0:00Hi guys, Jonathan here with Farmers Friend and I'm at Bountiful Blessings Farm with my dad John and we're reviewing a response that we got from

0:07one of our customers regarding a question that we posed which was how are you feeling about the upcoming growing

0:14season. So Lance reached out to us and he said, "We are working to recover from what was almost a career-ending season

0:21last year. We had major temperature swings and crazy weather in general. It all but wrecked the second half of the season. We were in complete recovery

0:30mode following that. We disappointed a lot of CSA members, restaurants, and wholesale clients. We're currently taking action now to mitigate that risk

0:39somewhat this growing season. Thanks for all you do and the wonderful products you provide. So, Dad, you know, you you've been farming for a long time. So,

0:48I'm sure you've felt these these same feelings in previous years. So, what what advice would you have for Lance as he's gearing up for this season?

0:58Yeah. Well, we can I can feel your pain,

1:00Lance. We've certainly been there on more than one occasion.

1:06Uh, you know, to me, the the good part of this this comment is that he says,

1:13"We disappointed a lot of CSA members, restaurants, and wholesale clients." So,

1:19to me, that tells me you've got a lot of loyal customers. Which I think is wonderful. I just want to make sure

1:26you're viewing that as the asset that it is. Your customers, loyal customers are

1:31your best asset. And um more than once our customers kind of rescued us from a

1:39bad situation. We had a particularly bad year 2003 when we lost our whole

1:46strawberry crop pretty much because of it rained for weeks. And since at that point we were

1:56just a strawberry farm, that was a pretty devastating loss. Uh so your customers are there for you if you're

2:04there for them. You know, it's not a card you want to pull too often because they might get tired of that if they

2:11hear it too often. But if you've built a loyal customer base, they will they will be there for you when

2:20you're in trouble. So, that's the first thing I would say. Um, other than that, it

2:27sounds like you're working on this, but weatherproofing your farm as much as possible. And obviously we know we can't do that totally.

2:37Um nature and weather is bigger and more powerful than anything we can do. But

2:44tunnels, you know, we we keep putting up more tunnels on our farm because it's a way to weatherproof. Obviously hail and tornadoes will do a number on tunnels,

2:57but um keeps the rain off. could put a shade cloth over it to kind of keep temperatures down. So, anything you can

3:06do, the other thing that I feel like is important for weather proofing is irrigation. You know, making sure you're

3:14getting all the water that those plants need. And I feel like those are the two biggest things for

3:23um tempering the weather. You're not gonna change it totally, but you can

3:29temper it. Yeah. I mean, the other thing w uh trying to control the the elements

3:36or at least be be able to kind of control your growing environment to a certain extent could be using silage tarps even just to cover a a field plot.

3:46Like say you're preparing for a planting or something and you got a bunch of rain coming, you can just cover it and then that keeps the water off of it and you

3:54can pull it back and Yeah. and still be able to plant you without just being in mud or whatever. So I know you've done stuff like that. I I remember talking to

4:02a farmer up in the the Northwest where they get a lot of winter rains and um that's what they would do for their

4:10early spring plots is just keep them covered and when they were ready to plant they'd pull it off. Yeah. Yeah.

4:18So, well, there's one thing for sure and that is growing market farming is not for the faint of heart. And anybody

4:27who's been doing it for long enough knows that you have to pick yourself up,

4:31you know, by your bootstraps and keep going. And so I'm confident, Lance, that you'll figure it out. And, you know,

4:39look to your customers for support and uh we're here to help in any way we can.

4:44So reach out to Farmers Friend customer support. We'll help with any of our products uh and and help answer any questions that we can. Anybody else

4:52watching this, if you have questions that you would like us to review in a conversation like this, click that link down below and submit your question and maybe we'll review it in a future video.

5:02Until next time, happy growing.