- Five years ago, I met a guy named Andrew at a farm-to-table dinner, and today, we are at his farm, which he manages all by himself while working 35 hours a week, and grossing over six figures a year. I see him over there. You're gonna love this tour. Let's go find him. - What's going on, man?
(Kevin laughs) - Hey, what's up?
(laughing) - Snuck up on me there. - I know, I know, what are you up to? Cultivating? - Yeah, just getting
the cultivation going. - [Kevin] Dude, this place looks amazing. - [Andrew] Appreciate it, man.
- [Kelvin] It really does. - [Andrew] Thanks.
- What is it, like an acre, a little over?
- A Little over an acre. - [Kevin] Yeah.
- [Andrew] Yeah. - [Kevin] And it's all you? - [Andrew] All me, all me out here. 165, 50 foot beds. - [Kevin] That's crazy. - [Andrew] Yeah.
- That is crazy. I still can't believe that
you do it all yourself, it's bizarre, it's bonkers to me. 'Cause you look this far,
and damn, it keeps on going. - [Andrew] It's out there. - [Kevin] Let's just go right here, talk about classic bed prep, and-- - [Andrew] Yep.
- How does it all work? - Yeah, so my standard beds, as you can see it here, I stake 'em out at 30 inch wide. - Which is the market gardener standard. - Which is the market
garden, 18 inch centers. - Yep. - So it gives us plenty to go down a wheelbarrow with, whatever, and then pretty much,
everything's super intensive. So nothing ever goes empty. - [Kevin] Lettuce row here.
- Classic lettuce row, these are those cut and come against. These are beautiful, this is
actually gonna be harvested for the market this weekend.
- These are perfect right now. - Yeah. - How are you harvesting
these guys by yourself? - [Andrew] All by hand. - So you're just using
a knife, and just... - One knife. (mimicking cutting noises) Cut and come again. Especially with the head
lettuces, I just like to... I mean, I can burn through this thing, and then they all was
just cut super clean, ready to rock and roll. - Yeah. - Behind us, we have
some overwintered carrots that are starting to explode. Let's see, we put these guys in... These are a little later.
- Yeah. - So, I put these in in November. - Okay.
- Yeah, so these are littler guys. - Nice shape on this. - Yeah, these are those Mokum's. - Whoopees.
(both laughs) Snapped.
- Yeah, super, super sweet. - You gotta give it that bite test. - Super sweet, got the crunch. - Ooh, that's nice. - Yeah, yeah the Mokum's are really nice, and they're super fast, 55 days. So, that's why I like
'em, and then they... And then the thing I like about 'em too, is you can actually harvest
'em in these pencil size. - So, water carrots,
they'll take a lot of time to get to size and then
they'll get funky, and, but these, you just-
- I feel like a chef might like that, or maybe just a home cook might like it. It's a different shape.
- Exactly. - Kind of nice.
- You don't have to peel 'em, you don't have to do anything with 'em. - So talk to me about the
land, like when you got here, what'd you have to do? Because it's been you
the whole time, right? Nobody else?
- Been me the whole time. Yeah.
- So you, like when you first came here, you did all these rows? - I started building 'em all. - Really?.
- By hand. - So you didn't like expand
over the years type thing. You were just like, boom, I'm in. - [Andrew] No, no, I
did expand a little bit. - [Kevin] A little bit,
okay, got it, got it. - So like I did 20 rows one
week, 20 rows the next week, and then second year, I started coming down this back side here, and then third year, I opened up a 20 more rows in that back. - Wow.
- So yeah, year by year, I just kinda keep adding
little chunks here, trying to really utilize my space here as much as I can. - [Kevin] What'd you do for soil? Amendments, et cetera
when you started out? - I used a lot of mineral
dust in the very beginning. - Yeah.
- Composted the crap outta everything. 'Cause this soil here, not in this particular area, this is pretty good, but more towards the hoops there's a really, really
drained out rocky area, so I had to really load up compost. - [Kevin] Right, yeah. - So I use 30 yards roughly every year. - Okay. - Every bad slip, if it gets emptied, gets a whole new compost layer, about an inch layer on there. - Every single time. - Every single time.
- Yeah, okay. - So it gets composted maybe twice, three times a year. - So is that your biggest input besides perhaps seeding I guess, is composting or maybe water? - [Andrew] Water and compost, yeah. - [Kevin] Yeah, yeah.
- And then I use a true organics pelleted fertilizer as well. - Okay, yeah. - Which is a seven, five, seven, just a nice all purpose slow release. - Yeah, I wanna know like routine. Because you're telling me
you do it all yourself, which is sort of unbelievable honestly, even though I know it's true. (both laugh) But not only that, but you're doing it at
maybe 35, 40 hours a week. - Yep.
- So it's less, honestly less than almost
everyone's office job. - For sure, for sure. - Which is crazy to me. - Yeah, so like these beds
right behind you for instance, had broccoli in it two weeks ago. It was overwintered broccoli. I cut 'em down to the
surface, let the roots go in. I lay the compost on, and put tarp on for a week. Boom, after that tarp was on, I undid it-- - Yeah. - Raked it out, and then I literally just
direct seeded into it, put the tarp right side up, - Yeah.
- Two days later, we're here. - Are you starting in
transplanting anything, or are you direct sourcing everything? - Yeah, so I direct soil arugula, and mesculin, carrots, beets-- - Anything you can, right? I would imagine you would
prefer to direct sell. - Yeah, I have a small
greenhouse at my house. - Okay.
- A little 10 by 20. - Yeah.
- So, I can't, I'd love to transport
beets and things like that, I just don't have the space.
- Yeah, sure. - So I direct seed those things, but things like these tomato starts, I started all these guys,
and then I up planted 'em, so, these are actually from Brad Gates-- - Oh, no way.
- Up at Wild Boar Farms. - [Kevin] What variety?
- [Andrew] Afternoon delight. - [Kevin] Okay, I haven't grown that one. - [Andrew] Is the purple. See that purple guy?
- Yeah. - How are you doing, like the Florida weave on this then? Just a...
- No. No, this is kind of like, I don't know. The guys in Monterey taught
me this little system. I just pretty much tie one end-- - Yeah.
- Loop it, and then I'll have six different strings, or five different strings, and then I come in,
- Yeah. - And I just-
- You just do... Oh, that's interesting. - See this nice little tie? - You do this little
sandwich off right here. - Called tie wind.
- Keep it nice and taut. Yeah.
- And then these taut. - And then you'll just
go up every six inches, eight inches,
- Every six inches? - And you just do another.
- Yep. - That's like a big difference, huh? - This is actually an example of a row-- - Sure.
- That was an old mesculin. I tarped it, composted it, roots are still decaying in there. - Yeah, so you're not ripping out. - And then stick tomatoes
straight back in there. So this stuff's alive. They go pretty quick. If you rub your hands on that, they're just gone.
- Yeah. - They're in there and that's carbon. - Packed into the soil. Yep, totally.
- That's carbon. And so that's kind of
another, I don't look at it as necessarily a cover cropping system, but it definitely does add. - It kind of is. Yeah, it is.
- 'Cause every week, their goin' straight back into the ground. - You're taking the top
two thirds of plant matter and selling it off, and then the bottom one third you're just letting go. - Yep, and a lot of time I'll let it do a little growth again, and then I'll drop it and let it sit. - Yeah, how many seasons
have you turned here? - Six or seven probably.
- Oh shoot. - Especially with the direct seated stuff. - Really?
- I'm constantly... Every single week, I seed the arugula, salad, and mesculin.
- Yeah. - Every single week. - Have you seen your
need for inputs go down, like composts go down at all, as if improving with time? - Not yet, certain rows, definitely. - Yeah, yeah, like the
heavier turned rows perhaps. Yeah, yeah.
- Yeah, exactly. More input on 'em. But certain areas like
up on that far side. Definitely just gonna have to keep on it. I think eventually, for sure we'll be able to back off. - But you know, if you're a market farmer, and you're trying to buy in inputs-- - Yep. - Obviously, you're using
SPV soils, but quality-wise, what are you looking for? - Quality-wise, I always ask the testing of carbon and nitrogen as a ratio. - Yeah. - So that seeding ratio is crucial. - Yeah, do you care about
like an MPK count on it, or not really? - No.
- Yeah. - No, I do care about the diversity, so like this one,
- Of input? - Yeah, so I know SPV uses a
lot more manure-base, cow-base. So like probably next year, I'll go with the chicken farmer up here, and do more of a chicken compost-base. - Oh, so you'll switch your supplier based on input if you can't
get it from one place, yeah. - That, and just to create
more of that diversity. - Yeah, sure. - Instead of just loading
in a bunch of phosphorous, phosphorous, phosphorous. - We've been using them for all
of our raised bed stuff too. - Yeah. - Like all the in ground
compost in the backyard. - Yeah. - Like my version of this market farm, which is certainly not on the same scale, but, yeah.
- Yeah. - Dude, it's amazing. - So these are those Chandlers
I was telling you about. These are second year Chandlers. - Ooh, oops.
- Sorry. But yeah, Dude, these
things are going crazy. These are Chandlers, these
are super popular in Monterey. - Wow.
- Yeah, these things are just goin' off, you know. - That's like classic.
- Yeah. - These are cool. I honestly saved these
initially, just for myself, 'cause I just love this fine texture. The super sweet, - [Kevin] Nice shape.
- Shape. - [Kevin] Yeah.
- They don't have great shelf life though. So for a market berry, it's not too good.
- It's tough, it's tough. - I'll harvest 'em Friday, and take 'em to market Saturday. And they're starting to go. - Really? Okay.
- So unless you're doing like farm stand straight out. - Maybe this is like a "you
pick" berry then, right? - Or a "you pick" berry.
- Bring 'em here. Yeah.
- Exactly. - Okay, where should we go next? - And then, let's see. Well we got--
- We can talk covers. You got this shade cover over here I want to talk about. - Yeah, so these guys, just the next succession
of a lettuce planting that we just kind of went
over in that other area. - Are you always shading it in the first like week or so, or? - [Andrew] Anything 75 and above, yeah. I'll go ahead and shade it all out. For two weeks.
- Two weeks, yeah. - Two weeks.
- Let it establish, yeah. - Yep, and then I'll let it uncover. I'll uncover it for a night. - Do you have like a
particular shade that you like? - This looks like--
- 40%. - Yeah.
- I did do 30%, but out here in Monterey, or not Monterey, yeah, out here in Ramona, I think that the sun's a
little bit more intense up here with a little elevation. Tense heat. - Yeah, dude, it's narly up here. - We get hot, we get cold.
- It's hot, it's cold though. Yeah, that's the thing,
it's hot and it's cold. - We get hot, we get cold,
and we get super windy. - Where I'm at, it's like, we're at like 45-ish lows,
and maybe we'll touch 100. - Yeah.
- Maybe. - Yeah. - So, I'm sure yours is, what are you like 25 to
110 or something like that? - Pretty much, yeah.
- Yeah. When are you using this bed prep method where you're sort of plopping, what like silage tarp or something on top? - This in particular I'm using, because you see that mint?
- Yeah. (Andrew laughs)
Oh, sure, yeah. - That mint was coming in on all the rows, and so, I'm using these
guys more or less a barrier. So, these are gonna kill
off that mint right here. - Yep.
- And then not go anymore. - What are you gonna throw on these? - I'm trying to get some
damn summer squash in here, but with this-- - This one looks like a big plant, yeah? - Yeah, yeah, well that big... Every 18 inches or so, and then I got cucumbers popping in here. - Oh there they are. Yeah, yeah, yeah. - And they're starting to pop, but earwigs in this
time of year are nasty, so we do a lot of replanting. But this stuff's going crazy. - That's popping off.
- Yeah. And then I gotta clear this out, and then put something else there. - Yeah, yeah, 'cause this is a bed. - This is a bed.
- Right, or was for a while. (both laugh)
- Exactly. Just overtaken.
- Yeah. - Then I got some baby
eggplants in this going on. - Nice. - In here is gonna be... I think some more lettuce heads, so these are Little
Jim lettuces back here. So these were all planted on Monday. - [Kevin] So you're just
using a very simple, just hoop and-- - Yeah, pretty much.
- Hoop and Shade. - Hoop and shade and rock. - Yeah, nothing. - The trick is, you
gotta get 'em big enough so the hoops are about five feet. So they get nice.
- Yeah. So they actually cover over.
- This is a pretty cool crop. This is a nice spinach crop coming in. - Yeah, that is nice. You have a variety on this? - [Andrew] That is a regiment. - [Kevin] It's looking good. - These two were beds
that were experiments, that I just kind of pushed. I was using this little section, you can see I shade out early here. And so I was kind of using
that as my chew over here, and I'm hoping to push 'em to end of June. - Yeah, with that tree, and that cover right there,
it looks like it makes sense. It's just one of those like
tiny little farmer things that you think about, right? - Exactly.
- Ooh, there's that tree. - Look at the tree right there. - Okay, I'll put something
cold and loving there. - Totally a farmer thing to think about. - Let's check out down here, man. 'Cause this is like almost
none of the farm we've seen. - [Andrew] Yeah, exactly. We've seen a block.
- Yeah. - One block of the farm. - How do you keep track of everything? Just all in your head,
or you got like journals and notes and stuff? - I got journals.
- Yeah. - I got planting journals,
things like that. I mean, the direct seeded stuff's so easy that it's every week, so it's only--
- Yeah. - That's stuff I keep out. But I keep on track of all
of my broccoli plantings, my pepper plantings, all that. Making sure I'm getting adequate amounts. - Yeah, is this just salanova here? - Another salanova.
- Yeah. One of the most expensive
lettuce seeds out there. (both laugh) - Yeah, it's going crazy.
- Isn't it? It still is, right?
- Oh, my gosh. - Yeah.
- So I actually, this is actually a cool one from you. and so Vitalis--
- Yeah. - Remember that one time
you went to Vitalis seeds, and those one cuts, and I asked you? Boom, there they are. - Oh, really? - Yeah, these are easy.
- No way. - These are easy cuts.
- Okay, nice. - These aren't the salanovas. So I went with it because of the money. And these are performing just as good. - Seems like the market garden crowd made the salanovas just too expensive. - It's so insane.
- And there's so many varieties coming out every year, that there's gotta be
something right, that works. - Exactly.
- Yeah. - And you'll find it. And I found them, and they're here. These ones are cool. These are green garlics
that we're pulling in. - Oh, you're going green.
- Yeah. So this little half row,
I did green garlics, and then we did some regular onions here. So I just kind of keep
mowing it down, and-- - So you're just gonna chop 'em and sell 'em for the tops then, yeah. - Yeah, so I just yank 'em.
- Yeah. - I yank 'em, and we
use 'em for the bases. - This is what I say, 'cause we are, my garlic just got hit by rust like crazy. - Yeah.
- And I'm like, Eh, it's just green garlic. That's why I grew it,
you know what I mean? Just make up an excuse.
- Yeah, let's cut the top off. - Yeah. - Yeah, mine are starting to burn a bit, because they are actually gonna start bulbing
here in the next month. - Yeah.
- So they'll start dying back. - I mean, you can tell it's already starting to go.
- Exactly. - Starting to separate, yeah.
- And it smells. Green garlic's my favorite thing. And this variety here, I've saved and, I've
grown and saved this seed for seven years now. It came for me with Monterey. And I brought it down, and I just been slowing
adapting it to my climate. - Yeah.
- Because it's the only soft deck variety that I
found that works down here. - [Kevin] Really?
- [Andrew] Yeah. - [Kevin] Interesting.
- [Andrew] And so-- - [Kevin] What's the variety name? - [Andrew] It's just an early Italian. - Yeah, but now, seven years
now, it's sort of your variety. - Exactly, now it's--
- Honestly, yeah. - Indian summer farms. (laughs) - Andrew Indian summer garlic. Yeah, that's wild.
- So, it's pretty cool. - So you'll just let some grow
out completely then, right? - This row I'll let... So that garlic row, I'll let it bulb out. - Yeah.
- So I have a full one there, and then way back yonder, you see those tops over there. - Right over there, yeah.
- I have one back there. - So one of those two is your
seed garlic for next season, the rest is harvested out?
- Exactly. - Yeah, want to check out a hoop house? - Let's check it out.
- Let's do it. You're telling me you're
adding one more a year? - Every year we're adding a hoop house. That's my goal.
- Yeah. - We just added this
one here in the corner about a month ago. This whole area's gonna
be my pepper block. - Yo, look at this prod fork though. - Yeah. - What kind of prod fork is this? (Andrew laughs) Frankenfork? - So yeah dude, so my father-in-law, my father-in-law, he was at
an East Gate sale in Ojai. He lives in Ojai.
- Yeah. - And he came by this thing, and the guy was like, "You know what it is?" He was like, "Yeah, of course I do." - Yeah.
- And the guy was like, "Since you know what it is, "I'll sell it to you for ten bucks." - That's a deal. Cheapest prod fork I've ever heard of. (both laugh) - Yeah, I try not to get
the tie-ins too far, dude, 'cause you see how
monstrous those things are. - They're huge, dude. - So I go about halfway in, and yeah. - 'Cause you're prod forking
and that's it, right? You're no tilling, no
disturbing besides that, right? - Yeah, pretty much, prod fork and raking. - Yeah. - [Andrew] So like these,
I just planted today. - [Kevin] Yeah.
- These are the sakuras. So these are gonna be those long cherries. They'll get trellised up
on these little wires here. - This is where you're saying
you go with the single liter, 'cause it's easier to pick.
- Yeah. - Yeah, yeah, yeah.
- Let the tresses get nice and taut.
- But they're spaced kind of close together, no? - Yeah, I do 100 of 'em
right here in the middle at about 18 inches apart,
18 inches on centers. Pretty tight, but-- - It works, clearly.
- It works, yeah. - Yeah, well I guess
if you go single liter and trim 'em down. - Yeah, and I-- - Just take all sakuras off after. - Exactly, every week they get trimmed. Every single week they get... And these will probably go until about September or October. - And you're selling all this stuff just at farmer's markets? - Yeah, just at the Little
Italy's farmers market right now. - That's it?
- Yeah. - Only one?
- Only one. - Oh shoot, dude, why
not anything up here? Not much of a market? - Not as much market. I'm building that structure over there, actually, that one I was talking about, where I was gonna sell tomato starts and strawberry starts out of. - We're gonna be starting
a farm stand out here too. - Okay.
- So I'll be opening it up probably Wednesday when my daughter goes to daycare, and then--
- Yeah, it makes sense. - Start selling it here.
- Everyone I talk to with the market farm thing... You're so interesting to me, because you figured out a way
to do it with, by yourself. So you're not incurring
tons of labor costs, which is like almost always
what people run into. But you somehow also
figured out how to do it without going 80, 100 hours a week, and just like that's your life, you live in the soil.
- For sure. - Which is a really interesting blend. So what have you had to give up, of like the classic market farmer best practices or whatever? What have you had to not do? - I mean, you can see out here, I keep things a little wild. - Yeah, yeah. - I like that kind of stand. I don't keep tip-top tight.
- Yeah. - I do let things go a little bit if there's areas I know I'm gonna tarp, and soon they're gonna let 'em go, and I think that type of stuff is-- - [Kevin] You're doing
something if it's necessary. - [Andrew] Exactly, only a necessity. - Not if it looks good or whatever. Not that it doesn't look good.
- Right. - To be clear.
- Right. - But just, you do see those market farms where it's like--
- Proceed. - There's nothing, there's nothing. - There's no weeds.
- Yeah. - But I actually like some weeds, because it's rooted in the ground. That's my whole motto,
is I want things covered. I want roots in the ground. I don't, out here in
this kid of arid climate, if it's too empty, it
gets dusty, it gets hot. It gets, so I kind of want some greenery. - It's kind of interesting, the idea of just letting the natural weeds creep through the pathways. - Creep through the pathways.
- 'Cause otherwise, 'cause you're gonna trample 'em, they'll break down, they'll die, whatever, so it's kind of nice, right? - Exactly, and I'll, with
something like these, you just kind of-- - Just give it that little touch. - Just give it a little
touch and they'll be toast. - Yeah.
- After that. - Especially in this heat, man. - So we planted some
peppers in here today. These are little habenaros on the side. - Oh nice. - And of course some lacienados. Yeah, I actually have
starts going right now. I'm planting kale, chard, any of my like pole and bundle greens, I plant those every three to four months-- - Just regardless, yeah.
- Just regardless. Just to keep a fresh batch going, keep it nice and strong.
- [Kelvin] Yeah. - [Andrew] And then if an old batch does keep rocking and rolling-- - [Kelvin] Just let it rip.
- Let it rip. Keep pulling, keep harvesting, boom. It's kinda that little insurance policy. As you know, just
successioning everything. - Why not? - That's where the whole
thing was, is like-- - Like this lettuce here-- - Yeah, this is gonna get all mowed out. So this was a example of frost damage. So these were all Lacienados, and this whole back area was planted with broccoli and lacienado. And with that frost that came through here two
weeks ago, smothered 'em. The coldest night, you know, I was like, oh, I'm not gonna cover 'em. They'll be fine.
- [Kelvin] Yeah. - [Andrew] One night I don't cover. - So how did you start? You just look at this today, and you're like, okay, this
guy's on another level. Obviously it didn't start out that way. - Yeah, yeah, I mean, the first years, you just start super small, super tight. Do what you can, do managing. I worked a full-time
night job on top of that. So I came out here during
the day, worked night. Maidens meets that way. - [Kelvin] Just to put like
a down-payment or a lease or take out a new loan
or anything like that. - No, no loans, I don't do nay loans, I don't wanna put any pressure
on me in terms of that way. Everything was, if I didn't
have the cash I didn't buy it - Yeah. - Of course, I could have all
the fancy tools in this nap, but I just found what I
needed and I went with it and yeah, so I just kinda
say, super, super low cost, keep my cost production as low as I can so I can sell things as
most profitable as you can. - Good point, yeah, 'cause
you price it however you want. Obviously a market bears what it bears but you'll be able to be
more competitive, I guess. - Exactly, exactly, and have the margins a little bit tighter and the other thing is just like this hoop houses, I couldn't go out and
buy more at one time. - [Kelvin] Sure. - Several year, I just
keep adding, I keep adding. This year I plan on
adding irrigation system, every year I try to add an upgrade that's gonna take me to do less. - Yeah.
- If that make sense. - It reminds me when I
like used to be addicted to like "SimCity" or something like that, like every year, you get
enough in the budget, you upgrade the roads,
you upgrade the plumbing. - Exactly.
- Whatever. - What seems to be the next necessity. - Yeah, totally. Irrigation is next you're saying now? - Yeah, irrigation is next, I spend a lot of time
flipping a little dials. So that's my next thing, is I
wanna automate it completely in that way I can just
refer a couple of ways. - Yeah, and that'd be nice, yeah. Dude, well, thanks for showing it to us. - Yeah. - I'm glad I got to come
up here, super inspiring, especially if you're
watching like no debt, 30, 40 hours a week, six figure business. - Six figure business. - Living out here, just chilling. Not chilling, sorry, not chilling.
- Not chilling. - Yeah, right now we're chilling. - Right now we're chilling, exactly. - I did not catch you on
a chill day earlier today but, dude, it's awesome, it's beautiful. - It's gratifying and I mean, if I can encourage anybody to it I will, we need more small farms
like this to do it. - Thanks for having us,
dude, I really appreciate. - Thanks for coming, guys. - Yeah, of course. Indian summer farm guys,
good luck in the garden, and keep on growing.
