December 2, 2024 • 44 mins
Ever wonder how a love for gardening and a background in marketing can lead to a thriving sustainable farm? Join us as we chat with Jonathan Way, the visionary co-founder of Calusa Farms and CEO of Topiary Creations, who turned his passion into a movement supporting small farmers across America.
Jonathan's journey is a testament to resilience and adaptability. When the pandemic forced his farm to temporarily close, leaving unsold produce behind, he turned adversity into opportunity. By inviting chefs to witness the transparency of his food sourcing, he built trust that became invaluable as restaurants shifted to takeout services. This episode highlights the power of strong relationships and Jonathan’s innovative problem-solving.
From starting Calusa Farms with just $300 to leading Topiary Creations, Jonathan shares his evolution from small-scale farming to large-scale agriculture. His story blends hands-on farming expertise with strategic business insights, showing how positivity and openness can turn challenges into opportunities. This inspiring episode offers practical lessons on overcoming obstacles and thriving in unexpected ways.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:03):
Welcome to Fresh Take , where we at Florida Organic
Growers speak to food systemsexperts about topics related to
organic and sustainableagriculture, healthy lifestyles
and the environment.
To help us continue ourprograms at FOG, including our
podcast, consider becoming asponsor.
For more information onsponsorship, check out our Get
Involved page on our website,wwwfoginfoorg out our Get
(00:27):
Involved page on our website,wwwfoginfoorg.
Speaker 2 (00:30):
Hello and welcome back to Fresh Take, where we
explore everything you need toknow about sustainable living,
organic agriculture and how tomake the best lifestyle choices
that benefit you and theenvironment.
Today, we have a trulyinspiring guest with us Jonathan
Wei, previous co-founder ofCalusa Farms and now CEO of
Topiary Creations.
Jonathan's journey to thefarming world is one marked by
(00:51):
resilience, adaptability and adeep passion for supporting the
small farmer movement in America.
We'll dive into his experienceshow he and his wife built a
thriving farm from the ground up, weathered storms like the
COVID-19 pandemic and ultimatelypivoted toward a new chapter in
their farming journey.
Jonathan, welcome to the show.
Speaker 3 (01:13):
Oh, thanks so much for having me.
Speaker 2 (01:14):
We're so excited to have you and dive into your
story, which I understand youlike to call the happy funeral,
so could you tell us about thatWell?
Speaker 3 (01:27):
the origin has to start off with the name Colusa
Farms.
My wife is from Columbia andshe actually grew up on a farm
in Columbia and she came toAmerica as a student to learn
English and I met her.
We fell in love, we got marriedand we always knew that we
wanted to do somethingentrepreneurial and didn't know
what it was.
And we also had been.
(01:49):
You know, we're also veryenvironmentally conscious.
We liked eating well, we werebig backpackers and hikers and
at one point in time we wereliving in Asheville, north
Carolina, and we always had thishuge garden, asheville, north
Carolina, and we always had thishuge garden.
And we became friends withpeople you know most young
(02:14):
couples do.
And we happened to becomefriends with a chef down in that
Asheville area, which is, youknow, known Asheville city
proper is known for having somejust fantastic restaurants and
he saw our garden and he said,hey, I want one of those
tomatoes, I want a tomato.
That's what he said.
Here you go.
And he said, no, no, no, I wantall of the tomatoes.
(02:34):
And so he started planting theseed in our minds that we could
perhaps sell to him and deliverto him, and our house at that
time in Asheville was so smallit wasn't.
We weren't going to make anytype of living, or the word farm
did not enter our minds at thattime.
I don't know why.
(02:55):
We were surrounded by farms,and long story short is that we
we moved back to Florida and atthat point in time, florida was
going through a tremendous boomin the restaurant industry down
on historic Fifth and ThirdAvenues, and we saw the same
thing that was going on inAsheville, with all these
(03:15):
high-end restaurants, reallygifted chefs coming into town,
exciting cuisine, you know,fusion between you know Thai and
French and et cetera, et cetera, and young chefs to our age.
And so we started thinking whatcan we do?
What can we do?
(03:36):
And we built upon the idea ofhaving like a farm and what
we're going to call ourselves.
Well, you know, my wife is fromColumbia and I'm from the USA,
so we called ourselves Col chefs.
Oh, cool Indians.
Well, yeah, close, and but itwas.
(04:09):
It was a way for the name toresonate in their minds.
Speaker 2 (04:12):
Wow, that's a really I mean, I love me a good love
story, first of all, and thefact that it, you know,
incorporated farming is a reallycool thing because you know you
, prior to moving to Florida,did you have any experience in
farming at all?
Speaker 3 (04:30):
No, none and nothing.
Really, I always loved thegarden.
I always, whenever I visited ahistoric site, I would go to the
garden, just loved it, lovedeverything growing, loved the
flowers, everything.
I would go to the garden, justloved it, loved everything
growing, loved the flowers,everything.
And when I was a younger boy,my dad would get the garden
going and but you know, I didn'tknow anything, we didn't know
(04:53):
anything.
We were going down to thehardware store and buying plant
starters and throwing them inthe ground and you know, if bugs
came and ate something, ok fine, you know, but it wasn't
something that we, we livedaround or depended by.
My wife, on the other hand, grewup in a big farming family and
they're still farming right nowin Colombia and it's everything
(05:16):
from chicken farming to hogfarming to coffee farming, and
so that's still a big, a bigimpact.
My wife grew up raisingchickens and you know she's
horrified by the memories of herand her family.
You know, uh, culling.
You know 200 chickens in aweekend.
So she definitely should do.
(05:36):
She did not want to do animal.
You know husbandry.
But even though I say thatabout the chickens, we still
still have chickens now.
Speaker 2 (05:43):
We always have been, we always had chickens, so we
have 16 chickens now and we getfresh eggs and gift them or sell
them to family and friends, andthen, in 2017, you expanded
into Calusa Gardens, where youdedicated, you know, designing
(06:08):
and maintaining chef's gardensfor restaurants, country clubs
and retirement communities, andso I'm curious to know when you
shifted into that sort ofbusiness, how did you decide
what your focus was going to bein terms of what you were going
to grow, how?
Speaker 3 (06:25):
did you decide what your focus was going to be in
terms of what you were going togrow?
Well, I have a businessbackground and I went to
business school.
I have a master's in marketing.
But after business school Ibecame disillusioned for many
reasons and I actually became ahigh school guidance counselor.
And a lot of free time on yourhands after work, a lot of free
summers so I knew I wanted to dosomething on the side A lot of
(06:48):
teachers do and so we haddecided that we were going to do
a farm and at the timeaquaponics was just created,
just announced and I definitelydrank the Kool-Aid and joined
the aquaponics revolution and Ibuilt one of the first
aquaponics centers here on ourfarm.
(07:10):
So we had four, I think thatthey were like 25-foot aquaponic
beds for growing lettuce, andthen we had the giant fish tank
with 100 heads of tilapia and Iquickly realized like there was
some business flaws there onoperating that kind of structure
and if you weren't prepared forthose problems, it was not
(07:35):
going to be sustainable.
So we later started goingaround to chefs and interviewing
chefs, basically, and saying tochefs hey, what is it that you
need?
Kind of like trying to fulfilla, a gap right and um, because
there's already food serviceshere, big food services, and you
(07:58):
know, I think I went around and, uh, I'm the kind of guy who
will go to the back door of akitchen and just walk in hey,
how are you?
You know, and most of the timepeople get out of here.
But you know, I kind of learned.
Hey, I want to interview you.
I'm a local farmer, I'm tryingto.
You know just the truth.
I'm a local farmer, I'm tryingto make this work.
(08:20):
Can I buy you a cup of coffee?
Can I buy you a cup of coffee?
Can I buy you a beer?
I've got 10 quick questions.
I'm not going to be more than20 minutes.
I'm just trying to figure outhow this works and if I can play
a role in this.
And, um, people were like hey,yeah, you can buy me a coffee,
you can buy me a beer or no, youcan just stand here and talk as
I cut, you know, chicken orproduce and talk with me.
So people started coming backwith, you know, your typical
(08:42):
laundry list of items and someof them I just couldn't compete
with, like corn on the cob,you're not going to.
It's huge.
You need hundreds of acres andwe bought a house with 2.25
acres on it and anyway.
So one of the things that kepton coming up were microgreens.
We get these microgreens it wasthe beginning of the new trend
(09:06):
and they die.
They die within a week.
And there's one other guy andhe's like two counties away and
he only comes here like everyother Friday when it's a full
moon something ridiculous andyou can't even pick what you
want.
He just gives you something andyou have to pay for it and he
demands cash.
And so I realized that therewas an opportunity for
additional competition and we'relike, yeah, we're gonna do
(09:29):
microgreens, and we also didlike lettuce because we had the
aquaponic system going and I wasjust like fascinated by
heirloom tomatoes and so oh, Ilove me heirloom tomatoes.
So we went down that route andthen eventually that's what
really got our footing.
You know, in the first year wewere growing everything for
(09:51):
everyone and failing just as big, you know, and so I couldn't
supply even like one restaurant.
So the microgreens were thewinners when we were doing it
that way and we said stop, whatare we, what are we really good
at here, and let's just focus onthose things.
And later it expanded intomushrooms and we took a gamble a
(10:13):
few years later and we flew outto Washington and we studied
with Paul Stamets there.
Wow, we learned a lot and weactually built our own mushroom
lab in our garage, which manytimes people confused as like a
drug lab, that we were doingsomething illegal.
We had to have conversationswith the air conditioning guy
(10:35):
not to call the police on us,but at one point in time we were
raided by drug enforcement taskforce because our neighbor
called and said that we weredoing something and they came
and they saw that we weren't.
But that's an adventure story.
That's a different storyaltogether.
Speaker 2 (10:56):
Oh man, we have to have a separate podcast episode
just for that.
Speaker 3 (11:00):
Yeah, it sounds a lot more cool and interesting than
it really was.
They were all very depressedthat we weren't doing anything
illegal and you know, they kindof you know had their heads down
as they walked back into theirSWAT trucks.
Speaker 2 (11:20):
And I mean that's a really cool thing that you were
connected to him and startedyour own lab.
I'm so fascinated to learn moreabout that.
But yes, we will pivot and saveentering this field of farming.
I mean, did you was everythingself-taught?
Were you watching YouTubevideos Like I'm just so curious
(11:54):
to find out how you really gotyour hands dirty and successful?
Speaker 3 (11:59):
Yeah, well, you know, my, my wife has a background in
science.
My wife is the science mom, soI've always been jealous over
her skill.
She can sit down and read likea science textbook.
At one point she was actuallyteaching science and so she
would guide me through thoseparts and together we did
everything and nights andweekends.
(12:20):
And I realized later, veryearly on yeah, yeah, we did
become involved in like YouTubevideos and we did look up like
community resources and we didlearn a lot with the community
resources.
And one thing that we learned alot was like at the time there
was like a almost like aninternal battle going on between
(12:42):
people who were organic andpeople who were not organic and
we struggled with this hugely.
We really, really wanted to beorganic.
That was it.
We weren't going to compromise.
But we realized, being limitedbudget and being on a small
(13:03):
footprint, that we couldn'thandle that financially.
So we had to make the organiccommitment to ourselves and we
could not advertise it of course.
We could not step on the toesof the other farmers that had
gone through this process.
So we said to ourselves in afew years we're going to become
(13:23):
organically certified, we'regoing to do this, but in the
meantime we're going to holdourselves to the strictest
standards of not just organicsbut being food safety certified.
We saw that in the restaurants.
It was very, very strict aboutfood safety certification.
Speaker 2 (13:41):
Yeah, and that I mean unfortunately, is a barrier for
a lot of people in the ideathat you do have to pay more,
you know, to be able to run anorganic operation.
And then, for you know, for alot of people that decide to
make that decision, it's for themost part a really good one
(14:01):
because they're benefiting, youknow, the land and the consumers
.
But it definitely is somethingto consider when it comes to
your, your finances, andfortunately there are now
different kinds of programs thathelp cover some of those costs
for becoming certified organic.
But you know it's it's stillsomething to to say that you
(14:26):
know.
Following organic practices isalso a thing that I find a lot
of farmers doing nowadays to thebest of their ability.
So how did you try to managethat aspect of things?
Speaker 3 (14:37):
Yeah, I think that for us, we weren't selling
directly to the consumer, it wasall restaurant sales, and the
restaurants restaurants ingeneral many, many years ago had
reputations for not beingcompletely honest with the
public about food.
(14:58):
It is especially true in theworld of fish, where they were
illegally harvesting fish thatare too small and buying them
from unlicensed vendors.
So you had all these new chefscoming right out of chef school,
really wanting to do the rightthing too, and they felt that,
hey, if we're going to writedown these greens supplied by
this company, this farm, we wantto see the farm.
(15:20):
So I told everyone, I told allmy chef clients please come
visit me, please come visit me,I want want to see the farm.
So I told everyone, I told allmy chef clients please come
visit me, please come visit me,I want you to see.
I want you to see what we'redoing and and one stop at our
farm and just seeing how thingswere, uh, grown and the soil
mixes that we're using and, um,you know, the food safety chain
(15:40):
of how it went from the farmdirectly into refrigeration and
directly transported to thechefs.
All of them were satisfied withit, with what they saw.
So they wrote on the menus.
You know fresh microgreens fromColusa Farms.
Speaker 2 (15:57):
That's great.
I love that kind oftransparency when it comes to
restaurants and highlighting thefarm that it actually came from
.
That is such a thing that Ilove to see.
Speaker 3 (16:10):
Yeah, we used to have that grew into an annual day in
which I would invite all of thechefs to the farm and I would
hire a professional photographerand I would ask them to come in
, like in their chef's house andeverything, and we would take
photos of them and I would, as agift for coming to the farm, I
(16:31):
would send them a big photo ofthem on the farm, you know, and
they in turn, you know, hungthat up in their restaurants or,
you know it was bragging rightsfor them.
So it, you know, it helped meand it helped them.
Speaker 2 (16:46):
So yeah, that's wonderful and I know that you
know.
In this story there does come apart that we do have to touch
on, which is COVID and whathappened during that time, the
challenges that you faced andthe kind of change and pivot you
know that you had to make as aresult of the pandemic.
(17:09):
So I'm curious to know, youknow, what really happened to
your business at that time andhow did you manage that?
Speaker 3 (17:17):
Well, one of the abilities that I have or or, or
curses, or, or whatever, howeveryou want to interpret it is
like delay of fear and delay ofpain.
You know, um, you know likeever see someone get like really
badly injured and they standback up and like, yeah, I'm fine
, you're like no, no, you're not, You're not Okay.
(17:38):
That was us with COVID, and Iremember it was.
It was a double whammy becausein that, in where we live, in
our industry, in our businessmodel, we had X amount of days
to make X amount of money,because the majority of the year
(18:00):
we were either staying afloator we were, you know, closed or
not, or negative, and so youknow that was the tourist season
and it started aroundThanksgiving and ended around
two weeks after Mother's Day,and so you're really dependent
upon those months.
And for us, covid hit, I think,around January, and that's
where the money starts, justbegins to start coming in.
You get the smile on your faceand you're like, all right, all
(18:22):
right, I'm going to make it,we're going to, we're doing okay
, we're doing okay, um, and thenyou start hearing rumors.
You know, in New York, peoplesick and what are we doing?
Closing schools, and then itgot down here pretty quick and I
think that's the story for mostpeople around the country.
You know it's spread likewildfire, you know it's a virus.
And I remember trying to pushsales as much as I can and my my
(18:45):
chef friends were like, uh,we're not buying anything, we're
not even sure if we're going tobe open tomorrow, you know.
And then it came.
I was, I was doing deliveriesand, uh, I got a call from my
other delivery driver hey, theyjust shut down these restaurants
.
What do we do?
And so we all came back to thefarm and I said, you know, I
(19:09):
gave a little talk to everyone.
I said, you know, I don't knowwhat's going on.
You hear these rumors, but youknow I'm I'm temporarily closing
the farm and I'll let you knowwhat's going on.
And we help people.
You know a lot of our employees.
We had seven employees, theywere all women and and we helped
(19:33):
them fill out the paperwork toget the unemployment checks.
But you know, we basically havea gate that enters the farm and
we closed it and we locked it.
And you know I was looking thatenters the farm and we closed it
and we locked it and I waslooking out at the farm and I
said to myself I have $200,000worth of produce already planted
(19:55):
, already out there, and I don'tknow how I'm going to do this.
I don't know where it's goingto go, and at least if the
supermarkets shut down, we'll beokay.
We'll have a lot of food herewe could eat and our main crop,
the microgreens.
There's a certain window inwhich you have to cut it and
(20:15):
sell it, and that window cameand went and so we lost that and
I'm still sitting there withlooking at a lot of lettuce and
a lot of tomatoes.
And then, and then I starthearing things like the
restaurants are now doing carryout and take away.
So people could phone theirorders to the restaurants and
(20:38):
then people could come pick upthe food.
So so I called my chef friendshey, hey, I see this.
Hey, help me out.
Da, da da.
And they basically said to meno, we can't put microgreens on
a to-go box.
You know it doesn't have thesame effect and you know sorry.
And then I got a phone callfrom a very good friend of mine
(21:06):
and he was one of the firstpeople to ever help me out with
the restaurants, one of thefirst guys.
I interviewed one of the firstchefs I interviewed and he had
moved on to a retirement homeand it was a very high-end
retirement home and theheadquarters were based out in
California.
And their corporate office wassaying we're afraid that
(21:26):
trucking is going to shut downand the majority of lettuce
right now is being grown out inCalifornia.
And what are we going to do?
And so they called me up andthey said have you let all your
workers go?
I said yeah, unfortunately, andthey said okay, we're going to
take every single head oflettuce.
(21:47):
We don't want any of yourworkers touching it.
We're dealing with retirees,we're dealing with elderly We've
already had a few deaths herewe just want you and your wife
handling it.
This is, this is when peopledidn't know about.
You know how is it being spread?
Yeah, the unknowns, yeah, andyou know.
This is back when you went tothe gas station and you were
(22:09):
spraying the pump with thecleaner.
You put a plastic glove on topump the gas.
Yeah, you know.
So they said just you and yourwife.
And I was like, oh, I think wecan survive.
And so it was extremelydifficult.
My wife and I just worked thefarm.
We just had our second child.
(22:32):
She was an infant and we havetwo daughters and we were the
world's worst parents, butbasically we just put them in
front of the TV and worked thefarm for several months,
finishing and growing thelettuce harvest, and it was
brutal.
I mean we worked.
I don't know how many hours weworked.
(22:52):
I mean we worked way early inthe morning.
We would bring our trucks backto the farm and put our high
beams on early in the morning sowe would have light to work by,
and then we worked during theday for the daylight, with the
daylight, and early in themorning, so we would have light
to work by.
And then we worked during theday for the daylight, with the
daylight, and then in theevening we would turn the high
beams on the trucks back onagain so we would have light,
and we made the deliveries andwe were able to keep the farm
(23:13):
afloat.
And at this time there was likeemergency relief funds going out
, but they weren't going out tofarmers Not initially, of course
, right, and I was very upsetwith it.
We needed a cash injectionimmediately.
We needed that moneyimmediately because we had lost
(23:33):
our window for sellingmicrogreens, which was our
biggest crop, and I became very,very upset.
So I went on a letter writingcampaign to every senator and
congressman in the state ofFlorida just saying hey, you
guys are forgetting about us.
We're the ones that put food onyour table, and this is a huge
industry down here.
You cannot forget about us.
(23:54):
And a few months later theyreleased programs for farmers
and I like to think, in part,that I had something to do with
saying don't forget about us.
Speaker 2 (24:07):
That's amazing Way to pioneer that movement, because,
I mean, I know that between theyears of 2020 and 2021, there
was a 9% drop in the value ofproduction, you know, according
to the USDA, so that's a reallybig drop considering that this
(24:28):
is a hundreds of billion dollarindustry.
And you know, I wouldn't saythat your parenting skills at
the time were the worst, becauseyou were really out there
trying to feed people andsurvive, and I think that's what
happened to a lot of businessowners in this industry.
So I think it's definitelysomething to be proud of that
(24:52):
you were able to do such a thing.
So did you?
In terms of the aid, what didthat look like during that time?
What?
Speaker 3 (25:02):
did that look like during that time?
The aid started trickling induring the summer months, when
our farm is historically closed.
Growing lettuce and microgreensin almost 100 degree heat
really doesn't work, and ourmain customer base that's their
downtime.
Again, we live in a verytouristy area in Southwest
(25:23):
Florida and so, yeah, the moneystarted coming in, which was a
relief.
And, believe it or not, weactually struggled with it
coming in.
We got it like immediately, butwe actually couldn't give it
away immediately because we hadto wait for our workers to come
back.
And we followed the guidelinesclosely and we were all within
(25:43):
the deadlines and we juststarted applying for everything
under the sun.
You know, once you apply forone thing, it gets easier to
apply for other things becauseyou already have that data out
in front of you and a lot of theforms are similar.
And so, yeah, we got the PPPloan, I think, one and two, and
(26:06):
slowly but surely, thingsstarted trickling back and it
was definitely not easy.
It definitely did not return tothe level of the profitability.
We got an equipment loan and webought some equipment and we
bought a much-needed tool shedand, yeah, we were able to bring
back all of our employees whoreally needed to come back, who
(26:28):
really needed to come back.
We actually got a walk infreezer too.
We had a grant to get a walk infreezer which really helped
logistic wise and slowly butsurely it came back.
And, um, but slowly but surelyit came back and I kind of had
developed like a new philosophynow that I had these grants and
(26:49):
and coming in, I made acommitment to to try and bring
the farm as technologicallyadvanced as possible and to use
that, those savings, in order toincrease the salaries of the
existing workers.
So I wanted to really say topeople I'm paying you a great
salary here.
(27:14):
I'm giving you tools that willmake your efforts double and
that worked.
You get really committed people.
You get really committed people.
You get people showing up tothe farm on their day off.
Hey, I just want to check onthis real quick to make sure
that you know this water line isworking.
Wow, you're on your day off,Okay, Thank you.
Speaker 2 (27:35):
So so what happened?
I mean, it sounds like you guysreally are trying to make it
work as best as possible andespecially provided with the aid
that came through.
What shifted, I guess, from thetime that you were able to pick
up the business back up againuntil the day that you decided
(27:58):
to close?
What was the shift there?
Speaker 3 (28:01):
Sure, you know there's never just one thing
right, there's never well,sometimes there's one thing, but
in this situation theredefinitely wasn't one thing.
It was a combination of factorsand so the farm had started
doing really well.
And you know, I got tobacktrack a little bit and say,
like you know, during the heightof the pandemic, when we were
really, really struggling, um,my wife decided to leave the
(28:25):
farm and get a part, a job, atthe naples botanical garden, in
which she loved and she lovedthe staff and she knew them from
her previous work experience.
So it was just, it was just merunning it really, and I had
really gotten the farmstreamlined and I was looking
(28:46):
for other opportunities.
And one of the opportunitiesyou mentioned before is I
started a smaller company inwhich we were installing chef's
gardens, you know, both visuallyappealing and somewhat
practical for the chefs and thebartenders.
But with the recovery I foundmyself not working like a full
day.
I really had gotten theoperations of the company under
(29:10):
control and we were doing good.
We were doing good and Istarted thinking about other
business opportunities thatwould parlay off of the
restaurant industry and myconnections there.
And I had made connections andI had, you know, this time.
You know, we're like nine, 10years into Calusa Farms and I
(29:33):
knew all the farmers in my areaand became friendly with them
and I wanted to expand myoperation.
And you had all these peoplefrom the north leaving the
cities and moving down to ourarea and the price of land
skyrocketed and I found myselfpriced out of land and so I
(29:54):
found myself not being able toexpand the farm.
About this time I had a friendof mine, older gentleman in the
nursery industry, and he calledme and he said a big company has
come in and purchased our farmand they want me to train the
next person to run it.
(30:15):
And I immediately was like no,I'm not working for some big
corporation.
And he said no, you have tocome in and talk with me.
Come on, you have to come inand talk with me.
So I went in and talked withhim and we had several
interviews and I was like youknow, I'll entertain this
possibility, I'll talk, I'll seewhat's going on.
And we talked and we talked andeventually, for several reasons
(30:41):
, I said no.
And I said no in a nice way, ina nice manner, and he said you
know, I'm really sorry thatthat's your final answer.
And, by the way, they purchasedthis other smaller farm right
next to us.
Please go over there and meetthat owner, because he's in a
similar circumstance.
He sold the company but he hasto stay on for a year to train
the next generation to run it.
(31:02):
He sold the company but he hasto stay on for a year to train
the next generation to run it.
And I said okay, fine, and Iwent over there and I met that
owner and immediately liked theguy Very intelligent businessman
, knew so much.
Yeah, he's like.
Immediately the first time I methim and started working with
him, he offered me the job intwo hours, he said, and I said
(31:25):
and I said I was like I'm notsure if I want to do this.
I've worked a lot building thisfarm and it was an opportunity
for me to grow professionallyand I think, calusa farms.
At one point in time we hadlike 10 or 11 employees at
maximum and we were farming 2.25acres and I had like two
(31:48):
delivery vehicles.
And now I'm managing a farmthat's 66 acres, we have 55
employees, we do 12 million insales a year, we have 13 tractor
trailers.
So it was a big jump up for mein my level of expertise, to
expand my education.
(32:08):
I quickly realized that in manyways running a larger company is
easier than running a smallercompany.
In the smaller company, colusaFarms, if someone got sick and
didn't come in, you were doingthat job.
That's it.
Plants will not wait for youwhen they're ready.
They're ready, they have to goRight.
(32:28):
So you know I could doeverything.
So electrical, plumbing,carpentry, sales, fertilizer you
just have to learn everything.
And so when I got to this farmI had known everything, and I
realized too that in in theselarger farms people's expertise
are kind of likecompartmentalized.
I'm the irrigation guy I knowall about irrigation.
(32:51):
I'm the fertilizer person Iknow all about fertilizer.
I had a surface understandingof everything, which has helped
me tremendously.
Now.
That's basically my role now asthe ceo.
I go around and make sure eachdepartment is running good and I
look for additionalopportunities to expand the
(33:11):
farms production right.
Speaker 2 (33:14):
And so how did you feel like your past experience
running collusa farms was, youknow, transferred into your role
as ceo with topiary creations?
Speaker 3 (33:27):
Um, well, I'll say this I think that the, the, the,
the company that's that I workfor now.
They're a finance company andthat usually strikes fear in
someone's heart, but they'rereally fantastic company.
And they said to me hey, wereally know a lot about finance
(33:48):
and we, we know nothing aboutfarming, and we realize that you
do, so we're going to get outof your way.
Here are the parameters thatyou have to work with your
budget and you have to make thiswork.
Can you make this work?
We won't get in your way.
In fact, if you need something,talk to us, We'll try and help
you out.
(34:08):
And I'm starting my third yearnow and they've been true to
that.
So that made me feel reallygood.
And the other thing aboutcompartmentalization is that I
see in the farming world thatthere are great farmers with
lousy business backgrounds andthat is what I presented to them
(34:32):
.
I understood about business, Iunderstood about sales, I
understood about.
You know, I can read a balancesheet in the spreadsheet and the
next moment I can be out fixingan irrigation line or talking
to somebody about fertilizer orfixing a truck.
So that's really what helped memake this transition and to
(34:55):
convince them that I was theright person, but I think they
had already known that and theseguys had made the deal.
They had already signed on thedotted line.
They just needed to make surethat things were handed over
smoothly, which was part of thedeal.
So there was incentive for themon their behalf too.
They really wanted to make itwork.
Speaker 2 (35:16):
That's really great.
I mean, you had this kind ofdynamic background in farming
where I think your skills are socomprehensive and it seems that
, as a farmer transitioning intoa new company, be it a finance
company or bigger gardeningcompany or anything of that sort
(35:36):
what do you find to be the mostchallenging aspect of that?
And, on the other side of that,what makes you successful?
What has contributed to yournew role in pivoting into this
kind of position?
Speaker 3 (35:54):
I think that before I had before Calusa Farms, I had
like the knowledge and the dream, but I didn't have the
practicality and the executionof that.
So like I knew what thetextbook said because I went to
business school and here was mydream.
But how do you really put thattogether?
Because you know that the mapis not the territory.
(36:16):
You know that what you learn inschool, when you get out now
you have to apply it.
What does the real world looklike when you apply those things
you learn in the textbook?
And I think the hardest partfor sure and I think you know
the hardest part for sure wasgetting Colusa Farms going.
That was the struggle and thatwas.
(36:40):
You know we started ColusaFarms for $300.
That's how much we started andwe just for the first three
years we just reinvested thatback into ourselves.
We took nothing out.
It was a part-time gig, it wasa part-time thing.
So you know, you go out and youmake, you know four hundred
dollars and, okay, now you spendthe 400 and you keep on just.
And then one year as a schoolcounselor, I was making more
(37:01):
money part-time doing the farmthan I was full-time as a school
counselor.
So I I gotta try and do thisfull-time now and then.
That's a big jump, you know,but as soon as you can get past
that hurdle and you can convincesomebody, hey, I've been around
in this position for longerthan three years and here are
(37:30):
the things that I have done andyou don't have to convince them
because they can see it there,they can see your operation and
they hear of you by reputationand you know, going back to like
what is the skill, I always hadlike a joke that people used to
say to me you know, what is itthat you do?
I said I'm a farmer and you know, in this area, unfortunately,
you're not seeing or hearing toomany farmers, so people are
automatically like wow, okay,you know what, farming what?
(37:53):
And one of my jokes off of that, basically, was I'm a farmer.
That means I'm an electrician,I'm a plumber, I'm a carpenter,
I'm a driver.
You know we can do everythingand I didn't know how to do
plumbing or electrical orcarpentry.
Prior to any of this, I didn'tknow, and so I just struggled
(38:16):
and I read a lot, I did theYouTube videos and, you know,
one of the things I was sayingearlier was that I remained open
to everyone's ideas.
I remained open to everyone'sideas, even the farmers that had
(38:36):
disastrous operations andthings that were like, hey, this
is against my standards, thatyou guys are not organic or that
you guys are so sloppy withyour fertilizer.
This is not how I want to be.
But let me look over here andtry and find one thing out of
this disaster that I can adopt.
That's positive.
And there were littleinformational pieces of gold
(38:58):
around and so I did put thattogether and I did remain
open-minded.
I had a lot of organic farmerscome and see my operation and
say, wow, I didn't know youcould do irrigation like that.
I'm going to do irrigation likethat.
And you know, we used flood anddrain tables and I have one
organic farmer now.
(39:19):
He's like I love flood anddrain.
You're using them in an organicapplication?
I certainly am, and I'm savingwater.
Wow, good for you, man.
Cool, I'm glad I turned you onto that.
Speaker 2 (39:31):
Wow, good for you, man Cool.
I'm glad I turned you on tothat Well.
So if you could you know youknow an effort to wrap up the
conversation today I want you tobe able to share your top piece
of advice for any kind offarmer going through hardship,
transitioning.
You know, what could you tellthem today?
Speaker 3 (39:51):
that might be something that you think they
need to know based on theexperience and talking with a
lot of farmers, I realized thatwhat I was saying before about
their specialization like theycould be the best farmer in the
world, but they didn't have abusiness sense.
They didn't have a businesssense, they didn't have a sales
(40:11):
sense and they didn't have amarketing sense and they
couldn't read books and thebalance sheet and those types of
when I say books, that's what Imeant by that.
You either have to learn thoseskills, because a farm is a
business, and it's great thatyou have a passion, that you
love it, but unfortunatelythat's not enough.
You have to have that businesssense, and if you can't develop
(40:33):
it yourself, you might not havethe time to.
You have to team up withsomeone who can.
You have to team up withsomeone who can.
They'll make your lifetremendously easier and the farm
will operate like a business,and so that's the biggest piece
of advice, and I think that theother piece of advice is that
just always remain positive,keep your eyes open.
(40:55):
There's I feel I'm not tryingto get too spiritual here, but I
think that if you put goodenergy out, you'll get good
energy in return, and if youkeep on just saying, I'm going
to be alert as I walk throughthe day, as I talk with people,
for other opportunities outthere.
You'd be surprised what fallsin your lap and you'd be
(41:18):
surprised at how many of theopportunities fall in your lap
or how many ideas you fall inyour lap.
Now, out of all those ideas,maybe only one of them is good
and only one of them sticks Fine.
At least there's opportunityout there, and I think that that
is basically what happened withme.
(41:41):
I knew that I was too young tobe working like four or five
hours a day and I couldn't dothat.
When I had a new child.
I knew I had to go out there.
I knew I had to earn extraincome.
You never know what tomorrowbrings right Absolutely,
especially with this hurricaneand the disaster.
So you never know one day fromthe next.
So you owe it to yourself, youowe it to your family to grow as
much as possible as a personand your farm, and if you come
(42:05):
across a wall, like I did, juststay open.
I was looking at starting an icemanufacturing business because
I saw that a lot of the chefshad a need for ice.
They were always going I can'tget ice, I can't get ice.
The refrigeration was a problem.
Their kitchens were so small,their refrigeration in their
(42:26):
kitchen for storing the producewas so small, but when the
tourist season came they neededdouble that amount of space.
So I was talking with companiesabout renting out refrigerated
trailers to them, and these werethings that came up because I
had a farm, because I was doingdeliveries to the chefs, and I
just turned up that dial in mymind to be hyper focused on
(42:51):
what's going on around you.
Speaker 2 (42:53):
Yeah, you're constantly learning, I think, in
this industry, and you knowyour journey speaks for itself
and that it's an ever-changinglandscape, and your story
specifically really has left uswith so many valuable lessons
about perseverance, adaptabilityand the importance of small
(43:14):
farms in our food systems.
And your dedication to thesmall farmer movement and
commitment to sharing yourknowledge, I think, is even more
critical, especially forinspiring folks listening who
may perhaps be the nextgeneration of farmers and food
entrepreneurs.
So I want to take a moment tothank you, jonathan, for sharing
(43:35):
your story with us today.
It's very powerful.
Speaker 3 (43:38):
Thank you so much for having me.
It was great talking witheveryone.
Speaker 2 (43:41):
Thank you and for those listening.
Jonathan's experience remindsus that farming isn't just about
growing food.
It's about community resilienceand being willing to change
course when life calls for it.
I hope you found his story ascompelling and insightful as I
did.
Thank you for tuning in toFresh Take.
Make sure to follow us for moreconversations like this one,
(44:04):
where we explore the storiesbehind the food that fuels us.
Speaker 1 (44:08):
Until next time, we hope you enjoyed today's episode
.
Florida Organic Growers is a501c3 nonprofit organization, so
to keep our content availableand free to the public, we need
your help.
Please subscribe, rate andreview wherever you listen, and
consider making a tax-deductibledonation or become a sponsor.
Learn more about our work andhow you can become a sponsor
(44:30):
from our website, wwwboginfoorg.
Welcome to Fresh Take , where we at Florida Organic
Growers speak to food systemsexperts about topics related to
organic and sustainableagriculture, healthy lifestyles
and the environment.
To help us continue ourprograms at FOG, including our
podcast, consider becoming asponsor.
For more information onsponsorship, check out our Get
Involved page on our website,wwwfoginfoorg out our Get
(00:27):
Involved page on our website,wwwfoginfoorg.
Speaker 2 (00:30):
Hello and welcome back to Fresh Take, where we
explore everything you need toknow about sustainable living,
organic agriculture and how tomake the best lifestyle choices
that benefit you and theenvironment.
Today, we have a trulyinspiring guest with us Jonathan
Wei, previous co-founder ofCalusa Farms and now CEO of
Topiary Creations.
Jonathan's journey to thefarming world is one marked by
(00:51):
resilience, adaptability and adeep passion for supporting the
small farmer movement in America.
We'll dive into his experienceshow he and his wife built a
thriving farm from the ground up, weathered storms like the
COVID-19 pandemic and ultimatelypivoted toward a new chapter in
their farming journey.
Jonathan, welcome to the show.
Speaker 3 (01:13):
Oh, thanks so much for having me.
Speaker 2 (01:14):
We're so excited to have you and dive into your
story, which I understand youlike to call the happy funeral,
so could you tell us about thatWell?
Speaker 3 (01:27):
the origin has to start off with the name Colusa
Farms.
My wife is from Columbia andshe actually grew up on a farm
in Columbia and she came toAmerica as a student to learn
English and I met her.
We fell in love, we got marriedand we always knew that we
wanted to do somethingentrepreneurial and didn't know
what it was.
And we also had been.
(01:49):
You know, we're also veryenvironmentally conscious.
We liked eating well, we werebig backpackers and hikers and
at one point in time we wereliving in Asheville, north
Carolina, and we always had thishuge garden, asheville, north
Carolina, and we always had thishuge garden.
And we became friends withpeople you know most young
(02:14):
couples do.
And we happened to becomefriends with a chef down in that
Asheville area, which is, youknow, known Asheville city
proper is known for having somejust fantastic restaurants and
he saw our garden and he said,hey, I want one of those
tomatoes, I want a tomato.
That's what he said.
Here you go.
And he said, no, no, no, I wantall of the tomatoes.
(02:34):
And so he started planting theseed in our minds that we could
perhaps sell to him and deliverto him, and our house at that
time in Asheville was so smallit wasn't.
We weren't going to make anytype of living, or the word farm
did not enter our minds at thattime.
I don't know why.
(02:55):
We were surrounded by farms,and long story short is that we
we moved back to Florida and atthat point in time, florida was
going through a tremendous boomin the restaurant industry down
on historic Fifth and ThirdAvenues, and we saw the same
thing that was going on inAsheville, with all these
(03:15):
high-end restaurants, reallygifted chefs coming into town,
exciting cuisine, you know,fusion between you know Thai and
French and et cetera, et cetera, and young chefs to our age.
And so we started thinking whatcan we do?
What can we do?
(03:36):
And we built upon the idea ofhaving like a farm and what
we're going to call ourselves.
Well, you know, my wife is fromColumbia and I'm from the USA,
so we called ourselves Col chefs.
Oh, cool Indians.
Well, yeah, close, and but itwas.
(04:09):
It was a way for the name toresonate in their minds.
Speaker 2 (04:12):
Wow, that's a really I mean, I love me a good love
story, first of all, and thefact that it, you know,
incorporated farming is a reallycool thing because you know you
, prior to moving to Florida,did you have any experience in
farming at all?
Speaker 3 (04:30):
No, none and nothing.
Really, I always loved thegarden.
I always, whenever I visited ahistoric site, I would go to the
garden, just loved it, lovedeverything growing, loved the
flowers, everything.
I would go to the garden, justloved it, loved everything
growing, loved the flowers,everything.
And when I was a younger boy,my dad would get the garden
going and but you know, I didn'tknow anything, we didn't know
(04:53):
anything.
We were going down to thehardware store and buying plant
starters and throwing them inthe ground and you know, if bugs
came and ate something, ok fine, you know, but it wasn't
something that we, we livedaround or depended by.
My wife, on the other hand, grewup in a big farming family and
they're still farming right nowin Colombia and it's everything
(05:16):
from chicken farming to hogfarming to coffee farming, and
so that's still a big, a bigimpact.
My wife grew up raisingchickens and you know she's
horrified by the memories of herand her family.
You know, uh, culling.
You know 200 chickens in aweekend.
So she definitely should do.
(05:36):
She did not want to do animal.
You know husbandry.
But even though I say thatabout the chickens, we still
still have chickens now.
Speaker 2 (05:43):
We always have been, we always had chickens, so we
have 16 chickens now and we getfresh eggs and gift them or sell
them to family and friends, andthen, in 2017, you expanded
into Calusa Gardens, where youdedicated, you know, designing
(06:08):
and maintaining chef's gardensfor restaurants, country clubs
and retirement communities, andso I'm curious to know when you
shifted into that sort ofbusiness, how did you decide
what your focus was going to bein terms of what you were going
to grow, how?
Speaker 3 (06:25):
did you decide what your focus was going to be in
terms of what you were going togrow?
Well, I have a businessbackground and I went to
business school.
I have a master's in marketing.
But after business school Ibecame disillusioned for many
reasons and I actually became ahigh school guidance counselor.
And a lot of free time on yourhands after work, a lot of free
summers so I knew I wanted to dosomething on the side A lot of
(06:48):
teachers do and so we haddecided that we were going to do
a farm and at the timeaquaponics was just created,
just announced and I definitelydrank the Kool-Aid and joined
the aquaponics revolution and Ibuilt one of the first
aquaponics centers here on ourfarm.
(07:10):
So we had four, I think thatthey were like 25-foot aquaponic
beds for growing lettuce, andthen we had the giant fish tank
with 100 heads of tilapia and Iquickly realized like there was
some business flaws there onoperating that kind of structure
and if you weren't prepared forthose problems, it was not
(07:35):
going to be sustainable.
So we later started goingaround to chefs and interviewing
chefs, basically, and saying tochefs hey, what is it that you
need?
Kind of like trying to fulfilla, a gap right and um, because
there's already food serviceshere, big food services, and you
(07:58):
know, I think I went around and, uh, I'm the kind of guy who
will go to the back door of akitchen and just walk in hey,
how are you?
You know, and most of the timepeople get out of here.
But you know, I kind of learned.
Hey, I want to interview you.
I'm a local farmer, I'm tryingto.
You know just the truth.
I'm a local farmer, I'm tryingto make this work.
(08:20):
Can I buy you a cup of coffee?
Can I buy you a cup of coffee?
Can I buy you a beer?
I've got 10 quick questions.
I'm not going to be more than20 minutes.
I'm just trying to figure outhow this works and if I can play
a role in this.
And, um, people were like hey,yeah, you can buy me a coffee,
you can buy me a beer or no, youcan just stand here and talk as
I cut, you know, chicken orproduce and talk with me.
So people started coming backwith, you know, your typical
(08:42):
laundry list of items and someof them I just couldn't compete
with, like corn on the cob,you're not going to.
It's huge.
You need hundreds of acres andwe bought a house with 2.25
acres on it and anyway.
So one of the things that kepton coming up were microgreens.
We get these microgreens it wasthe beginning of the new trend
(09:06):
and they die.
They die within a week.
And there's one other guy andhe's like two counties away and
he only comes here like everyother Friday when it's a full
moon something ridiculous andyou can't even pick what you
want.
He just gives you something andyou have to pay for it and he
demands cash.
And so I realized that therewas an opportunity for
additional competition and we'relike, yeah, we're gonna do
(09:29):
microgreens, and we also didlike lettuce because we had the
aquaponic system going and I wasjust like fascinated by
heirloom tomatoes and so oh, Ilove me heirloom tomatoes.
So we went down that route andthen eventually that's what
really got our footing.
You know, in the first year wewere growing everything for
(09:51):
everyone and failing just as big, you know, and so I couldn't
supply even like one restaurant.
So the microgreens were thewinners when we were doing it
that way and we said stop, whatare we, what are we really good
at here, and let's just focus onthose things.
And later it expanded intomushrooms and we took a gamble a
(10:13):
few years later and we flew outto Washington and we studied
with Paul Stamets there.
Wow, we learned a lot and weactually built our own mushroom
lab in our garage, which manytimes people confused as like a
drug lab, that we were doingsomething illegal.
We had to have conversationswith the air conditioning guy
(10:35):
not to call the police on us,but at one point in time we were
raided by drug enforcement taskforce because our neighbor
called and said that we weredoing something and they came
and they saw that we weren't.
But that's an adventure story.
That's a different storyaltogether.
Speaker 2 (10:56):
Oh man, we have to have a separate podcast episode
just for that.
Speaker 3 (11:00):
Yeah, it sounds a lot more cool and interesting than
it really was.
They were all very depressedthat we weren't doing anything
illegal and you know, they kindof you know had their heads down
as they walked back into theirSWAT trucks.
Speaker 2 (11:20):
And I mean that's a really cool thing that you were
connected to him and startedyour own lab.
I'm so fascinated to learn moreabout that.
But yes, we will pivot and saveentering this field of farming.
I mean, did you was everythingself-taught?
Were you watching YouTubevideos Like I'm just so curious
(11:54):
to find out how you really gotyour hands dirty and successful?
Speaker 3 (11:59):
Yeah, well, you know, my, my wife has a background in
science.
My wife is the science mom, soI've always been jealous over
her skill.
She can sit down and read likea science textbook.
At one point she was actuallyteaching science and so she
would guide me through thoseparts and together we did
everything and nights andweekends.
(12:20):
And I realized later, veryearly on yeah, yeah, we did
become involved in like YouTubevideos and we did look up like
community resources and we didlearn a lot with the community
resources.
And one thing that we learned alot was like at the time there
was like a almost like aninternal battle going on between
(12:42):
people who were organic andpeople who were not organic and
we struggled with this hugely.
We really, really wanted to beorganic.
That was it.
We weren't going to compromise.
But we realized, being limitedbudget and being on a small
(13:03):
footprint, that we couldn'thandle that financially.
So we had to make the organiccommitment to ourselves and we
could not advertise it of course.
We could not step on the toesof the other farmers that had
gone through this process.
So we said to ourselves in afew years we're going to become
(13:23):
organically certified, we'regoing to do this, but in the
meantime we're going to holdourselves to the strictest
standards of not just organicsbut being food safety certified.
We saw that in the restaurants.
It was very, very strict aboutfood safety certification.
Speaker 2 (13:41):
Yeah, and that I mean unfortunately, is a barrier for
a lot of people in the ideathat you do have to pay more,
you know, to be able to run anorganic operation.
And then, for you know, for alot of people that decide to
make that decision, it's for themost part a really good one
(14:01):
because they're benefiting, youknow, the land and the consumers
.
But it definitely is somethingto consider when it comes to
your, your finances, andfortunately there are now
different kinds of programs thathelp cover some of those costs
for becoming certified organic.
But you know it's it's stillsomething to to say that you
(14:26):
know.
Following organic practices isalso a thing that I find a lot
of farmers doing nowadays to thebest of their ability.
So how did you try to managethat aspect of things?
Speaker 3 (14:37):
Yeah, I think that for us, we weren't selling
directly to the consumer, it wasall restaurant sales, and the
restaurants restaurants ingeneral many, many years ago had
reputations for not beingcompletely honest with the
public about food.
(14:58):
It is especially true in theworld of fish, where they were
illegally harvesting fish thatare too small and buying them
from unlicensed vendors.
So you had all these new chefscoming right out of chef school,
really wanting to do the rightthing too, and they felt that,
hey, if we're going to writedown these greens supplied by
this company, this farm, we wantto see the farm.
(15:20):
So I told everyone, I told allmy chef clients please come
visit me, please come visit me,I want want to see the farm.
So I told everyone, I told allmy chef clients please come
visit me, please come visit me,I want you to see.
I want you to see what we'redoing and and one stop at our
farm and just seeing how thingswere, uh, grown and the soil
mixes that we're using and, um,you know, the food safety chain
(15:40):
of how it went from the farmdirectly into refrigeration and
directly transported to thechefs.
All of them were satisfied withit, with what they saw.
So they wrote on the menus.
You know fresh microgreens fromColusa Farms.
Speaker 2 (15:57):
That's great.
I love that kind oftransparency when it comes to
restaurants and highlighting thefarm that it actually came from
.
That is such a thing that Ilove to see.
Speaker 3 (16:10):
Yeah, we used to have that grew into an annual day in
which I would invite all of thechefs to the farm and I would
hire a professional photographerand I would ask them to come in
, like in their chef's house andeverything, and we would take
photos of them and I would, as agift for coming to the farm, I
(16:31):
would send them a big photo ofthem on the farm, you know, and
they in turn, you know, hungthat up in their restaurants or,
you know it was bragging rightsfor them.
So it, you know, it helped meand it helped them.
Speaker 2 (16:46):
So yeah, that's wonderful and I know that you
know.
In this story there does come apart that we do have to touch
on, which is COVID and whathappened during that time, the
challenges that you faced andthe kind of change and pivot you
know that you had to make as aresult of the pandemic.
(17:09):
So I'm curious to know, youknow, what really happened to
your business at that time andhow did you manage that?
Speaker 3 (17:17):
Well, one of the abilities that I have or or, or
curses, or, or whatever, howeveryou want to interpret it is
like delay of fear and delay ofpain.
You know, um, you know likeever see someone get like really
badly injured and they standback up and like, yeah, I'm fine
, you're like no, no, you're not, You're not Okay.
(17:38):
That was us with COVID, and Iremember it was.
It was a double whammy becausein that, in where we live, in
our industry, in our businessmodel, we had X amount of days
to make X amount of money,because the majority of the year
(18:00):
we were either staying afloator we were, you know, closed or
not, or negative, and so youknow that was the tourist season
and it started aroundThanksgiving and ended around
two weeks after Mother's Day,and so you're really dependent
upon those months.
And for us, covid hit, I think,around January, and that's
where the money starts, justbegins to start coming in.
You get the smile on your faceand you're like, all right, all
(18:22):
right, I'm going to make it,we're going to, we're doing okay
, we're doing okay, um, and thenyou start hearing rumors.
You know, in New York, peoplesick and what are we doing?
Closing schools, and then itgot down here pretty quick and I
think that's the story for mostpeople around the country.
You know it's spread likewildfire, you know it's a virus.
And I remember trying to pushsales as much as I can and my my
(18:45):
chef friends were like, uh,we're not buying anything, we're
not even sure if we're going tobe open tomorrow, you know.
And then it came.
I was, I was doing deliveriesand, uh, I got a call from my
other delivery driver hey, theyjust shut down these restaurants
.
What do we do?
And so we all came back to thefarm and I said, you know, I
(19:09):
gave a little talk to everyone.
I said, you know, I don't knowwhat's going on.
You hear these rumors, but youknow I'm I'm temporarily closing
the farm and I'll let you knowwhat's going on.
And we help people.
You know a lot of our employees.
We had seven employees, theywere all women and and we helped
(19:33):
them fill out the paperwork toget the unemployment checks.
But you know, we basically havea gate that enters the farm and
we closed it and we locked it.
And you know I was looking thatenters the farm and we closed it
and we locked it and I waslooking out at the farm and I
said to myself I have $200,000worth of produce already planted
(19:55):
, already out there, and I don'tknow how I'm going to do this.
I don't know where it's goingto go, and at least if the
supermarkets shut down, we'll beokay.
We'll have a lot of food herewe could eat and our main crop,
the microgreens.
There's a certain window inwhich you have to cut it and
(20:15):
sell it, and that window cameand went and so we lost that and
I'm still sitting there withlooking at a lot of lettuce and
a lot of tomatoes.
And then, and then I starthearing things like the
restaurants are now doing carryout and take away.
So people could phone theirorders to the restaurants and
(20:38):
then people could come pick upthe food.
So so I called my chef friendshey, hey, I see this.
Hey, help me out.
Da, da da.
And they basically said to meno, we can't put microgreens on
a to-go box.
You know it doesn't have thesame effect and you know sorry.
And then I got a phone callfrom a very good friend of mine
(21:06):
and he was one of the firstpeople to ever help me out with
the restaurants, one of thefirst guys.
I interviewed one of the firstchefs I interviewed and he had
moved on to a retirement homeand it was a very high-end
retirement home and theheadquarters were based out in
California.
And their corporate office wassaying we're afraid that
(21:26):
trucking is going to shut downand the majority of lettuce
right now is being grown out inCalifornia.
And what are we going to do?
And so they called me up andthey said have you let all your
workers go?
I said yeah, unfortunately, andthey said okay, we're going to
take every single head oflettuce.
(21:47):
We don't want any of yourworkers touching it.
We're dealing with retirees,we're dealing with elderly We've
already had a few deaths herewe just want you and your wife
handling it.
This is, this is when peopledidn't know about.
You know how is it being spread?
Yeah, the unknowns, yeah, andyou know.
This is back when you went tothe gas station and you were
(22:09):
spraying the pump with thecleaner.
You put a plastic glove on topump the gas.
Yeah, you know.
So they said just you and yourwife.
And I was like, oh, I think wecan survive.
And so it was extremelydifficult.
My wife and I just worked thefarm.
We just had our second child.
(22:32):
She was an infant and we havetwo daughters and we were the
world's worst parents, butbasically we just put them in
front of the TV and worked thefarm for several months,
finishing and growing thelettuce harvest, and it was
brutal.
I mean we worked.
I don't know how many hours weworked.
(22:52):
I mean we worked way early inthe morning.
We would bring our trucks backto the farm and put our high
beams on early in the morning sowe would have light to work by,
and then we worked during theday for the daylight, with the
daylight, and early in themorning, so we would have light
to work by.
And then we worked during theday for the daylight, with the
daylight, and then in theevening we would turn the high
beams on the trucks back onagain so we would have light,
and we made the deliveries andwe were able to keep the farm
(23:13):
afloat.
And at this time there was likeemergency relief funds going out
, but they weren't going out tofarmers Not initially, of course
, right, and I was very upsetwith it.
We needed a cash injectionimmediately.
We needed that moneyimmediately because we had lost
(23:33):
our window for sellingmicrogreens, which was our
biggest crop, and I became very,very upset.
So I went on a letter writingcampaign to every senator and
congressman in the state ofFlorida just saying hey, you
guys are forgetting about us.
We're the ones that put food onyour table, and this is a huge
industry down here.
You cannot forget about us.
(23:54):
And a few months later theyreleased programs for farmers
and I like to think, in part,that I had something to do with
saying don't forget about us.
Speaker 2 (24:07):
That's amazing Way to pioneer that movement, because,
I mean, I know that between theyears of 2020 and 2021, there
was a 9% drop in the value ofproduction, you know, according
to the USDA, so that's a reallybig drop considering that this
(24:28):
is a hundreds of billion dollarindustry.
And you know, I wouldn't saythat your parenting skills at
the time were the worst, becauseyou were really out there
trying to feed people andsurvive, and I think that's what
happened to a lot of businessowners in this industry.
So I think it's definitelysomething to be proud of that
(24:52):
you were able to do such a thing.
So did you?
In terms of the aid, what didthat look like during that time?
What?
Speaker 3 (25:02):
did that look like during that time?
The aid started trickling induring the summer months, when
our farm is historically closed.
Growing lettuce and microgreensin almost 100 degree heat
really doesn't work, and ourmain customer base that's their
downtime.
Again, we live in a verytouristy area in Southwest
(25:23):
Florida and so, yeah, the moneystarted coming in, which was a
relief.
And, believe it or not, weactually struggled with it
coming in.
We got it like immediately, butwe actually couldn't give it
away immediately because we hadto wait for our workers to come
back.
And we followed the guidelinesclosely and we were all within
(25:43):
the deadlines and we juststarted applying for everything
under the sun.
You know, once you apply forone thing, it gets easier to
apply for other things becauseyou already have that data out
in front of you and a lot of theforms are similar.
And so, yeah, we got the PPPloan, I think, one and two, and
(26:06):
slowly but surely, thingsstarted trickling back and it
was definitely not easy.
It definitely did not return tothe level of the profitability.
We got an equipment loan and webought some equipment and we
bought a much-needed tool shedand, yeah, we were able to bring
back all of our employees whoreally needed to come back, who
(26:28):
really needed to come back.
We actually got a walk infreezer too.
We had a grant to get a walk infreezer which really helped
logistic wise and slowly butsurely it came back.
And, um, but slowly but surelyit came back and I kind of had
developed like a new philosophynow that I had these grants and
(26:49):
and coming in, I made acommitment to to try and bring
the farm as technologicallyadvanced as possible and to use
that, those savings, in order toincrease the salaries of the
existing workers.
So I wanted to really say topeople I'm paying you a great
salary here.
(27:14):
I'm giving you tools that willmake your efforts double and
that worked.
You get really committed people.
You get really committed people.
You get people showing up tothe farm on their day off.
Hey, I just want to check onthis real quick to make sure
that you know this water line isworking.
Wow, you're on your day off,Okay, Thank you.
Speaker 2 (27:35):
So so what happened?
I mean, it sounds like you guysreally are trying to make it
work as best as possible andespecially provided with the aid
that came through.
What shifted, I guess, from thetime that you were able to pick
up the business back up againuntil the day that you decided
(27:58):
to close?
What was the shift there?
Speaker 3 (28:01):
Sure, you know there's never just one thing
right, there's never well,sometimes there's one thing, but
in this situation theredefinitely wasn't one thing.
It was a combination of factorsand so the farm had started
doing really well.
And you know, I got tobacktrack a little bit and say,
like you know, during the heightof the pandemic, when we were
really, really struggling, um,my wife decided to leave the
(28:25):
farm and get a part, a job, atthe naples botanical garden, in
which she loved and she lovedthe staff and she knew them from
her previous work experience.
So it was just, it was just merunning it really, and I had
really gotten the farmstreamlined and I was looking
(28:46):
for other opportunities.
And one of the opportunitiesyou mentioned before is I
started a smaller company inwhich we were installing chef's
gardens, you know, both visuallyappealing and somewhat
practical for the chefs and thebartenders.
But with the recovery I foundmyself not working like a full
day.
I really had gotten theoperations of the company under
(29:10):
control and we were doing good.
We were doing good and Istarted thinking about other
business opportunities thatwould parlay off of the
restaurant industry and myconnections there.
And I had made connections andI had, you know, this time.
You know, we're like nine, 10years into Calusa Farms and I
(29:33):
knew all the farmers in my areaand became friendly with them
and I wanted to expand myoperation.
And you had all these peoplefrom the north leaving the
cities and moving down to ourarea and the price of land
skyrocketed and I found myselfpriced out of land and so I
(29:54):
found myself not being able toexpand the farm.
About this time I had a friendof mine, older gentleman in the
nursery industry, and he calledme and he said a big company has
come in and purchased our farmand they want me to train the
next person to run it.
(30:15):
And I immediately was like no,I'm not working for some big
corporation.
And he said no, you have tocome in and talk with me.
Come on, you have to come inand talk with me.
So I went in and talked withhim and we had several
interviews and I was like youknow, I'll entertain this
possibility, I'll talk, I'll seewhat's going on.
And we talked and we talked andeventually, for several reasons
(30:41):
, I said no.
And I said no in a nice way, ina nice manner, and he said you
know, I'm really sorry thatthat's your final answer.
And, by the way, they purchasedthis other smaller farm right
next to us.
Please go over there and meetthat owner, because he's in a
similar circumstance.
He sold the company but he hasto stay on for a year to train
the next generation to run it.
(31:02):
He sold the company but he hasto stay on for a year to train
the next generation to run it.
And I said okay, fine, and Iwent over there and I met that
owner and immediately liked theguy Very intelligent businessman
, knew so much.
Yeah, he's like.
Immediately the first time I methim and started working with
him, he offered me the job intwo hours, he said, and I said
(31:25):
and I said I was like I'm notsure if I want to do this.
I've worked a lot building thisfarm and it was an opportunity
for me to grow professionallyand I think, calusa farms.
At one point in time we hadlike 10 or 11 employees at
maximum and we were farming 2.25acres and I had like two
(31:48):
delivery vehicles.
And now I'm managing a farmthat's 66 acres, we have 55
employees, we do 12 million insales a year, we have 13 tractor
trailers.
So it was a big jump up for mein my level of expertise, to
expand my education.
(32:08):
I quickly realized that in manyways running a larger company is
easier than running a smallercompany.
In the smaller company, colusaFarms, if someone got sick and
didn't come in, you were doingthat job.
That's it.
Plants will not wait for youwhen they're ready.
They're ready, they have to goRight.
(32:28):
So you know I could doeverything.
So electrical, plumbing,carpentry, sales, fertilizer you
just have to learn everything.
And so when I got to this farmI had known everything, and I
realized too that in in theselarger farms people's expertise
are kind of likecompartmentalized.
I'm the irrigation guy I knowall about irrigation.
(32:51):
I'm the fertilizer person Iknow all about fertilizer.
I had a surface understandingof everything, which has helped
me tremendously.
Now.
That's basically my role now asthe ceo.
I go around and make sure eachdepartment is running good and I
look for additionalopportunities to expand the
(33:11):
farms production right.
Speaker 2 (33:14):
And so how did you feel like your past experience
running collusa farms was, youknow, transferred into your role
as ceo with topiary creations?
Speaker 3 (33:27):
Um, well, I'll say this I think that the, the, the,
the company that's that I workfor now.
They're a finance company andthat usually strikes fear in
someone's heart, but they'rereally fantastic company.
And they said to me hey, wereally know a lot about finance
(33:48):
and we, we know nothing aboutfarming, and we realize that you
do, so we're going to get outof your way.
Here are the parameters thatyou have to work with your
budget and you have to make thiswork.
Can you make this work?
We won't get in your way.
In fact, if you need something,talk to us, We'll try and help
you out.
(34:08):
And I'm starting my third yearnow and they've been true to
that.
So that made me feel reallygood.
And the other thing aboutcompartmentalization is that I
see in the farming world thatthere are great farmers with
lousy business backgrounds andthat is what I presented to them
(34:32):
.
I understood about business, Iunderstood about sales, I
understood about.
You know, I can read a balancesheet in the spreadsheet and the
next moment I can be out fixingan irrigation line or talking
to somebody about fertilizer orfixing a truck.
So that's really what helped memake this transition and to
(34:55):
convince them that I was theright person, but I think they
had already known that and theseguys had made the deal.
They had already signed on thedotted line.
They just needed to make surethat things were handed over
smoothly, which was part of thedeal.
So there was incentive for themon their behalf too.
They really wanted to make itwork.
Speaker 2 (35:16):
That's really great.
I mean, you had this kind ofdynamic background in farming
where I think your skills are socomprehensive and it seems that
, as a farmer transitioning intoa new company, be it a finance
company or bigger gardeningcompany or anything of that sort
(35:36):
what do you find to be the mostchallenging aspect of that?
And, on the other side of that,what makes you successful?
What has contributed to yournew role in pivoting into this
kind of position?
Speaker 3 (35:54):
I think that before I had before Calusa Farms, I had
like the knowledge and the dream, but I didn't have the
practicality and the executionof that.
So like I knew what thetextbook said because I went to
business school and here was mydream.
But how do you really put thattogether?
Because you know that the mapis not the territory.
(36:16):
You know that what you learn inschool, when you get out now
you have to apply it.
What does the real world looklike when you apply those things
you learn in the textbook?
And I think the hardest partfor sure and I think you know
the hardest part for sure wasgetting Colusa Farms going.
That was the struggle and thatwas.
(36:40):
You know we started ColusaFarms for $300.
That's how much we started andwe just for the first three
years we just reinvested thatback into ourselves.
We took nothing out.
It was a part-time gig, it wasa part-time thing.
So you know, you go out and youmake, you know four hundred
dollars and, okay, now you spendthe 400 and you keep on just.
And then one year as a schoolcounselor, I was making more
(37:01):
money part-time doing the farmthan I was full-time as a school
counselor.
So I I gotta try and do thisfull-time now and then.
That's a big jump, you know,but as soon as you can get past
that hurdle and you can convincesomebody, hey, I've been around
in this position for longerthan three years and here are
(37:30):
the things that I have done andyou don't have to convince them
because they can see it there,they can see your operation and
they hear of you by reputationand you know, going back to like
what is the skill, I always hadlike a joke that people used to
say to me you know, what is itthat you do?
I said I'm a farmer and you know, in this area, unfortunately,
you're not seeing or hearing toomany farmers, so people are
automatically like wow, okay,you know what, farming what?
(37:53):
And one of my jokes off of that, basically, was I'm a farmer.
That means I'm an electrician,I'm a plumber, I'm a carpenter,
I'm a driver.
You know we can do everythingand I didn't know how to do
plumbing or electrical orcarpentry.
Prior to any of this, I didn'tknow, and so I just struggled
(38:16):
and I read a lot, I did theYouTube videos and, you know,
one of the things I was sayingearlier was that I remained open
to everyone's ideas.
I remained open to everyone'sideas, even the farmers that had
(38:36):
disastrous operations andthings that were like, hey, this
is against my standards, thatyou guys are not organic or that
you guys are so sloppy withyour fertilizer.
This is not how I want to be.
But let me look over here andtry and find one thing out of
this disaster that I can adopt.
That's positive.
And there were littleinformational pieces of gold
(38:58):
around and so I did put thattogether and I did remain
open-minded.
I had a lot of organic farmerscome and see my operation and
say, wow, I didn't know youcould do irrigation like that.
I'm going to do irrigation likethat.
And you know, we used flood anddrain tables and I have one
organic farmer now.
(39:19):
He's like I love flood anddrain.
You're using them in an organicapplication?
I certainly am, and I'm savingwater.
Wow, good for you, man.
Cool, I'm glad I turned you onto that.
Speaker 2 (39:31):
Wow, good for you, man Cool.
I'm glad I turned you on tothat Well.
So if you could you know youknow an effort to wrap up the
conversation today I want you tobe able to share your top piece
of advice for any kind offarmer going through hardship,
transitioning.
You know, what could you tellthem today?
Speaker 3 (39:51):
that might be something that you think they
need to know based on theexperience and talking with a
lot of farmers, I realized thatwhat I was saying before about
their specialization like theycould be the best farmer in the
world, but they didn't have abusiness sense.
They didn't have a businesssense, they didn't have a sales
(40:11):
sense and they didn't have amarketing sense and they
couldn't read books and thebalance sheet and those types of
when I say books, that's what Imeant by that.
You either have to learn thoseskills, because a farm is a
business, and it's great thatyou have a passion, that you
love it, but unfortunatelythat's not enough.
You have to have that businesssense, and if you can't develop
(40:33):
it yourself, you might not havethe time to.
You have to team up withsomeone who can.
You have to team up withsomeone who can.
They'll make your lifetremendously easier and the farm
will operate like a business,and so that's the biggest piece
of advice, and I think that theother piece of advice is that
just always remain positive,keep your eyes open.
(40:55):
There's I feel I'm not tryingto get too spiritual here, but I
think that if you put goodenergy out, you'll get good
energy in return, and if youkeep on just saying, I'm going
to be alert as I walk throughthe day, as I talk with people,
for other opportunities outthere.
You'd be surprised what fallsin your lap and you'd be
(41:18):
surprised at how many of theopportunities fall in your lap
or how many ideas you fall inyour lap.
Now, out of all those ideas,maybe only one of them is good
and only one of them sticks Fine.
At least there's opportunityout there, and I think that that
is basically what happened withme.
(41:41):
I knew that I was too young tobe working like four or five
hours a day and I couldn't dothat.
When I had a new child.
I knew I had to go out there.
I knew I had to earn extraincome.
You never know what tomorrowbrings right Absolutely,
especially with this hurricaneand the disaster.
So you never know one day fromthe next.
So you owe it to yourself, youowe it to your family to grow as
much as possible as a personand your farm, and if you come
(42:05):
across a wall, like I did, juststay open.
I was looking at starting an icemanufacturing business because
I saw that a lot of the chefshad a need for ice.
They were always going I can'tget ice, I can't get ice.
The refrigeration was a problem.
Their kitchens were so small,their refrigeration in their
(42:26):
kitchen for storing the producewas so small, but when the
tourist season came they neededdouble that amount of space.
So I was talking with companiesabout renting out refrigerated
trailers to them, and these werethings that came up because I
had a farm, because I was doingdeliveries to the chefs, and I
just turned up that dial in mymind to be hyper focused on
(42:51):
what's going on around you.
Speaker 2 (42:53):
Yeah, you're constantly learning, I think, in
this industry, and you knowyour journey speaks for itself
and that it's an ever-changinglandscape, and your story
specifically really has left uswith so many valuable lessons
about perseverance, adaptabilityand the importance of small
(43:14):
farms in our food systems.
And your dedication to thesmall farmer movement and
commitment to sharing yourknowledge, I think, is even more
critical, especially forinspiring folks listening who
may perhaps be the nextgeneration of farmers and food
entrepreneurs.
So I want to take a moment tothank you, jonathan, for sharing
(43:35):
your story with us today.
It's very powerful.
Speaker 3 (43:38):
Thank you so much for having me.
It was great talking witheveryone.
Speaker 2 (43:41):
Thank you and for those listening.
Jonathan's experience remindsus that farming isn't just about
growing food.
It's about community resilienceand being willing to change
course when life calls for it.
I hope you found his story ascompelling and insightful as I
did.
Thank you for tuning in toFresh Take.
Make sure to follow us for moreconversations like this one,
(44:04):
where we explore the storiesbehind the food that fuels us.
Speaker 1 (44:08):
Until next time, we hope you enjoyed today's episode
.
Florida Organic Growers is a501c3 nonprofit organization, so
to keep our content availableand free to the public, we need
your help.
Please subscribe, rate andreview wherever you listen, and
consider making a tax-deductibledonation or become a sponsor.
Learn more about our work andhow you can become a sponsor
(44:30):
from our website, wwwboginfoorg.
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