Growers Daily

Hey everyone, it's Alex Ball, and today I'm excited to talk with Doug Wolcik & Kayleigh Boyle of Bread Seed Farm in rural Vermont. We dig deep into using "no-till" to market your farm, building a farm with community at the core, and adding value with ginger and dried flowers.

Mentioned in the show...

Karl Hammer of Vermont Compost Company (listen to him and Jesse on The No-Till Market Garden here)

Folks who make the show possible...

RIMOL Greenhouses quality greenhouses and high-tunnels.

Certified Naturally Grown grassroots, peer-to-peer, holistic certification.

BCS America for two wheel tractors + implements, on sale through the end of the year!

Orisha for wireless greenhouse+ automation, get 15% off with code "No Till Grower"

... and, as always, our work is powered by the folks who support us every month over at patreon.com/notillgrowers, you can pick up a copy of The Living Soil Handbook if you don't have one already, as well as a No-Till Growers hat, and you can ask you questions or share your insights into ecological market gardening on our brand new forum at notillgrowers.community.chat

Truth be told, I always wished to be a Jesuit monk, but kind of missed out on that opportunity on account of not being a dude. I wanted to live in a beautiful place and learn things and grow things without anybody asking me to do anything else. I imagine my life being like that of the great Baltasar Gracián, a Catalan jesuit monk. He famously said, "He that has satisfied his thirst turns his back on the well." Let me just say our guest today, Miguel Torres, is very thirsty.

Miquel is the fifth generation and manager of Familial Torres. He runs the domain with his sister, Maria, and they have had such a journey, discovering along the way that they thought they were doing things well by the land there was always room to do them better. And given their commitment to not only being the fifth generation, but the entire region, they've started to train other growers, as well.

Check out the Familia Torres website

Follow Familia Torres on Instagram

Folks who make the show possible...

Johnny's Selected Seeds vegetable, flower, and cover crop seeds.

RIMOL Greenhouses quality greenhouses and high-tunnels.

Tilth Soil amazing compost-based living potting soils and soil blends.

Real Organic Project for a whole farm certification program to distinguish crops grown in health soils.

... and, as always, our work is powered by the folks who support us every month over at patreon.com/notillgrowers, you can pick up a copy of The Living Soil Handbook if you don't have one already, as well as a No-Till Growers hat (yep, back in stock and shipping now), and you can ask you questions or share your insights into ecological market gardening on our brand new forum at notillgrowers.community.chat

Natalie here... and for this episode I want to talk farmer research! You may notice that research is a theme for me? SARE is a federally funded program for farmer centered research and innovation. Candice Huber works for SARE and Jennifer Wilhelm runs a no-till market garden near me in New Hampshire, Fat Peach Farm, and has received two SARE grants to pursue some of her ideas.

Mentioned in the show...

The SARE Projects Database

Jennifer's SARE Projects:

Exploring the Feasibility of Growing Microgreens in a Modified Cold Storage Room

Assessing No-Till Permanent Raised Beds for Mixed Vegetable Production on Marginal Soils

The No-Till Growers SARE Project

Northeast SARE Farmer Grant Program

ChipDrop

Folks who make the show possible...

RIMOL Greenhouses quality greenhouses and high-tunnels.

Farmers Friend for caterpillar tunnels, harvest equipment, tarps, & more! Get free shipping through ->> farmersfriend.com/notill

Certified Naturally Grown grassroots, peer-to-peer, holistic certification.

BCS America for two wheel tractors + implements.

... and, as always, our work is powered by the folks who support us every month over at patreon.com/notillgrowers, you can pick up a copy of The Living Soil Handbook if you don't have one already, as well as a No-Till Growers hat (yep, back in stock and shipping now), and you can ask you questions or share your insights into ecological market gardening on our brand new forum at notillgrowers.community.chat

Hey everyone, it's Alex Ball with another episode of the No-Till Market Garden Podcast! I'm really excited to share a conversation with you all from Adam of Country Valley Farm in Ann Arbor, Michigan. In the interview we get into building new no-till beds with deep woodchips, animal pressure on the farm, the realities of farming with a full-time job, and producing garlic for the wholesale market.

A big thanks to Adam for sitting down to share all the work he and his family are doing at CVF. He has such a love for not only ecological farming, but for feeding his community and sharing the positivity that comes with being in touch with the land. I was really impressed by his deep wood chip compost method for building organic matter and I think i'm going to trial his technique on my own farm. If you want to learn more about their farm or are just looking for organic seed garlic, check out their website and their social media for more information. Thanks so much for listening!

Mentioned in the show...

Dairy Doo compost & fertilizer pellets from Morgan Composting

No-Till Growers will be at the '23 OAK Conference!

Folks who make the show possible...

RIMOL Greenhouses quality greenhouses and high-tunnels.

Tilth Soil amazing compost-based living potting soils and soil blends.

Orisha for wireless greenhouse+ automation, get 15% off with code "No Till Grower"

Real Organic Project for a whole farm certification program to distinguish crops grown in health soils.

... and, as always, our work is powered by the folks who support us every month over at patreon.com/notillgrowers, you can pick up a copy of The Living Soil Handbook if you don't have one already, as well as a No-Till Growers hat (yep, back in stock and shipping now), and you can ask you questions or share your insights into ecological market gardening on our brand new forum at notillgrowers.community.chat

You know that feeling when you get to hang out with one of your heroes? Well I do, and you guys are going to get to hang out with us, too. Fred Provenza is a retired professor in rangeland science from Utah State University and is also a unicorn mixed with a phoenix. Not only is he an amazing human-being, he also has one of the deepest and most humble experiences working at the intersection between humans and landscapes, plants and animals. He has worked with farmers from all around the world, authored hundreds of papers and several books, and if you're a person who is interested in the integration of animals for the purpose of healing landscapes or bringing health back to your farm, I cannot recommend highly enough that you read and watch as much as you can by Fred.

Mentioned in the show...

NOVA's Ghost in your Genes (watch for free on Vimeo)

BEHAVE (Behavioral Education for Human Animal Vegetation and Ecosystem Management)

Nourishment, What Animals Can Teach Us about Rediscovering Our Nutritional Wisdom

The Art & Science of Shepherding by Michel Meuret

Foraging Behavior: Managing to Survive in a World of Change

Folks who make the show possible...

Certified Naturally Grown grassroots, peer-to-peer, holistic certification.

BCS America for two wheel tractors + implements.

Johnny's Selected Seeds vegetable, flower, and cover crop seeds.

RIMOL Greenhouses quality greenhouses and high-tunnels.

... and, as always, our work is powered by the folks who support us every month over at patreon.com/notillgrowers, you can pick up a copy of The Living Soil Handbook if you don't have one already, as well as a No-Till Growers hat (yep, back in stock and shipping now), and you can ask you questions or share your insights into ecological market gardening on our brand new forum at notillgrowers.community.chat

For this episode, I, Natalie, spoke with Iago Hale about kiwiberries, which I realize is a fruit that a lot of you have probably never heard of, much less tried. In my excitement, I forgot to have him introduce himself! Iago is an associate professor of agriculture, nutrition, and food systems department at the University of New Hampshire. When I first met him, he was in the beginning of his kiwiberry research program and it's really cool to see how far it has come in the last decade. As a researcher myself, I strongly agree with Iago that it's our job to take risks that farmers can't afford to take and I love to see applied research that tries to address what future food systems will look like, including things like perennial plants and things that will work on small farms and things that are resistant to pests and diseases so they don't require a lot of external inputs. Here's Iago...

Mentioned in the show...

The Nor'east Kiwiberry Website

The Hale Lab & Kiwiberry Research

Kiwi Korners Farm

Folks who make the show possible...

RIMOL Greenhouses quality greenhouses and high-tunnels.

Tilth Soil amazing compost-based living potting soils and soil blends.

Farmers Friend for caterpillar tunnels, harvest equipment, tarps, & more! Get free shipping through ->> farmersfriend.com/notill

Real Organic Project for a whole farm certification program to distinguish crops grown in health soils.

... and, as always, our work is powered by the folks who support us every month over at patreon.com/notillgrowers, you can pick up a copy of The Living Soil Handbook if you don't have one already, as well as a No-Till Growers hat (yep, back in stock and shipping now), and you can ask you questions or share your insights into ecological market gardening on our brand new forum at notillgrowers.community.chat

It's Alex Ball, and I'm excited to bring y'all a conversation with Jordan Scheibel of Middle Way Farm. Jordan and his crew are growing mixed veg for local wholesale, retail, and direct-to-consumer through a home delivery CSA and online farmers market out there in windy Iowa. We dig deep into selling to local specialty grocers, no-till tunnel production, the importance of consistent labor, and the growth they capitalized on during the pandemic. Jordan is building a community-centric model that is hard to not learn something from!

Mentioned in the show...

Follow Middle Way Farm on Instagram

Middle Way Farm is Certified Naturally Grown

GrownBy online cooperative sales platform

Purple Cow Organics for compost

The Paperpot Transplanter

Nolt's Greenhouse Supplies

Folks who make the show possible...

Certified Naturally Grown grassroots, peer-to-peer, holistic certification.

BCS America for two wheel tractors + implements, on sale through the end of the year!

Orisha for wireless greenhouse+ automation, get 15% off with code "No Till Grower"

RIMOL Greenhouses quality greenhouses and high-tunnels.

... and, as always, our work is powered by the folks who support us every month over at patreon.com/notillgrowers, you can pick up a copy of The Living Soil Handbook if you don't have one already, as well as a No-Till Growers hat (yep, back in stock and shipping now), and you can ask you questions or share your insights into ecological market gardening on our brand new forum at notillgrowers.community.chat

Hey rebels, if you listen to this podcast you probably know that I, Mimi, am the lone wine person to date. So, since that's what I do, I thought I would poke some of my favorite people in wine and today I've got one of my BIG heroes. Eric Texier is a winegrower in the South of France. He's known for being an early leader in not just better practices in the vineyard, going beyond the adoption of biodynamics, but he went on a journey to figure out how his soils could be improved and how that could improve wine quality and also build in resilience for his family in the future. He's a native to Bordeaux, didn't come from a wine family, which is uncommon because it's really difficult to just buy a vineyard in France, and was a nuclear engineer before wine. Surprise, surprise, he wanted to do something else. A self made wine maker, very opinionated, not afraid to stoke the fire and call out bulls***… It was a super fun conversation, his wines are incredibly expressive, and he has a genuine humility about his process. We get into his vineyards, his wine-making, terriors and regenerative practices, and I just can't wait to share this conversation with you. I highly recommend looking for his wines, they're accessibly priced, and you can check out his website at https://www.eric-texier.com/

Folks who make the show possible...

Johnny's Selected Seeds vegetable, flower, and cover crop seeds.

RIMOL Greenhouses quality greenhouses and high-tunnels.

Tilth Soil amazing compost-based living potting soils and soil blends.

Real Organic Project for a whole farm certification program to distinguish crops grown in health soils.

... and, as always, our work is powered by the folks who support us every month over at patreon.com/notillgrowers, you can pick up a copy of The Living Soil Handbook if you don't have one already, as well as a No-Till Growers hat (yep, back in stock and shipping now), and you can ask you questions or share your insights into ecological market gardening on our brand new forum at notillgrowers.community.chat

*Update: The SeedLinked participatory variety trials are LIVE on their website and this year include cherry tomato and colored pepper trials AND a NO-TILL squash trial!*

Nicolas of SeedLinked and Julie of University of Madison Wisconsin are leaders in participatory plant breeding. They are helping develop varieties that are regionally adapted to the traits that matter for direct market growers like most of you! They've developed a platform to make it easier to include farmers in variety trials to select for things like taste. I know everyone listening is involved in farming or gardening, largely because you know that not all tomatoes and carrots are created equal. Variety matters. Production practices matter. How long it takes to get the product into the hands of the customer matters. Truth be told, I do not have the personality to be a direct market farmer, so props to all of you out there, but when I WAS farming and someone would tell me they never liked brussels sprouts until they ate MY brussels sprouts, it was one of the most rewarding feelings. So, what Nicolas and Julie are doing in their participatory plant breeding work is trying to spread that feeling by increasing our collective capacity for developing new and amazing varieties. The website for their project is SeedLinked.com

Their work is truly inspiring and we hope some of you growers out there can get involved!

Mentioned in the show notes...

Download the SeedLinked App

Follow SeedLink on Instagram and keep up with their work

Participate in a Seedlink.com variety trial (sign-ups page)

Organic Association of Kentucky Annual Conference

Folks who make the show possible...

Farmers Friend for caterpillar tunnels, harvest equipment, tarps, & more! Get free shipping through ->> farmersfriend.com/notill

RIMOL Greenhouses quality greenhouses and high-tunnels.

BCS America for two wheel tractors + implements, on sale through the end of the year!

University of Wisconsin-Madison and their new certificate in organic agriculture.

... and, as always, our work is powered by the folks who support us every month over at patreon.com/notillgrowers, you can pick up a copy of The Living Soil Handbook if you don't have one already, as well as a No-Till Growers hat (yep, back in stock and shipping now), and you can ask you questions or share your insights into ecological market gardening on our brand new forum at notillgrowers.community.chat

Hey everyone, it's Alex, and I'm beyond excited to bring you all a very interesting conversation with Brian Bates of Bear Creek Organic Farm. Brian is one of my favorite farmers in the state of Michigan and I got the privilege to spend a day with him and his crew, learning how they grow food efficiently year-round. In this episode, we dive deep into the philosophy of farm growth, Spring plant sales, experiments in no-till, and investing in the most valuable asset of a farm. Surprise? It's their employees.

~ Alex Ball, Old City Acres

Mentioned in the show...

Follow Bear Creek Organic Farm on Instagram

Morgan Compost Dairy Doo

The Bear Creek Look Book

Weed the Soil, Not the Crop by Eric & Anne Nordell of Beech Grove Farm

Folks who make the show possible...

Orisha for wireless greenhouse+ automation, get 15% off with code "No Till Grower"

RIMOL Greenhouses quality greenhouses and high-tunnels.

Tilth Soil amazing compost-based living potting soils and soil blends.

Certified Naturally Grown grassroots, peer-to-peer, holistic certification.

... and, as always, our work is powered by the folks who support us every month over at patreon.com/notillgrowers, you can pick up a copy of The Living Soil Handbook if you don't have one already, as well as a No-Till Growers hat (yep, back in stock and shipping now), and you can ask you questions or share your insights into ecological market gardening on our brand new forum at notillgrowers.community.chat