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THIS EPISODE IS A REPLAY OF PREVIOUS PUBLISHED EPISODE.

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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THIS EPISODE IS A REPLAY OF PREVIOUS PUBLISHED EPISODE.

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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THIS EPISODE IS A REPLAY OF PREVIOUS PUBLISHED EPISODE.

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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THIS EPISODE IS A REPLAY OF PREVIOUS PUBLISHED EPISODE.

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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Farmer John Suscovich of Camps Road Farm and FarmMarketingSolutions.com gives his thoughts on growing hops (for beer) commercially.

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What if you are already selling at farmers markets, but you don't have enough of a diversity of products to design a CSA around?

If that's the case one option might be create a collaborative CSA.

The collaborative CSA allows you to expand your crop variety with competing with other farms and without diluting down your efforts on your farm. You grow what you grow best in your context, and source everything else from other farmers who are better setup to grow those specific products. It creates a win/win situation for you and the other farmers. Everyone grows what they grow best, and in theory sales go up. It's also a win for the consumer because they now have concentrated access to more local products, without having to sourcing these producing individually from each farmer.

Aggregators, collaborative CSA's and food broker models, are these models perfect? No. But if they give you options. And if you are having issues moving product, then more options might be better than less options. You just need to look at everything and figure out which combination is the best fit for you and your market.

In today's show we'll look at some alternative market streams for selling your vegetables, so to help you start thinking outside the box, so you can sell more boxes, of vegetables.

It's currently May 2016.

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Farmer John Suscovich of Camps Road Farm and FarmMarketingSolutions.com talks about the Three Books Every Farmer Should Own live on stage at PV3.

The Three Books:
The E-Myth Revisited by Michael Gerber - http://amzn.to/20QPuZk
Holistic Management by Allan Savory - http://amzn.to/1Vrvg8V
The Lean Farm by Ben Hartman - http://amzn.to/20QPd8W

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Today I am talking to Dave Sewak about his new book Mycelial Mayhem.

Dave has spent his whole life around mushrooms. It all started when he was a young boy and tagged along with his grandfather on his mushroom foraging expeditions. Dave then went on to become a mushroom forage himself and has spent nearly 2 decades cultivating mushrooms as a hobby and as a business.

His book helps combine the technical knowledge with the business side of things give you a basic introduction into what the small scale mushroom business is all about.

As you will here, it's not a business for everyone, but it is a business that stacks nicely onto na already existing enterprise.

And like all businesses it's not always as easy or fun as it sounds on the surface.

In today's show we'll will address these points and discuss some of the considerations to take into account if you want to start a mushroom business. We will also talk about integrating mushrooms into a garden setting, or a market garden setting. Could you add integrate mushrooms into that system and actually get productive results?

It's an interesting concept that may prove to be a worthwhile experiment for you.

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Homesteader Justin Rhodes of AbundantPermaculture.com talks what he wish knew before becoming a homesteader.

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Today, nearly two years after our first episode (permaculturevoices.com/63), I am picking up the conversation with Akiva.

We cover a lot of subjects which we didn't cover in the previous episode including:

Selling to wholesalers, selling trees online, shipping trees, and dealing with state regulations.

In addition to the practical tips and techniques, you'll also get an update on how Akiva evolved as an entrepreneur...

Because a lot has changed in the last few years for Akiva.

In 2014 nursery sales were 50% Akiva's income, this year in 2016 Akiva expects all of his income to from his on site nursery.

He no longer works away from home as a landscape.  He's a full time nursery man, and business owner.

It's an awesome story of a small business, that just started on the side...

Business continues to grow for Akiva and it's still a business that's literally rooted in loose, nutrient rich soil.  Akiva's small nursery business grows over 1000 trees on a half an acre.  Thousands of trees plant tightly together in loose, friable soil.  Very tight spacings that force trees to grow tall and straight in competition with their neighbors resulting in a lot of nursery stock that can be sold in the first year.

How many people out there have some extra space where they could grow a few hundred trees?  Trees to use in the development of your own property or to sell.  If you sold each tree for $5 or $10, then we are talking about some significant money given the amount of space it takes.   

It is simple, but it does take time, it is hard work.  We aren’t talking about any sort of gimmicks here.  It is about putting time, work, and care in to nurse these trees along to the point where you can sell them.

One other point to take note of.  When we first talked back in 2014, Akiva was growing around 1000 tree's on half an acre.  Things have changed and he's now scaled up to 10,000 trees on an acre.

That's a lot of trees, on not a lot of land.  But Akiva's making a go of it enjoying every step of the way.

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Most of the tomatoes that Curtis grows fall into the cherry and saladette category - the smaller tomatoes.  These types of tomatoes offer several advantages - they are pretty vigorous, they have a relatively short DTM, and because chef's like them.  And when much of your sales are for restaurants, you grow what they want to buy.

Over the years Curtis has evolved his system for tomato culture.  And he now looks at them as a bit of a bonus crop given the way that he grows them.

Many home gardeners dedicate full rows to tomatoes and give the plants wide spacing’s.  

Curtis does the opposite.  He interplants his tomatoes; dedicating most of his bed space to another crop, while squeezing his tomatoes into the out 2 edges of each bed.  

This strategy works for several reasons.  It takes advantage of more of the soil strata.  The tomatoes are planted deep, so their roots occupy the deeper layers of soil.  While the main greens crops in the beds have shallow root systems.  So while the plants are planted in the same space competition is minimized.  Another reason why the competition is minimized is that the tomatoes occupy more of the vertical space.  If you time the plants strategically during the year plant growth and sun angles allow you to get more plants in the same space with no shading.

Overall, inter-planting has been huge for Curtis's farm.  It's what's allowed him to hundreds of pounds of greens and hundreds of pounds of tomato, in same relative space.  

Not a bad bonus yield in a situation where most farmers would simply leave the tomatoes out.  

Look around your garden at the extra space and think about that next time you plant your tomatoes.

It's currently May 4, 2016.

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In this presentation Taylor Walker covers perennial vegetable gardening in the subtropics and tropics.

Forget growing most of your traditional “grocery store vegetables” many of these will not tolerate the intense rains, humidity, heat, and pest pressure of the tropics and subtropics.   

Given that this presentation focus on more resilient perennial vegetables.  Taylor will talk about growing, propagating, selling, and using highly nutritious and versatile crops selected from subtropical locations around the world including Cassava, Yams, Moringa, Sweet Potato, Jackfruit, Longevity Spinach, Tumeric, and many more.

To see the slides for the presentation and watch this presentation visit, permaculturevoices.com/b36

If you enjoyed this presentation from PV3, and you want more content just like it, you can purchase all of the audio from PV3 for only $99 bucks.

To learn more about the PV3 audio visit: permaculturevoices.com/pv3audio.

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What do you do as a farmer, when you are trapped in an agricultural system that values quantity not quality?  

A system where you literally get paid for now much you produce, irrespective of how nutrient dense it is or how sustainable it is.  

And how do you as a farmer work within that system if you don't agree with it.  

It's not easy, and there's going to be a lot of give and take.  At the end of the day as a farmer you need to make money, and that may mean putting some of your ideology behind you to make that money.  As we have heard on this show many times before chasing perfection may chase you right out of the farming business.  There needs to be a balance there between your vision of the agricultural future, and what the market will bear.  But balancing those out isn't always easy and it can be challenge.  

In today’s episode we’ll find out how Chris Kerston balanced those sides out.

Chris is now and employee of the Savory Institute, but before that he was a full time farmer.  For 6 years Chris co-managed a 2,000 acre diversified farm based on holistic grazing and permaculture in the Sacramento Valley. The farm is comprised of old growth olive orchards, heirloom stonefruits and citrus groves, and also raises grassfed cattle, sheep, goats, and pasture-raised chickens for both meat and eggs.

Chris knows his stuff on the land and he knows what goes into being a farmer and producing food.  But he also knows a lot about the current state of the agriculture movement.  Through his role as the Savory Institutes Marketing and Communication Director he travels the world with Allan Savory in addition to visiting tons of farms.  This has given him a wide ranging perspective on the agriculture space; something that we'll play off in today's episode.  

We'll talk about the differences between farming and ranching and why if you are worried about the big oil, you should really be worried about big grain.  We'll discuss the validity of organics, and is it economic.

And since Chris was a farmer we'll talk some farming..

This isn't just all macro ideas about the food space and the agriculture space.

Chris talks a lot farming nuts and bolts - pastured poultry in orchards, selling meat, advantages for selling wholes and halves versus cuts, and a whole lot more.  There is a lot in this one, enjoy it.

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Homesteader Justin Rhodes of AbundantPermaculture.com talks about what you should feed your new baby chicks.

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Greens are big business for Curtis' farm.  Both in terms of volume of product, and dollars generated for that product.

His customer base, which is mainly made of restaurants, buys a lot of greens.  And they pay good money for them.  But like many things on the farm there is a seasonality that goes along with restaurants and the products that Curtis sells to restaurants.

Typically spring is a slower time of year for restaurant sales, and thereby farm sales.  Things just aren't as busy.  

But this year is a bit of an anomaly, because Curtis's revenue is way up for the season.   

That increase in revenue can be attributed to a couple things.  First, he has picked up a few new wholesale customers outside of restaurants, and second, he is selling all of his customers more high value product, specifically greens.

More demand, means more production, so Curtis' production of greens on the farm is way up this year.  

But it's not just as simple as planting more beds of greens.  There's a lot of nuance involved...

When the beds were planted, how far apart the successions are, when do you harvest whole beds versus halves.

Logical considerations, but not always the simplest to wrap your head around.

That’s what we will be focusing on in today's episode.

It's currently April 26, 2016.

Learn more at permaculturevoices.com/theurbanfarmer

Support the show at permaculturevoices.com/support

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 permaculturevoices.com/125

Support the show at permaculturevoices.com/support

What would the 2000 sq.ft. farm, let's call it a micro-farm, look like?

How could you best utilize that space and take many of the techniques that Curtis uses on his current 1/2 acre urban farm, to make the micro-farm generate some decent cash flow.

How much could you make on a micro-farm of just 2000 square feet?

Really it depends on what you are growing and who you are selling it to. But grossing 20,000 on that 2000 square feet isn't crazy talk. And even half that, $10,000, is a realistic target to shoot for.

When you think about that, that's a pretty lucrative given the space involved. I think most people can get access to 2000 sq.ft.  That's essentially fits well within your average American lawn.

The 2000 square foot micro-farm has a lot of things going for it.  It's manageable, yet scaleable. It's big enough to matter to start you thinking and implementing a lot of these systems, yet it's not over whelming. It makes a great transition plot for someone looking to transition into farming or just get their feed wet.

Given that today will be a case study looking at the 2000 sw ft micro farm.

We'll break down what this farm might look like. How you would want to manage it. What types of crops you would want to focus on, and put some a basic framework in place that you can build off of.

As, you see, you can do a lot with 2000 square feet, and it might not be that small after all.

It's currently April 19, 2016.

Learn more at permaculturevoices.com/theurbanfarmer

Support the show at permaculturevoices.com/support

Farmer John Suscovich of Camps Road Farm andFarmMarketingSolutions.com answers the question, "How quicklyshould you scale up a pastured poultry operation?"

To learn more about John and see all of the ASK John episodes visitpermaculturevoices.com/john.

As you will hear from my guest today Paul Greive of Primal Pastures "One of the most important things about marketing is not convincing people your product is X, it's about finding people who actually want X."
 
That’s the route that Primal Pastures has gone.  They don’t sell a cheap product.  They have positioned themselves as the premium product.   And that means they don’t try to compete in on price.  And they don’t worry about the non-believers or the price discriminant buyers. Because no amount of convincing is going to make that buyer pay up.  They already have a price point set in their mind, and the mind is a very hard thing to change as a marketing.
 
Therefore Primal Pasture’s sole job as marketers is to try to find and sell to the believers.  The customers who value their product for what it is and are willing to pay for it.  
 
Over time they have learned that "It's a really sustainable model when you can start focusing on the customer and then you can figure out what products meet their needs and what your skills are to make those products.”  It’s a key distinction that they have made for their brand, Primal Pastures and one that they have stuck too.
 
Branding and marketing are just one of the topics that Paul Greive of Primal Pastures and I talk about today.
 
In addition to that you will also learn about how to prepare for a transition from full time job to full time farmer, how to overcome early obstacles in farm startup and Paul tackles the question - is pastured poultry a good business?

View the show notes at permaculturevoices.com/124.

Support the show at permaculturevoices.com/support.

Homesteader Justin Rhodes of AbundantPermaculture.com talks about what type of electric fence and charger he uses on his homestead.

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

Support the show at permaculturevoices.com/support.

It's currently April 12, 2016.

We start off today talking about whether you should start farming with a greenhouse or not.

The conversation quickly turns into reasons why people succeed and don't succeed.

Hopefully this episode is a welcome kick in the ass for those who need it.  And motivation to keep kicking ass for everyone else.

Learn more at permaculturevoices.com/theurbanfarmer

Support the show at permaculturevoices.com/support

Farmer John Suscovich of Camps Road Farm and FarmMarketingSolutions.com answers the question, "Where do you process your chickens - on farm or off?"

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

If you like the show, please support the show by making a contribution at permaculturevoices.com/ilikevoices

Homesteader Justin Rhodes of AbundantPermaculture.com goes over ways to protect your chickens from predators.

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

It's currently April 5, 2016.

Today's episode focuses on starting and transplanting Salanova via micro soil blocks.

Curtis will talk about how he starts Salanova lettuce using the blocks and the advantages for doing so.

We also run a quick time and cost analysis of starting lettuce in blocks versus cell trays to show the comparison.

At the end of the episode I go over a recipe to use for the micro blocker and some basic techniques for using it.

Learn more at permaculturevoices.com/theurbanfarmer

Support the show at permaculturevoices.com/support

Farmer John Suscovich of Camps Road Farm and FarmMarketingSolutions.com answers the question, "What do you feed your chickens, and can they get their full diet off pasture?"

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

If you like the show, please support the show by making a contribution at permaculturevoices.com/ilikevoices

Learn more in the show notes at permaculturevoices.com/123

Permaculture is very difficult to define for most people.  

How do you define permaculture?  

I go with Larry Santoyo's definition - “Permaculture is: Design protocols for critical thinking, decision making and problem solving – all based on the patterns of nature.”

In today’s show my guest Andrew Millison and I will look at common frustrations with the word "PERMACULTURE".

We’ll answer questions such as:

Does permaculture need a new name, a consistent definition?
Should permaculture reject the mainstream?
Should permaculture go the mainstream?
Should everyone learn permaculture, why or why not?

Support the show at patreon.com/diegofooter

It's currently March 30, 2016.

And over the past few months Curtis has literally been all around the world.

I today's episode we'll look back at some of the places that he visited and what he took away from those visits.

From the high tech innovation being done at Jean-Martin Fortier's Le Ferm de Catra Taaamp in Quebec to the low tech soil building techniques used by Jodi Roebuck to build soil in his bio-ingestive garden in New Zealand.

It's not just all fun and stories, there's a lot of good information in this one such as do these techniques scale, how can you build soil, and how can you combine tarps and soil to really build soil.  

Learn more at permaculturevoices.com/theurbanfarmer

Support the show at permaculturevoices.com/support

Farmer John Suscovich of Camps Road Farm and FarmMarketingSolutions.com answers the question, "What breeds of broilers do you raise?"

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

If you like the show, please support the show by making a contribution at permaculturevoices.com/ilikevoices

Farmer John Suscovtich of Camps Road Farm and FarmMarketingSolutions.com answers the question, "Are pastured broilers profitable?"

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

All of the guests for this episode are listeners of the show.  Listeners just like you.  

A few months ago I asked for feedback on the first season of the show, and I received a ton of it.

Today, I will share some of it with you.

If you submitted feedback for the show and gave me the OK to read it, thank you, this episode is yours.  

As humans I think we live in a guru culture.  A culture that puts people on a pedestal.  

And that can be dangerous because it creates limiting beliefs.  

Beliefs that we could never be like them.

Beliefs that we aren't good enough.  

Beliefs that we have some sort of unfair disadvantage.  

Beliefs that we can't do what they do.  

Because they are an expert, and we aren't.

A lot of people view Curtis as that expert and put him on that pedestal of knowledge.

They create limiting beliefs in their mind and tell themselves, I could never do what Curtis does.

I have sat in workshops with Curtis and heard it first hand, time and time again.  

And if you believe that, that you could never do what Curtis does, then Henry Ford said it best...

Whether you think you can, or think you can't - your right.  

This episode today is for the people who think they can.

If you ever feel stuck or stalled or find yourself struggling and wondering if you can actually do it, then here’s an episode for you.

An episode full of stories of “ordinary” people doing the hard work to go after what they want in life, and showing that it might not always be easy, but it is possible.

Learn more about this episode at permaculturevoices.com/tuf45

If you want to learn more about Curtis Stone and urban farming, then check out Curtis’ book, The Urban Farmer and his course, Profitable Urban Farming.

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/114

Learn more from Curtis on the Profitable Urban Farming workshop held in person and online on March 6.  For more information visit permaculturevoices.com/urbanfarmingpv3

"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