Young Agrarians is celebrating the tenth year of the Business Mentorship Network (BMN) program in BC and the second year of the program in 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.
Application intake for BC and AB mentees are now CLOSED.
Limited seats available for MB and SK mentees – APPLY NOW!
Mentor applications (paid position) are accepted year-round.
Check out the Business Mentorship Network page for more information!
Want to learn more about our Mentees (or Mentors)? Below you’ll find a Q&A where you can learn more about one of the 2023 cohort and their experience of the year supported by the Business Mentorship Network. If you’d like to read about the experiences of other Mentees/Mentors, head to our blog here.
Meet a Mentee: Charnwood Farms
My name is Mikayla MacLeod and my farm is Charnwood Farms in Chilliwack BC on the traditional, ancestral and unceded territory of the Stó:lō Coast Salish peoples. My mentors this season were Kareno & Kimi from Sweet Digz Farm.
What were your goals for this season and what did you do to try to achieve them?
My goals for this season were to increase revenue, start a CSA, increase efficiency, and create a formalized record keeping system. With help from my mentors we were able to go through each goal and identify tasks that would need to be done in order to achieve my goals. By laying out the framework ahead of time and using their knowledge I was able to set myself up for success.
Did you meet your goals / did it work out?
Most of my goals were met this season. This was our first year for a CSA. I feel the CSA went pretty good and I can’t wait to grow its membership in the next couple of years. The heat and drought were not expected and required a lot more time for irrigating our crops. We did have some crop loss. We tried to salvage the crops as best we could and in some cases we had to re-plant crops.
What resources did you find most valuable to support your business during the season?
My crop plan & Excel spreadsheets! Both of these resources were very valuable for my business this season. I was able to utilize these tools to help keep myself on track with my plantings and harvests, as well as keeping my records in a more formal place.
What were your best sales channels/avenues?
Our best sales channels were our farmers markets. This year our main market changed locations and our sales have been significantly better. We have been doing the farmers markets for a few years now, and really noticed consistent and regular customers purchasing weekly. These customers are doing larger “grocery” shops not just a few specialty items.
Why do your customers buy from you (what is your unique value proposition in your market)?
I think people buy from us because of our growing practices, the quality of our produce/flowers and the connections we have created with them. We try to grow colourful veggies that display well with our flowers and the allure of it all really draws people in. The best compliment we receive is how beautiful our booth is set up.
What was the most important thing you gained from the YA Business Mentorship Network Program experience?
The most important thing I gained was knowledge, information and connection with other farmers. As someone who did not have any formal training or work experience in agriculture, it was invaluable the information that Kareno & Kimi were able to share with me. They gave me lots of tips & tricks that they have learnt over the years. I was able to develop my skills in crop planning, starting a CSA from scratch and record keeping.
Overall the BMN had a very positive impact on our season and will continue being a positive impact on our business in the years to come. It has given me more tools to use and different ways to approach running my farm business.
What were one or two big, hard lessons this season you would want to share with other farmers?
One hard lesson was our wholesale sales and not having enough. We had changed our crop plan this year with some of our flower crops based on last year’s sales and prices. This meant we missed out on some larger wholesale accounts & recurring orders. Next year we plan to have consistent crops throughout the season.
What were one or two victories, small or large, that you had this season?
Having sunflowers in October. For the past 2 season they have either been damaged by the rain or bloomed out too early. This boosted and extended our sales.
What future plans and goals do you have for your farm and how will you achieve these?
We plan to increase our wholesale sales, expand our growing season and add perennials to our growing mix. We will achieve these goals by planning our crops better and investing in more infrastructure for our farm.
Next year we will plant more of certain crops to secure wholesale contracts, change some of our growing methods to ensure we actually are able to harvest all of the crops we plant and add to our irrigation system to ensure proper watering on all of our crops.
Share a story of something interesting/ funny/weird that happened on your
farm this season.
farm this season.Well this year we decided to plant some sweet corn for our CSA boxes, instead of us and our CSA members getting to enjoy it, my dog Maisie, fig
ured out how to pick her own corn and helped herself to pretty much all of it. Every day she would disapp
ear when we were out harvesting and then she would come galloping back with a full stalk of corn. She then would pull the cobs off and eat them like a human.
What are you most looking forward to this winter?
Sleeping In!
Where can we find you online? (website, FB, IG etc)
FB IG @charnwoodfarms
This program is made possible with the generous funding support of Vancity, Endswell Foundation and Columbia Basin Trust.