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
There's one event that happens in many people's lives which instantly changes their life forever. Overnight, instantly, everything is different. Your life, your approach to life, how you view life, and how you go about living life all change. It's an event that some people aren't ready for and one that others are ready for, but one where no one is ever REALLY ready. It's the birth of a child. A beautiful event that instantly makes live more worth living and richer, but one which also makes life harder and more challenging, especially for entrepreneurs. If you thought running a business or starting a farm was hard without kids, try doing it with kids, because it's exponentially harder. Curtis is a brand new parent experiencing some of those challenges first hand. Today, we'll explore what those challenges are like in terms of life and farming, and how Curtis is dealing with them as a brand new inexperienced father, while being a seasoned experienced farmer. It's never easy, and as you'll hear it's always a balancing act. But it is one Curtis, me, and most other fathers wouldn't trade for anything else in the world. Get the audiobook at www.permaculturevoices.com/audiobook Download the show notes at www.permaculturevoices.com/farmsmallfarmsmart and click on Episode 99.
While the prospects of starting a small market farm that grosses over $100,000 is lucrative and attractive, it's not for everyone or possible in every location. And that's the topic of today's episode with Blake Cothron of Peaceful Heritage Farm.... A lot of what you hear about in the small scale farmer movement are the uber-successful small farmers that are grossing 1, 2 or $300k per acre. They are inspiring stories, but those stories all share one thing in common, their markets. Typically small farmers grossing big dollars are able to do that by selling their produce into larger, higher end urban market streams - market streams which will pay top dollar for microgreens, salad mix, and baby root veg. What if you don't live near one of those large urban markets? What if you don't have high end farmers markets and restaurants to sell product too? What do the prospects of your rural farming career hold? Today, I am talking to a farmer who faced that exact problem, making farming work in very rural Amish Kentucky without high end restaurants and with a sleepy farmer's markets. In this episode Blake Cothron of Peaceful Heritage Farm located in very rural Crab Orchard Kentucky will share his story. It's an inspiring story about a husband and wife making a small farm work, by approaching farming in a very smart way. A necessity, when your local customer based is used to buying vegetables at prices like 3 for $1 or $1 per dozen sweet corn. If you're interested in farming, but you are nowhere near a large city, then this episode is for you. Learn more at www.permaculturevoices.com/farmsmallfarmsmart Support the show at www.permaculturevoices.com/support
Today I'm talking to a grower who's admittedly "I'm a little bit obsessive about growing high quality produce." It's an obsession that's fueled his farms growth, and an obsession which is a bit necessary to fuel the farm's growth to bring his fiancé onto the farm full-time. And while Elliot Seldner of Fair Share Farms' obsession may be on growing high quality produce, it's not only on growing high quality produce, because Elliot realized the importance of work life balance and the need to have a time and place to enjoy the other things created on the farm. Today Elliot is going to talk specifically how they do that, in part by focusing intentionally on making the farm more efficient through appropriate technology, no till, and optimizing equipment. Elliot's also going to talk about how he and his fiancé are approaching farm transition. Because she's current employed a schoolteacher, a necessary step in their farms evolution, but one that's only a step, where the long term goal is to get her onto the farm full time. Looking into the future, it's the farming methods that Emma and Elliot use which will make this all possible, a farm that provides multiple incomes on just over half and acre... Let's get into it, with one of the masters of farm efficiency, Elliot Seldner. Learn more at www.permaculturevoices.com/farmsmallfarmsmart Support the show at www.permaculturevoices.com/support
If customers keep asking if you have certain crop, and you don't, should you grow it? It depends. And that's the focus of today's show: When, How, and Why to Start Producing A New Microgreen Crop Today microgreen grower Chris Thoreau and I are talking about new crops - specifically how do you start growing them? On the surface that may seem like a simple and straightforward question, but there's a lot of specifics involved in answering that questions, and the specifics are where profits are made or money is lost. You have to consider things like can you actually grow the crop - meaning can you get a good yield from in within your system that's already setup to grow other crops; or does the crop's harvest schedule fall in line with your other crops and your current harvest schedule. If you plan on scaling the crop, can you actually buy enough seed? And can that seed be bought at a price that makes the crop profitable. All legitimate considerations which need to be considered, anytime you take on the decisions to grow a new corp. If you are thinking about starting a farm or adding some new crops to the mix, then this episode is for you. Chris will put the theory to reality and talk about his experiences and failures introducing new crops, like basil. What his methodically and thought process was and why. As you'll hear, not everything always works, regardless of how much experience you have, and sometimes some crops are just better off not grown. Learn more at www.permaculturevoices.com/farmsmallfarmsmart Support the show at www.permaculturevoices.com/support
Today I'm going to be talking to another small scale farmer who's greatly benefited by growing smaller, not larger. A few years ago, farmer, Alex Bertsch started farming on half an acre. Not a ton of land, but enough to make it hard for one person to manage. Add in the fact that the half an acre was being farmed part-time, and that half an acre seems a little more daunting. Then place that half an acre 40 minutes from where Alex lived, and you now have a hard farm to manage for anyone. It was a situation that was further complicated by growing a large variety of crops. Despite these first year challenges, Alex persevered and came out the first year ahead. Then he did something wise, he accessed the situation and he scaled back. He cut his farm down from half an acre to just 500 square feet and some indoor growing space, and he moved the farm from the remote location to his back yard. Also, as part of his strategy, he dramatically reduced his crops selection down to just salad greens and micro greens. It was a big change of going smaller and simpler that changed everything for Alex. It made his life and his farm more manageable, and it's one that he continues to grow today. Growing Better by Growing Smaller - Going From Half an Acre to 500 Square Feet with Alex Bertsch of Epic by Nature Farm. Stay tuned every Monday, for a new episode at www.permaculturevoices.com/grassfed Support the show at www.permaculturevoices.com/support
Welcome to the world of Farming Small and Farming Smart, it's The Urban Farmer. When you are starting any new business it can be very overwhelming. You have a lot to do all at once - building infrastructure, creating your brand, marketing, cultivating a customer base, customer service, and of course producing a product. All essentially full-time jobs, but full-time jobs that need to be done all at once, by one person, you. It can be very overwhelming. Where do you start? After all you can't just focus on producing good product without cultivating a customer base or you have no one to sell that product to. And you can't start producing product without having some way to clean and store that product. Given that you really need to start everywhere, doing it all in parallel. For a lot of new farmers this is where analysis paralysis sets in, and it's the topic of today's episode. Here it is Conquering Analysis Paralysis By Starting a Whole Farm at Once in this episode of The Urban Farmer. Learn more at www.permaculturevoices.com/farmsmallfarmsmart Support the show at www.permaculturevoices.com/support
Today it's back to Kelowna and Green City Acres as Curtis and I take a look back at his experiences with inter-planting, planting multiple crops in the same space .
It's something that he's done for a few years now, and something that he's doing again this year with his tomatoes.
We first stated talking about this subject back in 2015 when we did an episode touching on the subject in Season One, then we hit on it again almost a year ago in Season Two.
Today we are going to take a look at what Curtis is doing now when it comes to inter-planting and how that's changed since we first started talking about it two years ago.
It's a technique that Curtis has a lot of experience with, but one that's continually evolving as he uses it more.
It's a technique that he uses, because it allows him to earn a lot more in the same space over a given year.
For are going example he made and additional $1100 last year, by inter-planting Salanova lettuce in with his tomatoes. That's an extra $1100 that most farmers wouldn't captured.
That's the benefit of inter-planting. Getting multiple yields out of the same space over the same time period.
But be aware going in, this technique isn't for everyone.
There's a lot of constraints and complications that come with inter-planting. And it's a technique that doesn't make sense if you have a lot of land.
None the less, it's a technique that can be a game changer for those of you who do feel like you have a limited amount of land.
For you all, this is just another way to get more crops and more money, without adding land.
Listen to past episodes at: https://www.paperpot.co/podcast
Increase farm efficiency with the Paperpot Transplanter and Other Small Farm Equipment at https://www.paperpot.co/
Follow PaperpotCo on Instagram: http://bit.ly/2B45VKQ
Today I'm going to be talking to another small scale farming making a go of it as we go to Sebastopol, CA to talk to Caiti Hachmyer of Red H Farm. Caiti's a farmer who started out her farming career on the advocacy side of things. She was living the Bay Area advocating for farmers and looking to play her part in changing hte food system. But after a while she felt something was missing. And she felt like she needed to get on the ground and see what life was really like for some of the farmers that she was advocating for. So she picked up her California roots and moved to Minnesota to spend some time working on a production farm. It was step that would change her life forever. Giving her perspective of the on the ground side of things which helped her on the policy side, and one that would give her a nice experience ot have in her back pocket. One that she would need to draw on when she moved back to California and needed work. Caiti's gone on to continue her work on the ground and policy side of things. It's the dual nature of her work that we focus on today.
Listen to past episodes at: https://www.paperpot.co/podcast
Increase farm efficiency with the Paperpot Transplanter and Other Small Farm Equipment at https://www.paperpot.co/
Follow PaperpotCo on Instagram: http://bit.ly/2B45VKQ
Today I'm going up to Vancouver to talk to Microgreen Farmer Chris Thoreau with the goal of focusing in on 10 base principles for growing high quality microgreens. Think 10 things that are critical to growing a good crop regardless of where you are growing them, when you are growing them or how you are growing them. These base principles help ensure that you get a successful crop that is free of disease and of high quality. It's not enough just to go through a successful process without knowing why you are doing what at different parts of the process. Because if you don't know, and a variable changes, you need to be able to know how to react and adapt. While everyone's process is likely different based on the crop that they are trying to grow, today's show it's all about what's the same, the base principles.
Learn how Chris grows microgreens in his online course: http://www.permaculturevoices.com/microgreensListen to past episodes at: https://www.paperpot.co/podcast
Increase farm efficiency with the Paperpot Transplanter and Other Small Farm Equipment at https://www.paperpot.co/
Follow PaperpotCo on Instagram: http://bit.ly/2B45VKQ
"Farming is as much about growing yourself as it is about growing vegetables."
One of the big lessons shared in this episode with farmer Chris Gilbert from Bettendorf, Iowa.
Listen to past episodes at: https://www.paperpot.co/podcast
Increase farm efficiency with the Paperpot Transplanter and Other Small Farm Equipment at https://www.paperpot.co/
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