Lean Farm Start-up May 3-4, 2025
Take the stress out of start-up. Receive focused, practical advice on setting up and running a high-profit micro farm. Increase your profits with less work.
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What's Unique About Clay Bottom Farm
We farm on 1/3 acre (15,000 square feet).
Almost all food sells within 1.5 miles of the farm.
We use the Half-Farmer, Half-X part-time farming model.
100% of our fertility is farm-made--compost from local leaves.
We are electric-powered, with no gas engines in the market garden.
Join the 'Get Small' Movement
Ben's new book, The Lean Micro Farm, is now released!
The book is a step-by-step guide for earning serious income from a tiny amount of land, using cutting edge lean thinking. Includes a plan to earn $20K a year from your backyard.
Thanks for your orders! I appreciate the support.
The Lean Micro Farm at Chelsea Green
Review of The Lean Micro Farm from Jesse Frost, author of The Living Soil Handbook:
I was delighted and a bit terrified to pick up Ben Hartman's new book, because every time I read something Ben wrote, significant portions of my farm change. And The Lean Micro Farm is no exception. Each section is filled with examples and strategies for how Clay Bottom Farm got small and what it looks like in practice. It's well-written, thought-provoking, and potentially life-altering. I immediately found myself penciling out ways to make our farm smaller.
So fair warning, the book will change your farm.
Other Books by Ben Hartman
The Lean Farm
The Lean Farm tells the story of how Clay Bottom Farm stumbled upon the lean system to turn their small farm around. It is the winner of multiple awards, including the prestigious Shingo Prize.
The Lean Farm Guide to Growing Vegetables
The Lean Farm Guide to Growing Vegetables is a field guide companion to The Lean Farm, describing how Clay Bottom Farm utilizes lean thinking to grow their specialty crops.
Lean Down on the Farm
We use lean system thinking to organize our work. Here's the formula:
1. Delete. Many farms have too many parts, tools, supplies, and non-value-adding things lying around, impeding good work and obstructing concentration. Get rid of anything not absolutely necessary.
2. Start with the customer, work backwards from there. Be totally precise. What exactly do they want? When? How much? This requires going to listen and observe and take notes. Precision is caring. Lean genchi gembutsu (go and see for yourself) is the process we use.
3. Cut out the waste. Simplify everything. On our farm, we strive every season to do less but better, to grow more food with fewer steps. We no longer till or use plows: we let roots and microbes do that work. We stopped using walk-in coolers and instead deliver immediately after harvest. We deliver our CSA with no packaging. The turning point on our farm came when we decided to grow by getting rid of these hidden wastes.
4. Get better. Every season the goal isn't to get bigger or do more, to constantly expand. It's to do less but better: to cut out more waste and better align what we do with what our local community needs us to be doing--growing great food.
The No-Waste Pioneers at Tuskegee
George Washington Carver, the famous peanut promoter, said "'Take care of waste and turn it into profitable channels' should be the slogan of every farmer."
Carver, as head of the Tuskegee Experiment Station, encouraged diversification away from cotton, pioneering growing systems for peanuts, produce, and other crops that can be grown in high volume on small plots. Thousands of farmers received small farmer training through Tuskegee and its bulletins. He was a pioneer lean thinker in US agriculture--and a personal role model.
"Everyone strives for efficiency in vegetable farming, but Ben Hartman has actually achieved it."
Lynn Byzynski
editor, Growing for Market Magazine
"We give every new employee a copy of Ben's writing to study. Adopting lean principles has been critical for bringing organization, focus, and harmony to our vegetable farm."
Pete Johnson
organic farmer and owner of Pete's Greens, Craftsbury, Vermont
"Ben Hartman is that rare person who could describe the lean farming revolution and then provide proven practices from his own farm."
Jim Womack
founder, Lean Enterprise Institute
Follow Clay Bottom Farm on Instagram...
Instagram is Ben's microblog. Follow for lots of photos, tips, and lists of things he has put kickstands on recently.
CLAY BOTTOM FARM INSTAGRAM PAGE
About Ben Hartman
Ben is a farmer and author of The Lean Farm, winner of the prestigious Shingo Prize. In 2017 he wrote a field guide companion called The Lean Farm Guide to Growing Vegetables, and was named one of 50 green leaders in the US by Grist. He is a senior consultant for USAID-funded projects. Clay Bottom Farm offers on-farm workshops and online courses teaching farmers how to farm smaller and smarter.
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