I am a small-scale vegetable farmer who just finished his first season full time. I also run a daily vlog on YouTube as well as a weekly podcast about the philosophy of Stoicism. AMA

How does your lifestyle differ from before you started farming? What inspired you to go full time?

My whole life is different. I was in a pretty shitty place before I started farming. I was living a consumption lifestyle with shallow friends. I was partying and drinking a lot. The drinking really started to get away from me at one point after I had first started my farm. I really had to ask myself if my actions were going to let me be successful. It was a hard reality to face. I was so fucking lonely because I was working by myself so much and I stopped hanging out with my friends who only wanted to drink/party/do drugs. It sucked.
Now I'm totally the opposite of that guy. I try not to take my self worth out of material things, I eat healthy, I decided to try not drinking for 2018 to see how that was and I haven't had a drop since New Years. I eat most of my own food that I grow, I've made new friends who are living healthier lifestyles. It's been a wild ride so far.

Did you log any changes (physically and mentally) from your vacation from drinking alcohol?

I feel mentally lighter since I stopped drinking. I haven't done anything I regret all year. I've made the most money and spent the least. I'm starting to get into a working out routine which I've stuggled with for 3-4 years. I don't swing emotionally. I don't feel guilty about being hungover and not getting my work done.

What is stoicism? How do you apply that to your vegetables, as you state in your podcast?

It's an philosophy with roots in Ancient Greece.
There are 2 main parts:
The dichotomy of control- You don't control what happens, but you do control how you respond
Living with Virtue- Using Wisdom, Courage, Justice and Discipline to navigate through life.

Does stoicism have anything to do with religion or is it just a philosophy/lifestyle choice?

no you can easily make it work with most religions imo. I know lots of "Christian stoics" it is much more a system to navigate through life.

I've been trying to to learn Stoicism and teach it to my family. Are there any good resources for teaching/learning, especially ones more appropriate to young children?

Some guy msg'd me one time and had childrens books but Donald Robertson writes some stories for his daughter Poppy you could check out: https://donaldrobertson.name/2017/02/04/marcus-aurelius-and-the-civil-war-in-the-east/

https://donaldrobertson.name/2018/01/20/video-poppy-and-i-review-little-stoics-childrens-books/

Stoicism was more of a Roman philosophy.

But anyway, I prefer Epicureanism. Much more fun, but you know, not too much fun. Might as well enjoy yourself while you are here.

It was Greek. Diogenes of Babylon went with 3 other philosophers in 155bc to Rome to appeal a fine and they brought philosophy to the roman empire. Even Marcus Aurelius, the emperor of Rome, wrote what would later become the book "the meditations" in ancient greek instead of latin because it was the language of the philosophers.

Hey! Your space looks great! I did a thing and got the city to let me farm on an abandoned pocket park. I only have 4500sqft tilled and planted. We're less than a mile from downtown of our capital city. We built a hoop house, and have a colony of bees. I have two kids under 3 and am the guardian of a dude in a group home so it's kind of a shoe string operation at this point. But I about broke even and am able to afford seeds for next year. So I've got that going for me!

Love reading your story, thanks for sharing.

What's one of the biggest mistakes you made?

I feel like I could write a book on all that I made this first year! 😜

Best of luck!

I don't feel like I have made any critical mistakes yet but just lots of little ones. I burned out the last 2 seasons while I was working and off farm job. I had a really tough time mentally and emotionally in the fall. You're tired. Have less money than you thought. You work all the time, no social life.
You need to take care of yourself. You're not going to be good to anybody if you fall apart.

Was the beard included in the starter pack or did you get it as a reward for completing the first season?

in game upgrade

Is it still possible to make a living as a farmer?

Hell yes! There is a newer community of farm entrepreneurs all trying to make it work. It is still a really hard go but it's doable. I know multiple market gardens who are farming in a similar style as me that gross $100,000+ in a season on under 1 acre of land.
With that being said there are still a lot of farms that don't make money.

gross $100,000+ in a season

Great, but what do you think they actually net?

They can net 50-70% depending on how they run their operations. There is a sweet spot for a small farm where you find the right mix of market sales:labour

My wife and I are tossing around the idea of tapering off our web development businesses while ramping up a small farm business. Unfortunately, we live in the far north with about a 5 month growing season, so a big trek South is in the works. We’re going back and forth about wether we should grow one or two products consistently to supply restaurants and such, or grow multiple products to sell at markets or our own stand. Our experience consists of four 4x8 raised beds with a variety of veggies and a large indoor cannabis operation. Is there any advice you wish you’d known before getting started? Books, websites, etc? Thanks!

It's hard to give context specific advise because the answere is going to be "It depends"
Check out Curtis Stone: https://www.youtube.com/user/urbanfarmercstone
Check out Jean-Martin Fortier: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCFF20WbbyKSiYQe0J6a7HTQ
Get both of their books! Both those guys have online courses you can check out as well if that's your thing.

I also feel like my videos have been getting a lot better lately and would be right up your alley: https://www.youtube.com/c/scotthebert604

Awesome! I’m a subscriber to Curtis’ channel. What a wealth of knowledge he is. I’ll definitely check yours and the others out as well. Thank you and best wishes to your future seasons!

Nice, I've been on Curtis' channel x3 over the past couple of years if you wanted to check out those vids

Do you grow beets?

Which bear is the best?

Have you watched Battlestar Galactica?

Haha I love the office. I used to grow beets. Too many Dwight jokes haha

What’s your opinion of tomatoes on hamburgers?

I don't like eating tomatoes but I like how the plants smell in the greenhouse. so fuck them on burgers. Most tomatoes on burgers are shitty tomatoes. I've had really good locally grown tomatoes that I would put on a burger though so I guess it depends.
Happy Cake Day!

Where do you sell your harvest? Local farmers market, distributors etc....

I do 5oz bagged greens to local grocers. I sell at 2 resturants that are easy to deal with as well to 1 aggregrator.

How did you find these outlets for your product? Just a lot of walking around?

Yes. Lots of rejection, lots of failure. I'd call it persistence but Steven Pressfield said that's too lofty of something to live up to, I'm just plain stubborn.

As you develop a good reputation the right customers find you and you find your place.

Serious question are you single?

Edit: I've dabbled in urban farming and I'm really big on making my own bread. I'm 25 and female . Also a huge fan of Jordan Peterson.

yeah, hit me up ha ha

do you think stoicism tackles the basic question of meaning appropriately rather than simply supplying tools for an emotionally preconcieved stance on life? Going from that, would you say that it even needs to or is its claim more therapeutic than justificatory?

I've been happily surprised with Stoicism so many times as I go deeper and feel I am making insights. To me reading some of the ancient guys, especially Seneca, it just seems like it comes from a place of deep wisdom.

I think Stoicism has some really good answers for how to live a good life.

Have you read much Buddhism? I've done a decent amount but not much on stoicism. Just from my quick wiki search and this thread it seems they have a lot in common.

If there's one book you would recommend what would it be?

(This book changed my life)

Haven't read much Buddhism, it does seem to have some similarities. One book to get you started about Stoicism or just in general?

Stoicism: Ego Is the Enemy by Ryan Holiday

Any book: Mastery by Robert Greene

What did you do before farming / after season?

I made kitchen cabinets for 9 years.
I worked at an architectural mill-working biz for 1 1/2 years.
I worked on the grounds crew at a golf course for a summer
I worked spray finishing cabinet doors right before I went full time and I'll actually do that part time for winter when they need me.
I'd eventually like to travel for winter and use it to create more art/pursue my creative endevours.

What’s you schedule on an average day? How do you fit in filming+editing a daily vlog along with maintaining a farm?

I wake up and start doing stuff, I try to go for a walk or 2 with my dog everyday at the river. For filming I usually film something I'm doing on my farm that day or filming as I move along with my day so that is easy, it just takes a little longer to do certain farm tasks if I am filming. I edit at night, usually start at 8-9.
I usually work most of the day right now, especially during summer. My season is starting to wind down now.

What time do you usually get up? What time do you go to bed?

6-12

How does one go about starting a small farm? It is something that I think I'm interested in, but have zero experience being around anything like that. If you know any resources I could read it would be appreciated, I will also check out your youtube.

I think about this question a lot cause I asked it for 2 years. There are some good online courses that have come online over the past couple of years. One of my mentors has one that I took and would recommend: http://profitableurbanfarming.com/

What kind of insurance do farmers like you need to have to protect against the elements like weather, fire, etc?

I think some larger commercial farmers will have some kind of crop insurance but I don't need to worry about that so much. All my crops have short days to maturity (DTM) because my DTMs are short that means I am growing multiple successions of the same crop (lettuce, spinach etc) in the same year so if I was to have a 'catastrophic loss event' (which I still do, mostly cause by ignorance) it doesn't hit me as hard because I will have more crops coming out behind them.

Do you have to rotate crops to keep the soil balanced?

My crops are light feeders so it's not the highest priority for me but something to keep in the back of my mind. I add compost/natural fertilize between crops to balance the soil.

Since you grow a lot of food, do you ever really have to go get groceries? And if you do mostly just eat what you grow, do you ever get tired of eating the same thing over and over again?

I still go get groceries all the time. Coffee, tea, oil, butter etc. My farm specialized in leafy greens so I eat a lot of salad and green smoothies, I still need to go buy lemon, ginger, etc. from the store. I also don't raise any of my own meat so I need to source that from colleagues or go to the store.
I've also bartered with other local farmers for stuff, I traded 1/2 a pig for my vegetables before so you can get the bill down but my farm is ran as a business not a one stop shop for my personal benefit.

^{^} are people really this stupid?

I don't think this was a stupid question to ask but it did made me think of something else:
I thought people had no idea where their food came from but when I became a farmer and people started asking me questions about food directly I was blown away. Some people have zero idea.

What's your favorite lunch potatoe, dinner potatoes, breakfast potato, and midnight snack potatoe?

fries, mashed, hashed, chips

How much land do you need to sustain one human over a year?

I actually have no idea. You're talking more about homesteading. I don't know how much it would be to be self sustaining.

Do you agree with this?

Other than that, do you find that stoicism impacts your everyday work on the farm in any way?

Stoicism helps me to overcome the hard times and to deal with the everyday challenges of running a farm business. There is so much that can go wrong you need to have something to deal with it. I'm non-religious so I've found a lot of value from Stoicism.

First off - awesome beard m8! How many times did you end up harvesting in an individual season?

x2 a week for the whole season

and thanks!

Are you stoked about this AMA?

I didn't know how many people would ask questions so right now I'm just trying to keep up! Lmao
No time for feelings

Did you play Stardew Valley before doing this?

No, I'm scared to play that game because it feels like something that would take me away from my work.

How much time and effort is it to farm your piece of land? (please layman your answer as I know nothing about farming at all).

Additional question, do you think it is the optimal and correct size for you?

I don't know. I've always had labor jobs so it feels normal to work a lot being physical.
Right now I could handle my farm being a little bigger if that's what you mean

Not sure if it has been asked but how big is the farm? Are you looking to expand if you do well in the next couple years? Congrats thought!

Its under 1/4 acre this season. Each bed gets between 3-5 crops in it throughout the year so it is not really the best way to judge it just based on the land it occupies if that makes sense

How much did you profit from your first season, not just in terms of money, but also in terms of knowledge?

This was actually my 3rd season farming but my first "Full time"
The first 2 years I did it part time and didn't take any money out of my biz, I made back what I put into it. This season I made money but I'll put most of it back into my biz for next season. Next year I'll start to take more of my personal income out of my biz as it will be more self-sustaining at that point.
In terms of knowledge my whole life has changed. I guess the biggest takeaway is learning that I'm capable of more than I thought was possible. It will be something that will stay with me hopefully for the rest of my life.

What is the processing like? To bag or wash your produce before it gets to the sellers along with any quality control checks? Also were there any licences and stuff to apply and pay for before you could sell to businesses?

In BC where I am we have pretty relaxed regulations about that, just standard food safe stuff and you're good to go. Bigger stores would require more red tape but that's why I deal with small stores.

Where are you at in the pic? It looks very Oregon-y.

Just a little north of Oregon eh ;)
Chilliwack, BC.

Do you think you could do this fulltime indefinitely, or are you currently dependant on some form of backup income?

Right now I still need to grow it more so I can be long term financially stable off of it but I'm open to the idea of having multiple streams on income. I don't think farming will be the whole pie for me. I feel like I'm more of a creative entrepreneur.

What are your thoughts about growing vegetables that require longer to mature? Would you need more land to make it profitable? Would it be less work?

I'm thinking turnips, pumpkins, melons, beets, beans...

You'd need both. It just depends what your sales outlets are. My stores I can get away with only growing high profit crops but if you do a farmers market or a CSA you need to have crop diversity to get customers.

One of your responses was that you put most of your profit back in to the business. Can you go into further detail on that? What kind of equipment do you need to operate the farm?

hand tools, packing supplies, season extension (greenhouse etc.), Washing station supplies, mechanical transplanter, nursery supplies.
it's a business, you can always spend money on something to make it better.

Whose field have you plowed and buried your seeds in?

Your moms

what kind of investment did you put into your farm? If one were to want to start a small scale farm, how much should i expect to put into it?

20k

You can start really shoestring it and do it for less but if you spent about 20k you could have enough of the right tools to start being efficient. Long term you're going to need to spend more. You need to get efficient at what you're doing so you don't have to spend all your day working.

Do you let any of your greens bolt so you can keep the seeds or do you purchase seeds every year? Connecticut farming season is coming to a close here so I wanted to try growing leafy veg in my grow tent but I''ll have to do some research about what LED spectrum they benefit from.

I purchase seeds for commerical
I'll save for my home garden.

You need to plant a shitload of stuff out in the fall and let it get to full maturity before the first frost. They won't grow that much all winter so as long as they don't get frozen for too long you can harvest off of them for months.

Fellow Stoic! I've been practicing for a few years now. Are you currently participating in Stoic Week? I'm not this year, but I'm about halfway through Pigliucci's 'How to Be a Stoic' at the moment.

Not doing Stoic Week this year but I did it last year, I think it's great. Nice! I had him on my podcast last year to talk about that book, we really helped me to understand what all the virtues meant. I felt it was a lightbulb moment for me.

Do you practice permaculture, or implement any of the tenants of it? Till or no till? Into building soil health long term?

I first started this whole journey by doing a PDC. I implement some of the design principles on my farm more with layout and design but not so much in the sense of planting guilds and building swales. It doesn't work so well in a commercial context because of the added labor.
I do minimal till. I thought I was going to go no-till this year but I tilled a little. I am into building soil health long term but I think for the first couple of years you're farming you need to focus on being in biz next season. The long term health of the soil requires you staying on it so I use proven commercial techniques over some permaculture ideas.

How do you control weeds?

How do you control insects?

I pull weeds out and don't let them go to seed. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ItXxF2MZIU4&

Do you own the land you are working? I know land prices near you can be high.

I don't own it but it's family land that I can use. Just a lucky situation.

Did you go organic? Why or why not?

no, too much cost for not enough profit

I have tried to find information about your farm but not quite able to. Where is your farm and do you have some basic info on your farm and your philosophy (some 1 page thing that is not a podcast or video)?

Chilliwack, bc
I sell mainly leafy greens to local grocers

How much money did you invest into your farm?

20k

On average how much time do you spend working everyday?

On everything all together I'd say 10-12 but I always feel like I could be way more efficient

What made you choose farming?

I thought I had a good skillset for it and I was living on land I could farm on.

Is your land North or South facing (and which hemisphere are you in?)

It's farily flat, its a little wavy but we get good sun. northern

How much cum is too much cum?

different strokes for different folks

Do you think farming will rise to prominence again? If not, how long do you think it will be before farming dies out?

Farming is here forever, our entire world culture is based on it.

In terms of philosophy, what do you think of the Cynics? In particularly Diogenes. Do you think there's a big crossover with Stoicism?

I don't know much about the Cynics, I don't really have an opinion about it

have you considered aquaponic gardening?

No. That requires too much up capital up front.

Do you raise your own animals for personal consumption as well?

I used to have chickens but I gave them away to another farmer as I was too busy trying to get my biz going/working an off farm job.
I could see myself having some animals in the future again.

How do you setup initially? Do you guess what will sell, try a season, then find suppliers or go to market? I've got land and some greenhouses. I'm just Not sure on the best way to take the next few steps

Yes, start by offering high value crops, you need to spend your time on high value crops and not to grow/sell low value. Try growing something and then hit the streets. Actions attract opportunities.

I currently work on a small veggie farm scaled more to the CSA model, have you ever considered getting into that as well?

I'd have to diversify my crop selection quite a bit and use more land. With my farm right now that would greatly increase the complexity of my business and idk how much reward I'd get out of that.

How would you go about practicing stoicism in modern times?

Only worry about things you can control
Try to do and be the best version of yourself today in everything that you do. Do it again tomorrow.

how are the v e g e t a l business?

decent

Can I come work for you :)?

Haha no I'm just farming solo

Do you get neck strain from looking down at your crops for long periods of time? i.e when dealing with weeds for instance, I noticed you had to bend your neck down nearly the whole time. Followup: How do you counteract it or keep it at bay?

no

Have you read Candide? You might like it, esp. the ending

never read it, thanks for the recommendation

What do you do to your land after the season is finished/before the next season starts?

leave crops in the ground overwinter and add a big load of compost in the spring.

Have you considered going vegan?

No, I love eating meat and eggs. I think there is an ethical way to farm meat.

Is a hot dog considered a sandwich?

Follow Up question, what about a taco?

hotdog=meat sandwhich
taco=meat wrap