The Seed Farmer Podcast

Christopher and Maggie Snow run Autumn Prairie Pumpkins out of their 1/14th of an acre backyard in Newton, Kansas. They started farming as a contrast to their jobs in cybersecurity and project management because they wanted to see the physical fruits of their labour. They are in their second year as seed farmers and have chosen to focus exclusively on Moschata squash.

In this episode, Christopher, Maggie and I talk about why they chose Moschata squash as the foundation of their seed business. (Of course we also discuss whether the say Moskata or Moshata). We explore how they engineer their urban space to withstand harsh climate challenges like hailstorms and severe heat waves. And we discuss how they have launched their online seed company.

In the deep dive, we focus on growing squash for seed. We get into how to keep a bunch of different squash varieties of the same species from crossing together which leads into discussing squash hand pollination then tagging and tracking hand pollinated fruits. We get into how to evaluate squash maturity and talk about how Christopher and Maggie extract seeds from their squash.

Enjoy the conversation!

Support the Seed Farmer Podcast

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Episode links

Autumn Prairie Pumpkins website

Autumn Prairie Pumpkins on Instagram

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Find out more about The Seed Farmer Mentorship

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News links

Pre-Order the Profitable Farmer from New Society Publishers Pre-Order the Profitable Farmer from Tourne-Sol farm Get The Bonus Case Studies when you pre-order The Profitable Farmer Register for the Step Off the Treadmill webinar

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Stay in Touch Follow the Seed Farmer on instagram Get my weekly seed newsletter

Order Tourne-Sol seeds (Canadian orders only) Get The Seed Farmer book

❤️ Thanks for listening!

Growing good seed isn't just about harvesting what happens to bolt in the field; it is about building practical systems that work alongside your regular vegetable and flower operations. Whether you are looking to diversify farm revenue, streamline contract seed growing, or run your own seed company, the Seed Farmer Mentorship lets you take the next step in your seed journey.

Enjoy the minisode!

Find out more about The Seed Farmer Mentorship https://www.farmerspreadsheetacademy.com/mentorship

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News links

Pre-Order the Profitable Farmer from New Society Publishers https://newsociety.com/book/the-profitable-farmer/?aff=90

Pre-Order the Profitable Farmer from Tourne-Sol farm https://fermetournesol.qc.ca/en/collections/books-dan-brisebois

Get The Bonus Case Studies when you pre-order The Profitable Farmer https://www.theprofitablefarmer.com/

Register for the Step Off the Treadmill webinar https://thefarmersoffice.com/freewebinar-tpf/

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Support the Seed Farmer Podcast https://www.farmerspreadsheetacademy.com//supportpodcast

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Stay in Touch Follow the Seed Farmer on instagram https://www.instagram.com/danbrisebois.farm/

Get my weekly seed newsletter https://www.farmerspreadsheetacademy.com/seeds

Order Tourne-Sol seeds (Canadian orders only) https://fermetournesol.qc.ca/

Get my new book The Seed Farmer https://danbrisebois.com/seedfarmerbook

❤️ Thanks for listening!

Kate McEvoy and Ben Gabel run Real Seeds in Pembrokeshire in west Wales.

In this episode, Ben and Kate talk about how seed for home growers is not the same thing as seed for large scale farms, and how they go about selecting varieties for cool, humid conditions that do well for their customers. We discuss their company structure that operates without shareholders to prioritize high quality seed, fair staff wages, and customer education over profit extraction. We get into DIY equipment such as their Zigzag seed cleaner and 3D-Printed Seed Measuring Scoops, designs they have shared with the broader seed community.

In the deep dive, we discuss growing kale for seed. We tackle the challenges of distinguishing between Brassica oleraceae and Brassica napus kale species. We talk about how to handle bird pressure, specifically pigeons, which is something that I haven't really had to deal with before. Then we talk about how to support drying plants to make sure that they don't rot in a humid climate.

Enjoy the conversation!

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Episode links

Real Seeds website https://realseeds.co.uk/

Real Seeds on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/realseeds/

Open-source Seed Cleaning Machine https://realseeds.co.uk/seedcleaner.html

Open-source Seed Measuring Scoops https://realseeds.co.uk/handscoops.html

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Pre-Order The Profitable Farmer Book

Pre-Order the Profitable Farmer from New Society Publishers https://newsociety.com/book/the-profitable-farmer/?aff=90

Pre-Order the Profitable Farmer from Tourne-Sol farm https://fermetournesol.qc.ca/en/collections/books-dan-brisebois

Get The Bonus Case Studies when you pre-order The Profitable Farmer https://www.theprofitablefarmer.com/

Register for the Step Off the Treadmill webinar https://thefarmersoffice.com/freewebinar-tpf/

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The Seed Farmer Mentorship is back. You can get all the details and register at https://www.farmerspreadsheetacademy.com/mentorship

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Support the Seed Farmer Podcast https://www.farmerspreadsheetacademy.com//supportpodcast

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Stay in Touch Follow the Seed Farmer on instagram https://www.instagram.com/danbrisebois.farm/

Get my weekly seed newsletter https://www.farmerspreadsheetacademy.com/seeds

Order Tourne-Sol seeds (Canadian orders only) https://fermetournesol.qc.ca/

Get my new book The Seed Farmer https://danbrisebois.com/seedfarmerbook

❤️ Thanks for listening!

Julia Shanks (from the Farmer's Office) joins me on today's minisode to talk about our soon to be published book The Profitable Farmer: Strategic Business Planning for Profit, Purpose, and Quality of Life.

We get into the importance of running a farm that sustains you and doesn't burn you out, the four pillars that support your farm, and we peek behind the scenes at all the steps that happen between submitting what you might think is the Final Manuscript to get to the actual Final Final Final version of the book.

We also talk about how to get the 3 bonus case studies we've put together for everyone who pre-orders the book. Each case study is designed around a Cost of Production budget. One for a vegetable crop, one for a cut flower, and one for a seed crop.

Enjoy the conversation!

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News links

Pre-Order the Profitable Farmer from New Society Publishers https://newsociety.com/book/the-profitable-farmer/?aff=90

Pre-Order the Profitable Farmer from Tourne-Sol farm https://fermetournesol.qc.ca/en/collections/books-dan-brisebois

Get The Bonus Case Studies when you pre-order The Profitable Farmer https://www.theprofitablefarmer.com/

Register for the Step Off the Treadmill webinar https://thefarmersoffice.com/freewebinar-tpf/

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Support the Seed Farmer Podcast https://www.farmerspreadsheetacademy.com//supportpodcast

🌱🌱🌱🌱🌱🌱

Stay in Touch Follow the Seed Farmer on instagram https://www.instagram.com/danbrisebois.farm/

Get my weekly seed newsletter https://www.farmerspreadsheetacademy.com/seeds

Order Tourne-Sol seeds (Canadian orders only) https://fermetournesol.qc.ca/

Get my new book The Seed Farmer https://danbrisebois.com/seedfarmerbook

❤️ Thanks for listening!

Lane Selman is the founding director of the Culinary Breeding Network based in Portland, Oregon. She is also a professor of practice at Oregon State University and the co-author of the brand new book Radicchio: A Celebration of the Beloved Italian Vegetable.

In this episode, Lane and I talk about the origin story behind the Culinary Breeding Network. We get into the importance of connecting plant breeders and farmers with chefs. And we talk about the importance of good open pollinated varieties in a shifting landscape where your favourite hybrids can suddenly disappear.

And then it is Radicchio time: we unravel the confusing nomenclature that surrounds this deliciously bitter vegetable, the precision of planting dates to get these plants to head up the right way, and the art and science of forcing Raidicchio.

I also gush quite a lot about Lane's new book. I really loved reading it and it answered so many chicory questions that I've had for the longest time and so many questions I hadn't even considered formulating.

Enjoy the conversation!

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The Seed Farmer Mentorship is back. You can get all the details and register at https://www.farmerspreadsheetacademy.com/mentorship

Support the Seed Farmer Podcast https://www.farmerspreadsheetacademy.com//supportpodcast

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Episode links

Get the book Radicchio: A Celebration of the Beloved Italian Vegetable https://www.culinarybreedingnetwork.com/radicchio-book

Culinary Breeding Network website https://www.culinarybreedingnetwork.com/

Culinary Breeding Network on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/culinarybreedingnetwork

Culinary Breeding Network on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/@CulinaryBreedingNetwork

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Stay in Touch

Follow the Seed Farmer on instagram https://www.instagram.com/danbrisebois.farm/

Get my weekly seed newsletter https://www.farmerspreadsheetacademy.com/seeds

Order Tourne-Sol seeds (Canadian orders only) https://fermetournesol.qc.ca/

Get my new book The Seed Farmer https://danbrisebois.com/seedfarmerbook

❤️ Thanks for listening!

Seed Farming is about building a relationship with different crops. Learning how they grow, what they want, how to work with them … and it can take many years to build this relationship. Sometimes you think you figured them out but then you realised you hadn't. Other times, you think you figured them out, you realise you didn't, and then you discover you actually had figured them out.

This is a story about an open pollinated Chinese Cabbaga I was trying to figure out.

Enjoy the minisode!

And don't forget The Seed Farmer Mentorship is back. You can get all the details and register at https://www.farmerspreadsheetacademy.com/mentorship

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Support the Seed Farmer Podcast https://www.farmerspreadsheetacademy.com//supportpodcast

🌱🌱🌱🌱🌱🌱

Stay in Touch Follow the Seed Farmer on instagram https://www.instagram.com/danbrisebois.farm/

Get my weekly seed newsletter https://www.farmerspreadsheetacademy.com/seeds

Order Tourne-Sol seeds (Canadian orders only) https://fermetournesol.qc.ca/

Get my new book The Seed Farmer https://danbrisebois.com/seedfarmerbook

❤️ Thanks for listening!

September is a busy month on your farm with to-do lists stretched to the limit and weather constantly on your mind. Even so, now is the ideal time to take a few moments to think about your season review. Waiting until November means dealing with missing information that is impossible to recover once the fields are clear. This minisode will set you up with what field records you want to have for the season, and how to go back and complete them if you have partial records (or even no records!)

Enjoy the show!

Also, The Seed Farmer Mentorship is also back!

You can get all the details and register at https://www.farmerspreadsheetacademy.com/mentorship

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Support the Seed Farmer Podcast https://www.farmerspreadsheetacademy.com//supportpodcast

🌱🌱🌱🌱🌱🌱

Stay in Touch Follow the Seed Farmer on instagram https://www.instagram.com/danbrisebois.farm/

Get my weekly seed newsletter https://www.farmerspreadsheetacademy.com/seeds

Order Tourne-Sol seeds (Canadian orders only) https://fermetournesol.qc.ca/

Get my new book The Seed Farmer https://danbrisebois.com/seedfarmerbook

❤️ Thanks for listening!

Carol Deppe is on the pod this week to talk about a new grant from OSSI (Open Source Seed Initiative) for Independent Plant Breeders Developing Organic-Adapted Open Source Varieties.

The deadline to apply is Sept 15 and is open to all farmers and freelance breeders.

All the details are in the episode and on OSSI's website

https://osseeds.org/ossi-plant-breeder-grants/

A head's up that though this episode does get a bit into Carol's personal seed story, this episode focuses on OSSI. Carol will come back in the future to talk about her seed work and her books (including Breed Your Own Vegetable Varieties).

Enjoy the conversation!

Support the Seed Farmer Podcast

https://www.farmerspreadsheetacademy.com//supportpodcast

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Episode link

OSSI website

https://osseeds.org/

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Stay in Touch

Follow the Seed Farmer on instagram

https://www.instagram.com/danbrisebois.farm/

Get my weekly seed newsletter

https://www.farmerspreadsheetacademy.com/seeds

Order Tourne-Sol seeds (Canadian orders only)

https://fermetournesol.qc.ca/

Get my new book The Seed Farmer

https://danbrisebois.com/seedfarmerbook

❤️ Thanks for listening!

Brett Grohsgal runs Even'Star Organic Farm in Lexington, Maryland alongside his wife Dr. Christine Bergmark. They grow vegetables for CSA and farmers markets but they also keep a number of their own seed lines that are a large part of the success of their farm.

In this episode, Brett and I talk about how to breed adaptive crops for a region and for extreme weather resilience. Brett has also eliminated most overhead irrigation and significantly reduced the amount of fertilizer that he applies on his fields, which adds even more selection pressure to his crops. We get into his work with brassicas, especially his Icebred and Coyote Arugula. We also talk about when you should keep your own seeds and when you might rely on purchased seeds.

In the deep dive, Brett and I discuss cherry tomatoes for seed: how he dehybridized two hybrids by crossing them with op varieties, how he's been selecting them for years for exceptional flavor and disease resistance, and what seed harvest looks like, Enjoy the conversation!

Support the Seed Farmer Podcast https://www.farmerspreadsheetacademy.com//supportpodcast

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Episode links

Even'Star website https://evenstarfarm.bigcartel.com

Even'Star on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/evenstarfarm.org/

You can find some Even'Star brassicas at Fedco https://fedcoseeds.com/search?search=Brett+Grohsgal

You can read Brett's seed articles in the Growing For Market Archives https://growingformarket.com/?s=Brett+Grohsgal

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Stay in Touch

Follow the Seed Farmer on instagram https://www.instagram.com/danbrisebois.farm/

Get my weekly seed newsletter https://www.farmerspreadsheetacademy.com/seeds

Order Tourne-Sol seeds (Canadian orders only) https://fermetournesol.qc.ca/

Get my new book The Seed Farmer https://danbrisebois.com/seedfarmerbook

❤️ Thanks for listening!

The fruiting seed crops are starting to pile up in buckets and it's time to decide whether to ferment or not! In this minisode we get into why you might want to ferment a wet seeded crop, what crops are generally fermented, and why you should be cautious with squash.

Enjoy the show!

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Support the Seed Farmer Podcast https://www.farmerspreadsheetacademy.com//supportpodcast

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News links

Thursday Aug 20 at 7pm Eastern Seed Growers Open House Call https://seedalliance.org/osa-quarterly-calls/

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Stay in Touch Follow the Seed Farmer on instagram https://www.instagram.com/danbrisebois.farm/

Get my weekly seed newsletter https://www.farmerspreadsheetacademy.com/seeds

Order Tourne-Sol seeds (Canadian orders only) https://fermetournesol.qc.ca/

Get my new book The Seed Farmer https://danbrisebois.com/seedfarmerbook

❤️ Thanks for listening!