If you meet Jim Schultz at a farming conference , you would n’t set him as a comparatively Modern James Leonard Farmer . In addition to having retreat from a career in instruction , Jim is also an absolute fount of agricultural knowledge .
After a few minutes of confab , you ’d come away convince that Jim is an constitutive land educator somewhere , as oppose to a farmer who began his own operation after pull away from a dissimilar career .
An Uncommon Story
Although many citizenry fantasize about leaving their desk jobs to get going a career in agriculture , Jim not only took that leap but has found succeeder on the other side . Red Shirt Farmis not a small , hobby operation ( not that there ’s anything wrong with that ) .
Rather , it is a rapidly spread out cognitive process with big plans for the futurity .
Read more : quick to start a farm ? Make certain you do these 4 thing first .
The Farm
Red Shirt Farm baby-sit on 13 Accho in Lanesborough , Massachusetts , in the Northwestern corner of the state . The heart of the farm is its no - till veg operation , which ease up enough produce to support a 130 - member CSA , a cubicle at a local granger market and several wholesale accounts .
The farm also grows herbs , flowers , berries and yield . Red Shirt Farm
And Red Shirt Farm comprise livestock into its farm ecosystem . The farm put forward pastured pigs annually and breeds pastured chicken and turkeys for both meat and egg output . While Jim has been quietly improving and expand the farm for years , more and more people have begin to take posting .
Red Shirt Farm
ACRES USA recently profiled the farm in a top story , and Jim is a not infrequent speaker for organizations like NOFA Massachusetts .
Read more : Can you develop organically with no - till methods ? Yes , but there are a few unequaled considerations .
Keys to Success
For many growers ( myself included ) , it ’s tempting to mine stories like Jim ’s for the keys to success . What were the specific decisions that enable him to defy the betting odds of prove a successful farming concern ? Perhaps his use of sure grants to fund base growth ? Or accession to particular markets ?
The trueness , as with many things , is that there are no aboveboard answer .
I worked at Red Shirt Farm for two seasons starting in 2017 . The farm was dissimilar back then , but it ’s future success also felt inevitable . During my time there , the farm built its 2d high burrow , opened its first sweeping accounts , and turn its CSA rank by 30 percent .
Red Shirt Farm
And each of those milestones that the farm accomplish came about from unnumberable hours of Jim ’s employment . Myself and several other young people turn on the farm both of those season , and Jim handily outworked us every day .
Beyond just work intemperately , though , Jim also work “ impudent ” in a room that I ’ve seen few other farmers attract off . His substantial noesis of regenerative agriculture means that he wastes little time on task that are n’t necessary . perhaps Joel Salatin was ripe when he allege you’re able to say everything you call for to know about a farmer by looking at their bookshelf .
Despite the many ( many ) challenges associated with starting a new farm business , Jim ’s news report is a will to the fact that it still can be done — and even after retirement at that .
