Farmer to Farmer Podcast
  • Episodes
  • Sponsors
  • FAQs
  • Donate
    • Patreon
    • Amazon
  • Contact

060: Mike Bollinger on Finding a Niche and Accessing Markets

3/31/2016

3 Comments

 
Farmer to Farmer Podcast | Guest | Mike Bollinger | River Root Farm
Mike Bollinger raises about three acres of outdoor vegetables and a half acre under cover just inside the city limits of the small town of Decorah, Iowa, with his wife, Katie Prochaska. River Root Farm serves grocery stores and restaurants in its local market in Decorah, as well as in surrounding small cities and Minnesota’s Twin Cities. Enterprises at River Root Farm range from microgreens and transplants to fresh herbs and four-season salad greens.

Mike and Katie have worked hard to adapt to the marketplace in rural Northeast Iowa as they slowly laid the groundwork for their farm. They’ve found ways of making a living on the farm that didn’t put them into direct competition with an already crowded market farming scene in Northeast Iowa. We dig into how they’ve gone about testing markets and products to limit risk and maximize potential as they grew the business to a point where they could make the leap into both farming full time.

We dive deep into the details of how they’ve made the logistics work for co-shipping and cross-docking their product by adapting to the distribution system around them., discuss some of the finer points of producing transplants for sale to grocery stores and other retailers, and look at how River Root Farm harvests and handles their microgreens.

The Farmer to Farmer Podcast is generously supported by Vermont Compost Company.

Sponsors

Vermont Compost: 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.

Audible: Discover the world of audio-books, and absorb yourself in the latest in business management texts, farming essays, or just a dramatic retelling of the Star Wars saga. Get a free audiobook download and a 30-day free trial at audibletrial.com/farmertofarmer.

Quotes from the Show

Some of those niche markets [have made] our farm more viable in such a small community with a significant number of growers who are doing things similar to us.

We’ve been around long enough, [and] we’ve really focused on consistency and quality and just trying to create the system and the process so that things can run smoothly. And that has allowed this exponential growth for us to happen.

[Regarding the production of transplants for sale:] We’ve had to work that system out, but it’s very easy for us to work in this controlled environment where we know what to expect.

Don’t be afraid to experiment. Don’t be afraid to try things out. Don’t be afraid to fail.

Show Links

The mini pallet system that Mike referenced is pictured here:
Picture
Picture
Mike referenced a project I did with Iowa State University’s Leopold Center, the Transplant Production Decision Tool.

River Root Farm’s germination chamber, which features an auto-filling water pan, came from Phytotronics.

Mike sent pictures of the integrated benches he discussed for transplant production:
Picture
Download

3 Comments

059: Laura Masterson on Creating a Farm Future She Wants to Be a Part Of

3/24/2016

0 Comments

 
Farmer to Farmer Podcast | Guest | Laura Masterson | 47th Avenue Farm
47th Avenue Farm’s Laura Masterson started her farm on a double lot in a residential neighborhood of Portland, Oregon, twenty years ago. The farm expanded to many different plots of land, then consolidated; now, Laura farms about 20 acres of vegetables on land on two main parcels in the Portland  suburbs, providing a year-round CSA to over 200 families and produce to restaurants in the Portland Metro area.

Laura’s commitment to the triple bottom line is apparent as we talk about Laura’s work in government and with non-profit organizations, her plantings of beneficial insect habitat on her farm, her weed control strategies, and record-keeping’s roll on her farm for making management decisions.

47th Avenue Farm was one of the first in the Portland area to move away from the internship labor model to providing full-time, year-round employment opportunities, and Laura goes in depth with how she has worked with her farm manager to create an open and encouraging work environment.

The Farmer to Farmer Podcast is generously supported by Vermont Compost Company.

Sponsors

Vermont Compost: 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.
​

Farmers Web: Providing small business software for farmers. By allowing you to streamline wholesale ordering and operations, FarmersWeb makes it easier to work with your buyers, reducing costs and increasing your business capacity.

Quotes from the Show

Some of the big challenges are, How do we manage people better… when you’re the doer, those skills don’t necessarily translate into the manger.

The challenge is to move towards the middle and figure out how to give people enough responsibility and ownership but then be checking in a way that doesn’t feel like micromanaging and that leads to good results and outcomes. To me, a big piece of that is self-knowledge.

One of the most important things for me to be a better manager is to be more self-aware.

Part of what we have on the farm is that quiet, that opportunity that is so different from where the rest of the world is heading, to observe and think and see the architecture of the plant and to see deeply what is happening on the farm in a way that you can’t do if you are plugged in.

I had to learn the hard way just how expensive it is to have a [weed] seed bank like that in your vegetable crops.

Managing weeds has changed my life.

Show Links

Laura has been a long-time board member for the East Multnomah Soil and Water Conservation District.

We discussed the Headwaters Farm Incubator Program, a project of the East Multnomah Soil and Water Conservation District.

Laura talked, as many people on the show do, about Ben Hartman’s The Lean Farm.

Laura shared the Enneagram personality test that she used on her farm to  help people identify their strengths and challenges.

Information about the Nordell’s cover cropping program for weed control can be found here in their article on Weed the Soil, Not the Crop.

We talked about Audible, an audiobook subscription service that Laura enjoys while she’s commuting to the farm. And I’ll just make a plug here that Audible does sponsor the podcast, and you can support the show by signing up for a free trial at audibletrial.com/farmertofarmer.

Laura spoke highly of The Ideal Soil by Michael Astera, and The Intelligent Gardener by Steve Solomon.
Download

0 Comments

058: Curtis Stone on Using the Pareto Principle on the Urban Micro Farm

3/17/2016

6 Comments

 
Farmer to Farmer Podcast | Guest | Curtis Stone | Green City Acres
Curtis Stone raises $100,000 of vegetable on just a third of an acre at Green City Acres in Kelowna, British Columbia. He’s also the author of The Urban Farmer, an excellent text on growing food for profit on leased and borrowed land. Curtis came out of a career as a musician and tree planter to start his urban farming venture, and he’s adapted the lessons he learned on the road and in the mountains to his farming career.

Oh, and he actually shrunk his farm in order to make more money! By focusing on the Pareto Principle – also known as the 80-20 rule – Curtis puts his attention on the right customers, the right crops, and the right techniques to maximize the output and the profits from his tiny acreage.

Curtis shares his tips for controlling weeds before you plant a crop, capturing and organizing information effectively, marketing at farmers markets and to restaurants, and how to structure your farm to better serve yourself and your markets.

The Farmer to Farmer Podcast is generously supported by Vermont Compost Company.

Sponsors

Vermont Compost: 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.

Quotes from the Show

If you think farming’s hard, try being a working musician. Not only will you be poor, but you’ll probably be hungry.

I have found that the larger you go, the less dollars per square foot you’ll make on your land.

Focus on the tasks that have a measurable return.

My function on my farm is to focus on planting, harvesting, and marketing.

We’re constantly willing to change our workflow based on what's going to be best for optimizing the perfect crop with the least amount of time processing it. I will do everything I can on my farm to avoid washing salad mix.

Farmers markets are the best blueprint for how to do business in the real world. If you want to learn a lot about where you are and what people want, you can learn a ton of it at market.

One of the things that kills farms the quickest is too much capital up front.

Show Links

The Urban Farmer: Growing Food for Profit on Leased and Borrowed Land

Curtis’ book, The Urban Farmer, is available at his website. You can get the Premium package, which includes additional digital content, for the same price as the book by using the code "farmertofarmer" (if you’re in the US; in Canada, use the code "farmertofarmercan").

Curtis also has an online course, Profitable Urban Farming. Get a $100 discount using the coupon code "farmertofarmer" (if you’re in the US; in Canada, use the code "farmertofarmercan").

Curtis’ videos are available on YouTube 
Download

6 Comments

057: Dru Rivers on the Ballet of Managing Diversity, Partnerships, and Employees at Full Belly Farm

3/10/2016

2 Comments

 
Farmer to Farmer Podcast | Guest | Dru Rivers | Full Belly Farm
Dru Rivers began farming in 1983 with her partner, Paul Muller, in Northern California’s Capay Valley. Since that time, Full Belly Farm has grown to over 200 acres of vegetables, with still more acreage devoted to flowers, animals, fruits, nuts, and even grains. They’ve recently ventured into value-added products, as well. All of this is marketed to farmers markets, CSA customers, and wholesale customers in the Bay Area, Davis, and Sacramento.

Full Belly Farm has also grown in the number of people – and not just their intern program or their employees, although we dig into how Full Belly has created a renowned and very successful internship program and an environment that fosters fantastic employee retention. Full Belly’s ownership has also grown, with an early partnership with Judith Redmond and Andrew Brait, as well as a more recent expansion to include some of Dru and Paul’s children. Dru shares about why their partnership has worked, the return of all four of her children to the farm, managing a wide diversity of enterprises, and the renowned Hoes Down Harvest Festival.

The Farmer to Farmer Podcast is generously supported by Vermont Compost Company.

Sponsors

Vermont Compost: 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.

Quotes from the Show

I think the model of the single family farm is a little bit defunct now in this country. It’s really hard… to be a single family with children and to farm full time and make that work.

I often worried about, was I a good mom? But now, in retrospect, their favorite memories are some of the ones where I was really like, “Gosh, am I doing the right thing?”

Show Links

The Hoes Down Harvest Festival at Full Belly Farm is a harvest celebration and fundraiser for non-profit organizations that support sustainable agriculture and rural living, including the Ecological Farming Association.
Download

2 Comments

056: Emily Oakley on Setting Limits at Three Springs Farm

3/3/2016

2 Comments

 
Farmer to Farmer Podcast | Guest | Emily Oakley | Three Springs Farm
Emily Oakley owns and operates Three Springs Farm in Oaks, Oklahoma, with her husband, Mike Appel. Since 2003, they’ve sold their organic vegetables through a CSA and at a farmers market. They’ve chosen to keep their farm small, not just in acres but also in overall production, substituting tractors and equipment for labor on their three acres of vegetable production where they gross about $80,000 per year, with a net of well over half of that.

We talk about their choice to limit their acres, their work hours, and their growing season, and get into the way that their farm changed when their child was born three years ago.

With its unpredictable weather and biblical pest outbreaks, Emily says that if you can farm in Oklahoma, you can farm anywhere, so we also dig into how Three Springs Farm manages uncertainty and risk both in the field and in its business management processes.

Emily was also recently appointed to the National Organic Standards Board (NOSB), and she shares her perspective on organic certification and community service.

The Farmer to Farmer Podcast is generously supported by Vermont Compost Company.

Sponsors

Vermont Compost: 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.
​

Farmers Web: Providing small business software for farmers. By allowing you to streamline wholesale ordering and operations, FarmersWeb makes it easier to work with your buyers, reducing costs and increasing your business capacity.

Quotes from the Show

The beautiful thing about farming is that there are so many different scales that are possible, so many different crop mixes that are possible, marketing outlet mixes that are possible, that it’s really up to the individual grower to decide what works for them.

We have intended from the beginning to stay small. This is what works for us.

Since we had a daughter, it forced us to stop working some of those super-long days… it was quite a gift to see that we could work less and still make the same amount of money, and still keep our customers, and still be happy, and have this other focus of our lives.

Because we’re a two-person operation, we’re substituting tractors and equipment for labor.
The biggest part of the two-person farm piece is just trying to manage your time efficiently and get your systems down as efficiently as possible.

It’s a hard place to farm in that you can’t plan what your climate is going to be like… if you can farm in Oklahoma, you can farm anywhere.

At first blush [opting out of organic certification] doesn’t seem like that big of a deal. At the same time… it means that a large number of growers who are growing using these methods, who are representing some of the ideas and values that started the organic movement in the first place, are not choosing to be counted as a part of that movement. The implication for that is that when the USDA does its farmer survey… they’re just not counted as actually being organic growers, and that has real policy implications.
Download

2 Comments

    LISTEN

    img_logo_itunes
    img_logo_stitcher
    Picture

    Sponsors

    img_farmer to farmer podcast_sponsor_vermont compost
    Picture

    Archives

    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015


    Picture
Copyright © 2018, Purple Pitchfork. All rights reserved.
Privacy Policy