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
To learn more about the PV3 audio visit: permaculturevoices.com/pv3audio. In this presentation Taylor Walker covers perennial vegetable gardening in the subtropics and tropics. Forget growing most of your traditional "grocery store vegetables" many of these will not tolerate the intense rains, humidity, heat, and pest pressure of the tropics and subtropics. Given that this presentation focus on more resilient perennial vegetables. Taylor will talk about growing, propagating, selling, and using highly nutritious and versatile crops selected from subtropical locations around the world including Cassava, Yams, Moringa, Sweet Potato, Jackfruit, Longevity Spinach, Tumeric, and many more. To see the slides for the presentation and watch this presentation visit, permaculturevoices.com/b36 If you enjoyed this presentation from PV3, and you want more content just like it, you can purchase all of the audio from PV3 for only $99 bucks. To learn more about the PV3 audio visit: permaculturevoices.com/pv3audio.
Learn more in the show notes at permaculturevoices.com/126. What do you do as a farmer, when you are trapped in an agricultural system that values quantity not quality? A system where you literally get paid for now much you produce, irrespective of how nutrient dense it is or how sustainable it is. And how do you as a farmer work within that system if you don't agree with it. It's not easy, and there's going to be a lot of give and take. At the end of the day as a farmer you need to make money, and that may mean putting some of your ideology behind you to make that money. As we have heard on this show many times before chasing perfection may chase you right out of the farming business. There needs to be a balance there between your vision of the agricultural future, and what the market will bear. But balancing those out isn't always easy and it can be challenge. In today's episode we'll find out how Chris Kerston balanced those sides out. Chris is now and employee of the Savory Institute, but before that he was a full time farmer. For 6 years Chris co-managed a 2,000 acre diversified farm based on holistic grazing and permaculture in the Sacramento Valley. The farm is comprised of old growth olive orchards, heirloom stonefruits and citrus groves, and also raises grassfed cattle, sheep, goats, and pasture-raised chickens for both meat and eggs. Chris knows his stuff on the land and he knows what goes into being a farmer and producing food. But he also knows a lot about the current state of the agriculture movement. Through his role as the Savory Institutes Marketing and Communication Director he travels the world with Allan Savory in addition to visiting tons of farms. This has given him a wide ranging perspective on the agriculture space; something that we'll play off in today's episode. We'll talk about the differences between farming and ranching and why if you are worried about the big oil, you should really be worried about big grain. We'll discuss the validity of organics, and is it economic. And since Chris was a farmer we'll talk some farming.. This isn't just all macro ideas about the food space and the agriculture space. Chris talks a lot farming nuts and bolts - pastured poultry in orchards, selling meat, advantages for selling wholes and halves versus cuts, and a whole lot more. There is a lot in this one, enjoy it. Learn more in the show notes at permaculturevoices.com/126 Support the show at permaculturevoices.com/support
Homesteader Justin Rhodes of AbundantPermaculture.com talks about what you should feed your new baby chicks. To learn more about Justin and see all of the ASK Justin episodes visit permaculturevoices.com/justin.
Greens are big business for Curtis' farm. Both in terms of volume of product, and dollars generated for that product.
His customer base, which is mainly made of restaurants, buys a lot of greens. And they pay good money for them. But like many things on the farm there is a seasonality that goes along with restaurants and the products that Curtis sells to restaurants.
Typically spring is a slower time of year for restaurant sales, and thereby farm sales. Things just aren't as busy.
But this year is a bit of an anomaly, because Curtis's revenue is way up for the season.
That increase in revenue can be attributed to a couple things. First, he has picked up a few new wholesale customers outside of restaurants, and second, he is selling all of his customers more high value product, specifically greens.
More demand, means more production, so Curtis' production of greens on the farm is way up this year.
But it's not just as simple as planting more beds of greens. There's a lot of nuance involved...
When the beds were planted, how far apart the successions are, when do you harvest whole beds versus halves.
Logical considerations, but not always the simplest to wrap your head around.
That's what we will be focusing on in today's episode.
It's currently April 26, 2016.
Learn more at permaculturevoices.com/theurbanfarmer
Support the show at permaculturevoices.com/support
Farmer John Suscovich of Camps Road Farm and FarmMarketingSolutions.com answers the question, "How do you manage your chicken brooder?"
To learn more about John and see all of the ASK John episodes visit permaculturevoices.com/john.
If you like the show, please support the show by making a contribution at permaculturevoices.com/ilikevoices
Liberation Permaculture by Toby Hemenway.
This episode is the rebroadcast of Toby talk from PV2 in March 2015.
Permaculture offers more than a path to a sustainable and just food system. It can move entire segments of our society off the radar screens of state oppressors and help return equality, abundance, and justice to people while restoring healthy ecosystems. This talk will tell you how.
Here's a hint on how that's possible. If you can't measure it, you can't tax it.
Enjoy it, I hope it gets you thinking.
Learn more at permaculturevoices.com/125
Support the show at permaculturevoices.com/support
Homesteader Justin Rhodes of AbundantPermaculture.com talks about what you should feed your new baby chicks.
To learn more about Justin and see all of the ASK Justin episodes visit permaculturevoices.com/justin.
Support the show at permaculturevoices.com/support.
What would the 2000 sq.ft. farm, let's call it a micro-farm, look like?
How could you best utilize that space and take many of the techniques that Curtis uses on his current 1/2 acre urban farm, to make the micro-farm generate some decent cash flow.
How much could you make on a micro-farm of just 2000 square feet?
Really it depends on what you are growing and who you are selling it to. But grossing 20,000 on that 2000 square feet isn't crazy talk. And even half that, $10,000, is a realistic target to shoot for.
When you think about that, that's a pretty lucrative given the space involved. I think most people can get access to 2000 sq.ft. That's essentially fits well within your average American lawn.
The 2000 square foot micro-farm has a lot of things going for it. It's manageable, yet scaleable. It's big enough to matter to start you thinking and implementing a lot of these systems, yet it's not over whelming. It makes a great transition plot for someone looking to transition into farming or just get their feed wet.
Given that today will be a case study looking at the 2000 sw ft micro farm.
We'll break down what this farm might look like. How you would want to manage it. What types of crops you would want to focus on, and put some a basic framework in place that you can build off of.
As, you see, you can do a lot with 2000 square feet, and it might not be that small after all.
It's currently April 19, 2016.
Learn more at permaculturevoices.com/theurbanfarmer
Support the show at permaculturevoices.com/support
Farmer John Suscovich of Camps Road Farm andFarmMarketingSolutions.com answers the question, "How quicklyshould you scale up a pastured poultry operation?"To learn more about John and see all of the ASK John episodes visitpermaculturevoices.com/john.
As you will hear from my guest today Paul Greive of Primal Pastures "One of the most important things about marketing is not convincing people your product is X, it's about finding people who actually want X." That's the route that Primal Pastures has gone. They don't sell a cheap product. They have positioned themselves as the premium product. And that means they don't try to compete in on price. And they don't worry about the non-believers or the price discriminant buyers. Because no amount of convincing is going to make that buyer pay up. They already have a price point set in their mind, and the mind is a very hard thing to change as a marketing. Therefore Primal Pasture's sole job as marketers is to try to find and sell to the believers. The customers who value their product for what it is and are willing to pay for it. Over time they have learned that "It's a really sustainable model when you can start focusing on the customer and then you can figure out what products meet their needs and what your skills are to make those products." It's a key distinction that they have made for their brand, Primal Pastures and one that they have stuck too. Branding and marketing are just one of the topics that Paul Greive of Primal Pastures and I talk about today. In addition to that you will also learn about how to prepare for a transition from full time job to full time farmer, how to overcome early obstacles in farm startup and Paul tackles the question - is pastured poultry a good business? View the show notes at permaculturevoices.com/124. Support the show at permaculturevoices.com/support.
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