If you build it, they will come.
That strategy might work if you want to rip up a corn field to build a ball diamond to attract mythical baseball stars, as was done in the movie Field of Dreams. But it won’t work in the greenhouse business.
“Marketing, I found, is quite a challenge,” says Fran Eldridge of Fran’s House of Herbs south of Saskatoon.
“That has meant educating people, primarily. Letting people know what you can do with fresh herbs.”
Fresh herbs are not what you expect in the middle of wheat and canola country, but Eldridge has found success.
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She and a friend bought a small acreage of sandy land in 1997. Today it has two six by 18 metre greenhouses, and a similar area in outdoor production. Eldridge does most of the work, including fixing the tractor and installing the plumbing. But this year she’s hired two local women and a teenager to help with the twice weekly harvesting and packaging.
She sells herbs and edible flowers at the Saskatoon farmers market, through co-op, IGA, and smaller specialty stores, and directly to gourmet chefs.
The former nurse and labor relations worker got into the field after a bout with cancer. She had experience in greenhouse and vegetable production and her brother, who produces vegetables in her native Nova Scotia, suggested there was a developing market for fresh herbs.
It’s part of a demographic shift that greenhouse producers everywhere are profiting from.
The Canadian baby boomer bulge is shifting from childrearing and active pastimes to activities suited to their stage in life. Also, increasing ethnic diversity is introducing a new world of dining experience to Canadians.
Gardening and cooking are the beneficiaries. One need only look at the proliferation of specialty television programs and magazines catering to these hobbies to see the opportunity. Gardening has become a $4 billion a year industry in Canada.
Marc Shane of Milner Greenhouses, with operations in B.C.’s Lower Mainland and Biggar, Sask., is well aware of the growth, but said production must coincide with consumer wants.
“It’s market driven. It’s style, it’s fashion. You have to have the right colors of dahlias and the right color of poinsettias.
“It is really dynamic and you have to keep your eyes open.”
Shane and Eldridge both said it is critical for people starting in the greenhouse industry to have an assured market.
“When I first started in this industry nothing was sold,” said Shane.
“You planted a crop, you hustled and you hoped you’d sell it some where and in some years you didn’t sell it all. You dumped it.”
Today, pre-selling minimizes the risk.
But if you do it right, there is great opportunity, Shane said.
“The industry is growing at double digits and it’s slated to grow like that for the next 15 to 20 years.
“All these baby boomers who are retiring. People with disposable incomes spending money on their gardens.
“It’s a big industry.”
