Stay ConnectedDaily farm and garden talk. All about growing vegetables profitably and efficiently on small farms and in gardens.
Each episode focuses on one specific topic – growing practices, how-to, farming challenges and struggles, sales and marketing, soil preparation, weed management, farm startup, market selection, and work-life balance.
Hosted and produced by Diego Footer’s Modern Grower Podcast Network.
Copyright: © Modern Grower
Farm and soil specialist Dan Kittredge joins me to talk about building soil and increasing plant nutrition.
Learn more about Dan and see his free courses at bionutrient.org.
View the show notes for this episode and all past episodes.
Author and farmer Ben Hartman talks about his farm and his book, The Lean Farm.
View the show notes for this episode and all previous Farm Small, Farm Smart episodes.
Learn how to start a microgreens business in Chris Thoreau's Build Your Microgreen Business Workshop.
Keep learning with these two great audiobooks: The Market Gardener by JM Fortier The Urban Farmer by Curtis Stone
Increase farm efficiency with the Paperpot Transplanter.
Today we'll talk about the practical realities of homesteading, with homesteaders Chris and Lindsay Hodge.
View the show notes for this episode and all past episodes.
The benefits of building a microgreens business, and how to keep improving it.
View the show notes for this episode and all previous Farm Small, Farm Smart episodes.
Learn how to start a microgreens business in Chris Thoreau's Build Your Microgreen Business Workshop.
Keep learning with these two great audiobooks: The Market Gardener by JM Fortier The Urban Farmer by Curtis Stone
Increase farm efficiency with the Paperpot Transplanter.
Today we'll look at the urban,rural divide from the point of view of the city dweller, focusing on what and how the city dweller views and values the food they consume.
The goal of this conversation is to shed some light on this view, so teh farmer can take that information and run with it helping them to better market their product.
It's marketing 101. Who's your audience and what do they value with Rob Avis and Javan Bernakevitch.
Learn more about the Regenerative Business Mentorship Program
Today we are going to Ojai California to talk to a farmer who's more than just a farmer. Max Beecher was inspired into farming by Joel Salatin and Joel's entrepreneurial spirit inspired Max to get created when ti came to his farm based businesses. Max started out his farm journey in 2013 with wife. At the time they weren't farmers though, they started out as aggregators... He describes the experience as "one where we sold produce from a few different local farms to a local customer base we were working on building. This started by selling #2 produce from a local farm I was volunteering at, and the farmer let me split the gross with him, since he would have thrown the product away otherwise. Our idea was to make money up front by selling other people's produce, and to build a customer base so one day we could sell our own product through it. We have continued to grow that webstore business, and it remains a core feature of our business, with a list of almost 300 customers, generating over 100 orders per week. We now source from around 15 local farms, and have a ready market for our own products, including the micro greens. Because of building this webstore before we started farming, marketing what we grow has never been a problem, and we throw little to no product away due to over production." That business has continued and evolved today to become a full-fledged online store generate over $100,000 a year in sales at a decent profit. It's a thriving business and an integral part of Max's farm, and it's one that started by selling someone else's waste. Learn more at http://www.permaculturevoices.com/farmsmallfarmsmart
When you set out to start a business is there a road map you can follow or a recipe for success? A set of steps you can take to go from where you are to where you want to be. Simply do them, and success follows. It's a nice though. And that's about all it, a nice thought. Because when it comes to business there isn't a roadmap to success, but despite that, we all want the roadmap to success. Maybe it's just human nature, the just tell me how to do it approach. It's a dangerous approach because no two approaches are the same. There are too many variables at stake to create a recipe. But again, everyone wants the recipe. As someone once said on a podcast that I did the danger of following a recipe is that you if you buy into the recipe then you become the recipe, a really, really pale copy of what you are trying to emulate. In life and in business, there are recipes, but recipes rarely lead to success, but also in life there are base principles, universals which recipes are built on. Today, we aren't focusing on the recipes, we're focusing on the base principles when it comes to starting a business. It's a topic which I will take on with that aforementioned someone, being Javan Bernakevitch, along with our friend Rob Avis. Javan and Rob have developed a set of 12 base principles of business and join me to talk about the first 6 of those principles. This episode is Part 4 of a multi-part series with Javan and Rob. Learn more at http://www.permaculturevoices.com/231
Today's episode is a different type of episode. It's a consult style episode with new grower Eddy Gilmore and long-time microgreen grower Chris Thoreau. The first part of this episode will be Eddy and I talking about what's going on with his farm, and then later in the episode Chris will join us to answer some of Eddy's questions about growing his microgreen business. Eddy's at a point in that business that you may find yourself in. He's growing his microgreens at home in his house, but he's running out of space and wondering where to from here. Find out how Chris would handle and approach the business expansion. For Eddy microgreens weren't the first farm business from day one. They came about from necessity. In Eddy's words... "We were freaking desperate over here. I have a wife and two kids, and I was all in on Tiny Farm Duluth. Less than two months ago it seemed as if all was lost. The land was being sold where the vast majority of my farm was located. It was owned by an institution, and I had no idea they were thinking of selling until just before it went on the market. Then, after it sold, I learned that the new owners weren't open to a 7,000 square foot market garden on their property. Just two hours after I received this devastating news, our 2008 Toyota Prius blew both the engine AND transmission. Total, absolute chaos. Our lives were completely upended." Given that Eddy's life was upended, how did it end up? Stay tuned to find out. Learn more at http://www.permaculturevoices.com/farmsmallfarmsmart Chris's Growing Your Microgreens Workshop: http://www.permaculturevoices.com/microgreens
When you set out to start a business is there a road map you can follow or a recipe for success? A set of steps you can take to go from where you are to where you want to be. Simply do them, and success follows. It's a nice though. And that's about all it, a nice thought. Because when it comes to business there isn't a roadmap to success, but despite that, we all want the roadmap to success. Maybe it's just human nature, the just tell me how to do it approach. It's a dangerous approach because no two approaches are the same. There are too many variables at stake to create a recipe. But again, everyone wants the recipe. As someone once said on a podcast that I did the danger of following a recipe is that you if you buy into the recipe then you become the recipe, a really, really pale copy of what you are trying to emulate. In life and in business, there are recipes, but recipes rarely lead to success, but also in life there are base principles, universals which recipes are built on. Today, we aren't focusing on the recipes, we're focusing on the base principles when it comes to starting a business. It's a topic which I will take on with that aforementioned someone, being Javan Bernakevitch, along with our friend Rob Avis. Javan and Rob have developed a set of 12 base principles of business and join me to talk about the first 6 of those principles. This episode is Part 3 of a multi-part series with Javan and Rob. Learn more at www.permaculturevoices.com/230
Given summer heat growing certain crops can be really tough, especially greens. Given the tendency of the normally cool weather lettuces to bolt quickly, turn bitter, and have their foliage burn, many growers simply pass on trying to grow summer greens. The challenges are too great and the returns are too low. But not for all growers. Over the past few weeks I talked to a lot of growers and I tried to track down farmers who were growing greens exceptionally well in some very adverse hot conditions. For today's show I got a group of those growers together and asked them all how their doing it, growing greens during the summer heat. And not just growing them, but growing them very successfully. In today's episode you will hear how their doing it and what goes into growing the greens from establishment to harvesting to storage. There are some similarities in their strategies and some differences. There's a lot in here. The Farmers: Elliot Seldner of Fair Share Farm in Winston Salem, NC. Brandon Gordon of Five Acres Farms in Pleasant Plains, AR Erich Schultz of Steadfast Farm in Queen Creek, AZ Ray Tyler of Rose Creek Farms in Selmer, TN Learn more at http://www.permaculturevoices.com/farmsmallfarmsmart
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