- [Male Announcer] Growing a Greener World is made possible in part by: - [Female Announcer]: so you can roam the Earth with a lighter footprint.

Subaru, proud sponsor of Growing a Greener World.

- [Male Announcer] And the following: [gentle instrumental music] - [voice-over] I'm Joe Lamp'l.

When I created Growing a Greener World, I had one goal.

To tell stories of everyday people.

Innovators, entrepreneurs, forward-thinking leaders who are all, in ways both big and small, dedicated to organic gardening and farming, lightening our footprint, conserving vital resources, protecting natural habitats, making a tangible difference for us all.

They're real, they're passionate, they're all around us.

They're the game changers who are literally growing a greener world and inspiring the rest of us to do the same.

Growing a Greener World.

It's more than a movement, it's our mission.

- Over the years we've covered a lot of topics that had something to do with farming, and there's certainly plenty to say.

But until two years ago when we bought this farm, I never really knew what it was like to be a farmer.

And I'm not sure that you really could know that until you do it yourself.

But today, we're about to get you close.

If you've ever wondered what it's like to take your gardening passion to the next level, perhaps by buying a hobby or weekend farm, well this show's for you.

Today we visit with three small farm families who've done just that.

None had a farming background, yet they all wanted more control over their family's lifestyle, especially with the food they were feeding their family.

But this is not a how-to-farm show, it's about what life is really like on the farm, the good, the bad, and even the ugly through the voices of the family farmers actually doing it.

So we're about to spend a day on the farm, walk in their shoes, and see why there's no other life like it.

When your gardening or farming hobby becomes a revenue stream, or you start introducing animals into the equation, life changes in ways you just can't predict.

Mother nature never misses an opportunity to remind you who's in charge.

And if you like routine and control, well, that goes out the window on even the smallest farm.

Ironically, for a guy who thrives on both, I've never been happier.

Earlier this year, we polled our friends on our active social media channels and our farming friends, to get our top list of considerations when starting a small farm.

One of the most common responses we received is the one thing you do before you do anything else, and that's to observe on someone else's dime.

Perhaps some of the very best tuition you can get is to spend copious amounts of time with somebody already actually doing it before you commit.

Taking on a farm is neither a short-term decision, or one to be taken lightly.

Observing on someone else's dime will be a winning decision no matter what the outcome.

We're doing that today with three small farm families that come from non-farming backgrounds.

No matter how much you learn before you dive in with both feet, most of what you learn is on the job training.

And one member of each of the families we're about to meet has a job outside the farm.

[light guitar music] Meet Nicole and Scott Tyson of 180 Degree Farm.

A few years back, they bought property south of Atlanta with a dream of building a house and starting a small farm.

But soon, after the purchase, their son Mason was diagnosed with neuroblastoma, a childhood form of cancer.

As the cancer became non-progressive, they realized the healing power of fresh organic produce they were growing for Mason and themselves should be shared with their local community.

Eight years later, their farm is thriving and so are the farmers.

- The reason why we started to farm, it was because we couldn't find a clean source of food for Mason, and we couldn't grow enough of it in our backyard.

So to have the pasture raised eggs, to have ducks for the eggs, for the alkaline protein, our heritage turkeys and heritage chickens for that matter, lamb, things like that.

We couldn't source that in the area.

So we decided to take this land, and not only grow food for ourselves, but also for the community, because there was just not another option out there.

- When we first started the farm, we had a lot of friends who we used to do a lot of things with.

We used to have dinners and to go the Fox Theater and see plays, and all these different things were great.

And then we did this, and it was like cold turkey.

And it's like, we don't have time anymore.

People thought we'd lost our mind.

All those other things are nice, but they don't matter like this.

- [Joe] Not biting off more than you can chew was a good move for Phil and Mary Busman when they bought their small farm property 30 years ago.

At the time, they had no experience growing food or raising animals, and their less than five acre farm was out in the middle of nowhere.

Today, it's smack in the middle of a high-demand suburban community of Atlanta surrounded by large homes and horse farms.

Through slow, incremental steps, their actions have led to Cherith Farm, a small organic farm complete with dozens of chickens, sheep, rabbits, and a thriving member-supported produce farm.

- We had to redefine what a farm was.

Based on where I grew up, a farm was 80 acres minimum, and has morphed into the 1200 acre farm, monoculture farm of the Midwest where we both are from.

And so when people used to refer to this as a farm, we would say "No we're not a farm."

But over time, we've learned to redefine what a farm is, and a farm is taking care of land, number one, the soil that's here, the animals that you choose to incorporate into that farm, and everything else that goes along with that.

- [Joe] Eight years ago, Mike and Denise Burns lived in a bustling big city subdivision.

Today, Mike has left his corporate job and city life behind for full-time life on the farm near Chattanooga Tennessee with his wife and four children.

Although Denise's family owns an adjacent farm, Mike's education in agriculture and raising livestock has come through the school of hard knocks.

Today it's never a dull moment, but life is good on the farm.

- When we had an opportunity to buy the property, we began to plant blueberries and tomatoes.

Once you start raising your own food, it tastes so good, it just sorta got us hooked.

- And it just sorta snowballed from there and grew.

The garden plot kept getting bigger and bigger and bigger.

A tractor was purchased.

[laughing] So we were hooked.

- From all the farmers that we interviewed to everyone on our social media platforms that responded, the resounding theme to what people should know before taking on a small farm is this, it's more than a hobby.

Unlike a hobby that you do when you want, and can start and stop with ease, even the smallest farms will take up far more time than that, not that it's a bad thing, but you have to understand, farming is a lifestyle.

- My buddy actually asked me today what a hobby farm was.

And I said there's no such thing.

And I firmly believe that.

Once you engage in an activity such as farming, you can't take five days off.

Because if you take five days off, the grass'll grow too high, it might rain in the two days you decided to work on your farm, and then you get nothing done, and then the weeds grow, and your tomatoes are ready to be picked and you might lose your entire crop.

There are just certain activities in farming that a hobby does not epitomize.

- Two years ago when we had 110, 112 degrees out here... - Brutal, just trying to keep chickens alive.

- I had fans in the fields going.

In the shade had fans on all the animals, trying to keep 'em alive.

There was no breeze.

It was humid and 110 degrees.

And you're thinking "Oh my God."

We were losing crops because it was so hot.

Even the tomatoes were like-- - Unh uh - Heck with you.

- [Nicole] Yeah.

[laughing] - The hardest part about having a farm is that it's constant, and that, you are not able to just kinda put it aside for a day, you have to take care of your animals.

- Every task and chore you have to do every day.

If you have animals on your farm, it's a daily task.

You can't... Go for a long weekend in the city without taking care of your animals, or having them covered by somebody.

It's work, it's a lotta work.

- Of all the things that can make a life of routines and predictability a thing of the past, it's having livestock.

In fact, before you ever begin to bring animals into your farming life, examine your reasons for doing so.

Do you really have a passion for this lifestyle?

Or does it just look cool to you?

Sadly, the numbers of chickens, ducks, goats, sheep and more from failed hobby farms that are going to shelters is increasing at an alarming rate.

These are living things that need care.

They're not just food machines, teaching tools for children, or cool things to blog about.

So know how to commit, because hobby farming is anything but a hobby, it's a commitment of time, energy, money, and of the heart.

You've heard the expression, everything in moderation, it's how we keep our passion a passion, and avoid burnout.

And it's just as true for farming as it is with gardening.

To start, don't take on too many projects or animals at one time.

But we're so tempted to take on more than we can reasonably manage.

But start small, adding too many things too soon can become very overwhelming.

- I think the biggest contrast between the reality of farming, and what people think it's going to be like is how much physical labor it is.

I was not scared of hard work.

But physically was not prepared for [laughing] how hard it was gonna be on my body.

But you know, you build up your system, and I can handle a lot more now than I ever have, even 15 years ago.

- One of the hardest things about farming is not only the physical aspects of it but also really the temptation to do everything.

You have this canvas of land that's at your disposal.

You don't know everything that you need to know yet.

You start reading books.

You see what other people are doing, and your first thought is "God, I wanna do that too!

- "I could do that!"

- "I want to do that too!"

- When we first got started, it was kind of a joke because we took on this whole idea in this dream of, man, we're gonna hit the ground running.

- Yep!

- We were so pumped!

We're gonna impact so many lives.

And then we get out here and start trying to figure out how to get this ground tilled, we didn't have a tractor.

- The time I knew we were probably in a little deep was one winter we had a pretty significant snow for this part of the country and I was in the easy chair watching TV and my middle son came in-- - At night.

- At night.

- It was dark and it was about 20 degrees out, with eight inches of snow on the ground.

And my son came in and said "Dad!

"The cow's staring at me through my bedroom window."

[laughing] I put my coat on and boots on and hopped on the tractor and lured it back into its pen.

But I think at that point I realized it was almost, we gotta scale back.

- [Joe] In spite of their temptation to dive in, our farmers had the good sense to curb their enthusiasm before becoming too overwhelmed, and potentially throwing in the towel.

Being able to recognize that is critical.

- The first year, I can't really believe anything actually grew.

We actually did a five person CSA.

- We did.

- Just to get our feet wet - They were awesome.

[laughing] and see how it went.

And we said "Look, I don't know what we're gonna expect "from this, but we're gonna discount it heavily."

- [Joe] A small-scale CSA is one way to get your feet wet in hobby farming, but it's not the only way.

Not long ago, my daughter Amy and I launched a little business of our own based here at The Garden Farm.

We sold tomato plants mostly, and Amy was hands-on in every part of the business, from selecting the seed we'd start, all the way to selling the plants to friends and neighbors, even total strangers who found us online.

But we took it a step further by selling at a local farmer's market.

It's a low-level introduction to selling produce to the public, and it forces you to look closely at every aspect of your farm, no matter the size, from how you grow, to what you grow, to how and what you harvest, right down to how you transport your wares and where you set your prices, even how to manage what's happening back at the farm while you're manning the sales booth.

It can show you pretty quickly if growing food on a scale larger than a hobby plot just isn't right for you.

But if it is, and you're hooked, you may find yourself ready to add another piece to the puzzle.

- We started farming in incremental blocks, and we continue to farm in incremental blocks as we know more, and experiment more, and fail more.

We ended up starting with a few rabbits.

We added a few chickens here and there.

And we added sheep to our farm probably about four years in.

- It's tempting to go from blank yard and land to rows and beds full of herbs, fruits and veggies.

After that, raising chickens, rabbits, goats, and other livestock, and it can become debilitating if you try to do it all at once.

You know, in the nearly two years that we've been on this property, sometimes I think that we barely scratched the surface on all the projects that I wanted to do around here.

But the truth is, little by little, we've made great progress, and that's a really good feeling.

It's always important to plan ahead.

But some things, you just can't anticipate.

But having a list of resources available whenever the inevitable occurs will be one of the most important documents you ever create.

Know that the most unexpected things will happen at the most inconvenient times.

It's happened to me, so plan ahead and know who you need to call for every type of animal that you have, from your largest, down to your smallest.

And you also need to know who's gonna make those off-hour barn calls, because there's nothing worse than trying to figure that out in the moment.

So write it down, keep it close to your animals and add it to your phone.

Some of the best referrals are from your friends and neighbors.

Your local farm and feed store will almost always have a referral network or bulletin board that's full of just the resources you need.

Another great tip is to find and follow a few good blogs around what you want to do with your garden and farm animals.

You'll undoubtedly find a group of like-minded folks who share your passion and can be an awesome support group.

The bottom line is that the animals that you may acquire deserve a well-informed caretaker.

You know your animals deserve a really safe environment because so many of them are targets from so many predators, from hawks and coyotes, and foxes, raccoons, weasels, even neighborhood dogs.

And you ask any farmer who's ever had livestock and he'll tell you, it's only a matter of time before a predator finds its way in.

And it looks like it almost happened here.

So part of your responsibility in being a good steward, and giving them that protection they need, is to make sure they have it above, all around, and even down below.

The heartbeat of even the smallest farm starts with the land.

Yet it's one of the most overlooked considerations for many people, starting out.

- Visit other facilities.

Visit other farms, see what other people do before you really set out on some endeavors.

Take a really close look at the land that you're purchasing.

We were very fortunate in the sense that we have a wonderfully south-facing slope which gives us a lotta opportunities to do things that we couldn't do if the slope was different, for example.

The availability of sunlight is huge in what you're able to do both with animals and with plants.

- Land is really important.

To know it, and to have expectations of it, and then to get there and realize what it can and cannot provide for you can sometimes be a deal breaker.

And a lotta times people will fall in love with a house and there'll be land attached to it.

They love the house so much that their expectations of what the land can do sometimes don't measure up.

- A lot of the things we decided to add to the farm had to do with our day-to-day lifestyle.

What did we eat?

What did we use?

What can I make out here?

What do I need to raise out here?

What do I need to grow out here to be able to replace those things that I was currently buying from the grocery store?

- You know, I learned a long time ago, having the right tool for the job makes any job easier.

And it doesn't matter what size farm or garden you have, you're always gonna need good quality hand-tools.

And for me, that starts with the gloves.

You're always gonna need a good, heavy pair of protective gloves, but for that lighter duty work such as weeding or working around soil, or even animals, a form fitting pair like this is great.

Plus, you don't lose that touch that you would with a thicker pair.

And for around $8 a pair, these are a bargain.

Weeding tools, there are a lot of options out there so try several, and pick your favorites.

For me, I have a couple favorite hand tools, and a few more that work great from a standing position.

Look for tools that slice weeds at the surface for weeds that have shallow roots.

For taprooted weeds, you'll need a tool that goes much deeper.

Pruners and shears, there's rarely a time I'm ever around plants that I don't have my trusty pruners by my side.

They range in price from under $10 to around 50.

But in my book, you get what you pay for.

Invest the money, take care of them, and you'll have them for life.

Soil knife, it's the most versatile tool in my arsenal.

It's great for digging out stubborn weeds, planting seedlings, smoothing out beds, slicing open bags of soil or feed, cutting hay bale twine, even sawing.

Quality hose and watering implements, watering is perhaps the most common and frequent task around any farm and garden.

In my years of experience, one thing I've learned, is there's no substitute for a great hose and your favorite hose attachments.

Drip irrigation is my go-to choice for all my garden beds, the slow, gentle drip of water allows the plant roots to take up all the water, while using as little of it as possible.

As you branch out, these tools will also serve you well, like a hand saw.

There's always something to cut, and having a quality hand saw is a huge convenience when a chainsaw is unnecessary or unavailable.

Portable fencing, farmers that want the ability of containing and protecting their animals along with the convenience of moving them when necessary find portable fencing invaluable.

The fencing can easily be connected to a portable or solar charger also.

Garden cart, perhaps the most valuable tool around any farm or garden is the garden cart.

It has 1001 uses, and a quality cart will last you for decades.

And of course, the tractor.

It's likely the biggest ticket expense of all your equipment, yet it pays for itself sooner than you think.

Without a doubt, it will be the most indispensable piece of equipment you'll ever own.

There's a tractor for every situation, including sub-compact versions that are perfect for small properties and hobby farmers.

They're easy to operate, small enough to store in tight spaces, and don't require advanced training to master.

Even with the most basic equipment, there are limitless jobs made easier with a tractor.

Add to that the long list of implements you can add, and there's a tool for your tractor that can make any job much easier and faster.

Now for all those times in the future that you're gonna need a reminder or two to document your accomplishments, especially when you feel like you're just spinning your wheels, take pictures and make notes because there's nothing like great visuals to document your progress.

For the farmers we met today, and for all the others who echo their voices, it's clear that for those who choose to cross the line into farming, there's no other life like it.

The days are long, and the work is hard.

But if you're doing it for the right purpose, and keep the right perspective, you'll never go back.

- We're not gonna have everyday be a great day.

There are plenty of great moments.

But a day full of greatness is unusual.

So you just have to realize, your soils are not gonna be right, you're gonna have disease in your plants when you first start.

And maybe, further on down the road, you're gonna lose livestock through predation.

You're gonna screw up.

If I had to write a book about the mistakes I made, versus success, the mistakes would be this thick and the success would be about here.

But you have to be OK with that, and you have to roll with it.

- The ability to grow most of our own food on this two acres of land in the middle of suburbia is real fulfilling.

The quality of the food we're able to eat, the quality of the meat we're able to produce, and have it right here, and be part of it from the first seed germinating, to the final beet being eaten at our table.

- I truly believe that the food can heal people.

I've seen it work wonders in our children.

- It's tough.

I'm not gonna lie, it's really hard work.

But you really have to love it, and I do love it.

I really can't imagine doing anything else.

- I mean, that's the reality of it.

You have a lot of moving parts.

- When you stop taking vacations, you've officially made it to farm status.

[laughing] - With all the great wisdom we got today, here's one final thought to consider.

Keep your finger on the pulse.

Walk your property every day.

Check on your animals and your crops at the beginning and at the end of the day.

By staying in touch with your environment, you'll stay ahead of many of the problems that could come up.

And that makes everything better.

If you'd like to learn more about starting a small farm, we have some great links on our website under the show notes for this episode.

And the website address is the same as our show name, it's growingagreenerworld.com.

I'm Joe Lamp'l, thanks for joining us, everybody, and we'll see you back here next time for more "Growing a Greener World."

- [Male Announcer] Growing a Greener World is made possible in part by: - [Female Announcer]: so you can roam the Earth with a lighter footprint.

Subaru, proud sponsor of Growing a Greener World.

- [Male Announcer] And the following: [ambient electronic music] ♪ [male announcer]: Continue the garden learning from the program you just watched, Growing a Greener World.

Program host Joe Lamp'l's online gardening academy offers classes designed to teach gardeners of all levels, from the fundamentals to master skills.

Classes are on-demand any time.

Plus, opportunities to ask Joe questions about your specific garden in real time.

Courses are available online.

For more information or to enroll, go to: [funky techno jingle] ♪ ♪