Forward-Looking Friday// Season One Finale, $1k Goal Update, & Spoiler Alerts

[a photo of a side-by-side field experiment: two broadforked 100’ beds, one amended with alfalfa meal and the other composted chicken manure (same rate N/K needed based on soil test), both with 1” tested compost (applied after photo), for bell peppers. results in 60 days]

Instead of Forum Friday, we’re going to take a moment to look forward into the future of No-Till Growers… or at least attempt to, because who knows? We sure didn’t.

There are three episodes left in season one of The No-Till Market Garden Podcast. The final episode [spoiler alert] will be Hannah and Jesse of Rough Draft Farmstead—current No-Till Grower headquarters—sharing their thoughts and experiences with the podcast, with implementing no-till on their own farm, and answering listener questions. By the way, supporters will be able to submit questions for Hannah and Jesse through Patreon. They may not get to all of them, but I’m already volunteering Jesse to continue to answer what doesn’t make it to the podcast through the Patreon page. You’re welcome, Farmer J. Side note: you definitely don’t want to miss the other two episodes. fire emojis

Speaking of Patreon, we’re so close to reaching our goal of $1k to support the show, the site, and the work we may well do over the Summer to prepare for season two-point-oh. Our aim is to not only reach out to more no/low-till farmers and soil scientists, but also cover multiple perspectives about specific topics, getting a wide view of a particular aspect of regenerative veg (i.e. mineral balancing, preparing new ground, on-farm composting, etc) from several growers/experts at a time. But, just like with veg—you CSA growers will totally understand—it takes a lot of capital and even more labor to produce a podcast, most of it before it reaches your ears. We’re only a little over $100/month away and we rely heavily on our patrons because we want this project to be a dialog that serves you, the grower.

If you’re a super fan of the project, you might have also noticed our posting schedule (ahem, more or less) has been a bit more erratic lately. That’s because we’re full-time farmers, too, and the growing season is well under way. Unlike some sources of growing information, we don’t have the answers and aren’t trying to sell you a specific way to grow (we’re just as in the thick of it as you are), aside from adhering to the soil conservation principles outlined here and here. In fact, we’re spending more and more of our valuable production space and time putting what we learn to task—informed by our guests and the questions/concerns of our followers and listeners—to figure out what works, what doesn’t, and how to make farming with less tillage more approachable. It’s risky to experiment too much when farming for your livelihood (trust us, we know, we sort of can’t help it). We feel it’s important we farm for a living, too, so that the experiences we share are grounded. It may not result in perfect polished content, failures may abound, but we can guarantee you it’s real.

Indeed, Forum Friday has really been a weekly exercise to look back, hoping to grasp what stands out as most important to our fellow growers: your questions, your experiences, your interests. What, here, has served you well? What can we do to better our work and bring you more valuable, useful information? One thing we hope to do in the future is network farmers to working models in real time. So, be on the lookout for not one, but two No-Till Growers events coming to Kentucky over the Summer/Fall.