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4/26/2018

Greetings Farmer to Farmer Podcast Listeners,
Just want to let you know that Chris is having some health issues and the podcast will need to be suspended for a few weeks. We expect the podcast to resume in a few weeks with another great interview. Stay tuned and keep the tractor running.

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166: Mike Madison of Yolo Press on Organic Fresh Flowers, Olive Oil, and Value-Added Products in California’s Central Valley

4/12/2018

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Mike Madison raises 14 acres of organic olives, cut flowers, a variety of tree fruits, and the occasional vegetable crop at Yolo Press, near Davis, California. With his wife, Diane, Yolo Press creates olive oil and a variety of value-added products that are sold with the cut flowers through independent grocers and farmers markets in Davis. Yolo Press has provided a living for Mike and Diane since 1986.

We dig into the development of Yolo Press’ crop mix and markets, and how they developed to accommodate farmer labor and to provide a good living for Mike and Diane. Mike provides all of the production labor on the farm, so we discuss the hows and the whys of making that work, as well as the economics of the farm business and value-added products.

Mike is also the author of the recently published Fruitful Labor: The Ecology, Economy and Practice of a Family Farm.

Quotes from the Show

If you just have a very brief season and you get a big lump of money, and then you watch it melt away month after month, that can be a little disconcerting. So, we always have income, we always have things to do.

You can do great things with class three soil over a period of decades, but that's a heartbreaking way to farm.
Just because I've got a pocket full of money, is not enough motivation for me to be stuck in traffic on Interstate 80.

Typically we're setting our prices on the low end of the spectrum, because we're concerned about who our customer base is, and because we're not particularly ambitious to be wealthy.

Over the years, I keep lowering my expectations and lower and lower and lower until almost anything that works out is a bonus.

Show Links

Mike’s book, Fruitful Labor, is a thoughtful and worthwhile read.

Mike mentioned the customized potato planter he bought from US Small Farm Equipment Co. to plant his tulip bulbs.

Transcript

The transcript for this episode is brought to you byEarth Tools, offering the most complete selection of walk-behind farming equipment and high-quality garden tools in North America. And by Osborne Quality Seeds, a dedicated partner for growers. Visitosborneseed.com for high quality seed, industry-leading customer service, and fast order fulfillment. Additional funding for transcripts provided byNorth Central SARE, providing grants and education to advance innovations in Sustainable Agriculture.

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165: Olivia Hubert of Brother Nature Produce on Raising Salad Greens in Detroit, World War II Gardening, and Farm Yoga

4/5/2018

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Olivia Hubert farms with her husband, Greg Willerer, at Brother Nature Produce in Detroit Michigan, as well as at a farm an hour north of the city. Specializing in salad mix and fresh herbs sold to farmers markets, grocers, and restaurants, Brother Nature provides a living for both Greg and Olivia.

Olivia grew up in Detroit, where she fell in love with agriculture as a high school student. After studying at the Royal Horticulture Society of London, Olivia returned to Detroit, where she met Greg and joined him on his upstart urban farm.

Olivia shares her experience farming with both sides of Detroit’s environment, where gunshots and extreme poverty are never far from health nuts and concentrated wealth. She digs into what she learned about urban farming from the World-War-II gardening ethos in England, how they’ve learned to manage flea beetles, and how she and Greg grow fresh salad greens in the city without active refrigeration.

Quotes from the Show

We like to be lean, and mean, and flexible, and to be able to do whatever we need to do and make changes.

We’re very solution-oriented people.

You can’t leave things to chance.

Pretty much the only benefit of farming in the city is being close to your markets.

The idea in life is to have as many options as possible.

Our rows are not all the same size because Greg made them before I came along and made him make things uniform.

Instead of thinking about the times when we have to harvest salad by hand as “oh, no, my back,” start thinking of it as an opportunity to stretch yourself.