Expertise
Organic Certification
Crop; Livestock; Mushrooms; Cannabis; Processing
Recordkeeping; Inputs; Transition
CAN/CGSB 32.310 & 32.311; BCCOP
Community & Market Gardening
Vegetable production on a community/enterprise scale
Garden design, layout and infrastructure procurement
Crop planning and seed starting
Growing methods and weed/pest management
Crop harvest and post-harvest handling
Marketing and preserving the harvest
Mushroom & Plant ID
Workshops & guided walks
Safe & responsible foraging
Biology of plants & fungi
Craft Food Enterprise
Feasibility study
Business plan development
Design, layout & equipment procurement
Production efficiency & recipe development
Ingredient sourcing and supplier relationships
Teaching the craft & building a team
Image and marketing
Seed & Food Sovereignty
Community seed saving & crop production training
Organic & Regenerative farming
Resilient local food systems
Organic & Regenerative Farming
Traditional ‘full circle’ mixed crop/livestock systems
Building soil health
Fertility & nutrient management
Water management & irrigation systems
Preserves, fermentation & root cellar storage
Saw-milling & woodlot management
Who
Jolene Swain, MSc
- Organic Seed & Vegetable Farmer
- MSc Pest Management, Entomology, Simon Fraser University
- BSc Biology, Ecological Anthropology, University of Alberta
- Organic Verification officer, I.O.I.A.
- Permaculture Design Certificate
- 8 years organic farming, consulting & certification experience
Jonathan Knight
- Organic Farmer with over 12 years experience
- Red Seal Journeyman Baker with 20 years bakery experience
- Established two social enterprise bakeries in BC and NS
- Founder of popular organic craft bread bakery and mill on Vancouver Island
- Experienced small-scale grain grower, stone miller, mill builder and oven builder
- 20 years experience governance and financial management for both small business and not-for-profit
Short Season Consulting
Jolene Swain, MSc
Jolene is a biologist by training, a seed farmer by passion, and an organic consultant by expertise. From her masters’ work with insect pests in organic orchards, inspecting and certifying organic farms across the province, and connecting farmers to land as a Young Agrarians Land Matcher, she has been active in the organic farming community for the past 8 years and counting.
As a biologist, her field work ranged from studying pikas and plants in the Yukon alpine tundra, biodiversity surveys in the boreal forest, and research on caterpillars and climate change in organic orchards of the Similkameen Valley. For the past 7 years she has been farming and foraging at WoodGrain Farm in the Kispiox Valley, Gitxsan Laxyip: slinging vegetables at the market, tending seed & vegetable crops, foraging for mushrooms & wild plants, and helping get the hay in for the milk cow and small flock of sheep.
Jolene’s technical expertise of the Organic Standards ranges from crops, cannabis, mushrooms, livestock, processing and beyond. Need help with inputs? Record-keeping and paperwork? Wondering what transition to organic might look like for your farm? She can help get your ducks in a row and is always happy to help navigate the standards and talk about organic ideas and solutions in agriculture, and in life.
Passionate about food & seed sovereignty, Jolene is excited to offer community workshops and training: Seed saving, mushroom & wild plant collection & identification, organic & regenerative farming. See below for recent writings and workshop offerings.
Presentations/Workshops
- Seed Crop Production, NW Growers conference, March 19, 2022
- Navigating Organic Inputs, Organic BC podcast series, 2022
- Seed Saving Skills & Economics of Running a Seed Enterprise, Kitselas Youth Employment, 2021
- Regenerative Agriculture: an Organic Perspective, Ministry of Agriculture, 2021
- The very hungry caterpillar: Weather and climate impacts on an insect pest in apple orchards, Bulkley Valley Research Centre, 2021
- Climate friendly mixed farming systems, Farm Folk City Folk, 2020
- Challenges & Opportunities: Organic Certification, Terrace Food Association, 2019
- Mushroom Identification foray: WildBird Research 2016, Fraser Valley Permaculture Guild 2017
Writing
- Beyond the Market: Selling to Retailers, Young Agrarians blog, March 2021
- B.C. Transition Toolkit for non-family farm transfer, Young Agrarians, contributing author, November 2020
- The Lasser Legacy, Organic Grower Magazine, June 2020
- Central North Land Access Needs Assessment Report, internal document, February 2019
- Cold tolerance of the spring-feeding larvae of the eyespotted bud moth, Spilonota ocellana (Lepidoptera: Tortricidae), Canadian Entomologist, 2017
- Impact of temperature and relative humidity on the eye-spotted bud moth, Spilonota ocellana (Lepidoptera: Tortricidae): a climate change perspective, MSc thesis 2016
Knight Baker Consulting
Jonathan Knight
Jonathan would be happy to lend his varied expertise and experiences to your project, and is particularly passionate about where the worlds of the craft food producer and the farmer intersect.
For the past dozen years, Jonathan has been fully immersed in small-scale organic farming and homesteading in the Kispiox Valley, growing vegetables for two community farmers’ markets; heirloom grains to mill into flour; lamb, pork and poultry; and milking the cow every morning.
Prior to this, Jonathan is an accomplished red seal baker and miller with over 20 years professional bakeshop experience, including coordinating the establishment of two social enterprise bakeries, and founding True Grain Bread in Vancouver Island’s Cowichan Valley:
“Jonathan Knight established his bakery along the main road, thereby transforming the little village into an epicenter of the artisanal movement on the island.”
Condé Nast Gourmet Magazine, Aug 2009
“Like any food obsessed community anywhere in the world, the heart of the place is the bakery, and Jonathan Knight has set about to reinvent bread baking in the tiny town of Cowichan Bay.”
The Globe and Mail, May 2007
“True Grain Bakery makes the best bread on the Island”
James Barber, Pacific Yachting July 2005
“This bakery is where it all began – the place that ignited Cowichan’s reputation for good food and fine wine”
Up! Magazine (WestJet) May 2008
“The renaissance can be credited in a large part to True Grain Bread. Jonathan Knight expertly shapes raw dough into plump rolls ready for the oven of his natural organic bakery”
Westworld Magazine, Summer 2008
“Among the cluster of shops in Cowichan Bay are some true food pioneers. Jonathan Knight’s bakery, True Grain Bread, allows you to buy not only fresh, delicious organic breads and pastries, but also to see them being produced in the on-site mill”
Daily Express (UK), May 2008
Baking
Accredited Red Seal Journeyman baker, with 20 years professional bakery experience
Apprenticed with German Master Baker in traditional European bread production, in Canada and Germany
Coordinated the establishment of two social enterprise bakeries:
· Cuillin Bread for the Bay St. Lawrence Community Centre, Cape Breton NS
· Skeena Bakery for the Skeena Supported Employment Society, New Hazelton BC
Founded, operated, and transitioned ownership of True Grain Bread, an organic craft bakery and flour mill in Cowichan Bay, Vancouver Island BC
Over 20 years experience in governance and financial management for both small business and not-for-profits
Experience
WoodGrain Farm Kispiox Valley, BC 2009 – present. Organic Farmer
Skeena Bakery New Hazelton, BC 2009 – 2011. Start-up Coordinator and Trainer
True Grain Bread Cowichan Bay, BC 2004 – 2008. Founder & Owner
Cuillin Bread Bay St. Lawrence, NS 2002 – 2003. Start-up Coordinator & Operator
Artisan Bake Shoppe N. Vancouver, BC 1999 – 2001. Apprentice & Lead Baker
Bäckerei Walter Aalen, Germany 2000.
German Bakery Intern
Capers Wholefoods W. Vancouver, BC 1998 – 1999. Baker
Overweightea Foods Maple Ridge, BC 1991 – 1994. Baker
Advocacy
Bulkley Valley Farmers’ Market Association 2014-2018. Director and Treasurer
Hazelton Farmers’ Market Society 2009-2022. President, Treasurer, Market Manager
Skeena Supported Employment Society 2008 – 2011. Treasurer and Skeena Bakery Start-up Co-ordinator
Cowichan Bay Improvement Assoc. 2006 – 2008. Director and Project Coordinator
Islands Bakers’ Association 2005 – 2008.
Director, Organizer & Speaker
Slow Food, Vancouver Island 2004 – 2008. Member & Event Speaker
Writing/Presentations
Grist for the Mill BC Organic Grower Magazine, January 2017
Farming on the Edge BC Organic Grower Magazine, September 2016
Small-town Farmers’ Market presentation, BC Association of Farmers’ Markets Conference, 2015
Small-scale Grain Growing presentation, Northern Roots Community Garden Smithers, 2013
Baking and Milling Heirloom Grains, numerous presentations, Slow Food Vancouver Island, 2005-2008
Starting a Craft Bakery presentation, Islands Bakers Association Conference, 2005
These days, Jonathan still keeps his hand in at baking on the farm. Grain is hand sewn with an antique broadcast seeder, harvested with a 1940’s Massey Harris pull-behind combine, and cleaned though a 1920’s Cockshutt fanning mill.
Prior to baking, the grain is freshly ground on a stone mill that Jonathan hand built along the lines of the traditional Austrian mills he has worked with, where flour is also milled up for the farmers’ markets.
His naturally leavened loaves and baked goods are brought to life in the masonry oven of an Alan Scott design, that Jonathan also built, and wood-fired with birch he cuts from the back forty.
WoodGrain Farm 