HomeMy WebLinkAboutTimes-Advocate, 1996-02-14, Page 13Couple explores niche farm/ng with unique oats
Brenda Burke T. A staff
STAFFA - When you become an entrepreneur, you usually start out
by choosing a specific area of interest. Then you research the subject
and ask questions to learn all you can about your product or service.
Along the way you'll be advised to create a business plan. But
according to Bany Mahon, who, with his wife, Karen, grows, processes
and markets a unique type of oat grain, "when you get into niche
marketing, a business plan is virtually useless...By the time you're done,
the business plan looks more remote."
Instead, he advises, "have another source of income for the next five
years," while you dedicate yourself to the business and work diligently
on promotion.
Before the couple began their oat business, Bany admitted he
thought he would come up with a magic product to make than rich. The
proposed 'magic' product ended up being at least unique - a high
protein oatmeal processed using an electric heat method rather than
steaming to stabilize the grain. In fact, the Mahons may be the only oat
Barry displays regular oat flakes, the most popular product
made at the plant.
Where Are
entrepreneurs in Ontario using
the United States -based
technology.
As for getting rich, that, as
with most other businesses, will
take a little longer.
"We figure in 10 years we'll
have the mail order customers I
wanted in the first year,"
explained Karen at a niche
farming presentation at the
Goderich Township Hall in
Holrnesville on Feb. 2.
In the meantime, the Mahons
are custom processing organic
oats and cleaning soybeans on
the side while they watch their
mail order business grow
gradually.
"The reason we started mail
ordering was because we
couldn't get into the big
chains," said Bany, who feels
larger oatmeal companies are
marketing a deteriorating
product due to overprocessing.
Although he admitted a
magic product does not exist, he
said, "there is a market for a
better product...Big food
companies...have no concern at
all what's in the foods....You
can grow a crop but that's not
all that happened to it...Big corporations rely on the bottom line...the
only way you assure profit is to buy cheap and sell dear."
After running a dairy operation for 10 years, the couple began a
custom seed cleaning operation so farmers could grow their own seeds.
But it was while operating a business that provided local students with
nutritious lunches that they came across food suppliers who expressed
the need to process hulless oats. Although the idea of marketing this
type of oat with a loose -fitting hull or exterior shell, had existed for the
past 50 years, Agriculture Canada has been actively working on the idea
for about a decade.
In order to stabilize oat enzymes in the breaking -down process, oats
•r y s , ms t of ug tQ >ili"s,'('ho rc u111
ahe nadve toasting matted, the hyoid, oaf sections, or groats, art
passed under heating coils in a special machine they purchased in the
United States.
"It just so happened during this process the oats took on a nutty
flavor," explained Barry, adding this stabilizing method is easier than
steaming.
The couple chose to concentrate on oats because, he explained, baby
boomers, many approaching their 50's, are increasingly diet -conscious.
Also, with Canada's Food Guide to Healthy Eating lowering the number
of recommended dairy products and increasing the intake of the grains
group, it made sense to get out of the dairy industry and into oats.
"We felt people were going to lower their dairy consumption and
increase their grains," said Barry.
When they began their business about five years ago, Karen and
Barry sold their product door to door and at farmer's markets and craft
shows. Now Exeter,,Seaforth and Mitchell stores carry the oats and their
mail order business is expanding.
"It's the customer that basically sets your business," said Karen,
adding she likes the fact mail ordering results in direct customer
feedback.
"We really don't want on-farm sales," she added. "We try not to have
taffa. Spelt Is a traditional variety of wheat with gluten that is often easy to digest. Besides
ny and Karen Mahon package dehulled spelt at their Hilton Whole Grain Miller plant near
their main line of oats, the couple also processes organic oats and cleans soybeans.
traffic at the plant."
The Mahons offer different sizes of oat flakes, with smaller flakes
popular for baking and cereals and thick rolled oats that don't break as
easily used to make granola.
The couple also offers custom dehulling of spelt, an older variety of
wheat with a traditional gluten some find easier to digest. This market has
recovered from a world shortage that occurred two years ago.
According to Barry, Agriculture Canada is working on a fast -cooking
version of stabilized groat, an upcoming high -protein rice substitute he
may consider carrying in the future. _
oftc; the , ' on end of the business and Karen
t49. *AS*
tyle uses its 16,000 square
at.
foot plant to produce's
five tonnes of product daily. They
also do their own packaging and
marketing.
"Packaging is a big part of your
cost outlay," said Karen,
explaining not only a e boxes
required to have French
labels but customer
requests for various
packaging sizes
must be met.
"I figure now it (""•ti.,,
takes 10 per cent
of your energy growing
your oats," said Barry, adding
20 per cent of the effort is
dedicated to processing and 70 per
cent to marketing.
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istrict Hi • h School ' aduates ; , %; , , ;•r.cho .
.DebbiBurr:e
takingspecial care
STRATHROY - "Not everybody's suited to geriatric care," said Debbie Burr, referring to
her job as a health care aide.
Besides physical demands due to feeding, bathing and clothing patients, the work involves
providing them with emotional support and handling emergencies. Responsibilities often
involve shift work and, depending on the nursing home, may include helping with the kitchen
,and housekeeping.
Although Burr once considered teaching and later pursued a journalism diploma, she's
returned to a career she recalls reading about as a child.
"I remember reading all of those nurse books," she said, adding teaching jobs in the 70's
were scarce and the field of journalism wasn't for her.
After college, Burr returned to Huron Park and then London, communities she'd grown up
in. Her love of reading led her to employment with the University of Western Ontario
Bookstore and, to her future husband.
After staying home to raise a family of five children, she worked in a *Medford retirement
home, then decided to take a health care aide course at Fanshawe College, which involved a
combination of hands-on training and theory. Stressing the importance of education, she
recommends mnends students enroll in co-op programs.
Now employed at Spnucedale Care Centre in Strathroy, a special needs nursing home, Burr
finds past experience as a foster parent has helped her.
"Sometimes when (patients) are old, they regress," she said. "They are like children."
A necessary skill for the job, besides the ability to endure the physical tasks, she explained,
involves getting along with people and genuinely caring for them.
"You become very strongly bonded with these people," she said. "I always related strongly
with older people...[ thought they had a lot of interesting things to say."
Although she feels some staff become 'hardened' against dying t%tients, she feels "you
always have to grieve a little bit for each person you lose."
--- However, she explained, "You mourn the lou of that person but you can't stay there
because there are...other people that need you."
Because families of nursing home residents may stay with
_dying patient 24 bourn a day, she pointed out, "health
play a big part in the dying process."
People who feel uncomfortable around elderly people, she said, are not suited to the job,
adding it's essential to have a cheerful attitude. Inspired by a nun who spoke on the benefits
of supporting the elderly by maintaining a positive mood, Burr said, "You can't go to work
being in a really bad mood because it reflects on (patients.)"
Health care aides, she continued, are required to detect some medical changes in
individuals they care for. A teacher once told her the importance of the work lies in day-to-
day contact with patients.
"We're trained to be observant," said Burr. "We do the hands-on care."
She predicts the job market for health care aides will
increase while those for registered nurses are more
likely to decrease u baby boomers age. Most health care
aides, she said, perform geriatric care while personal
care providers, home support workers and orderlies
make up the rest of the industry.
She feels many health care aides will be needed in
hospitals in the future, and will require more training. As
of Tan. 1 of this year, she noted, nursing care employed
by nursing homes must have a qualified education.
"The ministry's not enforcing it," she said, "but it's
going to come."
Burr plans to enroll in alzheimer and palliative care
courses.
"Don't close the door on options in your life," she
advises. "Be prepared that you might have to change
careen mid-stream...It's not like it was 25 years ago...1
never would have thought that this is where I'd end up."
Her fearlessness of change may be echoed in methods
of her favorite teacher. According to Burr, her South
Huron District High School history teacher, Bill
Johnson, "made learning so much fun."
One day he leaped frau the floor to his desk.
Although she can't remember the point he was trying to
make, she admires him, perhaps for making a similar move she's made by taking a career
leap in an unexpected direction.
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