The Collaborative Farming Podcast · No-Till Market Garden Podcast

A Simple Cooperative Farm Model & a Short History of Modern Co-ops w/ Chris Bodnar of Close to Home Organics

·1 hr 23 min·5 clips

A $500,000 cooperative farm later saw comparable land in the valley selling for over $11 million.

Jackson Rowlett opens with a farm update. He talks about getting garlic into the ground in Zone 7, being a bit late, and wanting to bring back an old episode for a wider audience. It is the first episode of the Collaborative Farming Podcast. The conversation centers on Chris Bodnar of Close to Home Organics and Glen Valley Farm, whose experience gives the episode both day-to-day farm texture and a longer view of cooperative farming. The tone stays plainspoken. Rowlett and Bodnar move through what it means to steward land and community, and they treat that word as a real responsibility. The governance is laid out clearly too. Bodnar explains the role of directors, the way committees get formed for specific tasks, and how that structure helps the organization when something concrete needs to get done. Then comes the farm circle. That group includes resident farmers, leaseholders, and co-op members who help with operations and decision-making, so the farm has a place where practical work and shared oversight meet. The history matters as well. Bodnar describes a rough period about 10 years ago, when the organization was maturing and had to face the gap between inspiring ideals and the reality of who actually carries the load. That part gets honest. The conversation touches on mediation, defensiveness, and the lesson that you cannot expect the farmers on the ground to live out someone else's dream. The co-op had to settle on more realistic expectations, clearer roles, and a better sense of how participation works in practice. The episode also widens out. Bodnar says the work should not become a family ideology forced on anyone. Instead, he talks about opening the world to kids, supporting their choices, and trusting that the work invested in the farm can become an opportunity for someone else later on. It ends on stewardship, which makes the episode feel less like a pitch and more like a working conversation about how people keep a shared farm intact, useful, and available for the next set of hands.

As heard by us

A clear look at cooperative farming when stewardship has to become structure.

The episode returns to Chris Bodnar of Close to Home Organics and Glen Valley Farm, using cooperative farming to think through stewardship, responsibility, and how decisions get made.

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Why you'd press play

Want the mechanics behind a farm co-op that has to work in real life?

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