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107: Hans and Katie Bishop of PrairiErth Farm on Connecting with Customers and Bringing a Spouse into the Farming Operation

2/23/2017

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Hans and Katie Bishop raise fifteen acres of certified organic vegetables at PrairiErth Farm in central Illinois, marketing about $250,000 worth of produce through a farmers market, CSA, and wholesale outlets.

With about fifty percent of their sales going through one farmers market in a mid-sized city, Katie and Hans had a lot to say about how they make that work, from the details of their display and market stand setup, their digital checkout system and the value its data brings to their farming operation, and their farmers market magic sauce – the passion Katie has to connect with their customers. Katie digs into the nuts and bolts of how she connects with customers at farmers market and through social media.

Hans started growing vegetables at his family’s operation in 2009, while he and Katie both lived in the city; over several years, Hans made the transition to full-time farming, and then Katie followed, and then they moved out to the farm. Hans and Katie share how they knew it was time to make the various transitions, how they prepared to make the changes, and how they’ve divided up the responsibilities on the farm. Hans and Katie also provide an honest look at the challenges of farming together, and of bringing a spouse into the operation.

We also dig into the shipping relationships that help PrairiErth Farm reach into the Chicagoland market, how they’ve mechanized their operation to retain and attract good help, and how they’ve changed and continue to improve their employee management practices.

I’m also excited to share that Hans and Katie were selected as the 2017 MOSES Organic Farmers of the Year, an award that recognizes organic farmers who practice outstanding land stewardship, innovation, and outreach. 

Sponsors

Vermont Compost Company: Founded by organic crop growing professionals committed to meeting the need for high-quality composts and compost-based, living soil mixes for certified organic plant production.

BCS America: BCS two-wheel tractors are versatile, maneuverable in tight spaces, light-weight for less compaction, and easy to maintain and repair on farm. Gear-driven and built to last for decades of dependable service on your farm or market garden.

Farmers Web: Making it simple for farms, farm cooperatives, and local food artisans to streamline working with wholesale buyers. Lessening the administrative work that comes with each order helps producers create a more successful relationship with their buyers and can help them work with more buyers overall.

Quotes from the Show

[Katie] I think my secret sauce is just that I know my customers' names. I identify my core group of customers, and then I make sure and connect with them in lots of different ways.

[Hans] I'm not the one that's connecting with customers. I don't think that's my forte, and it's just a lot better coming from Katie because she knows how to connect with the people that are buying our produce.

[Katie] I don't want my stand to look like everybody else's stand because our stand becomes our personal brand, it's our trademark. I want people, when they come into my stand and they purchase a bunch of kale, to go home and really love that kale and I want them to remember to come back to me and but it again.

[Katie] It was very difficult to go from Hans and I spending eight, nine hours apart and then coming together in the evening to talk about our day, to spending 12, 14 hours together constantly and determining who was "the boss." We're still trying to figure that out actually.

[Katie] When you work in a corporate environment, every procedure, every system is beta tested. You're set up so it's really hard to fail. At the farm, that's not the case.


[Hans] Keeping tabs on people at crucial time increments is important. There's time to correct it before something really goes awry.


​[Hans] That's what makes us such a good team: I'm able to do what I'm good at and Katie's able to connect with customers and do what she's good at and work with me on things. Not necessarily together but we're both using our strengths and making the farm a better place.

Show Links

Katie uses Phonto on the iPhone and PicMonkey on her desktop to create graphics for social media.

PrairiErth uses the Square payments system on iPads for a farmers market cash register. Katie says, “We download the app and they send you a free chip reader.  We just use the iPad instead of an iPhone and we bought a stand on Amazon. It was cheaper and we could use some older iPads that we didn't mind getting too wet/dirty.”

Hans is loving the Carolina Greenhouses Speedy Seeder  - I  loved mine, and I was just talking to another grower who feels like the extra features built into this vacuum seeder make it well worth the extra expense.

We talked about the MOSES Organic Farming Conference, which I used to codirect.

Hans mentioned the Hydraweeder for managing weeds that get ahead of them in transplanted crops.

Hans and Katie use CoolBots throughout their cooling operations, including as part of their farmers market trailer.
​

The cool racks that Hans and Katie use to transport their transplants – I love this simple solution:
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Transcript

The transcript for this episode is brought to you by Earth Tools, offering the most complete selection of walk-behind farming equipment and high-quality garden tools in North America; and by Growing for Market, where you can get 20% off your subscription with the code “podcast” at checkout.
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106: Josh Volk of Slow Hand Farm on Compact Farms and Part-Time Farming

2/16/2017

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Josh Volk is, most recently, the author of Compact Farms, a new, illustrated guide for anyone dreaming of starting, expanding, or perfecting a profitable farm enterprise on five acres or less. Compact Farms includes in-depth interviews with fifteen small farms about the systems and tools that make them tick. With over twenty years of experience working on and managing small farms around the country, Josh currently works part time at Cully Neighborhood Farm in Portland, Oregon, as well as providing consulting to farmers, presenting workshops at agricultural conferences, and writing.

In this episode, Josh provides insights into what makes a small farm work. We discuss the importance of automation and good systems, and good systems to manage the automation. Josh also shares his perspective on how limiting hours and scale helps to increase focus and productivity, as well as avoiding burnout.

We also discuss Josh’s experiences as a part-time farmer, his own Slow Hand Farm, where he farmed without any fossil-fueled equipment, and his comprehensive planning and record-keeping system.
Perennial support for the Farmer to Farmer Podcast is generously provided by Vermont Compost Company and BCS America.

Sponsors

Vermont Compost Company: Founded by organic crop growing professionals committed to meeting the need for high-quality composts and compost-based, living soil mixes for certified organic plant production.

BCS America: BCS two-wheel tractors are versatile, maneuverable in tight spaces, light-weight for less compaction, and easy to maintain and repair on farm. Gear-driven and built to last for decades of dependable service on your farm or market garden.
​

Farm Commons: Strong, resilient, sustainable farm businesses are built on a solid legal foundation. With practical resources geared for the direct-to-consumer and organic producer, Farm Commons can help you understand what you need to know, in language that makes it easy to understand.  

Quotes from the Show

I can go the full season [without experiencing burnout]… I've really enjoyed part time farming.

It’s very complicated what you're making in terms of your income, because you're also building assets.

[The compact farms I talked to] were all doing a lot of planning and putting in place what is it that we're going to have in the ground at a particular point in time.

The first step [in market farming] knowing how to grow it. Then the second step is figuring out how to sell it. Then you also have to figure out not just how to grow it, but how to grow it very efficiently so that you can make money selling it.

I think one of the things that made it possible for me to do part time farming and to do it really effectively right off the bat, was having been completely immersed in [farming] for over a decade at that point, and having explored a lot of options and looked at a lot of different farming systems, and thinking very clearly, "These are all the things that I really have to concentrate on, and these are the places that I can essentially take shortcuts or make compromises that aren't going to kill the business."

Everybody is doing planning whether they say they're doing planning or not, and they're just doing planning in different ways…

The advantage to doing the planning up front is that you get practice rounds, essentially. You can make a set of decisions and kind of carry those through and basically make a dry run at something and then realize, "Oh, that might not have been the right decision."

Just acknowledge that there's always going to be more work to do, but we are only going to work this many hours in order to do that.

You can't buy an automatic system and then expect it to just take care of itself forever.

You actually have to continuously check back with that plan and make sure that the plan that you have is still the right plan.

​I've found is paper is what's most convenient when I'm in the packing shed or even when I'm out in the field doing seeding or any of those kinds of things.

Show Links

Josh’s new book is Compact Farms: 15 Proven Plans for Market Farms on 5 Acres or Less.

Josh’s own work lives in three different places:
  • joshvolk.com  – home for Josh’s blog and farming information.
  • Slow Hand Farm  – home for Josh’s consulting work.
  • Farm Hand Carts  – the very cool carts that Josh designed to work on small market farms.

Josh talked about a letter that he read in Growing for Market that inspired him to be okay with farming part time. We both agree that Growing for Market – a sponsor of this show – is a fantastic resource; indeed, its model of information sharing from farmers around North America was one of the inspirations for the Farmer to Farmer Podcast.

Josh’s record-keeping system is described in this article, which also includes links to his crop planning spreadsheets.

Josh is working right now at Culley Neighborhood Farm.  

We didn’t mention this in the show, but Josh recently had a nice interview about the future of small farms in the new political circumstances published in the Huffington Post.

Transcript

The transcript for this episode is brought to you by Earth Tools, offering the most complete selection of walk-behind farming equipment and high-quality garden tools in North America; and by Growing for Market, where you can get 20% off your subscription with the code “podcast” at checkout.
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105: Mimo Davis and Miranda Duschak of Urban Bud Flowers on Balancing Off-Farm Jobs While Growing a Farming Business, Season Extension, and Growing for the Wedding Market

2/9/2017

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Mimo Davis and Miranda Duschack farm at Urban Buds City Grown Flowers, an acre of flowers in a working class neighborhood in St. Louis, Missouri. Urban Buds is located on property that was an operating flower farm in the city for three generations, but had fallen into poor condition when Mimo and Miranda purchased it in 2012.

We talk about how Miranda and Mimo rehabilitated the property, and made the journey from startup to turning a profit while they financed the farm with income paychecks from their day jobs. We discuss the challenges of running a farm while working an outside job, as well as adding a child to the mix this past year. Plus, Mimo and Miranda talk about the challenges they’ve encountered on an urban farm, and how they’ve overcome them.

Miranda and Mimo share their strategies for season extension, which they consider key to their business model in order to maximize profits from a limited land base. Urban Buds uses a variety of techniques inside and outside of a variety of structures. We also get into the nuts and bolts to achieving a long vase life with their cut flowers.

Perennial support for the Farmer to Farmer Podcast is generously provided by Vermont Compost Company and BCS America.

​Sponsors

Vermont Compost Company: Founded by organic crop growing professionals committed to meeting the need for high-quality composts and compost-based, living soil mixes for certified organic plant production.

BCS America: BCS two-wheel tractors are versatile, maneuverable in tight spaces, light-weight for less compaction, and easy to maintain and repair on farm. Gear-driven and built to last for decades of dependable service on your farm or market garden.

Farm Commons: Strong, resilient, sustainable farm businesses are built on a solid legal foundation. With practical resources geared for the direct-to-consumer and organic producer, Farm Commons can help you understand what you need to know, in language that makes it easy to understand.

Quotes from the Show

[Mimo] Well when I first saw the property, I didn't even see the falling down house.

[Mimo] The farm is a labor of love for sure.


[Miranda] I think that we've seen the rewards of sacrifice.


[Mimo] I don't know anybody who starts a business, a brand new business and doesn't have another income, no matter farming, whatever it is.


[Mimo] when you're up all night with the baby, you move a lot slower on the farm, for sure, the next day.


[Miranda] It just felt like it was time to make this project even more meaningful by having a son.

Show Links

Mimo is the Midwest regional director for the Association of Specialty Cut Flower Growers.

Transcript

The transcript for this episode is brought to you by Earth Tools, offering the most complete selection of walk-behind farming equipment and high-quality garden tools in North America; and by Growing for Market, where you can get 20% off your subscription with the code “podcast” at checkout.
Download Episode
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104: Mike Brownback of Spiral Path Farm Talks about Ethical Wholesale Buyers, Hillside Farming, Salad Mix Production, and the American Dream

2/2/2017

3 Comments

 
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Mike Brownback farms at Spiral Path Farm in South-Central Pennsylvania with his wife, Terra, and sons Will and Lucas. Spiral Path farms over seventy acres on more than 300 acres of land that they own. Serving two farmers markets, and 2,000-member CSA, and a substantial wholesale business with Wegmans grocery store, they farm all of their acres organically, and have been certified organic since 1994.

Mike shares the recent history of Spiral Path Farm and the return of his sons to the operation. We talk about how they’ve come back to the farm, and how Mike and Terra have integrated them into the operation, including the unconventional details of how they keep the communication channels open and everyone headed in the right direction. Mike also shares how he, Terra, and his sons have divided up the responsibilities for managing employees, and the guiding philosophy and daily actions that have helped them retain several employees for over a decade.

We dig into the production side of the farming operation, as well. Mike digs into his strategies for growing nutrient-dense, flavorful foods, including the nuts-and-bolts of the composting and cover cropping techniques that work together on the farm to build carbon and soil life. We also discuss farming on the contours, how they harvest and make the most use of the water that falls on the farm, and their approach to salad mix production and large-scale season extension.
​
Perennial support for the Farmer to Farmer Podcast is generously provided by Vermont Compost Company and BCS America.

Sponsors

Vermont Compost Company: Founded by organic crop growing professionals committed to meeting the need for high-quality composts and compost-based, living soil mixes for certified organic plant production.

BCS America: BCS two-wheel tractors are versatile, maneuverable in tight spaces, light-weight for less compaction, and easy to maintain and repair on farm. Gear-driven and built to last for decades of dependable service on your farm or market garden.
​
Small Farm Central: Providers of Member Assembler CSA management software. Member Assembler has the flexibility to serve the needs of the myriad of farmers’ business models as well as serving non-traditional local food subscriptions like meat, fish, dairy, and fruit CSAs and CSFs.

Quotes from the Show

If we get down to Florida or we go out to California, we're just little guys. Around here, we're looked at as somewhat of a large farm.

Our philosophy is basically, you pack your CSA box like it's going to your mother-in-law.

And it's okay to make a profit, but in the process, you want to hold to your values.

If I'm selling to an intermediary who's selling to a customer, the new economy has to take into account that it has to be win-win all the way down the line, and, and it cannot be parasitic.

Our motto is if it falls on us, that's our water, we want that water. We're not trying to get rid of that water, we want it in the ground, infiltrated in so we can use it because we make a living by that water.

I look at instrumentation as teaching you what your senses should know.

The harder something is to do, the less likely it is to get done.

The first employee I had that bought a house I just about had tears in my eyes, I mean, to be a little farmer, and to grow a business and to have an employee, your employee, you're paying an employee enough that they're actually buying a house, having children and providing health coverage. That is the American dream. And it's not just an American dream, for having an employee, it's an American dream for that employer. And I think we have to, we got to hold that, we got to make sure that we have a country where that's, that's the possibility.

I would rather err on the side of generosity in spite of the fact of my weakness in dealing with my fellow man.
What a blessing it is to have passion. I mean, that's, that's the motor running baby. And the thing of it is, to have your heart working and functioning to a degree that your passion is held in check by the wisdom of your heart.
​

When I sunk my hands in the soil and felt that earth, it was like I was totally cleansed.

Show Links

Mike talked about how important the Acres USA publication was for providing information and encouragement to work his soil quality.

He also mentioned the Pennsylvania Association for Sustainable Agriculture (PASA) annual conference as an important resource – I’ve been to this show, and I would agree!

The Tuscarora Organic Growers Cooperative came up a couple of times in the course of the conversation.
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