The future may indeed looking quite promising for a berry orchard and food company that’s poised to make waves in the local marketplace after winning an award that should draw many eyes to the business’s next moves.
Husbandry Farms, owned and operated by Ryan & Alicia Husband of Outlook, received the Young Promising Entrepreneur Award at the 23rd edition of the Business Builder Awards ceremony hosted by the North Saskatoon Business Association (NSBA) on Tuesday night, November 24.
The event, held at Saskatoon’s Prairieland Park, brings together business owners and entrepreneurs from the Bridge City and surrounding communities, highlighting the best and brightest. The award won by Husbandry Farms is awarded to the most promising business idea or start-up and voted on by the NSBA and other community members by text message during the banquet.
“We are honored to receive this award and extremely grateful to the many people who have helped us reach this point in our business,” Ryan wrote in an email to The Outlook. “It validates all of the effort put in so far and motivates us to continue growing so we can help people live healthier lives.”
Founded in 2018, the model of Husbandry Farms was formed out of Ryan and Alicia’s desire to return to the land and plant roots for their family near Outlook. Out of this desire came a business that aims to make healthy and delicious products that help support busy lifestyles for its consumers.
“We were hungry for simple, nutritious foods that could fuel a busy life on the go, with ingredients we could trust,” said Ryan. “As one of our most basic needs for living a fulfilled life, food is the connections that unites our aspirations, and farming is the path.”
Hoping to build on the momentum of their award win, Ryan and Alicia’s next step with Husbandry Farms is launching their Haskap berry products, set to make their debut next spring. They’re also working on having raspberries and Haskap berries available next summer.
With such an impressive award win, Ryan says it may draw more attention to their business model and raise expectations, but it also motivates he and Alicia to put out the best product possible.
“Driving home from the awards night we definitely felt a little bit more pressure than before, but we realize that's the good kind of pressure that motivates us to keep going,” he said. “The award, and the support we've received reminds us that we are making these healthy products to help others and that's great motivation as well. We plan to start with just a couple products and then go from there.”
Husband says consumers now more than ever want to know the root source of their foods and have a desire for locally-grown products, as opposed to putting blind faith in whatever is stocked at big box supermarkets in larger areas.
“We are seeing a rise in the desire to know where food comes from and who produces it,” said Ryan. “Outlook is a great place to produce and to buy local foods because irrigation in the area allows for a wide variety of crops to be grown, including fruits and vegetables.”
In the near future, local consumers from Outlook and area can look forward to products from Husbandry Farms being made available to them.
“Co-op and AG Foods are both great at supporting local,” said Ryan. “AG Foods will have our products and we'll be reaching out to Co-op soon. Outlook also has some great local businesses who we think might be able to use our berries in interesting and exciting ways, so watch for those throughout the summer.”
For more on Husbandry Farms, check out their website at husbandryfarms.ca and look for them on Facebook and Instagram.
