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
Toby Hemenway joins me to talk permaculture - how permaculture has changed and how we can work more permaculture into our lives. Key Takeaways: It really benefits anyone in almost any field to be able to think in whole systems. Someone who embraces permaculture can do a lot more than teach and design property. Apply permaculture techniques and principles to what you do. Find good mentors. Many people want to help others. You just have to ask. Some standard economic training is good. You can get a great toolkit and then apply it however you want. Standard training is a tool, a means to an end if you goal is ecological design. Catch kids while thinking in whole systems. Before they are trained out of it into compartmentalized thinking. Starting with soil fertility and building organic matter is a good idea. It is almost a universal panacea along with being careful with water. Move to the highest generalization. For example, do you want to open a store, or do you want to make a living providing good products for your community. Find the things in life that you are really good at and do those things. It gives you good feedback and then you start building confidence and making forward progress. Want to transition careers? Find ways to make it less scary - lower expenses.
Show Notes: www.permaculturevoices.com/144
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Today's episode is the first episode in a week long series dedicated to the late Toby Hemenway. It's the first presentation in a series of episodes which Toby called his civilization series. It's titled How Permaculture Can Save Humanity and the Earth, but Not Civilization. Learn more at www.permaculturevoices.com/143 Support the show at permaculturevoices.com/support.
2016 has been an interesting year for me. It's been one of transition and growth and change. It's been a year that's ended a long career in one world and kick started a new career going out on my own. It's been a year of loss losing pioneers like Toby Hemenway, Gene Logsdon, and Bill Mollison; and it's been a year of addition as a beautiful daughter entered my life. I have a grown a lot and changed a lot as a person. And honestly I feel like I am more me than I have ever been. It's a me that's been found through a lot of self-reflection, writing, literally hundreds of podcasts, and conversations with people like Javan. Along the way I have learned a lot. Today I will be sharing some of what I learned as Javan and I go through our top 5 lessons from 2016. In total 10 simple ways of looking at life, approaching life, and thinking about life that can change your life tomorrow. I look at a lot of these lessons as base principles in an approach to life that very much contradicts the status quo. None of these lessons require any money or technology to implement. There are no tools or techniques here. It's simply changing your approach. As 2016 comes to an end, take what you can from this episode, to align what you do in life more with who you are. Learn more at www.permaculturevoices.com/javan Support the show at www.permaculturevoices.com/support
Mycologist and author Peter McCoy of RadicalMycology.com takes on the question - I'm wondering if you have any information about inoculating trees to grow truffles. I have read that hazelnuts are sometimes used in truffle production and, while there are nurseries that sell (large quantities of) inoculated trees, I can't find any information about doing it yourself. It seems like the method is to introduce some kind of inoculum into sterilised seeding media just prior to germination, but what is the inoculum? Ground up truffles? Can you grow out the inoculum prior to introducing it to the soil to expand your supply?
To learn more about Peter and see all of the ASK Peter episodes visit permaculturevoices.com/peter.
Support the show at permaculturevoices.com/support.In terms of journeys, today I am going to highlight an epic one. It's the story of Justin Rhodes. Justin who has gone from someone one government assistance and in debt to someone who is self-made, out of debt, and now making a living through his various online businesses. A remarkable feet in an of itself. And even more remarkable given how quickly it has played out. It's a truly inspirational story that started from this show. Learn more at www.permaculturevoices.com/133 Support the show at www. permaculturevoices.com/support
Mycologist and author Peter McCoy of RadicalMycology.com takes on the question - The question is whether or not mushrooms could be used in a brooder to help break down the wood based bedding, manure and spilled feed and maybe get a mushroom harvest. My brooder, along with others across the country are basically going to sit idle over the winter. Come late winter I go in there with some tools and clear it out. It is my least favorite day of the entire year. I'd be interested in inoculating the bedding with a mushroom and seeing what could be done. Any reduction in the amount of bedding would be a gain. If I could get some mushrooms out of it, all the better. My thoughts were to cultivate something over the winter while the brooder is inactive and then clean it out before my first batch of broilers begins late February. Not sure if that would be a long enough time frame for mushrooms.
To learn more about Peter and see all of the ASK Peter episodes visit permaculturevoices.com/peter.
Support the show at permaculturevoices.com/support.Mycologist and author Peter McCoy of RadicalMycology.com takes on the question - I have an abundance of woodchips. Any thoughts on inoculating the pile to "rapidly" break down the pile of chips into compost, or is it not worth the effort and just let nature do the work? To learn more about Peter and see all of the ASK Peter episodes visit permaculturevoices.com/peter. Support the show at permaculturevoices.com/support.
For notes related to this episode visit permaculturevoices.com/growmicrogreens. When you think about what your selling, don't forget that what you are selling isn't just what's in the cooler behind your booth. You're selling yourself, your story, and the role that you play in a bigger movement; all intangible assets that can allow you to succeed without having a diversity of products. But if you want to grow, and you don't have more products to sell to customers, then you need to find more customers, and that likely means diversifying beyond the farmers market. That's the subject of today's show where farmers market is one of the market streams that we dig into as Chris talks about his experiences selling to a diversity of market streams without a diversity of crops. For notes related to this episode visit permaculturevoices.com/growmicrogreens.
Learn more at permaculturevoices.com/theurbanfarmer
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About one year ago Season 1, Episode 37 aired. It was us taking a look back at Curtis production for the 2015 season.
Today we will do something similar for 2016, because a lot has changed.
Let's start by rewinding the clock and go back that previous episode from December 2015...
"We are officially out of the main season and for the most part, Curtis is now done producing crops off of his farm.
In this episode we will take a look at what Curtis produced on the farm in 2016, and how much of it he produced.
And as a hint, he produced a lot.
All in Curtis produced about 17,500lbs of product off of his farm this year. That's a lot of food coming from a small space. Remember Curtis is only farming off of 15,000 sq.ft. which is spread out over 5 plots. And this year he made the most of it producing over 17,000lbs of produce on those 5 plots. And we aren't talking corn and potatoes here. For the most part many of the crops which he produced really aren't that heavy, he simply produced a lot of product. 3000lbs of tomatoes, 2500lb. of radishes, 2500lb. of spring mix, 2000lbs of turnips. Big numbers for a small farm."
That was then.
Now let's go to present day of December 2016.
And while a year ago the production season was over, this year, it's not. We are still in production season, because Curtis's farm now produces year round, with sales every week of the year.
That's just one of the many changes that took place at Green City Acres this year.
As we look back at 2016, it was a year where Curtis farmed less land than 2015, cut back on certain crops, and added others. Part of those changes came as a result of changes in his market streams as he cut back on restaurant sales, eliminated the farmers market, and started selling a lot more to local grocers.
Big changes, that have had a big effect on what he's growing and how much he's producing...
Let's jump into it and take a look at Curtis 2016 farm production... what was produced, what wasn't, and why it changed.
Learn more at permaculturevoices.com/theurbanfarmer
Support the show at permaculturevoices.com/support
Mycologist and author Peter McCoy of RadicalMycology.com takes on the question - Is it possible to have a raised "bed" of hardwood chips with multiple strains happily cohabiting and fruiting in different seasons? To learn more about Peter and see all of the ASK Peter episodes visit permaculturevoices.com/peter. Support the show at permaculturevoices.com/support.
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