Roy Love operates Roy'L Acres Farm, a 100-acre family farm that grows a variety of produce using only organic and sustainable practices. The farm's mission is to provide vegetables to the community that are natural, GMO-free, and grown without chemicals to enrich both health and the planet. Roy has expanded into growing microgreens, which are nutrient-dense seedlings harvested young. Microgreens require soil, light, and 7-21 days to grow and come in many varieties. Roy has experienced growing challenges but works to meet the growing demand from local restaurants and events.

1. Ecological Day GBFW 15
Highlights of Three Organic/Ecological
Operations
 Participants:
Tarrah Young, Green Being Farm
Roy Love, Roy’L Acres Farm
Johannes Schneider, Saugeen
Country Dairy
Facilitated by Phillip Woodhouse

16. Kune Kunes

17. Kune Kunes

21. MICRO GREENS & SHOOTS

22.  Roy’L Acres Farm is a small family run
business in Grey Highlands (100 acres).
 Our goal is to grow a variety of produce that
is natural, GMO free, pesticide free and
grown completely without the use of
chemicals.
 We use only organic practices and strive to
operate with sustainable methods.
 Our use of companion planting allows nature
to do what it does best.
 Our practices enrich our soil, our plants, our
plates, our bodies and our planet.
Our Mission

23.  We are passionate about growing vegetables
that taste the way nature intended; full of
colour and flavour and that remind us of what
real food is.
 As local producers we aspire to have a close
relationship with our community and our
consumers, to provide transparency and
understanding of where food comes from and
how it is grown.
 As we continue to grow we realize that being a
small-scale producer is essential in staying true
to our practices, the quality of our produce and
maintaining a personal relationship with our
community.
Our Mission…..Continued

24. CHEFS FORUM VIDEO
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sXC7C7xtiBI

25. INTRODUCING ROY’L ACRES

26. Roy’L Acres
Farm

27. DISCOVERING THE WORLD OF
MICRO GREENS & SHOOTS

28. RESEARCH

30. WHAT ARE MICRO GREENS?
 MICRO GREENS ARE THE SEEDLINGS OF
VEGETABLES AND HERBS
 MICRO GREENS ARE HARVESTED WHILE
YOUNG, AFTER THEY FORM THEIR “TRUE
LEAF”
 REQUIRE SOIL & LIGHT
 7-21 DAYS OF GROWTH BEFORE
HARVESTING
 PACKED FULL OF FLAVOUR

31. VARIETIES
 Pea Tendrils
 Sunflower Shoots
 Corn Shoots
 Amaranth
 Arugula
 Beet
 Broccoli
 Buckwheat
 Chervil
 Cilantro
 Dill
 Fenugreek
 Endive
 Flax (golden & brown)
 Kale (blue, green & red
russian)
 Kohlrabi Purple Vienna
 Mustards
 Radish
 Red Cabbage
 Swiss Chard
 AND MORE…

32. MICRO GREENS VS. SPROUTS

33. NUTRITIONAL BENEFITS
 USDA published study in Journal of
Agriculture & Food & Chemistry
 4-6 X more nutrients than the
mature leaves of the same plant
 Higher levels of Vitamin K, Vitamin
C, Vitamin E, Lutein & Beta
Carotene

34. CULINARY USES

35. LEARNING HOW TO
GROW…WELL

36. PROCESS
• SEEDS
• SOIL
• TEMPERATURES
• CONTAINERS
• WATERING
• LIGHTING
• COVERING
• AIR CIRCULATION

37. EXPERIMENTING
 WHAT GROWS WELL, WHAT
DOESN’T
 GREEN HOUSES VS. INDOOR
 CUTTING & STORING
 TRICKS & TIPS

38. CHALLENGES
 ROT
 BUGS
 WILTING
 SEEDS NOT GERMINATING
 CONSISTENCY

40. EVOLUTION

41. GROWING DEMAND
 The Tremont Cafe
 Cabin Bistro
 Collingwood Co-op
 Azzurra
Trattoria The
Cheese Gallery
 Simplicity Bistro
 The Georgian Bay
Club
 The Bruce Wine
Bar
 Sisi on Main
 Culinary Design
Catering
 Black Angus
 The Lily Pad
 Village Greens
 Bicycle Cafe
 Flesherton Bakery
 Lesliville Cheese
 The Flying Spatula Diner
 The Flying Chestnut
 Creemore Kitchen
 100 Mile Store

42. EVENTS

43. Try some….
THANK YOU!

44. On Farm
Processing At
Saugeen Country
Dairy

46. Our Operation
 Really two businesses: an organic Dairy
farm with about 65 Holstein cows on 400
acres (and 300acres rented) operated by
the Huesing Family, Ingo and Sabine and
their son and daughter in law Hauke and
Jenna.
 The processing plant is owned by Sabine
and Ingo and myself, we started that
business about 20 years ago when we
were farming together. I was always a
little more involved in the dairy, so now I
manage it. We have 1 full time and 5 part
time people working there. Sabine and
myself are included in the 5 part time.

47. Our Operation
 The dairy is located close to the cow barn
and milk is transferred via a pipeline.
 The plant processes the milk that the
farm produces into yogurt and kefir.
Saugeen Country Dairy was established
about 20 years ago.

49. Our Operation
 When we began we processed 500-1,000l
per week, now it’s more like 10,000l.
 We market our products mainly through
distributors to stores across the country.
 During the last two years we have been
processing about 550,000 liters of milk
per year.

50. Our Operation
 We chose yogurt and kefir because they
are relatively simple products to
manufacture. We did not choose organic,
we have always been organic- it is who
we are, we would not do it any other
way.

51. Marketing
 Marketing is the most important part
of on farm processing.
 Organic obviously helps to stand out a
bit.
 Every company must find their own
way of marketing but: Unless the
product sells it’s not worth your
while.

52. Marketing
 Establish a product in the
marketplace that people want to
buy:
It should taste good
The price should be reasonable
People should feel good about buying it
(healthy, local , organic, animal friendly
etc.)
It must be consistent in quality

53. Marketing
 There is the practical aspect of marketing:
We use distributors for most, approx
95% of our sales. It would be simply
impossible to market it directly to
the stores. Stores don’t like it (too
much traffic at their loading dock and
in their office) and it would cost way
too much.

54. Marketing
 We only take our products to the local
stores in Durham, Markdale and
Hanover.
 Some farmers think distributors are bad
because they charge a lot just for
delivering their products to the stores.
We think we need them, we gladly
accept the cost.
 One can only do so much: farming and
processing are full time jobs,
distributing is yet another job and it is
better outsourced in my view.

55. Marketing
 We took the slow approach: mostly
word of mouth advertising. We were
determined and able to keep our
debt under control so nobody could
force us to meet impossible sales
targets.
 It does take time and patience to
establish a brand in the marketplace.

56. Marketing
 On farm processing comes in many
shapes and sizes, in our case it would be
impossible to sell the amount of product
locally because we specialize in only two
items.
 We always stayed away from the big
chains because we feel it is a bad match.
We a very small and they are very big.
 We prefer to deal with small independent
stores and chains through our
distributors. The result of this is that our
products are sold throughout the country,
mostly in health food stores.