January 2020 Newsletter
The Development and Management of our 10-acre Organic Farm
Hello, and welcome to the first quarterly newsletter for Zen Moon Organic Farm. Since this is our first communication, I’d like to share a bit about myself, Lisa, as well as the transformation of how our farm went from an idea to a vision, to the business that we are running today!
It is our hope to develop long term relationships with customers who see the value and quality of our organic products, which are produced and harvested by hand, on our small, domestic family farm. Our goal is to provide quality products, with a personal touch.
How it all started
Having known each other during high school years, Lisa and I reconnected in late 2014. I was living on this farm in Brentwood, trying to figure out a new and unique direction for the land. While managing her full-time career in the business world, Lisa was also in the middle of getting a degree in Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), a true passion of hers. It so happened that, at the time, her coursework was focused on Chinese medicinal herbs and formulas. So, when Lisa asked me that now-famous question which still rings in my head, “What do you think about growing Chinese medicinal herbs…?” Initially, I said, “What’s that? But soon after, once I got my head wrapped around the idea, I saw the natural connections between my past experiences, her studies, and the growing demand for domestically grown, certified organic medicinal herbs. Lisa and I set out on a journey together, merging our personal lives, and partnering in the development of a small business, that we call Zen Moon Organic Farm.
The view of the moon on our farm is both magnificent and calming, at the same time. It didn’t take us long to agree on “Zen Moon”, which combines the concepts of balance, harmony, and nature.
Planning, and then more Planning
This meant that now was the time for me to put on my planning hat. As a designer and renovator at heart, and with experiences gained from my 30 years of owning other small businesses, I fully embrace the concept of planning.
First, we assessed the options that we already had at our disposal. Fortunately for us, we already had the property, which has been in my family for about 20 years. Our 10 acres of land encompasses our house, my wood/renovation shop buildings, and a small Apricot orchard that I planted years ago. So, I had a good starting point for my remodeling planning options.
From there, we developed a flexible business plan, with emphasis on the word “flexible”. Given that there were many pieces to this new puzzle, we had choices on how to proceed with our existing layout, as well as an additional mobile structure that we had also purchased. The decision of how to utilize it all was going to depend on our other business model components, which, (as most things in life), we’re always changing and transforming into new ideas.
The next thing to do was to transfer the business plan into a visual drawing, or farm map. This has been one of the most important tools I have used over the last five years, not only in the initial planning of the site facilities but also with daily crop management. With this map, I can both decide where I will plant crops and track where each plant came from, upon the harvest.
Drafting a map, using it as a living document, and being able to constantly revise and update it along the way, has saved me thousands of dollars and many hours that could have been wasted on mistakes. Drafting the initial plans were only the start of the process, while the constant updating is how I track progress along the way.
Building and Renovating
Now that we had the plans outlined and options built into them for adjustments along the way, it was time to get to work on the property renovations. For me, that meant going from the planner to the builder. Time to put my nail bags back on!
Fortunately, I have a high level of experience in the remodeling business, so it was a great way to get exactly what I wanted and control the costs. I think if this were not the case, and we had to purchase property and then hire contractors to get through this first start-up phase, the business model would have to look much different than ours does. The only disadvantage is that it does prolong start-up timing. However, the gradual process worked to our advantage. It gave us the opportunity to constantly reevaluate and make necessary changes along the way, before making a larger permanent investment.
The main construction projects included spaces for a nursery, cold storage, dry storage, and packaging for our harvested crops. I built each of these areas purposely in a temporary fashion, and in a particular order for several reasons.
First, I wanted a working small-scale trial, before the fine-tuning of the final facilities. Not having prior knowledge of this niche market of Chinese herbs, I wasn’t completely sure about what I would need. The true learning took place, as I started to get my hands ‘dirty’ with the actual experience of growing and processing a few crops. These plant trials were essential, as I was able to see which items grew easily here, and what kind of space and effort would be needed.
As with the planting, I had to also give a great deal of thought to the order of which I would build out each area. The first temporary space that I constructed was a trial for a process that I needed first. When that function was relocated to a permanent space, then my trial space could be converted into another temporary use as needed. Just a little forethought and juggling, prevented me from wasting space and materials and kept the construction process as efficient and low cost as possible.
Now five years into this, we have a long high tunnel as the core nursery area, a walk-in cold storage facility, a dry storage area for our packaged inventory, and a space for shipping out products to our customers. The final piece of our facility puzzle will be a permanent drying room, which is on the construction schedule for this year. Even though our farm is not a large commercial facility, it is just enough space, to operate efficiently, as we make our first steps into the new business.
Crops and Organic Certifications
We decided that Chinese medicinal herbs, particularly the domestic cultivation and distribution of them, would be our primary market, and as we expanded, diversifying into culinary herbs and some stone fruits (already on site) may be likely.
To start learning about the cultivation of Chinese medicinal herbs, I was fortunate to be accepted into an internship by a respected pioneer in this market. I attended a series of workshops on a local farm in Petaluma, California, which was an excellent first step in seeing what had been done domestically, up to this point.
Conducting plant trails here on our property was the next step. Verifying that a given plant would thrive here, on our property in Brentwood, was critical. Throughout this process, I was able to test soil formulations, watch how a plant grew, and determine what I would need to do when it was time to expand the crop on a larger scale.
The first set of trials with the chrysanthemums and field mint, currently for sale here on our site, did very well. Not only did this property prove to be suitable for growing these varieties, but the feedback that I received back from my mentor, as well as lab tests, on the quality and efficacy of our herbs was excellent. From there, I knew that we had the first set of organic crops that would launch the business.
Over the past few years, I divided the initial test crops multiple times over and sold some small quantities, with great results. This year, our high tunnel is full of our chrysanthemum (“Bo Ju Hua” in pinyin), which is slated to be transplanted and intercropped within our apricot orchard. This will be the first large expansion of one of our initial test crops for 2020. It took just 30 original test plants in my trials to propagate all of that material shown in the high tunnel (as seen on our home page), which will now be divided again into one of our first main crops for the farm. Incremental steps work!
Now in our fifth year of organic certification with the USDA, I look back and see it was another good choice in the development of premium products. While it’s true that there are additional bookkeeping and expenses involved, it is still the best farming practice for us. My question has always been, “Do you really want non-organic medicine or food, with no oversight inspections from independent agencies?” In my opinion, the organic certification regulations make sense, when kept reasonable.
Marketing and Opening for Business
I feel that if there is a personal connection between a business and customers, it sets the stage for trust and positive business relationships to flourish. Social media, word of mouth referrals, free samples, and our website content are all ways in which we hope to both educate customers on our business and develop new customers as well. Getting our name and products out into the market place in a variety of formats, is what it takes to build any business, and it will be a never-ending job.
In our initial trial harvests, we sent samples out into the market, so that potential customers could give us their feedback. I knew that this would be the best advertising and that the product quality would sell itself. It also stimulated some word of mouth conversation that we needed in the beginning.
We will continue the practice of offering small free samples to customers. This will enable customers to perform a simple sensory test, or to even send it out to their own lab for testing, before purchasing. Once again, we are confident that when you make the comparison of our products to those of others, you will surely find ours to be superior.
Social media and our Facebook page are easy and efficient ways for me to update folks each week on the progress around the farm. We will continue to use our Facebook page, in conjunction with our website, and you can toggle back and forth between each, by tapping on the appropriate button on each of the pages. We also encourage you to ‘like’ and follow our Facebook page at Zen Moon Organic Farm, to receive our regular updates. I will be posting there on a regular basis, regarding the crops and when they are in season.
I hope this newsletter has been a helpful introduction to our business, as we launch our new webpage and E-Store. Feel free to comment below and I look forward to continuing the conversations here in the coming months.
Tony Gliedt, owner
Zen Moon Organic Farm