Weathering the challenges of growing food in
South Florida.
In This Podcast: Growing up and becoming a ward of the state, then becoming emancipated at 17 left a lifelong mark on Karin Fields, so when she started learning how to grow food in one of the most challenging and unique areas of the country, she wanted to help other young girls like her gain those skills too. For twenty years she has been the Edible Gardening Gal and a valuable resource for education about growing food in South Florida.
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Karin has over 20 years of vegetable gardening experience in South Florida where she installs backyard edible gardens, gives informative talks on vegetable gardening, and educates people on how to grow their own food. Locally known as the Edible Gardening Gal, she loves giving her gardening talks at libraries all over South Florida.
Go to www.urbanfarm.org/ediblegardeningal for more information and links on this podcast, and to find our other great guests.
395: Karin Fields on Growing Food in the Tropics
Harvesting native foods in the Sonoran Desert.
In This Podcast: The desert is full of amazing native plants that provide a rich, delicious bounty of food, IF you know what to look for and how to harvest it, and Brad Lancaster wants you know these secrets. He is excited about a new cookbook that shares delicious and tested recipes for native trees and plants. And these plants are suited to thrive in the hot and dry climates, so they tolerate drought conditions better, while giving other great benefits to all desert residents.
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Brad runs a successful permaculture consulting, design, and education business. He is focused on integrated and sustainable approaches to landscape design, planning, and living. Growing up in a dryland environment, water harvesting has long been one of his specialties and a true passion.
He is the author of a permaculture bible for water harvesting: Rainwater Harvesting for Drylands and Beyond Volumes I & II and is a contributor to Desert Harvesters’ Eat Mesquite and More cookbook. This new release centers on the abundant harvest of mesquite and other Sonoran Desert food plants we can plant, steward, and enjoy where we live, work, and play.
Go to www.urbanfarm.org/eatmesquite for more information and links on this podcast, and to find our other great guests.
393: Brad Lancaster on Wild Food Forestry
Knowing the secret to building healthy soil.
In This Podcast:
Joining farming through his wife’s family, Gabe Brown learned the standard, commercialized, industrialized way of farming. Then when disaster struck four times in a row, he reached out to the past for some inspiration. He learned the value of a healthy soil ecosystem, how it affects many of the issues we are facing today, and the best ways to rebuild the soil. Now he shares what he learned in 5 principles that work anywhere in the world.
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Gabe is one of the pioneers of the current soil health movement which focuses on the regeneration of our resources. Along with his wife Shelly, and son Paul, he owns and operates a diversified 5,000-acre farm and ranch near Bismarck, ND. Their ranch focuses on farming and ranching in nature’s image.
The Browns holistically integrate their grazing and no-till cropping systems, which include a wide variety of cash crops, multi-species cover crops along with all-natural grass finished beef and lamb. They also raise pastured laying hens, broilers and swine. This diversity and integration have regenerated the natural resources on the ranch without the use of synthetic fertilizers, pesticides or fungicides. Gabe is the author of Dirt to Soil published by our friends at Chelsea Green.
Go to www.urbanfarm.org/brownranch for more information and links on this podcast, and to find our other great guests.
392: Gabe Brown on Beneficial Soil Ecosystems
Propelling organic produce from fringe to mainstream.
In This Podcast: The story of how organic produce and food became mainstream in our grocery stores is shared by Tonya Antle who was actively driving this change before most of us even knew we needed it. She found her passion in the early stages of the organic movement and helped propel it across the nation. Now there is a new focus with the Organic Grower Summit happening in December, and she shares some very useful tips as a highlight of what will be available then.
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Tonya grew up on her family’s table grape and citrus farm in Delano, California. From being a vice president of organic sales to consulting about organic ag investments, she has been a driving force in organic farming for more than 30 years, and has received several awards recognizing her work in the ag industry.
Currently, she is an adjunct professor of Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Marketing at Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo, a guest lecturer at both Hartnell Junior College and California State University Monterey Bay, and she is the Co-founder and Executive Vice President of the Organic Produce Network (OPN), which launched in January 2017.
Go to www.urbanfarm.org/opn for more information and links on this podcast, and to find our other great guests.
Bonus Episode #21: Seed Saving Class September 2018.
A chat with an expert on Seeds.
In This Bonus Podcast: We are harvesting even more seed information in this chat with Bill McDorman. This is the September 2018 episode of a Seed Saving Class - seed names, medicinal plants, plant knowledge, landrace, and so much more.
Join the class! Register anytime for the next event.
Register Here for the Seed Saving Class with Live Q&A
Bill McDorman is Executive Director of Rocky Mountain Seed Alliance, Ketchum, Idaho. He got his start in the bio-regional seed movement while in college in 1979 when he helped start Garden City Seeds. In 1984, Bill started Seeds Trust/High Altitude Gardens, a mail order seed company he ran successfully until it sold in 2013.
Go to www.urbanfarm.org/bonus21 for more information and links on this bonus podcast, and to find our other great guests.
Bonus Episode #21: Seed Saving Class September 2018.
Building urban food resiliency with more that just vegetables.
In This Podcast:
A fascination with jungles and forests began at an early age for Catherine Bukowski, and she has studied these ecosystems throughout her education. Then narrowing her focus just on the food forest aspect, she found similar regenerative patterns that work. She brought this to her new book and shares some of what she discovered with us.
Catherine is a researcher, author, educator and consultant. She’s worked internationally and domestically in sustainable land use and natural resource management, agroforestry, permaculture, and project planning to strengthen communities. She pursued her passion for tropical ecosystems by earning a Master of Science in Natural Resource Management. Then she returned to school and earned a PhD in the Human Dimensions of Forest Resources and Environmental Conservation at Virginia Tech.
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At Tech she was introduced to the topic of community food forests, which ultimately became her dissertation research and focus of her new book The Community Food Forest Handbook: How to Plan, Organize and Nurture Edible Gathering Places published by our friends at Chelsea Green.
Go to www.urbanfarm.org/cffcathie for more information and links on this podcast, and to find our other great guests.
391: Catherine Bukowski on Community Food Forests
Bringing together nature and theology.
In This Podcast:
Her background is in studying the connections of religion to many aspects of daily life and Professor Lena Roos is now focused on how religion and gardening are interwoven in our past and what that looks like in our present. She discusses several key religions of the world, the garden connections, and even how some myths built upon gardening and creation themes. She is asking for input on her current research and wants to know of active faith-based community gardens.
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Lena is a Full Professor, teaching History of Religions in Stockholm Sweden. She is also an avid allotment grower of vegetables who last year harvested (literally) a ton of vegetables from her 120 square meters in two allotments in urban Uppsala.
Originally a medievalist, she specializes in inter-religious relations between Jews, Christians and Muslims during the Middle Ages. Her other research includes topics like religion and volunteering, religion and sexuality, religion and food, and more recently religion and gardening.
Lena is about to embark upon a new research project on faith-based community gardens and would like to get in touch with people currently involved in such.
Go to www.urbanfarm.org/lena for more information and links on this podcast, and to find our other great guests.
390: Lena Roos on Religion and Gardening
Healing forgotten children through gardening opportunities.
In This Podcast: The forgotten children who grow up in the foster care system often become young adults on the street with no help, no resources, and forced to make desperate choices to survive. Dawn Folsom was caught stealing food when she was hungry; now she is a major force behind several urban farming projects that teach, empower, and build up the community of aged-out foster kids that have gotten dumped into the world. She is offering models of village farms and supportive housing projects to help communities do better with their forgotten children.
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Dawn is a former foster kid who chose to be a catalyst of change for young people aging out of the foster care system. She became an advocate and mentor 13 years ago and has a passion to help people heal through village farming. having studied horticulture for 19 years she has become an advocate for local food access.
She is cofounder of Heartvines Educational Farm - an extension of the non-profit The Village, Easing Childhood Poverty. They are a group of people dedicated to creating positive change for young people through village farming. Heartvines promotes that the garden is the best place to talk about life, through intensive agriculture techniques, collaborative partnerships, and adding inspiration to our spaces. They are creating an opportunity for young people to learn about food access, civic engagement, entrepreneurship, and life skills.
Go to www.urbanfarm.org/heartvines for more information and links on this podcast, and to find our other great guests.
389: Dawn Folsom on Village Farming
Reinforcing local food and ag in the heartland of America.
IN THIS PODCAST: There can be no doubt that Jess Mazour is dedicated to building a better food system – and she is doing it for those that grow food, those that eat it, and to protect the communities and environment that surround farms. Her passion is strong and is a resource for families and farmers in Iowa as she helps educate and empower the “little guys” to work together to benefit the whole community.
388: Jess Mazour on Building a Resilient Food System
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Jess is a Farm & Environment Organizer for Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement, a 5,000-member non-profit. She organizes with local communities to develops statewide strategies to stop corporate factory farms from building. In 2013-2015 Jess worked with a 10-state coalition of farm and ranch groups to develop a new narrative around Food and Ag Justice. Jess also built a citizen lobby team at the Iowa Statehouse to lobby for policies that build a food and ag system that works for farmers, eaters, workers, and the environment.
At home Jess is a beginning urban farmer in Des Moines selling heirloom plants, local produce, and other homemade/homegrown goods at a local farmers market.
Go to www.urbanfarm.org/cci for more information and links on this podcast, and to find our other great guests.