Growing For Market Podcast

Radicchio has long been a favorite with market farmers for its ability to provide something colorful and delicious in the fall and winter. But with its adaptation to very specific regions of Italy, figuring out how to grow the vegetable in North America has been a bit of a puzzle. Luckily, Lane Selman puts that puzzle together for us with her new book Radicchio: A Celebration of the Beloved Italian Vegetable!
At almost 400 pages long, the book is fascinating and covers the history of radicchio, the project to find timing and varieties that grow well in North America, and many recipes for how to cook it. Lane and her work with the Culinary Breeding Network has been instrumental in working with Italian seed companies to find and develop varieties that work for growers on this continent. So, listen to this interview and then check out the book! As always, Growing for Market subscribers get 20% off all books when logged in at the website!
Connect with guest:
The book: Radicchio: A Celebration of the Beloved Italian Vegetable
Website: Culinary Breeding Network
Instagram: @culinarybreedingnetwork
Podcast Sponsors:
Huge thanks to our podcast sponsors as they make this podcast FREE to everyone with their generous support:
Farmhand is the all-in-one platform built for direct-market farms — CSA, farmers market, and farmstand growers who'd rather be in the field than juggling five different apps. Online store and subscriptions, delivery and pickup routing, SMS and email marketing, waitlist management, and now farm events: sell tickets to u-picks, tours, dinners, and workshops in minutes, with capacity caps, QR check-in, and SMS/email confirmations built in. Every ticket also puts a name, email, and phone on a list you keep. See how farmers are growing direct-to-consumer sales and set up a free account at farmhand.partners/gfm
Nifty Hoops builds complete gothic high tunnels that are easy to install and built to last. Their bolt-together construction makes setup straightforward and efficient, whether it's a small backyard hoophouse, or a dozen large production-scale high tunnels- especially through their community build option, where professional builders work alongside your crew, family, or neighbors to build each structure -- usually in a single day. Visit niftyhoops.com to learn more.
If you grow for market, you know performance is everything. That’s why so many farmers are turning to Burpee’s Farmers Market. Dedicated to professional growers, Burpee is now offering non-GMO seeds in larger quantities – bred and selected for standout flavor, strong yields, and the kind of visual appeal your customers crave. Burpee’s been doing this for 150 years, and they’re still creating new varieties with growers like you in mind. You can check out the full lineup at Burpee.com/FarmersMarket.
For more on veg and flower market farming, subscribe to Growing for Market Magazine!

When Corinne Hansch moved her farm from California to New York State, she thought they’d only grow microgreens for a while to get cashflow going in the new location. Now over a decade later she’s still growing microgreens, and she just wrote a book about how they do it! Listen to this interview to learn why they never stopped, and how easily microgreens can add a steady cashflow to most farms without adding a lot of infrastructure.
In this interview we talk about how productive microgreens can be in a small space given the high price per pound, and whether to grow mixes or single varieties. We also discuss choice of flat and planting medium for microgreens vs. shoots. Corinne tells us how she handles everything from germination to growing and harvest, so listen to this interview and then check out the book! As always, Growing for Market subscribers get 20% off all books when logged in at the website!
Connect with guest:
The book: Microgreens and Shoots: How to Select, Grow, Harvest, and Package Nutrient-Dense Greens for Profit
Website: lovinmamafarm.com
Instagram: @lovinmamafarm
Podcast Sponsors:
Huge thanks to our podcast sponsors as they make this podcast FREE to everyone with their generous support:
Farmhand is the all-in-one platform built for direct-market farms — CSA, farmers market, and farmstand growers who'd rather be in the field than juggling five different apps. Online store and subscriptions, delivery and pickup routing, SMS and email marketing, waitlist management, and now farm events: sell tickets to u-picks, tours, dinners, and workshops in minutes, with capacity caps, QR check-in, and SMS/email confirmations built in. Every ticket also puts a name, email, and phone on a list you keep. See how farmers are growing direct-to-consumer sales and set up a free account at farmhand.partners/gfm
BCS two-wheel tractors are designed and built in Italy where small-scale farming has been a way of life for generations. Discover the beauty of BCS on your farm with PTO-driven implements for soil-working, shredding cover crops, spreading compost, mowing under fences, clearing snow, and more – all powered by a single, gear-driven machine that’s tailored to the size and scale of your operation. To learn more, view sale pricing, or locate your nearest dealer, visit BCS America.
Nifty Hoops builds complete gothic high tunnels that are easy to install and built to last. Their bolt-together construction makes setup straightforward and efficient, whether it's a small backyard hoophouse, or a dozen large production-scale high tunnels- especially through their community build option, where professional builders work alongside your crew, family, or neighbors to build each structure -- usually in a single day. Visit niftyhoops.com to learn more.
If you grow for market, you know performance is everything. That’s why so many farmers are turning to Burpee’s Farmers Market. Dedicated to professional growers, Burpee is now offering non-GMO seeds in larger quantities – bred and selected for standout flavor, strong yields, and the kind of visual appeal your customers crave. Burpee’s been doing this for 150 years, and they’re still creating new varieties with growers like you in mind. You can check out the full lineup at Burpee.com/FarmersMarket.
For more on veg and flower market farming, subscribe to Growing for Market Magazine!

Many market farms already have the facilities needed to grow culinary and medicinal mushrooms. Kyle Beaver of Ten Mile Mushrooms tells us how farmers can make use of existing infrastructure to add mushroom production for a year-round income stream that can help set your farm apart in the market.
We talk about how to get started with mushrooms, and the temperature, humidity, light and airflow requirements for a grow room. Kyle helps us figure out what kinds of structures on farms might be repurposed into mushroom facilities, and how to find markets before growing anything. Mushrooms suffer from long-distance travel and refrigeration, so Kyle tells us how to package local mushrooms to keep quality higher than mushrooms that have been shipped long-distance and everything you need to know to get started with mushrooms.
Connect With Guest:
Website: tenmilemushrooms.com
Instagram: @grow.mush.more
Podcast Sponsors:
Huge thanks to our podcast sponsors as they make this podcast FREE to everyone with their generous support:
If you grow for market, you know performance is everything. That’s why so many farmers are turning to Burpee’s Farmers Market. Dedicated to professional growers, Burpee is now offering non-GMO seeds in larger quantities – bred and selected for standout flavor, strong yields, and the kind of visual appeal your customers crave. Burpee’s been doing this for 150 years, and they’re still creating new varieties with growers like you in mind. You can check out the full lineup at Burpee.com/FarmersMarket.
Farmhand is the all-in-one platform built for direct-market farms — CSA, farmers market, and farmstand growers who'd rather be in the field than juggling five different apps. Online store and subscriptions, delivery and pickup routing, SMS and email marketing, waitlist management, and now farm events: sell tickets to u-picks, tours, dinners, and workshops in minutes, with capacity caps, QR check-in, and SMS/email confirmations built in. Every ticket also puts a name, email, and phone on a list you keep. See how farmers are growing direct-to-consumer sales and set up a free account at farmhand.partners/gfm
BCS two-wheel tractors are designed and built in Italy where small-scale farming has been a way of life for generations. Discover the beauty of BCS on your farm with PTO-driven implements for soil-working, shredding cover crops, spreading compost, mowing under fences, clearing snow, and more – all powered by a single, gear-driven machine that’s tailored to the size and scale of your operation. To learn more, view sale pricing, or locate your nearest dealer, visit BCS America.
Nifty Hoops builds complete gothic high tunnels that are easy to install and built to last. Their bolt-together construction makes setup straightforward and efficient, whether it's a small backyard hoophouse, or a dozen large production-scale high tunnels- especially through their community build option, where professional builders work alongside your crew, family, or neighbors to build each structure -- usually in a single day. Visit niftyhoops.com to learn more.
For more on veg and flower market farming, subscribe to Growing for Market Magazine!

Back when I first heard about climate change, I thought the weather patterns would stay the same, and it would just be a couple degrees hotter. However, as we’re finding out, our changing climate is resulting in more extreme weather as well. This week we talk with Keith Carson, meteorologist and Director of Environmental and Science Communications at Maine Conservation Voters to try and understand if there are any patterns emerging as our weather changes, since being able to anticipate the weather is so valuable for farmers.
We talk about why we’re having more extreme weather, and how much we can predict the weather in a climate in flux. We also discuss how weather in the East affects weather in the West, and what changing weather patterns are doing to North American regional weather. We unpack some popular terms like El Niño, polar vortex, and what the strong El Niño forecast for this winter means for farmers. So, tune in as we try and make sense of the weather in this week’s episode of the Growing for Market Podcast!
Connect With Guest:
Website: maineconservation.org
Instagram: @maineconservation
Podcast Sponsors:
Huge thanks to our podcast sponsors as they make this podcast FREE to everyone with their generous support:
Nifty Hoops builds complete gothic high tunnels that are easy to install and built to last. Their bolt-together construction makes setup straightforward and efficient, whether it's a small backyard hoophouse, or a dozen large production-scale high tunnels- especially through their community build option, where professional builders work alongside your crew, family, or neighbors to build each structure -- usually in a single day. Visit niftyhoops.com to learn more.
If you grow for market, you know performance is everything. That’s why so many farmers are turning to Burpee’s Farmers Market. Dedicated to professional growers, Burpee is now offering non-GMO seeds in larger quantities – bred and selected for standout flavor, strong yields, and the kind of visual appeal your customers crave. Burpee’s been doing this for 150 years, and they’re still creating new varieties with growers like you in mind. You can check out the full lineup at Burpee.com/FarmersMarket.
Farmhand is the all-in-one platform built for direct-market farms — CSA, farmers market, and farmstand growers who'd rather be in the field than juggling five different apps. Online store and subscriptions, delivery and pickup routing, SMS and email marketing, waitlist management, and now farm events: sell tickets to u-picks, tours, dinners, and workshops in minutes, with capacity caps, QR check-in, and SMS/email confirmations built in. Every ticket also puts a name, email, and phone on a list you keep. See how farmers are growing direct-to-consumer sales and set up a free account at farmhand.partners/gfm
BCS two-wheel tractors are designed and built in Italy where small-scale farming has been a way of life for generations. Discover the beauty of BCS on your farm with PTO-driven implements for soil-working, shredding cover crops, spreading compost, mowing under fences, clearing snow, and more – all powered by a single, gear-driven machine that’s tailored to the size and scale of your operation. To learn more, view sale pricing, or locate your nearest dealer, visit BCS America.

We’ve been getting a lot of greenhouse tomato questions lately, so we invited Martijn van Stee back to the podcast to find out how they breed varieties to deal with the biggest challenges in greenhouse production. Martijn is the Global Manager for tomato breeding at Enza Zaden (means Enza Seeds), one of the top greenhouse vegetable breeders in the world. We had Martijn on the podcast a couple years ago to talk about tomato rootstocks, so we were really glad to have him back to talk about top varieties this time.

We talk about how to find varieties that will work in unheated tunnels vs minimally heated greenhouses vs automated greenhouses, and what traits set these varieties apart. He tells us how they are changing their breeding to deal with increased heat and pest pressure due to climate change. Martijn gives us his answer about whether better tasting varieties tend to be lower yielding, where growers get their information from in Europe and lots more in this week’s episode of the Growing for Market Podcast!

Connect With Guest:

Website: enzazaden.com/us

Instagram: @enzazadenamericas

Podcast Sponsors:

Huge thanks to our podcast sponsors as they make this podcast FREE to everyone with their generous support:

BCS two-wheel tractors are designed and built in Italy where small-scale farming has been a way of life for generations. Discover the beauty of BCS on your farm with PTO-driven implements for soil-working, shredding cover crops, spreading compost, mowing under fences, clearing snow, and more – all powered by a single, gear-driven machine that’s tailored to the size and scale of your operation. To learn more, view sale pricing, or locate your nearest dealer, visit BCS America.

Nifty Hoops builds complete gothic high tunnels that are easy to install and built to last. Their bolt-together construction makes setup straightforward and efficient, whether it's a small backyard hoophouse, or a dozen large production-scale high tunnels- especially through their community build option, where professional builders work alongside your crew, family, or neighbors to build each structure -- usually in a single day. Visit niftyhoops.com to learn more.

If you grow for market, you know performance is everything. That’s why so many farmers are turning to Burpee’s Farmers Market. Dedicated to professional growers, Burpee is now offering non-GMO seeds in larger quantities – bred and selected for standout flavor, strong yields, and the kind of visual appeal your customers crave. Burpee’s been doing this for 150 years, and they’re still creating new varieties with growers like you in mind. You can check out the full lineup at Burpee.com/FarmersMarket.

Farmhand is the all-in-one platform built for direct-market farms — CSA, farmers market, and farmstand growers who'd rather be in the field than juggling five different apps. Online store and subscriptions, delivery and pickup routing, SMS and email marketing, waitlist management, and now farm events: sell tickets to u-picks, tours, dinners, and workshops in minutes, with capacity caps, QR check-in, and SMS/email confirmations built in. Every ticket also puts a name, email, and phone on a list you keep. See how farmers are growing direct-to-consumer sales and set up a free account at farmhand.partners/gfm

For more on veg and flower market farming, subscribe to Growing for Market Magazine!