Eight years ago Rick and Jeanita Rand sat down to have a serious look at their finances and discovered that they could no longer afford to run their farm.
“In 2002 I was going to disperse the cows and quota and sell,” says Rand.
“You make pretty good money but every month you see yourself going behind a little bit, and it doesn’t take a lot of imagination or foresight to see that in five years you’re out of business.”
But late on a Sunday night in October of that same year the Rand’s heard a knock at the door and received some fortunate news.
“Everything changed for us,” said Rand’s wife, Jeanita.
An elderly neighbour had heard through a mutual friend that Rick wanted to make cheese and she happened to know of a cheese-maker who was going out of business nearby who wanted to sell his business. The farmers met, made a deal and the rest is history.
The Rand’s now own and operate one of the most successful cheese houses in the province. The Fox Hill Farm and Cheese House is located in Port Williams, N.S., on the same lands that Rick’s family has been farming for six generations.
“Thirty-five years ago I asked my dad, shouldn’t we be making cheese or something?” says Rand, “and he said no because it’s only about ten per cent payout… Nobody was into specialty cheese 30 years ago. When we started there was no buy local campaign out there.”
The Rand farm is now home to about 160 cows, ten employees, several barns and a cheese house. The Rand’s make more than a dozen different varieties of cheese and also produce their own gelato, which they sell at the market.
Even though running a successful farm comes with its challenges, Rand says he wouldn’t trade it for anything.
This farm’s not just mine. It was my father’s, my grandfather’s, my great-grandfather’s.
Rand is looking at the move to the new Seaport market as an opportunity to continue to grow his operation. The Rand’s will be bringing a full line of dairy products to Seaport including their own fresh milk in glass jars.
Rand says that the increase in hours and operating days at the new market comes with certain stresses.
“We’ll be hiring more people,” says Rand, ”we’ll probably have four people in Halifax as well as myself on Saturday. Jeanita will be there at least three or four days a week.. I can see us growing to a crew of around 25 people.”
But Rand thinks the investment will be worth it.
“We’re investing not just in us but in the people we serve,” he says.
“Every time I walk into the market I say, ‘I wonder if anyone’s going to buy anything from us today?’ They don’t have to but they will… I think that the opportunity outweighs the fears.”