YA BUSINESS MENTORSHIP NETWORK – REDCOAT GREENHOUSES

“I learned to farm through trial and error, asking questions, and sheer stubbornness in the face of skepticism”

– Carla Moore of Redcoat Greenhouses, Saskatchewan

Young Agrarians is celebrating the eleventh year of the Business Mentorship Network (BMN) program in BC and the third year of the BMN in the Prairies! The BMN offers farm business mentorship to a diverse array of new and young farmers. The mentorship is offered over the course of a year. 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 Western Canada open in October 2025. Mentor applications are accepted year-round. Want to be notified when applications open for the 2026 cohort? Click below!

Meet a mentee from the current cohort and learn about their farm and why they joined the Business Mentorship Network. Want more? Head over to our BMN Blog for more mentorship stories.

Meet a Mentee: Redcoat Greenhouses

My name is Carla Moore and I go by she or her. My mentor is Lucianne Mckague and we both represent Redcoat Greenhouses. Lucianne is the founder, operating the greenhouses for almost 30 years and I have recently purchased the business. Lucianne and I both live just outside of Ogema, Saskatchewan. Both the property that the greenhouses are currently on and my homestead property that they will move to are on Treaty 4 territory.

What inspired you to get into farming?

At first, it started with a love for growing food because I loved to cook for my family. Soon, I realized that I loved growing things in general and I wanted to take care of all things that grow.

I learned to farm through trial and error and asking questions, and sheer stubbornness in the face of skepticism.

Tell us about the structure of your farm.

I have sole proprietorship but I manage the business with my husband, Colton. We own the land that our homestead is on as well as the orchard land. Currently, the greenhouses are on Lucianne’s property but we are in the process of moving them to our homestead property. Within our 2 greenhouses, each approximately 24’ x 80’, we grow annual flowers, perennials, and vegetable starts while creating hanging baskets for fundraisers for a number of towns around southern Saskatchewan.

My start-up story is connected with another mentee in the program, Colton Moore, owner of Ogema Orchards. After we had moved to Saskatchewan, we became pregnant with our 3rd child and we had decided that Colton would take this round of maternity leave. Since I could work remotely from home, this allowed both of us to be with our new baby while allowing us to purchase the cherry orchard when it came up for sale. Having felt the challenges of growing food without fencing or water sources, we knew the orchard was a valuable asset. This became Colton’s new venture, Ogema Orchards, where we now have haskaps, saskatoons, strawberries, currants, grapes, and a variety of annual vegetables. Outside of the orchard, both Colton and I worked at the greenhouse with Lucianne while maintaining full-time jobs at home, allowing us to save enough to purchase the greenhouse business. I have continued to work throughout the season to cover our household expenses as well as overhead expenses for the greenhouse, keeping our financing to a minimum. Despite this, I strongly agree with leveraging financing to move your business forward, such as getting the right tools to make important tasks easier or more efficient.

What types of ecological farm practices and/or responses to climate change realities do you engage in?

At the greenhouse we have yet to implement any major process changes because I want to understand the impacts of those changes first. However, on a personal level, protecting the Earth and living within nature’s means is one of the biggest reasons why I want to continue the greenhouse business that Lucianne started. I purchased a 60 acre property for the sole purpose of growing food for my family, reducing waste, planting trees, and restoring the land back to its native habitat. As I move the greenhouse business forward, I hope to become a resource for more people who want to do the same things.

Why did you apply for business mentorship? What are your primary business goals for the season?

Before hearing about the mentorship, I had already made the decision to purchase the greenhouse business from Lucianne and she had begun training me in the daily maintenance of the plants. I thought the program would be an excellent way for us to create a structure around the rest of the training she would do as we transitioned the business. My primary goal is to learn how to run the operations of the greenhouse, how to care for each plant variety, and to develop relationships with the long-standing patrons, so they can feel confident that they will continue to get the same quality from me as they got from Lucianne. Long-term, I want the business to grow but, more importantly, I want to feel like I am taking care of it.

What is the greatest challenge you face as a new farmer?

My biggest challenge as a new farmer is never having enough time to react to the steep learning curve of each task. For each task that you try to master, you find a dozen new skills you need to acquire and you can only do that by putting in the hours and putting yourself through those paces. It is a fine balancing act to make sure you’re moving your business forward without burning yourself out, especially as a mother of 3. Having the guidance of mentors like Lucianne makes an enormous difference because they can take away a lot of guesswork and help prepare you for what to expect.

What are some resources and business tools that have been helpful on your farming journey?

So far, I have relied heavily on the lessons with Lucianne and the demonstrations in the greenhouse. This is mainly because, throughout the last couple of years, we would have the opportunity to review how something would be done and then I would have weeks worth of practice. When anything is wrong, we are able to look at it together to discuss what went wrong and how to prevent it. Outside of my time with Lucianne, I’ve been reading books and talking to the many seasoned gardeners that come through the greenhouses.

The #1 “business tool” for me is a journal for tracking each year’s tasks and progress. Everyone has different methods such as a literal journal or a detailed spreadsheet. Any way works, as long as it is a consistent place where every action and observation is both written down and dated. This makes it easier to plan the tasks for the season and create an efficient annual routine. It also allows you to see any patterns and plan your business accordingly.

How can we find out more about you, your farm, and its products?

To see what we’ve been up to and what’s happening throughout each season, you can follow our Facebook page, Redcoat Greenhouses. For local folks, we also have online ordering through our website, redcoatgreenhouses.com