organic farm

Ever thought about shifting your farm to a U-Pick model? 

On this episode of the Thriving Farmer Podcast, Michael is diving into the world of agritourism with Megan Neubauer of Pure Land Farm located in McKinney, Texas. Megan literally wrote the book on pick-your-own farming and her farming journey offers invaluable insights into transforming local agriculture into a profitable, community-driven experience.

Tune in to hear about Megan’s thriving U-Pick operation and her new book!

You’ll hear:

• How Megan got into farming 0:52
• What led Megan to shift her farm to Upick 4:52
• What the average customer expects when participating in U-pick 10:37
• How their crops are priced 11:42
• About how they package their berries for U-Pick customers 15:08
• What software Megan uses for booking 21:23
• About how they deal with “problem people” 25:00
• About their marketing focus 30:19
• What Megan’s advice is for newer farmers or farmers looking to change things up 38:04

About the Guest:

Megan Neubauer is a farmer in North Texas. She graduated with a BS in Biology from Boston University in 2004 and after several years working in biotech and scientific research, Megan and her father created Pure Land Farm in McKinney, TX in 2012. Pure Land Farm uses regenerative growing methods on three acres of thornless blackberries and two acres of diversified fruits and vegetables, exclusively marketing their products using agritourism.

Her new book on Pick-Your-Own-Farming releases December 4th, 2023. 

Resources:

Website - www.purelandorganic.com
Megan’s Book - Pick-Your-Own Farming - available NOW
Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/PureLandFarm
Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/purelandfarm
TikTok - https://www.tiktok.com/@purelandfarm

The Thriving Farmer Podcast Team would like to thank our amazing sponsor!

MyDigitalFarmer.com was created by CSA farmer and marketing specialist Corinna Bench to help farmers learn the marketing fundamentals — so you can stop feeling uncertain, frustrated, guilty, or inadequate when it comes to selling your products.

In the My Digital Farmer podcast, you'll be exposed to the fundamentals of marketing theory and practice so you can apply them to your own farm and business. She'll cover marketing funnels, copywriting, website messaging, CSA marketing, lead generation, brand building, social media, customer retention, Facebook ads, sales pages, Facebook groups, YouTube, Instagram, email marketing, and stellar customer service.

She also interviews other farmers to find out what’s working (and not working) in farm marketing so you can feel more confident in your ability to convert leads, increase sales, and build a strong brand for your farm.

Subscribe to her show at https://www.mydigitalfarmer.com/podcast

What's holding you back from full-time farming?  

On this episode of the Thriving Farmer Podcast, we’re joined by Jill Ragan, Owner of Whispering Willow Farm, located in Central Arkansas. Along with her husband, Nathan, Jill’s mission is to create an environment where people come together, foster sustainable practices, and build a resilient local food system. Jill teaches others how to plan and steward their own farms through her social media, online courses and her recently released book The Tiny But Mighty Farm.

Tune in today to hear all about Jill’s journey from working a 9-5 job to full-time farming!

You’ll hear:

• How Jill got into farming 2:00
• How Jill sources the farm’s soil 11:50
• About what tools they use for production 15:06
• What the Whispering Willow team looks like 18:06
• What Jill would change if she could start the farm over again 21:52
• About Jill’s motivation to write her book The Tiny But Mighty Farm 24:20
• What the most common questions are that Jill has received 29:49
• About Jill’s experience with selling to restaurants and breweries 32:20
• Jill’s advice for an aspiring farmer 39:48

About the Guest: 

Jill Ragan, along with her husband Nathan, are the owners of Whispering Willow Farm in central Arkansas. Along with their three daughters, their family is striving to stay connected to their local community by sharing food and flowers with those around them. Through various outlets like her growing YouTube channel and her new book The Tiny But Mighty Farm, Jill teaches about gardening and, most importantly, flourishing on your home farm no matter the size. 

Resources:

Jill's book - The Tiny But Mighty Farm
Website - www.thewhisperingwillowfarm.com
Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/whisperingwillowfrm/
Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/whisperingwillowfarm15
YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/@WhisperingWillowFarm

GrownBy is the farmer-owned online marketplace. In the last three years, their 200 farmers have sold over $2M of products to shoppers on the GrownBy app.

GrownBy works for all scales and types of farm sales. Spring Plant Sale? Yup. Annual Freezer Meat Emptying? Check. Multi-season, multi-farm 300 member CSA operation? Absolutely. GrownBy supports it all.

As a cooperative, farmer success is their #1 priority. They are the first farmer-owned cooperative ecommerce platform in the world. With auto-payments, built-in customer notifications, CSA subscriptions, and customers helping to pay site fees, GrownBy is a tailored fit for your farm’s online sales. Upcoming, GrownBy will be the first online platform accepting SNAP/EBT with authorized farms.

Startup is free, and pricing is transparent and affordable. The cooperative collects 2% of each transaction, but customers often contribute to this fee and bring down farmer costs significantly.

Listeners to the Thriving Farmers Podcast get 50% off their first three months on GrownBy. Just email Grow@farmgenerations.coop to get this offer. You can learn more at GrownBy.com, or download the app on the Google Play or Apple App stores.

This episode we met up Morgan Spurlock at his pop-up restaurant, Holy Chicken to discuss the newly released Super Size Me 2: Holy Chicken! Morgan is an award-winning and Academy Award-nominated writer, director, producer, playwright and president and founder of full-service New York-based production studio Warrior Poets. Joining us were poultry farmers John Buttram and Charles Morris. Although the start of this documentary is about opening a truly transparent fast-food chicken restaurant, it became quickly apparent that this film is about the farmers, there struggle and the corruption surrounding "big-ag" in our country. 99% of the chicken consumed is the United States is produced by a monopoly of five main companies. These companies control all aspects of chicken production and essentially "own" the farmers who grow their chickens. The whistle-blowing in this documentary has resulted in John has being black-balled the the industry and no longer grows chickens. Charles is still working because he has no choice which is a struggle every day. He currently grows approximately 1.2 million chickens every 8 weeks with a 10% average die-off. Thats an average of 100,000 chickens to compost that he is also responsible for disposing of. Both John, Charles and their families are struggling to survive with a constant barrage of threats from the retaliating industry which includes lobbying group, The National Chicken Council. This film did NOT stop us from eating chicken; in fact, immediately following the episode we ate a spicy, grilled, crispy chicken sandwich which was delicious. Morgan, john & Charles DID open our eyes to the corruption in "big-ag" as well as the struggle our farmers deal with on a daily basis which is carefully and strategically hidden from the average American consumer. We will continue to stay in touch and hope to do a follow-up episode with a more positive change to the industry.