Meet Guru Khalsa of Earthmother Farm!

Posted by Chantelle Chan on April 19, 2024

Guru Khalsa was a part of the Business Bootcamp for New Farmers program, and we wanted to share his perspectives with the new and aspiring farmers in our network. Want more stories of other farmers? Check out the links at the bottom of this post!

Please share a bit about yourself and about your farm. What do you grow or want to grow?
Hi, my first name is Gurudayal, and I generally go by Guru (he/him). My farm’s name is Earthmother Farm, and we are based near Owen Sound, Ontario. My parents purchased this farm property over a decade ago and moved here to live off-grid; in the meantime they started a fruit orchard. After many years of living away in BC, in late 2021 I decided to move back home and start a market garden here while living intergenerationally and with other family nearby. I work part-time as a freelance creative and part-time on the market garden, and I am also in school studying herbalism. 

At Earthmother Farm we grow vegetables (leafy greens and root crops), fruit (apples and berries), and medicinal herbs (for tea and extracts), and our farm produce is Certified Naturally Grown using organic and ecological practices. 2024 will be my third season working on the farm, and I’m really excited for what’s in store this year.

Tell us how you became interested in growing food.
I really only started to develop an interest in gardening when I moved out from Ontario to Vancouver, BC for a few years. In a small garden bed I started with red russian kale and spinach. I was impressed at how easily kale was to grow and how readily it over-winters, and I guess I got hooked from there. Over a few years of living in BC, I had worked during the summers in small market gardens on the islands – that’s when I started to get a glimpse of the lifestyle that is working on a small organic diversified farm.

What stage of your farming career were you at, when you decided to join the Business Bootcamp?
 I had two summers under my belt working on real market gardens, and a couple more seasons growing my own food in city lawn gardens.

What motivated you to take the Bootcamp?
I was motivated to take the YA business bootcamp because I was looking for a bit of an extra push to really flesh out my thoughts and get a bit of a blueprint for how to start a business.

What are you most excited about from the Bootcamp?
The targeted general business skills taught were really comprehensive and I learned a lot from them, not just about running a farm business but about running any business. The words of encouragement and assignments to write a business plan were also a great help.

What did you think of the format of the course?
The pacing of the course was really nice, not too much work every week but always something well-thought out or with a great presenter.

What are your next steps? What is your long term vision?
As I enter my third season of my market garden, I am happy that financially I am close to breaking even. This season we will hopefully become profitable.

I’m always thinking and researching ways to improve, but my next steps will be to focus on expanding my marketing, investing in more infrastructure and workflows, and improving quality of life and efficiency for myself and employees. One example of that is that I am starting to end the work day around 5-6pm instead of working into the evenings.

What inspires you to put in the work of starting a farm?
From learning about the many injustices and issues around our industrial food complex, – including migrant labor exploitation, environmental contamination, climate change, etc. 

I think we desperately need more and more young people becoming farmers. And I am happy to be one of those people.

Get in touch with Earthmother Farm through their Instagram, @earthmotherfarm

Find more information about the Business Bootcamp for New Farmers program by clicking here!

Check out the rest of this interview series!
Pinette Robinson of Fairfolk Farm      
MC Pace of Salt & Sickle Farm
Brian Tattam of Tattam Valley Farms
Trent Romanow of Cluck and Clove Farm