Greenhorns Radio

This week’s featured farmer is Mike Sullivan:

Churchill Orchard Manager, picker, tour guide, weeder, legal counsel, bricoleur, grafter, security guard, fruit packer, and laborer, Mike Sullivan, loves his work. After doing less physically fulfilling, psychically rewarding, and mentally engaging work, he is at home caring for avocados, Ojai Pixie Tangerines, and Kishu mandarins in Ojai, California. Mike works with owners Jim Churchill and Lisa Brenneis, who continue to make the serious business of farming a fun and interesting venture for him. Today’s program was brought to you by Heritage Foods USA.

“My tasks are wide and varied. I did all the pruning, which is crazy considering I don’t have a background in this.” [07:00]

–Mike Sullivan on Greenhorns Radio

Today’s featured farmers: Mary Bricker & Noah Jackson

Mary Bricker is an ecologist with a passion for natural history and and teaching. She has worked with students in the classroom, in school gardens and local natural areas, and on backpacking and sea kayaking wilderness trips. Her ecology research on species interactions has given her the perfect excuse to get her boots muddy in a wide range of locations and ecosystems: temperate rainforests in Oregon, tropical forests of Central America and East Africa, and western Montana prairies in all seasons.

Mary earned a B.A. in Biology from Lewis and Clark College and PhD in Ecology from the University of Montana. Before working with Forest Voices, she taught as an assistant professor of Biology at Pacific University in Oregon.

Noah Jackson is a conservation consultant and storyteller whose work combines photography, writing, and new media to document conservation and community issues. He has worked in Asia and Africa for over a decade, starting as a Peace Corps volunteer, and continuing through graduate work, a Fulbright fellowship, independent projects, and as an auditor and farmer trainer for the Rainforest Alliance. His storytelling work can be found in publications such as the National Geographic Traveler, the Rainforest Alliance Blog and Canopy newsletter.

Noah holds a BA in Anthropology and Environmental studies with a minor in Biology, from Bowdoin College, and a MS from the University of Montana School of Forestry.

Julia and Todd met in 2002 around a barbecue in the backyard of a Chicago apartment. Todd revealed his “not very ambitious” desire to become an organic vegetable farmer. They married in 2007 and started Peasants’ Plot. Seven years later, the couple is living in a trailer outside of Manteno with 20 acres, chickens, a machine shed/woodworking shop, three high tunnels, two “guest trailers,” two tractors, a corn crib, a skateboard ramp, a massage practice, and a dog named Merle. They have realized that their dream to grow vegetables sustainably is possibly one of the most ambitious career goals around. Funded by their own savings, a farm mortgage, an FSA Loan, USDA Specialty Crop Grants, the Frontera Farmer Foundation and a Kickstarter, they have built up their farm slowly and steadily from 60 CSA members in 2009 to 250 members. Todd’s background in house-building, carpentry, woodworking, basic mechanics and organic gardening compliments Julia’s inclination towards marketing, outreach and farm advocacy. In addition to building their own business, Julia has been a leader in the Chicago CSA community, organizing annual events that help spread awareness about Community Supported Agriculture. They are committed to proving the viability of sustainable farming with the help of an equally committed community! Thanks to our sponsor, Bonnie Plants.

“A lot of CSAs are going to be like us in that they will have to approach non-traditional forms of funding. Many banks won’t look at these kind of business plans because they haven’t seen them before.” [12:00]

— Julia McDonald on Greenhorns Radio

Nolan Thevenet is the owner of Stryker Farm in the Pocono Mountains of Pennsylvania. He is a first generation farmer, raising pigs and goats which he sells through grocery stores, restaurants, and off the farm at his brand new farm stand. His goal is to provide full transparency for those who want to learn more about their food and it’s origins. This program was sponsored by Heritage Foods USA.

“We’ll keep raising pigs until we use up the land we have here. We don’t want to overcrowd so the pigs don’t have land to forage.” 9:00

–Nolan Thevenet on Greenhorns Radio

This week’s guest on Greenhorns Radio is Peter Allen is an ecologist turned farmer focused on restoring functional and productive savanna ecosystems. He owns and manages Mastodon Valley Farm in Southwestern Wisconsin where he’s developing a farm and homestead, planting thousands of trees and grazing cattle, pigs, sheep, goats, and poultry. He also runs Savanna Gardens, LLC, an education and consulting company focused on permaculture, restoration agriculture, holistic planning, and ecological design. Today’s program was brought to you by Heritage Foods USA

Jeffrey Ellis and Rebecca Beidler, Peace of Earth Farm Owners, Albany, VT

Jeffrey Ellis and Rebecca Beidler have owned and operated Peace of Earth Farm in Albany, Vermont since 2010. At Peace of Earth they have a sprouting operation year round. Jeffrey and Rebecca also grow a mix of vegetables, herbs and small fruits for their CSA and local wholesale accounts. Peace of Earth Farm is a no-till animal powered farm striving towards growing healthy soil, healthy plants and health in those that eat them. Today’s show was brought to you by Heritage Foods USA.

This week’s featured farmer: Linda McCullough Decker

Linda McCullough Decker is currently serving as a trustee and board member of the Steve Trigg Ranch in eastern New Mexico. She is one of twenty-three heirs who, rather than choosing to inherit a portion of the ranch, created a perpetual trust to own and operate the ranch. Now one of the challenges is learning to work with all the other heirs to operate the ranch. The other challenge is to keep the ranch prospering in a prolonged drought. Her preparation for these tasks was childhood summer visits to her grandmother on the ranch, a college major in Renaissance history, a master’s degree in divinity, and ordination at age 73 as an Episcopal priest.

This week’s featured farmer: Rory Beyer, Co-Owner of Beyercrest, LLC, Rollingstone, MN.

Rory Beyer is a recently married 35 year-old Organic Farmer from Rollingstone, MN. He has a bachelor’s degree from the University of Wisconsin-River Falls in Animal Science (2000). Together with his parents they formed Beyercrest, LLC. in the spring of 2008. Beyercrest is a Dairy and Crop enterprise where they have a partnership between Rory and his parents Richard and Sharon. Beyercrest consists of a 135-cow Organic Dairy. Altogether the land base is 600+ acres of organic land certified since fall of 2009. Beyercrests’ main focus is to farm organically and to be as sustainable as possible – economically as well as ecologically. They have integrated the use of cover cropping for fertilizer and weed management as well as rotational grazing in the dairy enterprise to maximize their efficiency and lower feed costs. Recently the cropping enterprise switched to more efficient means of fertilizing crops by using liquid fertilizer and foliar feeding. They began selling their milk to Organic Valley in the fall of 2009 and sell crops (other than what the dairy uses) to a local feed mill (Premier co-op, Westby, WI). This program was sponsored by S. Wallace Edwards & Sons

“80/90% of what you get off of your farm when it comes from production out of the cows is going to come from your management practices and how you actually deal with your animals – it’s only 10% that comes from genetics. To get attached to genetics is a false hope.” [15:00]

“You have to show the math works – you have to prove what you’re doing makes sense. It’s not too hard to change somebody’s mind when you [show them numbers].” [13:00]

–Rory Beyer on Greenhorns Radio

Devin Shea, MSU Agriculture Grad Student, MI

Devin Shea is a 20-something that has dedicated his adult life to the exploration of Americana and its future. After a few years of in depth traveling by any means available, hitchhiking to air travel, Shea found himself with his original goal of traveling to all of the lower 48 states met. The thesis that Shea accrued from these years was that small town America and its agricultural roots were shifting drastically. He took a few jobs in the beef cattle industry to really see what it was all about and he fell in love, prompting him to seek higher education in beef production. Shea attended Michigan State University’s College of Agriculture and Natural Resources to gain a formal education in forages and cattle health and management. He has been actively discussing alternative management programs with industry professionals as well as those in academia to hypothesize where the livestock industry needs to be headed to utilize natural resources efficiently with animal and ecosystem welfare being of most importance. He will begin working with a ranch in Southwest New Mexico to improve the farm to table food system infrastructure as well as natural grassland restoration with nature conservancies. This program was sponsored by Hearst Ranch.

“When it comes down to it – what’s good for cattle is good for business.” [12:00]

–Devin Shea on Greenhorns Radio

Jason Bradford’s journey to Farmland LP wound through college classrooms, South American forests, and California farm fields. A PhD in biology, Jason spent several years researching and teaching ecology at the university level. It was then that he became serious about sustainability and reversing the impacts of overconsumption and a global economy. Inspired to take action, he left academia and started a non-profit that championed local economies and an organic farm and CSA. At that time he experienced first-hand the enormous barriers to entry for farmers and the challenges individual farms face in attempting to scale a more diversified farming system. He and co-founder Craig Wichner formed Farmland LP to buy land and test the theory that, with the right management, sustainable agriculture can happen at scale. Jason oversees the management of its 6750 acres in Oregon and California. Jason received his Ph.D. in Evolution and Population Biology from Washington University in St. Louis and a B.S. in Biology from the University of California, Davis. He is a board member of the Post Carbon Institute and an Economic Development Commissioner for the City of Corvallis. This program was sponsored by Heritage Foods USA.

It’s a lot of work to get to know a farmer –what their interest are, their capacity.” [22:00]

–Jason Bradford on Greenhorns Radio