making agriculture a career. Worth noting is that three of the seven 2022 finalists are from horticulture. Jenn and David VanDeVelde, berry growers and market farmers near Delhi, Ontario are one couple out of seven regional winners competing at this year’s nationals in Saskatoon. These fall-bearing raspberries are one testament to selling local in mid-October. Photo by Marcella DiLonardo.
blackberries so they pulled out the canes. Tastes and trends change over a decade, so now they’re back in demand. Consumers couldn’t believe, for the longest time, that day-neutral berries could be picked until almost November. The convivial story-telling has been one-onone. Over the last decade, consumers have become more
aware of what constitutes locally-grown produce. Dave VanDeVelde recalls that consumers would think that if they bought a pineapple in a local store, then it was local. No, that’s an import! Look at the calendar to eat the seasons, know what’s last call and what’s next. They are one of seven finalists in Canada’s Outstanding Young Farmers Competition (COYF), for farmers aged 18 to 39. One of the requirements is that at least two-thirds of their income must be earned from farming. “It’s a big challenge to pull together all the financials,” says Dave VanDeVelde. “The judges want to see certain ratios and benchmarks going back to our first accounting year. In our early years, we actually had better cash flow with rented land and equipment. Now that we have a mortgage and more infrastructure, the numbers look different. But from other contestants, we’ve learned to own our numbers. We have the rationale and background to those numbers.” Continued on page 3
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KAREN DAVIDSON
Focus on Alberta greenhouses PG 6 Volume 72 Number 12
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We’ve been molded and shaped by our community.
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Offered 15 minutes and 30 Powerpoint slides – photos only – how would you tell your business story? For Dave and Jenn VanDeVelde, their journey from tobacco farm to Wholesome Pickins market and retail bakery is telescoped into one word: community. “We’ve been molded and shaped by our community,” says Jenn VanDeVelde, “whether that’s the farmers’ groups we belong to or the suppliers we source from. Dave adds, “We are adamant that our fruits and vegetables come from Norfolk County, Ontario’s garden. And we’re keen to tell the stories of our suppliers. Often they’re within a 10-mile radius.” The couple are primarily berry growers with 20 acres of strawberries and five acres of raspberries, complemented by asparagus, rhubarb, pumpkins and squash. When they first started, they couldn’t convince consumers to buy
~ JENN VANDEVELDE
@growernews
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