Thanks, Don! We are definitely looking into more employees. Gotta take care of the mind and body, for sure.

Takes a year to get started, you might only get 1 tomato… year 2 you know what not to do. You have gained the knowledge of when to plant and to get a jump on the summer heat or first harsh frost. You learn and keep learning.

Thanks, Jackson! Great comment. We plan on slowing way down in the winter for sure for the podcast and sanity. I really wanted to push the growing season this year to see how it could inform my position as the host in season two--I will certainly have more business questions now! Leveling the load is definitely the goal.

Truth! Thanks, man, and thanks for all the support!

That is super awesome to hear, thank you.

Love those books. I have had the pleasure of interviewing Ben several times, and even implemented some lean strategies, but I was thinking the same thing--need to dive back in again this fall. For sure.

I think small towns have a lot of potential, you just have to really listen to your market and figure out what it will buy and what it needs. That’s key.

It’s true. I’m whooped. I look it. I feel it. But I also like capturing it--will be fun (god willing) to look back on!

Classic case of "Type II Fun" ...

Thanks, and it really does come down to having a good community and a great market manager. Best of luck, y’all!

Cool, thank you and thanks for the tip on Spring Hill. I’ll check it out!

A value added product for the winter could be a good change of pace. Not a bad idea.

Something to make a nice gift to sell at the holidays?

Haha, not a bad idea. We will likely have garlic until January than well be SOL. Depends on sales. I’m selling it at that same price:1 for 3 or 2 for 5. Per bulb. So it’s not moving Sipe fast, but still bringing in 75 to 100 per week

✊️

I love that saying. And your video work is great BTW (Salatin FTW!).

@@notillgrowers thanks dog

we enjoy the podcast

I have had a similar thought. I think whoever does sales needs a break before market. Other people harvest, and that be a day off for whoever is going to market. Need more collaborative farms really...

Wait, what are these tarps? Do you have a link to them?

We have a couple hives--it’s definitely something my wife loves. We’ve talked about getting more and may in the future. Really like the bees--definitely our easiest livestock!

Great comment, Tanya. First I should clarify, we are still “expensive.” Everything is priced at 2.50 as you said. So even a single bulb off garlic or a small bunch of green onions can leave the table at $3. our lettuce is $10 at the two item price. Etc.. Okay, so yes. The goal for us has been always to hit our financial goals and to slowly bring on an employee or two (next week we will have one part time and one full time) so we can take breaks and be able to get injured or sick from time to time and it not completely devastate the farm. I completely agree about profit and and revenue, especially when you pay yourself as well as a farmer should. Our farm budget, what the farm needs to make for itself and to pay the bills, is 55k. But that only factored in a few thousand for some seasonal employment, so now what I’m having to do is readjust that budget (in the middle of the summer no less) to carry a full time employee and soon a part time employee. Suddenly that number jumps, but the goal as you sorta say, should not be to add burden. That’s what I have to figure out, and I really appreciate you emphasizing that. Thank you

I did the week off once. The employees stayed away until Friday and then tried to have a marathon work day. As you might imagine, little got done. Example: The 15 rows of potatoes - 6 of them were finished, and then it was so hard to catch up when we got back we never did get the rest of them in. Ka-ching. Not to mention some other activities I wasn't too happy about (in this community, nothing stays a secret!). Needless to say, those employees are gone. But beware of being out for a week. The exhaustion that occurs when you get back often isn't worth the escape.

Get carts, carts, carts or a ATV. Use 2 toats as you pick, one for weeds and suckers. Stop carrying toats from the end of your garden to the transport vehicle. Try carrots in raised beds (2 parts peat moss to 1 part compost) to save your back. Thinking the same for Bush beans. These are things I'm working on also.

Same.

Tried it, but it's difficult to get started - takes several weeks to get thick - and the traffic issues are significant. In a smaller setting I think it'd be great, but on two acres, it's problematic. Which made me sad, because I thought it was a great idea.

I guess it’s more like out of alignment then out of socket. Not sure what the difference is (just regurgitating what my chiropractors says). But I also have bad shoulders from my father, so hard to say how long it has or will affect me.

I can verify

Great comment. I think we are leaning towards choosing two streans (between CSA, restaurants and market) and dropping one next year. For now we're going to see if we can make all three work for a few more months (woth some added labor).

@@notillgrowers Another possible option is to start a Reko. This is a decentralized cooperative model mediated through a closed facebook group, combining the best aspects of CSA and farmers market. You get retail prices but everything sold is preordered and prepackaged on a weekly basis and the distribution takes place in 1 hour. You pick and pack only what is presold. Richard Perkins talks about it in a few of his videos. Not a lot in English about this. Started in Sweden. This might give you a starting point, and no that's not a typo in the link below: steemit.com/steem/@reko/reko-decentrialzed-farmers-market We never found a way to move enough produce to restaurants to make it worth all the driving. You will eventually find the right outlets for your produce that works for you. Just be sure that you are putting away some money into savings every single week you have revenue coming in. I know growers who've farmed their whole lives and saved nothing, now are scratching their heads in their 60s and 70s, unable to afford to stop farming unless they can find someone to buy their entire operation, and good luck doing that. Old age comes faster than you think!

Thanks, I saw Perkins uses Reko. Will look into it.

For sure!

Totally feel ya. As for the carrots, we have tried both and not really seen a big difference. When the greens are nice, and it’s not too wet int he soil (muddy), we can band in the field, but otherwise they become too hard to clean. When we do the math though we are making 80 to 95% profit in some cases on carrots, so the labor sucks but it’s still really profitable. Definitely trying to iron out some of those bottlenecks, for sure.

I am the power nap king. Every day. 15 minutes. I think it’s a talent. Avoiding beer... that I’m working on.

I haven’t tried the soaking method. When you say a “bunch vegetable washer” is this a specific thing like a root washer?

@@notillgrowers What I had was a bunch vegtable washer from the 1940's It consisted of two sets of brushes much like used in the brush type atomatic car washs only smaller mounted in a fram that sat on the egde of the soak tank. the brushes rotated so that on bushed the top of the bunch and the other brushed the bottom. and you held onto the tops. One bunch in each hand. a quick swipe through the brushes and the bunch was washed. It worked great for carrats and green onions but not for beets as the bleed to much.

Wow, that sounds interesting. Do you have a picture of it you could email me? notillgrowers@gmail.com if you do! Thanks

Funny, that’s pretty much exactly what we’re thinking. Thank you!

Thanks! These are all good tips. I noticed our neighboring organic vendor barely washing their carrots--wondering if we could get away with 25 - 50% more dirtiness on crops that people are going to wash anyway. Also that pricing structure makes sense. Packaging is a user of time and waste of resources. For sure.

Possibly, yes. We are working on some ideas for it. I’m cover cropping my paths this winter with a winter kill crop and some tillage radish to see if I can’t open them up a bit for better absorption in the spring when we get pounded with rain. Also going to do a ditch. Unfortunately our land is really moundy (for lack of a better word), so plots look like this ~ meaning water pools in the low sports until it’s high enough then rushes over the beds instead of down the paths. It’s a weird garden.

@@notillgrowers Maybe those low spots should be "micro" rice paddys! Good luck to you, really enjoy the videos.

Indeed! We didn't do late squash or cukes last year and regretted it. So... Just started more this week

And a late crop of bush beans, esp. any variety that isn't green. People love these in September and October, if you climate will allow it.

That’s good to hear. Less exhausted has value for sure. Our plan right now is bringing on a part timer to help with the kids to free Hannah up. That will be huge

We have done this in the past! Not a bad idea

I know it seems a ridiculous suggestion but its honestly often a more sustainable edge taker off'r for people hard working lifestyles

Thanks for this comment. This is almost exactly what I’m trying to figure out. Should I add another employee and keep Saturday’s, or concentrate on the markets we have going and try to improve them? We’re going to start with the former, but may move towards the latter by the end of the year.

@@notillgrowers my 2 cents-if there is a chance to add another quality employee then that could be a huge asset to the operation for whatever marketing configuration you choose.

Whoa, what is tree collard!? I’m heading to google...

@@notillgrowers haha yeah that's your best bet. It's like a collard or kale. Multiple types and colors. Came from Africa I believe but does well in northern climates too

Hey David, always great to hear from you. And thank you for reminding me about that book. I first heard about it on Fresh Air and I told my wife that he totally validated my daily naps! Fifteen minutes every day no matter the workload. I hear you on mechanization. I have tried a few things like the Paperpot but they don’t really fit our system with the deep mulch. I know other farmers are using it that grow like us but I just could not get it to go. I also like the idea of running this farm in a way that will be possible in 50 years for my kids. It’s going to take a lot of work to figure it all out, but slowly more efficient systems are falling into place out of shear necessity--the mother of invention, right? But yes, balance. I’m not opposed to new mechanization, but for us we just keeping buying the next big tool and then ending up back at the soil blockers because they just fit what we do better. Balance. It’s allusive and not static. I find it, then it runs away. Thanks as always for your comment, David!

Very great advice, Judy. thank you for this.

Thanks for the comment! I am mixed on value adding. We know one farmer who really kills it with pickles, but it’s also like starting a seperate business in some ways (labor, inventory, etc..), so we’ve shied away from value added products. Instead we are always trying to value add with crops (I actually talk about this a bit in my last video on summer crops). That’s ideal for us--make more off what we’re already doing.

Great comment! I really appreciate seeing it from that perspective. Time management has definitely been an issue for us. We’re not restrictive enough on our own time. Easily distracted. Lots of little issues to tackle there-good to hear it from the business side. Thank you!

@@notillgrowers I can be long-winded so I'm glad if it helps. Actually my advice is more psychological :) And I forgot to mention that business gurus advise entrepreneurs to work for someone else in the business or industry for 3 years before starting your own business. That's the learning curve that anyone goes thru that slows down progress in your own startup. Even now that I'm semi-retired I stress myself out with my todo list on my little urban homestead! So I finally decided that I need to decide how many hours in the day I absolutely must dedicate for household chores, cooking/eating, yoga, etc. How many hours to maintain my little side business, and how many hours to work on projects like improvements to my food forest, hours for social.... Then I just think in terms of "I'm going to work in income between 8am-12pm, Chores from 1pm-2pm, Sunday rest and social, and projects the rest of the day. When we work for a company, we think in terms of "I work from 9-5 Mon-Fri". We go to work and just get as much done as we can, then go home and not think about it again. When we work for ourselves we have to do the same thing to maintain sanity (certainly more hours but structured in blocks of time) . So it helps to think in terms of hours first, then fit in the task lists. Even on market days you just don't allow yourself to think about anything else that's nagging you. Again - probably half of your exhaustion is mental and self-inflicted. When I'm heading outside to work on something, and I see something else that needs attention, or reminds me of something I want to do, I have a two step mantra I use, 1) Is that as important as the task I set out to do? 2) If yes, then I tackle it as quickly as possible, or add it to the list for the end of the day, then get focused back on the task at hand. If it's not a priority, then I say OUT LOUD to myself, "don't go there" and it puts it out of my mind! Works every time. Something about vocalizing an instruction to oneself solidifies it. And working with your spouse is great because you can say it to each other :) Sorry, us retired people love to babble, haha!

Heck yes, BBN for life!

Thank you for watching! And indeed, refining our system more and more every year. Also pushing ourselves a little more every year and sometimes that bites us, but that’s how you learn, I suppose

Haha!

I have not been stretching! Good advice here.

Don't be greedy, indeed. Always good advice!

This would definitely help financially.

I don’t think that’s true. Lots of CSA farmers take weekends. We deliver our CSA on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays. Market on Sundays (it’s a better market here than Saturdays). So we had a choice between Monday, Wednesday and Saturday for a day off. Went with Saturday (we have kids so that’s a good day for parties, etc..). Farmers need a day off and forcing yourself to take one makes you more efficient on your days on. That’s my take at least.