Simple Tips for starting an Organic Farm

Hey guys, today I'm in Ramona, California visiting India Summer Farm. It's a small, local, organic farm run by this man named Andrew. And today I'm going to learn about organic farming. He's going to show off some of his vegetables. He's going to give some tips and tricks for those wanting to start their own organic farm. And then we're going to do a little taste test of the veggies at the end. So that's your standard Palacinado Kale, Dino Kale, and then the variety I grow is Dazzling Blue. So the bolder it gets, the more purple it gets. Half and half, half like intensive vegetable growing and then half strawberries. So I have about 3,000 strawberries planted. We'll start seeing them in about February. And then here's a cool little guy. This is like the little strawberry flower. So I'll go and pick all those guys off just to encourage more plant growth. But yeah, these are my little pride and joys. What's a trick to growing good strawberries? It's all about variety. So you have to start with a good variety. They're high, high feeders. So you get a good solid organic compost and fertilizers. And then they take a lot of water, but they don't want to be saturated. So they don't like wet feet, but they like a lot of water and drain. So a common pitfall that I would say with organic farming is knowing your seasons and when to plant certain things. If you plant the wrong crop at the wrong time, pests will attack it. It's just a matter of time before the plant dies. But if you plant it at the right time, the right variety, in the right season, it'll flourish and it won't have that pest pressure. These are Hakarai turnips or Tokyo turnip. You could eat them raw like a radish or cook them up. That's why I grow this variety. It has more of like a jicama texture, apple texture. And they're sweet, super, super sweet right now. So this is that mesclun mix. So I do a little bit of red and mustard. We've got some tatsoi, and then a little bit of mizuna. Just kind of blend those all together as this little salad cooking mix. It's a little florally, a little spicy. So my name's Andrew Murphy. This is Indian Summer Farms here in Ramona, California. It's a small little two acre organic farm. The reason why I got into organic farming is to provide healthy, fresh local produce to the community. So for starting out an organic farm, I did a little bit differently. But you either have to have a second job for the first year or so. Or have a $10,000 to $20,000 chunk of change sitting there. So what I did is I worked a night job while I did this. So the first two years while I was down here getting everything started, I worked in the fields during the day and then I worked as a server in the night just to keep things going. And everything during that time that I was making on the farm, I was putting it right back into the farm. I was never taking anything from it. I was relying on the night job to do that. I mean, it all starts with soil. It's not dirt, it's a living soil. So for here in particular, I'm constantly feeding my soils with brown and green manure, or brown and green waste pretty much. So like grass clippings, tree leaves, bark, mulch, things of that nature. I'm constantly feeding the soil to feed the microbes in the soil, which will eventually feed the actual plants. The soil is alive, it's a living organism. There's so many living things going on into the soil that it is hands down the most important thing to organic farming. My whole motto is I harvest day of and I deliver day of. So it never hits a fridge and it'll never sit in a fridge for weeks so the flavors don't change. So like a carrot that you pull straight out of the ground, all the starches are gonna be sugars right now instead of being in a fridge and then they start getting more dull. Another tip would be keeping on top of your weed pressure. Making sure you're not creating a habitat for the bad bugs to come in. And then it's all about protecting your soil. So whether it's be covering your soil with landscape fabric so it doesn't dry out, it's never gonna be completely bare. Or keeping living roots in your soil. So for instance, the soil we have right behind us here, that actually was a pepper row. What I did is I cut the pepper plants out, left the roots in it to decay, and then I planted right into that. So you're just constantly feeding the soil, constantly keeping something in the soil. If it's bare soil, it's dead soil. Yeah, all right, so we got these veggies here that I'm really excited to try. So we got carrots, we got broccoli and kale. Let's dive in. No lie, this might be one of the best carrots I've ever had. Perfectly crisp crunch, and the flavor is immense, like such a great sweet carrot flavor. All right, let's try some of this kale. With vegetables that are really good, you don't even need salad dressing. They're just perfect. They have so much good flavor to them. No bitterness to this kale, no extra chewy texture like kale sometimes has, where you almost have to gag it down. It's amazing. I got my veggies to go here, and I'm gonna buy more before I leave to take home. But Andrew, thank you so much for having me, man. This has been an awesome experience. Watching Andrew work and trying these food is so inspiring. It makes me want to start my own organic veggie farm, so check him out, India Summer Farms. I'll put his Instagram, his website, and all that, and you can buy his stuff online as well. Is that only for local to SoCal? Yeah, only in San Diego area right now, and then the local farmer's markets. Okay, cool. All right, well, thanks for having us today. Right on, thanks for coming out, Matt. Yeah, and if you guys like this, make sure to like, comment, and subscribe. See ya.