What do Bush Order Supporter funds go towards?

The Bush Order Supporter model was developed during our fundraising efforts for the initial purchase of our property and bakery renovations. However, since then, Bush Order Supporters have stuck with us. You are our friends, our family. You are community members invested in local food production and manufacturing. You are people looking for nutrient-dense local products.

Given that we have no intention of getting rid of Bush Order Supporters as it was originally formed to be, we wanted to inform everyone what their monthly contribution goes towards.

As a prerequisite, we have now set up a specific Bush Order Supporters fund bank account. At the end of every month, we will be transferring all the funds collected from Bush Order Supporters to this new savings account. This way we will always see what contribution our Bush Order Supporters have made.

To build on top of that below is a living list of short-term and long-term goals and purchases we would like to make over time.

Annual Seed Order

Approx. Cost: $1,100.00
Timeline: Annually
Each year we have to make the investment into seeds. The purchase comes in January and we often don’t see any return on the investment until late June at the earliest. Unlike bigger purchases below, our seed purchase is annual and recurring.

Dough Divider

Approx. Cost: $3,700 
Timeline: Officially Obtained January 2022
A dough divider, even a used one, will help increase our production and productivity of bagel-making primarily, but also for making dinner rolls. Rather than one person dividing individual bagel dough pieces for an hour, they will be able to divide 18 bagel pieces at once in a matter of minutes.

Thanks to your contribution we were able to purchase this in January 2022

Soil – 15,000 cubic feet

Approx. Cost: $15,000
Timeline: Summer 2022 and recurring as needed
When we purchased our property we also purchased approximately 15,000 cubic feet of soil that was already on the property. This soil covers approximately 5,000 square feet on the east side of the property. We would like to expand this growing space by adding an additional 5,000 square feet on the Northwest side of the property over the course of the next 2 growing seasons. This goal might be accomplishable through Bush Order Supporter funds and Canadian Agriculture Program (CAP) funding.

Compost/Organic Matter – 1,000 cubic feet

Approx. Cost: $6,000 
Timeline: Summer 2022 and recurring as needed.
Practicing no-till and bio-intensive methods of farming we require a lot of compost to help establish nutrient-rich soil for plants to grow in. While we would love to make our own compost, and we are certainly trying, we simply can’t make enough in the short summers we have. As such we hope to supplement our compost with Hay River horse/cattle compost. We hope to drive down to Hay River in the spring for a first load. This goal might be accomplishable through Bush Order Supporter funds and CAP funding.

District Biomass Boiler System

Approx. Cost: $60,000
Timeline: Summer/Fall 2023
A longer-term goal for us is to get away from such heavy propane (fossil fuel) use with the purchase and installation of a district biomass boiler system. We hope to install a unit that would run off dead-standing firewood harvested in the North Slave region that would heat our bakery/store/apartment and our future greenhouse during shoulder seasons.

Pellet Boiler Bread Oven – Polin

Approx. Cost: $150,000
Timeline: 2022/2023
The goal of purchasing a pellet-fired bread oven archives two goals. First, it would increase our baking capacity taking us from 12 loaves a load on one deck to 40 loaves a load across 4 stacked decks. Secondly, it will lessen our reliance again on propane and fossil fuels.

Deep Winter Greenhouse

Approx. Cost: $80,000
Timeline: 2023/2024
As part of expanding our market garden production, we would like to purchase a kit or construct our own commercial-sized deep-winter greenhouse. The design of a deep winter greenhouse utilizes many variables and recourses effectively making it a viable option for 4-season growing. For starters, the greenhouse would face South with the North facing wall constructed as a heat sink, which would heat up during the day and release that heat slowly throughout the night. It would also be constructed to have hot water pipes running below the soil tied into the District Biomass Boiler, effectively being heated by biomass fuel, but also retaining that heat within the heat sink formed by the growing soil.

This list is living and when we are able to purchase something we hope to indicate it above, like the dough divider, but it is also living in the sense that we may add to it as our goals grow and change based on the environment we are operating in.