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
It's currently September 15, 2016 and the end of the regular farming season is near. Along with it is Curtis's tenure at the Kelowna Farmers Market. After 7 seasons at the farmers market, Curtis is moving on. It's part of a larger effort to simplify the farm and match the farm to his lifestyle. At this point in his career Curtis is trying to simplify his farm. Not grow bigger just to be bigger. Instead choosing to grow better becoming more efficient and effective. That means focusing on the market streams that work, the products that sell, and moving to plots located even closer to his homebase. Part of those changes involve dropping things like the farmers market which has done since the beginning of his career. But it's a market stream that requires getting up on Saturday for 8 months of the year and it's a market stream that isn't growing anymore. And It's one of the many changes taking place at Green City Acres, resulting in a farm that will look very different come April 2017. Today we will take a look at the many changes coming to Green City Acres, along with they why behind those changes.
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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The last few episodes have focused on stuff. The tools of farming. Today we are talking about the flip side of tools, the opposite of the physical. The mental side of things, in particular hustle.
The best tools and the right stuff without the business sense, hustle, and effort won't mean anything. The tools make the job easier. Just owning them doesn't mean anything. You have to do the work.
And it's that hustle to do the work form preparation to production to sales that can give you the advantage over people who just have the money and the stuff.
As Stephen C Hogan said. "You can't have a million-dollar dream with a minimum-wage work ethic."
Because if you do, where's that going to get you. Left with an unsuccessful business and collection of expensive stuff.
A lot of success isn't quantifiable with a dollar sign, instead being measured in pure blood, sweat, and hard work. And the beauty of it is that none of this costs any thing and can be applied by literally every person on the planet regardless of their particular situation.
Today, we will get into the importance of the hustle, and the areas like sales and preparation, where hustle makes the difference between you and the person who isn't hustling as hard.
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
Part three of our series on Small Scale Farming on the Cheap - What's the least you could spend to start a farm? Last week in Episode 23 we started going through the equipment needed, or perceived to be needed, when you start a farm along with the costs and advantages associated with that equipment. Given that this is Part 3 it probably makes more sense to listen to Part 1 and Part 2 first. Last week we left of the talk on equipment wrapping up with the tiller. We'll start today with a little bit of warmup on macro business talking before jumping back into the list discussing hand tools.
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
Part two of our series on Small Scale Farming on the Cheap - What's the least you could spend to start a farm?. Last week in episode 22 we covered the base principles costs and equipment associated with farm startup. We established the point that tools are simply one leg on the stool of success. The tools should never hold you back. It's never going to be just the tools that make you successful. Yet, good tools can make job easier. That show focused on the concepts and the ideas behind the why. Today's show focuses on the what. What do you actually need and how much does it costs. This episode is the first of a few digging into that question.
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
Farming... is it expensive to start, or not? A lot of people want to get into farming, but they stall out when it comes to the money side of things. The common cause of that stall out is land. Land is expensive to purchase. So most people immediately dismiss the idea of farming because they can't afford land. But people like Greg Judy, Joel Salatin, and us on this show, have shown that you don't need to own land to farm. There's a lot of land available to farm. Land you don't need to own, and land that you can gain access to through options like leasing.. If you can lease land either for free or inexpensively and if you are in a market where you can move product, then the potential upside to small scale farming is pretty attractive given the low start up costs and low infrastructure requirements? How low? Very low compared to other businesses. In his book Curtis gives an initial start-up estimate for a 1/4 acre farm at $7k to $17k. Curtis started his farm with just $7k. That's $7k that buys equipment and infrastructure which is portable and resellable. In good markets, the risk reward of small scale farming is usually favorable because small scale market farming startup costs are very low compared to many business out there. Yet, despite the minimal start up costs, the costs are still prohibitive, or at least perceived to be prohibitive by some people. Given that we'll dig into the farm start up numbers and see where costs can be cut and what costs are just unavoidable. And we'll also bring in some rationale to these numbers discussing why certain items are worth the cost, and why others aren't. Today we'll begin a multi-part series discussing the minimum that you could spend to start a farm, and we will begin with the base principles, what are the things that you need to think about before you spend any money, that's coming up on Season Two Episode 22 of 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
"At too many companies, and in too many hapless careers, the number one imperative is to avoid failure and embarrassment associated therewith at all costs. My take, failure, supported by wildly imaginative hypotheses and incredibly hard work, is something that companies and individuals must embrace. Frankly at all costs. Unless you're stretching... wildly, you're not going to reach that brass ring called hyper success amidst a brawl with no rules." Tom Peters The market and nature of small scale farming is too dynamic. To succeed you have to be dynamic as well. That will mean trying things that don't work, and trying things not knowing if they will work. You're going to have to make assumptions and best guesses. You're going to have to adapt. And that's what today's episode is all about... adapting and switching it up on the fly...
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
If you are a single worker farm then you only have so much time and energy to spend on the farm. If you spend a massive amount of that working with weeds then that's time take away from other farm tasks or other non-farm tasks like spending time with your spouse or kids.
What are the weeds worth?
For most people, they aren't worth enough to deal with when you zoom out, and take all of the factors into account, and therefore the weeds get cut, literally.
That's the focus of today's show. Weed management, where we discuss various methods of preventing weeds from establishing themselves on the farm in the first place, and how to deal with them when they do.
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
Farming, it truly is a lifestyle. And one that a lot of people seek out.
This leads people down the road of thinking about how can they start or transition into small scale farming.
And when they go down that path they inevitably run into issues. Because startup isn't always clear, or easy, and there are always unique challenges.
Today we will take take a look at one listeners plan to transition into farming and startup an urban farm of his own.
This is the story of Michael from LA, and Michael wants to be a farmer.
He has a lot of resources, constraints, and questions.
And that's what we'll be digging into today, in Season Two, Episode 19 of 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
This is Part 2 of that series and today we specifically focus on the pro's and cons of selling to restaurants taking into account high maintenance versus low maintenance. Given that this is Part 2 it probably makes more sense to listen to Part 1 first, Episode 17 - All Customers ARE NOT worth Selling To, An In-Depth Look at High Maintenance versus Low Maintenance Customers. But you won't be totally lost in this one if you haven't heard that episode.
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
"Put another way, you are more upset about losing $50 than you are happy about gaining $50," the paper states. In addition, bad events wear off more slowly than good ones." Hopefully know this can help you do a few things. Try to force yourself to really think about the positive things more and have more gratitude for them, bounce off of the negative situations quicker, and rid yourself of the negative relationships that produce negative emotions. That's the focus of today's episode as we explore the differences between high maintenance customers and low maintenance customers.
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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