Create a Lifestyle: Starting a Regenerative Farm and Homestead
Ryan Cullen, co-owner of City of Greens farm
We chat with Ryan Cullen, co-owner of City of Greens in Bowmanville, Ontario, about starting a regenerative farm and homestead.
Cullen, who joined us for the last episode to talk about the food-forest garden at Durham College, is in the process of turning a 10-acre property into a regenerative farm and homestead, and is creating a market-garden business as part of that plan.
The Market Garden
The market garden currently has four 50’x50’ plots. The goal is to expand to ten 50’x50’ plots.
There are 12 beds per plot; each bed is 30” wide. Cullen explains that they chose these dimensions because they are suited to standard equipment.
The crop focus is high-yield, high-value crops that are quick to mature. This includes a lot of salad mixes containing arugula, mustard, baby kale, spinach, and lettuce.
Farm Infrastructure
Instead of spending money pouring foundations and building barns, they bought used shipping containers. In addition to costing less, the shipping containers are mobile.
Cullen says that by using shipping containers, the two key pieces of infrastructure that will be the heart of the operation—the cold storage unit and the wash-sort-pack unit—cost them less than $10,000 and were simple to modify and set up.
Marketing and Selling
Cullen says that the goal is to sell directly to consumers.
He finds that Facebook is proving an effective way to connect with customers because it is suited to two-way communication.
The website allows customers to build a customized basket of produce, and then select a pickup location. They have partnered with a few local businesses, allowing them to offer multiple pick-up locations, at predetermined times and locations.
Cullen says that having pre-scheduled pickups means that they are not standing all day at a farmers market waiting to see how much they sell; instead, they know what their sales are before they go.
Top Tip for Would-Be Farmers
“Start small, but start.”