Then we also have Mike Harney. He’s a retiree from Nipissing First Nation, but he’s the one that spearheaded this whole project. He got the feasibility study done, and he landed funding. This whole project is really here due to Mike, and we still have him working alongside us. He’s with the project very closely. He’s more of a data guy – he’s a data genius, a spreadsheet genius. Whenever I need help, he’s there, which is a big help as well.
On the production side, we were able to optimize the farms. We split our farms up into a leafy green farm and a lettuce farm. In our lettuce farm we turn the heat up a little bit, bring the EC down a little bit, and then keep the pH between a 5.6 and 5.8. We pushed [the pH] up around a six sometimes, but that was to optimize the growth.
In our leafy green farms, we have two of them, so we’re able to do something called batch harvesting. So in most farms, you have a little bit of downtime, because you have to keep up with maintenance. Without maintenance, your farm falls apart very quickly and plants get sick. The way that we have it set up now is we have zero downtime. We harvest an entire side at a time so that we can do a system flush every time, so our plants are extremely healthy all the time.
Everyone knows funding is very important. The project could have not happened without funding. We had FedNor (Federal Economic Development Agency for Northern Ontario) and NOHFC (Northern Ontario Heritage Fund Corporation) help with capital costs. We also got some wage subsidies, especially for Brody when he first started, through some northern Ontario initiatives.
Through the leafy green farms as well, I was able to substitute my wage for three months of our operations. Those little things really keep your farm above ground for the first six months. Those first six months are critical.
Lastly, would be the Growcer’s support. Growcer has been phenomenal with us. Any issue that I’ve encountered with the farm, technologically and literally anything, they’ve been there for my support. Again, I said that a big thing was getting the farms optimized. I’ve worked very closely with Michael from Growcer’s R&D [team.] He’s helped guide me through everything like adjusting our pH levels and plant health. Growcer’s team has been there and they’ve rectified anything that’s happened.
“When they came in and they saw the Mnogin produce in the fridge, she said their eyes lit up, and they were excited to get that food. So it makes a big difference for the community, especially for those that are in need of fresh produce that otherwise wouldn’t have that.”
— Makenzie Jones, head grower, Mnogin Greenhouse
Q: Based on your experience, any advice for others considering their own projects?
Carey: Make sure that you know what the aim of your project is before you get started. Once you get into it, you can be pulled in a thousand different directions. So know what your goal is in mind.
If it is to be profitable, to be servicing grocery stores and restaurants, make sure that you’re crunching your numbers appropriately and that you’ve got those channels in place before.
If it’s community engagement, gauge how willing your community is to jump into these projects, and how you can leverage that enthusiasm to further the project.
We’ve been incredibly fortunate with the support that we have from the Region of Durham, from the town of Ajax, from Durham College and, most importantly, the Barrett Foundation. Taking all that enthusiasm and having a very singular goal in mind of what we were going to execute with this was key to our success.
And don’t be afraid to ask for help. The folks at the Growcer are incredibly well prepared if you have a problem. Chances are they’ve dealt with it before or thought through a solution before you can. So reach out and ask the question, don’t try to reinvent the wheel. Their support staff is incredible.
Makenzie: Make sure you get all your ducks in a row before you get going. There’s unexpected costs that show up. I’m sure the Growcer team remembers us getting started. It was a little bit of a mess. We had to build on a swamp. So Growcer, through an engineering team, helped us design the way that we were going to hold up our units. Then we moved on to water, which was the next issue. We originally thought we were going to use just the city water. We got that tested and it had pythium and fusarium in it. That’s a plant pathogen. It’s fine for humans to have, but plants, that’s a big no go. So we drilled a well and have two particulate filters, a UV filter, as well as a reverse osmosis system, which was originally out of scope. So what I’m trying to get to here is, when you’re budgeting for your site prep, always budget that little bit extra, because you’re always going to run into unexpected things.
Another thing with the production, don’t jump ahead right away. Like I said before you get really excited. I started my full farm up right away. You want your farm full of stuff, but you need a place for that produce to go. I recommend doing either the left side or the right side first, and then one runway per week works perfectly. That way you have produce to bring out for samples and you can give it away to your community. [With a staggered approach] you don’t have an abundance of product that’s going to go to waste. You grow on demand. We didn’t do that at the start, and that’s something that we should have done.
“And don’t be afraid to ask for help. The folks at the Growcer are incredibly well prepared if you have a problem.”
— Carey Yeoman, partnership manager at The Barrett Centre of Innovation in Sustainable Urban Agriculture at Durham College
