7 Things to Consider Before Starting a Farm | with Earth Grower Brian Maisenbacher

Bootstrap Farmer Radio

Earth Grower’s owner Brian Maisenbacher has dedicated his life to becoming the best farmer he possibly can be. He is mission-driven to help others have success in growing food and medicinal crops for their communities and their families.

He is passionate about finding solutions to help farmers become more regenerative and profitable. Brian has wholeheartedly spent over a decade working on farms, heritage orchards, cattle ranches, doing landscaping, and designing home gardens and farms around Arizona, California, and the Midwest.

He has also spent time working in Kenya to help build farms and provide fresh water for children's homes and churches with Love Mercy Organization. Periodically he teaches agricultural classes with Earth Citizens Organization Farm in Cottonwood Arizona.

He studied Permaculture Design at Oregon State University, Korean Natural Farming with Chris Trump, Microbial Density and Diversity Analysis with Dr. Mary Lucero, as well as Microscopy and the Soil Food Web with Dr. Elaine Ingham.

He embodies the philosophy of working with the rhythms of Nature and allowing it to be a conduit to become a better human being. He created Earth Grower LLC to help him achieve these goals in himself, and to help others become stronger, more resilient farmers.

Filmed in Venice Beach, CA with additional in field footage from Grae Biggs

Timestamps and Topics:

00:00 Earth Grower intro, Microbial soil testing, holistic management, lean practices, with ecological goals

01:10 Recent Arizona farm project

03:24 Intro to Brian’s blog post: 7 Things to Consider Before Starting a Farm

05:40 Past farm experience

06:33 Orchard work

14:15 Farms are a set of complex systems working as a whole

16:03 Working and building international farms

21:58 Deep Dive: 7 Things to Consider Before Starting a Farm

22:22 1- Be clear about your goals

37:24 2- What are you good at

40:27 3 What lifestyle do you desire

42:13 Stacking functions with permaculture practices: Animals

46:00 Farming is a business

51:31 You cannot control nature

57:32 Attachment is the root of suffering

59:31 Be prepared to ask for help

Follow Brian https://www.instagram.com/earth_grower/ and check out his extensive resources at https://www.earthgrowerllc.com/