Not Only Farmers

Chris Jagger
Not Only Farmers

I thought it was time to start a podcast to learn more about the intersection of culture and farming in our modern world. I want to hear the stories of farmers and all the other folks that make agriculture work. Stories of growing up, stories of how they’ve made it this far, and stories of where they’re going. I think too often we paint a picture of what agriculture was and often forget that agriculture exists in our modern world of interconnectedness and rapidly evolving techniques and ideas.

  1. OCT 15

    #26: Katie Kulla- Author, Farmer, Artist, Educator

    Today I'm talking with Katie Kulla.  I've known Katie since she and her husband, Casey, started their farm Oakhill Organics in the early 2000s.  Over the years, Katie has done a lot of different things besides just farming. She's written for Growing For Market Magazine, co-hosted the Growing For Market Podcast, as well as making some really cool farm-inspired art.  Now, she's written a book called "Farm-Raised Kids” coming out October 29th. We talk about how Katie went from being a farmer to becoming a writer. And talk about the actual process of writing the book.  It's always fun and interesting to see how people can pivot and evolve throughout their lives, even for farmers. I hope you all enjoy this episode. It’s always super fun to catch up with old friends.  Website- www.katiekulla.com "Farm-Raised Kids" Book- www.katiekulla.com/books Out on October 29th- Preorder through Katie's website or through your local book seller. Growing For Market Article- "Strategies for balancing parenting and farm work"- https://growingformarket.com/articles/strategies-balancing-parenting-and-farm-work --------------------------------- Not Only Farmers Links Youtube: ⁠https://www.youtube.com/@notonlyfarmers⁠ Instagram: ⁠⁠⁠⁠https://instagram.com/notonlyfarmerspodcast⁠⁠⁠⁠ Twitter: ⁠⁠⁠⁠https://twitter.com/notonlyfarmers⁠⁠⁠⁠ Chris Jagger's Links Instagram: ⁠⁠⁠⁠https://instagram.com/bluefoxfarm⁠⁠⁠⁠ Podcast and Video Editing by Chris Jagger and Render Bender Productions Render Bender Productions:  ⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.youtube.com/@RenderBenderProductions

    1h 27m
  2. AUG 11

    #25- Food Hub Round Table Discussion

    This Episode Originally Aired on the Doomer Optimist Podcast Channel. https://www.doomeroptimism.com/ Today we sat down with four similar-minded folks to talk about our personal experiences with various Food Hub models. We let the conversation go free form- like we were sitting on the front porch at one of our farms and just chatting with friends. It was a great and insightful conversation for all of us and we vowed to record another episode in the future to get updates on our respective projects.  Megan Kinney- Director of Cooperative Distribution-North Coast Growers Association https://www.northcoastgrowersassociation.org/ As the director of Harvest Hub, Megan seeks to increase our community's access to local food infrastructure like cold storage and distribution systems. This includes coordinating the Harvest Box program (a multi-farm CSA-style produce box), the Farm-to-Freezer project (a freezer for use by NCGA members), and overseeing the operations of Harvest Hub. She sits on the board of Humboldt Made and is the co-chair of the Food Access Working Group in the Humboldt COAD. She is a registered and certified Trainer with the Produce Safety Alliance through Cornell University. Megan is honored to have been awarded the Community Alliance with Family Farmers 2022 Farmers' Market Champion of the Year and is a graduate of the Food Systems Leadership Cohort and Leadership Redwood Coast in 2023. Amy Neukom- Co Owner Neukom Family Farms https://www.instagram.com/neukomfamilyfarm/ Neukom Family Farms is a small family farm located along the Trinity River in Inland Northern Humboldt County. We dry farm tree fruit including peaches. pluots, plums, figs, apples, Asian and European pears. We also grow a variety of annuals such as heirloom and slicer tomatoes, melons, winter squash, and dried beans utilizing water conservation techniques. A majority of our land is kept natural for the abundance of wildlife in our area. Dru Zucchino- Executive Director- TRACTOR Food and Farms https://tractorfoodandfarms.com/ Hailing from the Old North State, Dru is the Executive Director of TRACTOR Food and Farms. He has over a decade of experience in North Carolina agriculture, ranging from conventional blueberry production in Pender County to biodynamic fruit orchards in Mitchell County. He holds a BA in English Literature and a BFA in Creative Writing from the University of North Carolina-Wilmington. He lives in Mitchell County, where he, his wife, Jessica, and two children keep busy managing small fruit plots and orchards. Chris Jagger- Co-Owner Blue Fox Farm, Not Only Farmers Podcast https://www.instagram.com/bluefoxfarm/ https://open.spotify.com/show/12YRGbk9IYMh4gbR0pTkEh?si=cb16eecee40a49e5 Chris and Melanie started farming in Santa Cruz, CA in the late 90’s and took the classic route of on-farm internships with several mentors until they had the gumption to start their own farm in southern Oregon in the early 2000’s. Blue Fox Farm started as a 1-acre farm, scaled to 45 acres, and is now back at 5 acres in production. Chris has supplemented their farm income with his Blue Fox Ag Services consulting business, helping farmers scale efficiently and farm cost-effectively. Chris also has a labor-of-love podcast Not Only Farmers, where he chats with interesting people doing things in agriculture.

    1h 45m
  3. 12/04/2023

    #21: Michael Girdley- Keeping Life in Perspective While Building an Empire

    Michael's Links: Website: https://girdley.com/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/girdley/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@girdleyworld This week’s conversation is with someone outside of agriculture.  Over the years, some of my best business decisions have originated outside of Ag. I love having the opportunity to talk with people in the greater business world in hopes I can find ideas and solutions to bring back to agriculture.  This week my conversation is with Michael Girdley. Michael owns a 100 million dollar + holding company that oversees 12 businesses that include a fireworks retailer, software companies, recruiting services, tech investments, and education provider. Really a diverse set of businesses. And once again, due to the magic of the online world, I had a friend connect me with Michael and he was down to chat with me about his business insights over the past 30 years. We talked about his thoughts on generational theory, ideas to think outside the box in agriculture, and of course his love affair with the restaurant- Chili’s. This was a super fun conversation we had back on Halloween, and I think there’s some real gems in here that might guide folks to think differently to building businesses in a 2024 world. Not Only Farmers Links Instagram: ⁠⁠https://instagram.com/notonlyfarmerspodcast⁠⁠ Twitter: ⁠⁠https://twitter.com/notonlyfarmers⁠⁠ Chris Jagger's Links Instagram: ⁠⁠https://instagram.com/bluefoxfarm⁠⁠ Podcast and Video Editing by Chris Jagger and Render Bender Productions Render Bender Productions:  ⁠⁠https://www.youtube.com/@RenderBenderProductions

    1h 14m
  4. 10/16/2023

    #19: Clint Fischer- Farm Succession/Transition Models and Braintrust Ag Online

    Clint's Links: Braintrust Ag: https://braintrustag.com/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/clintwfischer LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/clint-fischer-5141aa116/ This week I’m talking with Clint Fischer-  one of my many Ag friends from the land of the app formerly known as Twitter. Clint is an Ag Business management specialist that focuses mostly on succession and transition planning for families and agricultural estates. It was great to finally catch up with Clint IRL to hear a bit about his story- including passing the bar exam (Congrats my friend!) We chat about the challenges families go through during succession/transition planning, frameworks of those plans, and also talk about his online community he’s been creating over the past year- Braintrust Ag.  Braintrust Ag is a platform for supporting people working on growing their Ag businesses and a place to share resources and stories with other like minded folks. It’s a great concept that will definitely continue to grow with time. I encourage everyone to check it out. As always I’ll share all the links in the show notes for the episode. There’s a lot of insightful Frameworks for Agriculture within this episode. I hope it will get you thinking about new directions and approaches for your own farm. Not Only Farmers Links Instagram: https://instagram.com/notonlyfarmerspodcast Twitter: https://twitter.com/notonlyfarmers Chris Jagger's Links Instagram: https://instagram.com/bluefoxfarm Podcast and Video Editing by Chris Jagger and Render Bender Productions Render Bender Productions:  https://www.youtube.com/@RenderBenderProductions

    1h 51m
5
out of 5
12 Ratings

About

I thought it was time to start a podcast to learn more about the intersection of culture and farming in our modern world. I want to hear the stories of farmers and all the other folks that make agriculture work. Stories of growing up, stories of how they’ve made it this far, and stories of where they’re going. I think too often we paint a picture of what agriculture was and often forget that agriculture exists in our modern world of interconnectedness and rapidly evolving techniques and ideas.

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