On this week’s episode of the FarmHouse, a podcast by Lancaster Farming, we’re talking to Hayley Painter, half of the sister duo that created Painterland Sisters.

Painter and her sister, Stephanie, are the co-founders and co-CEOs of the organic skyr yogurt brand.

Skyr is an Icelandic style yogurt that the Painter sisters make with milk from their family farm and about 25 other organic dairy farms.

“Most skyrs are higher in protein, naturally lower in sugar and are really thick and creamy,” Painter said.

The sisters started the business to keep their dairy farm afloat during years of bad milk prices and have since made it their mission to support as many other dairies as they can.

Painterland Sisters yogurt is organic. The sisters’ family farm made the switch to organic in 2003, and during the certification process, the family realized it had already been utilizing many organic and regenerative practices.

“It’s not just about soil health,” Painter said. “It’s about the health of the animals and the health of the farmer and the health of the agriculture industry being able to sustain itself.”

When Painter and her sister decided to branch out into the world of a value-added product, they met their fair share of challenges, many of them due to the fact that both are young women.

During the early stages of the business, she said they’d have to hire an older gentleman to act as a spokesperson on their behalf for business deals.

But as the business has grown in size and recognition, Painter said those specific challenges have eased.

“I heard once that your biggest challenge is also your biggest strength,” she said. “That is equally true of being young women starting a business. We have this optimism about us. We have this young energy.”

The Painterland Sisters were rewarded for their dedication by being named to the Forbes 30 Under 30 list, a goal they envisioned long before becoming entrepreneurs.

“We didn’t actually think we could make that list, ever. That was impossible in our minds,” Painter said. “Your biggest goals, even if they seem unreachable — keep them in your back pocket.”

This week on the FarmHouse, a podcast by Lancaster Farming, we’re talking to Asia Kalcevic, a fifth-generation farmer at Kalcevic Farms in Bennett, Colorado.

Kalcevic joined her family’s grain operation after studying communications and ag literacy at Colorado State University. Since then, she’s grown into her role as the administrator and operations associate on the farm, where she’s responsible for a variety of tasks from data entry to running the farm’s social media and marketing.

But all that hasn’t kept her out of the fields. Kalcevic has also been a grain cart operator during the wheat harvest for the past seven years.

“That’s what we’re planning for the whole year. Those moments when we’re running 17 to 20 hour days in the field,” Kalcevic said of her farm’s harvest. “But you sit in your cab and you listen to some music and you go after it.”

Kalcevic Farms has been in operation since 1898.

Being part of a business rooted in her family’s history has given Kalcevic an appreciation for the generations of farmers who came before her — some of whom she’s been able to work with.

“It’s something to not take for granted and to take the opportunity to learn from the past generation that was farming in the 1950s and was born in the 1930s during the Dust Bowl,” she said. “I love to see the difference between what they were doing then and what we’re doing now.”

One of the biggest differences is the approach to equipment maintenance.

“Back in their day, they if they didn’t have it, they built it. And now it’s like, if we don’t have it, we run to the park store or we buy it,” she said, also noting that today’s air-conditioned cabs and air ride seats seem like luxuries compared to the pared down seats and umbrellas earlier generations employed.

Working with multiple generations on the farm means succession and transition are ongoing conversations critical to the operation’s success.

Kalcevic said they’re very intentional about creating pathways within their operation to leadership and ownership. If an employee — family member or not — is interested, there’s a way forward.

“It’s really been something that I’ve looked forward to growing up, that I have an opportunity to have a seat at the table,” she said.

You can read the articles mentioned in the episode here:

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6 Gardening Gifts That'll Please Even the Pickiest Gardeners on Your List

Are you interested in becoming a sponsor of the FarmHouse Podcast? Email [email protected]

This week on the FarmHouse, we’re talking to Hannah Smith-Brubaker, executive director of Pasa Sustainable Agriculture.

Smith-Brubaker also runs Juniata View Farm where she raises pastured Shetland sheep for fiber.

Her farm is participating in Pasa’s Soil Health Benchmark Study, which includes a variety of farms from conventional row crop operations to pasture-based dairies to organic vegetable producers.

“I think the study is an example of the power of the Pasa community in that we are a big tent organization,” Smith-Brubaker said. “If you want to engage in the sustainable agriculture conversation, we welcome you to the table.”

Smith-Brubaker has a long resume in the ag sector including serving as Pennsylvania’s deputy secretary of agriculture and testifying before Congress on sustainable agriculture.

“I love being a part of agriculture,” she said. “I hope that every endeavor I have for the rest of my life has some connection to agriculture.”

As Pasa’s executive director, Smith-Brubaker is gearing up for the organization’s annual conference that runs this year from Feb. 5 to 7 in Lancaster, Pennsylvania.

The event, with speakers and over 80 sessions, attracts attendees with a variety of ag interests and backgrounds.

“I know what it’s like to be the only woman in the room,” Smith-Brubaker said. “I want to make sure that every person who’s in the room feels like they can step up to the table and have their voice be heard.”

Learn more about the Sustainable Agriculture Conference, Feb 5 -7, 2025, in Lancaster, Pa.

Listen here:

You can read the article mentioned in the episode here:

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Are you interested in becoming a sponsor of the FarmHouse Podcast? Email [email protected]

This week on the FarmHouse, a podcast by Lancaster Farming, we’re talking with Shanelle Lee, co-owner of Heritage Tree Farm in Rothsville, Pennsylvania.

For the past 15 years, Lee has farmed four varieties of Christmas trees with her family: blue spruce, concolor fir, Douglas fir and Fraser fir.

She acknowledged that Christmas tree farming comes with unique challenges, starting with the length of time it takes to grow a tree until it’s ready for sale. Many customers don’t realize that it’s not as simple as planting a tree and leaving it alone to grow for a few years.

“(It’s) seven to 10 years of us fertilizing and using herbicide and trimming and mowing around it. So, a lot of work goes into that one little Christmas tree that goes into someone’s home,” she said.

Forecasting for the future can be difficult as well, starting with the fact that trees must be ordered before the farm starts selling for the season.

“You have to order your trees in the fall, so you don’t really know how many you’re needing to plant in the spring,” she said, adding that it’s impossible to predict how conditions like drought and wet seasons might impact harvests nearly a decade in the future.

On top of that, the window to make a profit on the farm’s crop of trees is short.

“It’s very difficult when you have a month to make all your income,” Lee said. “Even though you make money for one month a year, you have to spend money pretty much every month of the year.”

It may be challenging, but Heritage Tree Farm has found success, which Lee credits to trial and error and the help of the Pennsylvania Christmas Tree Growers Association.

The farm provides a combination of precut trees and the option to cut your own. Due to rising demand, visitors must now book appointments for the cut-your-own experience, which is limited to just one weekend each season.

Lee understands why people still get excited to cut their own trees, even if it requires a little extra effort.

“I think it is a magical part of the season because it allows you to feel a little bit rustic and a little bit like a farmer,” she said. “It’s a time that you get to be outdoors with your family. You get to pick a tree together, drink some hot chocolate and enjoy a little bit of farmland. It feels nostalgic.”

More Info

You can find the article on food safety for your pets here:

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You can find the recipe for Steph's tomato pie here:

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Go to our TikTok to watch Steph making the tomato pie and the Lancaster Farming team trying it. 

This week on the FarmHouse, a podcast by Lancaster Farming, we’re talking with Christine Smart, the director of Cornell AgriTech.

Smart studies plant pathology and disease control at Cornell University’s center for agriculture and food research, and she works with farmers across New York to develop disease management options.

Much of Smart’s work utilizes agricultural intelligence, which blends artificial intelligence with human research.

“In many people’s minds, agriculture and technology don’t actually dovetail,” Smart said. “In reality, you can’t do ag without technology.”

She also studies hemp.

This research is aided by Cornell’s partnership with USDA to house the hemp germplasm repository.

“It’s essentially like a giant vault where seed of all the different varieties of hemp would be stored,” Smart said. “It’s an incredible resource to the community.”

Smart also teaches plant science courses and is a student adviser.

“The students that are entering land-grant universities, they want to be part of a solution,” Smart said. “It’s completely inspiring to talk to undergraduates.”

She also partners with elementary schools to bring ag education to younger children.

“Having that connection to food, I think the younger we can start students, the better,” she said.

Connecting the ag research community and general public is a priority for Smart, so she schedules as many speaking engagements as possible to explain her work and how it helps both the ag industry and the food supply.

Smart didn’t grow up farming but she loves being part of the ag industry.

“I think that farmers are the most creative, ingenious, entrepreneurial people I know because of the breadth of the work that they do,” she said.

Learn more about the article mentioned in the episode here:

Red Cat Farm’s Sustainable Niche Grain Products Find a Market

View a photo of Candice's garden full of forks here. 

This week on the FarmHouse, a podcast by Lancaster Farming, we’re talking to Melissa Nelson Baldwin, the owner of Performance Crop Research, LLC and co-owner of South Bend Industrial Hemp.

Nelson Baldwin grew up in Kansas in a family of farmers and spent her youth participating in 4-H horse shows and advocating for agriculture in various student organizations.

Her passion for farming drove her to get into crop research and in 2018, she founded Performance Crop Research, LLC, where she and her team work with global clients to study plant pathology and the effects of insecticides and bio stimulants on crop varieties in the developmental pipeline.

Sustainability has also become a growing aspect of PCR’s research as its clients listen to consumers calling for more environmentally conscious farming methods.

Nelson Baldwin acknowledged it can be difficult to strike a balance between sustainability and profitability.

“Some of the things that they’re calling for aren’t 100% possible,” she said of the pressure from consumers to make farming more sustainable. “But you do see nitrogen reduction. You do see a lot of bio stimulants taking the place of conventional pesticides.”

Nelson Baldwin farms alongside her husband and brother-in-law on their fourth-generation family farm, and together they co-own South Bend Industrial Hemp. They began growing hemp as a way to diversify their grain farming operation, but soon saw an opportunity in hemp processing.

“We had a processor back out on us and we continued to see that as a problem across the industry. And so we decided to open our own processing facility and now we work with farmers from all over the Midwest,” said Nelson Baldwin. “We help them with a seed to final sale, agronomic support, really whatever they need throughout the season to be successful.”

In addition to working at PCR and South Bend, Nelson also hosts a monthly radio show about farming on Eagle Radio 99.5 FM in Great Bend Kansas.

“Right now I am on the express and I have a lot of things to accomplish in a very short amount of time,” Nelson Baldwin said of her busy schedule. “You never know. Every day is not given. And so I’m like, how do I maximize my day? How do I be the best that I can be? And ultimately do my job in the best way possible.”

This week on the FarmHouse, a podcast by Lancaster Farming, we’re talking with a familiar name to our readers, Sue Bowman.

Bowman has a cow-calf farm in Lebanon County and has been writing for Lancaster Farming for 20-plus years.

Bowman’s farm has been in her family since the early 1890s, and is in a unique spot in the county, with most of the 106 acres located within the borough of Cleona.

Due to the farm’s location and the threat of development, Bowman got the farm preserved in 2002.

“We actually became the 6,000th acre in Lebanon County that was preserved,” she said. “It was something we wanted to do and we have never regretted it.”

In addition to farming, Bowman is a Lancaster Farming correspondent and writes a weekly column, Rural Ramblings, that runs in the B section.

“Sometimes I feel like my column is about nothing, in a way, nothing special,” Bowman said. “I like to take little everyday events that I think other people could identify with and write about them.”

When Bowman was asked to write a weekly column years ago, she said she first had to confirm that she could also continue writing articles, something she really enjoys.

Bowman writes a lot of features for B section, often focusing on history.

“The nicest people that I’ve ever met are people that I’ve met through Lancaster Farming doing articles about them,” Bowman said.

Bowman was born into farming, but she said when she was younger it wasn’t a novelty to be a farm kid, and it also wasn’t necessarily something to be proud of.

But as she’s gotten older, her relationship to the farming industry has evolved.

“It’s something I’m proud of now in my later years to say ‘yeah, I live on a 106-acre preserved farm,’” Bowman said.

You can read more from the articles discussed in the episode here:

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New Jersey Cranberry Farm Wades Through Harvest Season

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This week on the FarmHouse, a podcast by Lancaster Farming, we’re having some seasonal fun and embracing the spooky side of farming.

What is it about rural locations, including farms, that make them the perfect settings for ghost stories? Let’s face it, scary stories from the city don’t have quite the same effect as those that take place on an isolated piece of property where the nights are darker and the air is quieter.

In this episode, we’ll be sharing four spooky stories that take place on a farm or, in one case, a farmers market.

First, we’ll visit with the Reichart family of Berks County, Pennsylvania, who claim to have seen the ghostly figure of a man haunting their barn. Who is he, and why are the Reicharts’ cows so frightened of a certain stall in their barn?

Next, we’ll learn about a tussle with otherworldly spirits in the attic of a Carbon County, Pennsylvania, farmhouse. What is powwow magic and was it enough to keep the dark forces at bay?

Then we’ll travel across the country to Ellinwood, Kansas, where the Koett family was allegedly run off their farm by strange happenings in their farmhouse and a wraith-like figure in their orchard. Was it really a ghost? Or could this have been the work of a mischievous neighbor with something to gain?

Finally, we’ll swing by the Lebanon Farmers Market in Lebanon, Pennsylvania, and learn about the ghosts who supposedly haunt its basement. The market sits on top of what used to be the county jail. Could some of its former condemned prisoners still be hanging around?

Join us as we try to answer these questions and have some spooky fun on the FarmHouse!

This week on the FarmHouse, a podcast by Lancaster Farming, we’re talking to Amanda Bennett, an agriculture and natural resources educator with Ohio State Extension.

Bennett, who grew up on a grain farm, specializes in raised bed gardening, native plant landscaping, hydroponics as well as beekeeping.

Working as an Extension educator means Bennett gets to be a life-long learner, as you never know what kinds of questions you’ll get.

“When we get together we start telling stories and think that we could write a book on all the weird questions that we get,” Bennett said.

One time, Bennett said, someone even brought a live mouse into the office worried that it may have bred with a rabbit because it could jump so high.

But that’s just a typical day in the life of an ag and natural resources educator for Bennett, where she has to be able to field questions from livestock to bees and from conventional farming to native plants.

The wide variety of topics is more similar than it may seem.

“I do think there are a lot more connections than people think,” Bennett said. “I often say that I grew up on a grain farm, but it’s really just gardening on a huge scale.”

Bennett’s interest in native plants grew alongside her interest in beekeeping, as a native landscape with plants that bloom in spring, summer and fall benefits pollinators.

Native plants also require fewer nutrients and pesticides, making them relatively easy to incorporate into the landscape.

“I always say I’m a lazy gardener, and they require a whole lot less work,” Bennett said.

Bennett has been keeping bees for about 12 years and also teaches beekeeping courses with Ohio State Extension.

Though her life now is filled with a wide variety of agriculture, that wasn’t always the plan.

Initially, Bennett wanted to be a Spanish teacher, but after starting school at Ohio State, she realized a lot of people didn’t know much about agriculture, so she changed her major to go into that field instead.

“I just appreciate the opportunity to be part of an industry that has been beneficial in my life, that has been beneficial to my upbringing, that has taught me a lot of values and hard work ethic,” Bennett said. “And I feel grateful to be able to represent that industry, and hopefully I’m doing that in a good way.”

You can find more information on the Lancaster Farming article discussed in the beginning of this episode here:

What Is Feral Woman Fall And How Can You Embrace It? [Opinion]

This week on the FarmHouse, a podcast by Lancaster Farming, we’re joined by Lindsey Shapiro, a vegetable farmer from Bally, Pennsylvania, and the Farm Bill campaign organizer for Pasa Sustainable Agriculture.

Shapiro is a first-generation farmer who discovered her passion for agriculture while helping her husband’s family on their urban farm in Philadelphia.

“I was just so enamored with the tangible joys of growing food,” Shapiro said. “We’d harvest the food Friday morning. We had wheeled it out onto the sidewalk Friday afternoon, and it would end up in people’s dinners by Friday evening.”

Inspired by their experience, Shapiro and her husband started their own operation, Root Mass Farm, in 2011, where they grow a variety of vegetables, fruits and herbs using sustainable farming practices.

Root Mass Farm sells at two farmers markets and offers a Garden Stake CSA in which customers pay at the beginning of the season then deduct their purchases from their balance as they shop the farm’s stand at the markets. Shapiro explained this is often appealing to customers with smaller households or those who can’t commit to a weekly pick up.

Having customers come to the farmers market for their CSA shares also allows Shapiro to interact with them on a more personal level and answer questions they might have about her produce.

“I had a customer that was like, why is the celery so small? I was like, well, I had to harvest our celery a little bit earlier because it’s been so dry that we haven’t really been able to get it to size up very much,” she said while reflecting on some recent customer interactions. “But, it’s going to be delicious. It’s going to have a lot of flavor. It’s still going to make your potato salad or your soup just sing with celery goodness.”

At her off-farm job at Pasa, Shapiro works to get farmers involved in the Farm Bill reauthorization process. She stresses the importance of making sure farmers’ voices are being heard in spaces where decisions are being made that will affect agriculture.

“I get to talk to a lot of farmers in that work and learn more about what their needs are, and try to be very solution-oriented,” she said, “and figure out how we can improve policies in this country so that farmers in Pasa’s network have a better shot at doing the incredible work that they want to do.”

Shapiro also discussed why the new Farm Bill has been so difficult to pass, touching on the competing needs of many Americans who depend on the funding tied to the bill, from nutrition funding to climate change mitigation.

“There’s just not enough money to go around,” she said. “So, there’s some hard decisions that have to be made. And I think it’s ultimately come to a matter of priorities.”

You can find more information on the Lancaster Farming stories discussed in the beginning of this episode here:

Don’t Clean Up Your Garden Beds Until Spring: Here’s Why

Artificial Intelligence Can Reduce Farming Inputs