Farm Small Farm Smart Daily

Hello Diego, My name is Russ. I am married, and have two awesome children and I used to be an alcoholic... This episode is the story of Russ and how permaculture helped him get past alcoholism and change his life. Learn more at permaculturevoices.com/111

As a farmer, how do you communicate what you have to sell each week, how much it costs, and when you need orders placed by, so you can deliver it on time? You use what is called a fresh sheet. At it's simplest a fresh sheet is a list of what you are selling currently on the farm, and for what price. A fresh sheet is more than a current inventory list. It also reminds ever-busy chefs that you have...

Learn the tools, techniques, and costs of establishing a productive silvopasture – a production system that produces yields from every layer. Beginning with bare land, you’ll understand harvest planning and sourcing trees, seed, livestock, and equipment. Also learn what can potentially be built, bartered or bartered. This talk was presented live at PV2 in March 2015. See the slides for this talk a...

This episode is all about the art of farming. Creating a framework, and understanding the overlying philosophy about why you do what you do, and leaving yourself some room to maneuver within that philosophy. Learn more about Curtis at permaculturevoices.com/tuf23 Listen to past episodes at: https://www.paperpot.co/podcast Increase farm efficiency with the Paperpot Transplanter and Other Small Farm...

Part 2 of the series with Marcin Jakubowski of Open Source Ecology. This episode is the react show to the Marcin interview that I did in Part 1. This episode is made up of my commentary inspired by the interview with Marcin, and your comments. I dig deeper into some of the ideas that Marcin brought up such as the 1000 True Fans article by Kevin Kelly, how do you measure success, how do you focus y...

This episode is all about being a better provider to your customers... In this episode we dig deep into sourcing products from other farmers, breaking into new markets, working with chefs and soliciting feedback. It's currently August 4, 2015 and the inevitable has happened. Curtis is short product, and he is having to source those products from other farmers to keep his restaurant customers happy...

Are we moving to an open source world? Marcin Jakubowski thinks so. Through his global village construction set Marcin hopes to do what Wikipedia has done for actual physical equipment - open sourcing the tools and machines that are the fundamental components of civilization. But like the visionaries that created Encarta and Wikipedia, it takes a unique perspective to create a future that doesn't...

In this episode Curtis and I are joined by new farmer Rob Kaiser. Rob is a few months into his farming journey. And like Curtis he didn't come from a farming background. He came from the corporate world. A few years ago Rob realized that the path that he was on, wasn't right for him anymore, and he needed to change. One part of that change was an entry into farming. In this episode Rob will talk a...

You need to ask yourself - Are you approaching farming as a hobby or as a livelihood? There's no right or wrong answer. But you need to be clear with your decision and set your expectations accordingly. Because approaching farming as a business is dramatically different than approaching farming as a hobby. To sum this all up be clear in your own head of the distinction between farming as a hobby,...

Most of the world’s human population in now urban. Permaculture designer and teacher Larry Santoyo will examine the permaculturist’s role in city planning and it’s direct relevance to wilderness protection, resource management and cultural curation. Larry will lead the discussion and share his lessons learned on projects. Learn more at permaculturevoices.com/b24

This romantic notion of farming - working outside, hands in the soil, sowing seeds, and then nurturing those crops to harvest. While all great, and all true, they are just a piece of the farming pie. And this is where problem's start to arise. The romantic view pulls people into farming, on just that, a romantic view, not a realistic full picture. And one part of reality is sales and moving produc...

Something so evident yet so ignored by industrial agriculture, why agriculture in the future must use plants that are naturally adapted to their environments. In our present day world man has become so detached from nature that he imagines that he can grow wheat in parched deserts and oranges in the arctic, and while this is only a partially true statement, the fascination with gene tinkering in t...

As a farmer and as an employer it is important to have systems in place. To know why and how you do something. This helps you understand what you do and it allows you to communicate what you do to an employee. When you have clear, defined systems in place it takes most of the guesswork out of the equation. This allows you to produce a consistent product quickly and efficiently. And it also allows...

Mycelium co-founder Matthew Abrams talks about his journey of leaving the status quo to finding meaning in his own life and the starting an alternative education business. This talk was presented at PV2 in March 2015 by Matthew Abrams. Matthew is co-founder of mycelium.is Listen to more at permaculturevoices.com/podcast

There are all sorts of things that Curtis does to make his efforts more efficient and more effective. Some are complex and involve a lot of time studying spreadsheets, and others are simple like minimizing you transit time. Growing the business while working less hours. That's something that we all want. It isn't always easy or straightforward, but it is possible. it's something that comes with ex...

Nowadays, people associate American native culture with three crops; Corn, Beans and Squash (the three sisters). According to Joe this is only the tip of the iceberg, Indigenous Americans (North of Mexico)used at least 3000 species of plants for food! Joe will unveil an amazing palette of wild edibles used by the Native Peoples that hold promise for our farms, gardens and kitchens, and show how th...

Farming in the city is something that Curtis has done ever since he started farming 5 years ago. But he hasn't always farmed, just inside the city. At one point in time he actually farmed a two acre plot outside of the city with another farmer. He did this in addition to farming his urban lots. So he had a multi location farm with small plots inside the city and one large plot outside of the city....

Permaculture designer Neal Spackman talks about leaving his desk job, family, and culture to go to another country and country and to a very dry Saudi Arabia and take on greening land on the Al Baydha Project. This talk was presented at PV2 in March 2015 by Neal Spackman. Neal blogs at twovisionspermaculture.com Listen to more at permaculturevoices.com/podcast

This week we will get into how Curtis went about getting his very first piece of urban farm land over 5 years ago. We will talk about what worked and what didn't work when he was just starting out and trying to gain access to land. The unique part here is that this was all happening in the beginning. Before Curtis had built any social capital from being an active urban farmer. There were no demons...

Ben Falk discusses some of the lessons and leanings from his 10 years of living on a homestead in Vermont. He touches on topics like water management, growing trees, and growing rice. The webinar was recorded on August 10, 2013. You can watch a view of this presentation in the show notes at permaculturevoices.com/b21

To be successful as an urban farmer you need to be able to quickly adapt and solve problems on the fly. In this episode we talk about how Curtis has had to adapt in the past and how his system allows him to change his production quickly. I also talk to Curtis about five mistakes that I see a lot of farmers make when they get into the farm business. Together we discuss these common mistakes and how...

Permaculture Kitchens I’ve Known is about the application of permaculture design principles and strategies to ecologically minded kitchen design, local seasonal menu planning, nose to tail cookery and butchery, cooking in community and regenerative food shed design. It is a realization that food is at then nexus of our society and culture. Both agriculture and food preparation come together to cre...

It's June 9th and the farm is in full production. As you heard last week a big part of that production comes from greens. Greens that are being cut and cut and cut. That's resulting in a lot of product that is being sold to restaurants, distributors, and farmers market customers. This we we talk about deliverying that product to restaurant customers and how that day looks from harvest to delivery....

The future of business lies in sustainability. And to be sustainable businesses must be profitable. In this talk Philippe will explore the idea of why branding and marketing are so important for the future of sustainable business. This talk was presented at PV2 in March 2015 by Philippe Choiniere. Philippe runs Oneka Elements - https://onekaelements.com/en Listen to more at permaculturevoices.com/...

It's June 2nd and the farm is in full production. As you heard last week a big part of that production comes from greens. Greens that are being cut and cut and cut. That's resulting in a lot of product that is being sold to restaurants, distributors, and farmers market customers. This week we get into sales, crop planning, planting density, and the ability to cut greens multiple times. It is week...