A Kelowna farm has won a bronze medal in a national competition and been awarded a $5,000 grant.
Among the almost 2,000 entries, the Okanagan Lavender & Herb Farm tied for third with several other small businesses across the country in this year’s Canadian FedEx Small Business Grant Contest.
“We’re pretty excited,” said Andrea McFadden, owner of Okanagan Lavender & Herb Farm.
“We’ve been at this for years, so we’ve been able to perfect our practices.”
The contest recognizes 10 small businesses from across the country annually and provides the businesses with support and financial resources to help them break into local and global markets.
Okanagan Lavender & Herb Farm’s dedication to innovating the farming industry to keep it sustainable for the future is their selling point for investors and customers, said McFadden.
“Sustainable farming is going to be the way of the future,” she added.
Their products are grown without harmful sprays and harvested by hand.
They’re accented by sustainably sourced, organic and fair trade oils, butters, essential oils as well as other products.
All of their products are tested on family, friends and staff, “but never on animals” and are all farmed by hand, McFadden noted.
There is no machinery involved to farm and harvest.
One of their newest additions, that McFadden said probably won the judges over, is their newly imported biodegradable wood chip containers from Finland.
She said her farm is the first in Canada to use this equipment.
“They believed in our story,” said McFadden, who had to send in a video as part of the application process. “They all felt like they visited the farm. We aren’t even videographers. We are farmers.”
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