In Her Boots Podcasts

Gather around the kitchen table with Rachel Herschberger of Clay Bottom Farm in Goshen, Indiana, and hear how her market farm and young family are thriving. How does she do it all? Creative frugality, keeping things lean and debt-free. “The slow approach lets you not get in too over your head financially,” advises Rachel.

Learn about how Kathy is working to continually add fertility to her highly erodible land and her mission to fight thistle with cover crops. Kathy’s advice: “Bare land is bad.” Use those cover crops.

Kathy offers personal insight into both the challenges and opportunities of running her operation as a solo woman farmer. Be brutally honest with yourself, know what you are skilled at and admit what you’re not good at or don’t love at and hire that out. Farming solo also gives Kathy the opportunity to learn new things she never would have otherwise. Or as Kathy puts it: “Plumbing is kinda cool.”

We’re digging in with Kathy as she imparts insights and wisdom on farming female and how to keep true to one’s values and integrity when you are outside the expected norm. From starting off in her first ag job as a feed rep being the only female in a meeting of 432 to advice on navigating regulations working with agencies, Kathy offers pragmatic advice on being yourself with honesty, integrity and transparency.

The In Her Boots Podcast celebrates the collaborative spirit of women farmers, sharing ideas and inspiration with each other, championing women farmers cultivating the sustainable and organic agriculture movement. Brought to you by the award-winning Rural Women’s Project, a venture of the Midwest Organic and Sustainable Education Service (MOSES). Some episodes are “main dishes,” slightly longer and digging deeper into these women’s history and start-up stories. Others are “side dishes,” shorter segments that focus on a specific topic from a female farmer lens. These episodes are hosted by Lisa Kivirist, founder and coordinator of the Rural Women’s Project. A farmer herself, Lisa runs Inn Serendipity Farm and B&B with her family in Wisconsin and is the author of Soil Sisters: A Toolkit for Women Farmers. The audio engineer is Liam Kivirist of Techsocket.net. This podcast was made possible through support from North Central SARE (Sustainable Agriculture Research & Education). This material is based upon work that is supported by the National Institute of Food and Agriculture, U.S. Department of Agriculture, under an On-Farm Research/Partnership Project award number ONC15-006 through the North Central Region SARE program. USDA is an equal opportunity employer and service provider. Any opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this publication are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the view of the U.S. Department of Agriculture.