Advertise on podcast: The Organic Grower Podcast

In this episode, James responds to listeners questions about running a plant sale as an add-on to a vegetable growing enterprise, based on his experience of developing a profitable plant sale enterprise at Cotswold Market Garden/Conygree Farm. What are the best flower varieties to try and what perennials can you sow in the spring? What if you have limited greenhouse space? What if your site isn't suitable for holding events - how else could you sell plants? What are the labour requirements prior to the plant sale itself? Is one-day enough, a weekend or all spring long? This is a follow-up episode to episode 24 where James dives deep into 5 reasons you should consider running a plant sale and 10 tips for success. This podcast is brought to you by the Organic Growers Alliance, the UK's only grower-led organisation providing technical and practical advice and support on organic growing. For more information about the OGA head to www.organicgrowersalliance.co.uk and become a member. More about James Butterworth and Cotswold Market Garden: https://www.cotswoldmarketgarden.co.uk/

In today’s episode, I talk to Dan Betterton of The Kitchen Garden People, based at FarmEd, Oxfordshire. Dan shares the challenges and advantages of operating within a mixed farm environment, the ins and outs of their community-supported agriculture (CSA) scheme, and the pros and cons of growing a business slowly and organically. The conversation also touches on the significance of volunteers, finding value beyond the financial, using caterpillar tunnels and lining up crop plans with sales. Towards the end we also discuss squash failures, strawberry successes and looking after your back. So let’s get to it. This podcast is brought to you by the Organic Growers Alliance, the UK's only grower-led organisation providing technical and practical advice and support on organic growing. For more information about the OGA head to www.organicgrowersalliance.co.uk and become a member. More about James Butterworth and Cotswold Market Garden: https://www.cotswoldmarketgarden.co.uk/

James is in a reflective mood, offering up a review of the season just gone...the highs and lows, lessons learned, and areas for improvement. Hopefully you find it useful and  can use it as a springboard to think about things wherever you are growing. This podcast is brought to you by the Organic Growers Alliance, the UK's only grower-led organisation providing technical and practical advice and support on organic growing. For more information about the OGA head to www.organicgrowersalliance.co.uk and become a member. More about James Butterworth and Cotswold Market Garden: https://www.cotswoldmarketgarden.co.uk/

In today’s episode, I am delighted to share my conversation with Jamie Carr from Blacklands Organics in Oxfordshire. We chat about the pros and cons of taking on land already used for organic veg production, developing a library of field-scale machinery and adapting crop plans to new market streams. A large chunk of the podcast focusses on how Jamie has fostered a skilled and dedicated team, based on principles of delegation, cross-training across tasks and roles and allowing employees space to develop their own ideas and learn from their mistakes. We delve deep into growing chard in the field and aubergines in the polytunnels and finish up with some brilliant advice about the importance of keeping going through the season, maintaining and optimising crop performance after the spring and summer sprint. It was really useful for me to hear about what Jamie and his team have developed at Blacklands and has given me loads of ideas to think about over winter. I am confident you will feel the same, so let’s get to it. This podcast is brought to you by the Organic Growers Alliance, the UK's only grower-led organisation providing technical and practical advice and support on organic growing. For more information about the OGA head to www.organicgrowersalliance.co.uk and become a member. More about James Butterworth and Cotswold Market Garden: https://www.cotswoldmarketgarden.co.uk/

In today’s episode I’m delighted to share with you my conversation with Jez Taylor, Head Grower at the famous Daylesford Organic in Gloucestershire. It is a wide ranging conversation where you’ll get a sense of the rather atypical scale and complexity of the wider farm business. According to Jez, the market garden is ‘the jewel in the crown’ of Daylesford. Jez manages the 34 acres of organic horticulture with a team of 8 plus a few more in the main season. We discuss the seasonal flow of produce with 14 different ‘in-house’ customers and the bias towards growing for chefs. Jez talks about managing a large team in the context of a highly diversified operation. We delve deep into weed management from using a treffler tine weeder to the art of hand weeding, as well as growing plentiful leeks and rocket. Towards the end, Jez reflects on how he would approach growing differently if he were on a smaller scale. I will warn you that Jez was recording on site so there is some background noise, as well as Jez’s noisy elbows. But, as ever, even though we only really scratched the surface, there’s so much food for thought that you can take into winter where I hope you will have more time to reflect on your own growing journeys. This podcast is brought to you by the Organic Growers Alliance, the UK's only grower-led organisation providing technical and practical advice and support on organic growing. For more information about the OGA head to www.organicgrowersalliance.co.uk and become a member. More about James Butterworth and Cotswold Market Garden: https://www.cotswoldmarketgarden.co.uk/

I speak with Sinead Fenton of Aweside Farm about the the inspiring job she has done in building a business around organic edible flowers. We get into all the nitty gritty of production methods, market development and the various changes that happened to get the business to where it is now. In the latter part of our conversation, and I think this section will be of real importance to the sector as a whole, we discuss Sinead’s (and my own!) recent health struggles and how this affects the business. This podcast is brought to you by the Organic Growers Alliance, the UK's only grower-led organisation providing technical and practical advice and support on organic growing. For more information about the OGA head to www.organicgrowersalliance.co.uk and become a member. More about James Butterworth and Cotswold Market Garden: https://www.cotswoldmarketgarden.co.uk/

So today, I thought I would share with you my 2025 spring review. What’s gone well and what’s gone less well? How are sales going? What's up, what's down?What are the top crops and why? What improvements can be made for this year and next? And, stay tuned to the end, to hear how our third annual spring plant sale went.. So, plenty to talk about…let’s get to it. This podcast is brought to you by the Organic Growers Alliance, the UK's only grower-led organisation providing technical and practical advice and support on organic growing. For more information about the OGA head to www.organicgrowersalliance.co.uk and become a member. More about James Butterworth and Cotswold Market Garden: https://www.cotswoldmarketgarden.co.uk/

In today’s episode I speak to farmer, educator and my own business partner, Jonty Brunyee. As I was preparing to change careers 7 years ago, I approached Jonty and his wife, Mel, to see if there was scope for setting up a market garden here at Conygree Farm. To cut a long story short, we went into partnership and the rest is history! Inspired by Jonty and Mel, I have become evangelical about partnerships and I have been keen for a while to sit down with Jonty and get him talking. Anyway, we sat down last week, in between lambing, calving, harvesting, blow-drying the water pump and setting up for our big spring plant sale weekend. We talked about being enterprising, enterprise stacking and synergy, the ins and outs of joint ventures, partnerships and the importance of business planning. Jonty, as he says himself, is a big picture person and a people person. As well as running a successful farm business he has taught and inspired thousands of people - farmers and the general public alike, including at the Royal Agricultural University and at FarmEd. And hopefully there’s lots in our conversation to inspire you today, so let’s get to it.  This podcast is brought to you by the Organic Growers Alliance, the UK's only grower-led organisation providing technical and practical advice and support on organic growing. For more information about the OGA head to www.organicgrowersalliance.co.uk and become a member. More about James Butterworth and Cotswold Market Garden: https://www.cotswoldmarketgarden.co.uk/

In this episode, James dives into the topic of protected cropping and share ideas to make the most of the space that you have in an organic system.  He talks about the role of protected cropping through the seasons, rotations, balancing long-season repeat-harvesting crops with quick-growing catch crops and the importance of aligning your crop plan with your sales plan. James also goes into detail about how you can underplant, intercrop and relay crop to maximise production and revenue undercover. This podcast is brought to you by the Organic Growers Alliance, the UK's only grower-led organisation providing technical and practical advice and support on organic growing. For more information about the OGA head to www.organicgrowersalliance.co.uk and become a member. More about James Butterworth and Cotswold Market Garden: https://www.cotswoldmarketgarden.co.uk/

In today’s episode, I speak to Ruth Hancock from Fresh and Green Vegetables in Devon. Ruth’s business is 22 years old so she has a huge amount of experience of organic veg production as well as earning a living from doing it. In many ways, Ruth has kept things simple by developing a 75-strong veg box scheme that operates weekly through most of the season and fortnightly through the late winter and spring, minimising the need to buy in produce from elsewhere. We talk about lessons learned from running a veg box scheme over two decades both in terms of dealing with customers and growing the veg. Ruth has some important reflections on pricing and financial viability and the challenges that small-scale, organic growers can face when they under value themselves and the fruits of their labour. We end on another critical topic, which is looking after your body. Ruth is also a yoga instructor, which she sees as pivotal to her longevity as a grower and hopefully she might get you thinking about your body as your most important tool. So, let’s get to it. This podcast is brought to you by the Organic Growers Alliance, the UK's only grower-led organisation providing technical and practical advice and support on organic growing. For more information about the OGA head to www.organicgrowersalliance.co.uk and become a member. More about James Butterworth and Cotswold Market Garden: https://www.cotswoldmarketgarden.co.uk/

In today’s episode, I speaks to Michael Fitzsimmons of Cinderwood Market Garden in Cheshire. Michael is a breath of fresh air - incredibly open, honest and clear in his thinking. When I approached him I didn’t know he was about to take a step back from growing so the conversation came at a really interesting point in time, full of food for thought for all of us as growers. Cinderwood is such an interesting case study of a market garden founded with one foot in the growing world - that’s Michael - and one foot in the culinary world - that’s his business partner, chef Joseph Otway. We talk about how the business has developed to cater for chefs, mostly in the Greater Manchester area, and all the opportunities and challenges that presents. Michael goes into detail about crop planning, logistics, communications and pricing, as well as a deep-dive into celtuce and onions and garlic production on a small scale. It’s a really wonderful conversation and I’m really grateful to Michael for opening up about so many things, including how he thinks of himself as a weed - I love it. So, let’s get to it. This podcast is brought to you by the Organic Growers Alliance, the UK's only grower-led organisation providing technical and practical advice and support on organic growing. For more information about the OGA head to www.organicgrowersalliance.co.uk and become a member. More about James Butterworth and Cotswold Market Garden: https://www.cotswoldmarketgarden.co.uk/

In this episode, James shares his thoughts on running a successful plant sale. It's jam packed with tips and tricks for you to put into practice. Buckle up, reason number 1 to run a plant sale is... This podcast is brought to you by the Organic Growers Alliance, the UK's only grower-led organisation providing technical and practical advice and support on organic growing. For more information about the OGA head to www.organicgrowersalliance.co.uk and become a member. More about James Butterworth and Cotswold Market Garden: https://www.cotswoldmarketgarden.co.uk/

James speaks to George Bennett of Sandy Lane Farm. George came back to the family farm after a career in IT and has built something pretty special. We talk about going to scale and building a growing operation and sales infrastructure that allows them to run an extremely slick 400-strong veg box scheme and on-site farm shop. George discusses implementing and improving processes and systems throughout the farm, harnessing the natural environment as well as opportunities provided by data analysis and technology. We go into detail about Growing Good, a sales platform and software package that George co-founded. We also discuss the farm’s social media, which really sets an example for the sector. George stresses the importance of delegation and talks about finding great people to make the machine work, even when he’s not around. There is so much gold in this one, so let’s get to it. This podcast is brought to you by the Organic Growers Alliance, the UK's only grower-led organisation providing technical and practical advice and support on organic growing. For more information about the OGA head to www.organicgrowersalliance.co.uk and become a member. More about James Butterworth and Cotswold Market Garden: https://www.cotswoldmarketgarden.co.uk/

James speaks to John McCormick of Helen’s Bay Organic just outside Belfast. It was a real privilege to speak to John, who is entering his 34th year on the site. We speak about dealing with clay soils, particularly in spring and methods he’s developed to get production going earlier. We discuss rotations, compost, green manures, weed control and John’s large collection of machinery, which he uses to great effect. Our conversation also touches on business skills and the benefits of direct retailing and John shares his advice for keeping customers happy for the long term, so let’s get to it. This podcast is brought to you by the Organic Growers Alliance, the UK's only grower-led organisation providing technical and practical advice and support on organic growing. For more information about the OGA head to www.organicgrowersalliance.co.uk and become a member. More about James Butterworth and Cotswold Market Garden: https://www.cotswoldmarketgarden.co.uk/

James speaks to Edwin of Ed’s Veg in Hampshire. Ed has a wide range of expertise but today the conversation focuses mainly on his year-round salad production. Ed and his team produce 150-200kg of mixed leaf salad a week, primarily for wholesale markets. We drill down into propagation, planting, varieties, irrigation, fertility, harvest schedules and techniques and much more. We also discuss the development of a field scale operation at a nearby site, which is helping to expand and diversify the enterprise. Towards the end, Ed also talks about his international work as a campaigner and activist with The Landworkers’ Alliance and La Via Campesina. If you are thinking of honing or improving your salad growing this year then this conversation is an absolute must and even if you’re not, Ed is full of interesting ideas, so let’s get to it. This podcast is brought to you by the Organic Growers Alliance, the UK's only grower-led organisation providing technical and practical advice and support on organic growing. For more information about the OGA head to www.organicgrowersalliance.co.uk and become a member. More about James Butterworth and Cotswold Market Garden: https://www.cotswoldmarketgarden.co.uk/