Creative Destruction - Honest Conversations About Farming, Business, And Life

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 product that they probably want. If you've never made a fresh sheet before, this episode may prompt you to make one. It's a whole bunch of little tips and tricks to help you design, create, and maintain an effective fresh sheet. Listen to past episodes at: https://www.paperpot.co/podcast Increase farm efficiency with the Paperpot Transplanter and Other Small Farm Equipment at https://www.paperpot.co/ Follow PaperpotCo on Instagram:http://bit.ly/2B45VKQ  

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 at permaculturevoices.com/b025.

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 Equipment at https://www.paperpot.co/ Follow PaperpotCo on Instagram:http://bit.ly/2B45VKQ

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 your efforts, celebrating the small, and the advantages of quick iterative learning. Details, notes, and link mentioned in this episode can be found at permaculturevoices.com/cd2.  

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... Learn more at permaculturevoices.com/tuf22

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 exist yet, and to make that future a reality. This episode is an exploration into Marcin's longer term view, specifically how does he stay focused and work towards something that is a far off view of the future. How does he deal with the hard times, the struggles, and the haters? How does fund the process and how does he measure progress? These are all challenges that come with having lofty goals and a grand vision, and when you starting point is currently only one one-millionth of the total economy. As you listen to this episode think about open source and think about where we could be in the evolution of open sourc

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 about his transition into farming and the plan that he has put into place to make the transition. He'll touch on how he has dealt with not knowing everything. And how he has dealt with the good times and the really bad times that are unavoidable when you start any new business venture. One key to Rob's progress has been to surround himself with successful people to make his go a little easier by leveraging their experience. And it's worked because progress is being made and Rob is slowly making the change that he not too long ago dreamed about. The idea, the dream, has become a reality. It's happening. For all the new

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, and farming as a career. No BS. Know what the answer is and make all, all, of your choices on the farm accordingly. It is week 20 of the urban farm season - July 28, 2015. Learn more about The Urban Farmer at permaculturevoices.com/tuf20 Listen to past episodes at: https://www.paperpot.co/podcast Increase farm efficiency with the Paperpot Transplanter and Other Small Farm Equipment at https://www.paperpot.co/ Follow PaperpotCo on Instagram:http://bit.ly/2B45VKQ

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 product. Many people don't think about how they are actually going to sell these crops that they harvest. Maybe just assuming someone will want to buy them, everyone needs to eat, right? A dangerous assumption. And it is no doubt one of the reasons why you hear about so many small scale farmers struggling. They invest a lot of time in the dream, but not how they can actually make that dream a successful and sustainable reality. Today we will take a look at that idea as we discuss how to sell your farm products, so you can keep working on the farm. This episode is detailed dig into CSA's and farmers markets. What's worked f

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 the laboratory with apparent obliviousness to natural forces has scientists trying to create “organisms” with super powers. The disciples of such approaches to agriculture preach of corn and rice that will withstand brutal temperatures and drought and supposedly bring humanity to food security when the thermometers pop because of climate change. Curiously, these people so intent on creating “super” plants in the laboratory, don’t seem to observe that such plants already exist in nature! E.A.S. is such a simple concept that it is almost elementary school logic, yet for all the brilliant scholars around the world, pract

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 you to troubleshoot problems when they come up. Because if everyone does things the same way, and something goes wrong then you can quickly tell whether it was operator error or system error, and fix the problem. When you have an employee that understands why you do what you do and how you do what you do, then it comes down to when you do it. Time can be tight on a farm and things can get hectic, so it pays to take a little extra time each day to schedule out the upcoming day. This episode is all about setting up and establishing systems to make the work that is done on your farm more effective. It is week 18 of the

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 experience if you take the time to analyze all of your processes and see where you can make them more efficient. Interplanting is a good example of this. Interplanting has allowed Curtis to grow more crops in the same amount of space. This maximizes the use of his land by growing more in the same space. Curtis has also figured out how to optimize tasks on the farm that pay. Think sales related tasks like ways to harvest product quicker and more efficiently, and ways to package product in a way that satisfies customers and saves prep time. But, there are a lot of tasks on the farm that simply don't pay. Things like weed

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 these “forgotten” foods are legitimate heirs to a new food ecosystem. Because one of the objectives is to put practical information in the hands of practitioners, Joe will invite participants to apply to be a part of his native food revival efforts which will access and distribute rare native edible propagation stock. This talk was presented live at PV2 in March 2015. Learn more about Joe Simcox at permaculturevoices.com/b22

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. As a result he saw first hand the differences between farming more land and less land - because there are a lot of differences. In this episode we will dig into those differences and hear what it was like farming two acres and how it was different than farming a third of an acre. We will touch on the various different models for selling products off of a farm - think CSAs versus selling directing to restaurants. We'll talk about the differences between each of the models. As you will find out each market, each farmer, and each farmer will have to experiment to find the best fit for them. What works for one farmer an

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 demonstration sites or track record to refer to, it was only one person saying this is what I am gonna do, are you interested in helping. As you will hear Curtis eventually found his first piece of land to farm. That got the ball rolling and from there he never looked back. It is week 15 of the urban farm season - June 23, 2015. Learn more about The Urban Farmer at permaculturevoices.com/tuf15 Listen to past episodes at: https://www.paperpot.co/podcast Increase farm efficiency with the Paperpot Transplanter and Other Small Farm Equipment at https://www.paperpot.co/ Follow PaperpotCo on Instagram:http://bit.ly/2B45VKQ

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