Farmer to Farmer Podcast
  • Episodes
  • Sponsors
  • FAQs
  • Donate
    • Patreon
    • Amazon
  • Contact

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

8/30/2018

0 Comments

 
Picture
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.
Download Episode
Download Transcript
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    LISTEN

    img_logo_itunes
    img_logo_stitcher
    Picture

    Sponsors

    img_farmer to farmer podcast_sponsor_vermont compost
    Picture

    Archives

    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015


    Picture
Copyright © 2018, Purple Pitchfork. All rights reserved.
Privacy Policy