ESTEVAN, Sask. – Ray and Marianne Aspinall believe strongly in health.
That includes the health of the soil on which they grow their organic crops, the customers who buy their products and their own personal well-being.
They have farmed organically since 1987, before it became a more widely accepted option. It was a lifestyle choice that made sense to them.
“It was the principle of it,” said Ray.
The way they saw it, chemicals were not helping the soil and produced food they deemed unhealthy.
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Marianne said they wanted to be good land stewards, too.
Her bout with cancer solidified their decision to farm without pesticides or fertilizers.
“I paid the price for it,” she said.
The Aspinalls certified their farm in 1996 and three years later moved to their current location just down the road from their former home. The farm had been in the family and offered a cleaning plant on site.
Custom cleaning organic seed took off in a big way. The Aspinalls assured a 99.9 percent clean standard and they were busy.
“It left us not being able to do value-added for stores,” Ray said, and that is what they had really wanted to do.
Then in 2003, they had the opportunity to buy a second set of cleaning equipment when long-time organic farmer and processor Alvin Scheresky, of Glen Ewen, Sask., was looking to cut back his work.
That’s when Daybreak-Scheresky Mill really took off.
Scheresky is among the pioneers of modern organic farming in Saskatchewan. He has farmed that way since 1964.
The Aspinalls bought his equipment, added a building and warehouse and moved Scheresky’s value-added operation to their farm.
“We wanted to put his name in our business because of that,” Marianne said.
Much of his clientele stayed on and Daybreak-Scheresky continues to grow. One line processes custom orders and the other does their brand of products. This spring the company has picked up several new customers who will carry products in their stores. In addition to health food stores, the products are available from Daybreak-Scheresky.
The Aspinalls farm 12 quarters, planting as many as 14 different varieties of crops each year. What they can’t grow, or run short of, they can buy.
“We’re blessed to have seven or eight organic neighbours within (15 to 20 kilometres),” Ray said.
The Aspinalls are on the International Certification Services’ farm-verified organic program and use an American broker.
They market more than 50 products. From their hard wheat, for example, they make whole wheat, white and all-purpose flours. They have developed a 12-grain cereal and market many of Scheresky’s original products under the new label.
Wheat and flax products are big sellers. The Aspinalls also are processing spelt and Red Fyfe wheat, which was popular in the late 1800s.
“Heritage grains are pretty big movers,” said Ray.
Pre-BSE the Aspinalls had sheep, but they don’t have livestock now. Ray’s brother, who operates a tractor for them, has cattle that are being fed organic feed. The cattle were recently inspected and are waiting for certification.
Another brother works for them full time on the milling and bagging side. He is the most likely successor come time for Ray and Marianne to retire, since their three children have other interests.
Marianne looks after invoicing and office work. She would like to expand a small on-farm retail outlet that offers their products plus some others.
“My goal is something a little more visitor friendly,” she said.
Ray always worked off the farm until a few years ago. He’s been a grain buyer and worked for the rural municipality. Now, he’s on the RM council.
He has started another venture as a dealer of Myke Pro, a mycorrhizae fungi product marketed by Premier Tech’s horticulture and agriculture unit.
He said agricultural practices have altered the soil but reintroducing beneficial fungi leads to better root development and therefore better plants.
The fungi’s primary job is to make phosphorus more available to plants and feed the roots. Farmers could purchase less phosphate if they could gain access to the unused phosphorus that’s already in the soil, he said.
“Fertilizer doesn’t feed the soil,” he said. “We’ve overlooked the soil.”
The inoculant is introduced at seeding and proper crop rotation will ensure the fungi lives on, although it will not live with brassica crops like canola.
Ray is also excited about natural calcium, which he describes as a “think outside the box” mineral.
“It prepares the way for all your others to work,” he said. “Calcium is like the railway track and phosphorus is the locomotive.”
