There are some that would argue the decision to become a farmer starts with alcohol, for our guest today, it started with Wine, but not the way you may be thinking.
Jesse Frost, from Rough Draft Farmstead, is joining us today to talk about how he started farming, the transition from urban to rural life, journalism, the No-Till Market Garden Podcast and much more.
Listen To the Show
Shownotes:
- Instead of scaling up or down, improving your market garden may be a matter of scaling inward
- Jesse’s interest in agriculture began with working with biodynamic
wines and learning about the principles behind their production - While learning about Biodynamic wine production, he came across The One Straw Revolution by Masanobu Fukuoaka
- The first on-farm experience started when Jesse started working as an intern at Bug-Tussle Farm, where he met his wife, Hannah
- When you focus what you’re interested in it can be easier to find someone to be with, even though you’re eliminating more people
- Jesse was from New York City and Hannah from Chicago, there was an adjustment, but they found it was extraordinarily rewarding
- If he was to do it over again, Jesse would probably have waited longer to start his farm, building up his overall farming skill set first
- A farm can be an ideological expression, but it’s also a business
- Even though it may not look creative, there’s also a creative element to running a business when you approach it from that angle
- No-Till gardening is simply put not disturbing the soil as much as possible
- On a technical level, there are many ways of being “No-Till”
- Jesse started the No-Till Market Garden Podcast to fill a gap in the information space
- Certifications can be useful, but not all necessary Organic Certification can answer questions in advance that customers
may need to ask
Connect with Jesse:
https://www.instagram.com/notillgrowers/