How a first generation Okanagan hobby farmer is going pro

Renee Stewart grew up in the U.S., studied art in college, but found herself running a hobby farm in Summerland.

Stewart started Stewberry Farms 10 years ago with her husband Chris with little farming experience. Now, she’s on track to turn a small plot into a profitable business.

“As a first generation farmer, I don’t know what I’m doing,” she said.

“So many people grew up on farms and their grandparents farmed. And it’s intuitive to them because they grew up with the systems in place.”

The two-acre farm started out with some fruit trees, then vegetables, garlic and flowers.

“I would just give stuff away because we have abundance and I’m happy to share, but to an extent where you realize, ‘oh, my gosh, if I’m going to continue to do this, I do have to figure out how to make a profit,'” she said.

Stewart got to a point where she wanted to take it more seriously as a business and sought out a mentor.

She had taken inspiration from Chris and Nikki Wart from Lady Hat Farm in Alberta, and got connected to them through the Young Agrarian’s business mentorship program.

“It’s been so fulfilling and also really challenging. Looking at our farm, because this is our 10th year farming, I realized how much we’ve been doing wrong. That was really hard to handle and like a big pill to take,” she said.

Now she’s learned more about the accounting and business side of farming, like government grants, as well as some practical knowledge about cultivation that she wouldn’t have found on her own.

“It’s a business network mentorship, and it’s really focused on getting these farmers that don’t have the business skills, giving them some of those skills. I was an art major in school,” Stewart said.

What started out as a desire to homestead, connect with nature and live sustainably has become a business she’s determined to support her family with.

“We have two boys, one’s about to be eight and the other one is five, about to be six,” she said. “I turned 40. And so I’m thinking a lot about the next 10 years and how I want that to look so that when I turn 50, I’m not doing all the backbreaking labour.”

She said it’s important to have these kinds of programs to support new farmers since it’s tough to start from scratch.

“It’s getting harder and harder,” Stewart said. “If you have only been doing this for, you know, two to five years, there’s going to be a lot of stuff to learn.”

Stewberry Farms is going to be at the Penticton Farmers’ Market this summer as “proud members.”