239. Benina Montes on Regenerative Organic Almond Farming

How much do you know about growing almonds?  On today’s episode of the Thriving Farmer Podcast, we are joined by Benina Montes of Burroughs Family Farms in the California Central Valley. Benina has worked tirelessly to help their multi-generational family orchard become the first Certified Regenerative Organic Almond Farm in the world.  Their farm’s focus continues to be bringing regeneratively-grown products like organic almonds, olive oil, cheeses and more directly to their customers while protecting the soil and water for generations to come. Tune in to hear all about this Certified Regenerative Organic Almond Farm!   You’ll hear: How Benina got into agriculture 2:00 About how almonds became a part of the farm 4:23 What it took for the Burroughs Family to become a Certified Regenerative Organic farm 10:59 About how their olive tree hedge rows work 14:20 More on how they produce and sell all of their products 15:10 About the different roles of the family on the farm 21:35 How all of the work gets done 25:45   About the Guest: Benina Burroughs Montes was born and raised on the farm and knew in 6th grade that she wanted to come back to the family farming operation. She helped with the beef cattle and the dairy and was very active in both 4-H and Future Farmers of America.   Benina attended California Polytechnic State University and graduated with a Bachelors in Ag Business in 2001. Upon returning to the family farm, she started managing the 647 acres of almonds. In 2006, Burroughs Family Farms started the transition to organic production and by 2015 the entire farm was certified Organic. Benina met her husband Heriberto on the farm and the two were married in May of 2009. The commitment and dedication of Benina and Heriberto to soil health and regenerative farming practices has been further solidified and deepened with the addition of their four children, as they strive to leave a better world for future generations.   Resources: Website - www.burroughsfamilyfarms.comInstagram - https://www.instagram.com/burroughs.family.farms/ Facebook - www.facebook.com/burroughsfamilyfarms       GrownBy is the farmer-owned online marketplace. In the last three years, their 200 farmers have sold over $2M of products to shoppers on the GrownBy app. GrownBy works for all scales and types of farm sales. Spring Plant Sale? Yup. Annual Freezer Meat Emptying? Check. Multi-season, multi-farm 300 member CSA operation? Absolutely. GrownBy supports it all. As a cooperative, farmer success is their #1 priority. They are the first farmer-owned cooperative ecommerce platform in the world. With auto-payments, built-in customer notifications, CSA subscriptions, and customers helping to pay site fees, GrownBy is a tailored fit for your farm’s online sales. Upcoming, GrownBy will be the first online platform accepting SNAP/EBT with authorized farms. Startup is free, and pricing is transparent and affordable. The cooperative collects 2% of each transaction, but customers often contribute to this fee and bring down farmer costs significantly. Listeners to the Thriving Farmers Podcast get 50% off their first three months on GrownBy. Just email [email protected] to get this offer. You can learn more at GrownBy.com, or download the app on the Google Play or Apple App stores.