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
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.
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Anytime that you do something for a long time, over and over again, how do you keep it fresh? Let's be honest, any time that you do something for weeks and years, eventually that honeymoon phase wears off. As should be expected, things changes, life changes, and you change. If that think that's getting old is your farm, and your livelihood is dependent upon it. How do you battle this evolution of getting stale? One way is to branch out and do other things. Maybe that's research and development, maybe that's teaching, maybe that's furthering a cause and maybe crowdsourcing inspiration globally as you try to get more people interested in farming. That's where Curtis finds himself now. After seven seasons of full time farming his farm has changed dramatically since day 1, and even going back to the beginning of 2016 things have changed quite a bit. It's those changes and the desire to grow and innovate that's helped Curtis stay motivated and keeps things fresh when it could just as easily get old... That's the topic of today's show on The Urban Farmer.
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 we are going to start the series, by going back to the beginning. This is the story of how urban farmer Chris Thoreau started his microgreens farm almost 10 years ago.
Chris will take on questions such as:
Why microgreens? Why did he start with microgreen?
Who did he model and how much did he start with?
And how did he handle startup and work life balance.
As you will hear it was tough at times, because Chris started his farm at what on paper looks like an inopportune time.
He started this part time while in school full time and 2.5 months into his first semester his son was born.
Despite life presenting challenges that some people would say aren't worth the risk, Chris made a go of it taking on these early challenges he has managed to grow his operation to one that will do around $200,000 in sales in 2016.
And all that sales are coming from a farm that's in a shipping container taking up 320 sq. ft.
That's where Chris is at today, but it didn't happen overnight, let's get into it and find out how it all started.
Growing Your Microgreens Business Course with Chris Thoreau: http://www.permaculturevoices.com/microgreens
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
A lot of people who want to start farming, don't start because they focus too much on what they don't have and not enough on what they do have.
Land's too expensive. Lack money to start a farm.
Common complaints that you hear about starting up a farming enterprise.
And I will fully acknowledge that those constraints are very real. But let's put those constraints aside today, and focus on what is possible.
Possible by all of us.
Everything that we are going to talk about today deals with getting better and NOT spending money.
If you stop and think about it, there are a lot of things that you can do to improve your business, make your business more competitive, and attract more customers that's free.
If you ever feel like you are at a disadvantage because of what you don't have, start looking at the situation in terms of what you do have, and what you can do, because it's a lot of those things that will make the difference and give you a leg up on the competition, money or not.
Today's episode is us exploring this idea - of what are some of things that you can do to make your farm better, without spending any money.
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
Curtis is on vacation, so I am joined by bio-intensive farmer Jodi Roebuck. Jodi's been farming and studying under the originator of the Grow Bio-Intensive form of farming, John Jeavons, for 18 years. Jodi's well known for using Jeavon's bio-intensive method to build soil. Soil that's deep and loose enough to literally put your arm into up to your elbow. It's a soil that well known grower JM Fortier has called some of the best soil that he's ever seen. It's from this rich soil that Jodi farms, growing his own fertility, his own food, saving seeds, and educating the next generation of farmers. He's traveled the world studying under the masters and visiting a lot farms along the way. This summer Jodi made a stop in North America where he visited the home farms of both JM Fortier and Curtis. As a result, he's very familiar with their market gardening style. The question then becomes how can he apply his knowledge of bio-intensive practices to the context of market farming, and that's where we pick up the conversation today. Where do the worlds of bio-intensive growing and market gardening collide, and what's possible...
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 Curtis takes on the question - Let's say you are starting a a new farm. And I gave you a bunch of land, 15 acres. All pretty flat, all pretty usable. How would you go about deciding how much of that land you would farm? We get into the ideas around how much land he would farm and why.
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
Whenever you do something why are you doing it? Are you doing it because that something is pulling you towards it, is it the opposite, are you forcing yourself to do something and pushing yourself towards it. There's a big difference there. And depending on the answer to that question, it mean the difference between doing big things and setting out to do big things, but never really getting anywhere. To further explain this concept I turn to the brilliant personal development specialist Anthony Robbins... "I think you have to have something larger than yourself that you are after because [otherwise] you will let your fear dominate you. But if you have something—your children, your mom, your dad, a friend, a mission—something you want to do that really pulls you [the fear disappears]. Because push never lasts. 'Push' motivation is I'm going to make myself do that. You can do that for a while, but you are eventually going to [regress]. When you are pulled toward something larger than yourself, you'll make the sacrifices; you'll do what's necessary because it's not just about you. I really believe life supports what supports more of life." This is what we are focusing on today. It's a loose conversation based around this idea of push and pull. And finding something that meakes it easy to choose to be great. Something that you feel compelled to do, and you feel off when you aren't doing it. When you hear about someone like Curtis putting in a ton of hours working in the farm, and you think, why does he work so much, you are missing the point, because maybe that thing that you think is work isn't work after all...
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 is part three in our series focusing on more money, less land, where we are brainstorming ideas to make more money off of your farm without, without adding more land. Over the last few weeks we have focused on a variety of ways to sell more product and produce more product without adding more land. Today we will get into the last primary concept... Raising Prices Specifically how can you do that? What are the different ways that you can change what you are selling to justify a higher price? There's a lot of ideas in here. Some easier to implement than others. Each with has their own costs and benefits. As with the previous episodes, there's a lot in this one.
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 is two in our series focusing on more money, less land, where we are brainstorming ideas to make more money off of your farm without, without adding more land. Last week we focused on two of the primary concepts that had a lot of ideas under them: If you aren't moving all of your current product, sell it all. Selling all of your current product, but you know there is more demand... Today we will focus on a third primary concept: Change Your Product Profile and Crops It's all about making more just by changing what you grow and when you grow it. There's a lot in here, enjoy it...
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
Say you're a vegetable farmer and you want to make more money. How do you do that? How would you do that? If this was an episode of Family Feud one of the top answers on the board would likely be 'grow more products'. And if we took this line of question on iteration further the asking how do you grow more crops? One of the top answers would be 'get more land'. More land means more vegetables can fit in that space. A more vegetables means more to sell. Simple enough right. What if you couldn't get more land? Because it wasn't available or it was too expensive or it would change the dynamic of your farm... what would you do then? You want to make more money... but you can't add land. What are your options... you could raise prices or lower input costs, those would work, but there are a lot of other options available. That's the topic that we are taking on in this multipart series – more money with less 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
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