We are in year 14 of farming, with four kids ages 15 to 9 and running multiple profit centers — that leads to a whole lot of decisions. A Google scholar search revealed the average adult makes up to 35,000 decisions a day. I think the average market farmer makes twice that many. Add kids, and double that again!

We all know the August burnout feeling. It’s hot, your summer crew has just left, fall and winter plantings are going on, and the approaching fall harvest requires many decisions and prioritization. Early in my farming career I used to experience the physical fatigue of being worn out from all the labor. Hiring more team members, going no-till, mechanizing appropriately, and having standard practices greatly relieved that.

Farming and gardening are in my soul. From a young age, I was intrigued by gardening, and I fell into a first job at a local nursery and then moved on to the Anchorage, Alaska  Parks and Recreation department landscaping. I’ve always had a backyard garden and have always been in love with plants.

If you’re reading this, you also gravitated toward growing because it somehow fills your soul. If so, congratulations on finding the courage to create a life doing what you love. After multiple twists and turns, I came back to growing on a 40-acre Wisconsin farm in 2013.

When I arrived at La Ferme des Quatre-Temps in southern Quebec, I had a lot to learn. At the time, I didn’t know how many things you have to manage for a successful growing season. I started out as an apprentice. After a year, I got promoted to greenhouse manager. That afforded me the privilege of obtaining passwords to operate the farm’s automation system.

I became responsible for maximizing the production of a 10,000-square-foot, multispan greenhouse, three individual greenhouses and five cold tunnels. The multispan greenhouse alone produces over $100,000 of tomatoes. No need to tell you there was a lot to learn. The pressure was even greater because of what happened the year before …

If you are managing a small scale farm or market garden, you are likely already aware of the importance of soil health management. You are probably also aware of the skyrocketing cost of amendments and fertilizers. While vermicomposting on your farm won’t necessarily replace or eliminate those costs, it will greatly reduce them as well as provide benefits that just adding fertilizer will not provide. I have been vermicomposting for 7 years, and it is something I am quite passionate about.

No-till and low-till farming is all the rage right now. Like a lot of newer farmers I began farming quite enthralled by these practices. Pictures of immaculate farms on Instagram, compelling books, and detailed articles in this very magazine tout benefits of no-till farming for healthier soil, fewer pests and weeds, and even reduced labor. No-till farming also makes sense from an ecological perspective as it preserves carbon in the soil and minimizes use of fuel-guzzling tractors.

To be completely honest, I don’t have the most followers. I don’t know how to go viral (yet), and I’m unsure of all the best practices to work the algorithms behind social media. But I have figured out how to use social media to my advantage by mastering the mindset needed to show up regularly in a focused and joyful way. 

Why is this important? Because social media marketing is one piece of the farm marketing puzzle. If you’ve struggled with figuring out why it’s beneficial or are avoiding it on the regular, here’s what interacting regularly on social media allows you to do:

In 2003, one year out of college, my partner David and I drove across the country, from Alabama to Washington State, to spend the summer interning on Full Circle Farm in Carnation, WA. Fortunately for us, Brady Hatch and Brendan McQuillen were doing the same that summer, traveling from the northeast coast. 

When our internship ended in the fall, David and I returned to Alabama to start Snow’s Bend Farm. After a brief stint in Florida where Brady worked on Sweetwater Farm, the two of them made their way to her home state of Maine and started Morning Dew Farm.

Before I quit my job to farm full-time, I had a career in cybersecurity and risk management. At first glance, this might sound like it has nothing to do with farming. But farming might involve more risk management than almost any other profession. A large part of my previous job was creating risk registers and brainstorming worst case scenarios for large international companies, then helping them create plans to manage these risks. We’ve taken a similar approach to managing risks on our farm. 

I’m a bit of a reluctant tarp and insect netting user, largely because I hate handling the stuff. Back in March of 2021 Jonathan Leiss of Spring Forth Farm wrote an article on his folding method for tarps, with nice details on little tricks to really make that system work for them. I have a slightly different method I wanted to share, and we also use it for the insect netting that we have on the farm, which is different than most insect netting I’ve seen available to growers, and in my experience it’s far superior, handling a bit more like a tarp.

When starting out, many farmers look at what other farmers charge and copy their pricing. It’s quite common. Others want to keep prices in line with the local supermarket. Maybe you did the same? If you’ve done a cost of production analysis or even a bigger picture profitability analysis, you may realize you will need to raise your prices if you want to be financially sustainable. 

I don’t need to tell you that increasing your prices is not as simple as it sounds. Will your customers still buy from you if you raise your prices? Does raising your prices misalign with your mission of providing local sustainable food at an affordable price? 

Does it make any sense for a market vegetable or flower grower to plant an apple orchard?  It’s a question I’ve asked myself a fair bit over the last eight years of both growing for a 100-plus member CSA and managing a small, 500-tree certified organic orchard. As our orchard matures and we find ourselves putting certified organic apples (and smaller numbers of pears and plums) in summer, fall, and winter CSA boxes, I think the answer now, for us, is – YES!