0:04I'm up at 4 30 and I don't go to bed till like one o'clock in the morning fluorescent lights and computer screens a lot of what I do and it's it's hard

0:13and when I'm here I feel so alive we're really busy but we build time into our schedules to make sure this Farm

0:21works

0:24[Applause]

0:25hi my name is Andy borak and my wife and I own and operate Redfern Farm in Floyd County Virginia

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0:32[Applause]

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0:44uh so I grew up in the suburbs and while the suburbs provided a lot of amenities and niceties there was

0:53something missing and so when Vanessa and I had our first child we decided that we needed to move to the country

1:01and give them the exposure and access to to Nature

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1:09we originally thought about starting a homestead but the more we looked into it we decided that market farming was a

1:17little more up our alley because we like to go full throttle and and ramp things up quite a bit

1:31my background is in law enforcement and experiential education my wife and I both work full-time jobs

1:39so our plates are really full getting up at 4 30 in the morning for those Harvest days I mean it's a schlog it is I mean

1:46I'm up at 4 30 and I don't go to bed especially on like Friday sometimes before Mark we don't go to bed till like one o'clock in the morning but

1:54we find time to follow our passions and and build a farm

2:03being outside and working with my hands and being with my family being present in nature puts so much

2:10energy and happiness in my soul it's like this crazy smile when I'm out there doing what I love

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2:27Redfern Farms is beautifully in Blue Ridge Mountains and we run a small bio-intensive microfarms about half an acre

2:35we do really intensive cropping of vegetables we run a small cut flower operation

2:43we have a small flock of Heritage breed laying hens that we rotate through pasture and we sell eggs

2:50a small apiary and we sell at a local farmers market it's about a 20 minute drive from here it's a small City Market

2:57and that's our main customer Hub is at that market so we first started that it was all all

3:04veg and Vanessa enjoyed doing it she would help me with the harvesting but she wasn't really into the growing

3:12aspect so I just started a bunch of flower seeds put them in the ground and when they bloomed she had just

3:19she took off because of that she's really kind of encouraged the expansion of the farm and kind of the flower Enterprise of red

3:26fern I've always loved flowers we had a small garden at our old house that I loved

3:34picking them and I just like seeing what goes together putting it together and making it look

3:42beautiful typically my week you know Monday

3:48through say Wednesday I'm doing seating and transplanting and kind of getting that side of it done Thursday and Friday

3:57is typically harvesting washing and packing Saturday as our market and Sunday we kind of reserve for for being together as family

4:06so I have two daughters Bailey and Avery you know I think they like it um but it's funny because there's a normalcy to them I grew up in the suburbs so for me

4:15this is like this crazy awesome experience and to them it's just life so I don't know if they get the big picture of what it is and how how lucky

4:23I think they are but they do enjoy playing in the creek running through the woods helping me on the farm whenever

4:31they can so I do think they're living their best life out here ultimately what we what we just them to

4:37experience and learn through nature and just enjoy being kids

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4:51so we started the farm we put in an initial investment and then since then we've bankrolled our entire operation so

4:59infrastructure and building that out has been slow and so our washback is currently in our Basin along with our seed starting operation

5:08the greens Harvester has been instrumental in the idea of expanding the farm when we put down our first beds of baby

5:17greens I was cutting everything with a hand knife and it was taken me 45 minutes to cut a bed so halfway through

5:25our first year we got that and changed my life and so I was able to to grow the farm really because of how much time saving

5:33that tool has has given me

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5:40we got our first tunnel in during the beginning of our second season of growing and immediately recognized the benefits of growing undercover

5:47especially with tomatoes so we've expanded our caterpillar tunnel into like four at the current moment

5:54it has been a game changer being able to control the water it gives us a little Edge on both shoulder sides of the Season as far as starting stuff and

6:02getting stuff earlier to Market but really it is about dampening the light creating a little

6:09cooler environment and protecting the crops from the torrential downpours

6:22getting up in the morning is uh it's tough drag myself out of bed make my pot of coffee

6:30um but when that first sip hits my lips and stepping out the door and that burst of cold air goes into your lungs and you

6:38can hear the birds chirping and you can hear the Frost and the Dew kind of swishing on your boots

6:45is kind of my Blissful escape and it's just me out there harvesting and it's just like

6:52this great atmosphere and it's me myself and I outside and then uh the alarm goes off of my watch and I'm

7:00just like time to go to work and it's just like this soul-crushing feeling that I have to leave this behind

7:10go and do something else I've really grown an attachment here and like I'm building something that I'm really proud of and something that I

7:18want to do long term I feel a really deep connection to the farm and so going to work it's just more time away from

7:25building what I potentially or what I know I can do here the goal is to go full-time farming and

7:34where that lands you know you know a year basis I'm not sure I mean three years it could be 10 years I don't know but what's going to take to get there is

7:43more hard work the good life for me really I think of it as we're building the good life

7:51because I can see where we're going and it's for me it's it's the moments that I have with

7:58Vanessa and my kids and we're just outside and we have the space and we're in nature there's the smells and the sounds and we're laughing and playing

8:06together and those small moments make up the good life

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8:14I think you need to stay the course and follow your passion it's hard but when you have a passion and desire to do something

8:23you get that just that extra bit of energy you really just got to push through and just realize that you're making strides it might be small and

8:31sometimes it might be backwards but you're going to change direction and you're going to pull through

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