Business Mentorship Network

Name, Farm, Location? Robin Sturley, I run Green Arrow Farm and I’m a member of the Merville Organics Growers Co-op, in Courtenay, BC. What were your goals for this season and how did you work to achieve those? This was my second year of farming full-time during the growing season. My goals were to increase my production

As most farmer’s seasons are slowly winding down, mine begins. I’ve finally made the leap and moved on Minto Farm here in the Comox Valley to begin my career as owner/operator of Lentelus Organics. Lentelus, Afrikaans for “Spring Joy”, is a nod to my late philosopher/farmer grandfather who named our family farm Lentelus back in

Name, Farm, Location? Brianna van de Wijngaard, Puddle Produce Urban Farms – Williams Lake, BC What were your goals for this season and how did you work to achieve those? My goals were: to start a CSA program with at least 15 subscriptions, to have 10,000 sq ft in production, and to gross at least

Name, Farm, Location? Tristan Cavers, Michelle Tsutsumi, Annelise Grube-Cavers, Kelsey Snelgrove, Paul Matheson, Golden Ears Farm, Chase, Unceded Secwepemc Territory What were your goals for this season and how did you work to achieve those? Our goals for the season were: To navigate a new model on the farm (shifting from a model of everyone who lives

Name, Farm, Location? Gemma McNeill and Doug Zaklan, Zaklan Heritage Farm, Surrey BC. What were your goals for this season and how did you work to achieve those? This season our goal was to increase our CSA box program from 25 boxes to 50 boxes. As the spring drew near we realized that we probably would have

DEADLINE EXTENDED: Sunday, November 8th, 2015 Are you a young (or young at heart) animal or vegetable producer located in British Columbia? Are you running a farm and are looking for guidance in continuing to grow your business? Once again we are running our BC Business Mentorship Network which will pair new farmers with some of the veterans of

Name?  Tristan & Aubyn Banwell Where do you farm?  Spray Creek Ranch — in the rainshadow of the Coast Mountains, along the Mighty Fraser, in the Upper St’at’mic Territory, 15 km south of Lillooet, BC. What do you farm?  Soil.  We make money raising cattle, laying hens and meat chickens, but really we’re growing healthy,

Name? Shirlene Cote Where do you farm? Earth Apple Farm, South Burnaby What do you farm? Vegetables and some fruit. What type of business structure is your farm? Sole-Proprietorship What is your land tenure? 5 Year Lease How did you seriously get into farming? I worked for social and environmental NGOs for many years with a focus on food security

Name? Russell Heitzmann and Calliope Gazetas Where do you farm? Royston, in the Comox Valley just south of Courtenay. We are some of the newest members of the Merville Organics Growers Cooperative! What do you farm? Vegetables and meat chickens What type of business structure is your farm? Partnership What is your land tenure? We have a one year

Name? Dan Mousseau Where do you farm? Linger Longer Lodge, Macalister, BC in the Cariboo region. What do you farm? Heritage Pork (breeding to finishing), Pastured Poultry as well as greenhouse tomatoes, peppers and cucumbers. What type of business structure is your farm? Partnership (with my wife) What is your land tenure? We purchased the 30 acres Homestead in 2012 How