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Let's say that you own 1000 acres and you want to farm.

What do you do with that land?

One of the first decisions that many of you would come to is the decision of do I get livestock or go with annual crops.

Both common.  Both viable choices for farming big land.

One system is based in perennials and grazing animal’s and the other is based on annuals and mechanical tillage.  

For many people these two systems would be seen as mutually exclusive.  

Annuals and perennials don't really mix, at least on first thought they don't.  But what if you could do it?

How do you plant annuals into a perennial grass system and how do you graze animals through an annual system?

It all comes down to timing.  

If you seed annuals into dormant perennial grassland you take advantage of a niche in time where both species can co-exist.  Then you later harvest the annual crop and grass the animals through the now non-dormant perennials.

The system provides the benefit of zero tillage, rotational grazing, a constant plant cover on the soil and root mass under the soil, and minimal inputs costs.

The system is called Pasture Cropping and it was developed by Colin Seis.

Today's show is a presentation that Colin gave at PV2 in March 2015.  It was an honor to have him present at the conference, this guy is a true pioneer and innovator, and his work needs to be heard.

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Today is part three in our series focusing on more money, less land, where we are brainstorming ideas to make more money off of your farm without, without adding more land.

Over the last few weeks we have focused on a variety of ways to sell more product and produce more product without adding more land.

Today we will get into the last primary concept...

Raising Prices

Specifically how can you do that?

What are the different ways that you can change what you are selling to justify a higher price?

There's a lot of ideas in here. Some easier to implement than others.

Each with has their own costs and benefits.

As with the previous episodes, there's a lot in this one.

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Michael Pollan joins me to talk about GMOs, organic food, the industrial agriculture, and his new book Cooked.

Points we hit on:

What will it take to ultimately get GMOs labelled in the US? And what affect will that labeling have.

Rewarding farmers for embracing sustainable practices.

Getting changes in agriculture from the grassroots, corporate and government level.

Getting representation for eaters on the government agriculture committees which are currently dominated by lightly populated corn belt states.

The importance of being able to demonstrate scientifically that we can do what we say we can do - relating to permaculture, sustainable agriculture.

The importance of cooking your own food and the trickle down effects. If you are cooking your own food then you have the ability to shop from local farmers, farmers markets, and CSAs. Fast food supports industrial agriculture.

10% of the food dollar goes to the farmer. The longer the food chain the less the farmer gets. Even the packaging manufacturers make more than the farmers.

By diversifying as a farmer and having more than a single crop you are able to being more of a price maker than a price taker in the commodity system.

Paul’s central premise is that habitats have immune systems, just like people, and mushroom forming fungi are the foundation of the foodwebs of land based organisms.

Our close evolutionary relationship to fungi can be the basis for novel pairings that lead to greater sustainability and immune enhancement. As w​ e are now fully engaged in the 6th Major Extinction (“6 X”) on planet Earth, our biospheres are quickly changing, eroding the life support systems that have allowed humans to ascend. Unless we put into action policies and technologies that can cause a course correction in the very near future, species diversity will continue to plummet, with humans not only being the primary cause, but one of the victims.

What can we do?

Fungi, particularly mushrooms, offer some powerful, practical solutions, which can be put into practice now. Paul will discuss his groundbreaking research utilizing their cellular networks to create molecular bridges governing the evolution of sustainable habitats. The implications of his research are far-reaching and could spark a paradigm shift to a better future.

This presentation was recorded live at PV2 in March 2015.

For all of the audio presentations from PV2 visit: permaculturevoices.com/audio/

An archived interview that was conducted at PV1 in March 2014.

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Today is two in our series focusing on more money, less land, where we are brainstorming ideas to make more money off of your farm without, without adding more land.

Last week we focused on two of the primary concepts that had a lot of ideas under them:

If you aren't moving all of your current product, sell it all.
Selling all of your current product, but you know there is more demand...

Today we will focus on a third primary concept:

Change Your Product Profile and Crops

It's all about making more just by changing what you grow and when you grow it.

There's a lot in here, enjoy it...

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Doniga Markegard of Markegard Family Grass-Fed comes on the show to talk about ranching, permaculture, and the regenerative power of rotational livestock grazing.She is a real life rancher, who is out there successfully doing things the right way. On her ranch she is using cattle, sheep, and pigs to build the soil and supply the San Fransisco Bay area with high quality food.Doniga discusses why traditional ranching methods often fail and lead to degenerative cycles with the soil; and how a more holistic, permaculture approach can actually repair landscapes. She talks about how they use permaculture on their ranch to increase species diversity and to increase the water holding capacity of the soil. She touches on how to get into ranching, the advantages of small herd dairy, and the importance of leasing land.

Mycologist and author Peter McCoy of RadicalMycology.com takes on the question - If I add mycorrhizal spores to my soil how do I know that the fungus is actually growing?

To learn more about Peter and see all of the ASK Peter episodes visit permaculturevoices.com/peter.

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The 8 Forms of Capital is a dynamic and living framework to guide holistic and regenerative enterprise development by mapping the complex flows and pools of all eight forms of capital, not merely the financial capital.

At first glance many people assume that the 8 forms of capital is simply a way to account for or measure in a similar way to the triple bottom line.

This is a common way to think about business design.

However, the most powerful use of the 8 capital model is to help uncover the essence and potential of each form of capital beyond the current reductionist perspective.

For instance, instead of thinking about “valuation of ecosystem services” when we ask about Living Capital, we might instead start an active enquiry into the story of a bioregion, plant, or watershed that leads us to uncover the mythological unlimited yields that Mollison reminds us exist when we use the organ of our imagination to explore the potential of an ecosystem.

The framework was initially developed by Gregory Landaua and Ethan Roland and the information was coalesced in their book Regeneraitve Enterrpse.

Today's show is a presentation that Gregory gave at PV3 on the 8 forms of capital, where he presented it through the lens of regenerative cacao; an industry that he has worked closely with over this years.  The presentation blends the theory with the real world application.

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Homesteader Justin Rhodes of AbundantPermaculture.com takes on the question - What advice would you have for someone who wanted to start vlogging?

To learn more about Justin and see all of the ASK Justin episodes visit permaculturevoices.com/justin.

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Say you're a vegetable farmer and you want to make more money.

How do you do that?

How would you do that?

If this was an episode of Family Feud one of the top answers on the board would likely be ‘grow more products’.

And if we took this line of question on iteration further the asking how do you grow more crops? One of the top answers would be ‘get more land’.

More land means more vegetables can fit in that space. A more vegetables means more to sell. Simple enough right.

What if you couldn't get more land?

Because it wasn't available or it was too expensive or it would change the dynamic of your farm... what would you do then?

You want to make more money... but you can't add land. What are your options... you could raise prices or lower input costs, those would work, but there are a lot of other options available.

That’s the topic that we are taking on in this multipart series – more money with less land.

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In this episode of the Permaculture Voices Podcast I have my friend Ben Kotnik of Suburban Food Farm on the show to talk about the recent presentation that he gave to a local permaculture group, 12 Months of Fresh Fruit. The first part of the presentation highlights some of the varieties that can be grown in Southern California to achieve the goal of a year round fruit harvest. While the varieties that we talk about are specific to SoCal, the theory behind how why the varieties were selected can be applied to any location. The second half of the presentation focuses on different techniques that can be used to grow more varieties of fruit in a given space. And these techniques can be applied anywhere in the world.

In this episode you will learn about:

• A variety of 13 fruits that could be grown in Southern California giving you 12 months of free fruit. The trees are specific to SoCal, but the theory is applicable anywhere.
• Ben’s favorite sweet citrus varieties.
• The beauty of the forgotten fruit, the white sapote. And why everyone should be growing it in SoCal.
• Why you should remove some of the fruit from a tree in the early years.
• Techniques for growing more fruit in a space.
• How to use dwarfing rootstocks to your advantage. -Why to prune and train your trees.
• Grafting several varieties onto one tree, multi-graft trees.
• Working with neighbors to grow more trees.

"You're the average of the five people that you spend the most time with."  Jim Rohn

Hang around with people who support you and push you and you will end up farther ahead than by hanging around with people who hold you back and tear you down.  It sounds obvious.  And I think that most people listening to this would agree.

But it's not always easy to do.   

Either by choice or by life.

Sometimes we just don't put in the effort or want to deal with the pain of getting rid of the negative influences in our lives.  And sometimes we can't easily get rid of the negative influences in our lives.  Sometimes people in our family struggle or run into problems.  Problems which require our support.  So we can't abandon those people.  

Regardless those people will have an effect on our lives.  

And this idea is one of the many that I will be talking about today with Javan Bernakevitch as part of our continued look into the common, but hidden reality of us all.

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It's currently September 15, 2016 and the end of the regular farming season is near. Along with it is Curtis's tenure at the Kelowna Farmers Market.

After 7 seasons at the farmers market, Curtis is moving on. It's part of a larger effort to simplify the farm and match the farm to his lifestyle.

At this point in his career Curtis is trying to simplify his farm. Not grow bigger just to be bigger. Instead choosing to grow better becoming more efficient and effective. That means focusing on the market streams that work, the products that sell, and moving to plots located even closer to his homebase.

Part of those changes involve dropping things like the farmers market which has done since the beginning of his career. But it's a market stream that requires getting up on Saturday for 8 months of the year and it's a market stream that isn't growing anymore.

And It's one of the many changes taking place at Green City Acres, resulting in a farm that will look very different come April 2017.

Today we will take a look at the many changes coming to Green City Acres, along with they why behind those changes.

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Shannon Jones, a young farmer from River Hebert, Nova Scotia joins me to talk about what it is like to be a young farmer on her farm, Broadfork Farm. She started the farm with her partner Bryan Dyck in 2011.

Both Shannon and Bryan farmed on other farms for many years before they started their own farm. The lived simply and knew what they could get by without. That made the transition to farming a lot easier. Their path of frugality is one path into farming. But like Shannon said, find what works for you and don't just copy what someone else did.

At the end of the day it is very clear that Shannon loves what she does. Living her dream, working her dream job, as part of the next generation of farmers.

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"Every man has his secret sorrows which the world knows not; and often times we call a man cold when he is only sad." Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.
 
This episode is about those secret sorrows, it's an inside look at the world of depression and suicide.  Depression that affect 20 million Americans a year.  And depression is like a war, you either win or die trying.

Today's episode features some stories of people fighting that war.

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Homesteader Justin Rhodes of AbundantPermaculture.com takes on the question - You have kids, how do you work from home and get anything done?

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Stefan Sebkowiak of Miracle Farms joins me to talk about the what's lacking in organic systems - biodiversity. And why organic is good, but creating a polyculture is a lot better.

Stefan started out his journey purchasing a conventional non-organic orchard. He worked on converting it over to organic and realized that something wasn't right, something was missing. The system was lacking the biodiversity that you see in nature.

So Stefan converted over his organic orchard into a permaculture, polyculture based system. He removed a lot of apple trees and replaced them with other fruit trees and support species. He added more diversity to the system giving him more products to sell, more wildlife, and ultimate a healthier, more resilient system.

A lot of commercial orchardists say that polyculture won't work. Stefan has show that on a tree by tree basis he is getting as much yield as a conventional orchard.

He is out there trying to prove that you gross $1.00 per square foot in a polyculture system that value adds from multiple yields - poultry, fruit, vegetables, herbs, etc.

"You can read a lot, but you need to go out and test things."

Mycologist and author Peter McCoy of RadicalMycology.com takes on the question - In a perfect world, what would be your ideal recipe for a substrate mixture that is fairly universal in terms of species of mushrooms that would grow on it?

To learn more about Peter and see all of the ASK Peter episodes visit permaculturevoices.com/peter.

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Busy versus effective.

Two different ways of getting stuff done.

Think of busy as the pinball in a pinball machine, a lot of bouncing around randomly, getting some stuff done, but not in the most linear way. Where effective is like the bowling ball headed down the lane, a straight shot targeting a specific pin. Both lead to results, the busy route does a lot more moving per unit of work done.

Usually these two routes are mutually exclusive. Busy people aren't effective, and effective people aren't busy.

The danger in being a busy body, is just that, you are just busy; you are doing a lot of work, maybe the right work, maybe not, maybe in the right order, maybe not, and the cost of being busy is a loss of time.

Whereas the effective person does what they need to do when they need to do it based on the time that they have available and the priority of the task at hand. This saves the effective person time, allowing them to get more done, or just have more free time.

Time can be a major constraint for entrepreneurs. You can’t get more of it, and we all only have 24 hours in a day, so using that time effectively is going to determine what your lifestyle looks like.

Today I am talking to an entrepreneur who has made shifts in their life to make their time less busy, and more effective.

It's Erik Ohslen of Permaculture Artisans.  Erik's been on the show a few times in the past, and if you have heard those shows that you will know that he founded the successful landscape design and build company Permaculture Artisans.

In addition to running that company, Erik also is a part of several other businesses, and he's married, and he has kids.

How does he make it all work?

That's the focus on today's episode.

I am going to dig into Erik's new business venture, ForeSite mapping, and the strategy behind that.

The second half of the episode will get into how to balance family and business?

The key in all of this, is to make effective decisions, so you are less busy with your time.

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Part three of our series on Small Scale Farming on the Cheap - What's the least you could spend to start a farm?

Last week in Episode 23 we started going through the equipment needed, or perceived to be needed, when you start a farm along with the costs and advantages associated with that equipment.

Given that this is Part 3 it probably makes more sense to listen to Part 1 and Part 2 first.

Last week we left of the talk on equipment wrapping up with the tiller.

We'll start today with a little bit of warmup on macro business talking before jumping back into the list discussing hand tools.

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I welcome Frank Golbeck of Golden Coast Mead on the show today.

Frank story is a great example of someone who went after their dreams in a smart and systematic way. He isn’t any different than any of us. He didn’t start with a huge some of money or some other advantage. But the difference between Frank and a lot of people is that took on the scary unknown, the hard part starting.

Fast forward ahead a few years and the dream has become a reality. Things still aren’t easy, but they are very real and Frank is enjoying every moment of it.

No matter where you are at in your life, I think Frank’s story is inspirational and highly copyable. Hopefully something in here will resonate with you and will inspire you to start that thing that you always wanted to do.

Mycologist and author Peter McCoy of RadicalMycology.com takes on the question - If I grow mushrooms on soil contaminated with oil or heavy metals, will the mushroom be safe to eat?  

To learn more about Peter and see all of the ASK Peter episodes visit permaculturevoices.com/peter

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Imagine it's your first year in college and you get an offer to go be an apprentice on farm.

You've never farmed before. And you've never really thought about farming before.

Taking the offer means that you would need to drop out of college to commit to the apprenticeship.

And so would you future wife, because you're also engaged.

She isn't from a farming family or background either.

So it's you two, in college for something that isn't ag related, dropping out out college to take an apprentice ship on a farm.

What would you do?

Most people would say tell me more.

Well, this is a farm raising chickens on grass. And this farm is located in Swoope, VA and it's run by a farmer named Joel Salatin.

What would you do? Would you and your wife drop out of college to accept the invitation to be apprentices or not?

A lot of people would say yes.

But it's 2016.

What if you got this same offer in 1996 when very few people outside of the area knew who Joel Salatin was, it's 1996 when pastured poultry wasn't a thing, and it's 1996 and you are going to be the second ever apprentice on Joel's farm.

It's not the same slam dunk answer that it might be for many of you as it is today.

That's the exact question that my guest, John McAuley was faced with back in 1996.

To quit school and farm, or not.

Let's find out how that played out.

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Homesteader Justin Rhodes of AbundantPermaculture.com talks about creating Permaculture Chickens live on stage at PV3.

To learn more about Justin and see all of the ASK Justin episodes visit permaculturevoices.com/justin.

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Part two of our series on Small Scale Farming on the Cheap - What's the least you could spend to start a farm?.

Last week in episode 22 we covered the base principles costs and equipment associated with farm startup.

We established the point that tools are simply one leg on the stool of success.

The tools should never hold you back. It's never going to be just the tools that make you successful. Yet, good tools can make job easier.

That show focused on the concepts and the ideas behind the why.

Today's show focuses on the what. What do you actually need and how much does it costs.

This episode is the first of a few digging into that question.

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“These side issues, the longer they go on and we don’t face reality, the more people that are going to die, and the more trillions of dollars it is going to cost, so time is not on our side.  We need to act.  Most people want to act.  Institutions are holding us up.  Only ordinary people can lead and act.  And it is time to move.” Allan Savory

This interview was conducted with Allan Savory several years ago at PV1.

For more from Allan listen to Rhodesia to Long Beach. 50 Years of Struggle, Persistence and Success with Allan Savory (PVP055)

Joel Salatin's talk on Stacking Fiefdoms from PV1.

"The whole idea is to create customized fiefdoms so that people are autonomous and have the authority to run their own fiefdom within your own umbrella, and you can't believe how many things you can get done that way."

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Today we will try to break down the holistic context into bites that are more digestible and present it in a way that might be easier for some people to understand.  

This is a tough subject to take on, and I think even Allan Savory would admit that, even stating in his book “the concept of holistic goal develop slowing winding its way through many wrong turns and dark passages.  It would prove to be more difficult to articulate than any other aspect of Holistic Management and it continues to evolve to this day."

Kudos to Allan Savory for coming up with this framework, it’s his shoulders that we are standing on during this episode.

Let’s get into it and try to deconstruct the holistic context, with my co-host Javan Bernakevitch.

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Homesteader Justin Rhodes of AbundantPermaculture.com takes on the question - If you are processing broilers on a homestead level, what type of equipment do you think you need?

To learn more about Justin and see all of the ASK Justin episodes visit permaculturevoices.com/justin.

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Farming... is it expensive to start, or not?

A lot of people want to get into farming, but they stall out when it comes to the money side of things.

The common cause of that stall out is land. Land is expensive to purchase. So most people immediately dismiss the idea of farming because they can't afford land.

But people like Greg Judy, Joel Salatin, and us on this show, have shown that you don't need to own land to farm.

There's a lot of land available to farm. Land you don't need to own, and land that you can gain access to through options like leasing..

If you can lease land either for free or inexpensively and if you are in a market where you can move product, then the potential upside to small scale farming is pretty attractive given the low start up costs and low infrastructure requirements?

How low?

Very low compared to other businesses.

In his book Curtis gives an initial start-up estimate for a 1/4 acre farm at $7k to $17k.

Curtis started his farm with just $7k.

That's $7k that buys equipment and infrastructure which is portable and resellable.

In good markets, the risk reward of small scale farming is usually favorable because small scale market farming startup costs are very low compared to many business out there.

Yet, despite the minimal start up costs, the costs are still prohibitive, or at least perceived to be prohibitive by some people.

Given that we'll dig into the farm start up numbers and see where costs can be cut and what costs are just unavoidable.

And we'll also bring in some rationale to these numbers discussing why certain items are worth the cost, and why others aren't.

Today we'll begin a multi-part series discussing the minimum that you could spend to start a farm, and we will begin with the base principles, what are the things that you need to think about before you spend any money, that's coming up on Season Two Episode 22 of The Urban Farmer.

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There are some wonderful examples of communities of practice growing around farmer-to-farmer extension of permaculture design principles in poorly served regions. How can the global permaculture community organize around the idea of putting permaculture at the heart of rural development, displacing the business-as-usual development programs that promote unsustainable farming systems, by making better use of resources that already exist – resources like the world-wide network of permaculture training centers, and the ubiquitous cell phone?

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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.

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Mycologist and author Peter McCoy of RadicalMycology.com takes on the question - I'm new to mushroom foraging, what are some of the unwritten rules of the game?

To learn more about Peter and see all of the ASK Peter episodes visit permaculturevoices.com/peter.

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If your listening to this show then you probably have a garden or have had one at one point and time. And for most of you gardeners summer is your primary gardening time. And for most of North America that's a good time to garden because it's relatively easy. Plants like to grow because day lengths are long and temperatures are warm.. at least for most of North America.

But what if you live in a part of North America, that doesn't fall under under the previously mentioned "most" category...

That's where my guest today, Market Gardener Brian Kowalski finds himself living in Newfoundland...

Summer as he describes it is something like this...

"May is still cold here, ground is just unfreezing, June is cool, average temp is around 4-5 Celsius (40F), but usually sunny with warm days (10-14C, 57F) but May and June night time temps are generally below 4C. July or August will be normal summer weather, 20-30 C, 85F with nights 12-15, 57F, but one them is usually pretty crappy grey foggy and damp with temperatures cool to warm. ...Septembers have usually been ok but there's a noticeable slow down of growth of course as the nights cool and the days shorten. So to answer your question, July or August. Lots of cold frames and row cover."

Living in Newfound weather is one challenge for Brian. He describes the climate as like farming in the shoulder season all summer, windy generally with occasional hurricane, cloudy.

Despite the challenges Brian has made a go of it and is a profitable market gardener. What he is doing is working.

Given that, the goal for this to take a look at how Brian is dealing with harsh conditions to help those of you who might not have such harsh conditions. Another use of this information is to take some of the techniques that Brian has to apply in the summer and apply them to the colder parts of your season, be in the spring or fall shoulder seasons, or the winters...

Listen to the ideas and techniques that he is using and think about how you can apply them to your situation even if your season and his don't match up.

And when it's cold and rainy in October, just be thankful that it isn't June, and you aren't trying to garden in the summer in Newfoundland.

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"At too many companies, and in too many hapless careers, the number one imperative is to avoid failure and embarrassment associated therewith at all costs. My take, failure, supported by wildly imaginative hypotheses and incredibly hard work, is something that companies and individuals must embrace. Frankly at all costs. Unless you’re stretching... wildly, you're not going to reach that brass ring called hyper success amidst a brawl with no rules." Tom Peters

The market and nature of small scale farming is too dynamic.

To succeed you have to be dynamic as well.

That will mean trying things that don't work, and trying things not knowing if they will work.

You're going to have to make assumptions and best guesses. You're going to have to adapt.

And that's what today's episode is all about... adapting and switching it up on the fly...

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THIS EPISODE IS A REPLAY OF PREVIOUS PUBLISHED EPISODE.

This show is a conversation that I had with Mark Shepard about the process of starting up his farm, New Forest Farm, in Viola, Wisconsin.

How did he start?

What was the process like - both on the land and off?

What were the real life financial struggles and challenges that he went through and faced?

Hint... It wasn't easy.

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THIS EPISODE IS A REPLAY OF PREVIOUS PUBLISHED EPISODE.

Homesteader Justin Rhodes of AbundantPermaculture.com takes on the question - How much room do chickens actually need to roost?

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Farmer John Suscovich of Camps Road Farm and FarmMarketingSolutions.com answers the question - Why aren't you certified organic?

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It is through the Global Village Construction Set that Marcin and OSE have set out to change the way that we build the communities of the future. Marcin has said "I'd like to be able to show that a full modern standard of living can be created from any parcel of land using only the local resources on site in a small fraction of time." A modern standard of living created using tools built locally, within the community. Tools built to last a lifetime, being easily repairable, and ever evolving as open source.

This open source model is a powerful tool to help change the future. I see this as a way where a group of farmers could come together, build a piece of this equipment themselves, be able to repair it themselves, and be able to share it amongst themselves without being dependent upon big companies like John Deere and the debt that goes with them. It is this process that minimizes debts, builds strong communities and builds local resiliency, and that is a political shift. You shift the power from the big corporations to the communities and the individuals by empowering them to take back some control.

Like Marcin said, "I think a lot of people are hungry to be productive and find that productivity within themselves." In a land of retail sales, why not empower people to innovate and produce, not consume, the future that they want in the factories of new, not of old? Why not make that dream of permaculture and polyculture based landscapes and farms more possible by providing blueprints for the equipment that you can build to do the work? Literally. If you want to build it, you can, because we are talking about a future where you hold the blueprints yourself. That is the future that OSE is creating and that is what we are talking about today with Marcin Jakubowski of Open Source Ecology…

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THIS EPISODE IS A REPLAY OF PREVIOUS PUBLISHED EPISODE.

It is through the Global Village Construction Set that Marcin and OSE have set out to change the way that we build the communities of the future. Marcin has said "I'd like to be able to show that a full modern standard of living can be created from any parcel of land using only the local resources on site in a small fraction of time." A modern standard of living created using tools built locally, within the community. Tools built to last a lifetime, being easily repairable, and ever evolving as open source.

This open source model is a powerful tool to help change the future. I see this as a way where a group of farmers could come together, build a piece of this equipment themselves, be able to repair it themselves, and be able to share it amongst themselves without being dependent upon big companies like John Deere and the debt that goes with them. It is this process that minimizes debts, builds strong communities and builds local resiliency, and that is a political shift. You shift the power from the big corporations to the communities and the individuals by empowering them to take back some control.

Like Marcin said, "I think a lot of people are hungry to be productive and find that productivity within themselves." In a land of retail sales, why not empower people to innovate and produce, not consume, the future that they want in the factories of new, not of old? Why not make that dream of permaculture and polyculture based landscapes and farms more possible by providing blueprints for the equipment that you can build to do the work? Literally. If you want to build it, you can, because we are talking about a future where you hold the blueprints yourself. That is the future that OSE is creating and that is what we are talking about today with Marcin Jakubowski of Open Source Ecology…

Show Notes: www.permaculturevoices.com/61

Mycologist and author Peter McCoy of RadicalMycology.com takes on the question - "I'm attempting your technique of decomposing cigarette butts with oysters. I have them growing on coffee grounds and I'm curious about using coffee as the substrate. I know it's probably not the best, but can I move to feeding it cigarette butts or would it be too much? And I'm also curious as to  whether or not there's more research done that suggests that the mycelium can broke down all or some of the toxins from used cigarettes butts."

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Today's episode is a replay of the presentation that Peter Allen gave at PV2 in March 2015..

The presentation is titled Grazing the Savanna: Lessons from New Forest and Mastodon Valley Farms.

In this talk Peter will share the lessons he learned establishing and managing multi-species rotational grazing operations in a well-established permaculture setting at Mark Shepard’s New Forest Farm, and now in a newly emerging setting, at Mastodon Valley, where he is planting tree crops, grazing a suite of animals, thinning forest, constructing an off-grid homestead, and building a broad-acre permaculture farm.

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Homesteader Justin Rhodes of AbundantPermaculture.com takes on the question - I notice you give your chickens fermented or soaked grains each morning.  Can you give us the recipe on what grains you use?  And the process?

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Grant Schultz joins me to talk about developing a perennial polyculture in the middle of row-crop corn and soy country Iowa.

He discusses a lot of the innovation and developments taking place on his farm, including some really innovative ways of doing GPS keyline design.

We spend a lot of time talking about the business of farming. The importance of monitoring cash flows and being cash flow positive. And how Grant is using USDA funds to help pay for pieces of his system and getting moving in the right direction.

Key Takeaways:

Importance of making your operation cashflow the whole time. Expenses will pile up so start getting cashflow and a customer base early.

Consider buying rootstock and graft it over later. It is much cheaper to go that route and grafting isn't that hard.

Get plant systems going early on. It is fairly inexpensive and gets the system starting to advance.

Have a plan but evolve as you go. Having an end in mind gives you a goal and a direction to head in, but things will change along the way as you learn the intricacies of the system.

Plant the earliest maturing fruit trees downslope. That way when you are browsing them the manure runs downhill.

How do you want your system to look at maturity and what are the action items to get you there? Then the thing to do is the one with the most impact. What has the earliest yield to get you to the move to the next impact item.

Do not underestimate the importance of monitoring and planing out cashflows.

When you are farming on broad acres you have the same advantages that conventional farmers have. Crop insurance.

Consider using a nurse crop that also cash flows. Grant's example of raising oats for cover crop seed.

Consider the balance of high value versus high labor. Is the value worth the labor?

There is a huge need for more local genetic permaculture plant material.

Recognize the importance of planting dense. Buy trees in mass. It gets cheap and doesn't cost you more to plant at high density. You take advantage of genetic selection and protect yourself against losses.

Irrigate your trees if possible - think keyline, swales. Growth rates of trees that are irrigated versus those that aren't is huge when the trees have consistent water availability. Consider the economic impact of the yield with water versus no water. The work now can make you a lot more money down the line.

Take advantage of all available resources: USDA, NRCS, EQIP. When starting out pre-sell as much as you can. Build a local customer base from Day 1.

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This is Part 2 of that series and today we specifically focus on the pro’s and cons of selling to restaurants taking into account high maintenance versus low maintenance.

Given that this is Part 2 it probably makes more sense to listen to Part 1 first, Episode 17 - All Customers ARE NOT worth Selling To, An In-Depth Look at High Maintenance versus Low Maintenance Customers.

But you won’t be totally lost in this one if you haven’t heard that episode.

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As my guest today David Pagan Butler of OrganicPools.co.uk says, "If you want really healthy water, you want it full of life; not devoid of life."

That is what today's show is about. Creating the conditions for life to happen within the water in natural swimming pools. Natural swimming pools unlike their chemical counterparts use no chemicals. The pool water is cleaned biologically by plants and organisms within the water. No smells, no chemicals, no pathogens, biology creating water so clean you can drink it.

David has developed a system of building natural pools that is both cost effective and ecologically enhancing. Natural pools that utilize natural biological processes to keep the water clean. The classic case of nature doing something equal to or better than some chemical made in a factory - clean, pathogen free drinking water, in swimmable form.

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As Joseph Campbell, the originator of the follow your bliss concept stated...

"if you do follow your bliss you put yourself on a kind of track that has been there all the while, waiting for you, and the life that you ought to be living is the one you are living. When you can see that, you begin to meet people who are in your field of bliss, and they open doors to you. I say, follow your bliss and don't be afraid, and doors will open where you didn't know they were going to be.'  When you do learn to recognize it and when you do find it, Campbell contents that it put’s your life on a different track…"  The Power of Myth

Should you walk into the unknown following your bliss with the hope that it will lead to open doors?

In many ways yes and in many ways, no...

Because your bliss gets you started on the journey, but that journey may or may not lead to livelihood and opportunity...

Bliss is just one part of the journey, one tool to use along the way...

Given that, should you simply follow your bliss, and is that the best advice in the world or is it the worst advice in the world?

One of the many ideas that I’ll explore in today’s show with Javan Bernakevitch.

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Homesteader Justin Rhodes of AbundantPermaculture.com takes on the question - I am thinking want to leave my job and start a homestead, what are my options for cash flowing it?

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“Put another way, you are more upset about losing $50 than you are happy about gaining $50,” the paper states.  In addition, bad events wear off more slowly than good ones."

Hopefully know this can help you do a few things. Try to force yourself to really think about the positive things more and have more gratitude for them, bounce off of the negative situations quicker, and rid yourself of the negative relationships that produce negative emotions.

That’s the focus of today’s episode as we explore the differences between high maintenance customers and low maintenance customers.

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When the world is changing around you, the only world that you have ever known, what would you do?

And what would you do if you didn't think that those changes were right?

Let's find out from someone who lived through that exact situation.

An 83 year old farmer in Ohio, a fourth generation farmer, who began his farming career in 1950 when the world was changing around him.

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Homesteader Justin Rhodes of AbundantPermaculture.com takes on the question - I am a homesteader, but I don’t have a blog or VLOG.  Should I, and why?

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Farmer John Suscovich of Camps Road Farm and FarmMarketingSolutions.com answers the question - Have you ever supplemented your chickens diet with black solider fly larvae?  Why or why not?

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"Instead of trying to support 1000's of people, let's get really good at supporting 150 people and we'll duplicate it."

Once we do that we will have models that we can refer back to. Models that can be used to train people to go start other small impact zones. Then we start getting more and more impact zones, and suddenly the picture looks a lot brighter. But that will take time, and it's early in the journey, but the conditions are ripe for change. We just need to kick start it, by incubating innovation.Creating the conditions for success and sustainability to happen, something that I learned from Larry.

In fact it's one of the many things that I have learned from Larry. Larry has a wealth of knowledge and the experience to back it up. He's a permaculture pioneer having involved with permaculture since the 80s. He has traveled with Bill Mollison. He's worked on countless projects in the country, the city, and other countries. He gets it. And in Southern California when you mention permaculture, there is one name that comes to mind.

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Farmer John Suscovich of Camps Road Farm and FarmMarketingSolutions.com answers the question - What kind of feeder do you use for your the chickens that you are free ranging?

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Today's story is one about a unique focus. Someone who has dedicated a whole lot of time on mastering one subject. One subject that is dually quite simple yet extremely complex: water.

Today I am talking to watershed restoration expert Craig Sponholtz. Craig has made a career of consulting on water related issues - everything from water harvesting to stream restoration to watershed management. He has worked in drylands and temperate regions and everything in between. Studying techniques from native peoples to the latest in fluid dynamics; simple, yet complex.

Water has the ability to transfform landscapes, both for the better and the worse.These changes can take place rapidly when a lot of water shows up in one place. Maybe the landscape is ready for it, maybe it isn't. Regardless that water will leave its mark on the landscape. Craig said it best, 'flowing water has energy to spend and it's going to spend it on something.'

"If you take the time to learn what is going on and if you understand the problems and opportunities of a given site you can come up with some really elegant solutions that blend seamlessly into the landscape and they turn out naturally beautiful. And one of the outcomes of that beauty and that process of getting there is that they work really well."

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Starting a new business can be daunting, especially when considering potential overhead and risk required. In this talk, Mark Oberle will discuss how he was able to utilize a contact from PV2 with Frank Golbeck of Golden Coast Mead to create a mutually beneficial arrangement and launch his own mead label while reducing startup cost and risk.

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Homesteader Justin Rhodes of AbundantPermaculture.com talks about his journey creating Permaculture Chickens.

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We all have this great chance to go great places.  Yet we all don't take it.  Today's episode is a look at the opportunity and why some people squander it, and why some people don't.

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An interview with Peter McCoy of Radical Mycology.

Radical Mycology is a movement and social philosophy based on accessibly teaching the importance of mushrooms and other fungi for personal, societal, and ecological health. Radical Mycology differs from classical mycology in that classical mycology generally focuses on taxonomy, identification, mycophagy (eating mushrooms), and the more personal benefits of working with fungi while Radical Mycology is about using fungi for the benefit of larger communities and the world.

As a concept, Radical Mycology is based on the belief that the lifecycles of fungi and their interactions in nature serve as powerful learning tools for how humans can best relate to each other and steward the world they live in.

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Today's episode is a replay of Jack's presentation from PV3 in March 2016.

In that presentation he asked and explored the question, how do you take regenerative agriculture to the forward into the future, to the mainstream.

He presents an argument that's based on the idea that you can't drag anyone where you want them to go. You need to get them to want to get there.

Everyone might not agree on everything, and that's OK, because as Jack says, "let the politics end, where the soil begins."

Because we literally need both sides to do this. We need all hands on deck with everyone helping in their own way.

Hopefully this episode inspires you to do your part in what Jack explains isn't a revolution, but instead an insurrection.

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Homesteader Justin Rhodes of AbundantPermaculture.com takes on the question: What are some criteria to consider when selecting a homestead site?

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Think about an established farmers market with an established customer base.

Everyone shopping at that market has their preferred vendors.  They buy lettuce from this guy and they buy tomatoes from that girl week after week.  They don’t switch it up.

If you then enter that market as a new vendor, how do you knock someone out of the preferred vendor spot in a customer’s mind? How do you get the customer to switch to buying lettuce or tomatoes from you instead of that guy or that girl?  Because that’s really what you need to do.  Either you need to get existing customers to switch or you need to pick up market share from new customers. The bad news is that once a person commits to a particular product or brand in their mind it’s very hard to get them to switch.  

Look no further than you own habits.  How often do you go to different grocery stores or gas stations by your house or how often do you change brands of laundry detergent or ketchup?  Probably not very often.  You made a decision long ago, and as long as things do change, why switch.

Given that, how do you compete in a crowded farmers market?  Why is a farmer’s market customer going to choose your booth versus the booth that they always shop at?

You have to be unique..

Again, look at the landscape of the market, if there are already 5 vegetable vendors at your market more or less growing what you grow, and they are established, then you either have to be unique enough to go in and compete with them hand try to knock one of them out of the top 5 in terms of market share, which is hard, or you have to be unique enough so you don’t actually have to compete against them.  Instead positioning yourself in the customers mind as the preferred choice.

How do you do that, make yourself unique?

One way is to specialize in something.  

Part of that specialization might mean differentiating your product so you position yourself as the category leader; a category that you own; one that you create.

For example, say a lot of vendors are selling loose leaf lettuce.  There’s already an established hierarchy there in terms of market share for the category of loose leaf lettuce.  How do you compete?  

You don’t, avoid competition, and you create your own category. Maybe that category is head lettuce or romaine.  Or maybe it’s organic lettuce.  Or living lettuce with the roots still attached.  You differentiate your product just enough to move it to its own category.  Then you become first to market in that category and have an competitive advantage.  That’s a far cry from going into a competitive market and competing on price.  And when you think about it it wasn’t really that hard.  You didn’t have to create or invent anything new. You just supplied an in demand product to a market that wanted it, but didn’t have anyone to buy it from.

That’s one of the many benefits of specializing in a product.  And it’s that benefit and the many others that we will be talking about today, on The Urban Farmer.

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Farmer John Suscovich of Camps Road Farm and FarmMarketingSolutions.com answers the question - How do you protect yourself from getting sued?

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What if you could gross $100,000 per acre in a small sustainable agriculture operation? You could make a good living and/or you could afford to pay someone a decent wage. If you can gross roughly $2.50 per square foot, per year, then that translates into a gross revenue of $100,000 per acre, per year. How can permaculture techniques be used to accomplish that goal?

Chris Young of SoCal Shrooms and Closing the Loop joins me to talk about just that. His goal is to show that you can gross that $100k so you can hire one person to work an acre of land and pay them a good wage to work it. He aims to achieve this by reducing input costs and stacking revenue generators, all while improving the quality of the land and producing a high quality product.

Key Takeaways from this Episode:

-Oyster mushrooms have a nice advantage of having a quick turn around. They can start creating cash-flow in 4 to 6 weeks. Similar to selling sprouts and micro-greens which have a 2 to 3 week turnaround.

-If possible tap into an existing distribution network. This gets you contacts right out of the gate.

-Get more out of the same amount of land. Property taxes will go up the future, water costs will go up in the future, and more and more land is being developed away from farmland. So try to be more productive on the same amount of land while improving the quality of that land.

-Consider the cost of your own time in the business. And pay yourself.

-You have to do the real numbers for you business.Don't fudge them. The numbers won't lie. If something isn't working, then look at the numbers and see where you can start making changes to make the numbers work. When you have exhausted all possibilities, then it is time to move on.

-Start broad and control your risk at the beginning. Then look at the numbers and refine down overtime to optimize each system or business.

-Celebrate the small victories. There is a lot of drudgery that goes along with business and farming, so enjoy the good times.

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Farmer John Suscovich of Camps Road Farm and FarmMarketingSolutions.com answers the question - How do you transport your chickens to the processor?

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Today's story is about someone on a journey to become a farmer.

It's a great story, but it's not the typical story that we hear about in today's world. The world today loves the magazine headline of the successful person that seemingly got there overnight.

Today we'll zoom in on that overnight success and take a look at what it takes to be successful – the process of becoming successful.

It's the story of farmer Seth Stallings, from Tecumseh, OK - a town with a population of just $6000 people.

It's a town where Seth is starting up a pastured poultry business. Which by the way is in a state with no USDA approved slaughterhouses and no sources of organic or non-gmo feed.

Not your ideal market to start a farm based business in. But it's one where Seth is making it work.

He's found a niche, and making a go of it.

Like he said, "No one can teach you how you are going to do it when you get to your unique scenario, you just got to do it and figure it out."

In a world that loves to come up with reasons why something won't work, here's the story of someone who's said, I'm going to make it work.

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Homesteader Justin Rhodes of AbundantPermaculture.com shares 7 Challenges and Concerns of Homesteading with Kids.

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