Oil business booming for organic farmers by Valerie Fortney
Calgary Herald, September 19, 2004

Strolling through Penny Marshall’s rural garden, the casual observer could easily mistake it for just another pretty flower bed: row of begonias, pansies and Bachelor Buttons mix in with aromatic herbs to form a palette that’s immensely pleasing to the eye.

But there’s one big difference.

These flowers aren’t just for admiring. In fact, they’re perfectly edible, as Marshall demonstrates by plucking a bright yellow blossom and popping it into her mouth.

“I grew them because they’re beautiful, and because I wanted to eat them,” she explains after swallowing the flower.

The tasty and colourful flowers destined for the plates of such upscale Calgary restaurants such as River Café, are just the first hint that this is no ordinary farm.  In fact, nothing done on the land Penny shares with husband Tony could be called traditional agriculture.

Known to area health food enthusiasts and chefs, Highwood Crossing Organic Farm, just a few minutes south from the Okotoks turnoff and just off Highway 2, has made its name growing and processing cold-pressed organic oils and grains, along with the organic flowers, produce and herbs Penny lovingly tends each day.

The Marshalls’ canola and flaxseed oils, along with their muffin, bread mixes and granola, are carried in such local stores as Sunterra, Community Natural Foods and Co-op. The oils are also something of a delicacy amongst Canada’s best chefs, with people like Anna DesJardins (names Canada’s top chef by the New York Times) and the Food Network’s Michael Smith ordering in regular shipments.

“We’re in the oil business,” says Tony as he provides a tour of his half-section of pesticide free land. “Heck, I never thought I’d say that in a million years.”

Indeed, today’s incarnation of Highwood Crossing couldn’t be further from the concept Tony’s great-grandfather, William Bevan Thorne, had when he homesteaded here in 1899. Together with George Lane (one of the Calgary Stampede’s “Big Four”), Thorne, the first president of the Canadian Percheron Association, brought the horses known for their heavy draft work over from France.

Over time, the ranch evolved into a mixed operation, with horses, cattle and farm crops filling up the land. Tony, who spent a good part of his childhood here as the only child of Olive and Grant, became the fourth owner when he moved in his new bride, Penny, shortly after their 1981 wedding.

Like his ancestors, Tony for a time had cattle. But partly thanks to Penny’s earlier career has a home economist, both had a growing desire to take a less traveled road. Around 1986, the pair decided to “move the farm organic – one field at a time,” says Tony.

“Not too many people were doing this, and especially not in Alberta,” he says, noting that even today, Alberta has only about 197 certified organic farms, compared to provinces like Saskatchewan, which boasts more than 700. “Its not an easy thing to do, especially in the middle of traditional agriculture country. We call this type of farming the ‘bleeding edge,’ because here wasn’t much information out there at the time we started.”

Fortunately, Tony, now 51, found his niche in 1996, when he heard about a company in Germany selling oil presses. He flew over to tour the facility that made pressed oil. Then, he called his wife.

“I told Penny, ‘Hey, I think this might work.’”

The Marshalls’ first sales were made at the nearby Millarville Market, where they found themselves educating customers about the health benefits of flax and omaga-3 fatty acid. Daughters Megan, now 20, and Kerry, 16, helped make the pitch.

These days, though, their wares need little promotion.

“We got luck with the whole baby boomer population and their interest in healthy foods,” says Penny,47. “We had very good timing.”

Today, the Marshalls’ organic, cold-pressed oils are made mostly for local restaurants and retail stores. Because cold-pressed is a much slower process than traditional, high-heat processing (which, says Tony, uses solvents and other unhealthy ingredients to speed up production), the Marshalls are able to produce only between three and six litres of oil per hour.

“We get calls from around the U.S. and Europe asking us to send them oil by the container loads,” says Tony, who presses his oil fresh each week to order.

“But we’re more interested in maintaining the quality than in going mainstream. We’re in seed Monday, and on the grocery shelf by Friday.”

Because of their dedication to high quality organic, the Marshalls have recently been nominated to be delegates to Tierra Madre, the meeting of the international slow food movement to be help in October in Turin, Italy.

The event will bring together 5000 producers from all over the world in celebration of good, healthful food served in time-honored traditions.

It’s an honour that brings a smile to Tony Marshall’s face.

“You never know where you’re going to end up in life,” says the unlikely “oil” baron. “But when you think outside the box, anything can happen.”