Farming Incubator

Regenerative farming & Agritech

Farming Incubator

Regenerative Farming & Agritech

We are looking for a farmer who is interested in exchanging a stake in their new farming enterprise for access to land, housing, machinery, and potentially farming capital. 

We are a mixed Canadian/African household. Our farm in Kingston is our forever home, where we also run a seasonal Afrocentric Art and sculpture garden with breathtaking trails and art installations out of our quaint limestone century farmhouse. 

After centuries of overgrazing & erosion, the property was reforested in the 1960s and 1970s by a forward-thinking ecologist who planted 40,000 trees, including a large woodlot of pine and spruce. This woodland is now mature and ready for a second economic thinning. There are also remnant hardwood forests with sizable populations of rare understory perennials and we have been reintroducing extirpated species. 

Our farm is mostly shallow soil over bedrock with 10 acres of fields though the fences are in rough shape. The woodlot is approximately 50 acres in size. We have a water management plan and are slowly installing a keyline water system. A century barn is not suitable for livestock or machinery, but could be used for storage, processing and customer interaction. Behind the barn is an area previously used for livestock with deeper, more fertile soil. We have a tractor (JD2355), loader, forks, mower, blower and scraper. There is a delicious, productive well.

We are within the city limits of Kingston, walking distance to an upmarket grocery store, and 5 minutes to the 401 or 12 minutes to downtown. In addition to being an important tourism destination, Kingston has a quickly-growing, increasingly diverse population and is also centrally located approximately two hours from the major populations Toronto, Montreal, and Ottawa. The farm is about 30 minutes from the US border, two hours to Syracuse and six hours from New York City.

We are interested in an incubator-type of arrangement, where we assume minority ownership in your new farming enterprise and participate in some advising, marketing and grant writing. We require a compelling and detailed business plan including yearly benchmarks for the next 5 years. With a compelling and detailed business plan we can discuss access to capital as a loan or grant. 

We are interested in supporting projects in the following areas:

  • Market gardening of “ethnic” crops, especially food and medicinal plants from Africa or the diaspora which are difficult to find in Canada but for which there exists a strong and growing demand.
  • Rare plants and understory perennials which could help meet a growing demand for these plants in our community. (we have established, seed-bearing populations of some important species)
  • Eco-friendly approaches to agritech, for example fenceless/wireless grazing like a goat rental project or algorithmically-mediated autonomous weed management. (We do not allow chemical fertilizers or pesticides on our farm.)
  • Boutique forestry, sawmill, carpentry, or building operations using local forest products, especially spruce from the woodlot.

Your farming enterprise will share the farm with our tourism businesses so it is essential that you maintain a neat, organized and beautiful farm and grounds. Existing infrastructure is conducive to incorporating workshops and courses as part of your business plan.

A key part of the agreement will be a separate contract for 10 hours per week of work in an on-sight B&B, with duties to include snow removal, greeting guests, maintaining the fireplaces, and “keeping an eye on things.” This will provide a small stream of income.

Land tenure: We will craft a 5-year memorandum of understanding with your new farming business for access to land, water, machinery, housing and other farming resources. We are specifically looking for operations which are mobile or scalable and can be relocated to a separate farming property in the vicinity after several years.

Our long-term goal is to help young people, including new Canadans, establish successful farming businesses and transition into rural land ownership. To this end we will potentially offer this incubator opportunity to more than one operation. Farmers should likewise understand that additional farming or agritech businesses may be started on the property and some resources not specifically owned by your operation could be shared in the future.

Begin the application process by writing an introductory letter and short summary of your core business idea to: office@sculpturefarm.ca. A full business plan will be required later in the application process.