Courtesy of Wally S., Wally’s Urban Market Garden, Saskatoon SK At this time of year, my green thumb gets double duty – I’m not only still growing inside, I’m also responding to lots of messages that start out like this: Help! Only 80 days to my first market. What do...
Courtesy of Wally S., Wally’s Urban Market Garden, Saskatoon, SK The emails and mailers are starting to come in outlining all the challenges and rewards of organic/eco/sustainable/regenerative farming, so that means workshop season will soon be upon us. A main theme of SPIN-Farming workshops is to understand and use your...
Courtesy of SPIN farmer Brenda Sullivan, and husband Paul, in Glastonbury CT In today’s litigious society, being adequately insured should be a farmer’s top priority and, very basically, the purpose and need for insurance is to protect the farmer from financial ruin. As a farmer/producer/vendor you are exposed to two...
Courtesy of Wally S., Wally’s Urban Market Garden, Saskatoon, SK Food safety regulations in the US have divided Big Ag and Small Ag into opposing camps, but there is one thing we can all be united on – Good Agricultural Practices (GAP). “Grow Responsibly” should be everyone’s mantra, regardless of...
The post below was in response to an opportunity many dream about, and one lucky guy has actually found. Tom answered a craigslist ad for a farm hand position, but it turns out there is no farm, just residential property that a landowner would like him to turn into vegetables....
Courtesy of Wally S., Wally’s Urban Market Garden, Saskatoon, SK Round about now many are thinking about spring. If you don’t go to a winter market, or have winter sales of any type, then you will be looking ahead to what SPIN-Farming calls a ” spring debut ” week. For...
Courtesy of Wally S., Wally’s Urban Market Garden, Saskatoon, SK Now that there are some seasoned SPIN farmers out there, I’m seeing lots of plans for taking their operations to the next level. Many involve expanding their land base or investing in season extension. Both are good ideas. But accomplishing...
SPIN’s business model does not rely on unpaid help, though it does tap into the “inhouse” labor pool of friends and family now and then. So the legal status of volunteers and interns in the US should not have have any operational effect on SPIN-scale farms there. But the culture...
Courtesy of James K., Virtually Green, San Francisco, CA In most states in the USA it’s illegal for a for-profit farm to utilize volunteers, or interns, to handle routine farm work tasks that would ordinarily be done by paid workers. Many small organic farms have been using farm work volunteers...
Courtesy of Wally S., Wally’s Urban Market Garden, Saskatoon, SK You don’t have to have a bad experience with volunteers. They can be very productive if managed properly. The key is to use them in focused work sessions of around 3 hours. Many volunteers are willing to participate once a...
