This week on the blog we sat down with Farmer Brenton and answered some of your burning questions for him. Thanks to everyone who contributed questions via our Instagram!



What is the easiest vegetable to grow in Austin? I was just reading an article from Johnny’s seeds that ranks winter vegetables in tiers according to how easy/difficult they are to grow. I would have to say that kale is a pretty reliable and easy vegetable to grow. It's real hardy to cold and holds up to insects and disease. Yep, kale is easy. Except for when it fails to drop 100 degrees.

Have you ever tried to trick something into growing in Texas and failed/succeeded? Well we have to do this every year in the fall! All of our fall transplants are actually germinated in our cooler - lettuce, parsley, fennel, rutabaga, we germinate most of this in our cooler. Even some of the onions and leeks would probably benefit from this, but we don’t quite have the space.

Tomatoes in the greenhouse. Farmers in winter gear. A trick, of sorts!

What was your favorite thing about going to school at Auburn? war eagle! I thought it was a really pretty town. I remember living there as a young kid when my dad was going to college, and so there was definitely a part of me that was nostalgic to go to the school where my dad went to. I also loved what a small town it was. My bike was my main form of transportation then. I had the bus then, but I mostly bike everywhere, and when I needed to I could just throw the bike in he bus.

How do you decide what to grow? Is there anything you wish you had a longer growing season for? Well, I’m sure some of you wished we had a shorter growing season for eggplant, peppers, and okra. But to answer your question, I wish we could grow tomatoes all summer long like most places north of us. It would also be nice to have a longer season for green beans - their planting window is just so narrow. How we decide what vegetables to grow is a good question.. It’s based on experience of what varieties we know will do well, but it’s also based on things like what I like to cook. How much we plant is also based on our anticipated and predicted demand (which again, is based on experience and data from previous years)... basically, based on what we know will be successful. A whole bunch of what we grow, though, is based on what gets me excited. This summer, for example, we grew so many peppers like Carolina reapers, as well as 4 varieties of Thai chilies. Why be a farmer if you don’t grow the things you’re excited about? Over the years we’ve gained a better understanding of what we can grow, when, with decreased risk. Even though parsnips are a crowd-pleaser, we’ve cut those out of our crop plan because of experience. Strawberries, too. Our soil and water aren’t quite right for strawberries.

if you weren't a farmer, what could you imagine yourself be doing? Well, I love to run, sail, surf, cook, and travel. I think I would like to take an RV trip around the United States and then I could imagine having a sail boat and cruising around the world. Doesn’t that sound fun? Does that answer your question?



Young Farmer Brenton and his beloved VW bus.

What was the last thing you cooked? Jambalaya! It was awesome. I'm real picky about my sausage. In Alabama, it's very easy to find good tasting, flavorful, hickory smoked sausage, but I feel like I have trouble finding the sausage I want in Texas. My favorite place to get sausage is Fiesta, believe it or not. They bring in sausage from Alabama! I put Conecuh sausage in this jambalaya. Started with the trinity, plus some extra JBG jalapenos. Even though the recipe doesn’t call for jalapenos, I can’t help myself. I also added some JBG parsley and green onions. I usually make a traditional Cajun (versus Creole) jambalaya and don’t use tomatoes, but this time I decided to make a sort of hybrid pot of jambalayas. I couldn’t bring myself to add in the cans of crushed tomatoes like the recipe called for, but I did add in and pince some tomato paste along with my browning vegetables. I love cooking this way - a big pot of something that lends itself to lots of improvisation and hearty leftovers.



On the days when you love being a farmer - why is that? It’s the days when we work our butts off all day long, and the sense of satisfaction that comes with seeing what we accomplished over the day/week. Farming has very tangible rewards. Fall planting (like, right now) is usually a time when it’s really satisfying to be a farmer. My other favorite time of the year to be a farmer is in the spring - planting season also. A farmer during these periods can imagine and have so much hope about the bounty to come. Plants are healthy and the fields beautifully prepped. Something interesting about farmers.. You have to have so much optimism! Planting is an optimistic time.

On the days when you dislike being a farmer - why is that? It's easy to be overwhelmed with equipment breakdowns, staffing issues, the weather… so many things outside of your control. There are some days when they all seem to pile up and that feeling of optimism is harder to find. I never really imagined how complex it can all be. When everything is going smoothly, you don't think about how complex all the systems are, but when one employee quits or when one insect descends, it’s not always an easy fix to remedy the problem. You can leave the farm one afternoon to beautiful crops, and return the next morning to find worms have ravaged everything. Or like when you leave the farm one day and return to a 2-acre gully. Or when you go home and then tornados flatten all your greenhouse. Or floods. Or freezing temperatures. Wind, too, can be incredibly damaging to crops. Or when you realize the compost you’re using is also introducing new weeds to the property. We have about 5 new grass and weed species on the farm, including a really aggressive strain of amaranth/pig weed, purslane, crabgrass. Just yesterday, the irrigation system broke down and we had to do an emergency repair.Yeah, those kind of things.

How will climate change impact the types of produce that we can grow locally? Well, it seems that this year it's been usually warm later in the season. As I'm writing this, the heat index is at 101... and it's almost October. This year, we actually had a large amount of crop failures in the fall due to excessive heat. Our early season cabbage, cauliflower, broccoli, and kale all died due to the heat. Some things have been better. Wetter weather means more mildew, but due to this summer’s hot and dry conditions, we’ve had little to no problem with powdery mildew. When you have temps that are over 100 degrees, it's also harder to work in the heat. Plants are more stressed, and employees simply can’t work the same hours as seasons when it’s cooler. Thankfully we have a great irrigation system and a powerful ice machine. Even though this summer was hotter than usual, the spring that preceded it was unusually cool.

What varieties of sweet potatoes do you grow? We grow a few different varieties - the orange skinned variety is a beauregard. It's one of the most popular varieties in the south! We also grow a red skinned variety that is burgundy; that one is really popular in California.

When are you opening the farm stand on Highway 71? That project is on hold at the moment, but for now we have CSA pickup at the farm that is just off of HIghway 71. There is also one at Live Oak Brewery on Sundays, which is also just off of HIghway 71.

Did you ever expect that you would become a farmer? Not in my wildest dreams. I was always more into building things (like skateboard ramps) or into my high school yard business… I did like making things and being an entrepreneur, but had no idea that would turn me into a farmer. But now that I've been doing it for 15 years, that I have so much respect for the profession. It's incredibly demanding, but incredibly rewarding. I'm really happy I fell into farming and that I was fortunate to start farming in Austin. I'm really thankful to have a community that values local food and organic agriculture. With all the adversity we face over the years, we've always felt supported and embraced by the community. Thank you!