Farm Small Farm Smart

Vincent Cuneo started his microgreens business with zero growing experience. Year two revenue: $230K. But money was tight, stress was crushing, and crop failures meant lost revenue. His advice now? Get good before going pro.  Subscribe for more content on sustainable farming, market farming tips, and business insights!    Get market farming tools, seeds, and supplies at Modern Grower. Follow Moder...

A farmer I interviewed was doing everything right — certified organic, quality product, good prices, showing up every week. Three years in, the farm was cash-neutral. Not losing money, not making it. Then he moved towns. Same farmer, same crops, same methods. First market day in the new town: $247. By peak season: $1,500 days. Within five years: over $200,000 gross. Nothing about his farming chang...

In this episode, Malibu Compost Founder Randy Ritchie talks about the many differences between using finished and unfinished compost.   Subscribe for more content on sustainable farming, market farming tips, and business insights!    Get market farming tools, seeds, and supplies at Modern Grower. Follow Modern Grower:   Instagram   Instagram Listen to other podcasts on the Modern Grower Podcast Ne...

What does your farm have to do for you? Does it need to net you a livable income? Or does it just need to supplement your current income? Plan out your farm based on what you need to do lest you overreach and stretch yourself too thin.   Subscribe for more content on sustainable farming, market farming tips, and business insights!    Get market farming tools, seeds, and supplies at Modern Grower....

When you try to be everything to everyone, you become nothing to anyone. The farm selling "fresh local vegetables" to whoever walks by is invisible. The farm known for the best salad mix in the county, or the only source of specialty greens for high-end restaurants, is the one people seek out and pay more for. Watch the episode here! Interested in watching the series?  Hop on over to our YouTube C...

In this episode, Dr. Bruno Basso of CIBO Technologies discusses the effects of tillage on the carbon in the soil.   Subscribe for more content on sustainable farming, market farming tips, and business insights!    Get market farming tools, seeds, and supplies at Modern Grower. Follow Modern Grower:   Instagram   Instagram Listen to other podcasts on the Modern Grower Podcast Network:   Carrot Cash...

Is small-scale farming a viable source of income? It definitely could be! But there's no free lunch: it's something you're going to have to put work into.   Subscribe for more content on sustainable farming, market farming tips, and business insights!    Get market farming tools, seeds, and supplies at Modern Grower. Follow Modern Grower:   Instagram   Instagram Listen to other podcasts on the Mod...

In this episode,  Research Associate Professor Dr. Buz Kloot of Soil Health Labs talks about the potential reasons why farmers would choose not to cover crop.  Subscribe for more content on sustainable farming, market farming tips, and business insights!    Get market farming tools, seeds, and supplies at Modern Grower. Follow Modern Grower:   Instagram   Instagram Listen to other podcasts on the...

Which should you sell to, farmer's markets, or CSAs? The answer: it depends. Can you grow consistently? Can you deliver on your weekly orders? Have you already built a solid customer base?   Subscribe for more content on sustainable farming, market farming tips, and business insights!    Get market farming tools, seeds, and supplies at Modern Grower. Follow Modern Grower:   Instagram   Instagram L...

Jodi Robuck's first beet harvest: one bunch. Maybe $3. Twelve months later, the same bed produces over $850. Not luck — he changed one variable at a time until the math worked. Click here to watch the full episode on our YouTube Channel!  Subscribe for more content on sustainable farming, market farming tips, and business insights!    Get market farming tools, seeds, and supplies at Modern Grower....

In this episode, author and educator Peter McCoy of Mycologos sheds light on the symbiotic relationship between plants and fungi.   Subscribe for more content on sustainable farming, market farming tips, and business insights!    Get market farming tools, seeds, and supplies at Modern Grower. Follow Modern Grower:   Instagram   Instagram Listen to other podcasts on the Modern Grower Podcast Networ...

Sometimes, you can cheap out and MacGyver your way to get your farm business going...but not always.   Subscribe for more content on sustainable farming, market farming tips, and business insights!    Get market farming tools, seeds, and supplies at Modern Grower. Follow Modern Grower:   Instagram   Instagram Listen to other podcasts on the Modern Grower Podcast Network:   Carrot Cashflow   Farm S...

In this episode, compost specialist and owner of Living Roots Compost Tea Troy Hinke explains the importance of allowing compost to take its time maturing before application.   Subscribe for more content on sustainable farming, market farming tips, and business insights!    Get market farming tools, seeds, and supplies at Modern Grower. Follow Modern Grower:   Instagram   Instagram Listen to other...

In this episode, Diego talks about the small differences that make up the difference between farms that make it...and farms that don't.   Subscribe for more content on sustainable farming, market farming tips, and business insights!    Get market farming tools, seeds, and supplies at Modern Grower. Follow Modern Grower:   Instagram   Instagram Listen to other podcasts on the Modern Grower Podcast...

5 purchases, one filter. Every year farmers spend thousands on equipment they're told they need. Almost nobody asks one question before swiping the card: Will this generate or save me $10,000 in the next 12 months? Click here to watch the full episode on our YouTube Channel!  Subscribe for more content on sustainable farming, market farming tips, and business insights!    Get market farming tools,...

In this episode, microbiologist and co-creator of the Johnson-Su bioreactor, Dr. David Johnson, schools us on how to tell if a soil is healthy and of good quality.   Subscribe for more content on sustainable farming, market farming tips, and business insights!    Get market farming tools, seeds, and supplies at Modern Grower. Follow Modern Grower:   Instagram   Instagram Listen to other podcasts o...

Diego has identified what breaks farm business owners. It's not the physical work: it's everything else.  And the difference between farmers who barely survive and those who thrive? Systems.  Subscribe for more content on sustainable farming, market farming tips, and business insights!    Get market farming tools, seeds, and supplies at Modern Grower. Follow Modern Grower:   Instagram   Instagram...

Search "most profitable crops" on YouTube and you'll get saffron, ginseng, cannabis. After interviewing 200+ small-scale farmers over a decade and running a farm supply company, I can tell you almost nobody is making real money on anything from those lists. Click here to watch the full episode on our YouTube Channel!  Subscribe for more content on sustainable farming, market farming tips, and busi...

In this episode, soil specialist and consultant Dr. Jim Hoorman of Hoorman Soil discusses how increasing above-soil biomass plays a role in nutrient cycling.   Subscribe for more content on sustainable farming, market farming tips, and business insights!    Get market farming tools, seeds, and supplies at Modern Grower. Follow Modern Grower:   Instagram   Instagram Listen to other podcasts on the...

When Taylor Mendell moved from California to Vermont, she made every mistake possible: spent their entire budget on irrigation during the wettest year on record. By year three, everything felt out of control. Then they built something remarkable: a year-round CSA grossing over $200,000 on just 1.5 acres of growing space.   Subscribe for more content on sustainable farming, market farming tips, and...

How many beds of lettuce do you actually need to hit $250, $500, or $1,000 a week? Using production data from Ray Tyler's Rose Creek Farms in Tennessee — a farm that's done over $400,000 in sales on ¾ acre — here's the exact math. Click here to watch the full episode on our YouTube Channel.  Subscribe for more content on sustainable farming, market farming tips, and business insights!    Get marke...

In this episode, soil microbiologist and founder of The Soil Food Web Dr. Elaine Ingham talks about how farmers can go about replenishing soil nutrients for future growing.   Subscribe for more content on sustainable farming, market farming tips, and business insights!    Get market farming tools, seeds, and supplies at Modern Grower. Follow Modern Grower:   Instagram   Instagram Listen to other p...

Taylor Mendell was drowning. Nothing was working on Footprint Farm until she discovered something unexpected: brain science and habit formation could fix her farming chaos. What started as a desperate loan application turned into an annual planning system that transformed their operation.  Subscribe for more content on sustainable farming, market farming tips, and business insights!    Get market...

Most people hear "farming" and picture tractors and hundreds of acres. Market gardening is different: under five acres (often under two), vegetables grown intensively, sold directly to customers at retail prices. A well-run market garden can return over $100,000 per acre. Click here to watch the full episode on our YouTube Channel.  Subscribe for more content on sustainable farming, market farming...

In this episode, Dr. Gabe Kenne of the University of South Carolina talks about conventional farmers' concerns on no-till growing.   Subscribe for more content on sustainable farming, market farming tips, and business insights!    Get market farming tools, seeds, and supplies at Modern Grower. Follow Modern Grower:   Instagram   Instagram Listen to other podcasts on the Modern Grower Podcast Netwo...