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007 The business of being a regenerative keystone species: Peter Allen of Mastodon Valley Farm

Pasture-Raised Podcast

Release Date: 03/09/2020

023. 4 Enterprises, 3 Kingdoms, 2 Families, 1 Farm show art 023. 4 Enterprises, 3 Kingdoms, 2 Families, 1 Farm

Pasture-Raised Podcast

For the past decade, two families have settled on a rolling 120 acre property in Henry County, KY under the name “Valley Spirit Farm”. We discuss their unique partnership, the ways they’ve integrated their pork and beef with mushrooms and vegetables, plus marketing, business structure, and much more.

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022 Farm Marketing with Ginger Shields show art 022 Farm Marketing with Ginger Shields

Pasture-Raised Podcast

Ginger shields of Pastured Life Farm joined me to discuss her extensive knowledge and experience in farm marketing.

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21. Ginger Shields on our farms' most important product: future adult humans show art 21. Ginger Shields on our farms' most important product: future adult humans

Pasture-Raised Podcast

When done thoughtfully, farms provide a great context for raising kids; especially when education is seen as life-long, and as wide as the world around us. Dave and Ginger rely on their children to run their successful farm business with them. And they rely on their farm to provide the context for learning about the world around them: how to work and learn, or at least to fan the flames of the curiosity we are all born with. Look for Episode 22 to see our discussion on farm marketing.

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20. Joelle Wood: Striking out on your own: growing, marketing, processing, and skilling up. show art 20. Joelle Wood: Striking out on your own: growing, marketing, processing, and skilling up.

Pasture-Raised Podcast

I talked to Joelle Wood about her path towards guiding her farm as she took on a lot in 2020, feeding her community and seizing on great opportunities to grow her farm; all while holding to her aspirational values. 

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019 The Post-Permaculture Pig Farmer -Cliff Davis show art 019 The Post-Permaculture Pig Farmer -Cliff Davis

Pasture-Raised Podcast

Cliff Davis spent much of his adult life, and became known across the region as a permaculture educator. But in this episode we talk about his new act: farming and breeding pigs, and selling food to his community in central Tennessee. This episode explores much of this transition, as well as going deep into Cliff's business, hog genetics, and the application of his principles to his livelihood on his particular piece of land.

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18 A Farmer, A Butcher, and A USDA Compliance Officer walk into a bar... show art 18 A Farmer, A Butcher, and A USDA Compliance Officer walk into a bar...

Pasture-Raised Podcast

After Jesse sharing on episode 17, Matthew joins the conversation to share about the ins and outs of their operation; but especially hiring and managing employees, and navigating USDA inspected slaughter and processing with both poultry and mammals.

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17 Growing/Processing/Selling/Staffing a farm with Jesie Lawrence  show art 17 Growing/Processing/Selling/Staffing a farm with Jesie Lawrence

Pasture-Raised Podcast

Part 1 of 2 with the Marble Creek Farmstead Team: I had the pleasure of speaking with Jesie and Matthew Lawrence about the many sides of their diverse business, including farming, marketing, selling, and processing on a growing farm. In this episode Jesie helped me wrap my brain around all they do, their infrastructure, staff, and the ways they get their products to their customers. Check them out at the links below!

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016 Mid-Season Check up! show art 016 Mid-Season Check up!

Pasture-Raised Podcast

I asked some of our past guests to share their answers to seven questions, so that we could hear some unique perspectives on how different farms and farmers across the country are faring during the wild year that is 2020. Joe Koopsen, Jordan Green, and Ben Grimes all shared their answers to my questions.

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015 Marketing, Distribution, and Partnerships for Efficient and Successful Farm Business with Curtis Brown show art 015 Marketing, Distribution, and Partnerships for Efficient and Successful Farm Business with Curtis Brown

Pasture-Raised Podcast

Curtis Brown is back for part two of our interview, where we talk all about how he has, and will continue to, get his meat into his customers' hands. We talk CSA logistics, marketing ideas, and streamlining through a cooperative distribution network. 

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014 Regenerating the Northern Plains with Curtis Brown show art 014 Regenerating the Northern Plains with Curtis Brown

Pasture-Raised Podcast

Part one of Two:

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Peter, with his wife, Maureen, and two children live in a fairly remote section of the Kikapoo valley in Wisconsin. Peter's entrance into farming, as you'll hear, came from -of all places, academics. I much appreciate how Peter was able to enter an environment like that, utilize it to grow in his understanding of the world around him, and then apply enough critical thinking to find a lifeway that diverged from any pre-determined course, but fit within his ethics and his new understanding of the world around him. 
 
 Critical thinking and clear vision leading to bold action, with that much on the line, is rare. But as you'll see, the bravery and competence are paying off, as they build a farm and a life on it in a way that is maximizing soil and biomass accumulation, ecosystem function, biodiversity, and human flourishing.
 
Peter is someone I've learned a lot from, and who's teachings and descriptions have helped me gain an understanding of the landscape around me that I interact with daily. I'll give you one example that didn't even come into the discussion recorded here: Its a simple concept, and for many its a hard pill to swallow: At some point in the past, Peter has described efficiency and resilience as inversely correlative: Any redundancy would be less efficient than having a simple way of achieving a goal, but more resilient.
 
 This of course can explain phenomenon we see from diversity on the landscape, to our marketing portfolio. It is more efficient to raise one thing on a land base, at least in terms of time, equipment and management. But it is more resilient to promote diversity in the landscape -both for the humans and the other players in the ecosystem. Or if you think about having one six figure account, or one hundred four-figure accounts, its more resilient, but less efficient to move your products to 100 customers, who almost definitely won't all leave you at the same time.  In a sense, efficiency can be a trap -something you need to achieve a certain level of in order to create a marketable product. But also something that can tempt you to seek out greater and greater efficiencies -until you've got tens of thousands of animals in barns.  As you explore it further, you realize that the exceptions to the rule aren't as many as you would have hoped. This isn't hard to understand. But this is among the many ideas that Peter has explained to me that help me to build a framework around what I'm doing and try to conceptualize the most resilient lifestyle, while being adequately efficient to make a living.

That's just a piece of thinking that Peter has given me, but one we don't even touch on in this podcast. Up ahead we talk all about the ecological basis for Peter's farm and farm name, what he's producing, how he's producing it, and how he and Maureen are building a loyal customer base despite the challenges of being in a remote section of the upper mid-west.  We go deep into some of his constraints with cold winters, hay buying, shipping meat, and his CSA program, which was the inspiration behind my own CSA program that has become the centerpiece of our farm's retail presence.
 
Peter and Maureen:
Mastodonvalleyfarm.com
Mastodonvalleymedicinals.com
Instagram.com/mastodonvalleyfarm
 
Me:
grocefamilyfarm.com
Instagram.com/grocefamilyfarm