MINTON, Sask. – An organic inspector heads for his vehicle after a hot summer afternoon checking fields, bins and record books on Ken and Lana Tatarliov’s farm.
The annual inspection is mandatory for the certified organic farmers, who credit organics with breathing life into their farm near southern Saskatchewan’s Big Muddy Valley.
A slow start to spring provided an excellent beginning for the crops at Surprise Valley Organics.
“If we get cool weather, the weeds don’t germinate, the crop comes up and gets ahead,” Ken said.
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Moisture has been adequate but the region could always use a little more rain, he added.
Ken shares work and equipment with his brother, Bill, who farms their parents’ original farm. A daily routine of chores by Ken and Lana and their children, Keelan, 15, and Keeanna, 10, ensures the work gets done, including tending their cats, dogs, horses and cattle.
Ken decided on organics in the 1990s.
“I just didn’t like the poison; the smell of spray bothers me,” he said.
“Organics may not be the right way to farm, but it’s a different way to do it.”
He grows certified durum, wheat, peas and barley on 1,600 acres but chooses not to certify his 38 head cow-calf herd.
“It’s too much work; it’s hard to find markets,” he said.
Ken recently downsized the cattle herd after years of poor cattle prices.
“It was so much extra labour and so little return.”
Hard work, a diversified farm and Ken’s off-farm labour at the nearby 24-hour Canadian-U.S. border crossing are keys to the farm’s success.
“We are a small farm; the only way we survive is through diversification. Organics has helped us tremendously,” Ken said. “When I go to bed at night, I know that I have done something important.”
Lana is well versed in natural remedies and alternative therapies such as massage and reflexology. She runs Kashmere Kiss Spa in Radville, Sask., which includes a bed and breakfast and coffee shop.
In the new year, she will open residences for seniors called Sky’s the Limit Luxury Living in a vacated bank building.
“I feel I have a purpose,” she said of the work.
“We need to start taking care of ourselves.”
The couple’s careers mean long hours, with Ken usually working five days in a row and Lana rarely home before 11 p.m. this summer.
Ken believes in good time management and being prepared.
“I know what I will be doing tomorrow,” he said.
“Good hard work keeps me fit,” added Lana, whose eldest daughter occasionally helps at the spa.
Like their mother, whose paintings are displayed throughout the sprawling two-storey farm house, Keelan has a keen interest in art and Keeanna is drawn to the horses.
The family has 14 Egyptian Arabian horses that it raises and sells. Lana is a strong proponent of hemp for horse ailments such as inflammation and gut aches.
The family also has mares in Nebraska for breeding and recently made a sale overseas.
“It doesn’t happen by accident,” Ken said. “It has to do with a network of true friends you create.”
Ken is no stranger to business, having created and marketed Twin Fin shovels that increase soil disturbance to kill weeds in organic fields. Convinced of the product’s effectiveness, he said cost and freight costs were a challenge. He would prefer to have a shovel manufacturer sell them.
“A big problem was not the product but the marketing,” he said.
“I’m not a salesman.”
He hopes to launch another product in the near future but for now is enjoying time with his family.
Each summer, he takes three months of unpaid leave to focus on the farm and family and get away together to go fishing and attend football games.
