AdAgrA 2019: True Success

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AdAgrA: Adventist Agriculture Association

Seminar 4

Darren Greenfield

A Basil Boost

Basil was part of the original diet given to man.

The Bible says, and God said, see I've given you every herb that yields seed which is on the face of all the earth, Genesis 1.29.

Joseph's Wort, is a herb belonging to the mint family.

I didn't know that until I researched it recently.

So its origin, it's thought to have had its origins in India.

This plant has been cultivated in India and the Middle East since ancient times and was known to the Greeks and the Romans.

So it's been in human use for a long time.

The herb may have anti-inflammatory qualities.

It's containing just 22 calories per 100 grams.

Basil is nutrient heavy and caloric light or calorie light.

Basil may contain compounds that fight the effects of aging.

Basal is commonly used orally for stomach problems such as spasms, loss of appetite, intestinal gas, diarrhea and constipation.

But there is limited scientific research to support these and other medicinal uses of basil.

These chemicals might kill bacteria and fungi.

Chemicals in basil might reduce symptoms in the gastrointestinal tract.

Now I got this from a medical website, so they're being very cautious in what they say because of not having the scientific backing, but there are many, I guess, anecdotal evidences that it works.

They also had on this website that I read about it, some cautions about using basil as medicine.

The above ground parts of basil and basil oil are possibly unsafe when taken by mouth as a medicine long-term.

These contain estrogol, a chemical that might increase the risk of getting liver cancer.

Basil oils and extracts might slow blood clotting and increase bleeding.

In theory, basil oils and extracts might make bleeding disorders worse.

Basil oils and extracts might slow blood clotting.

In theory, basil oils or extracts might increase, I'm reading basically the same thing, but might increase the risk for bleeding during surgical procedures.

Stop using basil at least 2 weeks before a scheduled surgery.

Pesto, it's probably 1 of the most common.

Sauces and soups, salads and sandwiches, breads and pastas and drinks.

Now you might not have thought about it for drinks.

I'm going to share a recipe with you that is really amazing for a drink.

In the Spirit of Prophecy, this quote I use it often because it tells us that we, in the cultivation of the soil, the thoughtful worker will find that treasures little dreamed of are opening up before him.

No 1 can succeed in agricultural gardening without attention to the laws involved.

The special needs of every variety of plant must be studied.

Different varieties require different soil and cultivation and compliance with the laws governing each is the condition of success.

The economic advantages to growing sweet basil.

The seed is 1 of the cheapest seeds you can buy.

It's so small you pay a few dollars and you get a huge bag full of seed, thousands and thousands of seed.

It provides consistent and even income throughout the season and it's an excellent door opener to sell the other products that you are growing.

There's over, well the type that I'm talking about, there's actually I believe there's over a hundred different varieties but I'm specifically talking about the sweet basil, Italian basil is very similar and so It's a herb that is an annual, but it can be grown as a perennial.

If any of you have been to tropical countries and you've seen basil growing there, they look like little bushes with trunks like a tree on them.

So they will just keep growing year round.

Genovese basil is the less likely to bolt if you're wanting it to last long, but I will share with you how to grow it in a way that you can stop it from bolting and you can keep harvesting and harvesting and harvesting it and you don't have to let it go to seed.

The Johnny's Selected Seeds website has an excellent herb library with comparison charts for all the different types of basil and what their pros and cons are.

So I would recommend going to that website.

What we use as we start growing is we use a germination chamber.

If you get a packet of seeds and you look at your packet of seeds it will have a percentage of germination, it will have a, well it might not say the optimal germination temperature, but you can find those charts online that have the optimum germination temperature.

What you do with the germination chamber is you can put the the seeded trays in the germination chamber and adjust the temperature so it's exactly at the ultimate germination temperature.

In fact, when I get back, probably February, I'm going to start my basil seed.

But by putting it in a germination chamber, it will germinate.

And even though it's colder outside, it will continue to grow slowly.

So what I've done is taken an old freezer, I added some additional shelving into it so I can maximize the space.

You can't really see it but under the bottom shelf there's a little space heater, a little black box space heater and I don't know if you can see, maybe you can't see it in there, but I just put a little thermometer that reads the temperature and I just adjust the dial on the heater and just keep checking on it until I get it to that right temperature.

And so for basil, I can't remember what the ultimate temperature is, but it's probably 70 or 75.

Now this is the thing that you have to be very careful of.

If I don't check it 3 times, if I check it 2 times, I might come there and they've come out of the soil and the sooner seeds come up, they're looking for light and they're reaching for light.

And if it's not there, they just grow tall and spindly, you'll pull them out and they'll just flop over and you've wasted them.

So basically it's just to get the seed to germinate and as soon as I see some heads breaking out of the soil I pull them out immediately.

But it speeds up the germination time immensely.

Because you think about during the day is the warm period and during the night is the cold period.

And in the cooler part of the year, the majority of the day is cold.

So it just takes so much longer to get them germinate by putting them in there.

From memory, I think the basil is about 5 days.

Some seeds that we put in there are 3 days, but I think basil is 1 of them that's a little bit longer.

So you can keep it at that ideal temperature day and night until it germinates.

I water it before I put it in there and because the door's closed, there's no loss of moisture and so you don't have to water it again.

And what I will say about planting the seed is that the seed is really, really tiny.

So when I put my soil out on the cells there, I can't – and I've got bad eyesight, So when I'm trying to see the seed, I can't see 1 seed.

So when I pull out the seed, I'll put a big pile on my hand, and I'll pick it up.

So I'll grab a small cluster of seeds, and then I try to sprinkle them and watch them dropping.

I'm okay with 4 or 5 dropping in each cell.

In fact, I prefer that than just 1 because sometimes they don't all come up.

The general rule of thumb for seed when you plant it is no deeper than 3 times the width or the diameter of the seed.

Eric Pond

Efficiency for the Commercial Gardener

Scaling up, some things to think about is bigger really better.

Everybody always thinks if I'm farming 2 acres that 10 acres is gonna be a whole lot better and that tractor's gonna be really nice.

But a lot of people don't think about all the headaches and really don't understand the cost of human capital or the cost of actual dollars.

So just something that you should really think about before you take that next step.

Sometimes it takes us a long time in life to figure out what our goals are really about.

And I recently was working with an executive coach, and he said something that's really stuck to me.

If it energizes you, then it's probably something that would be worthwhile focusing on or doing.

If it's not energizing you, then you probably should look at something else.

So if you don't feel energized by going to work every day, then maybe that's an opportunity to look around and see what other opportunities are there.

Because believe me, there's been days when I've been 2 in the morning changing a belt on a Christmas tree baler laying in the mud while it's snowing outside, and I'm thinking to myself, what in the world am I doing?

But it's still exciting, so, yeah, go figure.

Market is their demand, So 1 of the big things that we can do as farmers, we do a really good job of is growing things.

And we really don't do a good job of selling it or selling it for the right margin.

So a tip that an old farmer told me years ago was the rule of thirds.

Whatever you sell it for, a third of that price should be the cost of harvesting and packing it.

A third of it should be the cost of growing it.

If you're not profiting a third on your selling price, you're probably not charging enough, or you're growing something people don't want at the price that it costs to actually grow it.

Are your management and procedures, are you ready?

I see a ton of people that manage their management style as they go around and tell everybody what to do, or they do it all themselves because nobody can do it as good as them.

I work with tons of managers, and I source them all over the West Coast to operate properties that we find.

And 1 of the first things I do is try to figure out who's making decisions on the farm.

If it's collaborative, there's a chance that they can scale.

If it's 1 person making all the decisions, and if they make comments like, Oh, I just have to do things myself.

And until people figure that out, they're going to be frustrated.

And the people that work for them will also be frustrated.

And in capital, are you positioned financially?

Do you really know what it's gonna cost you to take on more land?

So many people forget about measuring it, and if you can't measure it, you can't manage it.

So just wise stewardship is really important when you're looking at scaling.

So again, these are just more questions that I would ask.

On the tasks you're not good at, who can help you?

Have you identified the list of people in your life or around you that can help you do things that you're not good at.

If you're not good at marketing, then find somebody that is and work together on that.

I've seen a lot of times where a lot of small farmers will be in an area.

1 of them is really good at marketing and transportation.

And so working collaboratively is a really great way to either not have to hire somebody, but yet be able to accomplish getting your stuff sold at a good price.

I was selling potatoes at the farmers markets in Portland, and we had listed them at $0.50 a pound.

And I thought that was quite A bit of money and it didn't sell a potato This is like several weeks in wasn't selling potatoes wasn't selling potatoes went home.

I was talking to my wife about it She said you know they're probably it's a perceived value issue Put the price up to a dollar a pound and see what happens.

I'm like, there's no way people are gonna pay a buck a pound for potatoes.

I mean, this is when you could buy 10 pounds of potatoes for a buck in the store.

And I was growing Everything you couldn't find in the store, that was our thing.

We grew everything you couldn't find in a store.

Put a price up to $1 and sold out in about 2 hours the next market.

And from that time on, we sold out 300 to 500 pounds of potatoes a week for a dollar a pound, and we were sold out by the end of the market.

In fact, we made more money on potatoes than we did on berries.

These guys do a really great job, and I actually brought handouts, so at some point, somebody maybe can pass these around.

For those of you who were in my berry class, I actually went home and put together a bunch of information here that would help you with berries and with small farming.

So these are the sources I go to for help and for inspiration when I'm looking for it.

So these guys Jean Martin, Fortier, Curtis Stone, in the field consultants, and then of course the farmer's friend folks out here.

You know, they're doing a lot of inspiring things on smaller scales, so small scale is not...

These guys, so this Jayam guy, they're doing, I think it's 130 to 150, 000 a year off of an acre and a half.

And they have about a 45% net profit from that.

So if you think about, 1 of the things I like to think about is how many people am I trying to support?

How much money do I need to support that?

And then what is it going to take to bring that money in after taxes to provide that support?

So again, budgeting, but just ways that I'm thinking about whether we should scale or not.

It's similar to being a doctor where that patient's still in the hospital and you're home sleeping, but you're worrying about the patient that's in the hospital, that's farming.

So just, it's a huge blessing, it's a huge, to me, it's kept my interest going over the years and it's always something new, but it's also a lifelong learning Process and it's a lifestyle versus a occupation If you want an occupation then just garden It's way more fun than the stress of actually farming and full you know full time if that's not your not your focus market man demands You really should be growing what the market wants There's great ways to do that 1 is surveys 1 is to also look at farmers markets go to the farmers market before It opens and stay till it open it closes and what if the farmers have left on their tables a lot of areas The farmers markets have already saturated it Csa's are hard to start 1 of the big things that's not happening in the Northwest is enough wintertime production you still have to get most of our produce from out of state so that's a huge opportunity for people and 1 of the my retirement farm is is growing a few things over the summer that you really look forward to eating over the summer like things like melons and tomatoes and then growing A lot of storage crops preserving them and storing them and in selling it all winter Because I like to get out in the woods in the summertime or mountain bike And so you can't do that if you're working 6 days a week on a farm.

This really goes back to what I said first.

As you scale and add employees or larger operations, you have to get your work done through other people.

So you need to become an influencer rather than a direct leader of a project.

It's definitely not something we're naturally trained to do.

So there's a whole list of places I go, and I actually didn't put them on here.

But Google has done a really great job changing the culture of business.

And it's something that agriculture has not done a good job of, and nobody talks about it, but it's definitely something that's necessary.

So big thing here is can you maintain the quality when you scale?

Customers are buying your product on quality usually not on Quantity and then again financially in this big question around human capital Can you actually take on more?

So appropriate scale matters I was recently tasked with looking at cranberries and whether or not we could scale and we could actually Produce organic cranberries so most of the cranberries are produced conventionally And we have about 3, 000 acres of cranberry bogs in Bandon, Oregon, here in the south coast of Oregon.

And there's about 1, 300 acres in Grayland and Long Beach in Washington.

So that's the West Coast cranberry production is pretty much just in these 2 states.

So our question was, to manage it appropriately, we needed to hire good quality people.

To do that, we've got to pay them a pretty good amount of money.

So what scale were we going to need to be at?

So to have a management team, 1 of the things you're seeing here is a harvester that's at least 3 times the width of a normal harvester.

That bog would take 4 hours to harvest with the with a regular conventional harvester.

It takes us 20 minutes to harvest that bog.

Thom Mayer

Value Added Products

Our dear gracious Heavenly Father, Lord, we are so thankful for this conference and for the ability to come and meet and share ideas.

Lord, we know that you want us to not only share gardening and food, but to share the gospel with the world around us.

So Lord, just guide us and teach us in which way we should go.

May the goal be to bring that last message of mercy to a sick and dying world.

And we praise your name for what you're doing and what you're about to do.

So I'd like to just kind of start out with a little bit of just a little history of why I have gotten so into food packaging and just kind of a passion of mine for a little while.

And so kale chips, wheatgrass, fruit leather, and other fun farming projects.

Who here is doing some sort of value added processing?

So I'll try to leave some time at the end that we can share a little bit, if I can get through all the different slides that I have here.

You know, I think a lot of us realize why that is important.

But really the ultimate goal is not just to make money, right?

The ultimate goal ultimately is to share the health message, which really is that right arm of the gospel reaching out to people around us.

And So I really kind of got serious about this when I stepped into a church.

I was actually giving a Battlefield Hollywood presentation in Arizona.

And the host that I was staying with said, hey, let's go to this church for Sabbath.

I'd never heard of this gentleman before.

I sat down, me and my friend and my wife.

I think we were the only white people in the church.

It was a very lively service, and it was a lot of energy in the room.

And Rico has a lot of energy and he speaks with passion and with love and if you want somebody to come and share the health message, He has a whole series called the Great Food Controversy and it's incredible.

I mean lining up the the whole great controversy with the issues in food today and farming and all that.

And at the end of his presentation He read this quote here from the chapter, The Knowledge of Health Principles, from Volume 7 of the Testimonies for the Church, page 62.

This just kind of hit me square between the eyes.

"'We have come to a time when every member of the church should take hold of the medical missionary work." And I was like, wow, really?

The world is a laser house filled with victims of both physical and spiritual disease.

Everywhere people are perishing for lack of knowledge of the truths that have been committed to us.

The members of the church are in need of an awakening that they may realize their responsibility to impart these truths." And the entire congregation went down for the altar call.

You know, his altar call was basically, are you gonna take hold of the medical missionary work?

In some way, I mean, it doesn't mean you have to be a doctor or a nurse, right?

So, the carrot hot dog is something that I also learned there at camp meeting.

The lady right next to me was doing a vegan soft serve, and she had this vegan restaurant.

And she told me that her best selling item on her menu at her vegan restaurant in Fairfield was a carrot hot dog, to which I thought, that sounds disgusting.

I don't think I would order that if I came to your restaurant.

And so that just kind of was there for a year.

This is how, how can I mean, I just couldn't fathom a carrot really tasting anything other than a cooked carrot, which just I don't like cooked carrots?

I love carrots, but I don't like cooked carrots.

So without further ado here, here's here's the recipe.

So if you steam about 50, 60 carats, and the time's different.

I'm doing 120 to 130 carrots in my big steamer at a time so it takes me about 22 minutes to get them.

You wanna steam them down to the softness that you initially desire.

Barbecuing them later is not gonna soften them any further, it's just gonna warm them up.

So get them down to a nice softness that you like, and then drop them in this marinade of 4 cups of water, quarter cup of avocado oil, half a cup of liquid smoke, and we're buying liquid smoke from Living Nutritionals.

It's a website that's making it out of mesquite wood, and it's an actual just smoky water.

If you use Bragg, it's going to be way too salty.

Back to Menu

Series

Seminar 4

Efficiency for the Commercial Gardener

Transcript

Parent Series

Parent Conference

Sponsor

Recorded

Parts

A Basil Boost

48m

Efficiency for the Commercial Gardener

47m

Value Added Products

52m

Irrigation for the Home Gardener

36m

Sound Doctrine