What is SPIN Farming?

We've embarked on a new venture, one that will either transform us into the sleek, healthy chic and cool retired adventurers we yearn to be, or one that will leave us weary, broken and busted in the dust! We're entering the world of SPIN.

Spin what you ask? SPIN Farming I answer. Oh, yeah, you thought I meant we were going to go backpacking in Africa or sailing down the Amazon in South America. So what it is this grand adventure called SPIN farming.

SPIN is Small Plot Intensive Farming, a non-technical, easy to learn and inexpensive method of vegetable and fruit farming that makes it possible for a farmer to earn a living wage from land plots under an acre in size.
It's a revolutionary new approach to urban land use that is making it's way across the country, brought to us by two very innovative agriculturists from Canada. Saskatchewan Canada.

If you know anything about Saskatchewan it's probably along the lines of what I knew. Canada's bread basket where acres and acres of golden amber grains of wheat wave in the fields. But apparently there is more than wheat in Saskatchewan.

SPIN Farming is the brainchild of two rural farmers turned urban farmers, Wally Satzewich and Gail Vandersteen. These two loved organic gardening and felt they could make a living doing what they loved. They started farming on an acre size plot outside of Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. Like many farmers, they equated more land with more crops with more success, so they purchased 20 acres of addtional irrigated land 40 miles north of Saskatoon.

They were soon overrun by nature with deer eating their precious crops, bugs descending from everywhere, and Ms. Vandersteens says even the wind was out to destroy them. She adds that they began to figure out they were making more money on the radishes and salad mix which they grew in their city backyard than they were on the huge rows of garden vegetables they were trying to protect from pests and pestilence.

In the city they could grow three crops a year on the same site, pick and process right there, ship to restaurants and buyers in the city, and sell at a local farmer's market twice a week.

They sold their farm, moved back to the city and became urban growers, a new breed of farmer who might just be akin to the pioneer of old, discovering new processes and new ways of doing the business of growing food for a burgeoning population.

Mr. Satzewich says of his urban farm plan, SPIN . "We are producing 10-15 different crops and sell thousands of bunches of radishes and green onions and thousands of bags of salad greens and carrots each season. Our volumes are low compared to conventional farming, but we sell high-quality organic products at very high-end prices."

SPIN farming is now being practiced in many states in the lower 48, far south of Saskatchewan, thanks to the efforts of Mr. Satzewich and Ms. Vandersteen who have trademarked the SPIN brand of farming and are teaching thousands of new urban farmers how to grow their own food and make money at the same time.

The subsistence farm of our grandparents generation is back, with new twists and innovation.It's not big, it'small. You don't need huge investments of capital, lots of acreage and labor, and huge outlays of expenses to put in the crop each year. You just need to learn to SPIN!

From the SPIN website on what it means to be a SPIN farmer,

"What does it mean to be a SPIN farmer? It means practicing common sense, free market farming. Being grounded in local communities. Making more from less. Living large while staying small."

Our hope for our own PIN farming enterprise is that we can grow food to feed the hungry here in Indiana, and more importantly that we can teach others how to SPIN a living that can sustain them. In the process, we know that we will learn to spend more time together, working independently and jointly on something we love to do, gardening!

We hope that we will return to the farming roots of our childhoods, having both been raised on subsistence farms in southern Indiana. We hope that our active hobby and lifestyle will make us healthier, keep us engaged in active pursuits that we can share with each other and our families. And most importantly, we think working 9 months of the year and having 3 to tour the world, sounds like a pretty good plan for life after age 50!

Watch for more SPIN sagas as our journey begins as a SPIN farmer. And check out what SPIN farming might do for you and your community or family.

Stories from other SPIN Farmers, Love these blogs!

Living and Loving my Country Life

Resources

SPIN website

Writestuff gardening articles here