Green

Greenhorn Radio

Hosted by: Severine von Tscharner Fleming

Produced by: Jack Inslee

Engineered by: Nat Weiner

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Thursdays at 2:00PM EST

Greenhorn Radio is radio for young farmers, by young farmers. Helmed by acclaimed activist, farmer, and documentarian Severine Fleming, Greenhorn Radio is a weekly phone interview session, surveying America's cutting edge, under-forty farmers.

For more info: www.thegreenhorns.net

Severine is an agriculturalist, activist and organizer based in the Hudson Valley, NY. She is the director and chief logistician of the Greenhorns project. The Greenhorns is a small, land-based non profit for young farmers.

Recent Episodes

Greenhorn Radio - Episode 55 - Richard Wiswall

Greenhorn Radio - Episode 54 - Growing Washington

Greenhorn Radio - Episode 53 - Falling Sky Farm

Previous episodes


Episodes:
Greenhorn Radio - Episode 56 - Marguerite of Mother Plants Nursery
First Aired - 09/02/2010 02:00PM

This week on Greenhorn Radio Sev speaks to Marguerite of Mother Plants Nursery in upstate NY. Mother Plants specializes in baby plants that are green-roof ready, so you can jump start the "green" part of your green roof. They have a seemingly infinite amount of low maintenance, draft tolerant, "plug-size" plants and can deliver anywhere UPS is willing to trek. Their goal is to be a catalyst for the public's growing interest in green roofs, and facilitate not only the start of new roofs, but to ensure current roofs are the botanical wonderlands their owners had envisioned. This episode was sponsored by Hearst Ranch: purveyors of all natural grass-fed cattle from the coast of California.

Photo: A green roof w/Mother Plants Nursery plants

Whole Episode:
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Sponsored by Hearst_logo
Hosted By Green

Segments:

Marguerite of Mother Plants (6:55)

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the young farming population giving us an edible future, Hearst Ranch, Marguerite, Mother Plants Nursery, specifically growing plants for green roofs, their business is wherever UPS can take plants, the genus Cetum, Kelly the growing manager is full time during the growing season, a pretty small operation, Marguerite likes a small scale farm, its a niche market, they want to compete directly with gian nurserys that offer the same plants, working with people to find out what plants would work best for them, Mother Plants share space with another different enterprises, it costs money to build new tractor sheds, sharing space with a timber framer, using an old hay barn as a timber framing shop, renting an acre frmo an inner city lot in exchange for mechanical expertise, Marguerite's background is organic livestock farming, there is a large vibrant organic veggie community in Ithica, Marguerite did not want to compete with friends in her community in Ithica, Marguerite does not have a subsidy to keep her from having to pay a mortgage so she needed a business that had a reliable return, the nursery trade did not interest her before but she has a strong personal conviction towards doing something good and green for the world,

Ithaca & Barn Painting (16:05)

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why is Ithica a great place to live?, juxtaposing rural living with diverse culture, there are restaurants and people from all over, its like living in the big city but with rolling cornfields, a more mature local food community, finding niches you can actually make a living in, Marguerite did not want to be a typical delivery girl, many of our young farmers thinking through their business are trying to strategize how to get a higher profit margin so they can make some babies, how does Marguerita get her barns painted?, there is no online presence for nomadic barn painting operations, holes in the organic system, more players will strengthen the organic movement, there is a strong difference between farming as a lifestyle and for fun and farming as making a living and for a job, hanging geraniums as an unexpected cash crop, people will spend WAY more money on pretty ornamental flowers than on organic food, people haggle over food and not useless pretty flowers, wanting to grow things that are edible and useful, take a small business course at a local credit union!, pick the brains of other small business owners in similiar fields!,

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Greenhorn Radio - Episode 55 - Jarrett Man
First Aired - 08/26/2010 02:00PM

This week on Greenhorns Radio Sev speaks with Jarrett Man of Stone Soup Farm in Belchertown, MA‎. Jarret speaks on the hurdles of working with volunteers--separating the dedicated vikings of the earth from the lackadaisical volunteers who disappear after the first bead of sweat. He and Sev praise The Small Farm Institute, an organization responsible for starting the farming career of Man and many, many others. Man also speaks on learning about farming; his school-born, formal, explicit education versus his on-sight, subtle, experiential wisdom. This episode was sponsored by Hearst Ranch.

Whole Episode:
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Sponsored by Hearst_logo
Hosted By Green

Segments:

Jarrett Man of Stone Soup Farms (12:23)

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Jarrett Man, Stone Soup Farms, http://sites.google.com/site/stonesoupfarm/, leaseholds to starting farmers, the principles of community orientation and environmental respect, farming methods good for the environment and community, a strong emphasis on being a real for-profit business, Jarrett came from Red Fire Farm, Jarrett's apprenticeship process, Jarrett came from a science background, finding solutions to problems quickly and efficiently, small farmers that are becoming viable that haven't been for a generation, college-educated entrepreneurs are starting farms now which is a fairly new trend, there are a lot of movements like local foods and sustainablity and environmentalism that farming can address in a pragmatic way, farming for Jarrett is a means to an end rather than the ultimate goal, how Jarrett leased his land, LandLink is a program that matches landholders with people seeking out land, Jarrett's crew ranges from just him to six or seven in the summer, Stone Soup has 3 apprentices and 2 part-timers with previous ag experience and some workshares involved with CSA plus some volunteers, the CSA workshares work three months for five months of CSA food, Jarrett tries not to base farm labor on volunteerism because the work can be so intense, small vegetable operations are vulnerable to labor shortages because the work is so hard, Sev's advice to volunteers: show up don't flake out and wear a hat, Jarrett has benefited from having a service provider (The Small Farm Institute), Small Farm Institute hooked up with Stone Soup and Red Fire Farms with land, Greenhorns is working on how to be the most effective client of a service provider, how to approach your extension officer, people are becoming farmers who wouldn't have been farmers in the past,

Science, Mechanization, and Experience on the Farm (16:35)

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the profit margin for farming is very slim ergo if you're not effective at what you do you won't be doing it for long, Jarrett's knowledge of soil science and microbes has been helpful, a lot of farming is knowledge, having a good green thumb, some problems on the farm have science answers and some have answers based on a personal philosophy, farming is learning every day whether is explicit learning or experiential, its important to be aware of the general mood of the public, right now people generally want to support small farmers who are good to the land and their workers, comprimises must be made on a farm in order to stay viable, Jarrett worries the fervor of the current movement might burn itself out like a fad, many industries and companies are starting to hop on the green bandwagon, sustainability is not just trying to stop spraying but financial sustainability, if a small farm is spending too much time doing something a bigger farmer has mechanized eventually the small farm will lose out in the market, if we really want to transition our food system to a system that produces a lot of food without pesticides etc you have to accept blemishes and generally lower your beauty standards, Stone Soup farms produces a lot of beautiful food but some of it isnt, CSA is brilliant because CSA members stick with a farm and it becomes their friend so they are less judgemental and more tolerant of the product, the best way to support good agricultural practices is to do your homework and choose the most responsible farm in your CSA, there is room for more farms as long as the demand continues to rise, Jarrett is worried demand may drop off, Jarrett is accepting applications for apprentices for next season, Stone Soup Farm's Chilifest is the third Saturday in August, Hearst Ranch, the ability to intuit whats going on in a complex system like a farm, diesel fuel must be burned and salaries are not as high as Jarrett would like because both are a necessity to stay in business,

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