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116: Dan Guenthner of Common Harvest Farm on Gumption, Community, CSA, and One Red Wheelbarrow

4/27/2017

1 Comment

 
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Dan Guenthner of Common Harvest Farm, along with his wife Margaret Pennings, has been a CSA farmer since before CSA was even really a thing – 1990, to be exact. With twelve acres of vegetables and a 200-member CSA in Osceola, Wisconsin, just outside of Minnesota’s Twin Cities, Dan and Margaret take a thoughtful approach to how they engage with their CSA membership, the farming community, and their farm’s land and production systems.

Dan reflects on the CSA movement, and how it has grown and changed since its inception, and the challenges that even CSA farms with a deep focus on community have faced as local and organic produce has become more widely available. We discuss some of the ways that Dan and Margaret have built their CSA on community organizing and shared values in an effort to break out of the marketing paradigm, and how they are working to get even deeper into this heart of the CSA movement now.

Dan also digs into how he has built the production system at Common Harvest Farm, including a foray into draft animal production, and the investment strategy that has supported the development of a highly efficient farm, in terms of both labor and energy use.

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

We stumbled our way into [the CSA] movement in a way by being in the right place at the right time and connecting with a group of people that had this deep desire to take ownership of their food and become more involved in how it was growing, where it was growing.

People really do want to be invited to be part of something. I think maybe in many ways, we're not asking enough of our members.

For us, this is about values and this is about relationships and it was about community.

If you're trying to fill up your CSA for this year, you're really thinking in the wrong term.

I find it interesting today how many CSA farmers use the word "customer" when they talk about their community rather than members. That may seem like an insignificant thing. People are like, "What's the difference?" It represents two entirely different orientations. One is more of a market orientation and one really comes out of a different approach to build on this community organizing and social justice and values, values orientation.

The one thing that we [as CSA farmers] can consistently do better than almost any other type of orientation to organic food is based upon relationship, that we can connect, we can be connected, we can be vulnerable, we can offer this authentic, this really authentic connection and experience.

When you think about all of the anonymity in the industrial food system, it's basically built on obfuscation and disconnection.

[Regarding farming with horses] In the end, I thought, "If maybe this romantic notion of being deeply connected
to nature is jeopardizing our livelihood here, then I really have to think twice about that."
​

Personally, I just think that's one of the most enjoyable parts about organic farming in general is that it's not prescriptive. We're not following this pre-determined set of rules or something, it really is about observation and experimentation and that takes a lot of different forms.

Show Links

Dan discussed the CSA Charter at length. 

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 Rock Dust Local, the first company in North America specializing in local sourcing and delivery of the BEST rock dusts and biochar for organic farming. Additional funding for transcripts provided by North Central SARE, providing grants and education to advance innovations in Sustainable Agriculture.

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1 Comment

115: Susan and Harley Soltes of Bow Hill Blueberries on Organic Berry Production and Adding Value to Products, Farm, and People

4/20/2017

4 Comments

 
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Susan and Harley Soltes of Bow Hill Blueberries raise five acres of high-bush blueberries on the northern edge of the Skagit River Valley in western Washington. Susan and Harley bought the oldest blueberry farm in Skagit County in 2011, transitioned the farm to organic, and launched a new line of value-added products along with their fresh and frozen berries.

Harley shares the details of organic blueberry production, from weed control and management of mummy berry and spotted wing drosophila through the GAP-certified harvest that provides access to institutional markets. Bow Hill’s blueberry bushes were mostly planted in the 1940s, which provides a great marketing opportunity – heirlooms! – but also presents challenges when it comes to keeping the harvest crew happy, and Harley and Susan dig deep into how they work with their labor crew to maximize the harvest and keep worker satisfaction high.

Susan walks us through how they market their fresh and frozen berries to institutions including Microsoft’s food service and the Seattle Seahawks, as well how they created their unique line of value-added products, and how they have established a differentiated presence in the marketplace, even though Washington State is the United States’ largest producer of organic blueberries.
​

We also discuss how Bow Hill has developed and enhanced their u-pick market and on-farm sales, as well as how they’ve turned purslane to their advantage.

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.
​

CoolBot: Build your own walk-in cooler with a window air conditioner and a CoolBot controller. Save on upfront costs, monthly electricity bills, and expensive visits from refrigeration technicians. Controllers, complete cooling systems, and turnkey walk-in coolers available at StoreItCold.com. Mention the code FTF to double your CoolBot warranty at no charge. StoreItCold.com

Quotes from the Show

[Susan] What we wanted to do was really to breathe life back into this historic farm.

[Harley] We transitioned to organic from day one. That's the only way we would do things.


[Harley] I started to realize that [the employees are] out there with their hands in it, looking at it. I'm out there every day, too, but they're really intimate with the plants. They manage the pick.


[Susan] That's what you hear growing up, that the middleman is the bad guy. Well, somebody has got to deliver this stuff, and it's not for free.


[Susan] If any kid wants to be a picker at our farm, I will interview them and I'll tell them they'll go out with the professionals and they'll be treated like a professional.


​[Harley] We could sell the whole field frozen in little bags easily, but it doesn't keep people working all year.

Show Links

Harley mentioned the book he had just completed photographing for when he and Susan bought the farm, Chefs on the Farm: Recipes and Inspiration from the Quillisascut Farm School of the Domestic Arts. 

Harley’s favorite tool is the Blueberry Cultivator from Hillside Cultivator Company – he says it saved the farm!

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 Rock Dust Local, the first company in North America specializing in local sourcing and delivery of the BEST rock dusts and biochar for organic farming. Additional funding for transcripts provided by North Central SARE, providing grants and education to advance innovations in Sustainable Agriculture.
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4 Comments

114: Janaki Fisher-Merritt of Food Farm on Root Cellars and Rooting in Community in the Far North

4/13/2017

1 Comment

 
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Janaki Fisher-Merritt owns Food Farm with his wife, Annie Dugan, and operates it with his parents, John and Jane Fisher-Merritt, and long-time employee Dave Hanlon. Located in Wrenshall, Minnesota, 25 miles southwest of Duluth, Food Farm raises about thirteen acres of vegetables, and sells them over an extended season by storing crops in their high-tech root cellar. In 2010, they were selected as the Organic Farmers of the Year by the Midwest Organic and Sustainable Education Service.

Food Farm was started by Janaki’s parents in the late 1980s. Janaki shares the story of the farm’s development in the late 1980s and early 1990s, how they developed a market for local food and CSA in their area, and Janaki’s gradual assumption of responsibility and eventual ownership of the farm.

In addition to 200 summer CSA shares and a significant amount of wholesale sales, Food Farm packs about 150 CSA shares all winter long. We dig into Food Farm’s amazing root cellar, which combines traditional techniques with modern technology to create a facility that is practical and efficient. Janaki walks us through the development of their root cellar, the creation of a second-generation version, and the nuts and bolts of how they keep storage crops fresh into March and beyond.

Janaki also explains their wood-heated transplant production system, and the steps they’ve taken to make that energy-efficient in a climate where heating bills in March can be much more outrageous than on the average Minnesota vegetable farm.
​

We also delve into Janaki’s involvement with his local non-farming community through the school board and a film festival, and how having something outside the farm – including, recently, a couple of children! – has enriched and balanced Janaki’s life, and the life of his family.

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.

CoolBot: Build your own walk-in cooler with a window air conditioner and a CoolBot controller. Save on upfront costs, monthly electricity bills, and expensive visits from refrigeration technicians. Controllers, complete cooling systems, and turnkey walk-in coolers available at StoreItCold.com. Mention the code FTF to double your CoolBot warranty at no charge. StoreItCold.com

Quotes from the Show

We just had this idea that… we were better off trying to sell more food to the same families than trying to increase the number of families that we were selling to.

It didn't cost money, it just cost a lot of time. [Talking about his greenhouse.]

I think a farm really benefits from having a diversity of perspective even when that comes to decision-making and how to approach problems.

Any spouse who lives on a farm is involved whether they want to or not.

[Having kids] has made me less motivated. It's really hard now to make myself work as late as I used to and work as hard as I used to just because it's not the thing that I care the most about anymore.

It doesn't matter if it's not as perfect as it could be, but if there's a system there, and you know it works and you just do the same damn thing every year, there's a benefit to that.

​It's good as farmers, I think, to break ourselves out of just farm stuff all the time and have something that is related to what we're doing, but using our farms in a different way as outlets for other people's creativity.

Show Links

Janaki’s parents started farming following the Booker T. Whatley model as described in How to Make $100,000 Farming 25 Acres.

Also, check out Janaki’s (and friends’) Free Range Film Festival.

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 Rock Dust Local, the first company in North America specializing in local sourcing and delivery of the BEST rock dusts and biochar for organic farming. Additional funding for transcripts provided by North Central SARE, providing grants and education to advance innovations in Sustainable Agriculture.

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1 Comment

113: Josh Slotnick of Clark Fork Organics and Garden City Harvest on Salad Greens, Short Seasons, and Food as Fuel for a Social Ecology

4/6/2017

3 Comments

 
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Josh Slotnick has farmed at Clark Fork Organics on the outskirts of Missoula, Montana, with his wife, Kim Murchison, since 1992. With about eight acres in vegetables and eleven acres of total crop ground, Clark Fork Organics is a pillar in the Missoula local foods community, and is well-known for their salad greens. They sell at two farmers market, through a local health food store, and to restaurants in the community.

In 1996, Josh and a few others founded Garden City Harvest, a non-profit in Missoula that builds community through agriculture. Garden City Harvest does this by providing community education while managing ten community garden sites and four neighborhood farms in Missoula. Josh is the director of Garden City Harvest’s largest farm, the PEAS Farm, which is a partnership between Garden City Harvest and the University of Montana’s Environmental Studies program.

​Josh digs deep into how Clark Fork Organics builds and maintains relationships with their restaurant clients, both during the short, intense growing season and over the winter, when the farm doesn’t operate. We also discuss how these same techniques spill over to the farmers market, and how they’ve used those relationships to keep a marketing edge as the local foods scene has grown up around them. And, Josh shares the many ways that the PEAS Farm and Garden City Harvest have contributed to the overall social ecology of Missoula.

We also talk at length about salad mix production at Clark Fork Organics, as well as their irrigation tools and strategies – and about how Josh juggles two farms, family, and friends.

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

[When we started] we didn't feel like we needed anything, really, just a farm seemed like the greatest gift. We were very lit up by it; and we were young and full of energy.

In the wintertime we really like to ski and play pond hockey, so we do that instead of harvest Asian greens.

Marketing for us is also blended in with service.

[Western Montana Grower’s Cooperative has] done a great job in that they've infiltrated the food system far greater than we ever could, but something was lost there for farmers in that we don't get that really close contact with the people who are buying our food other than at farmers markets.


The hours are long, but our season is short.


It sort of fits with the trajectory of existence in the sense that we were substituting energy for stuff early on, and now there is not as much energy, and there is more stuff, in terms of more pipe and less of us running around.

For us to work really effectively with the food bank, as a provider, not as in a sort of programmatic way, but as a provider, it behooves us to get people food that they understand is food and they are gonna be excited to eat; so it doesn't end up in the dumpster.

​So much of the good part of what we do isn't in the provision of food, but it's in the act of growing food together, and the community that forms when we're growing food together, and the learning lessons that happen there.

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 Rock Dust Local, the first company in North America specializing in local sourcing and delivery of the BEST rock dusts and biochar for organic farming. Additional funding for transcripts provided by North Central SARE, providing grants and education to advance innovations in Sustainable Agriculture.

Download Episode
Download Transcript
3 Comments

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