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099: Chris McGuire of Two Onion Farm on Weed Control, Irrigation, Apples, Labor, and Record-keeping on a Dedicated CSA Farm

12/29/2016

2 Comments

 
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Chris McGuire and his wife, Juli, own and operate Two Onion Farm in Belmont, Wisconsin. With four acres of vegetables and ¾ of an acre of apples – all certified organic – Two Onion Farm is packing 300 CSA shares each week for delivery in Madison, Wisconsin, Dubuque, Iowa, and Galena, Illinois.

Chris digs into the details of weed control without tractors on Two Onion Farm, with an emphasis on prevention and reducing the bank of weed seeds in the soil. We also explore details of the farm’s use of drip irrigation to make the most of a limited water supply.

We talk extensively about Two Onion Farm’s organic apple production, including how they manage that alongside of the vegetables and incorporate it into the marketing for their CSA shares.

Chris also gets into the ways that Two Onion Farm has managed their worker-share program, and how that has changed over the years as their employee management has gotten better. And given that they’ve improved their employee management, Chris talks about how he has improved their hiring process and employee engagement.

We also hear about Two Onion Farms’ new transplant-production greenhouse, and the energy savings and automation features they included when it was constructed last year.
​

The Farmer to Farmer Podcast is generously supported by Vermont Compost Company.

Sponsors

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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Quotes from the Show

I don't have a great theory, or silver bullet about how to keep the weeds under control. I feel like it mostly boils down to having enough people on hand to go out and do the hoeing and weeding when it needs to be done.

Very quickly within a year, well, within one to three years, we eliminated all the fruit except for the apples. Some of the reasons were kind of specific to the individual fruits, but overall the reason was it was just too much to manage.

I think the productivity of our paid employees has really increased with our experience. We didn't improve as much in managing members. I'm not sure there's as much room for improvement.

There's not a whole lot you can do with a really bad, or mediocre employee.


I think that giving over responsibilities has improved the satisfaction of our employees with the job, and also the quality of the work that's been done in pretty much every case.


Most employees, they don't want to screw up. They want to come here and do a good job. I think realizing that, and then doing our best as supervisors to make it crystal clear to them what constitutes a good job here on this farm, that's really what we have to do as employers.

Show Links

Chris’ favorite tool is his Tallman Orchard Ladder.

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 Growing for Market, where you can get 20% off your subscription with the code “podcast” at checkout.
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098: Mike Nolan of Mountain Roots Produce on Growing Storage Crops in the High Desert and Staying Ahead of the Curve

12/22/2016

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Mike Nolan raises about five acres of vegetables at Mountain Roots Produce in Mancos, Colorado. With a focus on storage crops, Mike has patched together a market in his rural marketplace that includes restaurants, grocery stores, schools, and CSA members in the Four Corners area of Colorado. Farming in Mancos for the last seven years, Mike has recently brought Mountain Roots into profitability, and no longer has to work off the farm to make ends meet.

We dig into the details of Mike’s operation, including how he has structured his tractor-scale farming operation for growing crops that are planted a limited number of times every year, and why he decided to start farming with a business model based on these limited-succession crops. Mike shares his challenges with weed control, how he’s used local resources to store his root crops with limited capital investment, and the changes he is making to prepare for the new marketing realities he expects as the Food Safety Modernization Act begins to take effect.

Mike also gives us an overview of water rights in the West, and how that influences the structure of his farming operation. Plus, Mike and his girlfriend, Mindy Perkovich of Early Bird Gardens, recently joined forces in Mancos, and Mike shares the details and realities of making the transition from a solo operator to being part of a partnership.

The Farmer to Farmer Podcast is generously supported by Vermont Compost Company.

Sponsors

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: Making it simple for farms, farm cooperatives, and local food artisans to streamline working with wholesale buyers such as restaurants, schools, corporate kitchens, retails stores, and more. 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

I like to call it the salad mix burn out… I did the salad mix thing for a few years and my body just couldn’t handle it.

We dropped out of market this year, which was one of the most nerve-wracking and also one of the most awesome things I think I’ve ever decided in my life farming-wise.

A big thing for me [about being in a partnership] has been basically figuring out a space to being open to having somebody help you.

It’s like you spend all this time working stuff and selling this beautiful product but your quality of life is failing because you’re not able to cook and find time to take care of yourself…

The food system is one of the few things out there that touches everybody. I felt like it was a good way to channel a lot of the work I wanted to do in the world and also be able to work for myself and run a business and really make good change even though it’s slow.

Show Links

The sorghum-sudangrass mix for thistle control that we discussed can be found at this link. 

Mike has worked with American Ag Credit to finance infrastructure on his farm.

Mike has been involved with the Rocky Mountain Farmers Union and the National Young Farmers Coalition.

​Mike’s partner, Mindy Perkovich, owned and operated
Early Bird Gardens.

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 Growing for Market, where you can get 20% off your subscription with the code “podcast” at checkout.
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097: Eva Rehak and Rebekah Frazer Chiasson on Cooperative Marketing and Farm Families in New Brunswick

12/15/2016

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Eva Rehak and Rebekah Frazer Chiasson are members of Coin Bio – that’s Organic Corner in English – a small marketing co-op at the Dieppe Farmers Market in Dieppe, New Brunswick. With a total of four farms, the Organic Corner co-op allows these farmers to show up at market with the greatest diversity of produce in southeastern New Brunswick.

Eva and Rebekah share the details of how they make the co-op work, including how they decide who sells what and how they structure the finances to keep the cooperative operating and vital. We also dig into how they resolve and avoid conflict within the venture, and the attitude and approach that make Organic Corner a positive experience for farmers and customers alike.


We also discuss the realities of raising families on the farm, and the political activism they’ve participated in around childcare subsidies in New Brunswick.


The Farmer to Farmer Podcast is generously supported by Vermont Compost Company.


Sponsors

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.

Quotes from the Show

[Rebekah] Our farms are only as strong as the local and organic food movement is strong.

[Rebekah, quoting Eva] Our role as a co-op is to help Ferme Terre Partagée reach their full potential. That was like wow. You can't do anything but trust these people if that's really one of this co-op’s goals.

[Eva] It touches me that I want my kids to not necessarily follow in my footsteps…  but just to have this life and to see and to have that option, to have that opportunity so for me it's just a big part.


[Eva] We're still standing. We are sometimes sweating but we're still standing and another year is coming.


[Eva] We don't want the friendship to get in the way but I think that's also something that helps with the communication.


​[Rebekah] Sometimes some of the things that we've found challenging like quality control, standardization; it's easy to get frustrated if there's a farm you think isn't following in line but when you really remember who that person is and what they're contributing to the co-op... it’s just something that has to be addressed and it’s nothing more than that.

Show Links

Coin Bio got a lot of good information from the New Brunswick Coop Council. 

Eva and Rebekah both agree that the Atlantic Canadian Organic Regional Network (ACORN) is one of the best resources for farming and farm-business information. (And I would agree!)

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 Growing for Market, where you can get 20% off your subscription with the code “podcast” at checkout.
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096: Diane Szukovathy from Jello Mold Farm on Taking Chances in the World of Flower Farming

12/8/2016

1 Comment

 
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Diane Szukovathy raises about 4.5 acres of cut flowers at Jello Mold Farm in Mount Vernon, Washington. Now in their eleventh year of selling flowers, Diane and Dennis Westphall have become cornerstones of the local flower movement in the Pacific Northwest.

Diane cofounded the Seattle Wholesale Growers Market when she realized the need to expand her farm’s reach without putting more hours into marketing and distribution. We discuss the establishment of the cooperative and its journey to self-sufficiency, including details about how the cooperative has brought on staff and set standards for its growers.

Diane also digs into the details of producing cut flowers at Jello Mold Farm, where she and Dennis manage annual and perennial flower and foliage crops. She shares her techniques and perspective on weed management and pest control, and gets into the nitty gritty details of how they produce top quality cut flowers – including an excellent tutorial on cleaning buckets and totes. We also talk season extension in the high tunnel, and forcing woody crops to flower in order to have products to sell in January.

The Farmer to Farmer Podcast is generously supported by Vermont Compost Company.

Sponsors

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.

​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 Growing for Market, where you can get 20% off your subscription with the code “podcast” at checkout.

Quotes from the Show

What we didn’t know at the time was a great benefit to us.

[Regarding pricing:] There are a lot of different factors going on that are in some way or another subsidized or that have a different economy to them than just trying to make a living off of a piece of land.

I have in mind the pyramid versus the round table in terms of models for running a business. And a business like ours which is already a cooperative really works best when certain people aren’t more important than other people.


Certainly when you’re talking about local agriculture and being able to sell within sixty miles of your farm, I feel like there should be a way of doing that. Working hard outside and gambling with mother nature ought to be enough obstacles.


We have been about coming together and finding our similarities rather than making rules or squeezing people out if they’re a little bit different. We need each other to survive.


​I’m not concerned about what the farm looks like as long as we’re able to grow healthy crops and take good-looking product to market.

Show Links

Diane mentioned the importance of The 50-Mile Bouquet for the development of a local flower movement.

Diane was a board member of the ASCFG.


Jello Mold, and many other farms in the Seattle Wholesale Growers Market, have opted for Salmon-Safe Certification as an alternative certification to certified organic.

Jello Mold loves their Procona buckets, designed for the flower industry.

Woody Cut Stems for Growers and Florists is a bible for Diane – not in print right now, but available for Kindle.

Diane also considers Specialty Cut Flowers: The Production of Annuals, Perennials, Bulbs, and Woody Plants for Fresh and Dried Cut Flowers to be a foundational text for flower farming.

Transcripts

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 Growing for Market, where you can get 20% off your subscription with the code “podcast” at checkout.

From Chris: Despite our best efforts, we don’t have the transcript ready for this show yet – I sincerely apologize if you came here looking for it. We will make the transcript available just as soon as possible.
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095: Michael Ableman of Foxglove Farm and SOLEfood on Urban and Rural Farming

12/1/2016

2 Comments

 
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Michael Ableman splits his time between his family’s Foxglove Farm on British Columbia’s Salt Spring Island and SOLEfood, an urban farm on the downtown east side of Vancouver, British Columbia. Michael has been farming full-time since 1976, starting as an orchardist and evolving into a wide range of vegetables, fruits, grains, dry beans, and livestock. An early pioneer in the urban agriculture movement, Michael has long focused on the creation of good jobs and production quantities of food.

We dig into the production systems that Michael developed at SOLEfood to allow that 4.5 acre urban farm to meet the challenges of growing in an urban environment, including how they farm on top of pavement and how they mitigate the risks of uncertain land tenure. In addition to producing $350,000 in food each year, SOLEfood provides employment to individuals who struggle with poverty and addiction, and Michael shares his perspective on managing labor under challenges circumstances.
​

Michael’s 120-acre farm on Salt Spring Island includes 30 acres of hay and grain and six acres of fruits and vegetables, marketed on the island and via the ferry into Vancouver. Michael shares details about marketing in the two very different marketplaces, and we get a good look at his white asparagus production as well.
We also get to hear about Michael’s experience with global agriculture in the 1980s, and how that’s influenced his approach to farming in North America.
​

The Farmer to Farmer Podcast is generously supported by Vermont Compost Company.

Sponsors

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.

​FarmersWeb, making it simple for farms, farm cooperatives, and local food artisans to streamline working with wholesale buyers such as restaurants, schools, corporate kitchens, retails stores, and more. 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.


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 Growing for Market, where you can get 20% off your subscription with the code “podcast” at checkout.

​Quotes from the Show

This is a model that is truly agricultural in scale. It was important to me to demonstrate that if we are going to use the term “urban agriculture”… then we need to respect the agricultural part of that term.

I have people who tell me that the only reason they’re alive today is because of the job they hold and the community of farmers they’re associated with, and the fact that they feel needed. They simply feel needed.

It's interesting because I've made every mistake in the book in terms of human resources and yet I look back on the Fairview Gardens experience and I had the same crew there for 17 years, I think, and oh my gosh, do I miss them.

Every farm I’ve ever been to, those canvases are particular the personality and history and background and culture of the farmer-artist who has painted them in.

Many of the people who live on Salt Spring Island are of privilege. I felt the need to use my skills to address some needs that exist in pretty much every low-income community in the world.

You can certainly create a niche around anything, but at some point you have to evaluate whether you have the stamina for it, if you have the right systems to support it, whether the market is there.

Good farming has less to do with fertile soil and refined technique, and more to do with people who love their land, and bring passion to that land and the work they are doing, and love to feed their communities.

When our staff are happy, inevitably I hear from our customers how delicious the food is. There’s a direct relationship there.
​

[Goethe]  Whatever you can do or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it.

 ​Show Links

Michael’s most recent book is Street Farm: Growing Food, Jobs, and Hope on the Urban Frontier.

He is also the author of three previously published books: From the Good Earth: A celebration of growing food around the world; On Good Land: The autobiography of an urban farm; and Fields of Plenty: A farmer’s journey in search of real food and the people who grow it. More information available at michaelableman.com/books

The weird and awesome college where Michael and I first made our indirect contact was Deep Springs College. 

Transcripts

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 Growing for Market, where you can get 20% off your subscription with the code “podcast” at checkout.
​
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