CropTalk

Is your meal kit locally sourced?

Do you even know where the produce comes from?

Emily Golub is the owner/operator of Garnish and Gather, an Atlanta-based meal kit company that's also an online farmers' market.

Like a lot of us, Golub wanted to eat locally, but she struggled with how to make it happen.

So, she started Garnish and Gather, which sources as much local produce for the meal kit service as possible. She is committed to building relationships with the farmers who produce the food, which means she can guarantee all of her products' sourcing, all while creating an incredible customer experience.

She visited the podcast lately to talk about her business model and her core mission and values.

He grew snapdragons, sunflowers, you name it before moving to packaging and learning how to move product on the streets of NYC like a hustler.

Ultimately, he ended up choosing to be a leaf grower because he didn't want to be "another broke farmer."

Founding LeafGrow, he's become one of the go-to experts in a field that two and half years ago didn't even have a Wikipedia article.

That field? Controlled environment agriculture.

Danny came on CropTalk to share his first-hand experience with CEA in special 2 part episode. In part 2, he shares some of the innovations that are being made in the CEA space because of technology and artificial intelligence.

He grew snapdragons, sunflowers, you name it before moving to packaging and learning how to move product on the streets of NYC like a hustler.

Ultimately, he ended up choosing to be a leaf grower because he didn't want to be "another broke farmer."

Founding LeafGrow, he's become one of the go-to experts in a field that two and half years ago didn't even have a Wikipedia article.

That field? Controlled environment agriculture.

Danny came on CropTalk to share his first-hand experience with CEA in this first of two special episodes where we deep-dive into what it takes to "perfect" weather conditions.

Coming up short with your cannabis yield?

Brian Herrmann, a long tenured cultivation consultant, is an expert in maximizing yield. He's on today's episode, sharing that same expertise with us.

Plant training is the foundation for high quality cannabis production. It can make a massive difference in your crop's output, even if you don't change anything else.

The key? Energy diversion.

Why wait for the whole plant to grow unfettered, eat up nutrients, time, space, and risk, having bugs or mold in there?

Prune it early, get it out of there, create that air flow, create a clean environment, remove the energy.

Route the plant's resources to where they'll give you the most ROI, not just pretty leaves.

Then, six months before graduating, he decided to pursue a career that few people from his hometown would have expected: cannabis production.

A risky move when you're from Small Town, USA.

Now, he's living in Denver and almost three years into his cannabis career.

He's got an awesome story that anyone looking to step out and do something new needs to hear.

Commandments weren't just found on Mt. Sinai.

They're in nurseries, too.

Martha Hamblin, senior director of HR and legal at Hoffman Nursery in Rougemont, NC, was on today's episode of CropTalk.

She talked about how defining your company's core values drives employee engagement and satisfaction, and how a large part of business has to do with taking care of people, giving them a purpose, and a mission that unifies them while driving company success.

Every decision at Hoffman, on an individual or company-wide basis, is governed by these company "commandments":

1. Celebrate success
2. Be nice
3. Embrace challenges
4. Do the right thing
5. Be curious
6. Make it count
7. Be enthusiastic

Spidey senses tingling yet?

As we curb the use of more noxious pesticides, there are fewer options available for chemically fighting spider mites, which are found in cannabis crops, as well as commercial crops, food crops, and landscape crops.

These little buggers are remarkably adaptive.

They're resistant to chemicals for the same reason they're able to get around so many different plants' physiologies and natural defenses.

Matthew Gates, an integrated pest management specialist in San Diego, CA is concerned about the proliferation of the spider mite's resistance to pesticides.

To maximize your defenses, Gates encourages farmers to check pest resistance levels and pesticide coverage in fields.

Also, to use a multi-tier approach to IPM. If you have a multi-prong arsenal, losing one tool still leaves you with backup options.

James Bennett has a theory that it really only takes four things to be successful — good water, good soil, good genetics, and a good farmer.

Obviously the farmer is responsible for providing good water, soil, and expertise.

But who's responsible for the good genetics?

James says it's the farmer's custodial duty to take care of the plants and try to refine those genetics as best they can.

But does that mean the farmer gets to own that intellectual property? Should anyone even get to own it?

James, CEO of Yeomen Farmers Brand, came on the show this week to talk about cannabis, the rush for genetics in 2019, and issues surrounding IP.

Farming is a gamble.

Scott Propheter, VP of agronomy and outreach at Criticality, and ex-Marine, above and beyond, believes in transparency in agricultural traceability as means to increase your odds of a great crop and happy customers.

Criticality tracks the entire life cycle of the product, before it ever goes to a farmer to get put into a field. They gather several hundred data points throughout the growing season, working day-to-day with growers.

There are quality metrics at delivery and all through the processing phase, all the way through to the end products. This results in a comprehensive certificate of analysis per batch that is available on the Criticality website to the consumer.

Meet Sanford (Sandy) Stein, co-owner of The Jungle Nursery in Homestead, Florida.

He's a career horticulturalist… and occasional psychotherapist.

He visited my podcast recently, and shared some profound insights on his unusual career path.

Stein is a walking testament to the saying what doesn't kill you (ahem, Hurricane Andrew) makes you stronger. He has taken an unexpected side path into advocacy for his profession, overcoming his discomfort with public speaking.

He is one of the few nurseries to have stayed ahead of the curve when big box stores started selling plants at cut-rate prices. He diversified and started fulfilling unusual but profitable orders for off-the-beaten-path clients that have allowed him not just to survive, but to thrive.

Stein also talked about integrity and how you can't be truly successful if you're not a person of your word and respected by your peers.