What do you do when you have a small farm with a modest advertising budget, but big thinking when it comes to getting people to eat their veggies? You make a rap video, of course. That's exactly what Jimmy Myers of Front 9 Farm in Ohio did.
"Early in the season I knew I wanted to make a video to promote our CSA program", Jimmy tells us. "I started thinking of some lines as we started planting the first round of crops for the season. I'm not a musician so I enlisted the help of my two college friends, Adam and Conor, the latter of which is a professional musician (here is a link to his band), and also one of our CSA members. Our other friend Tim helped shoot and edit the video. We had a lot of fun collaborating. I think the video came out great and does a good job getting our message out there."
Of course now you're curious to see the video... well, here it is (be sure to read on below the video for some background info on Jimmy's farm).
At Front 9 Farm, across one acre of production, the team raises about 80 different fruit and vegetable crops ranging from leafy greens, root crops, herbs, and many crops from the brassica and cucurbit, and solanacea families. All crop planning and cycling is based on a 100-membership CSA meal program. Each week members receive 10-15 seasonal fruits and vegetables and a five-meal plan which uses each of the included vegetables
In the 24'x48' high tunnel with drop down curtains they grow beefsteak, roma, and yellow cocktail tomatoes which are trained to a single stem. The tomatoes are grown in 5 gallon bags in a primarily peat-based media (ProMix Bx), and irrigated with a custom fruiting blend.
Their second 30'x96' high tunnel has eggplant, heirloom and cherry tomatoes, cucumbers, bell peppers, and specialty peppers. "These crops are grown in a heavily manured soil with composted chicken waste from our flock of laying hens, and further irrigated with drip tape", Jimmy explains.
For more information:
Front 9 Farm