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Alex Hitt and his wife, Betsy, started Peregrine Farm in 1982 in Graham, North Carolina, near the booming “research triangle” of Chapel Hill, Durham, and Raleigh. Today, they use four acres of tilled ground to raise produce and flowers for farmers market, restaurants, and grocers. Alex and Chris talk about how and why the farm went through some radical changes early on, how the Hitts financed the farm by selling shares in the farm (not CSA shares, but actual investments in the farm), practical record keeping strategies, soil solarization, scale-appropriate equipment and tools, and Peregrine Farm’s strategy and practices for bringing a partner into the operation as a succession plan for the farm. This episode is jam-packed with information and inspiration for making a living on a very small acreage.
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Show Links
How to Make $100,000 Farming 25 Acres: With Special Plans for Prospering on 10 to 200 Acres – the book Alex and I talked about that lays out a plan for a u-pick vegetable farm. Lots of practical information scattered in among the discussion of Booker T. Whatley’s farm plan.
Haygrove Multi-Bay High Tunnels
Alex’s favorite tool is the Real (Glaser) Wheel Hoe. Johnny’s offers one with nice wooden handles, but Alex and I both prefer the metal-handled model from Peaceful Valley Farm Supply.
Alex gave a big shout-out to Eliot Coleman’s New Organic Grower, the only book that has really laid out a complete system for market farming.
Haygrove Multi-Bay High Tunnels
Alex’s favorite tool is the Real (Glaser) Wheel Hoe. Johnny’s offers one with nice wooden handles, but Alex and I both prefer the metal-handled model from Peaceful Valley Farm Supply.
Alex gave a big shout-out to Eliot Coleman’s New Organic Grower, the only book that has really laid out a complete system for market farming.
