Growing Good

A Lifestyle TV Series
- for broadcast -

One Family. One Acre. One Last Chance.

Genre: Lifestyle / Documentary

Biggest Little Farm meets Early Viceland
Runtime: 8 x 22 Minutes
Production Company: Fieldwork

Log Line

It’s been 10 years since Luke & Dana left the vibrant city life of high-end restaurants to start an organic farm. Faced with operating a sustainable farm, fighting to become profitable, and managing their mental well-being, in this pivotal year they are forced to grow to the challenge, or give up on their city escape dream.

Sizzle

Additional Rough Scenes

Growing Good captures the essence of Dana and Luke’s transformative journey from Ottawa’s high-end restaurant scene, to pioneering a thriving organic Cut Flower and Vegetable farm in Eastern Ontario. Having established what is by many measures a successful farm, the couple finds themselves at a crossroads as they head into their 10th year of business.

If they don’t improve conditions at the end of this farming season, they must walk away from everything they’ve built.

Through the dynamic arc of farming from seed to harvest, Dana and Luke show us the sprints and stressors of working the land with their all-female staff.

We follow their produce to farmer’s markets and into meals as it is sold to the area's top restaurants, learning the intricacies of marketing vegetables and keeping up with the demands of some of the top chefs in the country. Along the way we get to witness the unique approach they have developed to small acreage farming, learning not just the how, but the why behind their commitment to Growing Good.

Beyond the fields and the market stalls, Growing Good explores the narrative of mental health and work-life balance. Inside intimate conversations, we see learn how sustainable their farming practice is for the crops and environment, but are Dana & Luke themselves paying an unsustainable price to build a business that supports their family, their farm team, and the soil it’s all built upon?

Growing Good, the character driven documentary series, invites the audience to explore the challenges and triumphs of sustainable agriculture, the struggles of entrepreneurship, and what it actually takes for a family to build a life outside the city.

Episode Format

Each episode of Growing Good follows a dynamic structure that weaves together two alternating storylines. Each storyline carries an individual goal looking to be achieve for the farm, and each storyline encounters 2 roadblocks on the episodic journey to fulfill this goal.

The first storyline centers on our core team, while the second focuses on either Dana or Luke as they venture into side projects. These parallel narratives provide the audience with a unique glimpse into life on the farm, exploring the contrast between rural and urban living, and offering deep insights into agricultural systems.

Two alternating storylines

Embedded Explainer Videos

To enhance the educational experience, once per episode the show carries the viewers into an text-animated Vox-style vignette. This transition from traditional documentary storytelling to a stylized, engaging explainer, enriches the dynamics at play on the farm and reinforces the audience’s ability to learn through the narratives.

Showcase professional farming
Teach gardening techniques to apply at home

The show's format is designed to educate on multiple levels. Beyond teaching about the functionality of a professional farm, each episode also includes a practical lesson on farming techniques that viewers can apply to their own home gardens. This blend of information engages audiences wondering what life outside the city is like and gifts them new skills for when they are getting their hands dirty in their home gardens.

Establish two goals - Encounter four roadblocks - Learn via explainer video - Pickup some skills to try at home - Achieve the goals.

all in the rich, youthful visual style of a contemporary documentary - it’s not your parents farm show

Episode Example

The team identifies their next team project and they discover a problem. (Storyline 1)
Luke introduces his project but is stuck at the same roadblock. (Storyline 2)
It’s spring on the farm and Dana, Luke and the kids are in their driveway gawking at a fresh late-season snowfall that is putting everything behind schedule. New hires are coming for interviews today. The all-women core team needs to make plans for the season's beds and repot seedling tomato plants into larger planters. Luke has to get out early for a meeting with a prestigious chef to sell him on using Terramor’s produce.
The two new hires arrive but they are getting stuck in the driveway along with the core team. While juggling getting the kids out the door and into the family van, Dana and Luke introduce the new characters as they hop out of cars, pick up shovels and jump into the action of clearing the driveway. Dana, realising the day's schedule might not go according to plan, asks if they can just casually chat while shovelling instead of a formal interview.
It’s not the way Dana intended to start the day, but the teamwork ends up showing how committed everyone is to getting a job done on the farm. It turns out the new hires get along really well with the existing staff, but this snow problem is bigger than they can solve on their own. After getting one car out with brute force, they realise the driveway is still a mess and Luke, stressed because he has to get to this meeting, leaves to find a neighbour with a backhoe to see if they can help.
🤑
Driveway is cleared!
Luke is driving down the road with a neighbour in their tractor to come free vehicles and plow the driveway. As an audience we see how important community is to everyone's success. The team celebrates and heads out to discuss layout of beds for the season ahead. Luke jumps in a car to race to the restaurant.
Luke pitches the farm’s produce to a prestigious chef at a new restaurant
Luke has been invited to come chat about their upcoming summer season with a prestigious chef to see if Terramor can fit their need for produce. Luke sees this as an opportunity to sell more, but also increase the brand's credibility and exposure. We arrive at the restaurant and the chef takes Luke on a brief tour as they are plating sample dishes. We see the opportunity for Terramor’s delicious vegetables to be front and centre of these showpieces, connecting the field with the amazing culinary experiences in the city.
After the tour, we sit down in the empty restaurant before service to chat about upcoming demands. Luke and the chef get granular about the specific needs and the philosophies behind their work. Luke expertly reverse engineers these desires to pitch how Terramor can support them by supplying their product, upselling wherever possible.
The chef talks about unique needs: a special radicchio they want to use in a gem salad. Luke explains it's challenging, and has failed on them two seasons before. He sees this as a high-risk scenario but recognizes an opportunity. If he can pull it off he not only gets some credibility by being the only grower in the region who can offer it, but he also can corner the market for other restaurants that might be interested.
Dana walks the fields with the team to make some plans.
Dana and the core team move through the farm to start planning for the year ahead. They walk the space, introducing it to the new hires, and sketch out ideas. Through the conversation we learn how the farm is not run from a top-down approach, rather the learned experience from the previous season guides the all female team’s insight as they offer suggestions on the project. The show uses drone shots and animations on top of the footage to visualise what they are discussing. The dialogue becomes voice-over for a vox-style explainer, giving an overview of the techniques the farm uses for bed layouts.
The generator is out!
As we get excited for the season ahead, Dana laments how nice the snow looks, how lucky they are to be out here away from the city, and how pretty the snow is sitting on the roof of the greenhouse. Shock comes over her face as she realises that shouldn't be happening, the nursery needs to be warm! She runs to check on the baby tomato plants. The generator is out, and the temp inside has dropped. Forget repotting, Dana and the team need to find a way to keep these tomatoes alive!
🤑
Luke and Chef wrap up … But there’s a catch.
Midway through the sale, Luke gets a call from Dana and excuses himself from the meeting. It’s revealed that she is in their family kitchen while the farm team is loading all their seedlings onto any surface that will take them: the kitchen table, the couch, the record player, on top of the microwave. The boundaries between family home and farm are certainly getting crossed today.
Stressed, Luke comes back to negotiate with the chef who has had time to think. He’s really excited, but can only put his order through if Luke provides the radicchio along with the other produce as a package deal. There is a lot at risk by committing to this, so Luke asks for a day to think about it.
Plan to buy new Tomato Plants
Two days later, the family is trying to get out the door again, but their house is now filled with baby tomatoes. Dogs are kicking over pots, kids are tearing seedlings up and ultimately Dana and Luke come to the realization that the plants are not only suffering after the frost, but they are also ruining their lives. These plants have to go. She pitches that since the quality of the product has already suffered, the farm needs to eat the loss and buy some new plants to make up for it. Luke explains what the financial loss would be, and worries they don't even know anyone who would have enough crop. Dana thinks about it and suggests they go to the industry leaders in Quebec, they are the only people who might have enough available. Luke hits the road hoping he can come back with Tomatoes for the season.
Luke meets other farmers in Quebec.
In Quebec Luke meets staff at the Market Gardiner Institute, and they show him more than enough seedling Tomatoes to get Terramor going.
The team strings up new healthy tomato plants.
When Luke gets back to the farm, the team uploads the van into the greenhouse and stings up the new healthy tomato plants. While showcasing the proper techniques for stringing up the plants, they find some comedy, lamenting how this is much easier for them than having to pot the babies for a week..
🤑
Luke tells Dana that he’s found the secret to radicchio!
Luke and Dana recap how crazy that week was but say it's great because if the light frost killed the babies, they maybe weren't strong seedlings anyways. Luke explains to Dana that he has some exciting news. While at the Market Garden Institute he had a conversation and they explained a technique to him that could make their radicchio go this year. They both are very excited to go forward with this new crop.

SEASON ARC

Following a full 4 season calendar year on Terramor Farm, an overarching drama looms for Dana & Luke. Forced with the reality that if conditions on the farm don’t improve by the end of their 10th year, they will give up on the dream and sell the farm.

We get a first-hand experience following the produce from farm to market or restaurant, connecting the field to the community, and providing a barometer for the farm's financial success throughout the year.

Through the highs and lows of the year we witness the drama that naturally unfolds. Droughts, freezes, crops dying overnight, restaurant demands evolving, generators exploding, is what you expect in any given season; add a growing family, the struggles of entrepreneurship and the burnout of living where you farm, and you start to get a taste of what it takes to keep Terramor alive.

Why This Show?

Why Now?

Why Us?

This show is a reflection and rare look at what it’s like 10 years after initiating a city escape plan.

Harnessing the access to the filmmakers' lifelong relationship with this rural community, and the expert approach the farmers have developed on running an organic farm business, Growing Good offers an unseen perspective on farming, entrepreneurship, and whether or not the grass is truly greener outside the city.

In a time when it often feels like governmental actions don’t align with the common good, the significance of individual efforts has never been more critical. Growing Good provides a north star for viewers to watch people like them leading by example to shape our future. Viewers experience the reality of how hard but how rewarding it can be to have given up a lifestyle in pursuit of making the right choices, building community and fostering a better future for one’s self and the land we live on.

Fieldwork, with 15 years of industry experience has logged the 10,000 hours to become experts in this field. We now excell at producing high-quality docu-lifestyle content with a small, skilled team. This intimate approach puts the resource of time in the hands of the storytellers, fosters trust with our collaborators, and allows us to capture cinema-quality images while creating environments that encourage openness to sensitivity.

THE TEAM

Fieldwork

Built upon 15 years of production experience, Fieldwork is a dynamic content team led by two seasoned Director / Cinematographer / Producers, Ian Carleton, and Ben Rayner.

Having lensed and produced Canadian Screen Award nominated shows in both Best Web Series and Best Lifestyle Show they are expertly positioned to make compelling content on practical budgets.

Terramor Farm

Terramor Farm serves over 20 of Ottawa’s top restaurants, three retail locations in the Ottawa Valley, delivers over 100 weekly baskets to four distribution points, and sells at three farmers' markets.

Led by Luke and Dana, the farm has grown to include two cute kiddos and an all-female team of eight seasonal full-time staff. Along with their amazing crew, they tend to 2.5 acres of vegetables and half an acre of flowers.

They strive to create a sustainable business—not only for the earth they steward but also for themselves as business owners and for the staff they work with.

EXPERT PARTNERS

Growing Good is an opportunity to deliver accurate and impactful content that betters our communities, which is why we've partnered with esteemed organizations to sculpt the language of the show. These expert partners bring a wealth of specialized knowledge and experience, ensuring that the information we share is both reliable and deeply informed by current best practices. By collaborating with these trusted organizations, we can provide our viewers with well-rounded guidance on sustainable living and mental well-being, empowering them to make informed decisions that benefit their lives and communities.

National Farmers Union - Ontario

A grassroots, democratic Accredited Farm Organization (AFO) representing thousands of sustainable farmers in Ontario and has advocated for farmers across Ontario since 1969.

The NFU-O collaborates locally, nationally, and internationally to research, educate, and share effective solutions that lead to a better world for farmers and their local communities.

The NFUO plan to work with the production to examine farming practices which yield healthy products through small acreage farming that will help Canadians build a foundation of healthy living.

Canadian Organic Growers

COG provides education, advocacy and leadership to help build an agricultural system that empowers farmers and consumers, enhances human health, builds community and mitigates climate change while increasing Canadian food sovereignty

COG will work with the production to consult on how to effectively communicate the importance of soil health in ensuring that food grown sustainably has the nutrients that our bodies and minds require while creating food security in local communities.

COG will work with Growing Good to show the importance of mental health care in business, using the small farm business owners as a relatable tie to other farmers and small business owners and openly discuss the struggles, tools and resources required to live a healthy and sustainable lifestyle.

Canadian Mental Health Association, Ontario Division

CMHAO work to improve the lives of all Ontarians through leadership, collaboration and continual pursuit of excellence in community-based mental health and addictions services. Their vision is a society that embraces and invests in the mental health of all people.

The CMHAO is committed to working with the production to examine the mental health risks and realities of working in small businesses through the lens of small-family farming.

Canadian Centre for Agricultural Wellbeing

The CCAW seeks to work with grass roots, community-based organizations across the country to provide meaningful support for farmer wellbeing in Canada. The Canadian Centre for Agricultural Wellbeing’s objective has been developed upon three pillars:

1) research and innovation; 2) program evaluation;
3) policy, extension, and engagement.

The CCAW will provide consulting support to Growing Good to ensure the program uses appropriate language and measures when addressing mental health care and services nationwide. By raising awareness of farm-tailored mental health services, we aim to reduce access barriers, decrease stigma, and improve mental health literacy.