We have an extremely practical conversation with Tom Wahl, co-founder of the Red Fern Farm, convincing us he has developed a very functional and economic system. The team there has chosen a variety of rustic crops that need little care, are high in demand, and picked by the customers themselves. Planted on fantastic soil for growing trees and you have a system where all Tom and his team need to do is 'mow the grass'. In the interview we focused on chestnuts, his main crop, looking at why the economics make it a no brainer, and finish off talking about ground cover management and woodchips. We hope you end up as inspired we did. 

• TABLE OF CONTENTS

02:15 - Introduction to a low input farm model

13:10 - Tom understanding of agroforestry and imitating a savannah biome

17:40 - orchard architecture, spacing and competition between species

25:50 - Chestnut production and potential

30:30 - Integrating animals in the orchard

52:30 - Why is chestnut so interesting economically?

59:40 - Thoughts on mechanising chestnut harvest

01:02:30 - Characteristics that make a crop profitable

01:05:20 - The potential of chestnut as a staple

01:09:25 - U-pick as a commercialisation strategy and some more economics

01:18:30 - The honey berries experiment

01:21:20 - Managing the ground cover and comments on woodchips

• RESOURCES

https://www.redfernfarm.com/

Presentation discussed: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PAf1lUrqSq4

https://www.facebook.com/redfernfarm.iowa

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