The Winter Growers Podcast

Mark and Kristen Kimball of Essex Farm in Essex, New York, have farmed for over 20 years together. Mark and Kristen are known for their year-round, free-choice, whole-diet CSA model on 130 acres, with 22 acres and vegetables and access to 1,100 acres per grazing, haymaking, and sugaring, producing everything from veggies, fruit, grains, meat, dairy, eggs, and more. They balance the complexities of...

Farmer Sarah Patterson of Red Acre Farm in Cedar City, Utah, was just 14 years old when she started her first CSA on her parents' land after they moved to Utah from LA. Now, 15 years later, she has built Red Acre Farm into a thriving one-acre certified organic farm with a year-round, full-diet CSA, farm stand, farm kitchen, AND farm stay, along with hosting farm dinners, workshops, and other commu...

Kate Woods, farm manager of Beetlebung Farm in Chilmark, Massachusetts, along with her partner Nick, are the co-managers of a two-acre regenerative and primarily no-till farm on the island of Martha's Vineyard. Before its current iteration, the land had a rich history in agriculture, something of which that has been important to carry on for the island community, as well as a commitment to year-ro...

As their farm name suggests, Montana farmers Max Smith and Katie Madden of Winter Kissed Farm focus on growing vegetable crops year-round, especially during the winter seasons. On 15 acres and at 3,500 feet in elevation, they use multiple high-tunnels and caterpillar-tunnels to grow crops and sell them through a CSA, an online store , and to some area restaurants. They've had an interesting journe...

Elizabeth Keen of Indian Line Farm in Western Massachusetts, has been farming for 27 years and began her farm with her husband on land that was the birthplace of the CSA model popularized by Robyn Van En in 1986. Stewarding this important property, Elizabeth started her CSA with 12 member shares in 1997, which has since grown to 250 members, plus sales at a farmer's market and some restaurants and...

Ellie Goldstein and Dan Bryant of Small Holding Farm in Morganton, North Carolina, were recommended by a fan of the show as young, new, year-round farmers. Ellie and Dan started their farm in 2020 during the early months of the pandemic. Ellie has a background in psychology and works part-time in the mental health field and Dan is a certified arborist and carpenter… skills that have undoubtedly he...

Aidan Feeney of Fog Town Farm is located on Nantucket Island, 30 miles off of Cape Cod, Massachusetts. Growing up on Nantucket as an outdoor enthusiast and working in landscaping and doing tree work during high school, Aidan became inspired to learn about agriculture and spent time in New York and in Vermont in college working on farms. In 2019, he returned to the island to start Fogtown Farm on l...

Nate & Gabrielle of Six River Farm are located just north of Portland, ME. As early apprentices of Paul and Sandy Arnold of Pleasant Valley Farm—also former guests on the show—Nate and Gabrielle are now in their 18th! year of farming. Starting Six River Farm in 2007, on 2.5 acres of leased land, AND utilizing a collective farm model with four farms sharing infrastructure, they now have grown to 25...

Today, I have TWO guests, Emily Von-Trapp of Von Trapp Flowers in VT and Linda D'arco of Little Farmhouse Flowers in NY. Emily and Linda each operate their own cut flower businesses with a focus on wholesale and winter flower bulb forcing AND they collaborate to teach flower farmers how to bring beautiful flowers to bloom during the coldest and darkest months of the year through The Tulip Workshop...

Over the last 14 years, Ray Tyler of Rose Creek Farms has been passionate about developing growing systems to successfully grow and sell certified organic produce fifty-two weeks a year in western Tennessee. Along with his wife Ashley and six homeschooled children, he is committed to creating a family-focused farm that allows for a sustainable and healthy work-life balance. Using a meticulous syst...

Paul and Sandy Arnold of Pleasant Valley Farm in upstate NY are seasoned expert winter growers. They have been involved with winter growing since they first purchased their 60-acre property 35 years ago. With three large RIMOL high-tunnels, numerous caterpillar and field tunnels, dedicated wash/pack, and climate controlled storage facilities, they have honed their year-round systems on three culti...

Joy Longfellow is a flowers trial technician on the flowers team at Johnny's research farm. I invited Joy to speak about their overwinter flower trials and the info they have gathered over the past few years. The Johnny's research farm is 200+ acres acres in size with 60+ acres in crop production that includes both field and greenhouse growing for plant breeding, seed production, trialing, and cov...

Located in the Pacific Northwest, Brian and his partner Chrystine first started as a fresh market farm is 2004, producing their first seed catalog in 2007, and then transitioned entirely to seed production in 2011. Uprising Seeds is WA fist 100% certified organic seed company, producing over 70% of the seeds they sell with the rest being sourced from a network of regional family farms. Brian is pa...

Erin and Sam started Long Season Farm in Ulster County, NY, in 2014 as a winter-only operation, but have since expanded to year-round production and market the majority of their produce at two year-round farmers markets. With seven acres in production, they have four 30' x 96' unheated high-tunnels, plus a prop house, multiple cat/ tunnels, a moveable tunnel, and a large heated greenhouse that inc...

Jamila Norman of Patchwork City Farms in Atlanta, GA, is a first generation daughter to Caribbean parents whose history is rooted in agriculture. After a career in environmental engineering, she founded Patchwork City Farms in 2010, an acre+ urban farm with one 30'x96' high-tunnel and four caterpillar tunnels that supplies two farmers markets, a couple of local restaurants, and a farmstand. I reac...

In 2015, Amy Frye and Jacob Slosberg of Boldly Grown Farm in Bow, WA, started a one-acre farm at an incubator farm shortly after meeting and working on their university farm. Now, in their ninth season, they've purchased their own farm property and currently cultivate 30 acres of vegetables, a couple acres of grains, dry beans, seed crops, and flowers. Winter crops have always been the focus from...

Jillian and Ross Mickens of Open Door Farm in Cedar Grove, NC, work collaboratively with previous podcast guests Vera and Gordon of Ten Mother Farm to fill CSA boxes with many of the land intensive crops like potatoes and winter squash. With 5 acres under cultivation, and eleven seasons under their belt, they recently made the transition to winter-only sales from mid-August to the end of March, wh...

Rebecca and her husband, Mark, started Moonshot Farm in East Windsor, NJ, in 2019 after relocating from New York City to begin their dream of growing year-round cut flowers in a northern climate. In just four short years, they have built their 3.5 acre flower farm to include four high-tunnels, two of which are heated by a geothermal heating system, and they sell at two year round farmers markets,...

Today my guest is John Dindia of Lakeview Hill Farm in Traverse City, MI. John and his partner Bailey designed and built their farm from the ground up beginning in 2017 on a 58-acre property with 10 acres of available farmland and a 35-acre woodlot. Now, with 2.5 acres in production, they have five 30' x 148' heated greenhouses, a dedicated propagation house connected to a production barn, and sev...

Welcome back to the Winter Growers Podcast! In this episode, I had the pleasure of speaking with Niki Jabbour, who is an award-winning author, radio show host, educator, and gardening expert on year-round growing in a northern climate. Niki is located in Halifax, Nova Scotia, zone 5b at the 44th parallel. She enthusiastically maintains half an acre of raised beds in her back yard using a combinati...

My guest today is... my dad, Eliot Coleman of Four Season Farm . We had such a lovely conversation during season two, so I wanted to invite him back for a listener Q&A to end season three of The Winter Growers Podcast. Mentioned in the show... The Real Organic Project Winter Growers is made possible by... Rimol Greenhouses , for high-tunnels and greenhouses. Johnny's Selected Seeds , check out the...

Wolfgang Palme is the horticultural director of Zinsenhof Research Farm west of Vienna, Austria, at the 48th parallel. He's a botanist, author, hortaculturist, and farmer. The research farm has 3.7 acres under cultivation. Wolfgang's discoveries in Winter growing began as an accident 15 years ago with a trial of Asian greens. The research farm went on to test hundreds of different crops for cold h...

Finegan and Jason of Steelbow Farm , in Austin TX, may seem like unusual guests for the Winter Growers Podcast. But, with climate change and more frequent extreme weather patterns, I was curious to hear from a farm down at the 30th parallel where farming from November through March is more common. However, it is still full of challenges, such as extreme daily temperature swings. Finegan and Jason...

Vivian Glover of Gemusegarten Hoxhohl , Germany, always knew she wanted to become a farmer. After studying organic farming and marketing in school and working on other farms for many years, she started her own market gerden in southern Germany in 2016. With. just under 1 acre in production, her no-dig market garden supplies a 180 member CSA, 90 of those members being year-round. Currently, she has...

Patty Gentry of Early Girl Farm grows in Brookhaven on Long Island, NY. She has been described as "the Picasso of vegetables" and is featured in a documentary film, The Soul of a Farmer , that follows her farming journey and takes a raw and honest look at the challenges facing small-scale farmers today. As a former chef, Patty loves and understands vegetables, and she is passionate about quality a...