Jaymie Michelle Thurler tells us how she went from a dairy farming background to start Rutabaga Ranch, a certified organic bio-diverse market garden in Brinston, Ontario. At Rutabaga Ranch, they have a farmstand, sell at two farmers markets, have a CSA and sell to local restaurants. Jaymie conveys a lot of farm wisdom with humor, including advice on how to find a farm, how to stay married, and how some peculiar local ag laws led to them starting their on-farm store in a silo, which ended up being much more successful than they ever imagined.

Hear how Jaymie started the farm after burning out on her first career, which involved the huge task of rehabbing a very old house and removing 17 chest freezers from the property! She talks about what they learned from big box stores that has helped make their farm store a success. An important part of their focus as a farm is on spring season extension, since they heat their farm exclusively with waste wood from Jaymie’s husband’s arborist business. As Jaymie says, “We love great grub and having a great time growing it!”

Connect With Guest:

Website: https://rutabaga-ranch.com/

Instagram: The Rutabaga Ranch

Facebook: Rutabaga Ranch

Podcast Sponsors:

Huge thanks to our podcast sponsors as they make this podcast FREE to everyone with their generous support:

Ball Seed and Ball ColorLink are your complete source for quality cut-flower seeds, plugs, liners, and bulbs. We work closely with the world's top breeders to bring you a wide selection of all the best genetics in the top-selling classes. Connect with Ball Seed today at ballseed.com/cutflowers or call 800-879-BALL.

Local Line is the all-in-one sales platform for direct-market farms and food hubs of all sizes. Increase your sales and streamline your processes with features including e-commerce, inventory management, subscriptions, online payments, and more! Get 15% off marketing services and one premium feature for a year with the code Growing4market at https://hubs.la/Q02bpWQV0

Bootstrap Farmer offers a complete range of growing supplies including heat mats, lighting, ground cover, frost blankets, silage tarps, irrigation, and trellising. They also make all-metal, all-inclusive greenhouse frames, constructed of steel made in the USA and fabricated in Texas. Their heavy-duty, Midwest-made propagation and microgreens trays will last for years and are available in a full spectrum of colors. For all that plus experienced support for everything they sell, check out Bootstrap Farmer.

Our Website: www.GrowingForMarket.com

We cover a lot of ground in this interview, including how Sarah and Tom decided to leave their careers to start a flower farm, how Grateful Gardeners is the only cut flower farm we know of to be incorporating aquaponics, and what the heck aquaponics even is. We talk about the ups and downs of raising money from investors to help establish a farm- and how this is routine in Silicon Valley but in farming, not so much. We discuss how outside investment could accelerate the development of local farms; however one of the barriers to attracting investors to farming is that the returns are not typically as high as from the tech sector. So investors have to have a desire to help advance regenerative farming in addition to the capital to get investment to work in farming.

We also talk about how the Grateful Gardeners’ business and markets have changed as their farm has grown, and their work to incorporate aquaponics into the farm. Aquaponics is a soilless growing system, where the fertility is provided by fish living in tanks connected to the water for the plants. Instead of adding fertilizer, the fish provide the fertility through their natural biological processes moderated by bacteria that naturally occur in the environment, though there is an art and a science to managing the system. Hear all about it on this week’s pod!

Connect With Guest:

Website: www.gratefulgardeners.co

www.floraponics.co

Instagram: @grateful_gardeners

Facebook: Grateful Gardeners

Podcast Sponsors:

Huge thanks to our podcast sponsors as they make this podcast FREE to everyone with their generous support:

Ball Seed and Ball ColorLink are your complete source for quality cut-flower seeds, plugs, liners, and bulbs. Ball works closely with the world's top breeders to bring you a wide selection of all the best genetics in the top-selling classes. Connect with Ball Seed today at ballseed.com/cutflowers or call 800-879-BALL.

BCS America BCS two-wheel tractors are designed and built in Italy where small-scale farming has been a way of life for generations. Discover the beauty of BCS on your farm with PTO-driven implements for soil-working, shredding cover crops, spreading compost, mowing under fences, clearing snow, and more – all powered by a single, gear-driven machine that’s tailored to the size and scale of your operation. To learn more, view sale pricing, or locate your nearest dealer, visit BCS America.

Local Line is the all-in-one sales platform for direct-market farms and food hubs of all sizes. Increase your sales and streamline your processes with features including e-commerce, inventory management, subscriptions, online payments, and more! Get 15% off marketing services and one premium feature for a year with the code Growing4market at https://hubs.la/Q02bpWQV0

Bootstrap Farmer offers a complete range of growing supplies including heat mats, ground cover, frost blankets, silage tarps, irrigation, and trellising. They also make all-metal, all-inclusive greenhouse frames, constructed of steel made in the USA and fabricated in Texas. Their heavy-duty, Midwest-made propagation and microgreens trays will last for years and are available in a full range of colors, great for keeping farm seedlings separate from retail, or just for fun. For all that and more, check out Bootstrap Farmer at bootstrapfarmer.com.

Our Website: www.GrowingForMarket.com

This week we hear from Joshua Hughes, who is the Fresh Moves Logistics Coordinator for the Fresh Moves Mobile Market, one of the many programs of the non-profit Urban Growers Collective in Chicago. Host Katie Kulla talks with Joshua about the UGC and their work in general, but more specifically about how the organization is working to “close the food access gap.” Expanding access to food is something we’ve talked about before on this podcast and it’s something that motivates many farmers and organizations to think outside the box when it comes to marketing and distributing produce — UGC and the Fresh Moves Mobile Market represent some truly innovative thinking on the part of many people committed to evolving food systems.

As the manager of UGC’s Fresh Moves Mobile Market, Joshua works to further assist the development of food security in Chicago as a continued action in social justice. Joshua has worked in food access with UGC since late 2019 through the height of the pandemic and emergency food distribution. He has helped lead the Fresh Moves Mobile Market to create new sustainable systems to better serve Chicago’s South and West Side communities.

Connect With Guest:

Website: https://www.urbangrowerscollective.org

Podcast Sponsors:

Huge thanks to our podcast sponsors as they make this podcast FREE to everyone with their generous support:

Local Line is the all-in-one sales platform for direct-market farms and food hubs of all sizes. Increase your sales and streamline your processes with features including e-commerce, inventory management, subscriptions, online payments, and more! Get 15% off marketing services and one premium feature for a year with the code Growing4market at https://hubs.la/Q02bpWQV0

Bootstrap Farmer offers a complete range of growing supplies including heat mats, ground cover, frost blankets, silage tarps, irrigation, and trellising. They also make all-metal, all-inclusive greenhouse frames, constructed of steel made in the USA and fabricated in Texas. Their heavy-duty, Midwest-made propagation and microgreens trays will last for years and are available in a full range of colors, great for keeping farm seedlings separate from retail, or just for fun. For all that and more, check out Bootstrap Farmer at bootstrapfarmer.com.

BCS two-wheel tractors are designed and built in Italy where small-scale farming has been a way of life for generations. Discover the beauty of BCS on your farm with PTO-driven implements for soil-working, shredding cover crops, spreading compost, mowing under fences, clearing snow, and more – all powered by a single, gear-driven machine that’s tailored to the size and scale of your operation. To learn more, view sale pricing, or locate your nearest dealer, visit BCS America

Our Website: www.GrowingForMarket.com