YA BUSINESS MENTORSHIP NETWORK – FIORELLA FARM

YA BUSINESS MENTORSHIP NETWORK – FIORELLA FARM

Young Agrarians is celebrating the twelfth year of the Business Mentorship Network (BMN) program in BC and the fourth year of the BMN in the Prairies! The BMN offers a year-long farm business mentorship to a diverse array of new and young farmers. Through one-on-one mentorship, peer networks, and online workshops, new farmers develop the skills necessary to operate ecologically sustainable and financially viable farm businesses.

Applications for Mentees across Canada are now open! Mentor applications are accepted year-round. Click below for more information and to apply.

Meet a mentee from the current cohort and learn about their farm and their experience of mentorship in the BMN. Want more? Head over to our BMN Blog for more mentorship stories.

Meet a Mentee: Fiorella Farms

My name is Kristen (she/her), owner and farmer of Fiorella Farms. My mentor this season was Kailli Pigott, owner of Dancing Dandelion Farms based on Vancouver Island. I’m farming on family-owned land in Maple Ridge and Abbotsford, within the traditional unceded territories of the Katzie (q̓ic̓əy̓), Kwantlen (qʼʷa:n̓ƛʼən̓), Sumas (Semá:th), and Matsqui (Mathxwí) First Nations.

What were your goals for this season? 

My goals for this season were to increase sales of cut flowers, dahlia tubers & cuttings, launch my CSA bouquet subscription, and improve brand visibility by building up my social media and newsletter subscribers.

What went well this season relating to your goals? What didn’t go as you expected, and what was your response? 

This season I achieved my sales goals through dahlia tubers & cuttings and CSA bouquet subscriptions. The CSA was a hit with customers and was a great success for managing crop planning, inventory, and my time this season. I was able to increase newsletter subscribers to keep my customers up to date on what was happening at the farm.

My goals for brand visibility through social media didn’t go as planned as I was unable to keep up with posting regularly during the busy season; I adjusted the social media schedule that I prepared at the start of the season to post fewer updates that fit into my schedule. Despite this setback, I was able to get lots of great photo and video content throughout the season for future social media posts which I’ll count as a win!

What was the best piece of feedback or praise you got from a customer? 

I had many wonderful customers this season who provided lots of positive feedback that was encouraging and rewarding. One of the best pieces of feedback this season was for dahlia cuttings that I shipped to a new customer on the Sunshine Coast; when they arrived safely I received an email saying they were the healthiest and most vigorous plants the customer had received from any supplier across Canada after years as a dahlia grower! I was happy that all my time and effort to produce high value cuttings was noticed and appreciated.

What were one or two big, hard lessons this season you would want to share with other farmers? 

While I had success in achieving many of my goals for this season, it was not without challenges. This was one of the harder growing seasons I’ve had when it comes to weather and pest pressure. I had a late start due to low spring temperatures, followed by a fast shift to summer heat and dry conditions. To top it off, first frost came a few weeks early! Many growers, myself included, also had challenges with an abnormally high number and persistence of pests this season, mainly crop-damaging insects like thrips, aphids, and beetles – this is especially challenging for cut flowers as damaged flowers are not saleable.

A few valuable lessons I learned this season: get a head start on introducing beneficial insects for pest control (you need them sooner than you think!), and be prepared for the weather to not cooperate, have a back-up plan in place to fill gaps if crops are early or late. These lessons will help with my planning for next season.

What were one or two victories, small or large, that you had this season? 

One of my victories this season was getting my CSA bouquet program off the ground successfully. This was a new sales channel for me with the aim of replacing market and roadside sales and it was a huge accomplishment. While it had some challenges with logistics and crop timing, I learned a ton and my customers loved it. Having the CSA on a set schedule helped immensely with planning around my busy schedule and creating work/life balance. Overall, it was a great success.

Another exciting victory from the farm this season was selecting new first year dahlia seedlings to move forward to growing next year. New dahlia varieties are hybridized and grown from seed for a minimum of four years before they can be released as genetically stable named varieties that can be propagated from tubers or cuttings. I started a hybridizing project this season using seed saved from the farm last year and found many exciting new flowers in the seedling patch. I’m looking forward to continuing hybridization with the hope of releasing new dahlias from my farm in years to come.

What was the most valuable piece of advice your mentor gave you or the most important thing you gained from the YA Business Mentorship Network Program experience? 

The program and my mentorship provided lots of valuable information, perspectives, and advice. One perspective I found especially helpful came from the BMN program discussions around farm finances. Starting a farm can be very expensive, and the annual costs for seeds, starts, materials, and equipment quickly feel overwhelming. The perspective I found helpful to shift my thinking about expenses was to consider my costs as inventory or an asset – it seems very simple but this shift in perspective helped me manage my investment anxiety. Thinking of each expense not as money out the door but as inventory gained for future profit or equipment to use for many years. Of course, farming is high-risk with many factors beyond our control, but having this mindset helped me focus on carrying out my growing season rather than getting stuck on the investment made for my long-term goals.

In what ways did the BMN program and support of your mentor help you refine or reshape the long-term direction of your farm? What will you do differently next year? 

The BMN program and support of my mentor helped me focus my business goals, refine my sales channels, and learn what does and doesn’t work for me and my business. The program and mentor support gave me the confidence to explore new avenues in my business and to say no to things that don’t align with my goals. I feel prepared to take the lessons learned from this year forward into planning for next season with changes to sales channels and increased focus on brand visibility. The information and advice I received from my mentor and the program have refined my long-term business goals and identified areas to focus for future growth.

What are you most looking forward to this winter?

This winter, I’m most looking forward to a few weeks of vacation to recharge. My season starts again in January with managing my dahlia inventory and preparing for early sales in the new year, which I’m very much looking forward to. The farm fun never really stops!

Where can we find you online? 

If you’d like to follow along on my flower farm journey, my socials are @fiorellafarms on Instagram and the ‘Fiorella Farms’ page on Facebook or find more information about the farm and upcoming offerings on my website fiorellafarms.ca

Feeling inspired and ready to dig into your business with a mentor? Mentee applications are open until November 15th, 2025. Mentor applications are open year-round.