my name is jamie and i am the head rutabaga rutabaga ranch we are an acre and a half
market garden and we grow about 45 different crops i grew up on a conventional dairy farm
and i always loved the farm but it was important for my mom that i had a education so i pursued a
career in social work and ultimately burnt out from that and i was looking for a way
to get back on a farm and figure out a way to become a farmer for myself without needing
a big capital investment so yeah i worked on a market garden for a season
and it all just kind of fell into place my biggest fear of getting into market
gardening was definitely finances to see if this was financially viable for us to make a living at
i think eco farms are important but one thing that's really important for eco farms to continue
and for us to continue farming in an eco-conscious manner is that the farm is financially viable one
way that we came at this year and how we wanted to differentiate ourselves between other farms
especially at markets was we followed the season extension protocols and methodology of the master
class which made our farm profitable in our first season which was really unexpected and awesome
the master class is a big expense but honestly like to grow good food you need good fertilizer
you need good amendments and having the master class which is so comprehensive
and so extensive and then also to have like the community of people that can answer your
questions it's a make or break it especially for a first-year farmer i couldn't recommend
it more and also too it's a lifelong membership and they're constantly adding new things so if
you're gonna farm for like 25 years what's that expense workout to be the master class has had
enormous impact in our profitability and our efficiency we really manage our whole farm
based around this tool i am so grateful to have access to all the spreadsheeting and crop planning
tools i'm not strong in excel or computer really anything and just having these awesome functional
spreadsheets laid out and then the video that's pretty extensive on how to use them
it's been a life saver especially whenever we're doing two to three crops per bit it's the only
crop planting tools that we use one of the most helpful my favorite modules in the masterclass
was definitely the grafting um me and my mom were super scared i've never grafted a tomato before
and we had like a 95 success rate just solely based off watching these videos
i'm not sure what's in this box we can see i think there might be parasitic wasps we got
aphid eliminator which is exactly what we want beneficial insects
are used better as a preventative so we just kind of let them out all the time
so i actually learned all of my greenhouse management skills from the master class
and i think if it wasn't for the master class i don't think we would have turned the small profit
that we did in our first season which is amazing for first-time farmers especially considering
the huge investment that we put up um we weren't really expecting a profit
on our first year but it was a very humbling awesome surprise
anytime we were setting up anything from the wash station the greenhouse the caterpillar tunnels
we always reference the master class and it's a really good starting point because i didn't
work on a vegetable farm before which it's really nice to have something that it gives you a perfect
example of what it should be or what it could be the master class is just it's golden it's it's
it's really really helpful to have what's nice about the master class is you can pick
and choose when you want to do it you can take you can pick it based off the job you're doing
that week with your staff you can do a bit more in the winter and it's very easy to
just pick the pieces that you need today and watch the rest at a later date i certainly think
the master class has a big role to play in like the international movement of small-scale farming
it's one of the only schools where you can go and learn this very specific technique that is
tried and proven to work the master class is like the go-to dictionary for small scale biodiverse
market gardening if you want to find everything you need to know one simple ideology to follow
set you up for success it's gonna be good
you