Image (L-R): Barbara Fitzpatrick of Blue Marsh (Whycocomagh), Ciarán Llachlan Leavitt of Pebble & Fern Market Garden (Arichat) and Iris Kedmi of Bee Happy Farm(Big Baddeck) during the Cape Breton Farmers Market Conference on April 7. 

~Carolyn Barber, Victoria Standard

Three once “accidental” Cape Breton farmers are now seasoned enough to give advice about growing a farm-based business.

Barbara Fitzpatrick of Blue Marsh Farm (Whycocomagh), Ciarán Llachlan Leavitt of Pebble and Fern Market Garden (Arichat) and Iris Kedmi of Bee Happy Farm (Big Baddeck) discussed techniques for increasing the profitability and shelf life of produce and other products during the day-long Cape Breton Farmers Market Conference held in Baddeck on April 7. Each businesswoman shared her unique path to becoming a farmer and growing her businesses to include value-added products.

“We got into this by accident,” said Leavitt, a software programmer turned farmer. “We had a food garden for ourselves that got out of hand and everything after that has sort of been catching up to that happy accident.”

How did Leavitt, and partner Xenonbia Wright, decide to go the value-added route?

“Well, have you ever tried to sell zucchini in August?” asked Leavitt. The room of 30 erupted in laughter, as would anyone who has ever grown the aggressive vegetable.

“You have a choice. You can can it, consume it, or compost it.”

Tours at Pebble and Fern Market Garden, Nova Scotia’s only all-natural plant nursery, are free, but guests exit through the store and gift shop where they can purchase value-added preserves, beverages, vinegars, jams and hand-knitted hats using wool from Rock Loaf Farm up the road. The pink trailer adjacent to the garden is an Airbnb.

“It's not just about some of the value-added products that we make in addition to vegetables. It's the idea that the farm itself has become the value-added product.”

Barbara Fitzpatrick moved to Whycocomagh in 2003 not knowing anything about farming and believing there was only one variety of garlic. Today, Blue Marsh Farm & Kitchen is not only known for its garlic, but also its value-added garlic products like seasonings and garlic scape pesto. Lavender is Blue Farm’s other “niche” herb and produces a line of value-added lavender body care products.

Kedmi, meanwhile, has a background in marketing. She says she is first and foremost a businessperson and a farmer “by fluke”. She has long been a beekeeper and studied to be an herbalist and aromatherapist.

“I took all the things that I'm passionate about, put it together and Bee Happy Farm was established.”

Her product line began with an insect afterbite salve and now has 17 products including teas, balms, salves and soaps.

All three businesswomen stress the importance of focus and creating a business plan.

“I think the most important thing is defining who is your target market,” says Kedmi. “If someone here told me ‘everybody's my target market’, I would tell you right away, you're not going to get anybody.”

“All the time your business strategies are moving, changing and narrowing so that there is a focus, that you have a niche,” says Fitzpatrick. “This is what you get known for.”

For Leavitt and Wright, focus means keeping each new product “on brand.”

“Everything we do has to organically fit within what we produce and the way the farm operates.”

All three farmers have also benefitted from advice and support provided by the Nova Scotia Department of Agriculture and organizations such as Perennia, a government-owned not-for-profit that consults with farmers, fishers and food processors on matters of food safety, product development and commercialization.