The Naked HomeFront - Ryan & Genica: EP13

Today’s episode comes to you from Lancaster County Pennsylvania in a town called Lititz, where we visit John and Peter Shenk of Shenk’s Berry Farm. While their farm may not ring a bell, you may have seen these guys at a trade show or recognize their side business especially if you are into strawberries as they also run the company of Hillside Cultivator.  

John and Peter take me around their farm in early February and share their experiences growing strawberries for over 40 years. With that we get into the details of: Varieties, weed control, plasticulture vs. matted row, irrigation, weather patterns, climate change and disease. The 2nd half of the conversation covers the topics of:

• No till pumpkins
• Cover crops
• Running a cultivator business on the side of a family farm
• Black raspberries
• The space between certified organic and conventional practices
• And General lessons learned and key principles of maintaining a sustainable farm business. 

Visit the website to see photos/videos from the visit: https://thefarmersshare.com
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Today’s episode comes to you from Plainfield, New Hampshire where we visit with Pooh Sprague of Edgewater Farm. This episode is a bit of a ramble as a 50 year career in farming is expected to be! That being said in this episode Pooh Shares:

• How he got started in the early 70’s
• Selling bedding plants
• Labor challenges 
• 100 acres, over 30 high tunnels, 7 H2A
• Tracking water usage
• FSMA Produce Safety Rule
• Climate Change 
• Resilience
• Soil stewardship
• Farm transition
• Knowing your market
• Not being organic
• Strawberries
• No-Till and cover crops

Visit the website to see photos/videos from the visit: https://thefarmersshare.com
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This episode comes to you from South Royalton Vermont Where we visit with Geo Honigford of Hurricane Flats Farm. He’s grown mixed vegetables, popcorn, and hay for 26 years. He also made the decision to sell his farm just a few years ago and pursue a different career path. I thought this was unique and wanted to chat with him about this decision to sell and pivot to a new chapter in life. 

We start off by learning his background and experience at the top of the episode. Then we spend a significant part of the conversation talking about popcorn as Hurricane Flats Farm is the only farm I know growing that crop in Vermont and I’ve experimented with growing it myself and curious what it takes to grow it beyond the hand scale experimenting. We wrap up the end of the episode with additional tips and take a way's reflecting on farming as a career. I really enjoyed this conversation and hope you do to. 

Visit the website to see photos/videos from the visit: https://thefarmersshare.com
Follow the show on Facebook and Instagram: @thefarmersshare
Subscribe to the YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@thefarmersshare

Today’s episode comes to you from Au Sable Forks New York where we visit with Becca Burke of The Meadow Farmstead. She’s managed a diversified vegetable farm and CSA for the last few years on the Vermont side of lake Champlain, but finally landed some growing space of her own over in New York. She hit the ground running and I visited with her at the tail end of the first season on this new farm. We discuss strategic investments, lessons learned from other farms to set this new garden up right from the start and she shares how she’s striving to provide affordable food for her community.  

Visit the website to see photos/videos from the visit: https://thefarmersshare.com
Follow the show on Facebook and Instagram: @thefarmersshare
Subscribe to the YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@thefarmersshare

Today’s episode comes to you from Hyde Park Vermont where we meet with Ryan Demerast and Genica Breitenbeck. They run two businesses off of their farm of less than 3 acres. Ryan runs Naked Acre Farm, and Genica runs a gardening service business called Home Front Gardens. 

Together we sat down as they shared their winding paths into agriculture.  They share the challenges they faced finding access to land and why they decided to settle here in Vermont, all while making the decision to purchase by digging through the snow in the middle of winter to take a look at the soil. Ryan and Genica share how they boot strapped their way to build a sustainable farm business which is now in the 10th year of farming.  They open up and share how they navigated some stressful seasons farming, and their plans to maintain the current size of their farm and not expand beyond the intensively managed land they are working now. 

This episode contains two parts of conversation, the first hour and twenty minutes is a sit down discussion talking about their farm story and the remaining forty minutes part of of the show features a walking tour of the farm where you can listen to the rain as we walk between high tunnels and rows of kale. 

Visit the website to see photos/videos from the visit: https://thefarmersshare.com
Follow the show on Facebook and Instagram: @thefarmersshare
Subscribe to the YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@thefarmersshare

Today’s episode comes to you from Underhill Vermont where I interview Paul Chamberlin of Chamberlin’s Garden & Farm Market. This episode hits close to home, because it is home. This summer I took a rainy Saturday morning and sat down to interview my grandpa and capture a few of his favorite farm stories and some of the history of our farm. Grandpa and my Grandma Joan purchased the property in 1976, and were planning to have a garden and raise their family. 

The Farmer’s Share is supported by the Vermont Vegetable and Berry Growers Association, and the Ag Engineering Program of the University of Vermont Extension. If you enjoy this show and want to support it’s programming, you can make a donation on our website by visiting https://thefarmersshare.com/support. 

Visit the website to see photos/videos from the visit: https://thefarmersshare.com
Follow the show on Facebook and Instagram: @thefarmersshare
Subscribe to the YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@thefarmersshare

This episode takes us all the way down to Mansfield Georgia where we visit with Monica and Russell of Love is Love Cooperative Farm. Myself and a few other colleges visited in October 2022 as part of a farm tour focused on wash/pack design and produce safety. This project is titled SCRUB, Sanitizing and Cleaning Resources for Your Business. From this project we were able to learned what market farmers needed in order to improve their produce safety and we either collated or created resources to help improve the cleanliness, and reduce produce safety risks.

This visit was an honor, to see a farm that is in the early stages of growth, and that we also helped to design this wash/pack space and recommend tools and products that’d improve efficiencies. This episode is a unique one, where two of the owner/members share what it’s like to build a business with a cooperative farm model, raising funding, and investing in infrastructure. Russell also shares a bit about the Oggun cultivating tractor and why he decided to go with that machine as the primary cultivation tool. 

Visit the website to see photos/videos from the visit: https://thefarmersshare.com
Follow the show on Facebook and Instagram: @thefarmersshare
Subscribe to the YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@thefarmersshare

Today’s episode takes us to East Dummerston Vermont where we visit with Jack Manix of Walker Farm. Jack is celebrating two major milestones this spring when I visited, the first being 50 years of marriage with his wife Karen; and the second milestone is this is also their 50 year farming. This interview gives us a tour of his farm and garden center which includes 25 varying greenhouse structures. Some of these are the earliest of designs with hoops and plastic and some of them are the highest of tech including fully automated glass houses. We then take a ride in the truck to set eyes on the fields, and visit the Christmas tree farm where he then shares some of the wisdom that has kept the farm business in operation for his entire career. 

Visit the website to see photos/videos from the visit: https://thefarmersshare.com
Follow the show on Facebook and Instagram: @thefarmersshare
Subscribe to the YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@thefarmersshare

In this episode we take a ride in the tractor with Mark Fasching of Jericho Settlers Farm as he is incorporating a cover crop of winter rye using a speed disc. He explains how this piece of equipment works, and shares how he uses it to improve the soil health on their farm. 

We first heard from Mark on episode 3 when he and his wife Chirista shared how they built their farm business. 

Visit the website to see photos/videos from the visit: https://thefarmersshare.com
Follow the show on Facebook and Instagram: @thefarmersshare
Subscribe to the YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@thefarmersshare

Today’s episode comes to you from Hatfield Massachusetts where we visit with Harrison Bardwell of Bardwell Farm. 

We start off the episode with a tour of his greenhouses, and check out a few of his experiments this year with early peppers and overwintered onions. After that, he shares some of his background that equipped him to build up and manage a 30 acre vegetable business all while only being in his mid 20’s. 

Visit the website to see photos/videos from the visit: https://thefarmersshare.com
Follow the show on Facebook and Instagram: @thefarmersshare
Subscribe to the YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@thefarmersshare