Clay Bottom Farm

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

Gardening without plastic: Today we’re mulching the garden with shredded leaves. In the past we might have covered beds ...
11/20/2025

Gardening without plastic: Today we’re mulching the garden with shredded leaves. In the past we might have covered beds for winter with a silage tarp. Our goal is to spread leaves thinly, 2”-4” thick. They’ll be raked into pathways for spring planting. In the meantime, they hold nutrients in the ground, and as they decompose they add minerals to the soil.

Gardening without Plastic: Battle of the row covers. This fall I’m comparing poly row cover with a roll of burlap, to se...
11/12/2025

Gardening without Plastic: Battle of the row covers. This fall I’m comparing poly row cover with a roll of burlap, to see how they compare as frost protection. Great week for a test: we had below-freezing temps and gobs of snow. Results:
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—temps outside reached a low of 29.3F
—under burlap, low of 33.8 F
—under AG 50 poly row cover, low of 36.9 F
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In other words, poly row cover traps more heat but burlap held its own to protect my lettuce harvest. I placed Govee thermostats at ground level in all three environments. Snow surely affected results, and I’ll keep comparing.

A snow-covered farm this morning in Indiana.
11/09/2025

A snow-covered farm this morning in Indiana.

11/06/2025

Disinfecting tomato posts, getting ready for next season. Fine use of a sunny November day. The spray is organic—Oxidate.

10/29/2025

Using a 5” wheel weeder on my fall green onions, which were put in with paper pots. This wheel weeder is the most ergonomic and effective cultivator that I’ve ever used, though it does require soil that’s fairly rock-free. Just a few days left to save 40% on Lean Micro Farm Masterclass. Hope you can join, and have a great day!

Time to harvest pomegranates! We planted this pomegranate four years ago. It’s now established and gave us a bountiful h...
10/24/2025

Time to harvest pomegranates! We planted this pomegranate four years ago. It’s now established and gave us a bountiful harvest this season. Yes, they grow in the north, in a hoophouse—we are in northern Indiana. The hoophouse was unheated the past two winters, and this shrub grew along the outside edge.
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We chose to leave this one to grow like a bush, but you can prune it like a tree.

Trying an experiment this fall, using coffee bags as mulch for our garlic planting. Mulch holds in moisture, prevents so...
10/15/2025

Trying an experiment this fall, using coffee bags as mulch for our garlic planting. Mulch holds in moisture, prevents soil runoff, and reduces weeds. Can be leaves, straw—or burlap (thanks 🙂). Maybe a coffee plant will sprout!
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Step 1: Cut the bags
Step 2: Pin with landscaping staples
Step 3: Cut a small slit and plant

We used burlap to mulch basil and tomatoes this season. It doesn’t stop weeds 100%. If tiny weeds poked through, we pinched the burlap and raised it to dislodge them.
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Through October, Lean Micro Farm Masterclass is 40% off. Includes a new unit on how to grow without plastic. Details on the website. Happy fall growing! 🙂

Inside for the winter. Today Christian and I harvested green tomatoes and set them in a lean-to greenhouse for ripening ...
10/13/2025

Inside for the winter. Today Christian and I harvested green tomatoes and set them in a lean-to greenhouse for ripening through the fall and early winter. We’re also putting a few hobby plants—banana, papaya, and Chinese yellow ginger—alongside the tomatoes. Hard to let go of some things.

Burlap as a shade/frost blanket. This year summer flipped to fall quickly. Last week, we were using burlap to shade and ...
10/09/2025

Burlap as a shade/frost blanket. This year summer flipped to fall quickly. Last week, we were using burlap to shade and cool fall spinach, and now the shade cloth is a frost blanket. This fall we will be testing the performance of burlap, compared to row cover, as a frost blanket. Tip: I’ve found that the Fiskars Amplify RazorEdge Fabric Scissors does a great job cutting thick burlap.
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The Lean Market Growing Masterclass is 40% off this month. New videos on plastic-free growing. Website for details.

Here we are substituting sisel twine for rubber bands to tie kale bunches for . Our theme this season is gardening with...
10/06/2025

Here we are substituting sisel twine for rubber bands to tie kale bunches for . Our theme this season is gardening without plastic (even little rubber bands) if we can avoid it. 🙂 It takes a tad longer to tie the sisel than to twist on a rubberband, but I think the product is prettier.

Air-pruned spinach. Air-pruned plugs—where the roots are pruned by exposure to oxygen—take off faster than plugs whose r...
10/02/2025

Air-pruned spinach. Air-pruned plugs—where the roots are pruned by exposure to oxygen—take off faster than plugs whose roots are bound and twisted. We transplanted this spinach, and Bridger onions, cilantro, kale, turnips, and lettuce yesterday in the winter greenhouse. Bring on some cold! 🙂 I’ll do deep dive on air pruning in a free webinar this afternoon (Thursday) 4ET, sponsored by . Hope you can join. Link in bio.

We’ve been experimenting this fall with Japanese non-chain paperpots. We are getting some of the nicest transplants I’ve...
09/30/2025

We’ve been experimenting this fall with Japanese non-chain paperpots. We are getting some of the nicest transplants I’ve ever grown. As the final pic shows, the bottoms are completely open, so they air prune perfectly—no bound up roots, even on large/old plants. I’ll be giving a free webinar Thursday on how we use paper pots—plus a farm tour—this Thursday at 4EST. You can sign up on the website. See you then!
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Details for growers:
—The non-chain pots ship compressed, with options for 50, 72, 128-cell flats
—They open easily, and fill quickly.
—We use them now for widely spaced crops like kale and for home garden transplants. I plan to use the 50-cell option for spring tomatoes.
—They’re faster for me to transplant than standard plugs because I don’t have to wrestle plants out of plastic flats.

Address

340 Hackett Road
Goshen, IN
46528

Telephone

+15745388741

Website

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