John Good farms with his wife, Aimee, at The Good Farm in Germansville, Pennsylvania. Ten acres of vegetables serve 200 CSA members plus farmers market and wholesale sales. 2017 was their first year farming on this land under this name, after eleven years of renting ground at the Rodale Institute where they operated their private farm business, Quiet Creek Farm.
John and Aimee took a very strategic and long-term approach to getting onto their own land. John shares how they developed their farm business on their rented land at Rodale, including how they prioritized their investments and built the markets and off-farm equity that helped them make the transition to their own land. We talk about how they developed their new infrastructure on blank ground, how they financed their land purchase, and how they found a piece of property that met their needs.
Before they started Quiet Creek Farm, John and Aimee worked at Food Bank Farm in Hadley, Massachusetts. Food Bank Farm ran an incredibly efficient, intense, vegetable operation, and John shares how he and Aimee have adapted the systems they learned there for crew management and operational efficiency, but without the intensity. And John shares how he has carried that farm’s maniacal focus on weed control forward to his own farming operations without a bunch of fancy tools.
John and Aimee took a very strategic and long-term approach to getting onto their own land. John shares how they developed their farm business on their rented land at Rodale, including how they prioritized their investments and built the markets and off-farm equity that helped them make the transition to their own land. We talk about how they developed their new infrastructure on blank ground, how they financed their land purchase, and how they found a piece of property that met their needs.
Before they started Quiet Creek Farm, John and Aimee worked at Food Bank Farm in Hadley, Massachusetts. Food Bank Farm ran an incredibly efficient, intense, vegetable operation, and John shares how he and Aimee have adapted the systems they learned there for crew management and operational efficiency, but without the intensity. And John shares how he has carried that farm’s maniacal focus on weed control forward to his own farming operations without a bunch of fancy tools.
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.
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 Osborne Quality Seeds, a dedicated partner for growers. Visit osborneseed.com for high quality seed, industry-leading customer service, and fast order fulfillment. And by CoolBot, allowing you to build an affordable walk-in cooler powered by a window air-conditioning unit. Save $20 on your CoolBot when you visit farmertofarmerpodcast.com/coolbot. Additional funding for transcripts provided by North Central SARE, providing grants and education to advance innovations in Sustainable Agriculture.
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.
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 Osborne Quality Seeds, a dedicated partner for growers. Visit osborneseed.com for high quality seed, industry-leading customer service, and fast order fulfillment. And by CoolBot, allowing you to build an affordable walk-in cooler powered by a window air-conditioning unit. Save $20 on your CoolBot when you visit farmertofarmerpodcast.com/coolbot. Additional funding for transcripts provided by North Central SARE, providing grants and education to advance innovations in Sustainable Agriculture.
Quotes from the Show
We really have been focused on weed control first and foremost, and then we sort of built our other systems out from there.
I often think of farming as like being a professional athlete. Not so much in the sense that we're required to have high performance, but in terms of wear and tear on your body.
If you can keep weeds under control, or at least stay ahead of them a little bit, you have a chance to do everything else that matters on your farm.
I often think of farming as like being a professional athlete. Not so much in the sense that we're required to have high performance, but in terms of wear and tear on your body.
If you can keep weeds under control, or at least stay ahead of them a little bit, you have a chance to do everything else that matters on your farm.
Show Links
John says that the Williams Tool System is like a Swiss army knife – not great an anything, but good at everything.
And we talked about PASA and the PASA conference
And we talked about PASA and the PASA conference
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. And by CoolBot, allowing you to build an affordable walk-in cooler powered by a window air-conditioning unit. Save $20 on your CoolBot when you visit farmertofarmerpodcast.com/coolbot. Additional funding for transcripts provided by North Central SARE, providing grants and education to advance innovations in Sustainable Agriculture.
