fresh from the garden

fresh from the garden

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Welcome to the ramblings of a fifty-something suburban "farmer"

Hoping that if you should stumble upon this blog my daily musings might bring a little smile to your day.

Friday, April 17, 2020

No I'm really back this time!!!
   So I guess I've been on walkabout for the last 6 years . Even though i wasn't directly working on Suburban Artisan farm I was tied up in a few ventures that have taught me valuable lessons to hone my skills on our little piece of heaven . Just as I was about to venture into my micro-farm full time a chance of a lifetime was dropped in front of me .I was offered a job at Farmtek (very large hydro and greenhouse company) as their grow room assistant.I wanted this job so bad that I spent Christmas morning writing my resume. I'm not very good at formal writing but both my wife and the Farmtek head hunter said it was one of the best resumes they had ever seen. (the head hunter had hired me at Yankee candle left after a bit and went to Farmtek)   Funny thing is I would have taken the job for a lot less than they offered just for the experience.That turned into grow room manager overseeing almost 5000 ftsq. of indoor hydroponic systems as well as teaching numerous classes in their CEA (controlled environment agriculture)school . As well as a sweet employee discount.
    After three years they figured out what I had been thinking (and saying to a few people ) this was too good to be true .They were paying me WELL to learn about hydroponics and meet many new people in the business . So when things slowed down a little the grow room was phased out. More funny things ! One of the CEA students had a micro business incubator on Gasoline alley in Springfield  So Urban artisan farm was born .  We grew mushrooms ,microgreens and numerous hydroponic veggies in the middle of 4 million gallons of gasoline.we even had a few articles written about us and made local TV it was doing ok but needed to expand .Just as we wanted to discuss expansion we were informed we would be losing our building to a parking lot for a dispensary .Oh well! So here I am  ready to jump start the farm again. A little bit older and hopefully a little wiser.