Simple No-Till Bed Prep & Retail Sales with Lindsay Steele of Garden Fort

Despite the risk of pivoting their business, Lindsay Steele of Garden Fort in Dexter, Michigan (outside of Ann arbor), chose to switch from farmers markets to direct-to-retail sales and ended up reaping unexpected rewards - from more time with his family to increased profitability.

In this episode, Alex Ball of Old City Acres and Lindsay dig deep into successfully shifting from farmers markets to direct-to-retail sales, selecting profitable crops for year-round production, how clever packaging and branding set their products apart, scaling-up and effectively managing farm labor, and how all of those things contributed to a better work/family balance while farming.

Also mentioned in this episode...

• Follow Garden Fort on Instagram.
• They use Rimol Greenhouses Nor'Easter series for year-round greens production.
• Consider focusing more on high-profit-margin crops like salad greens for year-round production and potential wholesale opportunities.
• Evaluate your farm's workflow (i.e. wash/pack) and systems (i.e. tarping, reduced tillage) to increase efficiency for a better work/life balance.
• Consider the benefits of incentivising well-trained and returning farm workers and how that can contribute to the overall success of your farm.

The Rough Draft Farmstead No-Till Farm Tour!

Folks who make the show possible...

RIMOL Greenhouses quality greenhouses and high-tunnels.

Tilth Soil amazing compost-based living potting soils and soil blends.

Orisha for wireless greenhouse+ automation, get 15% off with code "No Till Grower"

Real Organic Project for a whole farm certification program to distinguish crops grown in health soils.

... and, as always, our work is powered by the folks who support us every month over at patreon.com/notillgrowers, you can pick up a copy of The Living Soil Handbook if you don't have one already, as well as a No-Till Growers hat, and you can ask you questions or share your insights into ecological market gardening on our brand new forum at notillgrowers.community.chat