We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Selena & Matthew Lawrence. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Selena & Matthew below.

Selena & Matthew, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Coming up with the idea is so exciting, but then comes the hard part – executing. Too often the media ignores the execution part and goes from idea to success, skipping over the nitty, gritty details of executing in the early days. We think that’s a disservice both to the entrepreneurs who built something amazing as well as the public who isn’t getting a realistic picture of what it takes to succeed. So, we’d really appreciate if you could open up about your execution story – how did you go from idea to execution?

It all started with the dream that our children could grow up on a farm. In 2021 we were living in a densely populated community . We had 2 kids at the time and planned to have another. The farming lifestyle with fresh air, room to grow, and privacy was a but a dream Matt and myself urned for. In January 2022 we started to brainstorm, how this could possibly happen. We wanted to farm, but what? How could we afford enough land to farm full time and make a living. Land is extremely expensive here on Vancouver Island, Canada. The idea was formed to do a greenhouse and grow year round. Through online research, youtube mostly, we discovered the sustainability of hydroponic farming.

Greenhouse hydroponic farming can use up to 95% less water and land. We could grow leafy green all year round in a 3000 sqft greenhouse. So we drew up a business plan, went to the bank with our downpayment and in 2 months were approved to look for a property with a house. June 2022 we purchased our first property of 5 acres. The dream of having a farm was about to get started. We ordered our Greenhouse from Harnois Industries, Quebec. Matt and his dad went to work, full time, building the greenhouse. Matt is a Certified carpenter and his father Mike is a certified welder. Between the two of them they were able to construct the steal frame and build the polycarbonate greenhouse in 6 months. We purchased our NFT (nutrient film technique) hydroponic system from American Hydroponics, California. We started growing April 2023. We harvested our first crop June and have been growing steady since.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

Forest Valley Acres Ltd. is a Greenhouse hydroponic farm, growing leafy greens all year long. We grow with no use of pesticides, herbicides, or sprays of any kind. We are a family owned and operated Canadian business in our second year of operation. We offer fresh, clean, living greens to local customers all over Vancouver Island. We are currently growing 6 Varieties of Lettuce, Green Butterhead, Red Butterhead, Green Leaf, Red Leaf, Crystal Leaf, and Romaine. We grow Arugula and Swiss Chard. As well as four living herbs: Basil, Dill, Parsley, and Cilantro. These products are all sold with the root ball on. This doubles the shelf life of the product and you can re-plant the roots in summer. Matt and I had a dream for our 3 young children to grow up on a farm. We have been able to create a flourishing business that services our communities all year round. We sell our produce at two farmers Markets, Saturdays. With a third Farmer’s Market in Summer. We distribute to 6 independent whole food grocery stores/markets. We often send lettuce to the school salad bar programs, Food Box programs, and Food Banks. Matt and I were not generational farmers. We believed in a dream of having a farm for our family. We looked at our community to find something no one else was doing. Matt and I are proud what we have built and look forward to servicing our community with fresh produce for generations to come.

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

Forest Valley Acres Ltd.’s original plan was to sell wholesale to our local commercial grocery stores. We had a Marketing Agency lined up as Lettuce is a regulated product in B.C. We bought our packaging, set up for freight, and passed our Food Safety Certification. We started growing and were promised by our Agency that selling our lettuce wouldn’t be a problem as theres always a high demand. Well that was not the case. The corporate stores didn’t know how to properly handle and store our living lettuce. They complained about quality, shelf life, size, etc. We were sending to the warehouse 80-100 cases per week. Thats 2400 head of living lettuce per week and it was not selling. We lost thousands of dollars worth of produce. Our corporate stores were not willing to adjust to this new product. They needed consistency from us growers, but refused to order consistently. It was a mess. We were still learning how to grow hydroponically, but had used up all our contingency funds. Something needed to change and fast. We missed payments, got into debt, almost lost the farm. And during this time I just gave birth to our 3 child, our daughter Adaline September 2023. We needed help in the greenhouse, we needed money, we needed a solution. We had to pivot.

We decided to start selling at our local Farmer’s Market. That led to us growing herbs. With more variety we were able to establish a direct-to-consumer business model. We increased our prices from wholesale, and eliminated most of the freight as we are able to sell locally. Matt and I liked the Market scene and we quickly discovered there were more Farmers Markets in our area for us to attend. From customer suggestions we expanded to offer or living herbs and living lettuce to independent stores fetching a higher price than the commercial retailers. Saturday Farmer’s Markets quickly became our favourite day of the week. We are now nominated for the Most Outstanding Community Impact Farm Vendor Award in all of British Columbia.

How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?

As stated in the previous question, we owe the future of our business to our local Farmer’s Markets. Matt and I are the sellers at these markets. This allows us to directly contact and communicate to our customers. We share enthusiasm about local produce. Clean, local, no- sprayed produce provided all year round. Being at ground level and interacting with our local audience has earned us respect and appreciation.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: www.intagram.com/forestvalleyacres
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100091755103076