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The Rural Voice, 1996-11, Page 14Robert Mercer Value added by process, design or packaging I recently visited a farm where the gross revenue per acre was over $50,000 per year. This was not your ordinary cash crop operation, but it was a cash crop. No, it was not marijuana! Blooming Bam Dried Flowers Ltd. is owned and operated by Gillian Farrow in the Comox Valley of B.C. and is a near classic example of taking a commodity of the land and adding value by selling both whole- sale and retail, by manufacturing and selling across Canada. If you were to buy dried flowers or a dried flower arrangement anywhere in Canada there's a good chance that those flowers may have come from the Blooming Barn. The home property is four acres with another three acres of perennials down the road. A third location of 10 acres has five under present cultivation. Gillian Farrow admits that she is no farmer, but has had a life-long interest in flowers and gardening. She took over the business two years ago, and will be celebrating the company's 20th year this fall. She comes into the operation with a strong business background and this has helped with the management of this complex operation. "The business is really in four parts" Gillian says. "We have the farm, the wholesale operation and our retail store. Then in the back there is the manufacturing area where we make wreaths and arrangements." The first impression, once you have passed through the magnificent retail store which is open all year, is of nothing 10 THE RURAL VOICE but cardboard boxes. Everything is shipped and stored in cardboard boxes. Boxes upon boxes upon boxes all marked, labelled and coded, and then handled with care. As there are over 50 varieties of flowers grown on the farm, and additional grasses and grain grown on contract, the operation demands a high precision of handling since many flowers are stored in both their natural colour as well as dyed colours. Dye and preserving recipes are protected but are all vegetable based and have been developed and refined over many years. Right next to the dyeing vats are the drying kilns, and here the flowers are hung upside down from floor to ceiling. Flowers then go from the kiln to storage in boxes and from there to sales or manufacturing. Throughout the whole operation the product of the land — either flower, grass or grain — is treated or converted to something else that adds value. There is very little if anything that leaves the farm as a commodity. It is value-added by process, design or packaging. In the fall new flower seed is purchased from Holland with the seeding starting in March/April. "We plant about 60,000 seeds each spring" Gillian Farrow says, "and these are transplanted both mechanically and by hand." The spring work continues with weeding and thinning and lately Gillian has been experimenting with cover crops and inter -row cover crops as well as the use of plastic mulch. At the height of the summer harvest there are about 35 employees on the payroll and almost all are local to the rural area. The manufacturing part of the business has a team of five most of the year with more during the peak periods. A key factor to this rurally located business, according to Gillian Farrow, is the care and control of shipping so that the product arrives in the same condition as it left the shop. "We use high quality cardboard boxes and will wire wreaths into the boxes so they don't move in shipment," she says. As the cartons go from coast to coast and into the U.S., shipping by courier and Canada Post is a primary function. (� �� �� 1 r�ii� 1 - 1 Z a , O t, `- - ill ! AI�IS•AIR qo __ __ • ik44 4, .irrn_ J he The Z• W With Axis Products Ax• is tePAireBlende• Corrosion srtant Easy maintenance • Uniform air pattern An AVC -5 Computerized Controller • Integrated heater control • Programmable tempera- ture reduction • High and low temperature alarms �, Call Axis Products *riv— 1 -800 -833 -AXIS (2947) Axis services Axis Air or Martin Air products Ltd., Brodhagen Ont. NOK 1B0 Fax (519) 345-2575 10 THE RURAL VOICE but cardboard boxes. Everything is shipped and stored in cardboard boxes. Boxes upon boxes upon boxes all marked, labelled and coded, and then handled with care. As there are over 50 varieties of flowers grown on the farm, and additional grasses and grain grown on contract, the operation demands a high precision of handling since many flowers are stored in both their natural colour as well as dyed colours. Dye and preserving recipes are protected but are all vegetable based and have been developed and refined over many years. Right next to the dyeing vats are the drying kilns, and here the flowers are hung upside down from floor to ceiling. Flowers then go from the kiln to storage in boxes and from there to sales or manufacturing. Throughout the whole operation the product of the land — either flower, grass or grain — is treated or converted to something else that adds value. There is very little if anything that leaves the farm as a commodity. It is value-added by process, design or packaging. In the fall new flower seed is purchased from Holland with the seeding starting in March/April. "We plant about 60,000 seeds each spring" Gillian Farrow says, "and these are transplanted both mechanically and by hand." The spring work continues with weeding and thinning and lately Gillian has been experimenting with cover crops and inter -row cover crops as well as the use of plastic mulch. At the height of the summer harvest there are about 35 employees on the payroll and almost all are local to the rural area. The manufacturing part of the business has a team of five most of the year with more during the peak periods. A key factor to this rurally located business, according to Gillian Farrow, is the care and control of shipping so that the product arrives in the same condition as it left the shop. "We use high quality cardboard boxes and will wire wreaths into the boxes so they don't move in shipment," she says. As the cartons go from coast to coast and into the U.S., shipping by courier and Canada Post is a primary function.