SPIN Farming
Forum Archives
Daniel
Location: British Columbia, Southwestern
Posted: May-07-2009 at 10:44pm
So what do people think of SPIN farming? See following link: http://www.spinfarming.com/
Seems like a neat way of fighting back against the plague of green lawns that has overtaken north america....!
JeanneK
Location: Oregon, Greater Portland Metro
Posted: May-08-2009 at 9:07am
Sounds like a catchy, hip way to describe what small, organic gardeners have been doing since forever.
Gary, I think you can definitely call yourself a SPIN gardener!
Jeanne
greenmann
Location: Washington, Puget Sound Corridor
Posted: May-08-2009 at 7:02pm
Looks to me like a marketing system to get you to buy information about farming on a small scale for the farmers markets. Not a bad idea I suppose... but not really necessary either. Anyone with an ounce of common sense and a little business savvy should be able to figure out what they are doing. Locally, at least in the Greater Seattle Area, there are lots of farmers markets all over the area, so this could be a good to great opportunity for someone looking to do something like this. I'm a little skeptical about buying their material, I think you could go to the local growers association and get more or less the same information, targeted for your area, for free... but who knows? Maybe this is the best thing since sliced bread *shrug*
Green Man Gardens
gary
Location: Washington, Puget Sound Corridor
Posted: May-09-2009 at 4:51am
I'm pretty much in green man's camp on this. I'd add that if you want to learn, one of the best ways would be to "intern" with the best local Market grower you can. Much of their seasonal labor force comes through this source. I'd think that now is late in the season to hire on but a good time begin research about who you might want to apply to next year.
In my area, much of the small farmer labor force comes from student interns of The Evergreen SC. If the same is true where you are, UBC(?), you'll may have to try to get into that kind of a chain. I suspect that this is much like my father talking to high school math teachers about a student that wanted to get into a sheet metal apprenticeship program. (now they call it "networking"?)
Gary
Veggie girl
Location: Washington, Western Cascade Foothills
Posted: May-14-2009 at 6:29am
Maybe "Spin Gardening" sounds more appealing to the modern person that "French Intensive Gardening." I wonder if you still have to double dig.
Daniel
Location: British Columbia, Southwestern
Posted: May-14-2009 at 7:43pm
Yeah, I wouldn't really be into buying their material either. Reading a few books, being part of forums and talking to the people who sell at Farmer's Markets should be quite sufficient, but again, maybe there's valuable tips in there.
But I think the concept is great - for people who don't have land, pay a small fee to use somebody else's vacant land, for a lot cheaper than buying your own. Not that it might not be worth buying your own at some point anyway, but that's not realistic for everybody. (like, oh, me for instance :-)
And there's nothing I would like better than to see some of those urban green lawns disappear and turn into something useful that's actually profitable. I'm seriously considering giving it a try next year.
gary
Location: Washington, Puget Sound Corridor
Posted: May-15-2009 at 2:42am
Daniel,
On the financial issues, leasing land for farming is the BEST advice I can give. I'll just give two examples.
According to a couple of Sea Times articles in the last few years, Irish Eyes seed company near Ellensburg sits on 13 acres but farms another 90 acres for its seed potatoes.
George Richter of Fife, WA was named the best raspberry grower in the US by the New York Times in 2004/5. George grew up on a farm next to my grandfather's in the Puyallup Valley but until his death last year, he was leasing most of the land for his berry fields.
I said two examples but I'll add that most (if not all) of the larger growers for the Olympia Farmers' Market also lease much of their ground.
Gary
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