Justine Ludwig was a feature story in Volume 18 of Trailblazher Magazine. Enjoy behind the scenes content that has never been published before now!

Justine Ludwig is an agritourism entrepreneur and homeschool mom, blending family, farming, and business to create memorable experiences on Vancouver Island. Alongside her husband, the couple launched the Coastal Black Pumpkin Festival in 2013, which has grown into a beloved community event. In 2022, they added the Coastal Black Tulip Festival, hand-planting over 300,000 tulips to welcome springtime visitors. A homeschool mom of three, Ludwig brings her children into the entrepreneurial journey, teaching them the values of hard work and creativity. Passionate about agritourism, Ludwig now helps other farmers and homesteaders transform their own farms into thriving event destinations.

DESCRIBE ‘A DAY IN THE LIFE’

When my feet hit the floor in the morning I am pretty much ready to go. My brain is already firing a million ideas at me and I can’t wait to see how I get to move forward on them. I don’t drink coffee but usually enjoy a cup of tea or will make a fresh pressed juice or smoothie, something quick so we can get moving on. The kids have chores in the morning and we will usually start home school by 9:30am and finish around noon depending on the day and season. I love getting to be the one to answer their questions and educate them, it’s been really special. My afternoon varies if we are getting ready for an event, then I am setting up, organizing, decorating, or doing emails and social media Reels or posts and stories to help promote, market and sell tickets. You can find me painting and creating new decor, designing new features and activities with my husband for our events. If our event is open I will be their getting things set up and organized for our staff in the morning and then working alongside them, serving customers, making food, selling produce or tulips, you name I am willing to jump in and do it. I’ll take kids to activities and we usually have a bunch of their friends over to play in the afternoons during the middle of the week. I typically make dinner and we sit down as a family and enjoy taking about our Highs and Lows of the day with the kids. Some nights we will head out to play Pickleball, other nights we will stay in and play a board game, but if it’s summer time we try to finish work as quickly as possible and go fishing in the evenings. It’s one of my favourite things to do with my husband and kids. I really have found joy in preserving food, stocking up our freezers and appreciate smoking our salmon, raising farm animals on our farm to feed us and know exactly what we eat and how it’s been raised. Our days vary which excites me. I love each season as some days we are in the thick of event season getting to see the joy on families faces as they make memories here and other days we are farming and packaging up produce or products to go to stores. The best part of my day is knowing we get to do work and life together. I love having my husband home for lunch and then taking one of the kids on a tractor or to bee keep with him. I love that we will have last minute dinners as a big family. And I’ve learned to be flexible, as farming changes daily.

WHAT HAS BEEN THE MOST CHALLENGING ASPECT OF YOUR BUSINESS?

When we started our Tulip Fest we had bought the bulbs in the late Spring of 2021 with plans to plant them that fall in the ground. The province of BC experienced great flooding that fall. Although we didn’t have the same amount of flooding as the lower mainland of British Columbia, we still had our lower 2 acre field that was prepped for Tulips to be planted in it flood. We had to quickly pivot and figure out how to plant our 300,000 tulip bulbs before winter came. We quickly bought hundreds of trays, brought in over a million pounds of soil and 8 semi-trucks worth of saw dust and began planting all 300,000 bulbs by hand. Some of our seasonal workers went home in November, so as a family we would go out after dinner and work into the night planting tulip bulbs in trays in our barn. We left the trays stacked on pallets over winter and then once the flooding and snow melted we finally were able to lay the trays in the field. I always joke with my husband that not many men can say they lifted over a million pounds of soil and tulips, but he can! The flooding could have stopped us from achieving our dream of opening our Tulip Fest, but instead it challenged us to become inventive and plant bulbs above ground in raised beds so to speak in a really large scale. The following year we realized the benefit to doing this as we had some Tulip Fire, which is a disease that can run through your bulbs and take out your crop. This would be pretty devastating for our 2 acre “show garden” field to experience. Since the tulips were in trays all we had to do was remove those trays that showed the disease and the remaining tulips were saved. We also like the location of where our Tulip Field is so we do have the expense of having to purchase new soil each year for the bulbs to go into. This is to protect them from disease. The main thing we focus on is composting the soil year after year so that within 5 or so years we will be able to reuse the soil for future bulbs. Whether you’re an experienced farmer or new and trying something out for the first time, there will be challenges to overcome, but it’s how you overcome them that’ll determine how you move forward or not. Don’t be afraid to try new things, but be willing to create new ways to do them and get creative! You might just be on the verge of something new and innovative.

WHAT FAMOUS PERSON WOULD YOU MOST LIKE TO HAVE DINNER WITH AND WHY?

I would spend the day with Dolly Parton hands down! She and I would get our nails done, go shopping for something with rhinestones on it and sing “I will always love you and Working 9-5” while we made friend chicken and waffles in the kitchen. She always inspired me as a Country Music Singer/Songwriter. But now as a woman who hosts Agritourism Events myself, I love seeing how she created job opportunities for her community and home town in Pigeon Forge, TN by creating Dolly Wood. She is bringing people to where she grew up in the Smoky Mountains to see and hear her story through musicals, amusement rides and tourism attractions. She’s given back to her community and building her local economy plus putting a small town on the Map as a Global Destination for people around the world to visit. I would love to hear from her how this dream started and will continue to grow as a legacy to her fans, family and local community.

WHAT ADVICE WOULD YOU GIVE YOUR YOUNGER SELF?

If I could give my younger self a piece of advice it would be “build it and they will come.” If you have a dream or a passion for something, make a plan and do the work to figure out how to make it happen. If you don’t know how to do something, figure it out or ask someone who does or has gone before you and done it. Be willing to fail, pivot quickly, pause if you need to, but get back up and keep going. I would also tell her to, not stress and worry as much. God has you and put your Faith in Him. With that said, 12 years into hosting our farm events I still say to my husband the night before we open, “do you think anyone will show up?” Lol! 😂 Isn’t it funny that despite the fact that we sell online advance ticket sales now, and we know there will be people attending, I still have those same emotions like it’s our first year of our Pumpkin Fest and we are doing this for the first time.

WHO HAS INSPIRED YOU MOST IN YOUR LIFE?

My mom, dad and sister have been the people who have inspired me in my life and encouraged me every step of the way. My mom is my biggest cheerleader, like most moms are. She inspired me with her gift for music and writing creative songs helping guide my Career in Country Music. Her entrepreneurial spirit and drive to build a one of a kind business encouraged me to take risks at a young age and realize I wanted to be an entrepreneur. She is a teacher and knowing what it takes to dedicate yourself to your students and their education has allowed me to boldly step forward as a home school mom and teach our kids. My sister Andrea and I are two very different people. She is so tech savvy and I am inspired by her knowledge of all things technology and how to make things run more efficiently online. Andrea is always so kindly helping me with my big ideas and plans. She and her family have driven several hours every weekend in October for the past 12 years to come help work at our Pumpkin Fest. She is dedicated to her family and is one of the most loyal people I have ever met. My dad is a selfless person and inspires me to think of others and put them first. His love for animals has encouraged me to have our own farm animals and pets. He always has a willingness to help where there is a need and I love how he jumps in with a giving spirit. He showed me at an early age how to give back and help others.

You can read Justine’s 7 page Feature Story in Volume 18 – available for purchase here.

Photography by Ricci Miller