Clay Bottom Farm

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Goshen, IN
Clay Bottom Farm

We are a CSA farm in Goshen, Indiana. Home of the The Lean Farm. WWW.CLAYBOTTOMFARM.COM WWW. The farm has twice won Edible Michiana’s Reader’s Choice award.

Lean Book: https://www.amazon.com/Lean-Farm-Minimize-Increase-Efficiency/dp/1603585923 Ben Hartman and Rachel Hershberger own and operate Clay Bottom Farm in Goshen, Indiana, where they make their living growing and selling specialty crops on less than one acre. Their food is sold locally to restaurants and cafeterias, at a farmers market, and through a community-supported-agriculture (CSA) progra

m. The Lean Farm, Ben’s first book, won the Shingo Institute’s prestigious Research and Professional Publication Award. Link to Lean Farm Book: https://www.amazon.com/Lean-Farm-Minimize-Increase-Efficiency/dp/1603585923/ref=pd_lpo_sbs_14_img_0?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=2DXZY6EGVAFEH3XZHYT2

06/19/2025

Gardening without Plastic: This season we replaced our poly trellis netting with this jute alternative, suspended with bamboo, for cucumbers. This netting should decompose in the compost heap, alongside the cucumber plants, at the end of the season. Bamboo we cut locally. We sourced net from

06/17/2025

My next experiment in gardening without plastic is to use burlap as a replacement for landscaping fabric as a ground cover. Here I’ve put Thai basil into 10oz burlap. My tests this spring in the greenhouse showed that burlap effectively stops more than 90% of the w**ds (grass will grow through), without the downsides of plastic. Burlap is easier to manage due to its weight—I just needed a few landscape staples. As seen in the pics, I cut small T’s with a scissors to create an opening for the plants. We buy from Jake Katz at Max Katz bag company in Indy. This is one of the few places that will certify untreated burlap, with good prices.

06/12/2025

Our theme this year is, Do we really need to use plastic? Here’s how we’re doing a no-plastic CSA.
—Bulky crops like carrots, khohrabi, potatoes, and radishes go into burlap bags. We got these as coffee bags free from a local roaster. My mother cut and sewed them into smaller bespoke bags for our CSA. You can also buy something similar (sold as sand bags) from .
—Washed greens go into organic cotton bags with a drawstring.
—Each Thursday we drive to customers’ porches and place the two bags into coolers that we ask customers to set out. Our route takes less two hours per 20 customers.
—The cotton bags keep greens crisp for a day or two, but we recommend transferring to a glass container.
—We ask customers to return both burlap and cotton bags. We wash and line dry the cotton, which adds time but it’s reasonable.
—This is all experimental and changes almost weekly, but so far this system works pretty well. Photo #2 is our brilliant helper Jenna Oostland from

06/10/2025

Our theme this year is, Do we really need to use plastic. So to trellis peas we replaced nylon twine with sisal twine, 100% biodegradable. Also note that the.mulch is a roll of jute burlap, also biodegradable. This keeps the soil moist and cool, peas love it!

06/09/2025

A tomato!—after 3 months of nursing plants along. The first one is like seeing an old friend. The plants weathered storms, freezing nights, aphid attacks, and many other trials this spring. Makes the reward sweet.
…
For growers, here are some details on how I’m growing indeterminate (tall) tomatoes:
—This is a Margold
—No lean and lowering this season, to save time. Just tall stakes. Plants are “caged’ in with sisel twine.
—I did an early planting Feb. 20 and a later planting around March 20 for staggered harvest.
—Most stakes are local bamboo, some are emt/conduit. All are tied to #9 wires or cables overhead (run lengthwise across the trusses) for added support.
—Plants 24” apart, stake between each.
—As I pull the twine, I prune tops to about 5 leaders per plants, thus thinning the plant.

06/07/2025

My next experiment with burlap is to use burlap sacks as containers. Here I’ve put ginger into used coffee bags, given to me free from a local roaster . (Many roasters are happy to give bags away rather than add them to the landfill.) I rolled the bags down, filled them with my leaf compost, and moved them to an open corner of the greenhouse. As GW Carver would say, “turning waste into useful channels.”

06/02/2025

We converted the farm this season to using a Japanese irrigation system called SumiSoaker, which waters in a rectangle instead of a circle. No waste. 🙂 We love it, though it’s a learning curve to set up. We’ve already saved gallons of water, and the spray pattern is much gentler on soil and plants. Here are risers made from 30” pieces of 3/4” EMT, pounded 8” into the ground. Kudos in OR for this idea, and thanks to for the Sumi material.

05/29/2025

Here’s a seat that straps onto your backside, so you always have a place to sit down. 🙂 This is made by Terrateck in France, though it is a Korean-inspired design.

05/28/2025

I’m trialing heavy burlap rolls as a natural alternative to landscaping fabric this season. Here are some observations:
—In short, I love it. It lays down quickly—due to its weight, I am not pinning it with staples or even sand bags (in the greenhouse). It just lays there. It stops 95% of w**d growth, which is good enough for me.
—It will not kill live w**ds like a tarp or poly landscaping fabric.
—Before covering any existing growth, I sliced under the plants first with a Terrateck wheel hoe and a Planet Jr blade, to disrupt the roots.
—These are the same 10oz rolls that I used earlier for seedbed cover and for frost protection. Multifunctional, which justifies a higher cost.
—The burlap biodegrades in time. Poly landscape fabric shreds to microplastic pieces.

05/18/2025

One of my great pleasures is when former workers come back to visit. Christian, on the left, with cousin Datelbi. Christian helped trellis tomatoes for countless hours a few years ago, now grows his own!

Address

340 Hackett Road
Goshen, IN
46528

Telephone

+15745388741

Website

http://www.claybottomfarm.com/

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