Mark and Kristen Kimball of Essex Farm in Essex, New York, have farmed for over 20 years together. Mark and Kristen are known for their year-round, free-choice, whole-diet CSA model on 130 acres, with 22 acres and vegetables and access to 1,100 acres per grazing, haymaking, and sugaring, producing everything from veggies, fruit, grains, meat, dairy, eggs, and more. They balance the complexities of a year-round whole diet CSA model and their approach to winter food in the form of not only storage...
Aug 05, 2024•1 hr 5 min
Farmer Sarah Patterson of Red Acre Farm in Cedar City, Utah, was just 14 years old when she started her first CSA on her parents' land after they moved to Utah from LA. Now, 15 years later, she has built Red Acre Farm into a thriving one-acre certified organic farm with a year-round, full-diet CSA, farm stand, farm kitchen, AND farm stay, along with hosting farm dinners, workshops, and other community events. She also founded the Utah Farm and Food Conference, now in its eighth year, and with he...
Jul 29, 2024•1 hr 17 min
Kate Woods, farm manager of Beetlebung Farm in Chilmark, Massachusetts, along with her partner Nick, are the co-managers of a two-acre regenerative and primarily no-till farm on the island of Martha's Vineyard. Before its current iteration, the land had a rich history in agriculture, something of which that has been important to carry on for the island community, as well as a commitment to year-round production and innovation. With only two acres, the focus is on direct retail through a farm sta...
Jul 22, 2024•1 hr 4 min
As their farm name suggests, Montana farmers Max Smith and Katie Madden of Winter Kissed Farm focus on growing vegetable crops year-round, especially during the winter seasons. On 15 acres and at 3,500 feet in elevation, they use multiple high-tunnels and caterpillar-tunnels to grow crops and sell them through a CSA, an online store , and to some area restaurants. They've had an interesting journey with marketing and production by focusing on winter- and spring-only sales during some recent year...
Jul 15, 2024•1 hr 13 min
Elizabeth Keen of Indian Line Farm in Western Massachusetts, has been farming for 27 years and began her farm with her husband on land that was the birthplace of the CSA model popularized by Robyn Van En in 1986. Stewarding this important property, Elizabeth started her CSA with 12 member shares in 1997, which has since grown to 250 members, plus sales at a farmer's market and some restaurants and stores, all from five acres of production. The farm is certified naturally grown, and Elizabeth is ...
Jul 08, 2024•1 hr 1 min
Ellie Goldstein and Dan Bryant of Small Holding Farm in Morganton, North Carolina, were recommended by a fan of the show as young, new, year-round farmers. Ellie and Dan started their farm in 2020 during the early months of the pandemic. Ellie has a background in psychology and works part-time in the mental health field and Dan is a certified arborist and carpenter… skills that have undoubtedly helped their recent transition into starting a farm and homestead with a focus on year-round productio...
Jul 01, 2024•1 hr 4 min
Aidan Feeney of Fog Town Farm is located on Nantucket Island, 30 miles off of Cape Cod, Massachusetts. Growing up on Nantucket as an outdoor enthusiast and working in landscaping and doing tree work during high school, Aidan became inspired to learn about agriculture and spent time in New York and in Vermont in college working on farms. In 2019, he returned to the island to start Fogtown Farm on leased conservation land. Now five years later, he has two acres under cultivation and is expanding t...
Jun 24, 2024•1 hr 11 min
Nate & Gabrielle of Six River Farm are located just north of Portland, ME. As early apprentices of Paul and Sandy Arnold of Pleasant Valley Farm—also former guests on the show—Nate and Gabrielle are now in their 18th! year of farming. Starting Six River Farm in 2007, on 2.5 acres of leased land, AND utilizing a collective farm model with four farms sharing infrastructure, they now have grown to 25 acres of vegetable production, with 20 employees during the main-season, 10 of whom work year-r...
Jun 17, 2024•1 hr 26 min
Today, I have TWO guests, Emily Von-Trapp of Von Trapp Flowers in VT and Linda D’arco of Little Farmhouse Flowers in NY. Emily and Linda each operate their own cut flower businesses with a focus on wholesale and winter flower bulb forcing AND they collaborate to teach flower farmers how to bring beautiful flowers to bloom during the coldest and darkest months of the year through The Tulip Workshop online course and on-farm classes. Along with a second Lilly workshop, their collaboration has insp...
Jun 10, 2024•1 hr 11 min
Over the last 14 years, Ray Tyler of Rose Creek Farms has been passionate about developing growing systems to successfully grow and sell certified organic produce fifty-two weeks a year in western Tennessee. Along with his wife Ashley and six homeschooled children, he is committed to creating a family-focused farm that allows for a sustainable and healthy work-life balance. Using a meticulous system of eighteen caterpillar tunnels on one acre, Ray is able to supply three farmers markets and a fa...
Jun 03, 2024•1 hr 12 min
Paul and Sandy Arnold of Pleasant Valley Farm in upstate NY are seasoned expert winter growers. They have been involved with winter growing since they first purchased their 60-acre property 35 years ago. With three large RIMOL high-tunnels, numerous caterpillar and field tunnels, dedicated wash/pack, and climate controlled storage facilities, they have honed their year-round systems on three cultivated acres and have achieved financial stability for themselves and their family. Until recently, 9...
Aug 14, 2023•1 hr 21 min
Joy Longfellow is a flowers trial technician on the flowers team at Johnny’s research farm. I invited Joy to speak about their overwinter flower trials and the info they have gathered over the past few years. The Johnny’s research farm is 200+ acres acres in size with 60+ acres in crop production that includes both field and greenhouse growing for plant breeding, seed production, trialing, and cover crop rotation. The overwintering flower trials focus on cool season annuals, and a few perrenial,...
Aug 07, 2023•1 hr 10 min
Located in the Pacific Northwest, Brian and his partner Chrystine first started as a fresh market farm is 2004, producing their first seed catalog in 2007, and then transitioned entirely to seed production in 2011. Uprising Seeds is WA fist 100% certified organic seed company, producing over 70% of the seeds they sell with the rest being sourced from a network of regional family farms. Brian is passionate about exploring the relationship between grower security and open pollinated seeds and the ...
Jul 31, 2023•1 hr 9 min
Erin and Sam started Long Season Farm in Ulster County, NY, in 2014 as a winter-only operation, but have since expanded to year-round production and market the majority of their produce at two year-round farmers markets. With seven acres in production, they have four 30' x 96' unheated high-tunnels, plus a prop house, multiple cat/ tunnels, a moveable tunnel, and a large heated greenhouse that includes their wash station. Unheated winter tunnel crops have been very successful, especially when co...
Jul 24, 2023•1 hr 35 min
Jamila Norman of Patchwork City Farms in Atlanta, GA, is a first generation daughter to Caribbean parents whose history is rooted in agriculture. After a career in environmental engineering, she founded Patchwork City Farms in 2010, an acre+ urban farm with one 30'x96' high-tunnel and four caterpillar tunnels that supplies two farmers markets, a couple of local restaurants, and a farmstand. I reached out to Jamila in January after an arctic blast with lows in the teens hit Atlanta and decimated ...
Jul 17, 2023•1 hr 23 min
In 2015, Amy Frye and Jacob Slosberg of Boldly Grown Farm in Bow, WA, started a one-acre farm at an incubator farm shortly after meeting and working on their university farm. Now, in their ninth season, they’ve purchased their own farm property and currently cultivate 30 acres of vegetables, a couple acres of grains, dry beans, seed crops, and flowers. Winter crops have always been the focus from the beginning. Eighty percent of sales are through wholesale channels including distributors and foo...
Jul 10, 2023•1 hr 13 min
Jillian and Ross Mickens of Open Door Farm in Cedar Grove, NC, work collaboratively with previous podcast guests Vera and Gordon of Ten Mother Farm to fill CSA boxes with many of the land intensive crops like potatoes and winter squash. With 5 acres under cultivation, and eleven seasons under their belt, they recently made the transition to winter-only sales from mid-August to the end of March, while using the main-season to tend to storage and root crop production, as well as rest during the ho...
Jul 03, 2023•1 hr 9 min
Rebecca and her husband, Mark, started Moonshot Farm in East Windsor, NJ, in 2019 after relocating from New York City to begin their dream of growing year-round cut flowers in a northern climate. In just four short years, they have built their 3.5 acre flower farm to include four high-tunnels, two of which are heated by a geothermal heating system, and they sell at two year round farmers markets, manage a 130 member CSA bouquet-of-the-month club, and an on-site farmstead. Just this year, they we...
Jun 26, 2023•1 hr 9 min
Today my guest is John Dindia of Lakeview Hill Farm in Traverse City, MI. John and his partner Bailey designed and built their farm from the ground up beginning in 2017 on a 58-acre property with 10 acres of available farmland and a 35-acre woodlot. Now, with 2.5 acres in production, they have five 30’ x 148’ heated greenhouses, a dedicated propagation house connected to a production barn, and seven 20’ x 148’ caterpillar tunnels. Plus, their farm is 75% powered by solar and they are committed t...
Jun 19, 2023•1 hr 32 min
Welcome back to the Winter Growers Podcast! In this episode, I had the pleasure of speaking with Niki Jabbour, who is an award-winning author, radio show host, educator, and gardening expert on year-round growing in a northern climate. Niki is located in Halifax, Nova Scotia, zone 5b at the 44th parallel. She enthusiastically maintains half an acre of raised beds in her back yard using a combination of a high tunnel, low tunnels, cold frames, she grows over 30 veggie crops for winter harvest, in...
Jun 12, 2023•1 hr 17 min
My guest today is... my dad, Eliot Coleman of Four Season Farm . We had such a lovely conversation during season two, so I wanted to invite him back for a listener Q&A to end season three of The Winter Growers Podcast. Mentioned in the show... The Real Organic Project Winter Growers is made possible by... Rimol Greenhouses , for high-tunnels and greenhouses. Johnny's Selected Seeds , check out their seriously amazing Growers Library . Tunnel Vision Hoops , for your Winter infrastructure need...
Aug 22, 2022•1 hr 17 min
Wolfgang Palme is the horticultural director of Zinsenhof Research Farm west of Vienna, Austria, at the 48th parallel. He's a botanist, author, hortaculturist, and farmer. The research farm has 3.7 acres under cultivation. Wolfgang's discoveries in Winter growing began as an accident 15 years ago with a trial of Asian greens. The research farm went on to test hundreds of different crops for cold hardiness and they developed detailed timetables for Winter growing in Europe. He has since written t...
Aug 15, 2022•1 hr 19 min
Finegan and Jason of Steelbow Farm , in Austin TX, may seem like unusual guests for the Winter Growers Podcast. But, with climate change and more frequent extreme weather patterns, I was curious to hear from a farm down at the 30th parallel where farming from November through March is more common. However, it is still full of challenges, such as extreme daily temperature swings. Finegan and Jason first farmed together in Austin before deciding to start their first farm in Maine, where they lease...
Aug 08, 2022•1 hr 26 min
Vivian Glover of Gemusegarten Hoxhohl , Germany, always knew she wanted to become a farmer. After studying organic farming and marketing in school and working on other farms for many years, she started her own market gerden in southern Germany in 2016. With. just under 1 acre in production, her no-dig market garden supplies a 180 member CSA, 90 of those members being year-round. Currently, she has two unheated high-tunnels and focuses on efficient production using intercropping techniques and lo...
Aug 01, 2022•1 hr 22 min
Patty Gentry of Early Girl Farm grows in Brookhaven on Long Island, NY. She has been described as "the Picasso of vegetables" and is featured in a documentary film, The Soul of a Farmer , that follows her farming journey and takes a raw and honest look at the challenges facing small-scale farmers today. As a former chef, Patty loves and understands vegetables, and she is passionate about quality and taste and supplying her customers with beautiful produce year-round. Growing on 2 acres, she sell...
Jul 25, 2022•1 hr 23 min
Charles Dowding is a pioneer of no-dig gardening in Somerset, England. He is a creator, developer, and teacher of no-dig methods for the last 40+ years. He currently has 1/3 acre under production at Home Acres which he primarily uses as a teaching site and runs a no-dig YouTube channel with instructional videos on his no-dig techniques. He's the author of 11! books, inculding How to Grow Winter Vegetables, has created several online courses, gives talks, and writes for gardening publications reg...
Jul 18, 2022•1 hr 11 min
Tim Wilcox & Caroline Pam of Kitchen Garden Farm in Sunderland, MA, began their farm as a 1-acre market garden in 2006. Sixteen years later, they've expanded to 70 acres, employ 20 employees year-round, and sell 50% wholsale veg and 50% value-added products after building an on-site commercial kitchen. They also own/operate Sunderland Farm Collaborative , an online platform offering custom-order home-delivery of local food from 50+ producers from the surrounding community. Growing in four 30...
Jul 11, 2022•1 hr 34 min
Evan Chender, The Culinary Gardener , farms in Weaverville, NC. He started his farm in 2013 and has 2 acres under cultivation, using multiple caterpillar and high tunnels. Coming from a background as a chef, Even is passionate about variety selection, soil health, crop quality, and meticulous harvest/processing techniques. 95% of his sales are to restaurants. A big portion of his Winter production is radicchio, so we spend a lot of time discussing the planning, growing, harvesting, and processin...
Jul 04, 2022•1 hr 42 min
Myrtha Zierock of Agricola Foradori farms in the Italian Dolomites of northeast Italy. She is the co-owner of her families bio-dynamic wine estate where, after spending many years learning and farming abroad in the US and Canada, she moved back to her family farm and joined her two brothers and mother to apply what she had learned. She manages two different farm locations. One is at the wine estate where crops are grown under the canopy of the high-trellised vineyards and a new site further sout...
Jun 27, 2022•1 hr 9 min
Today, Clara Coleman talks with Andrew Adams of Hope Farm Organics in Newlands BC, Canada. Hope Farm Organics is at the 54th parallel, the farthest north on the series so far, experiencing less than 7.5 hours of daylight on December 21st, the shortest day of the year. It's also located in the coldest and wettest geoclimatic zone in the Prince George Forest District, with winter lows as cold as -40 where C* and F* meet. Outdoor planting doesnt begin until late /may, frosts can still occur in July...
Jun 20, 2022•1 hr 19 min
