Changes never stop at Noggins Corner

“One of the things we don’t push enough in agriculture is that we have some very exciting career options for family members and employees. Instead of offering our young people a lot of tractor driving or cattle herding, we should be showing them the entire range of the business – from marketing, processing, transportation, and inputs right through to the production end – and say, ‘Where do you want to work in this?’ ... We should be offering the whole smorgasbord of career possibilities to talented young people. Too often, we present farming as a production thing and that’s it.” – Rob Napier

An enterprising clan: Andrew Bishop (Class of '73)and Beth Patillo with Patricia, her husband Josh (Class of '96) and youngest child Frank on right. Below and beside Andrew is Carolyn and her partner Bill. Also shown are Izaak, Lily and long-time employee Melissa and her daughter Eva.

Andrew Bishop got a little more excitement than he bargained for when his daughter Patricia announced her plan to base her organic farm business on the CSA (community shared agriculture) model.

“When she told me last winter what she was going to do, I thought she was crazy,” recalls Andrew.

That view changed pretty quickly when he saw what happened next. Now it was Patricia’s turn to get excited, in a good way.

“The response just blew me away,” she says. “I did up my materials (share member forms), posted them to the website, and forwarded them to about 20 people. We got 220 memberships and I never spoke to 95% of the people who signed up. It was all done on the Internet, it was all viral.”

Patricia Bishop (Class of '99) with Frank at Noggins Corner

Of course, as a fruit grower, her dad should have remembered that old line that the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree. Andrew is the eighth or ninth Bishop at Noggins Corner Farm (it depends which branch of the family tree you’re tracing) but has probably instituted more changes in the past decade than his forefathers did in the previous 25.

“I’d say it all began about seven years ago on a cold January morning when we were sitting around talking about how we could bring more people to the farm market,” recalls Beth Patillo, Andrew’s wife.

“I also remember Thanksgiving three years ago and we were looking at the parking lot and there wasn’t an empty spot to be found. Andrew just looked at me and said, ‘What have we done?’”

Noggins Corner Farm is located about 90 kilometres northwest of Halifax and sits near the historic Evangeline Trail that parallels the Bay of Fundy coastline. Andrew farms with his brother Stirling, while their sister Jennie has long done bookkeeping and office work for the farm. Stirling takes care of the family’s dairy operation while Andrew oversees the orchard, the farm market and, lately, a whole bunch more.

At first, diversification happened almost on an accidental basis. The family wanted to boost sales in the market (originally a roadside fruit stand) and decided to bring in bakery products. But they weren’t happy with the quality of baked goods so they decided to start their own bakery.

The increasing challenge of getting pickers prompted Andrew to start growing sweet corn.

“We need to provide longer-term labour because by the time I wanted apple pickers, people would have already found work somewhere else,” recalls Andrew. “So I decided to grow more sweet corn. It was very popular at the farm market, and there was interest from the wholesale point of view. So we doubled and tripled, and then doubled again and now we have 200 acres of sweet corn.”

But the main driver of the diversification was the result of that very deliberate decision seven years ago which came after Andrew, who also has two other daughters – Carolyn and Jillian – had a good long think about succession.

“We could have just coasted,” says Andrew. “I’ve seen it happen many times on family farms. The younger generation maybe isn’t all that interested and the older generation starts drawing down on the assets and pretty soon there isn’t much to pass on.

“So I figured I had a decision to make – either to coast or to invest in the future. And I made a decision to invest in the next generation.

“At that time our main enterprise was 200 acres of apples and we had hit a flat line. We weren’t increasing our sales at the market ... my plan was to build a new market to boost sales.”

Patricia with Izaak and Lily, preparing CSA shares.

Andrew still hasn’t built that new market – there’s just been too much else going on.

Along with fruit and sweet corn, the market sells all sorts of vegetables (26 varieties of tomatoes alone), herbs, flowers, bakery products, honey, jams and jellies, and gift baskets. Beth oversees a vibrant agri-tourism enterprise centered on a corn maze, school tours and a walking trail. Tree fruits and vegetables are marketed under the Bishop’s Favourite brand and private labels. The farm also employs cutting-edge ultra low oxygen technology in its storage coolers, and wholesales fruit and vegetables to Western Canada, the United States, and the Caribbean. The family also engaged a cider maker to craft a European dry cider, which is sold at the farm and also farmers’ markets and selected restaurants and pubs. In total it has 600 hectares in production and employs up to 100 people at the peak of the season.

Napier’s phrase – “a smorgasbord of career possibilities” – is an apt description for the farm and sure enough, it has drawn the interest of the next generation. Carolyn, who is an environmental engineer, had left the farm to pursue her career but came back to help out one fall and never left – finding a role in the business management side of the operation. Jillian, who is still in university, works part time at the farm. Patricia and husband Josh Oulton each have a farm, both of which have connections to the home farm.

Like Carolyn, Patricia had left the farm to pursue her own career. She was teaching in Fort St. John, B.C. while Josh was working on a beef and grain operation. But while it was important to establish her independent identity, the birth of her first child, Izaak, got her thinking of home.

“Josh and I both really value the way we were brought up, both being on the farm and being close to our families, particularly our grandparents,” says Patricia. “We felt strongly that we wanted our children to have that same kind of experience.”

They bought a farm of their own upon their return to their home province, but having a connection to Noggins Corner Farm was an important piece of the puzzle. Josh, who didn’t have experience in horticulture, is now a produce supplier under a crop-sharing arrangement that allows him to focus on production while Noggins Corner provides administrative and marketing support. Patricia, who has had two more children since returning to Nova Scotia, worked part-time on a series of specific projects before buying her own organic operation, TapRoot Farms, last year.

Having her own farm was critical because organic farming is a passion she had long wanted to pursue, says Patricia.

While the diversification of Noggins Corner Farm has created economic opportunities for herself, Josh, and her sisters, it has provided them with something far more valuable – a go-for-it attitude, she says.

“In our family, you’re not going to hear a lot of depressing talk about how bad everything is in farming. Our focus is always: How can we move ahead? What are we going to do differently next year?” says Patricia.

“That’s something that a lot of farmers don’t have right now: The hope that there will be some way to make a living at the end of the day.”

Her father also views the business side of farming as being intertwined with emotional factors.

“If someone doesn’t want to milk cows or pick apples, you’ve got to recognize that,” says Andrew. “You’ve got to have a passion for what you do if you want a business to thrive.”

That passion will only develop if you “empower” your children, he says.

“You have to create ownership for these different enterprises by giving your children decision-making power,” he says. “It certainly puts pressure on them, but it’s by making mistakes and learning from them that you move forward.”

That sometimes means a clash of ideas and disagreements – and that’s a good thing, adds Patricia.

“Disagreement is a great asset,” she says. “It pushes you to do things differently. We not only have diversity in our businesses but in our ideas.”

For more on the Bishops’ enterprises see nogginsfarm.ca and taprootfarms.ca

 Republished with permission from Canadian Farm Manager

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