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Today’s episode comes to you from Chittenden Vermont where we visit with Baird Farm. If you’ve heard of them you may recognize that they are NOT a diversified vegetable farm. They are a medium scale maple producer with about  15,000 taps. Vermont is known for its maple but what makes them unique is that 90% of their volume is sold directly to the consumer. They lean heavily on online sales, and agritourism for their retail business. 

Like most of my shows the first hour features a walking tour where Jacob and Jenna provide an overview of maple production and what it looks like on their farm. We walk to the woods to see some trees and sap lines, pop our heads in a pump house then tour seeing the sugar house which includes the bottling room and retail area.  Once we’ve gotten the lay of the land we then pull up a stool in the farm stand. Jenna’s Dad, Bob, also known as the Syrup Daddy joins us for the conversation to share some insights to his history of Vermont agriculture and how it’s transitioned over the years into the business it is today. 

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Today’s Episode comes to you from Kingston New York where we visit with Bryn and Wes of Solid Ground Farm. They are growing on over a dozen acres, with 4 tunnels of mixed veg for their CSA. 

We start of the episode with a tour of their wash/pack, cooler, CSA Space and growing areas before pulling up a chair in the kitchen to learn what motivates them to be a produce grower and how they are building the business to meet their families needs and how they can be an asset to the community. 

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Today’s episode comes to you from Fletcher Vermont where we visit with Bob Lesnikoski of Vermont Cranberry Company. He is the one and only commercial cranberry grower in the state! We start off the episode with a tour of his packing barn where they sort and box up fresh cranberries, press juice, and bottle seltzer. We then pull up a stool in the commercial kitchen and learn more about the cranberry market in the Northeast. 

I hope you enjoy this episode learning about Vermont Cranberries! 

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Today’s episode comes to you from Charlotte Vermont where we visit with Katie Rase Seward from Head Over Fields Farm. Katie Rose has been farming for 10 years and  half of those are here on her home farm. She sells organic veg from about 5 acres in production with several high tunnels through a retail year round farm stand, CSA, wholesale, and farmers markets. 

We start off with a winter tour of the farm after some fresh January snow where she shares about growing winter greens, getting water on the farm, and growing in varying soil conditions across the sloping landscape. We then pull up a stool in the wash pack and talk about how she got into ag, the challenges of starting a diversified veg farm in the 2020’s and how friends and mentors helped her through the growing pains she experienced while building up this farm business. 

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Today’s episode comes to you from Shrewsbury Vermont where we visit with Jess and Connor of  Stones Throw Farmstead. They are young farmers who are in their third season after moving to Vermont and focused on building up a 1 acre market garden to be part of the community and support the local farmers markets. We start off by looking at the farm stand, microgreens set-up, and how they’ve laid out their farm. They utilize several cat tunnels, inter cropping, and managing it with hand tools. We then sit down and learn a bit more about where they got their farming backgrounds, why they got into agriculture and why they chose to settle in Vermont. I hope you enjoy this episode, thanks for listening. 

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Today’s episode comes to you from South Royalton Vermont where we visit with Ashley Loehr of Hurricane Flats Farm. She’s got over 25 years farming experience, and is getting a good feel for the land as this is her 4th season since buying this farm. This episode starts off in the field checking out pretty much all the crops. We talk about field prep, inter seeding, cover cropping, and weeds. We talk about vegetables, strawberries and high tunnels. She shows us around the barn where she stores equipment, and even processes their own popcorn. So whether you like crops, equipment, or organic agriculture this episode is a good one. 

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Today’s episode comes to you from Hyde Park, Vermont where we visit with Jeff Carpenter from Zack Woods Herb Farm. They grow medicinal herbs and have been doing so for 26 years. We start off with a look into his high tunnel where they grow their starts, discuss the construction of their batch dryer, check out a field of perennial herbs and take a look inside their packing shed. We then sit down on the back deck and chat about how and why they’ve built this business to meet their needs. He shares the lessons they’ve learned by scaling up too much, and how investing in labor savings tools has paid off.

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Today’s episode comes to you from Bakersfield Vermont where we visit with George van Vlaanderen of Does’ Leap Farm (https://doesleap.com/). He shares how they developed the farm from raw wooded land while raising children, goats and living in a yurt all at the same time over twenty years ago. He shares now how his grazing system has evolved using electronet fences to wireless collars and how he's improving the biodiversity of his pastures using the Vermont Ripsower. 

VT Ripsower: https://www.landcarecoop.com/vt-ripsower

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/doesleapfarm

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@doesleapfarm

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Today’s episode comes to you from Williamstown Vermont where we visit with Jon Waner and Karin Bellemare of Bear Roots Farm and The Roots Farm Market. Together they’ve built up a 20 acre vegetable farm and local goods store in Central Vermont. Jon starts off by sharing how they got started in Long Island, and how they ramped up their business here in the Green Mountains. Karin joins in later on and talks about how business coaching (a few times), grants, and personal growth helped get them to where they are today. 

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Today’s Episode comes to you from Brookfield Vermont where we visit with Kyle Dodda and Betsy Simpson of 1000 Stone Farm. They’ve got many balls in the air with a wide range of crops from veggies to perennial fruit, eggs and meat, hard cider and a restaurant. They sell retail out of a farmstore, wholesale, CSA & go to a farmers market. This seems like a lot to me for a couple growing on about 5 acres, so I joined them in a conversion to figure out what motivates them and how they manage such a diverse business.

Support the show

Visit the website to see photos/videos from the visit: https://thefarmersshare.com
Follow the show on Facebook and Instagram: @thefarmersshare
Subscribe to the YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@thefarmersshare