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176: Jan Libbey of One Step at a Time Gardens on Scaling Up, Scaling Down, and Partnerships and Networking

8/30/2018

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Jan Libbey raises three acres of vegetables with her husband, Tim Landgraf, at One Step at a Time Gardens in North Central Iowa. With sales through their CSA and the North Iowa Fresh Food Hub, the market farm makes up one of multiple streams of income that include cash rent and CRP income on their 132 acre farm.
We dig into how Jan and Tim have made One Step at a Time Gardens work in rural Iowa, with an emphasis on their marketing efforts. Jan shares the story of growing the market farm operation, and then choosing to shrink it again as the business matured. We discuss how they’ve chosen their investments on the farm so that they are mechanizing where it counts.
We take a deep dive into their carrot production and the crop rotation they follow on their hilly farm, as well as the landscape and habitat restoration efforts Tim a

Sponsors 

Local Food Marketplace: Providing an integrated, scalable solution for farms and food hubs to process customer orders – including online ordering, harvesting, packing, delivery, invoicing and payment processing. Manage multiple product and price lists with ease.  Maximize your sales by selling multiple product pack sizes out of the same inventory. Local Food Marketplace will help you reach more customers and save time in fulfilling your customer’s orders.

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.

Quotes from the Show

By 2002, six years later, we sort of said, "Something's got to give, you or the farm," and we decided that it would be the off-farm job.
​
Putting a break in July gave us several weeks to kind of get things back under control and get a good jump on the rest of the summer and the fall.

Show Links

Jan mentioned that she and Tim have put some effort into studying  Holistic Management, a decision-making framework for resource management.

We discussed the  DriftWatch specialty crops registration sight where you can register your sensitive crops so that pesticide applicators can easily spot at-risk locations.

Practical Farmers of Iowa has extensive  resources for dealing with pesticide spray drift.

One Step at a Time Gardens uses the  Grindstone Farm barrel washer for cleaning root crops.

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 Osborne Quality Seeds, a dedicated partner for growers.  Visit  osborneseed.com for high quality seed, industry-leading customer service, and fast order fulfillment. Additional funding for transcripts provided by  North Central SARE, providing grants and education to advance innovations in Sustainable Agriculture.
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175: Lauren Palmer of Bloomsbury Farm on Sprouts, CSA, and Community Connections

8/23/2018

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Lauren Palmer raised 15 acres of vegetables in Smyrna, Tennessee, just south of Nashville. With year-round production, a sprouts operation, a 300-member CSA, wholesale accounts, farmers markets, and on-farm events, Bloomsbury Farm is a thriving hot spot in the local food scene in Nashville.
​
We dig into how Lauren has built the farm from the ground up since its start in 2009, taking a deep dive into Bloomsbury’s sprout production, employment structures, and CSA setup. We discuss how she deals with extreme deer pressure and regulations, and how she navigated a farm divorce. And Lauren reflects on the value of four-season production and building relationships with her customers and community

Sponsors​

High Mowing Organic Seeds: The first independently owned, farm-based seed company proudly serving organic growers with a full line of 100% certified organic and Non-GMO Project verified vegetable, herb, flower and cover crop seeds. Professional quality seeds grown by organic farmers, for organic farmers. Purchase your seeds early and receive a 10% discount through our Community Supported Seeds program – visit highmowingseeds.com/save.

Hoss Tools: Hoss Tools is the complete solution for all your market farming tools and supplies. They manufacture and carry only the highest-quality tools that are built to last a lifetime. From their time-tested Wheel Hoes, precision Garden Seeders, heavy-duty seed trays, drip irrigation and OMRI certified pest control solutions, they have you covered. FREE SHIPPING and outstanding customer service at http://www.hosstools.com.
​
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.

Quotes from the Show

I am truly living a fabulous life, growing vegetables and feeding people and having them gather here.

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 Osborne Quality Seeds, a dedicated partner for growers.  Visit  osborneseed.com for high quality seed, industry-leading customer service, and fast order fulfillment. Additional funding for transcripts provided by  North Central SARE, providing grants and education to advance innovations in Sustainable Agriculture.
Download Episode
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174: Jack Algiere of the Stone Barns Center on a Diversified Farm, a Close Partnership with a Restaurant, and Innovative Production

8/16/2018

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Jack Algiere is the farm director for Stone Barns Center in the New York’s lower Hudson Valley. Actively farming since the early 1990s, Jack has been the director at Stone Barns since its inception fifteen years ago. Jack oversees the extensive and diversified farm operations, including indoor and outdoor vegetable production, small grains, and a diverse array of livestock.
​

Most of the farm’s produce and meat is sold to the partner restaurant Blue Hill, and we dig into how this relationship has benefitted both the farm and the restaurant. We also take a look at how the vegetables are integrated into the livestock and pasture operation, the half-acre gutter connect greenhouse and how that differs from high tunnel production, and the compost heating system for the propagation operation.

Sponsors 

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.

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.
​
Farmers Web: Making it simple for family farms and farm cooperatives to streamline working with their buyers. By lessening the administrative load and increasing efficiency, FarmersWeb helps producers save time, manage their business, and work with more buyers overall.

Quotes from the Show

We’ve learned a lot from the things that we've failed at.

The fact that we can take a risk because we know that on the other side it's actually going to be greeted with great interest I think is a really important part of catalyzing change in the food system.
​
One of the beauties of being a farmer is that we get to actually experience nature on a daily basis, and all of the lessons it teaches us.

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 Osborne Quality Seeds, a dedicated partner for growers.  Visit  osborneseed.com for high quality seed, industry-leading customer service, and fast order fulfillment. Additional funding for transcripts provided by  North Central SARE, providing grants and education to advance innovations in Sustainable Agriculture.
Download Episode
Download Transcript
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173: Jean-Martin Fortier of La Ferme de Quatre Temps on Intensive Production on More Acres

8/9/2018

2 Comments

 
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Jean-Martin Fortier is most famous for his book, “The Market Gardener,” based on the high-output systems he developed at Quebec’s Les Jardens de la Grelinette, where his wife, Maude Helen, currently produces over $150,000 of produce on an acre and a half of production ground. He currently farms at La Ferme de Quatre Temps, an enlarged version of the same model on six acres of production ground.
​

We dig into the foundations of JM’s production model, from high fertility to an emphasis on weed prevention, and how that model has translated to more acres on his new project. JM reflects on the changed constraints with his new farm, and we discuss the lessons that JM has learned about personnel with a much larger crew and a different role for himself.

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.

Local Food Marketplace: Providing an integrated, scalable solution for farms and food hubs to process customer orders – including online ordering, harvesting, packing, delivery, invoicing and payment processing. Manage multiple product and price lists with ease.  Maximize your sales by selling multiple product pack sizes out of the same inventory. Local Food Marketplace will help you reach more customers and save time in fulfilling your customer’s orders.
​

High Mowing Organic Seeds: The first independently owned, farm-based seed company proudly serving organic growers with a full line of 100% certified organic and Non-GMO Project verified vegetable, herb, flower and cover crop seeds. Professional quality seeds grown by organic farmers, for organic farmers. Purchase your seeds early and receive a 10% discount through our Community Supported Seeds program – visit highmowingseeds.com/save.

Quotes from the Show

We've scaled up but we haven't really changed model and it's also interesting to just see how that model would do, considering that we're not cultivating with tractors and we're not doing bed prep with tractors.
​

When you put a quick-acting nitrogen base, most crops will develop their leaf systems, like a broccoli, let's say, as it develops the broccoli because it has a lot of good nitrogen. Then it's equipped because it has a lot of solar gain because of this big canopy. Then it can go down with its roots and get what the broccoli wants from the compost.

Show Links

JM’s  Market Gardener’s Master Class is available to Farmer to Farmer Podcast listeners for $100 off with the code farmertofarmerpodcast. Enrollment will re-open at the end of September, although you can sign up for the waiting list now.

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 Osborne Quality Seeds, a dedicated partner for growers.  Visit  osborneseed.com for high quality seed, industry-leading customer service, and fast order fulfillment. Additional funding for transcripts provided by  North Central SARE, providing grants and education to advance innovations in Sustainable Agriculture.
Download Episode
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2 Comments

172: Allan Gandelman of Main Street Farms on Meeting People’s Needs through Scaling and Marketing Decisions

8/2/2018

1 Comment

 
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Allan Gandelman raises 45 acres of crops at Main Street Farms in central New York state with his partner, BobCat. With twenty employees in its eighth year in business, Main Street Farms sells through a CSA, farmers market, and wholesale accounts.

Main Street Farms got its start in 2011 with an acre of production and an aquaponics set up, so they’ve grown a lot in the last eight years and Allan and I talk a lot about the process of scaling up their operation and finding their way with different mixes of enterprises and marketing outlets, and how that has meshed with meeting the needs of people on the farm.
​
We dig into Main Street Farms’ 42-week CSA, their acre of greenhouse production, and their new hemp enterprise and how it all fits together into a coherent whole.

Sponsors

Hoss Tools: Hoss Tools is the complete solution for all your market farming tools and supplies. They manufacture and carry only the highest-quality tools that are built to last a lifetime. From their time-tested Wheel Hoes, precision Garden Seeders, heavy-duty seed trays, drip irrigation and OMRI certified pest control solutions, they have you covered. FREE SHIPPING and outstanding customer service at www.hosstools.com.
​
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.

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.

Quotes From the Show

Our farm looks different every single year. It's never been the same from one year to the next.
​

What we realized over the last year, two years, was that most people didn't value the CSA the same way that us as the farmers were valuing the shares

Show Links

Allan found the programming at New York’s  Groundswell Center for Local Food and Farming very helpful in his startup years.

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 Osborne Quality Seeds, a dedicated partner for growers.  Visit  osborneseed.com for high quality seed, industry-leading customer service, and fast order fulfillment. Additional funding for transcripts provided by  North Central SARE, providing grants and education to advance innovations in Sustainable Agriculture.
Download Episode
Download Transcript
1 Comment

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