When Ken Stock and Paula Martin opened P and K’s Farm in 2018, they were dedicated to creating a rewarding farm-to-market experience and providing people with high-quality meat products.
Stock and Martin, who originally bought their property in 2016,have steadily grown the farm, leveraging some of their relevant experiences.
“We both have a bit of agricultural experience in our backgrounds. I grew up on a cash crop farm, and although Paula lived mainly in Kitchener, her family were all farmers…from [around] the Hanover area. We had done research for years and learned what we were going to get into, but we jumped into it rather quickly,” Stock explained. “We left jobs in Cambridge; both of us worked for a large ‘junk food’ factory in the region, and we didn’t feel that was really what we wanted to do…we made a big move, and things have really grown from there. We started off doing things like chickens and rabbits, actually for meat, but it wasn’t long after, we started getting a few pigs and getting some goats and sheep.”
The property they would eventually buy fulfilled their requirements.
“We did a lot of searching online for properties…we weren’t looking for giant acreage…as we were looking to do more of a grazing-type operation…we [then] found a 13-acre property in Scotland, Ontario, which was perfect,” he said. “We wanted to work for ourselves. Paula always really enjoyed being around animals …so we knew we weren’t going to be growing carrots and things like that. But the idea was that we wanted to build a self-sufficient homestead where we could raise our own meat and then sell whatever surplus we have or trade it with neighbors that were producing other things we could use.”
Along with the farm itself, Stock and Martin, have also had a vision to build an ‘earth ship’ house, which is typically built with natural and recycled materials [and] designed to produce energy, water, and food for its use.
“We not only wanted a small property, but we also needed something that didn’t [have an] elaborate house there [because] we wanted to live in a home that we built,” explained Stock. “We realized that we didn’t want to live in a traditional house…there’s a thing called an earth ship…[and] we have friends that have successfully built and lived in this off-grid style home down near Long Point. They have been in their home more than 10 years now.”
Stock and Martin started to quickly develop relationships in the community; with other businesses, their neighbours as well as customers.
“We have always found that it’s hard to make friends, customers, but it’s a lot better to make customers friends. We [have met] interesting people that would come by and purchase things from us, and then we would try to provide better service to them by understanding what [they wanted or needed]…we’ve tried to always focus on the individual families [and] to help them as well as we can,” said Stock. “Also, we don’t focus on meats that other producers and neighbors are doing. We’re small [so] we’re not going to do grass-fed beef because…three or four of our neighbors in this area are already doing that. We’ve always focused on [raising] rabbits [and] there’s always a market for pasture chicken [and] lamb and especially goats [which] are things that we can do and no one else does…we always try to do things a little bit differently, so we’re not competing with our neighbors.”
They have also utilized social media to reach customers and promote P and K’s Farm as a transparent one where people can visit and look behind the scenes at how the farm operates.
“We have joined Facebook groups for Norfolk, Brantford, Oakland, Boston and Simcoe [and] we’ve been able to put ourselves out there…offering farm fresh products like meat [where] everything is being raised in an ethical, friendly way…pasture raised [with] no antibiotics or chemicals. Through [social media] we have invited people here…[and] to see what they are getting,” explained Martin. “Transparency has always been big for us, and we find that the people in the community like that. As soon as you say, ‘Come and see what we have. You can look at it [and] we’re not hiding it behind closed doors,’ people get excited knowing that…our chickens aren’t locked up in a barn [and] our goats and pigs aren’t all tied up in stalls; instead, they are getting sunshine and fresh grass…[People] love the concept of being able to come see and touch [the animals]… our animals are friendly and people then know that we’ve been interacting with them [and treating them well.] The community has enjoyed seeing that.”
However, Stock and Martin have also built a small team who are also growing with the farm.
“We have been extremely fortunate [to have a] student candidate by the name of Ellyse Newman, who came to work for us last summer. She’s going to the University of Guelph for Animal Sciences. She grew up in Toronto and then moved to Brantford with her family. She is extremely knowledgeable and eager about pursuing a life in agriculture…[and] she has given us many ideas, some from her schooling…and other ideas just from being kind of an outsider [from the farm environment]. Sometimes people that have never been on a farm ask the best questions because it makes us step back [and helps us look at] better ways of doing things here,” Stock said. “She was with us last summer [and] worked with us on and off as we needed through the winter. Her younger sister…joined us this past summer as a summer student, and so did a boy down the road. They’re all very interested in pursuing this type of career in the future and we couldn’t do all this without them as well as the community around us. There’s been a lot of interest [and] a lot of people that want to come in and get involved and support us.”
However, the success of the farm’s ‘transparent’ approach to farming has attracted a lot of attention as Martin explains which has been vital to its steady growth.
“We have found ourselves being invited to do talks. Ellyse [along with her] Animal Sciences Program, has invited us to be a part of one of their evening talk/dinner gala…where we’re going to get to be able to share [our] experience and the knowledge that we’ve gained over these last few years,” Martin said. “I never went to university, and to be there teaching someone else about my experience…is something that I find very exciting. And then in terms of our house…because it’s going to be something very different…I expect at some point we’ll be going to be doing a talk on [that] too.”
