Nancy Frey and her husband Alain Breault of Temiskaming Shores have seen a whirlwind of success since beginning to build their farm-to-table business, Breault Family Farm, after a devastating barn fire in 2019.
The past few years have seen many landmark moments for the farm, including its “official” creation in 2023 as a separate entity to Breault Stock Farm, which runs alongside it.
Other successes include their online store, established in 2021, and an onsite store built in 2022, complete with walk-in freezer and freezer trailer funded by a Sustainable New Agri-Food Products and Productivity (SNAPP) grant from Rural Agri-Innovation Network (RAIN).
Today, Breault Family Farm is a major local food hub and marketplace for the Temiskaming area and beyond.
The sales speak for themselves. Their number one and number two sellers, beef and chicken, are up 75 per cent and 200 per cent, respectively, since last year. Pork sales have climbed a whopping 300 per cent.
“What we’re doing is really resonating with people, and the growth is proof of that,” Frey said from her home on the farm, which is located on a beautiful 110-acre plot of prime agricultural land a short distance from downtown New Liskeard.
“We can’t meet demand,” said Frey, who has sold around 1,300 chickens so far this year. “We’re out of eggs every day.”
Frey attributes the resonance to the rapidly growing local food movement, as well as the quality and accessibility of their pasture-raised meat products.
“We get people from North Bay, Timmins, Quebec,” Frey said. “We have a large catchment area because no one else is doing it at the scale we’re doing it.”
The success is also due to Frey’s keen business acumen and willingness to meet the demands of the local market.
Though it was a “huge loss” for Breault and Frey, the 2019 fire provided them with the opportunity to rebrand and reinvent their business model.
Frey, who currently works part-time for a not-for-profit, honed her business savvy through her career in banking. Her experience made her hesitant to take on debt to rebuild her farm so close to retirement.
“I knew we had to do something different,” Frey said. “My husband will put his head down and work harder, and I’m like, ‘We have to work smarter.’”
It was Alain’s daughter, Jessica Cooper, owner of the family-run Cooperstead Farms in Callander, Ont., who first suggested selling directly to the customer as a farm-to-table business in addition to selling “stocker” cattle to markets down south.
Frey found the potential of the farm-to-table model appealing because, like many farmers who often find themselves at the bottom of the corporate food chain, Breault Stock Farm had been barely making ends meet.
“A lot of farmers are price-takers,” Frey said. “And I wanted to be a price-maker.… I don’t want to be just taking what the big guys will give me for all the work we’re doing.”
Frey took inspiration from southern farm-to-table businesses she’d seen having success on social media. From there, Frey said, “It was the classic case of turning lemons into lemonade.”
Frey started off small, selling ground beef and stewing beef to the local Riverside Farmers Market. But she quickly expanded to things like roasts and steaks to meet customer demand.
Success at the market sparked the idea to commission a professionally designed store website for Breault Family Farm, which caused a sales jump of 300 per cent in its first year.
The website sells individual portions of steak, roast, liver, hamburger patties, and lean ground beef. It also offers boneless, skinless chicken breast, bacon and smoked hams, Christmas turkeys, pepperettes, beef and pork sausages, and bison meat.
Additionally, the website features a huge array of different options for larger beef boxes, and many delicious, homestyle recipes, including World Famous Ribs, Breaded Pork Chops, and Chicken Pie by Frey’s grandmother, who owned Frey’s Hatchery in St. Jacob’s, Ont.
All meat sold in the store, whether from Breault Family Farm or sourced from nearby farms, is pasture-raised — an important part of the business’ philosophy.
Frey and Breault, who come from farming family backgrounds, believe raising animals on pasture is central to the animals’ health and the resulting nutritional value of their meat.
In commercial farming, meat birds are often confined to large barns, while laying hens are typically kept in small cages.
The onsite farm store followed on the heels of the website, and features products from many different local sellers, including fresh seasonal produce, preserves, unpasteurized honey, and homemade barbecue sauces.
It also sells specialty beef tallow skincare products, processed and packaged by Frey on the farm.
SEE: ‘A Day in Farm Country’ draws curious crowds in support of Temiskaming agriculture
Initially, Frey shied away from selling perishable local produce in the store, but quickly changed her mind when she saw the demand.
The farm’s pricing on things like cabbage, lettuce, corn on the cob, potatoes, and strawberries is often competitive with economy shopping options like Wal-Mart. The farm store also offers discounted produce from the week before.
Becoming a community sales hub wasn’t an original part of the Breault Family Farm business model, but Frey realized the advantages after initially taking on pork and turkey from Cooperstead Farm. After selling out their entire supply of bacon in 24 hours, they decided to expand sales to meet the demand.
“(The farm store) started to become a collaborative effort,” said Frey. “And the store is helping other farmers, young farmers who are intimidated by the retail side of things.”
Breault and Frey don’t have any future plans to change their business model to acquire a larger farm. They hope to fine-tune the one they currently have by focusing on expense control.
“This is the stage of business when the biggest mistakes are made — during rapid growth,” Frey said.
Ideally, she’d also like the farm to contribute to ongoing efforts, led by the area's municipalities, to boost agri-tourism in the area, including networking between fish camps and cottage rentals.
Frey and Breault also dream of creating a true succession business by one day passing the Breault Family Farm legacy down to the next generation.
