For the past decade, two families have settled on a rolling 120 acre property in Henry County, KY under the name “Valley Spirit Farm”. Together the the Fiechters and Monroes have partnered in the care of the land, and the building of a business that sustains their way of life. In this conversation we discuss their unique partnership, the ways they’ve integrated their pork and beef with mushrooms and vegetables, plus marketing, business structure, and much more. Valley Spirit Farm Valley Spirit F...
Dec 31, 2021•1 hr 3 min•Ep. 23
Ginger shields of Pastured Life Farm joined me to discuss her extensive knowledge and experience in farm marketing. Ginger's Links: pasturedlifefarm.com Pastured Life Farm (facebook.com) i nstagram.com/pasturedlifefarms APPPA.org My Links: grocefamilyfarm.com info@grocefamilyfarm instagram.com/grocefamilyfarm...
Mar 02, 2021•42 min•Ep. 22
When done thoughtfully, farms can provide a great context for raising kids; especially when education is seen as life-long, and as wide as the real world around us. Dave and Ginger rely on their children to run their successful farm business with them. And they rely on their farm to provide the context for learning about the world around them: how to work and learn, or at least to fan the flames of the curiosity we are all born with. This episode is part one of two from a great interview I did w...
Mar 02, 2021•40 min•Ep. 21
I talked to Joelle Wood about her path towards guiding her farm as she took on a lot in 2020, feeding her community and seizing on great opportunities to grow her farm; all while holding to her aspirational values. https://www.theoldfashionedfarmstead.com/ The Old Fashioned Farmstead (@theoldfashionedfarmstead) • Instagram photos and videos My Links: [email protected] grocefamilyfarm.com instagram.com/grocefamilyfarm...
Jan 28, 2021•1 hr 24 min•Ep. 20
Cliff Davis spent much of his adult life, and became known across the region as a permaculture educator, helping people learn how to apply ecological literacy and system thinking to their footprint on the land. But in this episode we talk about his new act: farming and breeding pigs, and selling food to his community in central Tennessee. This episode explores much of this transition, as well as going deep into Cliff's business, hog genetics, and the application of his principles to his liveliho...
Oct 30, 2020•1 hr 40 min•Ep. 19
After Jesse sharing about their business and sales models on episode 17, Matthew joins the conversation to share more about the ins and outs of their operation; but especially hiring and managing employees, and navigating USDA inspected slaughter and processing with both poultry and mammals. They are doing a lot, and quite impressively so. See the links below to learn more about them. https://marblecitymeats.com/ https://marblecreekfarmstead.com/ https://www.facebook.com/marblecreekfarmstead The...
Oct 19, 2020•59 min•Ep. 18
I had the pleasure of speaking with Jesie and Matthew Lawrence about the many sides of their diverse business, including farming, marketing, selling, and processing on a growing farm. In this episode Jesie helped me wrap my brain around all they do, their infrastructure, staff, and the ways they get their products to their customers. Check them out at the links below! marblecreekfarmstead.com marblecitymeats.com
Oct 09, 2020•40 min•Ep. 17
I asked some of our past guests to share their answers to seven questions, so that we could hear some unique perspectives on how different farms and farmers across the country are faring during the wild year that is 2020. Joe Koopsen, Jordan Green, and Ben Grimes all shared their answers to the following questions: 1. What kind of changes came in March within each of your market streams? (Percentages or other way of describing it are fine) 2. When was the peak of pandemic buying for your farm bu...
Sep 20, 2020•54 min•Ep. 16
Curtis Brown is back for part two of our interview, where we talk all about how he has, and will continue to, get his meat into his customers' hands. We talk CSA logistics, marketing ideas, and streamlining through a cooperative distribution network. Curtis and Ashley's Links: foodethosfarm.com instagram.com/foodethosfarm facebook.com/foodethosfarm For more about me: grocefamilyfarm.com instagram.com/grocefamilyfarm facebook.com/grocefamilyfarm...
Aug 21, 2020•1 hr 18 min•Ep. 15
Curtis and Ashley started out, like me, raising vegetables on a small plot about a decade ago. Now they are regenerating a large section of prairie, selling Meat CSA's, and taking names. In this first episode of a two-part series, Curtis and I discuss their farm, its history and his history on it: as well as his pig operation and marketing strategy. Stay tuned for episode 15, where we go deeper into all this and more!
Aug 03, 2020•1 hr 9 min•Ep. 14
An episode recoded in April of 2020 on how Charlie and his wife Kerissa are adapting and growing into the Covid 19 pandemic. Thanks to Charlie for this wide-ranging discussion touching on all aspects of his farm and business. https://coveyrisefarmsohio.com/
May 18, 2020•57 min•Ep. 13
All about how Covid 19 has affected Ramble Creek Farm since we recorded Josh's episode.
May 18, 2020•14 min
Many first generation farmers start on family land, or from scratch in their home region, making a go of it nearby to, and selling into their own community. Well Josh started Ramble Creek Farm by moving across the country, purchasing an existing farm with infrastructure and market access, and built his business quickly from there. We get into a diverse array of details on how he's solved problems in production and marketing in his unique context. https://ramblecreekfarm.com/ facebook.com/ramblec...
Apr 13, 2020•1 hr 16 min•Ep. 12
Mark Brady and I discuss the ins and outs of what our farms are doing to cope and thrive in these trying times, when it seems like everything is changing. The final answers to all the problems aren't here. But real-time problem solving and thinking is! Timberfeast.com Find me here: Grocefamilyfarm.com [email protected]
Mar 30, 2020•54 min•Ep. 11
3/23/20: A journal of what happened in the past two weeks: How our farm is adapting, capitalizing on opportunity, feeding our community, and looking towards the future to try to make wise choices about how to make sure we can keep on farming and meeting the needs of our community now and into the future.
Mar 25, 2020•22 min•Ep. 10
Joe Koopsen has been farming since the age of 15 in Southern Michigan. His egg and broiler business have taken off in the decade since -and now he supports a young family through the production of broilers, eggs, brooded broiler chicks, and turkeys. In this episode we discuss his path into the wholesale markets, his brooder and broiler setup, his unique marketing relationships, and a little about ducks and turkeys too. Its a good one. I hope you enjoy!
Mar 23, 2020•1 hr•Ep. 9
Going way off topic with Peter Allen!
Mar 10, 2020•29 min•Ep. 8
Peter, with his wife, Maureen, and two children live in a fairly remote section of the Kikapoo valley in Wisconsin. Peter's entrance into farming, as you'll hear, came from -of all places, academics. I much appreciate how Peter was able to enter an environment like that, utilize it to grow in his understanding of the world around him, and then apply enough critical thinking to find a lifeway that diverged from any pre-determined course, but fit within his ethics and his new understanding of the ...
Mar 09, 2020•1 hr 9 min•Ep. 7
I had a fantastic conversation with Ben Grimes of Dawnbreaker Farms and Dependable Poultry Processors in Hurdle Mills, NC that I'm eager to share with you. Ben is a smart farmer who knows and understands his farm, his processing business, and his numbers, and is thoughtful and wise about how to use them to pursue his goals. If you're someone who processes poultry, or has poultry processed by someone else, stay tuned. If you're someone who raises and sells ducks, or is interested in raising and s...
Feb 29, 2020•1 hr 17 min•Ep. 6
Many of us doing pasture-based agriculture in the United States are doing it because we love our craft. But at the core, ideally we also have goals for our lives and land that match up with the life, lifestyle, and realities of running a pasture-based agricultural enterprise. And to run a truly sustainable farm, we are going to have to work in alignment with our goals in a long-term sustainable way. My goals are probably not that different from many of the people listening to this podcast: To pr...
Feb 24, 2020•29 min•Ep. 5
In this episode Ben Grimes and I break down the APPPA 2020 conference in Jacksonville held in January. Learn more about APPPA here: apppa.org Learn more about Ben here: Instagram.com/dawnbreakerfarms dawnbreakerfarms.com More from Ben, and about Ben and his farm in the future. If you want to see what my "day range" poultry system looked like a couple seasons back, here's a video Diego Footer produced at my farm: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0lGTQx5yExM find me at grocefamilyfarm.com, Instagra...
Feb 17, 2020•52 min•Ep. 4
Notes for intro: Pasture-Raised Podcast, Episode 3! Thanks for tuning in again. I hope you enjoyed our first interview last week with Dave Shields. I appreciate all of the kind feedback I've received on it, and want to welcome you to subscribe and leave a review and let other folks know about it if you've found it to be valuable. Before we get into today's episode, let me just talk a little about what you might be able to expect with this podcast going forward: My plan is to release an episode t...
Feb 11, 2020•1 hr 14 min•Ep. 3
Dave Shields of Pastured Life Farm joined me for a wonderful discussion of why and how he farms on pasture with his family in rural North Florida. We talked about the passions that drive him and the nitty gritty details of each of his enterprises. Much thanks to Dave, and to his whole family for sharing on this episode, and all the ways they do throughout the pasture-based small farming community! Learn more about Pastured Life Farm here: https://www.pasturedlife.com/ https://www.instagram.com/p...
Feb 08, 2020•1 hr 26 min•Ep. 2
Hey Everybody! And welcome to the Pasture-Raised Podcast. My name is Luke Groce. Together with my wife, Katherine, and our four children I run Groce Family Farm in Southern Indiana. I really want to thank you for listening to this, our first episode. If you're at all into pasture-based farming, I hope you'll get some value out of what we're trying to accomplish here. A little about me: I met my wife in 2007. Once I convinced her to Marry me, we started dreaming about having a farm one day. After...
Feb 05, 2020•6 min•Ep. 1
