September 17, 2025 • 19 mins
Meet Grant Guidroz, one half of the husband-and-wife team behind FullnessFarm.com, a thriving organic farm in the heart of Baton Rouge. Since 2015, they’ve been on a mission to grow nutrient-dense vegetables, herbs, and edible flowers—without synthetic fertilizers, herbicides, or pesticides—and share the harvest through their popular CSA and the Red Stick Farmers Market.
In this episode of American Family Farmer, you’ll hear how the Guidroz family built Fullness Farm from the ground up, why soil health matters for both flavor and nutrition, and how they help neighbors turn backyards into productive organic gardens. From custom garden design to hands-on consultations, Grant and Allison, his wife, show that anyone can cultivate fresh, seasonal food right outside their door while keeping every food dollar local.
Tune in to learn how community-supported agriculture works, discover tips for starting your own organic garden, and get inspired by a family whose passion for sustainable farming is bringing true “fullness” to Baton Rouge and beyond.
Website: AmericanFamilyFarmerShow.com
Social Media: @GoodDayNetworks
In this episode of American Family Farmer, you’ll hear how the Guidroz family built Fullness Farm from the ground up, why soil health matters for both flavor and nutrition, and how they help neighbors turn backyards into productive organic gardens. From custom garden design to hands-on consultations, Grant and Allison, his wife, show that anyone can cultivate fresh, seasonal food right outside their door while keeping every food dollar local.
Tune in to learn how community-supported agriculture works, discover tips for starting your own organic garden, and get inspired by a family whose passion for sustainable farming is bringing true “fullness” to Baton Rouge and beyond.
Website: AmericanFamilyFarmerShow.com
Social Media: @GoodDayNetworks
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
The American Family Farmer podcast sponsored in part by Caldron,
The Safe proven Way to Lose weight. Check it all
out at toploss dot com. I'm Doug Stephan. This is
the American Family Farmer and conversations with people like Grant Guidwis.
I want to make sure I pronounce your name correctly, Grant?
Is it Guidos? Or am I doing too? French? Gui DROs? Okay, Well,
(00:25):
you're in Louisiana, So do you have some French? Is
that is that French French?
Speaker 2 (00:31):
It's like Smith down here in South Louisiana. It is
It's a Swiss French?
Speaker 1 (00:36):
Is it? Okay? Well, so that's good. You're in the
right place. Grant his wife Alison run the Fullness Farm,
which you can find by listening to this conversation. Will
send you to Fullnessfarm dot com. Uh And they're down
in Baton Rouge, louisianamb Being on a radio station down
there during the Good Day program for a lot of
(00:57):
years and visiting the area. I guess you go to
a Bachtel Rouge and you go to New Orleans and
how you've taken most of the state in so you
have an organic farm there? How does that work, How
well received? How excited are people down in that part
of Louisiana with organic farming.
Speaker 2 (01:15):
It's been interesting. It's changed a lot since I've gotten
into it, and uh, and for us, it was just normal.
Speaker 3 (01:21):
You know, we never learned the the quote unquote conventional way.
Speaker 2 (01:24):
Which is always funny to me that that's they've.
Speaker 3 (01:27):
Co opted that term conventional to mean the use of
synthetic chemicals that were only derived.
Speaker 2 (01:33):
After World War Two. Yeah, but yeah, So when whenever
I was at LSU, I would hear things.
Speaker 3 (01:37):
I'll hear mantras like, oh you can't you know, organic's cool,
but you can't do that down here. You know, down
here it's too much disease, too much pass And I
don't know. It just didn't sit well with me that
It's like, well, how did people eat before, right before
the synthetic chemicals? So and then they would say things like,
you know, the planets don't know whether the nitrogen is
synthetic or organic.
Speaker 2 (01:56):
You know, plant nitrogen's nitrogen? Is it?
Speaker 3 (01:59):
So for me, it's like great, and that means the organic.
You know, the equal sign works both ways. You know,
why wouldn't I use the naturally derived I.
Speaker 1 (02:08):
Don't want to sound arrogant, but that's really ridiculous. And
that's the problem with that you're encountering, and so many
other people have encountered. You've been brainwashed or not you
have or I have, but we certainly have been exposed
to and lots of people have been brainwashed by the
folks that are in the local stores that are selling
(02:29):
you the things that you need, the fertilizers and the
amendments that you add to the soils. And because the
companies like bear Mont, Santo du Pont have come a
long way in their research and they've got stuff that
certainly will kill all the bad things, but what it
does to the soil is worse than what they say.
(02:53):
The disease is worse than the cure. Of the cure
is worse than the disease. And that's literal and figurative here.
So what's the soil like in your area of Louisiana?
How close are you in Mississippi?
Speaker 2 (03:08):
I'm very close.
Speaker 3 (03:09):
I'm within a thousand feet or we are, Yeah, the
Mississippi Benzen towards our farm right here, and we're on
an old patch where they used to around us, where
they used to process sugarcane. So where we've always been,
you know, in agricultural production for a long time, all
around us, and we found a nice little piece of foul.
Speaker 2 (03:29):
Ground that we don't We're lucky that we don't need.
Speaker 3 (03:31):
Very much and so found a nice little patch. Our
soil is super soil. It's a silty loam, alluvial. It's
just I was telling someone, it's like the Lebron James
of soils. You know, you're starting with a great a
great start, you know, and around us it's not all
like that.
Speaker 2 (03:49):
It changes a lot.
Speaker 3 (03:50):
You go, you go thirty minutes north, it's red clay
and real low pH.
Speaker 1 (03:55):
All right, So we're after a good start here with
Grant Gi Dwoz, who is the owner with his wife,
the Fullness Farm in Banda and Rouge, Louisiana. We're talking
because September is National Organic Month. Who are focused on
that this week with our conversation on the American Family Farmer.
I'm Doug Stephan and she's not. She could be Elizabeth Miller. However,
(04:16):
as a matter of fact, she is. Elizabeth Miller is
one of the great reasons for going to top loss
dot com and engaging in the work of Caltron getting
that weight off the natural way.
Speaker 4 (04:28):
Caltrin is different than everything else up there because it's
really good for you. It's actually drug free, stimulant free,
so it's good for you. We've been helping customers since
nineteen ninety seven. It's that's oup for two hundred thousand
happy customers. So I know we've just helped people all
over the United States lose weight. So if you go
to toploss dot com, you'll see the calendri and sell
right there. But we do also, like Dougs had put
(04:50):
together custom packages. Usually they're available by email or our
Facebook page, or you can call us and we'll put
together something custom for you that will also have some
special pricing on there.
Speaker 2 (05:00):
Corse.
Speaker 4 (05:00):
Doug has a promo code. If you use the promo
code Doug, that's going to say you own shipping on
all orders.
Speaker 1 (05:05):
Elizabeth Miller from the folks at calder Fren. Thanks Elizabeth.
Back on the American Family Farmer. I'm Doug Stephen. This
week a conversation with grand Gui Dreau, who owns Fullness
Farm in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, talking about pests and disease.
(05:28):
Things you have to do to keep the soil in
its natural state. How long have you been on this soil?
How long have you been there with your family?
Speaker 2 (05:38):
Since twenty fifteen, So we just said ten years.
Speaker 1 (05:41):
Are you a farm kid originally and as your.
Speaker 3 (05:43):
Wife, No, we're I grew up going up to North
Louisiana and visiting family that ranched and grew had gardens.
But now I grew up right outside LSU's campus and
so just a city board going to the country in
the summers, and the same with my wife.
Speaker 2 (06:01):
Were both first generation farmers.
Speaker 3 (06:03):
Or where the agriculture skipped of a generation or two's
coming back?
Speaker 1 (06:08):
Yeah, we were all We all come from an agricultural background.
We go back far enough because everybody grew their own
and sustained themselves and that's long since past, although there
are people that are turning to it, both in rural America,
suburban America and urban America. How much land do you
have grant.
Speaker 2 (06:28):
We're on about ten or fifteen total, but the land
that we actually till is under two acres.
Speaker 1 (06:35):
So people will say, how can you make a living
doing that? Is this you're living? Is this your full
time gig? It is?
Speaker 2 (06:41):
My wife?
Speaker 3 (06:42):
Can I do this full time, and we also install gardens.
That's what my wife heads up, and so we do
the farm and install gardens, and.
Speaker 1 (06:50):
So people hire you as a consultant to set up gardens.
Speaker 2 (06:53):
That what you're saying, thank you exactly.
Speaker 3 (06:56):
I will come to the backyard, check out their space,
help them get going.
Speaker 2 (07:00):
We can't. We got started it in college.
Speaker 3 (07:05):
You got started doing that, and then then we went
and learned how to fall in for a few years
and then came back to farmer, both full time the
first two years, and then we started having kids. Allison
kind of went part time on the farm, and then
when she got back into full time.
Speaker 2 (07:20):
She decided to make a go at installing gardens and
that's been great. Yeah, both are viable.
Speaker 3 (07:24):
You know, small acreage but a lot of quick crops,
a lot of turnover.
Speaker 2 (07:28):
And then we were direct marketing everything.
Speaker 3 (07:30):
So you know, you can either be small in direct
market and be people's family farmer, or you go big
and then then you go wholesale. And we worked on
big farms but saw some of the we're just wouldn't
seem fun. You get too big, you got middle management,
you got you're employing so many people.
Speaker 2 (07:48):
You need you need so many good.
Speaker 3 (07:50):
People, you know where I like being small and at
the end of the year, we've got good salaries and
don't have to find ten people to pay, you know,
find ten people to pick vegetables for fifteen dollars an hour.
Speaker 1 (08:02):
And yeah, well that's a problem now, it would seem
any with the political realities being what they are, some
of the big people down in your neck of the woods,
like the rest of the country, probably are feeling a pinch,
are they not.
Speaker 3 (08:16):
Yeah, you know, I hear a lot of things, you know,
I call it like hearing things through the bobon talking
with ranchers and talking with other bigger guys, bigger ad guys.
But yeah, and I like this about our model that
we don't need big We can.
Speaker 2 (08:30):
Kind of pay attention to the price of tea in.
Speaker 3 (08:32):
China, but I don't have to worry about it, you know,
hearing about tariffs and farm dells. You know, we're kind
of outside of that, insulated because we are so small
and then direct market everything to the consumers, so it's
hard hard to get in the way of it.
Speaker 1 (08:46):
So do you have webinars and things like that? As
your wife and you you are both really good at
social media and telling the story and maybe if you're
says that she's a teacher in a manner of speaking,
that's a you can do it in person, you can
do it online. How much of that is there.
Speaker 3 (09:04):
If we if we were smarter, we'd probably do more
promotional stuff like that and do more educational stuff and
that might be something we go into and but yeah,
that's for us, it's kind of untapped.
Speaker 2 (09:15):
We've done a little bit.
Speaker 3 (09:16):
We do a few speaking deals throughout the year, but
other than that, we just got our head down working.
Speaker 1 (09:22):
Right. Are you a twelve month a year that weather
down there make it easy for you to grow twelve
months out of the year.
Speaker 2 (09:30):
We've done that and actually we do do that. We
but so we used to do it where we went.
Speaker 3 (09:36):
When we were young and getting started and we were
selling to restaurants. You know, it was like three sixty five,
go hard. And then as we got older, realize, you know,
the summer months here, so it's so brutal, so it'd
be our hardest months for the least amount of return,
and so then we started taking off July August completely.
(09:57):
But then that kind of leads to a little bit
of and their show you got to overcome and and
then people start calling you too. When you direct marketing
at the farm, you know, two months off, people start
calling see if.
Speaker 2 (10:08):
You're if you uh, if you skip town or if
you're doing okay.
Speaker 1 (10:11):
So this year we just skip town with their vegetables.
What's the story?
Speaker 3 (10:17):
So we started this year, we started pumping the brakes
and then uh and I started doing more value at
it in the summer.
Speaker 2 (10:22):
So I'm throwing okra things that I can pick and pickle.
Speaker 3 (10:26):
And uh and then skip and market, you know, doing
two markets.
Speaker 2 (10:31):
Take a market off, do a market take two weeks off.
Speaker 3 (10:34):
So just pumping the breaks essentially in the summer, they
kind of give us that we don't we don't get
a winter like ya you guys.
Speaker 1 (10:41):
Yeah, I know it's I would like not to have
that to be a reality. I spent a lot of
time in California and I kind of get a kick
out of, if nothing else, going to the farmer's market
like I did last Sunday and load up on vegetables.
I tend to, especially during the off months, when I
go out there, I load up with raspberries and blackberries
and blueberries, these and apples and plums and whatever else
(11:02):
you can get, put them in a bag and bring
them back home here. Oh yeah, it's wonderful. And there
are a lot of organic farms. They are organic farming.
I wonder what your philosophy, what you're thinking is when
it comes to how the big commercial growers have claimed
to become organic but they really aren't. They're kidding themselves
(11:24):
and they're kidding the public. How much of a problem
is that where you.
Speaker 3 (11:28):
Are, where we are, we're kind of the black sheet,
you know, we were maybe I think were. I wonder
how many organic farmers there are in Louisiana, especially doing
it commercially, certainly no big egg and I'm aware of,
but I know what you mean in the stores, and
it's always a cat and mouse game between I would say,
(11:49):
like the legitimate organic like people that are really doing
it and then the big guys that kind of want
to co opt it and get in on it. Right,
But so, yeah, I know that's the problem, but it's
it's kind of one of those things we're we're insulated from.
I think honestly, at our farmers market, everyone kind of
assumes all the farmers are organic.
Speaker 2 (12:11):
Maybe really and yeah, but but yeah, sir, and yeah
that the stores.
Speaker 3 (12:18):
I still buy organic, hoping that that doesn't have the
pesticides and herbicides, even though I know that it's maybe
you know, it's a big company, but maybe it's still
is a good a better vote along the spectrum.
Speaker 1 (12:30):
M Well, you have you have your fingers crossed. I
want to talk about some of the things that may
be special regarding this season at the farm. Fullness Farm
is our focus in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Grant gid Rose
is here and I want to pause for a moment
and think about what you're doing with your health and
your well being. Are you eating well? As we're talking here?
(12:51):
A lot of the focus on this program is about
eating well and how you can help people eat well.
That's one of the solutions to losing weight and keeping
it off, the main solution in terms of the natural,
organic way. We're talking about natural and organic here, so
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(13:33):
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(14:16):
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free shipping as well at toploss dot com. Grant Gudros,
(14:37):
who is here from the Fullness Farm in Baton Lew's, Louisiana,
Baton Rouge, we were talking a little bit about pests
and diseases. What are the common Are they changing all
the time or do you find that you're encountering the
same sort of problems with the pests that we all
have to deal with or are they different down there?
Speaker 2 (14:59):
I think they're just more and more intense.
Speaker 3 (15:01):
But it's the same, you know, it's and then my mentor,
he would tell me that things, you know, pay attention
to things.
Speaker 2 (15:06):
Things come in cycles, so it's not the same thing
every year.
Speaker 3 (15:10):
It's definitely just you know, we told the apprent it's
like it's like check it out.
Speaker 2 (15:14):
It's the year of the steam bug. You know, the
steam We don't spray these tomatoes they are they don't
have a chance, you know.
Speaker 3 (15:21):
And so there'd be certain times like that where it's
just more intense, you know, like how it's hot everywhere,
but it's not hot like it is here where it's
ninety eight percent. You know, it's it's more intense here.
So I'd say it's the disease in the bugs just
at times, but a lot of the year is a
great growing season, and we've kind of moved to just
growing things that do well at that time.
Speaker 2 (15:41):
Of the year and not late in the spring.
Speaker 1 (15:45):
And is there is something this year that's growing better
than what has happened in past years? Do you have
any specialties this year?
Speaker 3 (15:54):
This year the ochre has been growing really well in
the summer, and then malabar spinich this sometimes that'll get
beetles or slugs and snails. For some reason, these stands
are just gorgeous and so it's been the one instead
of cooking green.
Speaker 1 (16:10):
How do you handle your CSA once a week? People
come when they want to. How is the for those
who don't know community sported agriculture? I have one on
my farm. Well, I actually have a development called an
agrohood that I'm building. I don't know if you've got
any of those down there. They are few and far between,
not many of them in the country. It's a development
builds around a working farm. And so I have three
(16:33):
big gardens and somebody like your wife, although listening to
the story about your wife I'd like to have her
services because I think she lends a bit of her personality.
It looks like to the planting, and that's always fun,
it's always good. It's always exciting to discover new things. So, anyway,
how does your CSA work.
Speaker 3 (16:54):
It works like a subscription in the years, broken down
into ten week sessions, so we get thirty really good
out of the year. And so we're about to start
ten weeks here in October. That'll run right before Christmas,
and then we've got another one that runs from March
to May and then concurrently into the summer, and first
week in July we'll send them off with some watermelons.
Speaker 1 (17:19):
No, I was wondering talking about the fall, whether you
have your vegetables support Thanksgiving and the holidays, Christmas.
Speaker 3 (17:27):
Yeah, there are certain dates you gotta circle and work
back from to make sure you got what you need.
Speaker 2 (17:34):
And so it definitely greens for Thanksgiving is a big one.
Speaker 3 (17:37):
And then I don't know if you'll do this up there,
but cabbage and peas for New Years?
Speaker 2 (17:42):
Do you all do that or is that a.
Speaker 1 (17:45):
Cabbage? We tend to be able to save the store
a little bit because of our growing seasons. Usually over
by the end of October. But yeah, there's that.
Speaker 3 (17:54):
We can move just hundreds of cabbages for New Year's
down here. It's a cultural thing, I.
Speaker 1 (17:59):
Think, Uh huh right. And you have some milk it
comes from an organic farm. It looks like as well.
I'm looking at some of the pictures from inside the
store or that's at the farmer's market.
Speaker 3 (18:10):
I'm not looking at it, but it probably it's not
our milk. I wish we maybe one of my kids
will start milking a goat one day.
Speaker 2 (18:15):
I would love. That's Prince Farm. They've got a small family, dare.
Speaker 3 (18:25):
It's not organic, but they you know, they slow, they
slow pastra stuff and only milking thairty towels.
Speaker 1 (18:31):
Yeah, that sounds like that sounds like Heaven to me. Well, Grant,
you've done a great job and I'm glad that we
were able to celebrate National Organic Month with you from
Fullness Farm down at Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Their website you
want to check it out, is Fullnessfarm dot com. Fullnessfarm
dot com. Doug Stefan here on the American Family Farmer.
Speaker 2 (18:52):
This program was produced at bob K Sound and Recording.
Speaker 3 (18:55):
Please visit bobksound dot com
Speaker 1 (18:57):
The American Family Farmer podcast, sponsored in part by Caldron,
which is the safe way for you to lose weight
and keep it off
The American Family Farmer podcast sponsored in part by Caldron,
The Safe proven Way to Lose weight. Check it all
out at toploss dot com. I'm Doug Stephan. This is
the American Family Farmer and conversations with people like Grant Guidwis.
I want to make sure I pronounce your name correctly, Grant?
Is it Guidos? Or am I doing too? French? Gui DROs? Okay, Well,
(00:25):
you're in Louisiana, So do you have some French? Is
that is that French French?
Speaker 2 (00:31):
It's like Smith down here in South Louisiana. It is
It's a Swiss French?
Speaker 1 (00:36):
Is it? Okay? Well, so that's good. You're in the
right place. Grant his wife Alison run the Fullness Farm,
which you can find by listening to this conversation. Will
send you to Fullnessfarm dot com. Uh And they're down
in Baton Rouge, louisianamb Being on a radio station down
there during the Good Day program for a lot of
(00:57):
years and visiting the area. I guess you go to
a Bachtel Rouge and you go to New Orleans and
how you've taken most of the state in so you
have an organic farm there? How does that work, How
well received? How excited are people down in that part
of Louisiana with organic farming.
Speaker 2 (01:15):
It's been interesting. It's changed a lot since I've gotten
into it, and uh, and for us, it was just normal.
Speaker 3 (01:21):
You know, we never learned the the quote unquote conventional way.
Speaker 2 (01:24):
Which is always funny to me that that's they've.
Speaker 3 (01:27):
Co opted that term conventional to mean the use of
synthetic chemicals that were only derived.
Speaker 2 (01:33):
After World War Two. Yeah, but yeah, So when whenever
I was at LSU, I would hear things.
Speaker 3 (01:37):
I'll hear mantras like, oh you can't you know, organic's cool,
but you can't do that down here. You know, down
here it's too much disease, too much pass And I
don't know. It just didn't sit well with me that
It's like, well, how did people eat before, right before
the synthetic chemicals? So and then they would say things like,
you know, the planets don't know whether the nitrogen is
synthetic or organic.
Speaker 2 (01:56):
You know, plant nitrogen's nitrogen? Is it?
Speaker 3 (01:59):
So for me, it's like great, and that means the organic.
You know, the equal sign works both ways. You know,
why wouldn't I use the naturally derived I.
Speaker 1 (02:08):
Don't want to sound arrogant, but that's really ridiculous. And
that's the problem with that you're encountering, and so many
other people have encountered. You've been brainwashed or not you
have or I have, but we certainly have been exposed
to and lots of people have been brainwashed by the
folks that are in the local stores that are selling
(02:29):
you the things that you need, the fertilizers and the
amendments that you add to the soils. And because the
companies like bear Mont, Santo du Pont have come a
long way in their research and they've got stuff that
certainly will kill all the bad things, but what it
does to the soil is worse than what they say.
(02:53):
The disease is worse than the cure. Of the cure
is worse than the disease. And that's literal and figurative here.
So what's the soil like in your area of Louisiana?
How close are you in Mississippi?
Speaker 2 (03:08):
I'm very close.
Speaker 3 (03:09):
I'm within a thousand feet or we are, Yeah, the
Mississippi Benzen towards our farm right here, and we're on
an old patch where they used to around us, where
they used to process sugarcane. So where we've always been,
you know, in agricultural production for a long time, all
around us, and we found a nice little piece of foul.
Speaker 2 (03:29):
Ground that we don't We're lucky that we don't need.
Speaker 3 (03:31):
Very much and so found a nice little patch. Our
soil is super soil. It's a silty loam, alluvial. It's
just I was telling someone, it's like the Lebron James
of soils. You know, you're starting with a great a
great start, you know, and around us it's not all
like that.
Speaker 2 (03:49):
It changes a lot.
Speaker 3 (03:50):
You go, you go thirty minutes north, it's red clay
and real low pH.
Speaker 1 (03:55):
All right, So we're after a good start here with
Grant Gi Dwoz, who is the owner with his wife,
the Fullness Farm in Banda and Rouge, Louisiana. We're talking
because September is National Organic Month. Who are focused on
that this week with our conversation on the American Family Farmer.
I'm Doug Stephan and she's not. She could be Elizabeth Miller. However,
(04:16):
as a matter of fact, she is. Elizabeth Miller is
one of the great reasons for going to top loss
dot com and engaging in the work of Caltron getting
that weight off the natural way.
Speaker 4 (04:28):
Caltrin is different than everything else up there because it's
really good for you. It's actually drug free, stimulant free,
so it's good for you. We've been helping customers since
nineteen ninety seven. It's that's oup for two hundred thousand
happy customers. So I know we've just helped people all
over the United States lose weight. So if you go
to toploss dot com, you'll see the calendri and sell
right there. But we do also, like Dougs had put
(04:50):
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Corse.
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Doug has a promo code. If you use the promo
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Speaker 1 (05:05):
Elizabeth Miller from the folks at calder Fren. Thanks Elizabeth.
Back on the American Family Farmer. I'm Doug Stephen. This
week a conversation with grand Gui Dreau, who owns Fullness
Farm in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, talking about pests and disease.
(05:28):
Things you have to do to keep the soil in
its natural state. How long have you been on this soil?
How long have you been there with your family?
Speaker 2 (05:38):
Since twenty fifteen, So we just said ten years.
Speaker 1 (05:41):
Are you a farm kid originally and as your.
Speaker 3 (05:43):
Wife, No, we're I grew up going up to North
Louisiana and visiting family that ranched and grew had gardens.
But now I grew up right outside LSU's campus and
so just a city board going to the country in
the summers, and the same with my wife.
Speaker 2 (06:01):
Were both first generation farmers.
Speaker 3 (06:03):
Or where the agriculture skipped of a generation or two's
coming back?
Speaker 1 (06:08):
Yeah, we were all We all come from an agricultural background.
We go back far enough because everybody grew their own
and sustained themselves and that's long since past, although there
are people that are turning to it, both in rural America,
suburban America and urban America. How much land do you
have grant.
Speaker 2 (06:28):
We're on about ten or fifteen total, but the land
that we actually till is under two acres.
Speaker 1 (06:35):
So people will say, how can you make a living
doing that? Is this you're living? Is this your full
time gig? It is?
Speaker 2 (06:41):
My wife?
Speaker 3 (06:42):
Can I do this full time, and we also install gardens.
That's what my wife heads up, and so we do
the farm and install gardens, and.
Speaker 1 (06:50):
So people hire you as a consultant to set up gardens.
Speaker 2 (06:53):
That what you're saying, thank you exactly.
Speaker 3 (06:56):
I will come to the backyard, check out their space,
help them get going.
Speaker 2 (07:00):
We can't. We got started it in college.
Speaker 3 (07:05):
You got started doing that, and then then we went
and learned how to fall in for a few years
and then came back to farmer, both full time the
first two years, and then we started having kids. Allison
kind of went part time on the farm, and then
when she got back into full time.
Speaker 2 (07:20):
She decided to make a go at installing gardens and
that's been great. Yeah, both are viable.
Speaker 3 (07:24):
You know, small acreage but a lot of quick crops,
a lot of turnover.
Speaker 2 (07:28):
And then we were direct marketing everything.
Speaker 3 (07:30):
So you know, you can either be small in direct
market and be people's family farmer, or you go big
and then then you go wholesale. And we worked on
big farms but saw some of the we're just wouldn't
seem fun. You get too big, you got middle management,
you got you're employing so many people.
Speaker 2 (07:48):
You need you need so many good.
Speaker 3 (07:50):
People, you know where I like being small and at
the end of the year, we've got good salaries and
don't have to find ten people to pay, you know,
find ten people to pick vegetables for fifteen dollars an hour.
Speaker 1 (08:02):
And yeah, well that's a problem now, it would seem
any with the political realities being what they are, some
of the big people down in your neck of the woods,
like the rest of the country, probably are feeling a pinch,
are they not.
Speaker 3 (08:16):
Yeah, you know, I hear a lot of things, you know,
I call it like hearing things through the bobon talking
with ranchers and talking with other bigger guys, bigger ad guys.
But yeah, and I like this about our model that
we don't need big We can.
Speaker 2 (08:30):
Kind of pay attention to the price of tea in.
Speaker 3 (08:32):
China, but I don't have to worry about it, you know,
hearing about tariffs and farm dells. You know, we're kind
of outside of that, insulated because we are so small
and then direct market everything to the consumers, so it's
hard hard to get in the way of it.
Speaker 1 (08:46):
So do you have webinars and things like that? As
your wife and you you are both really good at
social media and telling the story and maybe if you're
says that she's a teacher in a manner of speaking,
that's a you can do it in person, you can
do it online. How much of that is there.
Speaker 3 (09:04):
If we if we were smarter, we'd probably do more
promotional stuff like that and do more educational stuff and
that might be something we go into and but yeah,
that's for us, it's kind of untapped.
Speaker 2 (09:15):
We've done a little bit.
Speaker 3 (09:16):
We do a few speaking deals throughout the year, but
other than that, we just got our head down working.
Speaker 1 (09:22):
Right. Are you a twelve month a year that weather
down there make it easy for you to grow twelve
months out of the year.
Speaker 2 (09:30):
We've done that and actually we do do that. We
but so we used to do it where we went.
Speaker 3 (09:36):
When we were young and getting started and we were
selling to restaurants. You know, it was like three sixty five,
go hard. And then as we got older, realize, you know,
the summer months here, so it's so brutal, so it'd
be our hardest months for the least amount of return,
and so then we started taking off July August completely.
(09:57):
But then that kind of leads to a little bit
of and their show you got to overcome and and
then people start calling you too. When you direct marketing
at the farm, you know, two months off, people start
calling see if.
Speaker 2 (10:08):
You're if you uh, if you skip town or if
you're doing okay.
Speaker 1 (10:11):
So this year we just skip town with their vegetables.
What's the story?
Speaker 3 (10:17):
So we started this year, we started pumping the brakes
and then uh and I started doing more value at
it in the summer.
Speaker 2 (10:22):
So I'm throwing okra things that I can pick and pickle.
Speaker 3 (10:26):
And uh and then skip and market, you know, doing
two markets.
Speaker 2 (10:31):
Take a market off, do a market take two weeks off.
Speaker 3 (10:34):
So just pumping the breaks essentially in the summer, they
kind of give us that we don't we don't get
a winter like ya you guys.
Speaker 1 (10:41):
Yeah, I know it's I would like not to have
that to be a reality. I spent a lot of
time in California and I kind of get a kick
out of, if nothing else, going to the farmer's market
like I did last Sunday and load up on vegetables.
I tend to, especially during the off months, when I
go out there, I load up with raspberries and blackberries
and blueberries, these and apples and plums and whatever else
(11:02):
you can get, put them in a bag and bring
them back home here. Oh yeah, it's wonderful. And there
are a lot of organic farms. They are organic farming.
I wonder what your philosophy, what you're thinking is when
it comes to how the big commercial growers have claimed
to become organic but they really aren't. They're kidding themselves
(11:24):
and they're kidding the public. How much of a problem
is that where you.
Speaker 3 (11:28):
Are, where we are, we're kind of the black sheet,
you know, we were maybe I think were. I wonder
how many organic farmers there are in Louisiana, especially doing
it commercially, certainly no big egg and I'm aware of,
but I know what you mean in the stores, and
it's always a cat and mouse game between I would say,
(11:49):
like the legitimate organic like people that are really doing
it and then the big guys that kind of want
to co opt it and get in on it. Right,
But so, yeah, I know that's the problem, but it's
it's kind of one of those things we're we're insulated from.
I think honestly, at our farmers market, everyone kind of
assumes all the farmers are organic.
Speaker 2 (12:11):
Maybe really and yeah, but but yeah, sir, and yeah
that the stores.
Speaker 3 (12:18):
I still buy organic, hoping that that doesn't have the
pesticides and herbicides, even though I know that it's maybe
you know, it's a big company, but maybe it's still
is a good a better vote along the spectrum.
Speaker 1 (12:30):
M Well, you have you have your fingers crossed. I
want to talk about some of the things that may
be special regarding this season at the farm. Fullness Farm
is our focus in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Grant gid Rose
is here and I want to pause for a moment
and think about what you're doing with your health and
your well being. Are you eating well? As we're talking here?
(12:51):
A lot of the focus on this program is about
eating well and how you can help people eat well.
That's one of the solutions to losing weight and keeping
it off, the main solution in terms of the natural,
organic way. We're talking about natural and organic here, so
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free shipping as well at toploss dot com. Grant Gudros,
(14:37):
who is here from the Fullness Farm in Baton Lew's, Louisiana,
Baton Rouge, we were talking a little bit about pests
and diseases. What are the common Are they changing all
the time or do you find that you're encountering the
same sort of problems with the pests that we all
have to deal with or are they different down there?
Speaker 2 (14:59):
I think they're just more and more intense.
Speaker 3 (15:01):
But it's the same, you know, it's and then my mentor,
he would tell me that things, you know, pay attention
to things.
Speaker 2 (15:06):
Things come in cycles, so it's not the same thing
every year.
Speaker 3 (15:10):
It's definitely just you know, we told the apprent it's
like it's like check it out.
Speaker 2 (15:14):
It's the year of the steam bug. You know, the
steam We don't spray these tomatoes they are they don't
have a chance, you know.
Speaker 3 (15:21):
And so there'd be certain times like that where it's
just more intense, you know, like how it's hot everywhere,
but it's not hot like it is here where it's
ninety eight percent. You know, it's it's more intense here.
So I'd say it's the disease in the bugs just
at times, but a lot of the year is a
great growing season, and we've kind of moved to just
growing things that do well at that time.
Speaker 2 (15:41):
Of the year and not late in the spring.
Speaker 1 (15:45):
And is there is something this year that's growing better
than what has happened in past years? Do you have
any specialties this year?
Speaker 3 (15:54):
This year the ochre has been growing really well in
the summer, and then malabar spinich this sometimes that'll get
beetles or slugs and snails. For some reason, these stands
are just gorgeous and so it's been the one instead
of cooking green.
Speaker 1 (16:10):
How do you handle your CSA once a week? People
come when they want to. How is the for those
who don't know community sported agriculture? I have one on
my farm. Well, I actually have a development called an
agrohood that I'm building. I don't know if you've got
any of those down there. They are few and far between,
not many of them in the country. It's a development
builds around a working farm. And so I have three
(16:33):
big gardens and somebody like your wife, although listening to
the story about your wife I'd like to have her
services because I think she lends a bit of her personality.
It looks like to the planting, and that's always fun,
it's always good. It's always exciting to discover new things. So, anyway,
how does your CSA work.
Speaker 3 (16:54):
It works like a subscription in the years, broken down
into ten week sessions, so we get thirty really good
out of the year. And so we're about to start
ten weeks here in October. That'll run right before Christmas,
and then we've got another one that runs from March
to May and then concurrently into the summer, and first
week in July we'll send them off with some watermelons.
Speaker 1 (17:19):
No, I was wondering talking about the fall, whether you
have your vegetables support Thanksgiving and the holidays, Christmas.
Speaker 3 (17:27):
Yeah, there are certain dates you gotta circle and work
back from to make sure you got what you need.
Speaker 2 (17:34):
And so it definitely greens for Thanksgiving is a big one.
Speaker 3 (17:37):
And then I don't know if you'll do this up there,
but cabbage and peas for New Years?
Speaker 2 (17:42):
Do you all do that or is that a.
Speaker 1 (17:45):
Cabbage? We tend to be able to save the store
a little bit because of our growing seasons. Usually over
by the end of October. But yeah, there's that.
Speaker 3 (17:54):
We can move just hundreds of cabbages for New Year's
down here. It's a cultural thing, I.
Speaker 1 (17:59):
Think, Uh huh right. And you have some milk it
comes from an organic farm. It looks like as well.
I'm looking at some of the pictures from inside the
store or that's at the farmer's market.
Speaker 3 (18:10):
I'm not looking at it, but it probably it's not
our milk. I wish we maybe one of my kids
will start milking a goat one day.
Speaker 2 (18:15):
I would love. That's Prince Farm. They've got a small family, dare.
Speaker 3 (18:25):
It's not organic, but they you know, they slow, they
slow pastra stuff and only milking thairty towels.
Speaker 1 (18:31):
Yeah, that sounds like that sounds like Heaven to me. Well, Grant,
you've done a great job and I'm glad that we
were able to celebrate National Organic Month with you from
Fullness Farm down at Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Their website you
want to check it out, is Fullnessfarm dot com. Fullnessfarm
dot com. Doug Stefan here on the American Family Farmer.
Speaker 2 (18:52):
This program was produced at bob K Sound and Recording.
Speaker 3 (18:55):
Please visit bobksound dot com
Speaker 1 (18:57):
The American Family Farmer podcast, sponsored in part by Caldron,
which is the safe way for you to lose weight
and keep it off
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