Madison Goodman is what you might call a wealth of knowledge. Throw him a curveball like how to grow turnips in the heat of Salt Lake summer, and he’ll tip his weathered Pirates ballcap back, scratch his head, then deliver a verbal flow chart: if conditions are this, then this. If not, then try t his.  Where does all that knowledge come from? For one, his mother, who passed it on from the generation before her — and the generation before that. “I’m a fourth-generation farmer, and I learned from my mom. And from YouTube,” he joked. After close to a decade of applying that generational knowledge to farming in Utah, Goodman is now spearheading the Ballerina Farm market garden efforts by growing year-round produce on 100 garden beds for the local community. Originally from western Pennsylvania, Goodman chased snowboarding west to Utah, earning a few degrees before returning to the farming lifestyle he knew best. This time, in an unconventional, urban way. “I was working in a climbing shop, and one of the guys was like, ‘Hey, look, there’s this guy making money off of farming yards in a city.’ And I was like, I want to do that,” he said. “I reached out. I found some people who were willing to lease me some lawns, and I was able to piece together a good chunk of land in the city. And I just commuted in between all my farming plots with a bike and my tools strapped to it.” When it was time to land somewhere more rural, he received a loan from the bank and started his farm in Oakley on just shy of an acre. That’s how Madsnacks Produce began, and as a “one-man-show,” Goodman tried just about every market garden technique: from selling to chefs and operating a community-supported agriculture, or CSA, to selling at farmers markets. Joining the Ballerina family His CSA introduced him to Hannah and Daniel Neeleman, the now-influencer couple who founded Ballerina Farm in 2017. “Hannah and Daniel were in my CSA for a few years. They were part of my farm. And over the past few years, every year they’d say, ‘Hey, we’re ready for you to come over and grow vegetables with us whenever you’re ready to,’” Goodman said. “And every year I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, I love my farm so much. I’m not quite ready to do that yet.’”  But eventually the timing worked out, Goodman said, remembering the day when, while working part-time at the Ballerina Farm dairy, he finally told Daniel, “I’ll do it.” It was just too good an opportunity to pass up. “How they presented it to me is that, ‘Hey, you can have your dream farm here at Ballerina, and let’s work together to create your dream to feed more people,’” he said. A tunnel at the Ballerina Farm market garden is planted with rows of lettuce. Credit: Jonathan Herrera/Park Record A simple dream farm for Goodman has a few essentials: organic practices, use of a biodynamic calendar, diverse and seasonally driven products, access to on-farm fertility, plus proximity to “eaters.” And Goodman could come closer to his overall goal of feeding more people with the infrastructure, land and financial backing that the Neelemans could bring to the project. “I never saw myself working for somebody, and then I met Daniel, and I just knew instantly, ‘Oh, this isn’t a person I’m going to work for. This is a person I’m going to work with, and we’re going to create something that specifically the Wasatch Back is missing, which is fresh produce,’” Goodman said. “There are some awesome market gardeners up here. There are just not many people doing it year-round.” Ballerina Farm started to build out its market garden last September, and when it came to preparing its plot of land off S.R. 248, Goodman explained that he essentially had a clean slate: nutrient-rich land that hadn’t been used for crop production. Plus, he got to see how the seasons affected the field before putting in garden beds and constructing the “tunnels,” which are garden structures that provide shade and can block wind.  “As it got closer and closer to the time to break ground, the water table moved, the grasses grew, and then they faded, and you could just see how the land moved over the season, which really depicted how we set it up,” Goodman said.  So much so that Goodman went to Daniel the day before construction and said, actually, let’s change plans and do it a different way. “That sporadicness is one of the things I love about working here. People are OK with last-minute decisions,” the farmer said. “The land got to choose it, which was really beautiful.” As new tunnels are constructed on the Ballerina Farm property in Kamas, the market garden has grown to 100 beds. Credit: Jonathan Herrera/Park Record Now they’re about six months in, adjusting to the challenges that are unique to the Kamas Valley, like year-round frost, a high water table, and lots and lots of voles — what Goodman calls their “current lunch partner,” not “pests.” To feed the farm, Goodman uses compost made from the Ballerina Farm dairy cows, fulfilling his dream of a closed-loop system. Manure from the “120 beautiful milking ladies” just down the road is mixed with bedding and any garden leftovers to make a nutrient-rich compost. That’s then added to the soil to help grow more produce, which then goes back to the dairy, round and round in perpetuity. It’s a perk that also drew Goodman to the Ballerina Farm project because it means he knows exactly what’s in his fertilizer and, therefore, what goes into his food. As for running a biodynamic farm, it’s a skill that Goodman cultivates, teaching the rest of his staff how it works. Biodynamic agriculture details a holistic strategy for growing food that can maximize productivity, following a calendar organized around astrological movements of the stars and the moon for management techniques such as planting, weeding and harvesting. Ballerina Farm garden employee Anna Jackson talks about the biodynamic practices at the garden. Credit: Jonathan Herrera/Park Record “We’re looking at a horizontal plane, but I believe there’s a vertical plane. I don’t believe that, I know that. I experience that,” Goodman said. “And what that means is we’re constantly increasing the land to work with the energetic forces that move through the cosmos.” For him and many in the farming community, biodynamics is a proven science with a direct link to productivity. And for a market gardener, productivity is everything, especially one like Goodman, determined to feed as many people as possible.  “To give you perspective, I think we could probably feed about 250 families a week over half of the year off of this space … making up probably about 75% of their caloric intake,” he said of the 100 beds at Ballerina Farm.  Goodman said that basically all the produce sold at the farm stand on the Kamas property and the farm store in Midway has been grown in the garden, except potatoes. His produce is also used in meals coming out of the farm store kitchen, as well as the commissary kitchen, which produces items like the Ballerina Farm basil pesto. Production will only continue to ramp up, he said, as more of the beds come online. As a year-round, seasonal farm located at 6,500 feet, Goodman also emphasized an ever-changing selection dependent on which products grow best during which month of the year. Embrace it, he said. Growing workshops Something that Goodman also introduced to Ballerina Farm is a series of growing workshops, held quarterly in time with each season. It’s something he did every spring at Madsnacks, an educational component that’s also a core value of his. “I think that passing this knowledge down is super important. And moreover, I believe that the masses shouldn’t be fed by a few. I believe that the masses should be feeding everybody. Everybody should have a garden,” he said. “My ideal scenario is somebody comes to this workshop and they don’t ever have to come back and buy produce from us ever again. They just learned how to do it all themselves.” Attendees at the Ballerina Farm spring growing workshop take notes on garden tips and tricks for this time of year. Credit: Jonathan Herrera/Park Record While the three-hour workshops merely scratch the surface of the intricacies of market gardening, Goodman does his best to make them overwhelmingly instructive — or your money back, he joked at the start of last month’s spring workshop.  The morning sessions, which conclude with a garden lunch, are designed for people already growing food or interested in starting. But aside from a loose structure that includes a tour around the farm, a semi-lecture on important steps for that season in the garden, and a hands-on component, the rest is completely catered to the group in attendance. For the spring workshop, half the group was based in the Wasatch Back while the other half was based in the Salt Lake Valley, meaning Goodman adjusted his information for each person’s context.  “We often think that you need this big amount of land to grow a lot of food, but the reality is you need a tiny amount of land to grow a lot of food if it’s used very efficiently. And that’s what we’re going to learn today,” he told the group of roughly 20 new and experienced farmers. Part of Madison Goodman’s influence on the Kamas-based business is the introduction of growing workshops, held quarterly, which are aimed to teach and empower aspiring gardeners. Credit: Jonathan Herrera/Park Record The conversation ranged from the importance of row covers to protect against frost and bugs to the best strategies for sprouting and hardening plants.  And, true to his promise, he packed the session with information, going into each topic with some variation of “If I were going to,” “What I would recommend,” “I think the best thing you can do,” and “There are a few things that I usually do.” One couple was getting ready to start a home garden close to the Great Salt Lake, so would salinity in the soil be an issue? Another was based in Daybreak, where toxic soil meant raised garden beds were essential. More established gardeners, like a husband and wife based in Woodland, would turn to each other every so often with an “Oh, that’s what happened!” and make a quick note in their booklet. For the hands-on component, attendees practiced making soil blocks for starting seeds and assembled a compost tea pouch to take home. Ballerina Farm garden employee Anna Jackson leads workshop attendees through the hands-on portion of the course. Credit: Jonathan Herrera/Park Record Because each workshop is designed for a specific season in the garden, Goodman encouraged people to come to as many as possible. For example, the summer classes, scheduled May 8 and 9, will be different from the spring sessions. “Instead of the planning and dreaming phase, now you’re at the ‘in it’ phase, where you’re dealing with pests, you’re dealing with weeds, you’re thinking about, ‘Oh, my goodness, should I be pulling this plant to replant something new? How do I make that decision?’” he said. And of course, tips for summer bleed into fall, which turns into winter, a “fully evolving circle” that gardeners will get to know.  The workshops, priced at $123 per person, are posted on the Ballerina Farm website at ballerinafarm.com/pages/events. Kids under 10 are welcome for free.  Adding a garden to the vision While Ballerina Farm first started with pigs, the steadily growing company — which now produces items like beef, milk, ice cream, eggs, flour and highly popular protein powder — always planned to add a garden to the mix. It’s all part of the founders’ dream to create an agritourism site in Utah. In late 2024, the Neelemans advanced that vision by annexing their 14-acre parcel into Kamas, and city officials agreed to create a new agricultural tourism zoning to allow visitor-focused development. The couple’s plans for the Ballerina Farm property at the time included elements like livestock, orchards and gardens, with public-facing amenities such as a farm store, café, creamery and event space. Now, it’s steadily coming to life: What started as a simple shed-turned-farm stand now has pens for cows and chickens, an ice cream trailer, a covered patio, a barn for events and Goodman’s fully functioning market garden, a central part of the concept.  The Ballerina Farm Stand in Kamas off S.R. 248 has expanded from a simple shed store to include animal stables, a covered patio, an ice cream trailer, an events barn and now the gardens. Credit: Jonathan Herrera/Park Record “This whole thing that we’re doing out here at 248, it’s about community,” the farmer said. “It’s creating space for people to come in, interact with their food, be able to see the animals, be able to buy our produce and see where it’s being grown.” He gave the example of chickens, which the farm will soon raise for meat, that people can come and see while they’re out grazing the pasture. It’s all about a transparent, intimate interaction between the “eater” and the food, he said. “My part in this whole agritourism is bridging this gap that we have where, you go in the grocery store, and you buy a chicken, and you go home and eat it, and you have no idea about how that chicken was handled,” he said. “Here, you’re going to be able to see that chicken … the whole course of its life, up to the day that it’s processed and put in the freezer, and then you get to eat it. Or see the chicken that’s laying your eggs or look at the vegetables that you’re eating.” While food culture in more rural parts of Utah is still “pioneering,” Goodman said, he praised the Wasatch Back community in particular for their interest in supporting local growers. It’s an attitude that will lead to success in what Ballerina Farm is trying to accomplish, he said. “I see this resurgence around health and community, and especially here on the Wasatch Back, I see a lot of people really embracing not only local food, but specifically local food grown in a way that is better for their body and is also better for the land,” he said. “People take a lot of pride in living in the Kamas Valley, and I feel like it’s the same in Park City and in Heber. We have pride for where we live. And I think that that is a trickle-down effect in how people purchase local and how they steward the land that we’re on.” It’s part of why the Ballerina Farm produce grown in the Kamas garden will be sold locally, not shipped nationwide, Goodman said. None of the vegetables he’s growing are listed on the website. Credit: Jonathan Herrera/Park Record Credit: Jonathan Herrera/Park Record Produce grown in Kamas, like spinach, arugula and garlic, are for sale at the Ballerina Farm Stand. “At the end of the day, there are a lot of things that Ballerina could choose to do, but we are choosing to invest our energy into a community,” Goodman said.  The addition of the garden also expands farm stand goods to growers, like the recent addition of Ballerina Farm compost for sale. It’s fantastic, Goodman said, especially for those based in the Wasatch Back. “I can’t think of a more sustainable way of feeding your garden than getting something that’s just miles away and doesn’t have to be shipped,” he said. And, because he can’t help himself, a tip: “Now’s the time to apply it. April, great time. Get the compost in the ground. Start working your soil, put the seeds in, it’s going to feed your soil over the course of the whole entire season,” he said. 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