In this episode of The Farmer’s Beet Podcast, host Gisele Herren sits down with Ed Sills of Pleasant Grove Farms, a third-generation, family-owned certified organic grain and bean farm in the Sacramento Valley. Ed was one of the first grain farmers in California to transition to organic production, planting his first organic popcorn crop in 1985. The conversation covers the crop rotations that anchor Pleasant Grove’s organic system, how the farm’s seed cleaning operation grew from a $500 used seed cleaner into a business supplying vetch and triticale seed to farmers and seed companies nationwide, and the surprising ways flooded shorebird habitat and reduced tillage have improved soil health on the farm.
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