The Urban Farmer Podcast
Re-released for its 10th anniversary. The Urban Farmer is a documentary-style podcast that takes you behind the scenes of a real urban farming business to show you what it truly takes to run a successful farm in the city. Follow farmer Curtis Stone's journey over an entire growing season as he produces food on just a third of an acre in Kelowna, BC, Canada. The show was initially recorded in 2015. This series, hosted by Diego Footer, explores the daily struggles and successes of urban farming. Curtis shares his hard-earned knowledge of intensive production methods, season extension, optimal crop selection, farm...
The Hidden Economics of Every Task on Your Farm (S1W33)
Ever wonder if the tasks eating up your day are ACTUALLY worth your time? In this flashback episode, Curtis Stone breaks down the simple economics every small farmer needs to run: from washing tables to case-lot pricing, that can save you hours every week.
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The Boring Path to Full-Time Farming That Actually Works
The romantic story goes: quit the soul-crushing job, buy some land, start a farm, never look back.
Here's what actually happens: most people who do that fail within a few years because they run out of money before the farm can support them. Meanwhile, the un-sexy group who kept their jobs and farmed on evenings and weekends? Three to five years later, they're the ones still farming.
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The Boring Path to Full-Time Farming That Actually Works
The romantic story goes: quit the soul-crushing job, buy some land, start a farm, never look back.
Here's what actually happens: most people who do that fail within a few years because they run out of money before the farm can support them. Meanwhile, the un-sexy group who kept their jobs and farmed on evenings and weekends? Three to five years later, they're the ones still farming.
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How to Diagnose Farm Problems Fast AND Fix Them Fast (S1W32)
Ever wonder why one bed of arugula thrives while the other fails, even when both were planted on the same day?
In this flashback episode, Curtis Stone and Diego Footer break down how standardized systems help you zero in on and troubleshoot problems fast, why a walk-in cooler is non-negotiable for commercial growers, and the exact flame-weeding timing trick for weed-free carrots.
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Why the Best Farm Rarely Wins
Liquid Death convinced people to pay $2 for a can of water — the most commoditized product on the planet — by refusing to look like every other water brand. They didn't make better water. They made memorable water.
In a crowded market, the product that wins isn't the best one. It's the one people remember. This video breaks down six ways to differentiate, whether you're selling salad mix, water, or anything in between.
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Why New Farmers Quit (It's Often Not the Money)
The most common reason new farmers quit isn't money. It isn't exhaustion either — not exactly. It's that most of that exhaustion is self-inflicted. Bad decisions made with good intentions.
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5 Selling Strategies for Greens That Most Farmers Never Think About
You can grow the most beautiful head of lettuce on the planet. If you sell it the wrong way, at the wrong time, for the wrong price, you lose. These five strategies happen after harvest — not in the field.
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Work to Learn, Not to Earn: Planning Your First Farm Years (S1W31)
How much money do you actually need to make as a farmer to survive? Not how much you want to make, what's the real floor? Most people dramatically overestimate that number.
Curtis Stone's framework: calculate your actual cost of living, set your production goal (say $80,000), then budget your first year at one-third of that (~$25,000). Year two: two-thirds. Year three and beyond: the full target. His own first years: "If I could make twenty grand a season, that would be enough." He was prepared to live below the poverty line while he learned.
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4 Reasons Why Growing Your Farm Could Shrink Your Profit
Four reasons expansion can hurt you, and the 5 questions to ask before taking on any new space: What exactly will I grow there? Who's already buying it? Can my labor handle it? Does it connect to my existing infrastructure? What's my rotation plan for months one, three, and six?
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Stop Asking What Tool to Use for Weeding
What's the best tool for weeding? Wrong question. That question assumes weeding is inevitable. The best market gardeners don't have a favorite weeding tool, they've built solid systems so they barely need to weed at all.
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4 Ways to Make More Money Without Adding More Land
How many of your beds are actually in production right now? Not how many you have — how many are earning revenue today. For most small farms, the honest answer is: not all of them.
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Stop Chasing More Land! Plan Better Instead (S1W30)
Have you ever felt the pressure to expand your farm just because more land was available?
In this episode, Diego and Curtis challenge the "bigger is better" mindset that has shaped agriculture since the 1970s and explore why small-scale, intentional farming is a smarter, more sustainable path. They talk about solid ways to maximize the land you already have through tighter cropping strategies, smarter planning, and creative use of space, all without taking on debt or burning yourself out.
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How to Know When a Crop, a Market, or a Method Isn't Working
How long do you give an underperforming crop before you cut it? One season? Two? Most farmers don't have an answer — and that's the problem. A benchmark isn't a goal. It's the floor. Drop below it, gone. Without a benchmark, everything always gets "one more chance."
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There Are Only 3 Ways to Make More Money on Your Farm
If you want to make more money on your farm, you have exactly three options. Not five, not ten. Three: sell to more customers, sell higher-value products to the same customers, or sell more volume. Every strategy, every conference tip, every new idea fits into one of those buckets.
Most farmers pull lever three first — more beds, more crops, more volume. It's the most expensive lever and the most complex. Scaling a low-margin operation just scales the problem.
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The 80/20 Crop Audit: One Spreadsheet That Changes Your Whole Farm
How many of your crops actually make you money? Most farmers have never sorted the list. When they do, the math is shocking: 8–12 products typically generate 80% of total revenue. Everything below that line is seed cost, bed space, labor, and stress that drags your operation down.
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The 80/20 Crop Audit: One Spreadsheet That Changes Your Whole Farm
How many of your crops actually make you money? Most farmers have never sorted the list. When they do, the math is shocking: 8–12 products typically generate 80% of total revenue. Everything below that line is seed cost, bed space, labor, and stress that drags your operation down.
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Cutting 80 Crops Made This Farmer RICHER (S1W29)
In this episode, Curtis Stone and host Diego Footer break down how applying the 80/20 rule to your crop lineup can dramatically boost your farm's profitability and your quality of life...sometimes by doing less work, not more.
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Carrot Cashflow
What Can You Do That Someone Will Pay You For?
What can you do that someone will pay you for? Not what degree you have. Not what you're passionate about. What can you actually do that creates enough value that someone will hand you money for it?
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How Some Farmers Harvest 50 Weeks a Year
Most farmers lose four to eight weeks of production every year during transition gaps, i.e., clearing, prepping, replanting. At $500/week per greenhouse, that's up to $3,000 lost from the same space. Timing systems are often worth more than infrastructure upgrades. It's about being smart, not buying more.
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7 Records Every Market Farmer Should Track
After interviewing hundreds of farmers over the past decade, the pattern is consistent: the farms that survive aren't the best growers...they're the best record keepers.
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The $50/hr Crop vs. The $250/hr Crop
You harvest lettuce for an hour. $300 in revenue. Great, right? But you also spent 30 minutes planting, an hour weeding, an hour washing and packing. That's 3.5 hours total — $86 per hour, not $300.
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How to Never Overproduce (or Underproduce) a Crop Again (S1W28)
In this episode, find out the one habit that separates profitable urban farmers from those who struggle: meticulous record keeping. Curtis walks us through how tracking shortages, sales trends, and planting dates has made this his best shoulder season yet, with virtually zero wasted production.
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7 Numbers That Separate $80K Farms from $20K Farms (Rewind S1W27 - 2)
In this episode, Diego breaks down the seven metrics that separate $80K farms from $20K farms on the same amount of land: revenue per square foot, cost per unit produced, harvest ratio, labor hours per $1,000 in revenue, customer acquisition cost, cash flow gap, and gross profit margin by channel.
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The REAL Cost to Start an Urban Farm (Rewind S1W27 - 1)
How much money do you ACTUALLY need to start a profitable urban farm? One farmer turned $7,000 into a six-figure operation on a third of an acre.
In this Urban Farmer Rewind episode, Diego breaks down the five real expense categories every new farmer needs to budget for: including the hidden costs that nobody talks about.
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The Hidden Profit in Your Existing Farm Space (S1W30)
If you're planning on expanding your farm, STOP!...at least for a second. Listen first to this episode, where we challenge the "bigger is better" mentality that's destroying small farms. We'll talk about how refining what you already have often beats expansion, along with practical strategies to increase production by 21% without adding land. Hear some real examples of how doing less can actually make you more money.
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Cutting 80 Crops and Doubling My Profit: The 80/20 Rule for Farmers
In this episode, we're taking a look at the counterintuitive strategy of cutting out 80% of your crops to drastically increase your farm profits. Farmer Curtis Stone shares the exact analysis he used to identify which of the 10 crops he grew generated 80% of his income on just a quarter acre and how eliminating the rest gave him more free time, less stress, and higher net earnings.
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Should You Grow It? The Simple Formula for Crop Selection (S1W28)
In this episode, Urban Farmer Curtis Stone talks about the one solid principle that transformed his struggling farm into a thriving, profitable operation: detailed record keeping. Learn exactly how tracking your plantings, harvests, and sales prevents costly overproduction, eliminates waste, and helps you dial in perfect timing for shoulder-season crops. Curtis dives deep into the ins and outs of his system for greenhouse interplanting, managing year-round production in minimal space, and making data-driven decisions that maximize income while minimizing wasted labor.
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Stop Waiting for Perfect: Start Your Farm With $5,000 (S1W27)
This episode pulls no punches about starting a new farm: the sacrifices, struggles, and tough decisions that separate dreamers from doers. Curtis Stone and Diego Footer discuss why successful farmers like Jean-Martin Fortier started in tents and teepees, how to prepare for worst-case scenarios, and the one question that will either motivate or haunt you for decades: "Why didn't you just go for it?"
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Why Working to Learn Beats Working to Earn in Your First Farm Year (Rewind S1W26 - 2)
Why do the most successful farmers barely break even in year one? How could chasing profits too early destroy your farm business? In this episode, we're answering all that and more as we dive into the counterintuitive strategy that transforms struggling growers into profitable operations by year three, including actionable exercises to track what really matters: your cost per square foot, true profit margins, and which crops are secretly draining your time and money. Diego breaks down the exact approach that helped Curtis Stone build a thriving urban farm, including a 90-day learning sprint that will teach you more...
The Hidden Trap of Starting Too Big: Why 5,000 Square Feet Beats 2 Acres (Rewind S1W26 - 1)
In this episode, Diego schools us in on the four critical principles that separate successful farms from the 90% that fail within three years. We dive deep into all the reasons why starting small (just 5,000 square feet) gives you the validation, data, and sustainability you need before scaling up. Siego also breaks down how to track unit economics, understand your true capacity, and avoid the complexity cascade that destroys farm businesses.
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Work to Learn, Not Earn: Building a Sustainable Farm (S1W26)
Thinking about starting a farm? In this episode, Curtis and Diego talk about why most new farmers fail and the counter-intuitive strategy that leads to long-term success. They double down on the value of working for knowledge instead of profits in your first year, starting with less land, and how building systematically will set you up for a thriving farm business. Curtis shares his hard-earned lessons on how to avoid the burnout, overwhelm, and financial struggle that sink most beginning farmers.
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The 10-Day Pivot: Why Fast Feedback Loops Save Businesses (Rewind S1W25 - 2)
In this episode, we take a look at how farmer Curtis Stone survived a 75% revenue drop by using 10-day feedback cycles to pivot before losses mounted. We'll talk about ways to detect failures fast, test cheaply, and adapt quickly to rapidly changing markets.
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Why Most Small Businesses Burn Out by September (Rewind S1W25 - 1)
In this rewind episode, we're taking a look at how farmer Curtis Stone achieved a 35% revenue increase while taking daily naps during peak season: by completely restructuring his workflow. We're breaking down how to stage work across optimal time windows, avoid burnout, and build systems that work with natural rhythms instead of against them—helping you scale sustainably without sacrificing your health or sanity.
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The Biggest Winter Vegetable Growing Mistakes to Avoid (S1W25)
The Urban Farmer Curtis Stone shares some practical strategies that helped increase his farm revenue by 35% without adding more land or working longer hours. He'll talk about exact planting dates for fall crops, heat management techniques that protect both you and your employees, and why strategic napping might be your secret weapon against burnout.
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Automation and The Real Cost of Manual Systems (Rewind S1W24 - 3)
In this rewind episode, we're breaking down why automating simple tasks like invoicing doesn't just save you 10+ hours per season...it also unlocks your farm's growth. We're looking at automation strategies you can implement this week—from digital invoicing to voice-to-text workflows—that will free you from repetitive manual work and give you more time to focus on sales, strategy, and scaling your business.
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The Fresh Sheet System That Increased Farm Sales by 30% (Rewind S1W24 - 2 of 3)
In this rewind episode, we're breaking down how farmer Curtis Stone increased his farm sales by 30% without adding land or changing crops—just by consistently sending weekly fresh sheets to his restaurant customers. We'll take a closer look at his email template, timing strategy, and follow-up system that transforms sporadic orders into predictable revenue.
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The Restaurant Distributor Strategy: From $100 Orders to $1,500 Orders (Rewind S1W24 - 1 of 3)
In this episode, we take a look at how urban farmer Curtis Stone scaled from $100 restaurant orders to $1,500 distributor deals—and why he almost lost everything when one customer disappeared overnight. In this rewind episode, we're looking at the exact three-phase framework (overflow, negotiate, diversify) that helped Curtis manage high-stakes distributor relationships while protecting his business from catastrophic risk.
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Why Chefs Forget to Order: How to Stop Losing Restaurant Sales (S1W24)
In this episode, Curtis talks about the simple weekly marketing tool that can transform any farm's restaurant sales: he reveals how his consistent fresh sheet system increased sales by over 30% while reducing time spent on marketing from hours to just 10 minutes per week. He shares the exact format, timing, and strategies that keep busy chefs ordering regularly, plus insider tips on pricing, inventory management, and building lasting restaurant relationships that generate steady revenue.
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The Hidden Cost of Farm Burnout...It's a Lot More Than You Think (Rewind S1W23 - Part 3)
In this episode, Diego talks about evidence-based strategies that helped one farmer go from 100-hour burnout weeks to a sustainable 20-hour work schedule. He breaks down the science of burnout recovery, including boundary-setting techniques, sleep optimization, and task prioritization methods that actually work. Remember: working yourself into the ground is NOT noble—it's preventable. If you're starting to feel the burnout kicking in, take the first steps today to protect your health, your business, and your long-term success.
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The $1,000 Mistake That Could Save You $10,000: Why Farmers Need Mentors (Rewind S1W23 - Part 2)
Curtis Stone wasted $3,000 and three years on failed irrigation systems...when just one conversation with the right mentor could have prevented it all. In this episode, we talk about why investing in high-grade knowledge from active practitioners is the fastest way to avoid costly mistakes and accelerate your farming success. Diego breaks down Curtis's mentor strategy and shows you exactly how to identify, approach, and learn from people who are succeeding right now in your field.
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