By Stefanie Richardson -- It will come as a surprise to many of our readers, but the Yukon has long had a farming sector within its economy. While the growing season is short and the challenges many, the sector continues to employ scores of Yukoners and contribute more than $4-million to the territorial economy each year. The farm air smells of earth and fresh vegetables. The sun beats down on rows of delicate green leaves that are beginning to bloom out of dark, moist soil. The rhubarb plants have already started to sprout thick, green, bushy leaves. Broccoli, red romaine lettuce, kale, carrots, cauliflower, cabbage, onions and a number of herbs are in their early stages.

Across from the garden, in a small wooden barn, baby turkeys chirp in the warm air and huddle together to try to catch some of the sun’s rays. In the distance, bells chime around the necks of a herd of goats as they move around in their wooden enclosure, waiting to be taken to the hills to graze.

This idyllic scene is not on a farm in the Prairies, Ontario or even British Columbia. This is the Lendrum Ross organic farm, half an hour north of Whitehorse and north, just barely, of 60 degrees latitude. Despite the challenges of operating this close to the Arctic Circle, the Lendrum farm is part of a growing industry that contributes a gross annual revenue of just over $4-million dollars to the Yukon economy.

On the Lendrum Ross farm, winters are long and the growing season short, but Brian Lendrum and Susan Ross wouldn’t have it any other way.

Lendrum says he moved to the farm in 1986 and was looking for a way out of the daily commute to Whitehorse. “At first it was strictly a subsistence kind of thing,” he says. “I thought I might grow some vegetables to feed myself and have some goats for milk for myself and maybe a little bit for the neighbours, but it was a long, long time before I had enough of a surplus that I could start selling it.”

Lendrum grew vegetables for 10 years before he had enough to sell and says he would not have had anything to sell if Susan hadn’t come along. As it is, the couple owns 20 acres but cultivates less than one, a small fraction of the 25,000 acres currently used for farming in the Yukon.

It may be small potatoes when it comes to farming (the average farm in Saskatchewan is almost 1,300 acres), and the 2006 Yukon Census of Agriculture shows that even 25,000 acres under cultivation is a decrease of almost 15 per cent from 2001, but Brad Cathers, Yukon’s minister of Energy, Mines and Resources, says a lot of that decrease can be attributed to first generation farmers who were trying to make adjustments. He also says there have been changes to what is considered a farm.

And although there was also a decrease in the total number of farms, Cathers says that doesn’t necessarily mean there was a decrease in farming. In fact, Cathers thinks farming will continue to grow in the territory and existing farms will expand.

Lendrum and Ross, for their part, say they have reached their capacity. They raise turkeys and goats for meat and goat cheese. Their garden and turkeys are certified organic by the Pacific Agricultural Certification Society.

Like most Yukon farmers, they can’t sell their meat outside of the farm gate because they can’t meet food inspection requirements. To try and solve the problem, last year the Yukon government spent $175,000 on a mobile abattoir for the slaughter, inspection and refrigeration of red meat animals, but Cathers says it’s already in need of updates to meet new federal standards.

Cathers says it’s the government’s job to help farmers improve their marketability by helping them access markets and by investing in processing and movable infrastructure. “A no-till seed drill was purchased through government funding,” he says. “It would not be affordable [for individual farmers], but it is a valuable piece of infrastructure, that when it’s bought for collective use, on a rental basis, it can enhance the opportunities for quite a number of people.”

In an effort to support the sector, the federal and territorial governments have recently signed an agreement called “Growing Forward,” which will provide $5-million in funding over five years to help agriculture in the territory.

Lendrum and Ross aren’t consumed by making a profit, but say their food sales have increased for the last five years at the Fireweed Community Market in Whitehorse, where they sell the majority of their products for about 18 weeks during the summer.

Lendrum says they don’t compare their prices to anything in stores and that they sell their vegetables for what they think is a fair price. They seldom make a thousand dollars a day at the market, but it’s getting close to that now.

In addition to the steady rise in demand for their fresh produce at the market, Lendrum says a number of people have spoken to them about putting their goat cheese on restaurant menus in Whitehorse. He says the goat cheese sales are steady because it’s the one thing they have throughout the year. They begin the cheese making process at the beginning of May and can make it until the end of December.

Lendrum says the farm is a hybrid of high and low tech, of country and urban life. They live off the grid, pump their own water and heat with wood, but at the same time, they’re hooked up to the Internet. “It adds to the peculiarity of our little system,” he says.

Their plants go into the ground in mid- May, once the snow has melted, and they can grow until early September, when frost robs the plants of their nutrients. They maintain the farm on their own, but have about 10 helpers over the course of a summer.

“Our season is very, very short and intense,” Lendrum says.” The idea of having a product like broccoli, to sell over a long period of months, it just doesn’t fit with our climate.” Last year was very cold, with frost in May, June and August. The plants grew very slowly. “Our cauliflowers all came on after the market was finished, but this year, we’re having booming weather.”

The majority of the Yukon’s 150 farms are within 100 kilometres of Whitehorse. Just 40 minutes south of the city, there’s another farm where week-old chicks wander around in a brooder as classical music plays in the background. Their feathers are a pale yellow, with only a few white, more-mature feathers sticking up. Not far from the chicks, a small greenhouse looks out onto vegetable crops lined up in short, narrow rows.

This is the M’Clintock Valley Farm.

Joanne Johnson says she met her farming partner, Andy Townsend, in northern Manitoba, where she was working as a photographer. Then they moved to the Yukon looking for adventure and while they lived and worked in Whitehorse, they were always on the lookout for farmland.

They moved onto the farm in 1991, while still working full-time in Whitehorse. The farm had been cleared in the 1970s, but Johnson says it was a mess when she first arrived. She says at the time, neither she nor Townsend knew much about organic farming but they were ready to learn.

She says they spent quite a few years removing dead trees, reseeding and renovating the 180-acre farm. Now, like the Lendrum Ross Farm on the other side of Whitehorse, Johnson’s farm is certified organic by the Pacific Agricultural Certification Society.

M’Clintock grows vegetables, including carrots, potatoes and peas, and herbs in the greenhouse. The chickens are certified organic and Johnson and Townsend pick wild cranberries to make syrup.

Johnson says the demand for organic food is growing quickly. “You look at all the grocery stores now and see how large a percentage [of organic food] they have on their shelves,” she says.

She sells her meat at the farm gate and has had interest in her products from the Westmark Hotel, where an agriculture banquet is held every year. But for now all of her vegetables end up at the Fireweed Market.

Johnson says the M’Clintock Valley is very cold and that’s why she mainly grows carrots, which are “frost-hardy” and don’t need really rich soil. She says she waits for the ice to melt from her pond each year, usually in late May, and then puts a pump in to get her supply of water for the farm.

The Yukon may never be in a position to provide vegetables to a southern market, but Cathers says the government thinks a realistic goal could be to have 10 per cent local food production within the next 10 years.

Meat and vegetables are not the only products coming from Yukon farms. Johnson also produces hay, a product that accounts for the majority of the territory’s farm goods. Johnson says she hopes to increase her hay production, but for now her farm is considered a hobby.

Cathers says agriculture is an area of the economy that has significant potential for growth. Initiatives such as the 100-mile diet, which encourages people to eat food that has come from within a 100-mile radius, are catching on across the country. People are demanding more nutritious, safe, locallygrown foods that don’t have to travel half way around the world to make it to their plates.

Matthew Ball, an agrologist with the Yukon Agriculture Branch, isn’t surprised that there are more and more farms cropping up in the Yukon.

He used to live in Dawson City and spent time on Grant Dowdell and Karen Digby’s farm. Their farm is 20 acres located on an island about six kilometres south of Dawson City. It’s only accessible by boat along the Yukon River.

It’s a vast acreage of beautiful green, lush food. Dowdell and Digby grow potatoes, broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, corn, beans and peas, all of which get shipped into Dawson City for the farmers market, into stores and some of the restaurants.

The farm has been in operation for about 30 years now and helps to remind Yukoners that, not so long ago, a much greater percentage of their food was grown in the territory. “It’s a funny thing,” says Ball, “because as you head north from Whitehorse you actually get into a more continental climate and it’s a climate that’s more conducive to warmer summers.”

Although the North may never conjure up images of expansive farmland, many consider the potential for agriculture in the Yukon to be excellent. With a global food crisis and an increasingly unpredictable environment, it makes sense to invest in local agriculture.

And when food can make it from the ground to the plate in minutes and hours rathern than days and weeks, there is not only better taste and nutrition, but shoppers can have a better understanding and appreciation of how it was grown. It cuts down on the high cost of shipping food north, it keeps money in the territory, and it makes it easier to secure a steady – and healthy – food supply