Dave Oien's guest appearances

Dave Oien

Greenhorns Radio

Future of Agriculture

Growing Pulse Crops

Cameron Molberg

Dan Kittredge

Lee Addams

Aidan Connolly

Ryan Sirolli

Tony Chen

Sarah Nolet

Anastasia Volkova

Israel Morales

Carter Malloy

Bill York

David Zetland

Stu Bradbury

Mike Lewis

Stephen Murray

OwlTail

PLEASE COMPLETE OUR LISTENER SURVEY: https://airtable.com/shrCB33GWIUCIxVRU Today you’re going to get to hear the story of Dave Oien of Timeless Seeds and Timeless Food. He shares how he figured out how to convert to organic when very few thought it was possible, then how we built a seed business that ultimately became a food business. And make sure you stay to the end for some really interesting comments about resiliency.  Dave returned to the farm in Montana and convinced his dad in the 1970s to let him convert the farm to organic. Then, over the next four decades he built a seed business and a food business selling organic lentils and chickpeas as well as ancient grains and some other farm products.  His story is so remarkable, it was made into a book called “Lentil Underground.” This episode was created and originally was published as a part of another podcast I host called Growing Pulse Crops. Audrey Kalil who produces that show has graciously allowed me to re-air the episode on my show because I think it’s so good. So if you’re at all interested in pulse crop production - that’s peas, chickpeas, and lentils, go check out that show: Growing Pulse Crops on any podcast platform.    Join the FOA Community! Be sure to join the new Future of Agriculture Membership for even more valuable information on the future of the ag industry. I’m sending out my email newsletter on a more regular basis, focusing on what I call the front lines of agtech: where product meets producer. You can sign up for that at www.FutureOfAg.com. There’s an email icon in the center of the page, just click on that and it will take you to a signup form. Do you have suggestions for topics to be explored? Tweet them to me @timhammerich or email them to tim@aggrad.com.  Find us online! Future of Agriculture Website AgGrad Website

PLEASE COMPLETE OUR LISTENER SURVEY: <a href="https://airtable.com/shrCB33GWIUCIxVRU" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://airtable.com/shrCB33GWIUCIxVRU</a> Today you’re going to get to hear the story of Dave Oien of Timeless Seeds and Timeless Food. He shares how he figured out how to convert to organic when very few thought it was possible, then how we built a seed business that ultimately became a food business. And make sure you stay to the end for some really interesting comments about resiliency.  Dave returned to the farm in Montana and convinced his dad in the 1970s to let him convert the farm to organic. Then, over the next four decades he built a seed business and a food business selling organic lentils and chickpeas as well as ancient grains and some other farm products.  His story is so remarkable, it was made into a book called “Lentil Underground.” This episode was created and originally was published as a part of another podcast I host called Growing Pulse Crops. Audrey Kalil who produces that show has graciously allowed me to re-air the episode on my show because I think it’s so good. So if you’re at all interested in pulse crop production - that’s peas, chickpeas, and lentils, go check out that show: Growing Pulse Crops on any podcast platform.  Join the FOA Community! Be sure to join the new <a href="https://www.patreon.com/agriculture" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Future of Agriculture Membership</a> for even more valuable information on the future of the ag industry. I’m sending out my email newsletter on a more regular basis, focusing on what I call the front lines of agtech: where product meets producer. You can sign up for that at <a href="http://www.futureofag.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">www.FutureOfAg.com</a>. There’s an email icon in the center of the page, just click on that and it will take you to a signup form. Do you have suggestions for topics to be explored? Tweet them to me @timhammerich or email them to tim@aggrad.com.  Find us online! <a href="https://futureofag.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Future of Agriculture Website</a> <a href="http://aggrad.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">AgGrad Website</a>

FoA 260: The Lentil Underground with Dave Oien of Timeless Seeds

Dave Oien is the Founding Farmer and President of Timeless Seeds. In this episode he reflects on decades of organic pulse crop production, breeding, handling, and marketing. He helped to pioneer the US market for growing pulses as an organic cash crop, then began selling seed to other farmers, and ultimately has grown a business of selling lentils, chickpeas, and other crops to consumers around the world. Dave’s story was even captured in a book called “Lentil Underground”. “These lentils are absolutely nutritious food, great for our livestock, good for our rotations, good for our farming practices, and as luck would have it, the organic industry was really kind of starting to get some legs. So the markets were expanding and we discovered that in fact, there was a need in the food market for certified organic lentils and peas.” - Dave OienDave shares what it took to figure out how to grow some of these crops organically, how he has built and evolved his business over the years, and why he prefers the term resiliency over sustainability. Dave doesn’t recommend the cold-turkey approach to transitioning to organic that he took. He shares that it came with some lessons from the school of hard knocks. He quickly learned that in order to make an organic system work it was going to have to start with healthier soil and he would need to find sources of organic nitrogen. “The more I read, the more I learned, the more I practiced, the more it seemed like, wow, we need to change the way we do things both to meet the growing market, but also just to pay greater attention to the health of the soil.” - Dave OienHis organic lentils were discovered by “a relatively small chain store” at the time called Trader Joe’s. That connection at a trade show led to a long term relationship that expanded Dave’s market especially as Trader Joe’s also expanded their reach. Dave now also sells his products in other natural food stores, to the restaurant industry, to stores that cater to bulk orders and ships them internationally. “The organic food market is a worldwide phenomenon with a worldwide demand. You gotta learn how to grow it, to meet the organic specifications and to be successful doing it, but the processing and marketing infrastructure is increasingly available.”   - Dave OienThis Week on Growing Pulse Crops:Meet Dave Oien is the Founding Farmer and President of Timeless Seeds reflects on decades of organic pulse crop production, breeding, handling, and marketing. Discover how and why Dave was introduced to pulse crops and how his business has developed over the yearsGrowing Pulse Crops Podcast is hosted by Tim Hammerich of the Future of Agriculture Podcast.

<a href="https://www.timelessfood.com/our-history/our-staff/" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">Dave Oien</a> is the Founding Farmer and President of <a href="https://www.timelessfood.com" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">Timeless Seeds</a>. In this episode he reflects on decades of organic pulse crop production, breeding, handling, and marketing. He helped to pioneer the US market for growing pulses as an organic cash crop, then began selling seed to other farmers, and ultimately has grown a business of selling lentils, chickpeas, and other crops to consumers around the world. Dave’s story was even captured in a book called “<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Lentil-Underground-Renegade-Farmers-America/dp/1592409563" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">Lentil Underground</a>”. “These lentils are absolutely nutritious food, great for our livestock, good for our rotations, good for our farming practices, and as luck would have it, the organic industry was really kind of starting to get some legs. So the markets were expanding and we discovered that in fact, there was a need in the food market for certified organic lentils and peas.” - Dave Oien Dave shares what it took to figure out how to grow some of these crops organically, how he has built and evolved his business over the years, and why he prefers the term resiliency over sustainability. Dave doesn’t recommend the cold-turkey approach to transitioning to organic that he took. He shares that it came with some lessons from the school of hard knocks. He quickly learned that in order to make an organic system work it was going to have to start with healthier soil and he would need to find sources of organic nitrogen.  “The more I read, the more I learned, the more I practiced, the more it seemed like, wow, we need to change the way we do things both to meet the growing market, but also just to pay greater attention to the health of the soil.” - Dave Oien His organic lentils were discovered by “a relatively small chain store” at the time called Trader Joe’s. That connection at a trade show led to a long term relationship that expanded Dave’s market especially as Trader Joe’s also expanded their reach. Dave now also sells his products in other natural food stores, to the restaurant industry, to stores that cater to bulk orders and ships them internationally.  “The organic food market is a worldwide phenomenon with a worldwide demand. You gotta learn how to grow it, to meet the organic specifications and to be successful doing it, but the processing and marketing infrastructure is increasingly available.”   - Dave Oien This Week on <a href="https://www.growingpulsecrops.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">Growing Pulse Crops</a>:<ul><li>Meet <a href="https://www.timelessfood.com/our-history/our-staff/" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">Dave Oien</a> is the Founding Farmer and President of <a href="https://www.timelessfood.com" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">Timeless Seeds</a> reflects on decades of organic pulse crop production, breeding, handling, and marketing. </li><li>Discover how and why Dave was introduced to pulse crops and how his business has developed over the years</li></ul>Growing Pulse Crops Podcast is hosted by <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/timhammerich/" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">Tim Hammerich</a> of the <a href="http://www.futureofag.com" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">Future of Agriculture Podcast</a>.

Organic Lentils and Building Timeless Seeds with Dave Oien

On this week's episode of Greenhorns Radio, Severine speaks with Dave Oien, a third generation farmer who continues to work his family’s land in Montana.  Dave transitioned the land to organics back in the 80’s and started an organic seed and edible legumes business in 1987, along with three business partners. Dave, as well as Timeless Seeds and its other Montana-based legume growers, recently became publicly visible after being the focus of Liz Carlisle’s recent book, The Lentil Underground.

On this week's episode of Greenhorns Radio, Severine speaks with Dave Oien, a third generation farmer who continues to work his family’s land in Montana. Dave transitioned the land to organics back in the 80’s and started an organic seed and edible legumes business in 1987, along with three business partners. Dave, as well as Timeless Seeds and its other Montana-based legume growers, recently became publicly visible after being the focus of Liz Carlisle’s recent book, The Lentil Underground.

Episode 255: Dave Oien