The Urban Farmer Podcast

How much money do you actually need to make as a farmer to survive? Not how much you want to make, what's the real floor? Most people dramatically overestimate that number. Curtis Stone's framework: calculate your actual cost of living, set your production goal (say $80,000), then budget your first year at one-third of that (~$25,000). Year two: two-thirds. Year three and beyond: the full target....

Four reasons expansion can hurt you, and the 5 questions to ask before taking on any new space: What exactly will I grow there? Who's already buying it? Can my labor handle it? Does it connect to my existing infrastructure? What's my rotation plan for months one, three, and six? Watch the video version over on our YT Channel!  Subscribe for more content on sustainable farming, market farming tips,...

What's the best tool for weeding? Wrong question. That question assumes weeding is inevitable. The best market gardeners don't have a favorite weeding tool, they've built solid systems so they barely need to weed at all. Watch the video version over on our YT Channel!  Subscribe for more content on sustainable farming, market farming tips, and business insights!    Get market farming tools, seeds,...

How many of your beds are actually in production right now? Not how many you have — how many are earning revenue today. For most small farms, the honest answer is: not all of them. Watch the video version over on our YT Channel!  Subscribe for more content on sustainable farming, market farming tips, and business insights!    Get market farming tools, seeds, and supplies at Modern Grower. Follow M...

Have you ever felt the pressure to expand your farm just because more land was available? In this episode, Diego and Curtis challenge the "bigger is better" mindset that has shaped agriculture since the 1970s and explore why small-scale, intentional farming is a smarter, more sustainable path. They talk about solid ways to maximize the land you already have through tighter cropping strategies, sma...

How long do you give an underperforming crop before you cut it? One season? Two? Most farmers don't have an answer — and that's the problem. A benchmark isn't a goal. It's the floor. Drop below it, gone. Without a benchmark, everything always gets "one more chance."  Watch the video version over on our YT Channel!  Subscribe for more content on sustainable farming, market farming tips, and busines...

If you want to make more money on your farm, you have exactly three options. Not five, not ten. Three: sell to more customers, sell higher-value products to the same customers, or sell more volume. Every strategy, every conference tip, every new idea fits into one of those buckets. Most farmers pull lever three first — more beds, more crops, more volume. It's the most expensive lever and the most...

How many of your crops actually make you money? Most farmers have never sorted the list. When they do, the math is shocking: 8–12 products typically generate 80% of total revenue. Everything below that line is seed cost, bed space, labor, and stress that drags your operation down. Watch the video version over on our YT Channel!    Subscribe for more content on sustainable farming, market farming t...

How many of your crops actually make you money? Most farmers have never sorted the list. When they do, the math is shocking: 8–12 products typically generate 80% of total revenue. Everything below that line is seed cost, bed space, labor, and stress that drags your operation down. Watch the video version over on our YT Channel!    Subscribe for more content on sustainable farming, market farming t...

In this episode, Curtis Stone and host Diego Footer break down how applying the 80/20 rule to your crop lineup can dramatically boost your farm's profitability and your quality of life...sometimes by doing less work, not more. Watch the video version over on our YouTube Channel!  Subscribe for more content on sustainable farming, market farming tips, and business insights!    Get market farming to...

What can you do that someone will pay you for? Not what degree you have. Not what you're passionate about. What can you actually do that creates enough value that someone will hand you money for it? Watch the video version over on our YT Channel!    Subscribe for more content on sustainable farming, market farming tips, and business insights!    Get market farming tools, seeds, and supplies at Mod...

Most farmers lose four to eight weeks of production every year during transition gaps, i.e., clearing, prepping, replanting. At $500/week per greenhouse, that's up to $3,000 lost from the same space. Timing systems are often worth more than infrastructure upgrades. It's about being smart, not buying more. Watch the video version over on our YT Channel!    Subscribe for more content on sustainable...

After interviewing hundreds of farmers over the past decade, the pattern is consistent: the farms that survive aren't the best growers...they're the best record keepers. Watch the video version over on our YT Channel!    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 Gro...

You harvest lettuce for an hour. $300 in revenue. Great, right? But you also spent 30 minutes planting, an hour weeding, an hour washing and packing. That's 3.5 hours total — $86 per hour, not $300. 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 supp...

In this episode, find out the one habit that separates profitable urban farmers from those who struggle: meticulous record keeping.  Curtis walks us through how tracking shortages, sales trends, and planting dates has made this his best shoulder season yet, with virtually zero wasted production. Watch the video version over on our YouTube Channel!  Subscribe for more content on sustainable farming...

In this episode, Diego breaks down the seven metrics that separate $80K farms from $20K farms on the same amount of land: revenue per square foot, cost per unit produced, harvest ratio, labor hours per $1,000 in revenue, customer acquisition cost, cash flow gap, and gross profit margin by channel. Click here to watch the video version over on our YouTube Channel!  Subscribe for more content on sus...

How much money do you ACTUALLY need to start a profitable urban farm? One farmer turned $7,000 into a six-figure operation on a third of an acre. In this Urban Farmer Rewind episode, Diego breaks down the five real expense categories every new farmer needs to budget for: including the hidden costs that nobody talks about.   Subscribe for more content on sustainable farming, market farming tips, an...

This episode pulls no punches about starting a new farm: the sacrifices, struggles, and tough decisions that separate dreamers from doers. Curtis Stone and Diego Footer discuss why successful farmers like Jean-Martin Fortier started in tents and teepees, how to prepare for worst-case scenarios, and the one question that will either motivate or haunt you for decades: "Why didn't you just go for it?...

Why do the most successful farmers barely break even in year one? How could chasing profits too early destroy your farm business? In this episode, we're answering all that and more as we dive into the counterintuitive strategy that transforms struggling growers into profitable operations by year three, including actionable exercises to track what really matters: your cost per square foot, true pro...

In this episode, Diego schools us in on the four critical principles that separate successful farms from the 90% that fail within three years. We dive deep into all the reasons why starting small (just 5,000 square feet) gives you the validation, data, and sustainability you need before scaling up. Siego also breaks down how to track unit economics, understand your true capacity, and avoid the com...

Thinking about starting a farm? In this episode, Curtis and Diego talk about why most new farmers fail and the counter-intuitive strategy that leads to long-term success. They double down on the value of working for knowledge instead of profits in your first year, starting with less land, and how building systematically will set you up for a thriving farm business. Curtis shares his hard-earned le...

In this episode, we take a look at how farmer Curtis Stone survived a 75% revenue drop by using 10-day feedback cycles to pivot before losses mounted. We'll talk about ways to detect failures fast, test cheaply, and adapt quickly to rapidly changing markets.    Subscribe for more content on sustainable farming, market farming tips, and business insights!    Get market farming tools, seeds, and sup...

In this rewind episode, we're taking a look at how farmer Curtis Stone achieved a 35% revenue increase while taking daily naps during peak season: by completely restructuring his workflow. We're breaking down how to stage work across optimal time windows, avoid burnout, and build systems that work with natural rhythms instead of against them—helping you scale sustainably without sacrificing your h...

The Urban Farmer Curtis Stone shares some practical strategies that helped increase his farm revenue by 35% without adding more land or working longer hours. He'll talk about exact planting dates for fall crops, heat management techniques that protect both you and your employees, and why strategic napping might be your secret weapon against burnout.  Subscribe for more content on sustainable farmi...

In this rewind episode, we're breaking down why automating simple tasks like invoicing doesn't just save you 10+ hours per season...it also unlocks your farm's growth. We're looking at automation strategies you can implement this week—from digital invoicing to voice-to-text workflows—that will free you from repetitive manual work and give you more time to focus on sales, strategy, and scaling your...