Karberry Farm Goes High Tech

In 2008, Karen Kauth founded Karberry Farm after moving from Ottawa to the bucolic countryside in Mountain. An animal lover, she started populating her big property with horses, chickens, turkeys, and sheep. 

Though the farm sells eggs and meat, the farm is primarily  raising mostly Shetland sheep for their wool and breeding stock. After a series of tests and trials, Karen identified a untapped market for hand-spun, hand-dyed wool for making fleece, yarn and knit. The direction for the farm was set—only to be interrupted by the pandemic. Instead of stopping operations, she decided to be proactive. 

She approached ACCFutures to help stabilize her business during lockdown by tapping into their advisory services and getting the support for applying for relief funding. 

ACCFutures alerted her to the Technology Implementation Program (TIP), funded by the Rural Economic Development program (RED). Through this, advisors helped her strategize the next move: transforming her simple website it into a robust e-commerce site by capitalizing on market research an optimizing SEO. 

Reaching online customers not only kept Karberry Farms open for business through the pandemic but also tapped into a whole new market for business. It’s why, as Karen says, she’s sure she’ll come back to ACCFutures if she expands her business or starts a new side hustle.