Developing a relationship between primary pollinators and growers.
In This Podcast:
Realizing that his apple trees were barely producing compared to his neighbors, Dave Hunter found the answer was mason bees. His hobby increased his harvest, and eventually his new passion developed into a brand-new industry and a new company. Now he is working hard to educate how mason bees and leaf cutter bees are a significant pollination solution. His goal is to build more native bee industries around the world.
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Dave is the founder and owner of Crown Bees, a native bee company in Woodinville, WA that sells bees and products online, to nurseries and farmers. His experience with mason bees extends over two decades. Dave founded the commercial mason bee industry, Orchard Bee Association, and works with researchers to ensure that what Crown Bees practices is both ethical for the bee and efficient for the farmer/gardener. He co-authored the book The Mason Bee Revolution, and speaks to gardeners, farmers, and researchers throughout the year.
Go to www.urbanfarm.org/crownbees for more information and links on this podcast, and to find our other great guests.
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457: Dave Hunter on Native Bees
Bringing a whole system approach of design and nature to the farm.
In This Podcast: Taking a permaculture course as a young adult gave Raven Venturelli the confidence and inspiration to start her own farm. However, finding land in California to develop her nature-based farming concepts was difficult so she followed her parents and moved to Arizona. She has used her holistic design methodology to build a farming business the way she wants and the quality and diversity of produce at Blue Apple Farm has developed a following at the local farmer’s market.
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Raven is a small farmer and activist for environmental and social justice. She has been studying Permaculture Design for ten years and manages Blue Apple Farm in Cornville, Arizona. She is on the board of the Sedona-based non-profit, Gardens for Humanity, on the Rocky Mountain Seed Alliance Teaching Team, and runs the Verde Valley Seed Library.
Go to www.urbanfarm.org/blueapplefarm for more information and links on this podcast, and to find our other great guests.
456: Raven Venturelli on
Permaculture for the Small Farm
Creating healing tonics from common and locally foraged plants.
In This Podcast: Growing up in a plant based family and then struggling with health concerns it felt natural for Devon Young to turn to herbals remedies for wellness and relief. When she started noticing results, she focused on helping others as expanded her knowledge through studies and training. She shares some key details about how to make typical remedies and why her new book is jam packed with details on 50 North American herbs.
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Devon, founder of the holistic lifestyle blog Nitty Gritty Life, is a trained herbalist and is well practiced in developing and implementing herbal remedies. She has a degree in Complementary and Alternative Medicine from The American College of Healthcare Sciences, and is the author of THE BACKYARD HERBAL APOTHECARY.
Go to www.urbanfarm.org/nittygritty for more information and links on this podcast, and to find our other great guests.
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455: Devon Young on Medicinal Remedies
Bonus Episode 28: Seed Saving Class May 2019.
A chat with an expert on Seeds.
In This Bonus Podcast: Once again we join a conversation with Bill McDorman and Greg Peterson to learn about growing from seed, growing for seed, and why our seeds are so important in these changing times. This is the replay of the May 2019 Seed Saving Class - In this class he covers seed school, how to become a teacher, allowing plants to go to seed, and of course a few more things as well.
Join the class! Register anytime for the next event.
Register Here for the Seed Saving Class with Live Q&A
Go to www.urbanfarm.org/bonus28 for more information and links on this bonus podcast, and to find our other great guests.
Finding joy and adventure in the backyard with kids and nature.
In This Podcast: We welcome back Matt Smith from Smith House Design to hear more about improving family life with a garden. Matt and his wife have created a learning environment in their backyard full of fruit trees and plants. Now, their children prefer nature over screen time. He shares his secrets to gardening with kids and how to make your neighbors never want to leave your backyard. Also, get a sneak peek on Matt's farm to table project and how it will revolutionize their cooking!
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Matt is the creative force behind Smith House Design, an influential marketing and design agency here in Phoenix. He and his wife Candyce live in South Tempe with their five children and are building a food forest and learning space in their backyard. With such an inviting place, they frequently have much of the neighborhood stopping by.
Go to www.urbanfarm.org/smithhousenature for more information and links on this podcast, and to find our other great guests.
454: Matt Smith on Improving Family Life with a Garden
Merging two gardening systems into one.
In This Podcast: What do you get when a civil engineer loves to garden but doesn’t want to spend two hours a day in the backyard? You get a LEHR garden! Meet Ed Williams, the creator of this regenerative, functioning ecosystem that utilizes aquaponics and mushroom spawn. His garden beds are low maintenance, create soil, self-water, and fertilize using earthworms, fish, and chicken droppings. Listen in to learn about the amazing backyard garden that Ed is creating at his LEHR Urban Homestead.
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Ed is a civil engineer by profession. In his spare time, he uses engineering principles to design functional ecosystems, which he applies to gardening. This practice led him to develop a new method of gardening he calls a LEHR Garden. He is currently building his second-generation prototype of the LEHR Garden and using it as a centerpiece for his homestead and demonstration garden in Tempe, LEHR Urban Homestead.
Go to www.urbanfarm.org/lehr for more information and links on this podcast, and to find our other great guests.
453: Edmund Williams on Aquaponics with Soil
Making more than just juice from a popular fruit.
In This Podcast: Our apple expert Kanin Routson joins us again to help us understand the process of making delicious apple cider using white wine making techniques. He explains the difference between juice, cider, and hard cider, and how the new modern ciders vary from the heritage ciders. We are introduced to Stoic Cider and we learn more about his dedication to apple tree diversity with the RAD project.
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Kanin has devoted his life, including two graduate degrees, to exploring and promoting apple tree diversity. His latest work has been co-founding Stoic Cider, a local hard cider company based out of Prescott, Arizona. Through the RAD Project (Restoring Apple Diversity), Stoic Cider works to find, propagate, and promote unique apple varieties and to celebrate this diversity through hard apple cider.
Stoic Cider is growing and preserving local heritage apples, wild apples, and European and American cider varieties in several orchards on the family farm. They utilize white wine making techniques to create premium, dry, fruit-forward ciders.
Go to www.urbanfarm.org/stoiccider for more information and links on this podcast, and to find our other great guests.
452: Kanin Rouston on Apple Cider
Having good clean fun on an urban farm.
In This Podcast: Awakening to the desire to grow their own fruits, vegetables, and meat, Brittney Schiff and her husband Stephen started with a few garden beds and chickens. Gradually this increased and they moved to a property that allowed them to do more. Now they raise, chickens, ducks, rabbits and goats and their kids are learning homesteading skills too. She shares what she appreciates most about this journey.
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Brittney and her husband Stephen moved to a one-acre urban homestead in 2015 with a desire to rely less on the grocery store and our messed-up food system. Taking homesteading from a hobby to a lifestyle, she bakes bread, cans food, makes butter and cheese, line-dries clothes, and even has a small soap-making company. They have 28 fruit bearing trees, several raised gardens and plans to add an in-ground 2500 sq. ft. row garden in the next year. They had no previous livestock experience, but now raise 90% of their family’s meat, egg, & dairy needs with chickens and ducks for meat and eggs as well as goats for milk. All this and she loves every bit of it!
Go to www.urbanfarm.org/worththewait for more information and links on this podcast, and to find our other great guests.
451: Brittney Schiff on Growing Food and Raising Animals
Farming with an eye on the future.
In This Podcast: The home purchase was going to be a stretch, but she could not escape the pull. After several visits, Katie Critchley took the leap and this farming community is much more than she expected. The appeal was so strong that her extended family joined her as well. She found herself becoming more and more involved and eventually became the Farm Director at a truly integrated farming community. A one sentence description is impossible – you must hear this podcast to understand, and you’ll be wanting to visit Agritopia very soon!
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Katie is the Farm Director of The Farm at Agritopia and a long time resident of the nationally recognized and award winning “agrihood” at Agritopia. She is a founding board member of The Johnston Family Foundation for Urban Agriculture, which is committed to promoting and preserving Urban Agriculture throughout the State of Arizona.
She has also been a part of the development team at Johnston Properties maintaining and expanding their commercial holdings. Her last role at Johnston Properties was co-project manager for the award winning craftsman community, Barnone located in Agritopia.
Go to www.urbanfarm.org/agritopia for more information and links on this podcast, and to find our other great guests.
450: Katie Critchley on Building a Farm Community