Aidan Feeney's guest appearances

Aidan Feeney

GREEN Organic Garden Podcast

Ellen Polishuk

Mike Lewis

Elizabeth Leonard

Jennifer Smith

David Salman

Infrastructure Banks

Shandy Carroll

Dushan Batrovic

Alethea Vasilas

Jill Blog

Pheobe Lyttle

Susan Harris

Nick Schneider

Lem Tingly

Pamela Lund

OwlTail

Tim Dooley

Happy Mother’s Day   Happy Mother’s Day to you! Happy Mother’s Day to you! Happy Mother’s Day dear Mom! Happy Mother’s Day to you! ok yes it’s a little late but this episode with Young’s Farm is definitely dedicated to my amazing Mom organic gardener, healthy eater and environmental advocate!  Youngs Farm was founded in 1892 as a result of a marriage between the Youngs and the Hegemans (the farm is located on Hegeman’s Lane).  Currently the 4th and 5th generation of the Youngs Family operate and manage the business.  Formerly a wholesale operation, we now sell nearly everything we produce out of our farm stand on site.  Our store specializes in selling both our own and local produce, as well as house made pies, breads, cookies, muffins and biscuits. Additionally we produce a variety of house made soups, savory pies and quiches and a series of jams and preserves.  Finally, we carry a series of carefully selected grocery, gift items and traditional candy.   Market Our farm stand sells produce – both our own and from other Long Island farms.  We also sell our baked goods and prepared foods, soups, dips, quiches and pot pies.   The stand features a carefully chosen selection of groceries, gifts and housewares which rotate seasonally. Tuesday to Saturday – 10am to 5pm ‧ Sunday – 11am to 4pm ‧ Closed Mondays 91 Hegemans Lane ‧ Old Brookville NY 11545 516-626-3955 ‧ info@youngs.farm Aidan And Tim I am so thrilled because my mom has been begging me to get them on the podcast because I have been there many times and it’s a place that’s near and dear to my heart.  Tell us a little about yourself. Young’s farm is a family farm it’s been in the same location since 1892. I work with my wife.  My mother in law is the owner.  gen 5 running the farm evolved dairy farm farmer wholesale in NYC Around the time my mother in law in mid 20s   they started selling things locally  community built locally   full store on site   bakery here    a gift shop   prepared food items with our produce in season   open February to Christmas   currently farming 15 acres altogether   3rd year farming organically We are not certified organic  10 acres in production and 5 in cover crop wide variety of crops   Trying to simulate what you can get in a grocery That’s kind of our current state Aidan want to give your background?  going on 3rd year as farm manager I’m new to Long Island but it’s where my finance is from excited for this opportunity well established such a fixture in the community  Part of the team as we transition to organic production One of the things I don’t want to forget to ask is I saw on the website you bring in things from other farms and I think my listeners will be interested because a lot of my listeners are Green Future Growers. They are gardeners, but they have businesses,  they are very environmentally focused and they have a green business or they work for a green business or they are an educator in the sciences or botany or horticulture.  I think they will be interested in that cooperation piece, selling other farmer’s produce. nobody’s mentioned that and I saw that in there what a great idea because it enables you to have your market at your farm and you’re not having to deal with going to other farmer’s markets, you used to be a wholesaler and now your mostly a retailer. Tell me about your first gardening experience? My first garden memory is in my grandfather’s backyard was a garden effectively. So that’s really my first memory as a small child, playing back there with over sized zucchini and throwing them in the pond for the fish, that was my first exposure to it.  The vegetables that he grew right from the ground I didn’t immediately go into gardening after that but that was my first experience  Aidan: My first experience   was definitely when I was really young my parents were avid gardeners my father had a little bit of a homestead where he raised animals  as an adult in agriculture I got into landscaping and tree services and ended up going to college at Sterling College in Vermont  Started working up there  then in the Hudson Valley and now farming on Long Island   That’s interesting I just talked to Larry Tse from this restaurant they call Dig Inn in Boston and NYC who’s farm is in the Hudson Valley So how did you start? My first farm job  was part of an internship  every ag major was required to apprentice on a farm  That farm would focus on   grass fed beef and raw milk vegeteables value added vegetable products kimchee and sauer kraut livestock oriented  garden variety vegetables gradual but steady  focus more and more vegetables so now I don’t think about animals Interesting that I didn’t think about animals till I started my podcast. And also we talk about lawns a lot because that’s where your pets are playing and your toddlers are learning to call and I didn’t think of it really because my mom never used chemicals but our neighbors sure did, we never used them at our house so I hadn’t really thougth about it. Do you want to speak about what made you choose to go organic? Tim: I can speak to that a bit, prior to Aidan being here, prior to my being here farm manger Charlie who had worked her for 40 years system was established as a conventional farm. ended up getting cancer and passed away didn’t expect him to pass away when he did. What we did learn in that process. As his health was declining he was the   primary applicator of pesticides etc it wasn’t getting applied and he wasn’t up to it We didn’t see a dramatic change in yield in what we were getting after he passed away many customers asked if we were getting  not getting any benefit conventional farming  what’s the point of it? He passed away in late March 3 years ago exactly After that we began looking for a farm manager we didn’t bring on Aidan right away  transitional period weren’t really spraying for the balance of that year treated seeds seed order had already occurred  As for the transition since then. I think there has been a learning curve We haven’t seen antyning fall off the cliff in terms of production   increased quality neglected  soil it self  quality and maintenance  Applying appropriate cover crops manures  not typically applied Now we are much more conscious  rotating focusing on our soil. This is so interesting! You have been dropping Golden Seeds like crazy! I had no idea you were going to talk about any of this?!  We weren’t necessarily a place most farms to sclae are quite small so even if the farmi s conventional unless its really mechanize only spraying when absolutely necessary not an every week application, systematically, mostly for economics Most famers that grow on the island, the scale people are at money they are making it is not financially feasible to spray with regularity as we mentioned earlier we do buy from other farms. We are considerate of that as well We buy form conventional farms, know the other farmer’s personally and know their general farming practices! Do you want to tell us about something that grew well this year. Aidan: Well, let’s see  Tomatoes are a huge crop for us It’s hard to imagine this farm without tomatoes We will continue to change the way we grow tomatoes nice secession stable supply of tomatoes  people when peak season hits you have tons of them and tomatoes go to waste we couldn’t turn all of our surplus into sauce if we FOCUS: increasing  quality  stable supply instead of that bell curve peak in August where you are   drowning in tomatoes couple different ways  using caterpillar tunnels  mobile greenhouses or mobile high tunnels relatively simple to set up according to your crop rotation plant different   varieites  growing indeterminent heirloom tomatoes in a traditional methods  single or double stem I have a couple of questions. You said you’re spreading things out so you have a steady supply? Do you have them in February or march? training them up  we don’t have tomatoes now Most people the idea is the planting of tomatoes once  if we were to do that  we would have a huge surplus of tomatoes in just august starting just a few weeks ago starting on the greenhouse – Those will be planting in April in like 3 weeks or so the idea would be hopefully will be right in time for fourth of July we don’t want to be harvesting things that end up in the compost finding that balance of having enough and not too much   constant supply instead of a huge amount at once quality wise  fertility  fertilizer regimen better quality fruit and that can be said for all the crops you can really hone in on that fertility regimen What do you do for a fertility reginmen?  it’s compost based in addition to that we use kelp meal transplant plant with kelp meal and feather meal source of nitrogen to them  foliar spray at first flowering seaweed based at flowering once fruit set occurs we increase potassium is important to fruiting crops do that with an organic sulfate of pot ash  a lot of tomatoes growers can do is over fertilize nitrogen where you get get these beautiful tropical looking green plants nitrogen typically feeds the greens chlorophyll lighter feeding contrary to what people think   have bigger crops or squash  lettuce  IDK if anyone has gotten into how to get tomatoes to get more fruit, or I forgot. Is the caterpillar tunnel to keep out those caterpillar worms? No, I mean, it’s picture    a high tunnel green house it ends up looking like a caterpillar  greenhouse plastics  holds on with a rope. The plastic looks like a caterpillar.  tunnel looks like a caterpillar For the tomatoes horn worms probably does help 

<h2>Happy Mother’s Day</h2> <p> </p> <p>Happy Mother’s Day to you! Happy Mother’s Day to you! Happy Mother’s Day dear Mom! Happy Mother’s Day to you! ok yes it’s a little late but this episode with Young’s Farm is definitely dedicated to my amazing Mom organic gardener, healthy eater and environmental advocate! <a href="https://youngs.farm/" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank"></a></p> <h3><a href="https://youngs.farm/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Youngs Farm</a></h3> <p>was founded in 1892 as a result of a marriage between the <a href="https://youngs.farm/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Youngs</a> and the Hegemans (the farm is located on Hegeman’s Lane).  Currently the 4th and 5th generation of the <a href="https://youngs.farm/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Youngs Family</a> operate and manage the business.  Formerly a wholesale operation, we now sell nearly everything we produce out of our farm stand on site.  Our store specializes in selling both our own and local produce, as well as house made pies, breads, cookies, muffins and biscuits. Additionally we produce a variety of house made soups, savory pies and quiches and a series of jams and preserves.  Finally, we carry a series of carefully selected grocery, gift items and traditional candy. </p> <p></p> <p>Market</p> <p>Our farm stand sells produce – both our own and from other Long Island farms.  We also sell our baked goods and prepared foods, soups, dips, quiches and pot pies.   The stand features a carefully chosen selection of groceries, gifts and housewares which rotate seasonally.</p> <p>Tuesday to Saturday – 10am to 5pm ‧ Sunday – 11am to 4pm ‧ Closed Mondays</p> <p>91 Hegemans Lane ‧ Old Brookville NY 11545</p> <p>516-626-3955 ‧ <a href="mailto:info@youngs.farm">info@youngs.farm</a></p> <h3>Aidan And Tim</h3> <p>I am so thrilled because my mom has been begging me to get them on the podcast because I have been there many times and it’s a place that’s near and dear to my heart.</p> <p><a href="https://youngs.farm/" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank"></a></p> <h3><b>Tell us a little about yourself.</b></h3> <p><a href="https://youngs.farm/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Young’s farm</a> is a family farm</p> <p>it’s been in the same location since 1892. I work with my wife. </p> <p>My mother in law is the owner.</p> <ul> <li>gen 5 running the farm</li> <li>evolved</li> <li>dairy farm</li> <li>farmer wholesale in NYC</li> <li>Around the time my mother in law in mid 20s </li> </ul> <p>they started selling things locally </p> <h3>community built locally</h3> <ul> <li> <h3>full store on site</h3> </li> <li> <h3>bakery here </h3> </li> <li> <h3>a gift shop</h3> </li> <li> <h3>prepared food items with our produce in season</h3> </li> <li> <h3>open February to Christmas</h3> </li> <li> <h3>currently farming 15 acres altogether</h3> </li> </ul> <h3>3rd year farming organically</h3> <p>We are not certified organic</p> <ul> <li>10 acres in production and 5 in cover crop</li> <li>wide variety of crops</li> </ul> <p><a href="https://youngs.farm/" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank"></a></p> <p>Trying to simulate what you can get in a grocery</p> <p>That’s kind of our current state</p> <h2>Aidan want to give your background?</h2> <ul> <li>going on 3rd year as farm manager</li> <li>I’m new to Long Island but it’s where my finance is from</li> <li>excited for this opportunity</li> <li>well established such a fixture in the community</li> </ul> <h3>Part of the team as we transition to organic production</h3> <p><em>One of the things I don’t want to forget to ask is I saw on the website you bring in things from other farms and I think my listeners will be interested because a lot of my listeners are Green Future Growers. They are gardeners, but they have businesses,  they are very environmentally focused and they have a green business or they work for a green business or they are an educator in the sciences or botany or horticulture. </em></p> <p><em>I think they will be interested in that cooperation piece, selling other farmer’s produce. nobody’s mentioned that and I saw that in there what a great idea because it enables you to have your market at your farm and you’re not having to deal with going to other farmer’s markets, you used to be a wholesaler and now your mostly a retailer.</em></p> <h3><b>Tell me about your first gardening experience?</b></h3> <p>My first garden memory is in my grandfather’s backyard was a garden effectively.</p> <p>So that’s really my first memory as a small child, playing back there with over sized zucchini and throwing them in the pond for the fish, that was my first exposure to it. </p> <p>The vegetables that he grew right from the ground</p> <p>I didn’t immediately go into gardening after that but that was my first experience</p> <p></p> <h3>Aidan: My first experience </h3> <ul> <li>was definitely when I was really young</li> <li>my parents were avid gardeners my father had a little bit of a homestead where he raised animals</li> </ul> <h4>as an adult in agriculture</h4> <p>I got into landscaping and tree services and ended up going to college at Sterling College in Vermont</p> <ul> <li>Started working up there </li> <li>then in the Hudson Valley</li> <li>and now farming on Long Island</li> </ul> <p><a href="https://organicgardenerpodcast.com/224-farm-manager-dig-inn/" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank"></a></p> <p><em>That’s interesting I just talked to <a href="https://organicgardenerpodcast.com/224-farm-manager-dig-inn/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Larry Tse </a>from this restaurant they call Dig Inn in Boston and NYC who’s farm is in the Hudson Valley</em></p> <p><em>So how did you start?</em></p> <h2>My first farm job</h2> <ul> <li>was part of an internship </li> <li>every ag major was required to apprentice on a farm</li> </ul> <h4>That farm would focus on </h4> <ul> <li>grass fed beef and raw milk</li> <li>vegeteables</li> <li>value added vegetable products</li> <li>kimchee and sauer kraut</li> <li>livestock oriented</li> </ul> <p>garden variety vegetables</p> <p>gradual but steady </p> <p>focus more and more vegetables so now I don’t think about animals</p> <p><em>Interesting that I didn’t think about animals till I started my podcast. And also we talk about lawns a lot because that’s where your pets are playing and your toddlers are learning to call and I didn’t think of it really because my mom never used chemicals but our neighbors sure did, we never used them at our house so I hadn’t really thougth about it.</em></p> <h3><em>Do you want to speak about what made you choose to go organic?</em></h3> <p>Tim: I can speak to that a bit, prior to Aidan being here, prior to my being here</p> <p>farm manger Charlie who had worked her for 40 years</p> <p>system was established as a conventional farm.</p> <p>ended up getting cancer and passed away didn’t expect him to pass away when he did. What we did learn in that process. As his health was declining he was the </p> <ul> <li>primary applicator of pesticides</li> <li>etc it wasn’t getting applied and he wasn’t up to it</li> <li>We didn’t see a dramatic change in yield in what we were getting</li> <li>after he passed away</li> <li>many customers asked if we were getting </li> <li>not getting any benefit</li> <li>conventional farming</li> </ul> <p>what’s the point of it? He passed away in late March 3 years ago</p> <p>exactly</p> <h3>After that we began looking for a farm manager</h3> <p><strong>we didn’t bring on Aidan right away</strong></p> <ul> <li><strong>transitional period</strong></li> <li><strong>weren’t really spraying for the balance of that year</strong></li> <li><strong>treated seeds</strong></li> <li><strong>seed order had already occurred</strong></li> </ul> <p><strong>As for the transition since then. I think there has been a learning curve</strong></p> <p><strong>We haven’t seen antyning fall off the cliff in terms of production </strong></p> <ul> <li><strong>increased quality</strong></li> <li><strong>neglected </strong></li> <li><strong>soil it self </strong></li> <li><strong>quality and maintenance</strong></li> </ul> <p>Applying appropriate cover crops</p> <p>manures </p> <p>not typically applied</p> <p>Now we are much more conscious </p> <p>rotating</p> <p>focusing on our soil.</p> <h3><strong><em>This is so interesting! You have been dropping Golden Seeds like crazy! I had no idea you were going to talk about any of this?! </em></strong></h3> <p>We weren’t necessarily a place</p> <p>most farms to sclae are quite small so even if the farmi s conventional</p> <p>unless its really mechanize</p> <p>only spraying when absolutely necessary</p> <p>not an every week application, systematically, mostly for economics</p> <p>Most famers that grow on the island, the scale people are at</p> <p>money they are making it is not financially feasible to spray with regularity</p> <p>as we mentioned earlier we do buy from other farms. We are considerate of that as well</p> <p>We buy form conventional farms, know the other farmer’s personally and know their general farming practices!</p> <h3><b>Do you want to tell us about something that grew well this year.</b></h3> <p>Aidan: Well, let’s see </p> <h3>Tomatoes are a huge crop for us</h3> <p>It’s hard to imagine this farm without tomatoes</p> <p>We will continue to change the way we grow tomatoes</p> <p>nice secession</p> <p>stable supply of tomatoes </p> <p>people when peak season hits you have tons of them and tomatoes go to waste</p> <p>we couldn’t turn all of our surplus into sauce if we</p> <h3>FOCUS: increasing</h3> <ul> <li>quality </li> <li>stable supply instead of that bell curve peak in August where you are </li> </ul> <p>drowning in tomatoes</p> <h3>couple different ways</h3> <ul> <li>using caterpillar tunnels</li> </ul> <p>mobile greenhouses or mobile high tunnels</p> <p>relatively simple to set up</p> <p>according to your crop rotation</p> <p>plant different </p> <ul> <li>varieites </li> <li>growing indeterminent heirloom tomatoes in a traditional methods</li> </ul> <h3>single or double stem</h3> <p><em>I have a couple of questions. You said you’re spreading things out so you have a steady supply? Do you have them in February or march?</em></p> <p>training them up </p> <p>we don’t have tomatoes now</p> <p>Most people the idea is the planting of tomatoes once </p> <p>if we were to do that  we would have a huge surplus of tomatoes in just august</p> <h3><b>starting just a few weeks ago starting on the greenhouse – Those will be planting in </b>April in like 3 weeks or so</h3> <p>the idea would be hopefully will be right in time for fourth of July</p> <p>we don’t want to be harvesting things that end up in the compost</p> <p>finding that balance of having enough and not too much </p> <ul> <li>constant supply</li> <li>instead of a huge amount at once</li> <li>quality wise </li> <li>fertility</li> </ul> <h3>fertilizer regimen</h3> <p>better quality fruit and that can be said for all the crops</p> <p>you can really hone in on that fertility regimen</p> <p><em>What do you do for a fertility reginmen?</em></p> <ul> <li><strong>it’s compost based</strong></li> <li><strong>in addition to that we use</strong></li> <li><strong>kelp meal</strong></li> <li><strong>transplant</strong></li> <li><strong>plant with kelp meal and feather meal</strong></li> <li><strong>source of nitrogen to them </strong></li> <li><strong>foliar spray at first flowering</strong></li> <li><strong>seaweed based at flowering</strong></li> <li><strong>once fruit set occurs we increase potassium is important to fruiting crops</strong></li> <li><strong>do that with an organic sulfate of pot ash</strong></li> </ul> <p>a lot of tomatoes growers can do is over fertilize nitrogen where you get get these beautiful tropical looking green plants</p> <p>nitrogen</p> <p>typically feeds the greens chlorophyll</p> <p>lighter feeding contrary to what people think </p> <ul> <li>have bigger crops or squash </li> <li>lettuce</li> </ul> <h4><em>IDK if anyone has gotten into how to get tomatoes to get more fruit, or I forgot. Is the caterpillar tunnel to keep out those caterpillar worms?</em></h4> <p>No, I mean, it’s picture </p> <ul> <li> a high tunnel green house</li> <li>it ends up looking like a caterpillar </li> <li>greenhouse plastics </li> <li>holds on with a rope. The plastic looks like a caterpillar. </li> <li>tunnel looks like a caterpillar</li> <li>For the tomatoes horn worms probably does help</li> <li></li></ul>

232.  Transitioning to Certified Organic | Young’s Farm | Tim Dooley and Aidan Feeney | Mother’s Day episode