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Ontario supplier of gardening and horticultural products thrives in competitive business with organic credentials and processing productivity
Historically, the term "dirt farmer" has often been used to mock unambitious agriculturists scraping a subsistence living off a small parcel of land in the name of self-sufficiency. Well, the Prust family of Pefferlaw, Ont., can also be rightfully called dirt farmers, but of a very different breed altogether.
The family operates Pefferlaw Peat Products Inc. out of this small, quaint community tucked away about 70 kilometers north of Toronto near Lake Simcoe. The company, which employs up to 18 people during the peak summer months, supplies organic soils, potting soils, aggregates, mulches and other types of growers' mixes to various garden centers operating across the province.
In addition to its own Premium Soil Products brand, the company also does co-packing for other garden products suppliers-producing, all told, somewhere around 30 different SKUs (stock-keeping units).
As for the dirt farmer metaphor, it really stems from how Pefferlaw goes about harvesting the raw materials for its products.
"We clear the trees and expose the soil," explains sales manager Peter Prust. "We then have to drain it because it is like a bog, pretty wet and swampy and you can't really walk on it.
"When we drain it and get the moisture down, we get on the fields with wide-track equipment."
This equipment is used to gather up the soil, which is then left to dry out in the sun. The peat-a substance consisting of roots, fibers, moss, etc. in various stages of decomposition-is then skimmed off, rolled up, transported to the plant by wagon, and processed through a custom-engineered soil processor, supplied by McCloskey Brothers Manufacturing of Peterborough, Ont.
The processor features what is called "a grizzly"-a special mechanical contraption, located outside the plant on top of the feed bin, featuring evenly spaced bars, about four inches apart, that are used to keep any large sticks or stones from getting through. After passing through this stage, the raw material is then subjected to the trommel, which serves to remove smaller debris with its rotating 9/16-inch screen.
From there, the product is conveyed into the surge bin. Both the surge bin and line conveyor are controlled by an...