Fertrell: A friend of nature since 1946, Fertrell has the products and knowledge to help you grow healthy, natural plants and animals, no matter your level of experience or the size of your operation.

Osborne Seed Company: Founded by seed professionals and dedicated to serving professional growers of all scales, Osborne Seed provides quality seeds, excellent customer service, and a fantastic selection.

Ortomec salad harvesters from Sutton Ag

Harnois TunnelPro multi-bay high tunnels are similar to the more popular Haygrove tunnels, but made to withstand more wind. I’m a big fan of Harnois greenhouses and tunnels, as is Pete.

Pete uses a Lely Tine Weeder, but wants to experiment with the Einbock. The main difference is that the tines on the Einbock can all be adjusted at once; on larger units, individual sections also float free.

I made mention of a great book, the E-Myth Revisited, which goes deep into the structure of entrepreneurs and management in a growing, developing business.

Fertrell: A friend of nature since 1946, Fertrell has the products and knowledge to help you grow healthy, natural plants and animals, no matter your level of experience or the size of your operation.

Osborne Seed Company: Founded by seed professionals and dedicated to serving professional growers of all scales, Osborne Seed provides quality seeds, excellent customer service, and a fantastic selection.

Farm Beginnings Program – The Land Stewardship Project (Minnesota) Farm Beginnings program was the first, and spawned the Farm Beginnings Collaborative, a national alliance of independent regional groups of farmers and farmer-training support organizations working together to promote the Farm Beginnings training model.

We talked again about Holistic Management – the book is great, and you can find more information about Holistic Management at the Savory Institute website or at Holistic Management International.

Nick and I also talked about the Farm Service Agency’s microloans program. FSA also has a guide to farm loan programs.

Nick mentioned the National Young Farmer’s Coalition’s work to promote changes in the FSA loan programs.

The Farm Business Management program in Minnesota was important to Nick. I’m not sure just how many of these programs exist in other states.

Nick couldn’t hold himself to just one favorite tool. He highlighted the Valley Oak Wheel Hoe, the Farmall Super C, and the Club Car Carryall as the tools that really get him excited.

Finally, if you haven’t seen it, here’s the video Nick mentioned that Mike Bollinger had shared about harvesting kale. I’ve always thought I was pretty fast, but this puts the lie to that idea…

I mentioned the recording setup for my end of this podcast, which we recorded late on a Friday night. My partner and I bought a house in Madison, Wisconsin, two weeks ago, but we’re not moving for another two weeks. On Friday night, I was heading back to my house in Decorah after spending the week at Angelic Organics, in northern Illinois, and I stopped in the empty house to spend the night and record this episode. Empty houses are full of echoes, so I had to set up a temporary studio in the hall closet to try to cut down in the echo.

Fertrell: A friend of nature since 1946, Fertrell has the products and knowledge to help you grow healthy, natural plants and animals, no matter your level of experience or the size of your operation.

Osborne Seed Company: Founded by seed professionals and dedicated to serving professional growers of all scales, Osborne Seed provides quality seeds, excellent customer service, and a fantastic selection.

Annie talked at length about Sea-Crop fertilizer, which they use to provide a diversity of nutrients to their crops.

Helsing Junction has benefited from the PCC Farmland Trust, which is dedicated to preserving farmland for organic farmers in the Northwest.

Helsing Junction uses Farmigo to manage customer relationships, ordering, and logistics.

Annie and Sue also mention the reusable CSA boxes they prefer to use from Farm Wholesale Ag.

Fertrell: A friend of nature since 1946, Fertrell has the products and knowledge to help you grow healthy, natural plants and animals, no matter your level of experience or the size of your operation.

Osborne Seed Company: Founded by seed professionals and dedicated to serving professional growers of all scales, Osborne Seed provides quality seeds, excellent customer service, and a fantastic selection.

Greg mentioned Breaking Through Concrete, by Edwin Marty, Food Policy Manager for Austin Texas

Greg suggested hightunnels.org as a resource, and as an original resource that got him into the world of agriculture.

I’ve bought BCS two-wheeled tractors from a couple of different suppliers. I bought my last one from Earth Tools – like Greg said, this is the place to get them. I won’t buy another one from anybody else.

Coolbot

Greg talked about the way that his alarm systems from La Crosse Alerts help put his mind at ease.

A trolley system has come up multiple times in the short history of the Farmer to Farmer Podcast. Four Season Tools has a good one available here: https://www.smallfarmtools.com/trolley-systems-info

Greg asked me to post a picture of the small pallet system we put in place at Rock Spring Farm. This was modified from a standard hand cart by a local welding shop, and the pallets were built locally by a small pallet manufacturer for less than $2.00 each.

Followup on November 11, 2015: In response to comments below, Greg sent us a picture of the grass shears his team uses to harvest salad greens.