Jun 11, 2019
This week, I talk to Daniel Mays about his diversified farm and how he manages a no-till, intensive vegetable operation and pastured livestock near Portland, Maine.
In this episode you'll hear:
>> How building soil and building community around local food
are both important factors of regenerative agriculture
>> How living in the community you’re serving can help build
a successful farm business because of proximity and connections
>> How having several symbiotic marketing channels leaves the
farm with virtually no waste
>> How he manages planting, weeding and harvesting in a
no-till system
>> How having cloud-based record-keeping templates allows his
employees to all be on the same page and stay on top of daily tasks
and organized throughout the season
Quotes from the episode:
"I feel like I'm part of something bigger than myself: I'm feeding
the community, I'm contributing to positive environmental impact
and I'm helping build a local economy"
"Basically, I'm just playing in the dirt with my friends for a
living"
About the Guest:
Daniel grew up in Chester County, PA, where through his Waldorf and
Quaker educations he developed a respect for nature and a sense of
environmental responsibility. Since then he has studied math and
physics, taught at a boarding high school, bicycled through Mexico,
earned a graduate degree in environmental engineering, and worked
on a number of farms. He is passionate about farming and excited to
have planted roots in Scarborough. He believes farmers should be
stewards of the land, not miners of its resources, and that farms
should be hubs of the community, not distant sources of its
calories. He also believes that economic sustainability need not be
sacrificed, but rather can come directly from the union of
environmental stewardship and community involvement. Daniel started
Frith Farm in November of 2010.