Starting a successful herb and vegetable farm business with a friend.
In This Podcast: A taste of permaculture and agriculture in college was enough to help Lauren Krug go across the continent and try WWOOFing. That experience and some Americorp work gave her the connections to find an amazing new friend and like-minded future farming partner. So, when the opportunity happened to start a farm business on some property owned by a supportive couple, the two friends jumped. Now she and Lyndsay run an herb and vegetable farm and are making a difference in their community.
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Lauren earned her degree in Community Entrepreneurship from the University of Vermont. Shortly after graduation, she headed west to work on a small veggie farm. After two seasons on this farm, Lauren joined the team at the Clark County Food Bank where she served as their Americorps VISTA Local Produce Coordinator. There, she coordinated the Farming & Gleaning program delivering fresh, locally-grown produce to those in need.
Lauren and her business partner Lindsay (who will be our guest on episode 294) run Sprout and Blossom Farm in Vancouver, WA combining their social and environmental justice passions, with permaculture and sustainability inspired practices for animal, plant, and human systems on the farm.
Go to www.urbanfarm.org/sprout for more information and links on this podcast, and to find our other great guests.
Running a machinery-free farm with nature inspired principles and techniques.
In This Podcast: As one of two new millennial farmers, Lyndsay Jacobs and her business partner Lauren are working their farm using their own labor rather than rely on technology. With the exception of removing some sod in the early days, they are growing and harvesting the crops on their small farm without the use of any typical industrial machines. As they bring their vegetables to market they know they are doing the right thing by all the positive feedback they are getting from their customers!
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Lyndsay is a graduate of the Zenger Farm Internship Program where she learned how to address food justice issues, develop efficiency and endurance in farming methods, and best chicken husbandry practices. She earned her degree in Graphic Design & Interior Architecture from James Madison University and is using that on marketing, branding, craftsmen experience, and design expertise for farm infrastructure. She received her Permaculture Design Certificate in Portland.
Lindsay and her business partner Lauren (who was our guest on episode 293) run Sprout and Blossom Farm in Vancouver, WA combining their social and environmental justice passions, with permaculture and sustainability inspired practices for animal, plant, and human systems on the farm.
Go to www.urbanfarm.org/blossom for more information and links on this podcast, and to find our other great guests.
Appreciating the relationship between plant roots and the life in the soil.
In This Podcast: We meet Jake Mowrer and understand what brought him to his studies on soil and the relationships between crop roots and the complex community of life in the world beneath us. This often-invisible world is so essential to the foods that we eat, and the interaction between the subterranean portion of crops and the microbial lifeforms there are easily overlooked. We learn more about what is happening between these elements and why this is crucial to our semi-finite resource of soil.
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Jake was raised on a farm in north Georgia where his family produced broiler chickens and beef cattle. Growing up, the work was often hard, but the food was always good. Life on the farm is a good way to gain an appreciation for the connectivity of food production in our daily lives.
Jake now works with farmers in Texas as a Texas A&M faculty member in the Soil and Crop Science Department, and as an Extension Specialist with Texas A&M AgriLife Extension to communicate the importance of managing soil as a natural resource.
His research has become focused on the way that crop roots behave in their soil environment to better understand the best practices for keeping soils continuously functional & productive, both for people and the ecosystems we inhabit.
Go to www.urbanfarm.org/texassoil for more information and links on this podcast, and to find our other great guests.
Connecting with nature in gardens and farms to promote hope, joy and healing.
In This Podcast: It was after her cancer treatments and when she was feeling very low, that Jenny Peterson was encouraged to go into her outdoor space. The hope and healing she found during her recovery was enough that she now guides and encourages others to find their wellness through gardening and connecting with the natural world. Her experience has been a spring board to helping many others find their hope through the dark times.
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Jenny is an Austin, Texas-based garden designer with her own firm, J. Peterson Garden Design, as well as a writer, author and speaker. She specializes in designing, writing and speaking about gardens that enhance the quality of life, heal from the inside out, and help to create balance and wellness.
She is a breast cancer survivor and the author of “The Cancer Survivor’s Garden Companion: Cultivating Hope, Healing & Joy in the Ground Beneath Your Feet” (St. Lynn’s Press 2016) and co-author of “Indoor Plant Décor: The Design Stylebook for Houseplants” (St. Lynn’s Press 2013).
Go to www.urbanfarm.org/jenny for more information and links on this podcast, and to find our other great guests.
Telling the story that helps build business in a local market.
In This Podcast: After spending some time in Major League Baseball, Chris Gruler recognized the benefit of a personal story and owning your own branding. He now works with companies big and small to help identify and promote their brands, a process that one of his projects is using to help promote the restaurants in his home town. This essential of building a marketing strategy is valuable to local food businesses as well.
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Chris has been in the branding/internet game for close to 12 years, using his strengths in branding, storytelling, website development, and online strategy for growth. He has worked with Fortune 500 companies, professional athletes, and small businesses who are looking to expand or protect their brand online.
He started ProtegeBranding.com in 2007 with the intent to assist companies and brands with their online presence. One such project dedicated to restaurants and local dining is ScottsdaleRestaurants.com where they create video reviews of local area restaurants to showcase the positive aspect of each restaurant! A key piece that they highlight is how each restaurant uses locally grown produce.
Chris is all about telling stories and assists his customers in telling the right one for their brand!!
Go to www.urbanfarm.org/protogebranding for more information and links on this podcast, and to find our other great guests.
Appreciating America's forgotten fruit.
In This Podcast: Amazed upon being introduced to a delicious tropical fruit that grew in temperate areas of the Americas, Andrew Moore delved into some heavy research to learn more about it. He found that this fruit has been growing on the continent for a very long time, has a rich history with both ancient fauna and early human civilizations. He tells us some of what he learned and why it has been forgotten.
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Andrew grew up in Lake Wales, Florida, just south of the pawpaw’s native range. He is a writer and gardener, and now lives in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. His first book, Pawpaw, In Search of America's Forgotten Fruit was published through Chelsea Green in 2015 as a hardback and this year in paperback. It was also nominated for the James Beard Foundation Award.
Go to www.urbanfarm.org/pawpaw for more information and links on this podcast, and to find our other great guests.
Bonus Episode 7: Seed Chat August 2017
A chat with an expert on Seeds.
In This Bonus Podcast: There is always a bounty of information available in conversations with Bill McDorman. This is the August 2017 episode with a Seed School Chat Class covering Seed School Teacher Training, a proposed Seed Saving Principles list, disaster planning, breeding program preparation, and so much more.
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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/bonus7 for more information and links on this bonus podcast, and to find our other great guests.
Connecting a community to its farmers and local food resources.
In This Podcast: The community of farmers that she lived in was rich with interesting people and stories, so Elvira Di’Brigit took the time to get to know them. She shares her story of how she started farming as well as introducing a few interesting farms from her valley. Their cooperative methods of working and providing food for their community are great examples of thinking outside the box.
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About 17 years ago, Elvira moved her family to Capay Valley, where her passionate interest in sustainable living took hold. While teaching she explored curricula surrounding farming, environmental preservation and nutrition - all in support of sustainable living.
She is the editor of CapayValleyGrown.net and the author of Why We Farm. She also serves on the organizing committee for the Hoes Down Harvest Festival, a fund-raiser for the Ecological Farming Association.
Elvira holds a BA in international relations from UC Davis, a teaching credential and a Waldorf/Steiner Teaching Certificate. She lives in Rumsey, CA with her husband and 3 children.
Go to www.urbanfarm.org/whywefarm for more information and links on this podcast, and to find our other great guests.
Educating and empowering the upcoming generation to be part of their food system.
In This Podcast: After spending some time working at a farmers market, volunteering on an educational farm, and as a middle school science teacher, Dani Replogle has found her way to law school. Now she studies environmental law and food law and has some insight on how millennials are taking part in not just local food, but also food activism. Her passion comes through with her story and the other information she shares, which gives hope that the next generation is paying attention to where their food comes from and how the environment is being cared for.
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Dani is a second-year law student at Lewis & Clark in Portland, Oregon. She fell in love with the sustainable food movement while working as an eighth-grade science teacher in Colorado and spending her Saturdays managing a stand at the Boulder Farmers Market.
Dani spent the past summer working toward a sustainable food system model at Center for Food Safety, and will continue working for the public interest throughout the coming semester. When not reading textbooks, she spends her time climbing mountains, writing poetry, and playing ultimate frisbee.
Go to www.urbanfarm.org/dani for more information and links on this podcast, and to find our other great guests.
Breaking down the recipe for good, healthy soil.
In This Podcast: The ingredients for healthy soil make up an essential recipe for gardeners and farmers, and is worth describing a few times until the perfect connection is made. Emily Rockey appreciates good soil so much that she earned the nickname "The Dirt Girl" and she loves helping others appreciate compost and soil. She has something important to say to those who think they have a ‘black thumb’!
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Emily received her degree in Plant Sciences from the University of Arizona. In the past, she worked at Longwood Gardens in Pennsylvania, Walt Disney World's Epcot Center, and the Tucson Botanical Gardens. She is currently the Director of Sales and Marketing for the tank's Green Stuff in Tucson, which specializes in "green" landscape debris recycling, construction debris recycling, and more.
Emily brings her passion for both plants and recycling to the company’s composting operation. This is where they convert landscape debris into organic compost which is then returned to gardens and green spaces. They offer an entire line of organic garden and landscape materials which are “Good for People, Plants, and Planet”; and are available under the name ‘Tank’s Green Stuff’.
With her nickname ‘The Dirt Girl’, it is not hard to see that Emily loves talking about the importance of compost, microbes, and soil.
Go to www.urbanfarm.org/tanksgreenstuff for more information and links on this podcast, and to find our other great guests.
#UrbanFarmPodcast #goodsoil #TanksGreenStuff
An August 2017 Q&A session with two experts on Gardening and Fruit Trees
Jake Mace the Vegan Athlete and Greg Peterson of The Urban Farm are both gardening educators offering classes, podcasts, and videos on a large variety of gardening topics. Every month they get together for a monthly gardening chat to discuss what is going on in their gardens and answer your questions. To dive in, get more information, and send us your questions visit AskJakeandGreg.com - so let's get on with the show... This is the August 2017 Q&A episode with a variety of questions addressed from planning for planting, building healthy soil, and much more.
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Go to www.urbanfarm.org/bonus6 for more information and links on this bonus podcast, and to find our other great guests.
Cyfrin Barefoot on Moving from Poverty to Paleo.
In This Podcast: She had a feral childhood in the ghetto of Detroit and entered the foster care system at age 7. Later, as a young mother Cyfrin Barefoot wanted good food for her own children and became an organic farmer. Then, she fought for better food options for poor families on WIC and won. And, after a significant and heartbreaking business setback she rebounded to create a health-food business offering delicious foods that even fit paleo diet preferences. Go to www.urbanfarm.org/savortooth for more information
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Cyfrin's childhood was rooted in deep poverty in the Detroit ghetto. As an adult, she raised six children and found an avocation of fighting for food justice. She made her living as an organic farmer for seven years, and later founded a non-profit that established and ran a 32-acre organic farm.
Spurred by memories of childhood hunger and informed by years of farming, Cyfrin’s creative instincts came together in the creation of the Free Farms project. She obtained a business degree and then created Savor Tooth Paleo, a gluten-free and paleo bakery. Company profits will be funneled into the acquisition and development of land in impoverished neighborhoods, as well as funding ongoing food production. The fresh organic food produced on these Free Farms will be available to area residents for free.
Go to www.urbanfarm.org/savourtooth for more information and links on this podcast, and to find our other great guests.
Engineering a solution to a real threat affecting honey bees worldwide.
In This Podcast: Having spent decades as a problem solver, Lynn Williams was not going to let a devastating influx of a tiny but effective killer mite threaten the existence of his beloved bees. He engineered a new tool for beekeepers is proving itself as a mite killer without damaging the hive, the honey or the bees. All this and he still has another ace up his sleeve as the profits from this new product will be used to help under-privileged kids go to camp.
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After a long career on both the engineering and sales sides of industrial supply, Lynn started the hobby of beekeeping to increase the productivity of his family’s gardens. A decade and a half later, and with many more hives he was frustrated to find the Varroa Destructor Mite had entered the local area. Unwilling to use pesticides, he elected to use his engineering background to find a solution. 2½ years later Lynn has an all-natural organic product that terminates the Varroa Mite without harming the bees.
Go to www.urbanfarm.org/mitekiller for more information and links on this podcast, and to find our other great guests.
Understanding the living matrix that affects the quality of our food.
In This Podcast: Having been drawn to the wonders of soil quality early on, Elizabeth Murphy has studied this living matrix in great detail. She wants to make soil care an intuitive concept that all growers have. Today she shares some of the basics and with us including the make-up of soil, why cover crops are important and a few important DOs and DON’Ts of creating healthy soil.
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Elizabeth has a passion for growing food which led her to a master's degree in soil science from University of California, Davis, where she researched soil's organic matter storage and a farmer's ability to improve it. She was a faculty instructor for Oregon State University Extension's Small Farms Program, where she taught and consulted with gardeners and farmers about best management practices to build healthy soils.
Since 2006, Elizabeth has owned a half-acre garden in southern Oregon, which she considers her laboratory for experimenting with sustainable soil management and gardening practices for landscapes and vegetables. She is the author of Building Soil: A Down to Earth Approach and currently, she lives in Tacoma, Washington.
Go to www.urbanfarm.org/buildingsoil for more information and links on this podcast, and to find our other great guests.
Understanding a gentle and helpful creature essential to our food production.
In This Podcast: It was a simple and unexpected class that ignited Stephanie Elson Bruneau’s passion for beekeeping and many others are benefiting from this as well. She takes the time to explain some of the key aspects of bees and beekeeping, as well as clear up some common misconceptions about a gentle and helpful creature of the natural world. Her story includes a couple of EPIC moments that hopefully will inspire you to seek out something for your own passion!
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Stephanie is a beekeeper, herbalist, and artist. She runs The Benevolent Bee, where she spends her time educating all of us about bees. At the Benevolent Bee "Teaching Apiary" Stephanie observes, learns, and teaches about bees and bee behavior to students of all ages.
Stephanie also teaches classes about bees and their products at Northeastern University, The Cambridge Center for Adult and Community Education, The Morris Arboretum of the University of Pennsylvania, The Boston School of Herbal Studies, and Temple University. She is also the author of an aptly named book titled The Benevolent Bee.
Go to www.urbanfarm.org/benevolentbees for more information and links on this podcast, and to find our other great guests.