Farming Against All Odds with Ray Tyler of Rosecreek Farms

From laid off and in debt to grossing $120,000 on one acre.

Today's show goes beyond Curtis and the urban farm, as we take a look at another small scale vegetable producer and their farm.

We all know that running a business is hard.

We all know that running a farm business is hard.

But think everyone knows how hard it actually is.  How much it can push you to the limits and test your to your core?  

It's during those tests, when the world seems darkest, that most entrepreneurs throw in the towel.  The pressure, the stress, the money, it's all too much.

Nonetheless more and more people flock to farming without any experience, not totally knowing what they are getting themselves into..

One of those people was Ray Tyler...

Ray started out like a lot of people who get into farming, he was inspired by to get into farming by Joel Salatin's You Can farm...

He started raising livestock, and then life got real...


Imagine yourself as a new farmer running a full time livestock operation raising 50 pigs and a few thousand chickens a year.  

And then imagine running a two acre market garden on top of that...

And along the way the, your 5 year old daughter gets caner...

It was a moment that put Ray's farm and life on the ropes... it's the story of Ray Tyler or Rosecreek Farms...

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There had always been that group of design-centric permaculturalists focused on the process, not the techniques. The Toby Hemenways and Larry Santoyos of the world, the Darren Dohertys and the Ben Falks, The Richard Perkins, and my guest today, Rob Avis.

They are all just a small sample of a larger subset that's focused on permaculture a design process, and only a design process. To them it's just another tool in the toolbox.

A tool that you have at your disposal that when needed and applied correctly, can make your job easier.

It's through the readings and conversations with these people that I have re-embraced permaculture for what it was a intended to be, and how I initially came about it.

And a big key in that return to permaculture as a tool, were the conversations that I had with Rob Avis of Verge Permaculture.

Like me Rob comes from an engineering background, and he came to permaculture after having been an engineer.

For him, permaculture gave him another tool to use and way to re-purpose his engineering career. Permaculture gave him a way to richen and deepen his design work and engineering versus diluting it.

And it was in one of our conversations where he said something that stopped me in my tracks, and changed my paradigm on the spot.

He said, "Diego, it doesn't matter what anyone is saying or doing with permaculture, no matter how irrelevant it may seem. Permaculture is simply another tool in the toolbox, and if it makes my job easier, then I will use it. Like a hammer, it doesn't matter what people are saying or claiming about a hammer, when you need to drive a nail you use a hammer, and when you, I don't pay attention."

It was that simple idea of permaculture being a tool, regardless of what claims people make, it's still a tool, that really reset my perspective on permaculture.

Suddenly all the bogus claims didn't matter, and I had something in my back pocket that made things easier, it was Permaculture - Another Tool in The Toolbox.

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Valuable and necessary to the success of hte changing landscape of agriculture... or an abused form of cheap labor that helps some farms appear more profitable than they really are...

That's what we are talking about today on The Urban Farmer with Curtis Stone

With the 2017 season underway, we'll be widening the scope.  Not only going beyond Curtis and the urban farmer, but also beyond the urban farm.

This year Curtis and I will take a step back zooming out from the tools and techniques and his one third of an acre farm, to take a look at some of the macro issues surrounding agriculture.

Each of our episodes will look at a difference topic that all are touched by the common thread of how do we scale this movement, and what does that look like in the future.

It's a year of farming small and farming smart, but thinking big.

Today, we are going to start out by taking a look at interns and farms.  What's good, what's bad, and what could be improved upon.

It's an issue that's really relevant and timely, because it's one that Curtis is dealing with right now, doing something that I never, ever, thought he would do, get an intern.

Let's find out why, in this episode of The Urban Farmer...

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Today I will be talking with someone who likely inspired many of you to get into farming, to consider farming, or to farm better, not bigger.

I'll be talking to market gardener, Jean-Martin Fortier.  

We'll start out talking about his days before he farmed and how he figured out exactly who Jean-Martin Fortier was and what he was about.  And we'll end up in the fields talking about something that still gets JM excited today, the soil...

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A compilation of stories from peers, friends, and students paying tribute to Toby Hemenway who passed away on December 20, 2016.

Learn more about Toby at www.permaculturevoices.com/150

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Ben Watson, a senior editor at Chelsea Green, joins me to talk about his work with Toby Hemenway on the first edition of Gaia's Garden back in 2000 and how much of an influence that book had on the permaculture movement and the future of books in this space.

Learn more at www.permaculturevoices.com/149

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Liberation Permaculture by Toby Hemenway.

This episode is the rebroadcast of Toby talk from PV2 in March 2015.

Permaculture offers more than a path to a sustainable and just food system. It can move entire segments of our society off the radar screens of state oppressors and help return equality, abundance, and justice to people while restoring healthy ecosystems. This talk will tell you how.

Here's a hint on how that's possible. If you can't measure it, you can't tax it.

Enjoy it, I hope it gets you thinking.

Learn more at www.permaculturevoices.com/148

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Today, let's take a look at permaculture.  Let's go beyond the land, and beyond food to take a look at a concept that Toby is calling liberation permaculture.

"Permaculture offers more than a path to a sustainable and just food system. It can move entire segments of our society off the radar screens of state oppressors and help return equality, abundance, and justice to people while restoring healthy ecosystems. This talk, being premiered at Permaculture Voices, will tell you how. If you’ve appreciated Toby’s series on permaculture and civilization, you’ll want to see this significant new chapter."

Learn more at www.permaculturevoices.com/147

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Ten thousand years of agriculture has devastated every ecosystem it has come in contact with. Horticultural societies point toward a solution, and permaculture can help us design a way to overcome agriculture's deficiencies, preserve many of the best features of our culture, and create a horticultural society that has a good chance of proving sustainable. This lecture shows how we got into this mess, and offers a route out of it.

Presented live at PV1 in March 2014.

Toby Hemenway joins me to talk permaculture - how permaculture has changed and how we can work more permaculture into our lives.

Key Takeaways:

It really benefits anyone in almost any field to be able to think in whole systems. Someone who embraces permaculture can do a lot more than teach and design property. Apply permaculture techniques and principles to what you do.

Find good mentors. Many people want to help others. You just have to ask.

Some standard economic training is good. You can get a great toolkit and then apply it however you want. Standard training is a tool, a means to an end if you goal is ecological design.

Catch kids while thinking in whole systems. Before they are trained out of it into compartmentalized thinking.

Starting with soil fertility and building organic matter is a good idea. It is almost a universal panacea along with being careful with water.

Move to the highest generalization. For example, do you want to open a store, or do you want to make a living providing good products for your community.

Find the things in life that you are really good at and do those things. It gives you good feedback and then you start building confidence and making forward progress.

Want to transition careers? Find ways to make it less scary - lower expenses.

Show Notes: www.permaculturevoices.com/144

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