Where do you find beautiful sunflowers in December in New England?
At Peter's greenhouse of course!
There are a lot of perks to co-hosting your own podcast. For me, a big one is getting to visit Peter's greenhouse. I love going in December. It's even better when he's got herbs and flowers, including sunflowers waiting for me to take home. I guess he knows how much I love them.
This week's episode of The Grower and The Economist is a chance for us to reflect on 2021, 18 months of recording this podcast, and the nearly 50 episodes that we've published together. I am grateful for the amazing guest experts we've had this year.
We say that our podcast is one part grower, one part business just like our business. But the truth is there are so many facets to your business and to address all of those we needed to bring in a host of experts.
We've learned about marketing from industry experts like Dr. Bridget Behe from Michigan State University, Alicia Rihn from the University of Tennessee, and Ariana Torres from Purdue University.
We dove deep into technology and automation with Michael Cardenas and Jason Green of Heilux Technologies, Michelle Jones of The Ohio State University, Lee Wonders of Dosatron International, and Daniel Jacques of Sun Gro Horticulture.
Dan Miller of Steward Investment and Chris Laughton of Farm Credit East shared insights into farm financing.
And we tackled the touchy subject of family businesses and succession planning with Maria Marshall from Purdue University.
Andrew Ogden of the University of New Hampshire shared his planting breeding research.
And we cannot thank Brian Coppom of the Boulder Country Farmers Market and Rene Rawhouser for joining our podcast again in 2021. Seeing their growth and continued success was inspiring for local food systems and home gardeners alike.
We started The Grower and The Economist as a way to help independent growers navigate and thrive during the crazy 2020 growing season. The pandemic created new opportunities for some growers and created serious challenges for others. And as we close out 2021, the pandemic and supply chain disruptions are still making headlines. Growers also face new challenges like inflation and they are also producing at a time when people are more interested in where their food comes from and investment in regional food systems is high.
Thank you for listening to our podcast. I hope you learn as much from these experts as we do!
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