Farm Small Farm Smart

Lily Evans of Short Roots Farm in Kenosha, Wisconsin shares her entrepreneurial journey into microgreens starting from how she bootstrapped her business with minimal investment, to scaling up her business by transforming a spare room into a grow room, to expanding her product offering to include mushrooms. She also shares the challenges and successes she faced as she built up a good market for microgreens in their area while balancing multiple jobs along the way. 

Click here to learn more about Lily Evans and Short Roots Urban Farm.

Get time and labor-saving farm tools and microgreen seeds at shop.modern grower.co

Listen to other podcasts on the Modern Grower Podcast Network:

• Farm Small, Farm Smart
• Farm Small, Farm Smart Daily
• The Growing Microgreens Podcast

Check out Diego's book Sell Everything You Grow on Amazon. https://www.amazon.com/Sell-Everything-You-Grow-Homestead-ebook/dp/B0CJC9NTZF

Chris's online course Growing Your Profitable Microgreens Business https://microgreens.teachable.com/courses

In this episode, farmer Alec and host Diego talk about the finances behind two ways of starting a farm: when the farm starts out as a side hustle, and when the farm starts out as the main hustle. Farmer Alec talks about where he falls on that spectrum, as well as the challenges around navigating the financial landscape of running a first-year farm.

Get time and labor-saving farm tools at shop.modern grower.co

Listen to other podcasts on the Modern Grower Podcast Network:

• Farm Small, Farm Smart
• Farm Small, Farm Smart Daily
• The Growing Microgreens Podcast

Check out Diego's book, Sell Everything You Grow, which is only $0.99 on Amazon. https://www.amazon.com/Sell-Everything-You-Grow-Homestead-ebook/dp/B0CJC9NTZF

Blake Cowling and Austin Collins on Scintilla Farms in San Diego, California share their microgreens journey starting on a very small scale and expanding to growing in a warehouse to service over 30 restaurant customers. They also share why they chose to sell to restaurants, how they built their solid customer base, and their strategy for curating their crop offerings based on their customers' needs. Lastly, they also talk about their future plans to expand their microgreens business to include mushrooms.

Get time and labor-saving farm tools and microgreen seeds at shop.modern grower.co

Listen to other podcasts on the Modern Grower Podcast Network:

• Farm Small, Farm Smart
• Farm Small, Farm Smart Daily
• The Growing Microgreens Podcast

Check out Diego's book Sell Everything You Grow on Amazon. https://www.amazon.com/Sell-Everything-You-Grow-Homestead-ebook/dp/B0CJC9NTZF

Chris's online course Growing Your Profitable Microgreens Business https://microgreens.teachable.com/courses

In this episode, host Diego and farmer Alec talk about the challenges that come with growing vegetables in the heat of summer—scheduling crop succession, dealing with the difficulties of maintaining greens, and adapting to the market's changing demands.

Get time and labor-saving farm tools at shop.modern grower.co

Listen to other podcasts on the Modern Grower Podcast Network:

• Farm Small, Farm Smart
• Farm Small, Farm Smart Daily
• The Growing Microgreens Podcast

Check out Diego's book, Sell Everything You Grow, which is only $0.99 on Amazon. https://www.amazon.com/Sell-Everything-You-Grow-Homestead-ebook/dp/B0CJC9NTZF

Joe Naiman-Sessions of N Bar S Microgreens in Helena, Montana shares his microgreen growing journey, from reaching out to other microgreen growers in the area and selling to grocery stores, to broadening their product offering to include edible flowers, to their success in selling live cut microgreens at farmer's markets. Joe also shares his edible flower cultivation methods, his plans to expand to market gardening, as well as how he effectively keeps on top of bookkeeping and cashflow management.

Get time and labor-saving farm tools and microgreen seeds at shop.modern grower.co

Listen to other podcasts on the Modern Grower Podcast Network:

• Farm Small, Farm Smart
• Farm Small, Farm Smart Daily
• The Growing Microgreens Podcast

Check out Diego's book Sell Everything You Grow on Amazon. https://www.amazon.com/Sell-Everything-You-Grow-Homestead-ebook/dp/B0CJC9NTZF

Chris's online course Growing Your Profitable Microgreens Business https://microgreens.teachable.com/courses

In this episode, host Diego and farmer Alec talk about Alec's experience selling at their local farmer's market 10 weekends in. They also break down the potential reasons for the underwhelming sales in their market, as well as Alec's strategies to adapt and reach their sales goals.

Get time and labor-saving farm tools at shop.modern grower.co

Listen to other podcasts on the Modern Grower Podcast Network:

• Farm Small, Farm Smart
• Farm Small, Farm Smart Daily
• The Growing Microgreens Podcast

Check out Diego's book, Sell Everything You Grow, which is only $0.99 on Amazon. https://www.amazon.com/Sell-Everything-You-Grow-Homestead-ebook/dp/B0CJC9NTZF

In this episode, host Diego and farmer Alec welcome a special guest, Alec's wife, Sarah, to talk about what it's like to be part of a family that's starting a farm business. She shares her experience balancing family life and supporting the farming venture while running her own business, as well as the challenges and expectations of running a new farm.

Get time and labor-saving farm tools at shop.modern grower.co

Listen to other podcasts on the Modern Grower Podcast Network:

• Farm Small, Farm Smart
• Farm Small, Farm Smart Daily
• The Growing Microgreens Podcast

Check out Diego's book, Sell Everything You Grow, which is only $0.99 on Amazon. https://www.amazon.com/Sell-Everything-You-Grow-Homestead-ebook/dp/B0CJC9NTZF

Catch returning guest microgreens grower Vincent Cuneo of Agrarian Feast to share how his business has fared since it began in 2018.

Vincent details his strategy of partnering with grocers and supermarkets, which helped cushion the impact of the restaurant industry's downturn. He talks about diversifying into specialty mushrooms and underscores the importance of producing high-quality products. Key topics include inventory management, product pricing strategies, effective marketing, and maintaining strong packaging. The episode also offers practical advice for starting a microgreens business, emphasizing consistent practice, business knowledge, and market research, with a suggestion to initially test market demand on a small scale.

Get time and labor-saving farm tools and microgreen seeds at shop.modern grower.co

Listen to other podcasts on the Modern Grower Podcast Network:

• Farm Small, Farm Smart
• Farm Small, Farm Smart Daily
• The Growing Microgreens Podcast

Check out Diego's book Sell Everything You Grow on Amazon. https://www.amazon.com/Sell-Everything-You-Grow-Homestead-ebook/dp/B0CJC9NTZF

In this episode, farmer Alec and host Diego talk about running a farm business when something unexpected happens—maybe you get crazy weather events, maybe you get crop failure, or maybe your farmer's market shuts down on short notice. What do you do to minimize the losses in the business? Farmer Alec shares his experience pivoting from his farmer's market after they announced a cancelled weekend in less than 48 hours.

Get time and labor-saving farm tools at shop.modern grower.co

Listen to other podcasts on the Modern Grower Podcast Network:

• Farm Small, Farm Smart
• Farm Small, Farm Smart Daily
• The Growing Microgreens Podcast

Check out Diego's book, Sell Everything You Grow, which is only $0.99 on Amazon. https://www.amazon.com/Sell-Everything-You-Grow-Homestead-ebook/dp/B0CJC9NTZF

In this episode, host Diego and Farmer Alec talk about farming in transitioning seasons. Farmer Alec talks about the difference between growing his usual crops in the spring versus in the summer and the challenges that go along the changing seasons. They also touch on hypotheticals around farm expansion and using tools to improve efficiency on the farm.

Get time and labor-saving farm tools at shop.modern grower.co

Listen to other podcasts on the Modern Grower Podcast Network:

• Farm Small, Farm Smart
• Farm Small, Farm Smart Daily
• The Growing Microgreens Podcast

Check out Diego's book, Sell Everything You Grow, which is only $0.99 on Amazon. https://www.amazon.com/Sell-Everything-You-Grow-Homestead-ebook/dp/B0CJC9NTZF