Clay Bottom Farm

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Goshen, IN
Clay Bottom Farm

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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) program. 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

10/26/2026

Gardening Without Plastic. For years, we used silage tarps, laid over the garden, to put the farm to bed for winter. Now, when a crop is finished, I flail mow it and drill an allopathic (w**d-killing) cover crop—in this case cereal rye. (In summer, I use teff.) W**d suppression without the plastic mess.

Just a few days left to save 40% on the Masterclass. Check out the website. Happy fall gardening! 🙂🌱

Subscribe to this channel for deeper-dive explanations and behind-the-scenes content.

10/17/2026

Gardening Without Plastic. More experimenting with burlap as a row cover alternative. In this case, I’m using a 4’-wide roll of 10oz. burlap. The burlap will biodegrade. The poly row cover will abrade into microplastic pollution. Burlap is a bit costlier and not practical on a huge scale. But appears to work for gardens for light frost protection.

Lean Micro Farming Masterclass is 40% off this month only. Check out the website. Happy fall gardening!

10/12/2026

Pesky groundhogs! Subscribers receive deep posts showing what’s happening behind-the-scenes at Clay Bottom Farm. Here’s what’s going on now.

10/09/2026

Fall harvesting! The tool is a Farmers Friend greens harvester, a lawnmower for greens.

October is 40% off sale month for The Lean Micro Farm Masterclass, where I show how I earn a living by growing specialty crops in a 1/3-acre garden. Website for details.

SUBSCRIBE to my Insta channel for behind-the-scenes posts.

10/07/2026

Winter gardening: We are deep soil ripping with this electric tool, which uses two DeWalt batteries plus a little help from humans. 🙂 It replaces our broadfork.

Lean Micro Farm Masterclass is 40% off this month only. Check it out on the website. Thanks to everyone who’s signed up already. Happy fall growing!

The tool is the Tilmor E-Ox.

10/01/2026

Here’s a glimpse at how we add compost in the fall to prepare for winter growing.

Sale month! My Lean Micro Farm Masterclass is 40% through October. Check it out on the website. You can farm! New lessons on growing without plastic.

I’m also offering a mini masterclass on winter growing here on Insta. Subscribe on my profile page for a free trial. Thank you to everyone who’s signed up so far. I appreciate the support.

09/22/2026

Grow tents keep us productive in the cold.

This fall I’m offering a Winter Growing Mini Masterclass for both home and market gardeners here on Instagram. Just click SUBSCRIBE for a free trial. This week I offer my top three winter crops. For those new to my feed: I’m Ben Hartman, author of The Lean Farm books. Hope you can join!

09/15/2026

To reduce plastic, we are replacing synthetic germination blankets with burlap. In fact, I’ve found that burlap outperforms plastic. It breathes nicely, allowing oxygen to the soil. It’s slightly porous so that a bit of light gets through. It saturates nicely—stays damp and keeps the ground cool. Best part—it decomposes when it’s done! This is two-year-old blanket, nearing the end of its life, heading to the compost pile soon.
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More details in the subscriber feed. Thank you to everyone who has subscribed so far. I really appreciate your support. Happy fall gardening!

09/11/2026

W**d-free Gardening. For those pesky w**ds that tuck underneath plants, I use this torsion w**der. The trick is to w**d early, ideally before you even see w**ds. The thin blades are disrupting thousands of tiny w**ds, some just barely germinated. I put an explainer video in the Subscriber feed. Just click Subscribe, free for 14 days.

09/09/2026

My most-used w**der on the farm is this historically 5” wheel w**der, historically from Belgium. I use it weekly to zip up and down rows, often w**ding before I even see w**ds. This is the trick to keeping the garden w**d-free. A blade behind the wheel slices under the soil. I have an 11” model for the pathways. I talk about and demo these tools and w**d-free gardening in a Subscription post, available free through Sept. 15. Check it out, and happy fall gardening.

Address

340 Hackett Road
Goshen, IN
46528

Telephone

+15745388741

Website

http://www.claybottomfarm.com/

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