Young Agrarians is celebrating the ninth year of the Business Mentorship Network (BMN) program in BC and the expansion of the program across the Prairies! The BMN offers business mentorships to a diverse array of new and young farmers. Through one-on-one mentorship, peer networks and online workshops young farmers develop the skills necessary to operate ecologically sustainable and financially viable farm businesses.
Meet a Mentee: Audley Family Farm
Hello! We are Keith and Stacey Audley and we own and operate Audley Family Farm. We are parents of eight wonderful children aged 30 down to 6 and are blessed to have two amazing daughters-in-law and three beautiful grandchildren. Our farm is located 20 minutes east of Didsbury, AB on the land of the Nehiyawewin (Plains Cree) Tsuut’ina on Treaty 7.
Our wonderful mentors are Denis and Andrea Forstbauer of Grey Arrow Farm, located near Camrose AB.
What do you farm?
We primarily farm soil, but more about that later! We have a market garden, with vegetables, herbs and a small amount of fruit, along with a cash crop of amazing garlic, and we have sold both through our CSA (community supported agriculture) and farmers market. In addition, we have an egg add-on for our CSA from our laying hens. Also, we have pastured poultry (chickens) and pork on our farm.
What inspired you to get into farming?
We are first generation farmers, and our inspiration to get into farming came initially from a desire to become more grounded and self-sufficient. We left the city life and moved out to our property in August of 2020. As our vision was developing, we saw a real need for delicious, nutrient-dense food grown in a responsible, sustainable manner. We not only felt called to pursue this new passion for our customers, but saw it as a beautiful legacy to teach and leave for our children.
What did you do to learn how to farm?
We started with watching a lot of different tutorials on how to scale up from backyard gardening that covered different practices to meet our plan for a regenerative, low till, no spay garden. We have taken online courses and have done lots of reading. Our favourite phrase is “drinking from the firehose” as we listen to those that have gone before us. Taking in as much information as we could, we then put those things into practice each year. We believe our farm will consistently evolve as we learn more and grow. Learning is something that will never stop, as there are always ways to sharpen or expand our skills.
What types of ecological farm practices do you use?
We are a no-spray low-till farm, though we have not yet gone through the process of becoming certified organic. We believe we are farming soil more than the vegetables; we need to grow our soil health in order to continue to grow amazing, nutrient dense food. We only use a light till to help break up the ground, then we establish our permanent beds. Our beds are all 30” x 50’ with 18” pathways.
We use cardboard and wood chips for our pathways, as both help with water retention and keeping the mud down. Using a broadfork (a pitch fork looking tool that is 30” wide) first on our beds to loosen the ground, and pulling any weeds that may be present, we then cover with a thick layer of compost. We do all this to try not to disturb the microbes in the soil and create an environment for them to flourish.
We use insect netting to help us with pest control, and we don’t use any sprays at all. We also use flowers and companion planting to help with pollination as well as pests. Also, we use frost cloth and vented poly to lengthen our season both spring and fall. We have both goats and chickens that we rotate around the property to help with pasture management and fertilization. In addition, we make a lot of our own compost from our straw or wood-chip bedding and manure.
What type of business structure is your farm?
Our farm operates as a sole proprietorship
How much land is under production on your farm?
Our market garden is currently about a half an acre over two spots on the property. We are grazing about 2 acres of our pasture.
What is your land tenure? Are there special relationships that enabled this?
We own our property.
Why did you apply for business mentorship?
We applied for the business mentorship program because we believe that mentorships are an invaluable asset. To have the opportunity to learn from someone that has years of experience is incredible. It is something important to us, and as we’re learning we pass that knowledge on to those around us, so we felt it a perfect fit.
What is the greatest business challenge you face as a new farmer?
I think the greatest challenge as a new farmer is to balance the field work with planning and documentation. Field work can become all-encompassing, and it is so important to document your year for future planning. Farming is ever-changing; every season you are faced with different challenges. Documenting everything for future planning is vital for business growth and development.
What is your primary business goal for the season?
This season we want to grow our CSA a small amount and begin to implement our systems and workflows. As we solidify our processes, we can then look at more rapid growth over the next four years.
What business tools could you not live without?
As for tools I could not live without, for the field I love my broadfork, wire weeder and my Earthway seeder. As far as non-field business tools, spreadsheets, google drive and social media are how we are growing and maintaining our business.
If you had a farming robot what would it be?
Our farming robot would definitely be a weeder! The family’s least favourite job on the farm is definitely the weeding!!
How can we find out more about you, your farm, and its products? (website, FB, insta, twitter handles)
You can follow all our fun farm antics on:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/audleyfamilyfarm
Instagram: https://instagram.com/audleyfamilyfarm
