Farm Small Farm Smart Daily

This episode is the reading of the blog post, Soil Life Exploding At Judy Farms, written by Greg Judy. "2010 was our fourth complete year of Holistic High Density Planned Grazing on Judy farms. The last six months on Judy farms have been a real eye opener. We have seen some unique circumstances that have never been witnessed before on our farms. Some of the numbers and sights that we are seeing are going to be hard for you to believe. That is fine, skepticism is good. But………we now have much more hard data that has been collected from permanent transects on our farms. Before we dive into these latest happenings, I want to cover where we started at and the progression we have seen over the last four years. This will give you a time table of where we started at and the length of time that elapsed to the present." To read the full post visit permaculturevoices.com/119

Taylor Walker from Green Dreams Florida joins me. In this episode we talk being a designer, propagating and selling plants, and we get into specific plant species. Some of these are zone specific; some are more universal, like Mulberry. Towards the end of the episode Taylor goes in depth about 5 not so common plant species that make up a nice permaculture plant guild. He’s growing these plants in Zone 9 in Florida, but maybe you can find some microclimates in your own climate zone to take advantage of some of these species. Show Notes: permaculturevoices.com/99

Today is Part 2 of an interview with farmer John Suscovich of Farm Marketing Solutions. You can listen to Part 1 of the interview here. Part Two was recorded a year after Part 1, and was recorded in February 2016. So you will get two perspectives from the same person, separated by a lot time and experiences. You hear about what John learned about life and farming over the course of year and how his farm evolved based on what he's learned. Today's episode focuses on how things have changed on the farm over the last year. John will talk about what operations he dropped on the farm and why. He will break down the economics between laying hens and broilers. And he will talk about the macro concept of focusing on less to do things better overall. See some of John's videos in the show notes at permaculturevoices.com/118.

Today is part one of an interview with farmer John Suscovich. And today's episode was recorded one year ago in February 2015. And Part Two was recorded in February 2016. So you will get two perspectives from the same person, separated by a lot time and experiences. You hear about what John learned about life and farming over the course of year and how his farm evolved based on what he's learned. Today's episode will help a lot of your looking to start a farm or a business by tacking on questions such as, why going from intern to full on farmer as a business was a foolish move for John. And what advice he would have for someone just starting out. He will also share his thoughts on taking on part time farming with job versus going full time farming first. And how he deals with a farm that has a diversified product offering. Then in part two we will circle back with John one year later and see how things have changed on the farm, and why they have changed. Because a lot has changed in the last year. And as you will hear in this episode, in farming and business, life if going to do whatever the hell it pleases to you. All you can control is how you react to whatever life throws at you, and you can either shut down or you can soar.” See some of the notes and John’s videos at permaculturevoices.com/117.

In this episode Curtis and I dissect an article that was published on Alternet on January 1, 2016 by farmer Jaclyn Moyer. An article titled.... What Nobody Told Me About Small Farming: I Can’t Make a Living - People say we're "rich in other ways," but that doesn't fix the ugly fact that most farms are unsustainable This one is a good one and we cover a lot of business basics such as... Who is your customer? What is their demographic? And what do they want? What are you selling? Is that the right crop? What are you focusing your time on? Is that the right thing? And are you the right person to be doing this job. We will break down the article to hopefully help a lot of you avoid some of the troubles that Jaclyn talked about in the article. Read the article at permaculturevoices.com/tuf43.

Neal Spackman is regreening a portion of the desert that gets 3 inches of rain a year on average, but lately they aren’t even meeting the average. Greening the site by using true cost water accounting, meaning that they only use the equivalent of water that falls onto the site to establish the vegetation. With minimal rainfall, no pre-existing plant life and 100 plus degree summer temperatures, it is no easy task. Throw in the economic and social challenges of the village that he is working with and the task becomes even harder. But despite those challenges, progress is being made, and the sounds of crickets are now being heard. Life is coming back. We heard his story originally in Episode 78, permaculturevoices.com/78, and today we get an update and find out how much life is coming back. Learn more at permaculturevoices.com/116

Marty McDonald will be one of the speakers at PV3 in March 2016.Learn more about PV3 at permaculturevoices.com/pv3.The latest trend in marketing is story marking. Telling your story in a way that unique, honest, and in a way that resonates with your target market. But not all stories are created equal. And not all stories should be told by anyone. Because a good story told poorly is in affect a bad story. So what makes a good story? It's a bit like pornography; you know a good story when you hear it. But at it's core good stories take us on a journey. They are easy to follow and resonate with us emotionally. Good stories are often concise and have a clear theme, which also makes the stories shareable. Which is something that benefits you as a brand, if your customers can easily retell your story to their friends.In today's show I am joined by marketer Marty McDonald to talk about story marketing.Marty is Creative Director and Founder of egg in Seattle, a 12-year-old (and the first) communications firm focusing exclusively on sustainable brands. He has over 20 years of national ad agency experience, and he knows his stuff. You'll like this one. Learn more at permaculturevoices.com/marty.

Be very cautious about how much you are imposing on the landscape. That's something that Darren talked about on this podcast before. Because it's a big problem out there within the permaculture space. People doing work on the land because they want to do the work, not because the context of the land justifies that work. It's a mistake that most of us have made. And it's a mistake that Darren Doherty has made in his career. With over 2000 clients and 25 years of professional design experience all around the world, Darren has seen a lot and learned a lot. In this episode we'll talk about what he has learned over the last 25 years. Darren shares a lot in this interview and takes on the hard questions like will this method of land design ever catch on? And what are some of the mistakes that he has made in his career. You'll learn a lot about design in this one, including simple ways to be better than the average farm, and the importance of fiscal discipline. As you go through this episode think about your design work, and how some of the insights that Darren discuses could apply to your world. Because at the end of the episode you may realize that a lot of the work that you have done or that you want to do isn't needed, because it's not in context. And when you think about start thinking about design in the personal, environmental, and financial context, many designs become a lot simpler. Learn more at permculturevoices.com/115 Learn more about the Engineering Success with Darren Doherty at permaculturevoices.com/darrenpv3

Curtis Stone is the owner of Green City Acres, a multi-locational urban farm based out of Kelowna, BC, Canada.In 2014 his farm generated $75,000 in gross sales on 1/3 of an acre, spread over 5 small plots of land that consist of front yards and vacant lots.In this lecture, he will share with you his 10 essentials to profitable urban farming that will help you work less, and make more money at the same time. If you are currently farming, and looking for ways to improve efficiencies on your farm, or just getting started.This presentation could save you thousands of dollars and hundreds of hours of time by implementing these steps.See the slides from this presentation at permaculturevoices.com/114Learn more from Curtis on the Profitable Urban Farming workshop held in person and online on March 6. For more information visit permaculturevoices.com/urbanfarmingpv3

At the end of the day, month, year, decade or your life, the amount of #shityougotdone isn’t going to matter. It’s the Quality of Life you’ve reached and maintained. It’s the relationships with your family and friends, the connection you have to your clients and land, the feeling you get when you go to sleep that matters. It’s the amount of personal work you’ve done to pull yourself out of negative thinking and mindsets of scarcity that you’ll appreciate the most. It’s not the number of new crops you tried, cider batches, or projects developed… it’s how you lived that will mean the most. Getting shit done for the sake of #getshitdone can be a trap. It could very well become today’s equivalent to what pursuing “retirement” meant 20 years ago, or the ever-expanding idea of “more” and being rich: when is enough, enough? When is enough shit done, enough done? And are some activities completed more important than others? If those activities support a life that’s truly well-lived, then, yes: you’ve succeeded where many have tried and failed. If not, you’ll want to join us to ensure you’re getting the #rightshitdone. Learn more about Javan at permaculturevoices.com/113 Learn more about the Mastering the Mastermind workshop at permaculturevoices.com/mastermindpv3

"They weren't just buying the product; they were buying the whole package." That's how Chris Thoreau was able to go to a farmer's market selling one crop. Just one. Sunflower shoots. He was able to go to market with just one crop because he was selling a product that had a great story. It was a product that was produced hyper-locally and one that was delivered to market via pedal power on a bike. Since Chris started his microgreen business nearly 10 years ago he has grown the business into one that has multiple employees and one that will do over $200,000 in sales in 2016. If you want grow microgreens commercially, listen to today's episode. You'll see how important it is to systematize your production and constantly record and analyze your results. It's the constant testing, analyze and adaptation that has made Chris' business hugely successful. I think that you will really get a lot out of this interview. You'll learn how Chris introduced a brand new crop to his market. How he priced that product. And how and why he thinks about new products to sell. There's a lot of in depth applicable business content in here for the experienced growers. And for the beginners you will learn what Chris suggests for some good crops to grow. There's a lot in this one and at it's core this interview focuses heavily on core success principles - relentless testing and experimentation, constant record keeping and analysis, and knowing what to focus on. Learn more at permaculturevoices.com/112 The Growing Your Microgreens Business Workshop mentioned in this episode – permaculturevoices.com/microgreenspv3

Scott Hebert started farming in June 2015 when his family business shut down. At that time he didn’t have anything to fall back on. But he had always had an interest in farming, and within a few days of getting the income shock warning his wheels had been put in motion and he was putting a plan into place to transition into a career as a farmer. He contacted Curtis to visit his farm, so he could start leveraging Curtis’ experience to plan his farm and his future. Because he knew wanted to farm, but didn't want to be broke, therefore, he had to make money at it, and that meant he had to have a plan and a strategic approach. And it’s that approach that we will be talking about in today’s show. It’s currently February 2016 and this episode was recorded with new farmer Scott Hebert a couple of months ago in December 2015. Let’s get into it and see what a transition into small scale farming is really like... Learn more at permaculturevoices.com/tuf42

Erik Ohlsen will be one of the speakers at PV3 in March 2016.Learn more about PV3 at permaculturevoices.com/pv3. My guest today Erik Ohlsen took a risk when he started his business. And it's a risk that paid off because he has grown that business into a design firm that grosses over $1M a year. But his business, Permaculture Artisans, is one that started small. It started with a $15 an hour job that Erik used as a leverage point to build on. In this episode Erik is going to talk about what it takes to be successful including the importance of being patient, the importance of having a good attitude, and knowing that your work becomes your resume and can open doors. Learn more at permaculturevoices.com/erik.

Ethan Soloviev will be one of the speakers at PV3 in March 2016.Learn more about PV3 at permaculturevoices.com/pv3. In today's show I'm joined by Ethan Roland Soloviev. Ethan is an international expert on sustainable agriculture, permaculture, and eco-social entrepreneurship, and as co-founder of Terra Genesis International he consults on these topics for individuals, organizations and corporations internationally. In our conversation we'll utilize Ethan's experience to explore this concept of what is regeneration. But don't worry it's not all theory, and there is some useable and applicable information in here. As you will find out Ethan view's regeneration as a process. One that's always trying to improve. And for many of us that's essential what our lives are. An ongoing process where we try to improve the web of all things that is us. It's a process that involves a lot of trial and error, successes and failures, and like a lot of you, and me, Ethan is someone who has said yes to a lot of things in his life and tried a lot of things. And he is now hitting his strive and settling into one of his business where he feels that he can make the biggest impact. And ironically it's a business that works with other business. how he came to that conclusions is interesting. Because he used something called nodal analysis to help refine down his direction. It's an interesting concept and on that I hadn't heard about before. Stay tuned to find out more about that in this one... Learn more at permaculturevoices.com/ethan.

While Curtis and I were on tour we made a stop at Singing Frogs Farm in Sebastopol to visit with farmers Paul & Elizabeth Kaiser. It's a pretty remarkable farm. The Kaisers are farming just over 2 acres and grossing over $100,000 an acre. They come from an agroforestry background and approach farming systematically as a business. This episode is some of our thoughts from our visit. To learn more visit the show notes at permaculturevoices.com/tuf41.

Greg Judy will be one of the speakers at PV3 in March 2016.Learn more about PV3 at permaculturevoices.com/pv3. In the late 90's Greg was down to $9 in the bank. The way that he was farming, wasn't working. Greg was grazing cattle using conventional methods at the time. And the costs were killing him, or should I say the debt was killing him. Cattle loans, equipment loans, feed costs, seed costs, and other input costs drawing too much away from his top line, thereby shrinking his bottom line. With an unprofitable farming operation and $9 left in the bank, Greg had two choices, roll over and quite, or try something new and effectively start over. With gritty determination, a passion for cattle, and a need to grow more grass, Greg dropped all of his conventional ways and began grazing cattle that he didn't own, on land that he didn't own, and with less inputs. The transition was nothing less than remarkable. Within a few years Greg had paid off all of his debt including his farm. He was adding new leases to his farm portfolio, and lessors were so happy they were granting him lifetime leases. But it wasn't just Greg's bottom line that was benefitting, the soil was as well. Greg's high intensity grazing was speeding up the growth of grass. And with more grass, comes more cattle. All without adding more land. Greg's methods have been widely successful and used for the last 15 plus years. And it all started when Greg's back was up against the wall and he decided to let the cows work for him, instead of working for the cows. If it ever feels like things just aren't working, then look no further than Greg Judy as a remarkable example of someone who had the passion, the grit, and the wherewithal to make a change when he could have easily just quit. Learn more at permaculturevoices.com/greg

Gregory Landau will be one of the speakers at PV3 in March 2016.Learn more about PV3 at permaculturevoices.com/pv3.If the current current method of business isn't working, then something more regenerative would be better right?Then it's up to us to design it.Only we can't.Because a truly regenerative web is a living whole systems awareness of all of the decision makers. Something that's a process. An awareness that grows over time. It's not something that happens overnight, and it's not something that we can design.We can only start to put the connections in place. Then it's up to all of the decision makers in the process to take the ball and run with it. Working together towards a common goal knowing that it isn't instant change, it's a common goal that they are all working towards.But seeding those connections can be tough. Because sometimes the input producers like farmers, can't get a seat at the table with some of the decision makers who make the end product. And that's where firms like Terra Genesis and designers like Gregory Landau come in.Gregory has also founded a direct-trade chocolate business to help reforest tropical Latin America through regenerative trading relationships.Today we'll be using his experience with cacao to to talk about Designing the Pathway to Regeneration, and Why We can't Do That.Learn more at permaculturevoices.com/gregory

"You have to be willing to fail. You have to be OK with failure." That's what entrepreneur Jack Spirko told me. He's built a variety of businesses in his career. Some of which have been very successful and some of which have failed. One of his successes has been the hugely popular Survival Podcast. You can learn a lot of Jack. Jack is a permaculturist, small scale farmer, and he knows a lot about running and marketing businesses. If you want to run a farm based business, listen to today's episode. You'll see how important it is to take risks and put in a lot of hard work knowing that you could fail and it could all be for naught. A big part of success really is that simple. Eight years ago Jack started his podcast recording it in his car on his way to work. He didn't have grand plans of it being a business at the beginning. He just needed to figure out how this podcasting thing worked for a client. So he figured he would give it a shot and see what came of it.. He focused on content that he was interested in. Thinking that others likely would be as well, they were. He then focused on building his audience and then building the business around that. He started low tech, and low cost using some very cheap equipment, in the beginning putting out content consistently was more important. And he put together his notes each morning getting up at 330AM before he left for work. He put in the time. Something that’s not always easy to do. I think that you will really get a lot out of this interview. You'll learn how to market your products. How to come up with new products to sell. And why the customer isn't always right, and why all customers aren't the customer that you want.. There's a lot in this one and at its core this interview gets into what it takes to build, grow and market a business. It might make you want to start a business; it might make not want to start a business. Both valuable conclusions. Learn more at permaculturevoices.com/jack Jack Spirko will be one of the speakers at PV3 in March 2016.Learn more about PV3 at permaculturevoices.com/pv3.

Mary Johnson will be one of the speakers at PV3 in March 2016. Learn more about PV3 at permaculturevoices.com/pv3. What does success mean to you? Hopefully you know, because if you don't you might be chasing the wrong things. Success is different for everyone. For some people it's money and fame and for some people it's freedom of time and freedom of place. How do you define it? Once you define it and get what it means to you, you can then start to create a system to achieve success as quickly and happily as possible. That's what I am talking about today on the show with my guest Mary Johnson. Mary is a consultant and coach who has worked with hundreds of famers and entrepreneurs to try to help them improve their business, and their lifestyle. And one way that she does that is through the use of holistic management goal setting. Basically asking what makes you happy and is your business supporting that? Because for many people it isn't, especially farmers who don't think of it farming as a business and then end up not making any money farming, thereby leaving them unable to maintain the lifestyle that made them happy. It's a common problem, and hopefully this episode will fill in a few gaps with the problem and get you thinking. Learn more at permaculturevoices.com/mary

Mary Beth Storjohann will be one of the speakers at PV3 in March 2016. Learn more about PV3 at permaculturevoices.com/pv3. My guest today, Mary Beth Storjohann, is a certified financial planner and is the Founder of Workable Wealth, specializing in financial planning for Gen Y. She works as a writer, speaker and financial coach with individuals and couples in their 20s and 30s across the country to help them to make smart, educated decisions with their money. I brought her on today to talk about financial planning, when it comes entrepreneurship. Something she knows a lot about as both financial planner, and an entrepreneur herself. Like many of you, she is young, married, and has a daughter, and she start her business on the side. In other words, she gets it. Learn more at permaculturevoices.com/marybeth

If you want to be better off in December 2016, then the planning for that starts now in December 2015. The biggest leverage point which for the farm season next year is right there in front of you. You just need to tease it out. That's what today's show is about. Doing some End of Season Reflection - Thinking about How Things Went This Year, to Alter Course and Plan for Next Year I hope that you can use some of the information that we talk about in this episode to reflect on your 2015 farm season, so you can get better in 2016. With the end of the year, comes the end of this show. This is Episode 40 of The Urban Farmer, the last episode of the show. Good luck with everything in 2016 and beyond. Keep growing, keep pushing forward, and keep getting after it. Learn more at permaculturevoices.com/tuf40

In today's episode Curtis and I will take a look back at the season of this show and talk about what's in store for the future for Curtis and this show. In regards to the future, you listening to this hold a bit of control on that in your hands. Because we want to hear what your thoughts are on this show - The Urban Farmer. This season what's resonated with you? What do you want to hear more about? And how has this show affected what you are doing? I don't beg a lot, but this is one case where I will, I am begging you, please send us your feedback on the show. Has it helped what do you want to hear more about, and are you using this information as a home grower versus a commercial farm? Please take a few minutes to let us know what you think. You can do so via email [email protected] and/or leave a comment in the show notes for this episode at permaculturevoices.com/tuf39. Thanks for listening to the show and supporting us this year. It means a lot to me. This show has been outlet for me, and a way for me to put something out there to make an impact, that I believe in and can stand behind. I hope that it has helped. Show Notes: permaculturevoices.com/tuf39

On today's show I am talking to Rob Kippel. Rob's not your typical permie. He's a paramedic, a real estate investor, and he owns a profitable franchise business that has nothing to do with farming, but his values align with the values that permaculture supports. And Rob likes the idea of regenerative agriculture, but he doesn't want to be the farmer. And when you hear this interview, I think you will probably agree, that Rob's skills are best suited for the other fields which he is already excelling at. Because he has accomplished a lot, and is doing a lot, and he's done it by age 31. I hope that this episode gets you thinking. Because the permaculture path might not be for everyone, and some people might be better off supporting Your Permaculture Goals with a Career Outside of Permaculture.... Learn more at permaculturevoices.com/cd9

How much work should you put into something before it gets to the point where it isn't worth it? At what point does the money, the effort, and the headache justify not doing it? With everything in business and farming, there is always a trade off, an opportunity cost. If you are doing one, thing, then it's at the expense of something else. Because you can't do it all, and regardless of the return, sometimes it's just not worth it. In this episode we spend a lot of time looking at how to decide if customers and crops are worth the effort. Learn more at permaculturevoices.com/tuf38.

If you are going to succeed in any business then you need to be able to tell a good story. Your skill, services, and product are only going to get you so far. You need to be able to tell the stories that get people to get behind you and pay for your products and services. If you can't do that, then you won't succeed. This is where marketing comes in. And for right or for wrong, marketing has a sleezy image. Because at the core of everything, marketers are propagandists. They are using information to manipulate you and get you to do something that you may or may not realize that you actually want to do. And as my guest today, Hilary Bromberg, will say, is the propaganda for somethign good or for something less than good. Because even the most noble causes need propadana to get people to pay attention. This episodes is all about marketing and story telling. And it's a beast. There's a ton of great advice in here from Hilary. But the advice and tips are subtle. This isn't go make this type of post on Facebook everyday types of tips. She will be talking about the fundamental principles of what makes people do what they do. Timeless adivce, that doesnt' change, because people don't change. Pay attention, and get ready. Learn more at permaculturevoices.com/hilary

In this episode, I want to talk about this idea of growing wings and flying. Not limiting ourselves from becoming who we are and maximizing our true potential. Because we live in a society where everything is comfortable, too comfortable. Where you more or less just plug into the system and get pulled along with it from grade school to college to job to social security... A society where today, if you have a full time job, and you tell someone that you are leaving your job, their likely first reaction is going to be what are you going to do for money. That’s what my parents feared in 1998 when I wanted to transition from a lucrative career with sure employment to a field that was saturated. And that’s the first question they asked when I told them I was likely leaving my job now. It’s part of our culture. The job. And we are all trained to be employees and we are believed to be dependent on that thing... the job. That’s our future and it’s with the company. And that guy, the the guy in the other room. That's where our retirement is sitting. Where our progress and future is in the hands of someone and something else. Not us. And that's great, because it absolves us of responsibility, and puts one layer of insulation between us and the harsh world of surviving on your own. A layer that makes us comfortable, and therefore vulnerable, more on that later. It’s comfortable because honestly it’s pretty damn hard to get fired once you have a job. With paycheck security, I think most people lapse into minimum viable effort, intended or not. I have worked around enough co-works to see that in reality very few people put in 40 hours of productive work a week despite being at 40 for 40 hours a week. It’s show up, do some work, surf the web, chat with co-workers, drink coffee, repeat, eat lunch, do a little work go, home. That is most of corporate America. It’s easy. It’s comfortable. And life is good when you just show up and collect a salary. But there is a cost to living in that bubble. Your price of admission is trading your time and freedom for perceived and temporary stability. Think about that one for a second. What makes that stable hourly or salary based job for the man so nice, meaning show up and get paid, is actually costing you time. Your life’s precious time. And what’s happening in your life during that time that you are missing. What life experiences and memories are you trading those dollars, be it small or large for? Spending 40 plus hours a week at a job week at a job which realistically likely requires less than 40 hours of actual focused and effective work to complete. Read more at permaculturevoices.com/cd8

All in Curtis produced about 17,500lbs of product off of his farm this year. That's a lot of food coming from a small space. Remember Curtis is only farming off of 15,000 sq.ft. which is spread out over 5 plots. And this year he made the most of it producing over 17,000lbs of produce on those 5 plots. And we aren't talking corn and potatoes here. For the most part many of the crops which he produced really aren't that heavy, he simply produced a lot of product. 3000lbs of tomatoes, 2500 lbs of radishes, 2500 lbs of spring mix, 2000lbs of turnips. Big numbers for a small farm. Curtis has grown better throughout the years and grown a lot of crops in the past. At one time he grew over 90 differnet crops. Ultimatley that easn't affective for Curtis and he learned to focus on the crops that paid, dropping the ones that didnt'. Now in 2015 he produced about 23 differnet products off of the farm this year. But even with only 23 different crops, not all crops are created equal. Because his top 5 crops account for over 60% of his total sales. In this eposde we start to dig a bit into those different products and really disect the numbers looking at metrics like which crops made up the top five in terms of sales dollars. And what you will notice when we go through taht exercise is just what we have talked about all season, 20% of the crops produce the majortiy of the farms sales. Given that we'll look at how Curtis is using this data to start to plan for next year. In a nut shell it's grow what works and more of it if there's demand, and drop what isn't working so well. The numbers are telling and the numbers don't lie. Regarding of what you what, some crops just grow well on your farm and sell well in your market, so focus on those crops. You can't grow it all, so grow what counts. Learn more at permaculturevoices.com/tuf37

Dan Brisebois will be one of the speakers at PV3 in March 2016. Learn more about PV3 at permaculturevoices.com/pv3. Today’s episode takes us to Quebec, where farmer Dan Brisebois is doing some amazing things at the Tourne-Sol farm…. Dan Brisebois started out like a lot of other small scale growers, growing market vegetables intensively to sell to CSA customers. But unlike most other growers, Dan also had another plan in mind as he started his farm. A plan that would really distinguish him from many other small scale growers. Because from the beginning Dan’s plan was to integrate seed production into his small farm's operation. Seed which could be used on the farm, and seeds which could be sold. Dan's now about 10 years into the seed growing and selling business, and things are going well and he's producing a lot of seeds. Seeds that he uses in three ways. He's selling seeds which are being sold to through his own seed company and seeds which are being sold to seed retailers, and seed which is being used on his farm. It’s proving to be a lucrative and viable add on business for his small farm. And before starting thinking, I don't have enough room on my farm to grow seeds as well as market veg, thinking again, because Dan is dedicating less than 1/2 an acre to seed production. You don't need a lot of land to produce a lot of seeds. But it isn't just as easy as grow plants and get seeds. There's a lot of strategy, skill and marketing that plays into the small scale seed business. Some of which is intuitive and some of which isn't. Like why Dan grows his market tomatoes on supports in the greenhouse, but grows his tomatoes for seed outside on the ground. Find out exactly why in this episode, as Dan shares 10 years of seed growing experience. If you are looking to cash flow a small piece of land or diversify your farm operations, pay attention in this one... Learn more at permaculturevoices.com/dan

Christian Shearer will be one of the speakers at PV3 in March 2016. Learn more about PV3 at permaculturevoices.com/pv3. Hopefully this episode will help shed some light on the long term design process, so you can approach you own long term project with the right mindset, expectations, and goals. Christian as has a lot of experience working on projects that have taken years to complete and evolve. For the past 10 plus years he has been the managing director of the Panya Project in Thailand, and he has taken on numerous long term projects as one of the founding members of Terra Genesis International. Through his work with Terra Genesis Christian has taken the lead on reforestation projects in the Philippines, regenerative farming practices in northeastern Thailand, and the broad regeneration of a sand quarry in Barbados. He's worked aroudn the world on a varitey of project over the past ten years, and he's gathered a lot of wisdom along the way. Learn more at permaculturevoices.com/christian

In this episode we will be talking about real world issues and troubles with restaurant customers. How Curtis has dealt with customers who haven't paid in the past and how he has changed his procedures to help make sure that it doesn't happen again. Because Curtis has learned the hard way, when you're in the real world and restaurants don't pay, you can lose a lot of money. Learn more at permaculturevoices.com/tuf36

Jean-Martin Fortier will be one of the speakers at PV3 in March 2016. Learn more about PV3 at permaculturevoices.com/pv3. Basing his farm off of the French bio intensive market gardens JM has kept his farm small and intensive relying mostly on hand labor. He has focused on developing and following on farm systems that work and growing crops that pay. And the results have been a farm pays well. Jean-Martin's farm now generates $150,000 on 1.5 acres, with 40% of that being profit. Big numbers for a small farm. It's the $100,000 an acre that JM is associated with today. But he didn't start out making $100,000 an acre. He started out at square one, just like many of you. And as a preview for the episode, it wasn't easy. There was a lot of hard work involved in the beginning. It was that hard work and striving for constant improvement that allowed JM to arrive at the systems which he uses so profitably today. The systems which allow him to generate $100,000 off of 1 acre. But let's go back in time to Day 0 when he was just starting out. He was married, didn't have any money, he lived in a tipi, but he had a vision for the life that he wanted to live. Learn more at permaculturevoices.com/pv3

Where do you draw the line between this isn't working, but I can figure it out, and this will never work? Let's just accept the fact that farm start-up is going to involve it's fair share of struggles. How long should those struggles continue? Because there is no sense wasting your time, your life's energy, sacrificing the relationships in your life, as you pile on monumental amounts of stress if you don't have the skill, the will, or the resources to make it work. At some point should you draw the line and just say, maybe this isn't right for me, it's not working? When you find yourself scraping by ask yourself why, and what you can do about it, annd just maybe you will realize that your model doesn't work, or you're not very good at it. Learn more at permaculturevoices.com/tuf35

Erin Axelrod will be one of the speakers at PV3 in March 2016. Learn more about PV3 at permaculturevoices.com/pv3. A lot of people within the permaculture are visionaries. We imagine a better world. One that's more regenerative, versus depletive and consumption oriented. But sometimes it's hard to align those grand visions with how the world operates today, specifically when it comes to business. So how do you match the vision with what it takes to survive today? We’ll find out, in today's conversation with Erin Axelrod. Erin is a partner at LIFT economy, a business consulting and coaching company that provides support, structure and strategy to the next generation of businesses. A generation of business that share the vision of a world where all human needs are met, where people have more time to play and enjoy each day and where life flourishes in the richness of a stable climate and resilient ecosystems. In this episode Erin will be talking about her work at LIFT and what she has learned through her years of experience working with permaculture visionaries and the businesses that they are trying to build and grow to support their vision. Learn more at permaculturevoices.com/erin

Zach Weiss will be one of the speakers at PV3 in March 2016. Learn more about PV3 at permaculturevoices.com/pv3. Zach's going to give you a realistic view of what starting out as a designer is really like. And he is going to answer the big questions of can you actually make a living as a designer and how much opportunity is out there? If you are looking to go into the permaculutre design field, pay attention in this one, because Zach is someone who is carving out their own niche as a designer, and making a living doing it. Zach's a protégé of legendary Austrian farmer Sepp Holzer. He has worked on properties around the world with Sepp and he has worked on his own jobs in multiple countries that range from big to small. He approaches the field with a high level of professionalism and integrity, something that isn't stressed enough in this field. And something that we will touch on in this episode. Learn more about Zach at permaculturevoices.com/zach

It's currently November 2015 and the main farm season for Curtis is pretty much over. And along with, so is this season of the show. For the remainder of the episodes we'll be wrapping up everything that happened on the farm this year with Curtis and tying up a few loose ends. With things very slow on the land, Curtis is taking a few weeks off from the farm. Given that today's episode is Q and A episode. These questions were actually answered last winter on via Curtis on his YouTube channel. If you want to watch him answer these questions you can do so in the show notes at permaculturevoices.com/tuf34. In this show Curtis will be answering questions on time management, farm startup, finding land and securing land, converting land to urban farm land, approaching restaurants, and record keeping. The nice thing about these questions is that they cover a wide variety of topics which will help to help tie together the season as we look to wrap it up. There's a lot here, enjoy it. Watch the video answers of these questions at permaculturevoices.com/tuf34

Today's episode takes us north of the American border to the city of Vancouver. It's the story of how urban farmer Chris Thoreau started his microgreens farm. Like Darby Simpson's story this is another one that very relatable. Chris started his farm at what on paper looks like an in-opportune time. He started this part time while in school full time and 2.5 months into his first semester his son was born. Despite life presenting challenges that some people would say aren't worth the risk, Chris made a go of it taking on these early challenges he has managed to grow his operation to one that will do $180k in sales in 2015. And all that sales are coming from a farm that's in a shipping container taking up 320 sq. ft. Learn more at permaculturevoices.com/chris

If you think about your life, and you never made a dollar doing what you were doing, would you keep doing it - forever? Regardless of whether you are making money doing what you are doing or not, take a second to think about that. If you never made a dollar doing what you were doing, would you keep doing it - forever? Do you like it enough to keep it up? My goal for this episode is to try to get you to have a realistic view of what it's going to take to get to where you want to go. And it may scare a lot of people away. For today's episode I want to focus on the long road to overnight success. Being resilient enough to keep going when the times get tough, and being personal and emotionally invested enough to keep you going through those tough times. Show notes at permaculturevoices.com/cd7

What's your time worth as a farmer? How much should should you be charging yourself to do tasks on the farm? That's an important metric to think about when you are a small operation. Because for a lot of farmers in this space, the labor force is a force of one, you. And you only have so many hours in a day to get everything done. Your time is very valuable. Knowing that, are you spending your valuable time on tasks that actually return a greater value than the time that you put in? Today we talk about the way that Curtis used to do certain tasks and contrast that with how he does tasks now. And why he changed how he did things. For notes and links related to this episode visit the show notes at permaculturevoices.com/tuf33. This episode was recorded in November 2015.

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 forth. But despite those long hours, he started his farm, on the side. He did it while raising a young family, and keeping his sanity in the process. He did it by working hard and smart. And he did it in a very approachable way. He started his farming operation with only $500. With that $500 he bought 50 broilers and some equipment and he was on his way to farming full time. The first 50 sold and he never looked back. $500 in initial expenses, started farming on the side, while working full time, and with a young family. A very relate-able and applicable situation to many people listening to this show. If you are contemplating that jump into farming and making that dream a reality, but you feel like life is standing in the way, here is someone who's done it with life in the way. Learn more about Darby at permaculturevoices.com/darby

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 four part series - episodes b032, 033, 034, 035. The workshop was open source, so thanks to Darren for allowing me to share this with you all. Show Notes: www.permaculturevoices.com/b35

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 part series - episodes b032, 033, 034, 035. The workshop was open source, so thanks to Darren for allowing me to share this with you all. Show Notes: www.permaculturevoices.com/b34

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 a four part series - episodes b032, 033, 034, 035. The workshop was open source, so thanks to Darren for allowing me to share this with you all. Show Notes: www.permaculturevoices.com/b33

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 farm for a career. Not make a bunch of money this year and then do something else next year. And the only way to do that is day after day for the long run, learning as much as you can in the process. Learn more at permaculturevoices.com/tuf31

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 is the part of a four part series - episodes b032, 033, 034, 035. The workshop was open source, so thanks to Darren for allowing me to share this with you all. Show Notes: www.permaculturevoices.com/b32

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 schools and new developments. It is a success story that is 10 years in the making. And one was almost derailed a few times along the way. But just like with Harland Sanders, it was persistence and a strong belief in what he was doing that allowed my guest today, Erik Ohlsen of Permaculture Artisans, to continue his vision and build it into a $1M design business. If you don't think that permaculture based business can be profitable or be big, here's an example of one to change your mind... Learn more at permaculturevoices.com/cd6

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 don't do it. Learn more at permaculturevoices.com/tuf30

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, technology and sales experience to the plant propagation niche. This talk was presented at PV2 in March 2015. To watch this presentation visit permaculturevoices.com/b31.

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 gone unfulfilled. Most people don't honor even a half of their dreams and die knowing that it is due to choices they had made, or not made. How many people listening to this have unfilled dreams? How many people are really living their lives the way they want? How many people are listening to this as they drive drive to or from a job that they really don't like and in a perfect world wouldn't be doing? A type of job that they only go to pay the bills because they have kids, a mortgage, etc, etc.. A lot of people live that life. And that's a life of fear disguised as practicality. It's a sad way to live, because life is too short. Learn more at permaculturevoices.com/cd5.

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 keep you head above water. It's very hard for any one person to do many things well, but each of us can do a few things really well. Crops are no different. And odds are you can grow a few crops a lot better than you can grow a lot of crops. Take a look at your farm and the crops that you grow. Which crops generate 20% of your revenue? And how would your farm and life look if you just focused on those? Get a copy of Curtis's new book via the show notes at permaculturevoices.com/tuf29