Hey everyone, I'm back after a long break. Making new episodes again- this time focusing more on walk n' talk interviews on location. My first episode back is with Spencer and Duncan Brons from Schmidt Family Vineyards here in southern Oregon. Let me know what you think of the new format. More to come!

Today I'm talking with Katie Kulla.  I've known Katie since she and her husband, Casey, started their farm Oakhill Organics in the early 2000s.  Over the years, Katie has done a lot of different things besides just farming. She's written for Growing For Market Magazine, co-hosted the Growing For Market Podcast, as well as making some really cool farm-inspired art.  Now, she's written a book called "Farm-Raised Kids” coming out October 29th. We talk about how Katie went from being a farmer to becoming a writer. And talk about the actual process of writing the book.  It's always fun and interesting to see how people can pivot and evolve throughout their lives, even for farmers. I hope you all enjoy this episode. It’s always super fun to catch up with old friends.  Website- www.katiekulla.com "Farm-Raised Kids" Book- www.katiekulla.com/books Out on October 29th- Preorder through Katie's website or through your local book seller. Growing For Market Article- "Strategies for balancing parenting and farm work"- https://growingformarket.com/articles/strategies-balancing-parenting-and-farm-work --------------------------------- Not Only Farmers Links Youtube: ⁠https://www.youtube.com/@notonlyfarmers⁠ Instagram: ⁠⁠⁠⁠https://instagram.com/notonlyfarmerspodcast⁠⁠⁠⁠ Twitter: ⁠⁠⁠⁠https://twitter.com/notonlyfarmers⁠⁠⁠⁠ Chris Jagger's Links Instagram: ⁠⁠⁠⁠https://instagram.com/bluefoxfarm⁠⁠⁠⁠ Podcast and Video Editing by Chris Jagger and Render Bender Productions Render Bender Productions:  ⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.youtube.com/@RenderBenderProductions

This Episode Originally Aired on the Doomer Optimist Podcast Channel. https://www.doomeroptimism.com/ Today we sat down with four similar-minded folks to talk about our personal experiences with various Food Hub models. We let the conversation go free form- like we were sitting on the front porch at one of our farms and just chatting with friends. It was a great and insightful conversation for all of us and we vowed to record another episode in the future to get updates on our respective projects.  Megan Kinney- Director of Cooperative Distribution-North Coast Growers Association https://www.northcoastgrowersassociation.org/ As the director of Harvest Hub, Megan seeks to increase our community's access to local food infrastructure like cold storage and distribution systems. This includes coordinating the Harvest Box program (a multi-farm CSA-style produce box), the Farm-to-Freezer project (a freezer for use by NCGA members), and overseeing the operations of Harvest Hub. She sits on the board of Humboldt Made and is the co-chair of the Food Access Working Group in the Humboldt COAD. She is a registered and certified Trainer with the Produce Safety Alliance through Cornell University. Megan is honored to have been awarded the Community Alliance with Family Farmers 2022 Farmers' Market Champion of the Year and is a graduate of the Food Systems Leadership Cohort and Leadership Redwood Coast in 2023. Amy Neukom- Co Owner Neukom Family Farms https://www.instagram.com/neukomfamilyfarm/ Neukom Family Farms is a small family farm located along the Trinity River in Inland Northern Humboldt County. We dry farm tree fruit including peaches. pluots, plums, figs, apples, Asian and European pears. We also grow a variety of annuals such as heirloom and slicer tomatoes, melons, winter squash, and dried beans utilizing water conservation techniques. A majority of our land is kept natural for the abundance of wildlife in our area. Dru Zucchino- Executive Director- TRACTOR Food and Farms https://tractorfoodandfarms.com/ Hailing from the Old North State, Dru is the Executive Director of TRACTOR Food and Farms. He has over a decade of experience in North Carolina agriculture, ranging from conventional blueberry production in Pender County to biodynamic fruit orchards in Mitchell County. He holds a BA in English Literature and a BFA in Creative Writing from the University of North Carolina-Wilmington. He lives in Mitchell County, where he, his wife, Jessica, and two children keep busy managing small fruit plots and orchards. Chris Jagger- Co-Owner Blue Fox Farm, Not Only Farmers Podcast https://www.instagram.com/bluefoxfarm/ https://open.spotify.com/show/12YRGbk9IYMh4gbR0pTkEh?si=cb16eecee40a49e5 Chris and Melanie started farming in Santa Cruz, CA in the late 90’s and took the classic route of on-farm internships with several mentors until they had the gumption to start their own farm in southern Oregon in the early 2000’s. Blue Fox Farm started as a 1-acre farm, scaled to 45 acres, and is now back at 5 acres in production. Chris has supplemented their farm income with his Blue Fox Ag Services consulting business, helping farmers scale efficiently and farm cost-effectively. Chris also has a labor-of-love podcast Not Only Farmers, where he chats with interesting people doing things in agriculture. 

The Farmers Land Trust - Charter Farmland Commons What Why Process guidance  Template documents  Website: https://www.thefarmerslandtrust.org/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thefarmerslandtrust/ Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@TheFarmersLandTrust Not Only Farmers Links Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@notonlyfarmers Instagram: ⁠⁠⁠https://instagram.com/notonlyfarmerspodcast⁠⁠⁠ Twitter: ⁠⁠⁠https://twitter.com/notonlyfarmers⁠⁠⁠ Chris Jagger's Links Instagram: ⁠⁠⁠https://instagram.com/bluefoxfarm⁠⁠⁠ Podcast and Video Editing by Chris Jagger and Render Bender Productions Render Bender Productions:  ⁠⁠⁠https://www.youtube.com/@RenderBenderProductions

Lukes Links: Website: https://terramorfarm.com/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@terramorfarm Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/terramorfarm Tik Tok: https://www.tiktok.com/@terramorfarm Hey Everyone, Welcome back to the NOF podcast. Today is episode #23. This week my conversation is with Luke Sheldrick of Terramor Farm Luke has been farming with his partner Dana at their place in Ontario for almost a decade now.  Their focus has always been running a small scale efficient farm that’s profitable but not at the expense of others.  I really enjoyed hearing Luke’s take on how he and Dana make decisions for their business and also how they prioritize their family and their personal well being over the farm- even though the farm is their livelihood. I think Luke explains it very eloquently during our conversation.  Since recording our conversation Luke has doubled down on his YouTube channel so go check that out (Like and Subscribe too, obviously) and follow him on Instagram and TikTok with lots of short form content with lots of great farming tips and tricks. Thanks again for listening!

Dan's Links: Website:  https://danbrisebois.com/Instagram https://www.instagram.com/danbrisebois.farm/ Farm website: https://www.fermetournesol.qc.ca/en Hey everyone, welcome back to the NOF podcast. After a somewhat long hiatus I’m back with Episode #22. This week I’m chatting with Dan Brisebois- Dan is a farmer, a seedsman, a spreadsheet expert, and an author based in Quebec. He’s been farming in Canada for over 20 years now. He’s a wealth of knowledge and we get to tap in and talk about all of his skillsets in todays episode.  I really encourage you to lock in for the whole episode. Dan and I weave in and out of topics and towards the end there’s a real convergence of all the topics. Dan really brings it all together in a very cohesive thoughtful monologue that I’ve listened to a half-dozen times now.  It’s really cool to have the access and bandwidth to chat with such great humans and allow the conversation to build and have body after a few hours talking.  This is definitely the driving factor for me to keep these conversations going.  As always, let me know what you think and thanks for listening! Now here’s my conversation with Dan. 

Michael's Links: Website: https://girdley.com/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/girdley/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@girdleyworld This week’s conversation is with someone outside of agriculture.  Over the years, some of my best business decisions have originated outside of Ag. I love having the opportunity to talk with people in the greater business world in hopes I can find ideas and solutions to bring back to agriculture.  This week my conversation is with Michael Girdley. Michael owns a 100 million dollar + holding company that oversees 12 businesses that include a fireworks retailer, software companies, recruiting services, tech investments, and education provider. Really a diverse set of businesses. And once again, due to the magic of the online world, I had a friend connect me with Michael and he was down to chat with me about his business insights over the past 30 years. We talked about his thoughts on generational theory, ideas to think outside the box in agriculture, and of course his love affair with the restaurant- Chili’s. This was a super fun conversation we had back on Halloween, and I think there’s some real gems in here that might guide folks to think differently to building businesses in a 2024 world. Not Only Farmers Links Instagram: ⁠⁠https://instagram.com/notonlyfarmerspodcast⁠⁠ Twitter: ⁠⁠https://twitter.com/notonlyfarmers⁠⁠ Chris Jagger's Links Instagram: ⁠⁠https://instagram.com/bluefoxfarm⁠⁠ Podcast and Video Editing by Chris Jagger and Render Bender Productions Render Bender Productions:  ⁠⁠https://www.youtube.com/@RenderBenderProductions

Adam's Links: Twitter: https://twitter.com/iamadamcohen Newsletter: https://adamcohen.substack.com/ My conversation this week is with Adam Cohen. Adam is a high school science teacher, urban farmer, and entrepreneur based in Texas.  Adam and I have been chatting online for quite some time now.  He’s no stranger to trying new approaches in small scale ag and definitely takes the lessons he learns in the real world back to the classroom with his students.  Before meeting Adam I never understood hydroponic and aquaponic food production systems all that well. I’m personally a big fan of working with the soil but always open to expanding my understanding of agriculture and all of it’s various forms it can take.  At the end of the day it’s really about feeding people and getting next generations excited about and interested in agriculture.  Adam definitely checks those boxes.  I think you’ll enjoy this conversation we had a few months back. Not Only Farmers Links Instagram: ⁠https://instagram.com/notonlyfarmerspodcast⁠ Twitter: ⁠https://twitter.com/notonlyfarmers⁠ Chris Jagger's Links Instagram: ⁠https://instagram.com/bluefoxfarm⁠ Podcast and Video Editing by Chris Jagger and Render Bender Productions Render Bender Productions:  ⁠https://www.youtube.com/@RenderBenderProductions

Clint's Links: Braintrust Ag: https://braintrustag.com/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/clintwfischer LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/clint-fischer-5141aa116/ This week I’m talking with Clint Fischer-  one of my many Ag friends from the land of the app formerly known as Twitter. Clint is an Ag Business management specialist that focuses mostly on succession and transition planning for families and agricultural estates. It was great to finally catch up with Clint IRL to hear a bit about his story- including passing the bar exam (Congrats my friend!) We chat about the challenges families go through during succession/transition planning, frameworks of those plans, and also talk about his online community he’s been creating over the past year- Braintrust Ag.  Braintrust Ag is a platform for supporting people working on growing their Ag businesses and a place to share resources and stories with other like minded folks. It’s a great concept that will definitely continue to grow with time. I encourage everyone to check it out. As always I’ll share all the links in the show notes for the episode. There’s a lot of insightful Frameworks for Agriculture within this episode. I hope it will get you thinking about new directions and approaches for your own farm. Not Only Farmers Links Instagram: https://instagram.com/notonlyfarmerspodcast Twitter: https://twitter.com/notonlyfarmers Chris Jagger's Links Instagram: https://instagram.com/bluefoxfarm Podcast and Video Editing by Chris Jagger and Render Bender Productions Render Bender Productions:  https://www.youtube.com/@RenderBenderProductions

Real Organic Project Links: Website- https://www.realorganicproject.org/ YouTube- https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCsNDG8ATeZXa0N8I4MyMu1Q Spotify- https://open.spotify.com/show/5DTmqF3Q3Da9Z4AOIszTN8?si=c681213ef31646c4 This week I’m talking with two folks from the Real Organic Project, Iriel Edwards and Ariel Pressman Prior to this episode I really didn’t know much about the ROP and honestly thought it was just another Certification in the sea of certifications.  What I learned was it’s an add-on certificate to farms/businesses that are already Certified Organic and it’s completely free.  The Real Organic Project seems to be focusing more on the cultural side of farming as well keeping a holistic view of the entire farm or business-    In many ways getting back to more of the original spirit of the early Organic movement- Food, Soil, People.   Within our food system, I feel there’s a lot of work to be done, lot’s of refinement, lots of questions without immediate answers.  The Real Organic Project has created a platform to start asking more of these tough questions surrounding our food system, while remaining open for debate. This is what we need more of in our current times. This was a great conversation with these two and I’m hoping it spawns discussion among your own circles of family, friends, and customers.  Not Only Farmers Links Instagram: https://instagram.com/notonlyfarmerspodcast Twitter: https://twitter.com/notonlyfarmers Chris Jagger's Links Instagram: https://instagram.com/bluefoxfarm Podcast and Video Editing by Chris Jagger and Render Bender Productions Render Bender Productions:  https://www.youtube.com/@RenderBenderProductions