The Rural Voice, 2004-03, Page 20chefs. There were times when I
would come across something in a
seed catalogue and I was able to go
in after it was grown and say 'Maybe
this would suit your menu'."
Many of the chefs return the
compliment. Often they're world
travelers and find an ingredient
they'd never come across before and
ask John to grow it for them. "It
makes it interesting for me. I love to
do that sort of thing.
"By nature I tend to be a fairly
conservative person in terms of risk
taking so it was really great that they
said to come on in."
The farm's name, "Soiled
Reputation", came from a friend who
heard they were looking for a name
and woke up in the middle of the
night with the name in her head. The
company logo was designed by
another friend, poster designer Scott
McKeown.
Today they grow 15 acres of
certified organic vegetables in
summer. They grow about 50
different vegetables including crops
like onions and leeks that can store
for sale in fall and winter. Shallots
have also become a big crop. They
have a root cellar and have converted
the old bank barn on the property for
vegetable storage. Root vegetables
will keep until April.
Beginning in early March staff
will start seeding leeks and onions in
one of the greenhouses for later
transplanting into the fields for
summer growth. The crop won't be
harvested until December.
John sounds like his neighbours
when he speaks of the growth of the
business. "We did it conservatively.
We didn't over -expand. We sort of
added a greenhouse every other year
for seven years." Today they have
10,000 square feet of greenhouse
growing area which allows the
couple to produce high-end salad
greens for restaurants all year round.
"Our goal has been to try and even
out the cashflow (between summer
and winter)," he says. "Every year it
gets a little closer to achieving that
goal."
That's helped by the differing
busy seasons for their clients. While
Stratford and Niagara Peninsula
restaurants tend to be busy during the
summer, Toronto restaurants have
highest demand from November to
16 THE RURAL VOICE
March. "Our markets now dovetail
really nicely," he explains.
"Everyone goes to the cottage or
Niagara or the Stratford Festival in
the summer so they empty out of
Toronto. Almost to the week when
Stratford declines in October,
Toronto starts gearing up. It's nip
and tuck some weeks to keep
everybody happy.
"Our busiest months are probably
September to December."
Labour is a big part of the
operation taking about 40 per cent of
gross income. In winter the staff
numbers four plus themselves. In
summer there will be 15-17 workers.
While many farmers complain
about the difficulty of getting
workers, John has few problems.
"They always seem to come along at
the right time. We have an active
recruitment program in the high
schools with teachers we know who
put the word out that we're. looking
for students. We get teachers who
want to try something outdoors for
the summer. We get chefs who want
to take a year off. We even get
(costume) cutters from the Stratford
Festival who want to work outside.
So its an eclectic mix of people: the
occupations they come from and the
ages. My parents help us out. They're
64 and come three days a week in the
summer until Christmas. We have the
best coffee breaks of any place I've
ever seen, let's put it this way. The
chefs will bring cookies or whatever
they're making."
A key to the growth of Soiled
Reputation has been the Stratford
Chefs School. Students at the school
get to know local suppliers like John
during their training there' and when
they go off to restaurants in Toronto
or the Niagara region they become
promoters of the farm's products.
Running an operation like Soiled
Reputation where you deal directly
with customers isn't for everyone,
John admits. "It takes a suite of
characteristics. You have to have a
good set of communications skills
and be able to sell your product. You
have to have an understanding of
what the chefs want and understand
they are the ones driving your
market. You have to listen to their
demands. And thirdly you have to be
a good farmer: you have to be able to
grow your product to a set of quality
guidelines that they're imposing on
you.
"You have to wear a number of
different hats and some days you feel
like you're dragged between pillar
and post with going on the road to do
sales and seeing your weeds grow
taller than your crops — knowing
that there's stuff that's not being seen
to."
Still, despite an established
reputation, John feels its important to
spend time talking with his
customers and build relationships. "I
guess I'm always a little self-
conscious that our prices are higher
than what they could get from
California product so they better get
value-added right down to me telling
them the latest joke I've heard."
Finding the way to add value to
the product is the way to get your
edge, John says. "Add a value-added
step to your commodity and you
instantly make it more attractive to
market." Soiled Reputation. for
instance, washes its salad mix before
it gets to the restaurant so that saves a
step for kitchen crews.
John feels Ontario isn't at the
disadvantage people sometimes think
when it comes to international
competition. .
Canadians assume that we can't
compete with warmer climates
in growing vegetables, he
says, but we have natural advantages
as well. "Our frosts in a cold climate
convert all the starches to sugars in
carrots and beets and jerusalem
artichokes and California is not going
to touch that.
"Even in the winter time in the
desert down in California stuff
doesn't really grow, so much as just
being in a holding pattern. The
lettuces have been around for quite a
while in the fields in California by
the time they start harvesting the
winter lettuce. It's not like it's newly
grown fresh stuff. It's almost like a
giant outdoor cold storage,"
One value-added edge Soiled
Reputation has over imports is
freshness. John takes shipments to
the Kitchener bus terminal in special
boxes that identify it as perishable
product. Within an hour and a half
the salad greens are in Toronto where
restaurants can either pick up the
boxes at the Toronto bus depot or a
courier will pick them up and deliver