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.

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.

The mini pallet system that Mike referenced is pictured here:

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:

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.
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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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 

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.

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?”

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.

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.

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.