Kevin and Melanie Boldt are accidental entrepreneurs. The husband and wife business duo doesn’t fit into the usual business patterns in Saskatchewan, where exports far exceed locally grown and sold food.
“We’re doing some things that some people think could not be done,” said Melanie.
Added Kevin: “We were bucking the trend when we started. Not the trend anywhere else but here, Saskatchewan.”
The Boldts have owned and operated Pine View Farms from their family farm near Osler, Sask., since 1998. They opened Souleio Foods in downtown Saskatoon in 2009.
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Both ventures are part of a vertically integrated business formula melded to their philosophy of providing naturally and locally grown food for the home market.
Pine View is a provincially inspected slaughter and processing plant for the family’s “all-natural” chickens, sold at their farmyard store and throughout the province.
Souleio Foods is a market bistro, a farm to fork business.
“It’s farmers, artisans and chefs working together who share a collective concern for the quality of food and what we put into our bodies and how we present that to consumers,” said Melanie.
“It’s another connection for us from the farm to people in the city and providing good food that’s grown well.”
Kevin is a fourth generation farm boy who knows the dairy and grain side. Melanie was raised in rural Saskatchewan, but her experience was not directly tied to farming. She vowed she would never marry a farmer. They met while attending the University of Saskatchewan and have two sons.
Getting bigger or getting out was the question Kevin’s father faced in 1996. He sold his dairy herd and quota that year and invested more heavily into land and equipment. Kevin was farming alongside his father while Melanie worked off the farm as a sales rep for an agriculture supply company.
It was while figuring out an exit strategy from farming for Kevin’s parents and an entrance strategy for Kevin and Melanie that the younger couple concluded they had to get much bigger while remortgaging the family farm.
“We had to either acquire more land or diversify somehow. Be able to buy them out and still pay our way,” said Melanie.
The young couple opted for diversification.
They bought more land and acquired the original homestead that Kevin’s great-grandfather had owned when he emigrated from Minnesota in 1901. They started a small poultry business and raised heifers while continuing to grain farm.
The Boldts’ decision to diversify, particularly into poultry, kept them afloat when grain farming took a turn for the worse in the late 1990s and early 2000s.
“We bought Dad’s equipment and rented his land for six years and used our land. We had four droughts, one bumper crop and one average crop and then we were done,” said Kevin.
Serendipity began to shine on their fledgling homegrown meat business as grain farming tanked amid widespread drought, growing 20 to 30 percent a year.
“People kept asking for more and so we had to make some choices,” said Melanie.
“We couldn’t do it all and we had to look at what was potential risk and what was return and what’s the opportunity.… It just seemed clear to us that there was as much risk in changing as staying the same. People were asking us for this stuff and no one else is doing it. So either no one’s doing it because it’s insane or there’s clearly a market.”
As relatively small grain farmers, it didn’t appeal to them to be at the whim of markets, weather, exchange rates and global supply and demand.
“We had to find out what’s within our control,” she said.
“I think it was really our business analysis. Treat it like a case study and look at what is within our control, what can we change and what can we adapt to.
“That’s what led us to make the decision: to let go of grain farming and (do) what aligns with our philosophies around what is sustainable agriculture for us.”
Added Kevin: “As soon as we rented the land and sold the heavy equipment, we were done farming in everybody’s eyes.”
He said what they’re doing is not rocket science.
“We’re not inventing anything new or doing anything different from other places in the world. But for right here, it’s different. People don’t know how to take us.”
Added Melanie: “We don’t fit any particular definition of farming as it exists today. If you try and plug us into AgriStability or something like that, it gets difficult.”
They say it took time to reconcile their chosen direction, but year after year of sizzling poultry sales made the path look clearer.
They were also quick to recognize that they couldn’t grow it alone. Working with like-minded partner producers, they added turkey, pork, lamb, rabbit, duck, sausage and jerky to their naturally grown lineup.
Good food and quality of life go hand in hand for the Boldts as they continue carving out their place at the table in the competitive food business.
A significant chunk of their business continues to be people who enjoy a country drive out to the farm to buy meat. Souleio Foods also allows Saskatoon residents to buy the products downtown.
“There’s a trend towards prepared or assembled foods: partially cooked or fully cooked. We couldn’t access that market from the farm. The food market is growing, catering and otherwise,” she said.
“Our philosophy has always been, the one closest to the consumer has the most power in the supply chain and the opportunity for profit. We already have a few steps in the value chain. If we could take that one more step, we could get that incremental profit between our raw meat and the restaurant plate.”
Both businesses continue to complement each other.
No doubt there’s more in store for this ambitious couple, but for now they say their plate is full running two growing businesses.
“Our goal right now is to fine tune and tweak what we’ve got and look for opportunities. Who knows what might be out there,” said Melanie.
The relationship between the husband and wife business team is also evolving.
“The way we operate sometimes drives each other nuts, but it’s also complementary. I think that’s one of our success factors that has helped us get where we are. I’m the accidental farmer. He’s the purposeful farmer,” said Melanie.
“To be open to opportunities, but also to do your homework. One reason we’re here is because we did the business case against this versus grain farming-dirt farming.… And then fear takes you the rest of the way.”
