YOUR QUESTIONS ANSWERED (audio) – 031519
Curtis Stone
Mar 15
Announcements
1:21 – The best way to contact me regarding your questions
3:02 – Some of the farms I’ll be visiting this year
16:43 – Adam.
I’ve been following your videos for a few years now. My wife and I have been moving toward starting a business in agriculture for a while. This week we are taking the leap. I am going to be setting up a business number and incorporating starting today. We are picking up some racks and lights and other materials this week to start off with microgreens. I would like to thank you for all the information you’ve provided us over the years with your videos. Also for the encouragement and motivation you have provided.
Do you have any advice or pointers on the process of incorporating. I’ve seen some suggestions to get lawyers and accountants involved in the process. Is this actually necessary, or is it something I can figure out on my own? I feel very confident with the process of growing and selling product but I am much less confident with my knowledge of the actual business aspects and all the bureaucracy and legal matters.
Any help you can provide would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you,
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21:09 – Seasonal sun farm
We appreciate your help in getting our microgreen enterprise going. We have a couple problems though.
1. A couple times now we have a a dead spot, about 6″ in diameter in the center of a tray of peas. I believe the tray was on the bottom of a stack of 3 trays. On top of the three trays we put a flat sheet of plexiglass then a empty flat then a heavy brick. We soaked and sowed the peas according to your instructions. Any ideas what caused the dead spot?
2. We have noticed that our 2oz. bags of microgreens in the local bulk food store are fogging up. They are setting in an open front refrigeration unit. We harvest and refrigerate the crop the night before bagging and delivering the next morning. The crop is fairly dry when harvested as we either do not water or bottom water the morning before harvesting. The microgreens are selling but it would be nice if they did not fog up. Any suggestions?
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25:40 – Blake Shepler
Do you see an issue planting Salanova Premier with Salanova Foundation in the same beds, or would you keep them apart?
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25:18 – Yoni
A part of my plot has been taken over by crabgass. In the previous summer I accidentally left the water running in 2 (10 bed) blocks and very regretfully flooded those blocks..) I believe this is the main cause for the crabgrass taking over.. (in addition to it propbably being there in the first place..)
Sometime around last November I tarped the whole block, over the crabgrass.
Since then, It’s been quite a rainy winter, I would guess around 600 mm. Avg winter temps around 8 to 15 C. (I live in Israel)
The soil under the tarp is now pretty much soaked, the top of the plants seem to have died, but the roots are still there..
Any Idea how I could get rid of the crabgrass and re-prep this area for the coming spring/summer (if at all possible)?
obviously, I don’t even consider tilling, which would probably just make the situation worse…
I could try and pitchfork the entire plot, but I don’t know how efficient that would be ..
Any thoughs on handling perennial weeds (and crabgrass specifically) would be appreciated!
thanks in advance, and thanks for all the great content!
Yoni
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33:37 – Jayme & Taylor
Good morning Curtis,
My wife and I took your profitable urban farming course as well as your microgreens class (Jayme and Taylor from the shire gardens), and were wondering if you could help us:
Attached is a photo of our farm layout plan.
1/3 of the shed will be a 6×6 walk in
the remaining 2/3 of shed will house the bcs 712 tiller as well as paperpot/jang seeder and hand tools
47’x50′ plots with 30″ beds and 8″ walkways focusing on salad mix greens and small carrots
Gate in the back for easy access and loading/unloading car for market as well as farm stand customers (brown circle on bottom)
Post harvest 10’x12′ lean to featuring wet table, dry table, space for future bubbler and spinner, and a office/labeling table for ‘clean’ work. (the brown rectangle on the N side next to shed)
The green lines indicate hedge rows that will line the property as well as divide our family garden from the farm.
For now, water and electric will be run from the house
We’re starting off small, delivering one large $5 bag to six different families who my wife and I teach at the music store whom we hope to expand to 20 families each buying a bag of carrots, salad mix and microgreens once the farm starts producing. We got into the large farmers market that gets 3-4k people every saturday and hope to get into our local one (5 minute drive from our farm) that is on Tuesdays. So between the music store families, the local market, larger market and our farm stand, we should have a large enough customer base.
Is this a good action plan to begin with?
Feel free to use us as an example or case study for the rest of the from the field audience as we think it will be beneficial for others to see.
Thank you!
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43:33 – Steven Hinderhofer
Curtis, I hope this finds you well.
We are looking to set up a washing station in a more convenient location than our kitchen.
We have a section of wall space in our garage that is 14 feet.
Any recommendations on how to set that up? What do I need to have? What would be nice to have? What would be a luxury?
Your upcoming farm tours sound very diversified. Excited to follow along!
I originally thought that i missed the video or you didn’t make one this week until i saw the audio, other than that i don’t mind it being audio only especially as i’m starting to be in the field more.
However because i missed this one, i sent my question the wrong way, sorry.
Audio works for me too. Cheers!
Curtis,
Audio works for me. I can let it play while I do other things and don’t feel like I have to watch the screen.
Curtis, loved the audio! Well done. Thanks for answering my question! I hope to take a look again at that Steadfast farm video.
Thanks again!
Steve Hinderhofer