Stay ConnectedInsights for vegetable farmers and market gardeners who earn, or want to earn, a living growing vegetables profitably.
In each episode, I talk with a beginning or experienced farmer, diving deep into their story to find out what makes their market farm successful. I focus on in-the-field farming. Soil preparation, weed management, post-harvest processing, appropriate technology, farm tools and equipment, and growing crops.
Hosted and produced by Diego Footer’s Modern Grower Podcast Network.
Copyright: © Modern Grower
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
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
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Sam's taken a perspective that he gained on hiking the Appalachian trail and he has used it to help navigate the equally hard journey into being a full-time vegetable farmer. Like the trail, Sam's career as a farmer has spanned a lot of land going from 1/8 of an acre in town to two fenced acres a few years later. Today Sam and I will talk about some of the challenges of growing crops on two acres, how Sam has to design his market streams to his land base, working with limited labor, and the trade-offs between growing niche crops and a wide variety of CSA crops. We'll also touch on some of Sam's big takeaways from his days on the trail and how that's helped him as a farmer.
Increase farm efficiency with the Paperpot Transplanter and Other Small Farm Equipment at https://www.paperpot.co/
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Podcasts by Diego Footer: Microgreens: https://apple.co/2m1QXmW Vegetable Farming: https://apple.co/2lCuv3m Livestock Farming: https://apple.co/2m75EVG Large Scale Farming: https://apple.co/2kxj39i
Small Farm Tools https://www.paperpot.co/
For today's show we are going down to the State of Arkansas to talk to Brandon Lyons of 5 Acre Farms.
Brandon is someone who transitioned into farming from the nursery trade way back in 2010. Since then he's grown his farm to 1.25 acre, and during that same time he's also grown his family getting married and having kids.
It's a farming journey that started out with a single farmer who could put in crazy hours on the farm to make it work, but one that's now changed to a husband and father farmer, who absolutely can't put in crazy hours on farm. As a result Brandon is now focusing on crop selection, seasonality, and processes to make the hours he does spend on the farm pay, and pay well.
One of the processes that Brandon has focuses on over the years to help save time and labor is no-till. He's employed that strategy on his farm seeing great results both in terms of soil and reduced weed pressure. In this episode we'll find out why he did it and how he did it, today it's all about running a high intensity vegetable operation in rural Arkansas with farmer Brandon Gordon.
Learn more at www.permaculturevoices.com/farmsmallfarmsmart
Everyone enters the world of farming for different reasons. Reasons spanning from environmental concerns to bringing high quality food to their local market to creating a path to a more independent future… For my guest today, Travis Schulert, farming became a mode of a change, because prior to farming Travis described his situation as… "I was stuck in a dead end lifestyle, living in a trailer park, no savings, no plans, and between 24 and now (28) I started a CSA on leased land, funded the infrastructure of the farm and gave myself the money to build a tiny home. My wife and I lived in the tiny home and saved what we could, started doing markets and learning to sell and grow. " Farming has been a means to get Travis and his wife out of that lifestyle which wasn't working. But it hasn't all been smooth sailing. Between production issues, CSA issues, and trouble with land tenure, it's been a bumpy road. Travis has been able to navigate that road so far and is now in his 4th year of farming, but one which is also a new beginning as he starting his first season on a new plot of land currently dominated by grass. As you'll hear in this episode, like all things in farming, Travis is taking it in stride and doing his best with it, and now realizing "farming is only romantic until you start doing the work." Today it's all the trials and tribulation of slowly scaling a farm on the side with farmer Travis Schulert. Learn more at http://www.permaculturevoices.com/farmsmallfarmsmart Support the show at http://www.permaculturevoices.com/support
When it comes to this world of farming small, what is this world? Is it a bunch of small farms each operating independently? For the most part, I think the answer is yes. Given that, what's the next step. Is it more small farms operating independently or is those small farms growing to be larger small farmers. Now I am not talking 1.5 acre farms scaling to 100 acres, I am talking about 1.5 acre farms scaling to 10 acres. If small farms do that, what does that look like, both for this world of farming small and for each independently operated farm? Is that scale manageable on a people powered biointensive level? Or does this style of farming not scale? It's a question being asked by one of the leader in this movement, JM Fortier. A few years ago JM Fortier left his 1.5 acre farm behind to start working on an experimental 10 acre farm to test the idea and validity of scaling these types of farming methods. It's project which has produced some answers, but one which has also produced a lot of questions, some of which are the focus of our show today. It's all about the future of market gardening in this episode with farmer JM Fortier. Get JM's audiobook version of The Market Gardener at www.permaculturevoices.com/audiobook
What's the organic inspection process really like? It's probably a big hassle, right? Let's find out straight from the source, in this episode with independent organic inspector Laura Murray Last episode with Scott Murray covered the topic of why organic and what goes into getting certified. Today's episode builds on that episode and we go a rung higher on the ladder taking on questions such as: Once the inspector shows up on your property the first time, how does that process unfold? What should you have in order when you have the inspector show up? Explain the annual inspection process? Would a property ever be inspected more than once a year? To answer these I am going straight to the source to talk to someone who deals with this every day. I'll be talking with independent organic inspector Laura Murray. Laura does organic inspections of all over the country for organic certifiers. Her inspections span all types of farms and all types of organic product production facilities. She's seem a lot over the years, and today she shares what the inspection process is really like both for the initial inspection and annual inspections. If you were thinking about getting certified by the inspection process made you a little uneasy, maybe that will change after you hear what it's really like. This show is brought to you by CoolBot. Get a discount coupon for CoolBot at www.permaculturevoices.com/farmsmallfarmsmart Looking for more? There are over 100 episodes in the archive at www.permaculturevoices.com/farmsmallfarmsmart
Organic certification. We all know what that is, seeing that green stamp on products in the grocery store and on signs at the farmers market. But, is it worth it? Is it only for large farms? I use organic methods, do I need the stamp? What goes into getting certified? Should I get certified organic? These are all common questions that I hear being asked with the small scale farming community. They are also questions that my guest today Scott Murray gets a lot, and helps a lot with. Scott's a 40 year organic farming veteran who's been around the organic farming movement since the beginning, before it was a big thing. Today he will share his knowledge of what he's learned about the organic movement and how he views organic certification in terms of who it's right for, when it makes sense to get, and what goes into getting it. If you were thinking about getting certified, but had some reservations, this episode will address those common reservations and leave you with a clear idea of what's involved in the process. And it just might not be as expensive or cumbersome as you think it is after all. This show is brought to you by CoolBot. Get a discount coupon for CoolBot at www.permaculturevoices.com/farmsmallfarmsmart Looking for more? There are over 100 episodes in the archive at www.permaculturevoices.com/farmsmallfarmsmart
When you are only growing a 10 day crop, how much of an affect does light quality and temperature have on the crop? A lot. Chris is in Vancouver where he sees day lengths change from 8 hours at the winter solstice to 16 hours at the summer solstice; a large change which affects how much light crops get to grow. Less light in winter means slower or no crop growth. If you are a farmer, you get this. It makes sense, at least for field crops. But what about microgreens? Crops which spend only half of their life in the light, a life that might only be 5 to 8 days. Does seasonality really affect those crops over those 5 days? Yes, and more than you think. In this episode Chris will talk all about the change of the seasons and how it affects microgreen crop growth - specifically the effects of changing temperatures and light conditions. Two factors which can dramatically affect crop growth, yield and quality. How to Grow Better Microgreens All Year - Adapting for Changing Seasons, Temperature, and Light Conditions with microgreen grower Chris Thoreau. DOWNLOAD the show notes at www.permaculturevoices.com/farmsmallfarmsmart and CLICK on Episode 101 Support the show at www.permaculturevoices.com/support
To celebrate episode 100 I take a look back at the 100 combined episodes of The Urban Farmer and what is now Farm Small, Farm Smart focusing on the highlights, some backstory, and where the show is headed in the future.
See some of the highlights from the first 100 episodes at www.permaculturevoices.com/farmsmallfarmsmart
Support the show at www.permaculturevoices.com/support
Thanks for listening!
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