Farm Small Farm Smart Daily

Darby Simpson will be one of the speakers at PV3 in March 2016. Learn more about PV3 at permaculturevoices.com/pv3. As you will learn in this episode, Darby Simpson is someone who transitioned into farming on a part time basis while working full time in an unrelated field. Putting in well over 50 hours each week as an engineer and spending a couple hours each day in the car commuting back and fort...

Darren Doherty presents the Regrarian Platform. This is Darren's introductory presentation that he gave at Grant Schultz's Versaland in October 2014. The presentation lays out the ten key components of the regarian platform - climate, geography, water, access, forestry, buildings, fences, soils, marketing, and energy. This episode focuses on soils, marketing, energy. This episode is the part of a...

In this episode we talk about post crop harvest processing, including how Curtis has changed some of his techniques over the years. We also talk about some of his farm equipment and infrastructure like his flame weeder and walk in cooler. For notes and links related to this episode visit the show notes at permaculturevoices.com/tuf32.

Darren Doherty presents the Regrarian Platform. This is Darren's introductory presentation that he gave at Grant Schultz's Versaland in October 2014. The presentation lays out the ten key components of the Regarian platform - climate, geography, water, access, forestry, buildings, fences, soils, marketing, and energy. This episode focuses on buildings and fences. This episode is the part of a four...

Darren Doherty presents the Regrarian Platform. This is Darren's introductory presentation that he gave at Grant Schultz's Versaland in October 2014. The presentation lays out the ten key components of the Regarian platform - climate, geography, water, access, forestry, buildings, fences, soils, marketing, and energy. This episode focuses on water, access, and forestry. This episode is the part of...

Set yourself up for success by having realistic plans and expectations for the first year. Match your lifestyle and your budgeting to those realistic expectations. If you are going to start out farming with a gun to the head survival mentality then it makes things very hard. Long term learning gets displaced for the need to put money into the till today. Work to learn, not to earn. The goal is to...

Darren Doherty presents the Regrarian Platform. This is Darren's introductory presentation that he gave at Grant Schultz's Versaland in October 2014. The presentation lays out the ten key components of the regarian platform - climate, geography, water, access, forestry, buildings, fences, soils, marketing, and energy. This episode focuses on the introduction, geography, and climate. This episode i...

Today's show is another remarkable story of another entrepreneur, a permaculture entrepreneur. It's the story of someone who went from being an anti-money activist to running a $1M permaculture design and build business. A business that catches millions of gallons of water, builds soil on hundreds of acres, plants hundreds of useful trees every year, restores native habit, redesigns our cites our...

Big isn't always better. More just for the sake of having more is pointless. Just because you have access to more land doesn't mean you need to take it. If you are getting bigger then you better have a reason why you are getting bigger... If you are thinking about expanding stop and ask why? Does it fit within the overall plan that you have for your business, your farm, and your life? If not, then...

While the presentation will focus on plant propagation for a profit from a small/backyard nursery stand point if you want a successful permaculture business you will want to attend this talk. Within permaculture perennial plants represent an extreme expense and an incredible opportunity. In this 60 minute presentation Jack Spirko will bring his 20 years of business management, marketing, technolog...

Today's show is about time. Specifically how precious our tiem is, and how we ought not to waste it. I wish I'd had the courage to live a life true to myself, not the life others expected of me. This is one of the most common regrets that people have at the end of their lives. When people realize that their life is almost over and look back clearly on it, it is easy to see how many dreams have gon...

Think about how much work you do on the farm now. How much of that work is actually being done efficiently and effectively? Are you making the best use of your time by focusing on the 20% of the tasks that generate the most return? Getting rid of crops can actually be a good thing. It allow you to work more efficiently and effectively by focusing on the task at hand instead of always trying to kee...

Learn practical tips to leverage this powerful and often misunderstood marketing tool. This talk will teach you to focus on generating farm revenue while avoiding the popularity contest trap. This talk was presented at PV1 in March 2014. See the slides at permaculturevoices.com/b030.

Today's episode focuses on fear. Fear is a very powerful motivator for humans. It's part of what keeps us alive. But it's also what holds us back. It holds us back by taking over our mind. Stalling our actions because we are afraid of imaginary, un-quantifiable, or low odd outcomes. There's a big difference between being scared in shark infested waters and being scared about the sea level rising a...

How can you a lot mistakes and wasting valuable resources by overproducing a crop, and the inverse of that, not producing enough? Good record keeping. Records on the farm are extremely valuable. When you start to get a few years of records and can notice trends, those records become very valuable because the records are what dictates your future action. Action that can save you work down the line...

Is there a place for permaculture principles in a bio-intensive approach to successful ( and profitable) small-scale vegetable production? For more than a decade Jean-Martin and his wife have been making a living farming on 1.5 acres of land. Last year they sold for more than $140 000 in sales (with a profit margin of around 45 %) by selling freshly harvested vegetables trough their 140 member CSA...

Joel Salatin speaks on successional farming - partnering the older generation with the next generation of farmers. This is an excerpt of an interview that I conducted with Joel Salatin on May 22, 2013 in Big Bear Lake, CA. Listen to another podcast with Joel at permaculturevoices.com/89

Can you accept in the beginning that what you are doing may not work? Because, guess what, it might not. But as long as you keep trying something will.. You just have to be willing to continue on until then. And if you are willing to accept that, then save yourself the time, money, and stress and quit now. This path isn't for everyone and that's fine. Regardless of what decision you make, just be...

In this talk Greg Judy talk covers the steps used to find leased land and build a multi-species grazing operation from scratch. Livestock can be a blessing or a curse. It's all in the management. With smart management livestock become a multiplier on the landscape. By using a variety of livestock to manage the forages it allows better utilization of plants. Harvesting much more solar energy throug...

Denis Hayes talks about a lifetime of work in environmentalism - the challenges, successes, the changing environmental problems, and how he has endured numerous political changes in Washington. Denis was the organizer of the first Earth Day in 1970, headed the Solar Energy Research Institute under President Carter, and is now president of the Bullitt Foundation. In 1999 Time Magazine named him Her...

Work to learn, not to earn... Understand where you want to go, understand why you want to get into it, figure out a smart systematic way to get there, and work hard in the process. And give yourself the forgiveness to make mistakes, but have the wherewithal to analyze those mistakes so you can adapt going forward. That's what this episode is all about. Taking the time to think long term and settin...

Peter and Grant met at a Darren Doherty workshop in 2012 as landless farmers with the shared dream of regenerating landscapes. Since then, they’ve both landed properties, planted thousands of trees, and developed large-scale permaculture farms. They will share their stories of how they acquired land and rapidly deployed permaculture in different ways in different places, amid different contexts. P...

This is an excerpt of an interview that I conducted with Joel Salatin on May 22, 2013 in Big Bear Lake, CA. Listen to another podcast with Joel at permaculturevoices.com/89

It's August 25, 2015 which means we are at the tail end of summer and shorter, cooler days are coming as fall nears. We are in one of those unique periods in the year known as the shoulder season, the transition periods at the end of one season and the beginning of another. They can be tricky time periods for farmers to navigate. Day lengths start getting shorter, temperatures start getting cooler...

Appropriate technology plays a critical role in permaculture systems. Developing, documenting, and sharing these tools and systems can turn dreamers into true permaculture practitioners. Grant will discuss home and hot water heating using regenerative energy sources, year-round food preservation in a permacultural context, and functional transport including cargo bikes among other topics. This tal...