TBF 002 :: Farm Updates, Farm Do-Overs, and Hard Lessons Learned

I don't know what your playground days were like, but at Orchard Hill Elementary School we played a lot of kick-ball, basketball, and football during recess. If you were as skilled at those sports as I was you probably have called for a do-over or two or ten in your day! There have been plenty of times in my short farming life that I would have liked to be able call a do-over on. Unfortunately I'm not able to redo some of the mistakes I have made on the farm, but hopefully you can learn from them and not make the same ones I did! Specifically I want to share three things that I would do differently if I would have known then what I know now.

1. Where's the Beef ... err ... I Mean No Beef Please!
2. A Little More Learning Would be Nice.
3. Develop a Marketing Mind!

My "Hard Lesson Learned" this week deals with one word ... "NO". That is a word that wasn't really in my vocabulary when I started the farm and because of that I caused lots of problems for myself and for my family. In my excitement to get up and going to the level of my dreams I tried to do too many things too quickly instead of going slow and saying no when I needed to say no. Saying "no" in the beginning is one of my most offered pieces of advice to other beginning farmers and it is something I wish I would have said a lot more! If you enjoy the show and are an iTunes user you can always subscribe to The Beginning Farmer Show by following the link. And ... if you really enjoy the show I would very much appreciate a rating or comment in the iTunes Store. (FYI ... I am working on submitting the show to other podcast services).

I would love to hear your questions, show ideas, or comments about the show. Feel free to shoot me an e-mail! As always you can follow along with The Beginning Farmer and Crooked Gap Farm by checking out these links ...

• Crooked Gap Farm
• Crooked Gap Farm on Facebook
• Crooked Gap Farm on Twitter

(if you are interested in the music in this episode check out my brother's record label, Historic Records)