Tom Kumpf raises about four acres of vegetables at Double-T Farm in Garner, North Carolina, just south of Raleigh. Double-T Farm markets through a CSA, restaurants, and a small neighborhood farmers market.
Farming full time since 2008, and part time for many years before that, Tom and his wife, Theresa Ryan, have seen their share of transitions, from farmland transitions and suburban encroachment to changes in the local food and CSA marketplaces. Tom shares the story of how they’ve responded to these changes, and how rolling with the punches led him to think hard about how to right-size his farm and about his approach to his farm production systems.
Along the way, Tom digs in to how he got his first lessons in organic farming from PBS, the parallels between farming and teaching, and some thoughts about evaluating success on the farm.
Farming full time since 2008, and part time for many years before that, Tom and his wife, Theresa Ryan, have seen their share of transitions, from farmland transitions and suburban encroachment to changes in the local food and CSA marketplaces. Tom shares the story of how they’ve responded to these changes, and how rolling with the punches led him to think hard about how to right-size his farm and about his approach to his farm production systems.
Along the way, Tom digs in to how he got his first lessons in organic farming from PBS, the parallels between farming and teaching, and some thoughts about evaluating success on the farm.
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Quotes from the Show
I took a number of years to really learn to do what I was doing. Even then I still made mistakes and all that.
So I had the time to kind of hone my skills without any real pressure other than just saying, "Well I don't have as many tomatoes to take to market today as I had last week.”
I'm just going to stick to what I can do, and leave it at that. And if it's not a million thousand dollars a month coming in the door, so be it. Whatever.
When you have the room to spread out, you can cultivate faster, you can plant faster, you can harvest quicker.
So I had the time to kind of hone my skills without any real pressure other than just saying, "Well I don't have as many tomatoes to take to market today as I had last week.”
I'm just going to stick to what I can do, and leave it at that. And if it's not a million thousand dollars a month coming in the door, so be it. Whatever.
When you have the room to spread out, you can cultivate faster, you can plant faster, you can harvest quicker.
Transcript
The transcript for this episode is brought to you byEarth 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. Visitosborneseed.com for high quality seed, industry-leading customer service, and fast order fulfillment. Additional funding for transcripts provided byNorth Central SARE, providing grants and education to advance innovations in Sustainable Agriculture.
