News and blog

Greetings to all on our Mailing list!  You have likely noticed that our communication has been poor the last few weeks!  We have been somewhat short staffed, and very busy!  We have decided that we will need to take this weeks farmers market off to catch up on some projects.  Sorry for the inconvenience.  As always feel free to place an online order for pickup on Tuesday evening at the Sask Power parking lot just north of the Science Center from 7:00 - 7:30 or Monday evening in Weyburn at the hospital parking lot from 7:00 - 7:30. 

We will be making a special purchase of some wild northern Saskatchewan Chanterelle mushrooms hopefully arriving within the next couple weeks.  Please reply to this email if you are interested in some.  Our retail price will be $15/lb. 

As always keep tuned as we continue to bring Saskatchewan's Bounty to your table!  There are more exciting Saskatchewan products on the horizon!

Its time to send a thank you out to all of the businesses that have been supporting us by making regular wholesale orders!  We have great relationships with all of the chefs, and owners of these amazing independent grocery stores and restaurants!  We appreciate their effort in supporting local farmers.  It is not as convenient as ordering from the Sysco truck, so when they put an extra effort into sourcing fresh local food we want you to know!!

Here are the Grocery stores where you can buy The Green Ranch products

NOTE: there are a couple pictures in this email, you may have to click on display images in order to see them.

A while back this idea came to me about profiling our awesome producers that are a huge part of what makes The Green Ranch what it is!  Every Farmer/Rancher that is growing/raising food, has a story…why they are passionate about agriculture, and working together with the land to produce great wholesome food!  Here is the first in our Producer Profile Series!!

Pete and Shannon MacLaggan, Regina, Sk

As our business has grown in the past couple years, it has been necessary to increase garden production.  This could be done a few different ways, we could increase the size of our garden, and hire more employees to increase production and efficiency, or we could make partnerships with likeminded growers that would like to grow produce for The Green Ranch.  We have incorporated a bit of both methods, as we expanded operations on our ranch this year.  Our plan is to specialize in certain products that we feel our land is well suited to, and then have other growers raise the crops that are best suited for them.  

This is Pete and Shannon’s first year of growing for The Green Ranch, and we are very excited to be working with them!  What is especially exciting about this partnership is that they are Urban Farmers!  Urban Farming is something that has been gaining momentum for the last few years across Canada, and the United States.  What is more local than food grown right in your city??  The Urban Farming movement gives me hope because what we are seeing is a whole new generation of young people that are interested in Agriculture and have a passion to farm for a living.  What is interesting about this new generation of farmers is that they are often a couple generations removed from farm life.  This means that its not tradition or family heritage that is drawing them to agriculture but a burning desire to have a hand in a new type of food system that’s Local, Sustainable, and of course amazingly flavorful!  I am not suggesting that it is better to be drawn to farming by pure passion than by family heritage….of course the reason I was drawn to agriculture was Family Heritage!  For us that has turned into a deep passion for what we do!  What excites me the most about this is that now with a new generation of farmers raising their families in the farming lifestyle, the next generation may be influenced by their parent’s passion, and consider Farming as a way of life for them also! 

Some of you may know about SPIN Farming: Small Plot INtensive Farming This is the system that we use for our market garden.  It is designed for use in city plots, and the inventor of this system lives right here in Saskatoon.  Wally has been very successful with his own urban farm in Saskatoon, and has taken his passion for small scale farming and channeled it into education to help other aspiring gardeners get there feet wet in Farming!  It was through Wally that I got started with Market Gardening, we have taken his principles and applied them to our backyard on the farm.  Wally has been a great mentor to us, and many other aspiring gardeners all over the world!!  It was through the SPIN group that I came in touch with Pete and Shannon.

Here is their story,

Before I had children I never gave much thought to where my food came from, but with pregnancy came a deeper awareness of my body and the things I was putting into it. 

The closer I looked at our food culture, the more concerned I became.  

I started educating myself about the origins and properties of the food I was buying. Did the items on my grocery list line up with my values as a human being? Was the environment being respected? Was there fairness of trade? How were the animals treated? Did my purchases support the local economy? Sadly, I couldn’t answer yes to any of these questions. 

My food’s journey from earth to plate became a very important one for me.

So my husband Peter and I decided to make some changes. We knew that we had to change our eating habits and it wasn’t going to be a cheap or easy transition, but one that we felt was absolutely worth the effort and expense in the long run. We started buying organic, eating as local as possible, and planted a vegetable garden.

Our interest in sustainable agriculture continued to grow as did our family, and this year we decided to take a giant leap and start Urban Farming. After hearing about SPIN farming on CBC Radio a few times, we took a trip up to meet Wally and Gail (SPINs creators) in Saskatoon and ended up coming home feeling incredibly inspired and excited and ready. With Pete working from home, and me teaching yoga and staying home with the boys, this seemed like the perfect business for us. However, we were concerned about taking on more than we could handle from the outset, and I wasn’t sure how it would pan out with two boys under the age of three, so when Tim mentioned he was looking for growers - it was simply meant to be! 

Tim has been an incredible resource and friend throughout this journey and his and Carla’s enthusiasm and passion for local food has been utterly contagious.

After only a few weeks of Urban Farming under our belts, I can most assuredly say that this is the life for us. When I am out in the garden, so dirty and sweaty, something uplifting and wonderful happens; life slows down. I become more mindful of all of the gifts and moments in my life - ordinary, as well as extraordinary, which normally would have gone by unnoticed. I am awed, humbled, truly and utterly happy and have never felt more connected to Mother Nature in all of my life. 

As the summer progresses you will meet Pete and Shannon and the kids Henry and Miles at the farmers market and CSA pickup days.  They will be a regular fixture of our team!  We are looking forward to a great summer working together!!

It’s been a while since I’ve sent out an update.  As you can imagine things are getting busy around The Green Ranch.  It’s been another big day, and getting late so I'll make this one short!  April has been amazing!!  We have spinach coming up all ready, green onions planted, tomorrow we will be planting carrots, lettuce, onions, and radish.  It’s exciting to think of an early start to the season!  Today we harvested our first micro greens from the greenhouse.  The green house is full of greens now, and we have been staging production so from now on we should be into a steady supply of mixed micro greens and pea shoots.  We had a good feed of micro greens tonight and I must say they were amazing! 

We have some very exciting additions to our product line coming up.  By the end of May we should have our first bison ready to sell.  We have teamed up with a local producer (8 miles from our ranch) to be able to offer bison as another meat alternative.  To start with the Bison will be only available through our website ordering.  Let us know if you would like more information.  There are a few more products that we are working on so keep tuned!  We have a great supply of fresh free range eggs now, we have 3 producers supplying us so our egg supply is much more consistent now.  You can order the eggs right online, or let us know if you are interested in having a weekly or biweekly schedule for delivery and we can work something out!  We have started selling whole Rabbit from Pine View Farms - you will find the rabbit at the farmers market. 

Over the next few weeks we are going to start profiling our dedicated producers in a series of newsletters.  One exciting addition to our producer list is an urban farm right in Regina!!  Pete and Shannon will be growing certain vegetables for us to help with our work load.  Look for more info in the next issue.

Hope you are all enjoying our summer like spring!!!

Tim

The Easter weekend is just around the corner, so wanted to update everyone on our Easter weekend schedule.  This week we will be doing our home deliveries on Thursday instead of Friday.  If you need to stock up for the family supper, then place your order now so that we can deliver it in on Thursday.  We will also be at the farmers market on Saturday, so if you want something fun to do, slip on down to the farmers market on the corner of 13^th ave and Retallic st. 

Hope everyone has a wonderful holiday and has time to enjoy the beautiful spring weather!!

All the best from The Green Ranch

p.s. the greenhouse is starting to green up!!  Look for micro greens within the next few weeks!

Spring has sprung on The Green Ranch!  The water is running, the cows are happy and soaking up the sun, and the garden is appearing after the winter of being covered in a white blanket.  We love this time of year!  The farmers markets have started again, and it has been fun to reacquaint ourselves with our customers again.

Another reason we love March is that it is a milestone in our lives!  March 8^th 2003 we were married!  I have been thinking a lot about our journey from then till now.  In the months prior to our wedding we were planning and dreaming about our future and putting together a business plan for a cattle ranch.  It was a very exciting time for us.  In May of 2003 we seeded our first piece of land to grass, and by October of that same year we had our first herd of cows.  By the spring of 2006 we were calving out 200 cows, and realized that we were no closer to our dream of living off of the land TOGETHER.  2007 we diversified into a market garden and that got the ball rolling….which has kind of snowballed into where we are today!  This has been an amazing journey, we have learned so much from the land, cattle, garden, our customers and friends, family and most importantly each other.  Carla has been the key to making it possible for us to continue seeking our dreams.  She has given of herself every day often pushing herself beyond her strength to ensure that we could keep pursuing this dream of one day working together on the farm.  She works full time in town often working overtime, is an amazing wife and friend, and the most committed business partner I could ever find!  As we get closer and closer to our dream of having a sustainable business with both of us working together at it full time, I realize how fortunate I am to have a wife and best friend so committed to the success of our relationship, and our business.

We want to thank our customers also for helping us achieve our dreams.  Thanks for believing in us!  What is amazing about this business is not only the connection we have with the land and food it produces, but the opportunity to share that connection with our customers.  A while back there was a radio ad with the phrase “We sell relationships” I thought it was a perfect way to describe a Local Foods business.  We are not just selling a commodity, but are selling a relationship with the farmer that grows the food, and even further with the land that produces it. 

This is why we love LOCAL FOODS!!

It’s time for a quick update, first off welcome to all of our new mailing list members, its great to see the mailing list grow steadily! It’s a sign that times are changing and local food is not just a trend but a movement that continues to gain momentum. 

We are looking forward to the farmers market starting up again, we plan to be at the first market on March the 6th.  It will be great to see everyone again and get back into the swing of things for 2010.  Our business continues to grow, and the newest item we are offering is Northern Saskatchewan Fish.  We are proud to be the representative for Fonos Fish in Regina.  John Fonos is very passionate about fishing, and providing a quality product.  He was telling me that the fish are caught , immediately filleted and frozen to preserve their freshness.  We will be carrying 4 varieties of fish: Walleye, Pike, Whitefish, and Bourbon.  Fonos Fish conforms to our protocols of local, sustainable, and all natural.  We will be taking weekly orders of fish, so should always be able to get some for the next delivery day.  I will post the fish under a new store called Saskatchewan SeaFood. 

We are going to be working on getting the greenhouse operational this weekend, and as soon as we can we will have micro greens growing.  Hopefully there will be some green produce for sale late March or April this year.  We can't wait to get our hands dirty again!!

There was a great article written about The Fainting Goat restaurant, and their commitment to serving local foods.  You can check it out here http://www.thegreenranch.ca/content/5895

Tim and Carla

www.thegreenranch.ca