Translating fowl language for urban farmers.
In This Podcast:
After moving all the way across the country, Melissa Caughey shares why she added chickens to her family. She tells about how, with her science and teaching background, she eventually started teaching people about chickens. Always learning, she discovered there is a fowl language that could be understood and started teaching others how to Speak Chicken. She coaches Greg through a few key calls that, once translated, will be obvious to anyone who keeps chickens.
Don’t miss an episode!
Click here to sign up for weekly podcast updates
or visit www.urbanfarm.org/podcast
Melissa is the author of How to Speak Chicken and A Kid’s Guide to Keeping Chickens published by our friends at Storey Publishing. She is a backyard chicken keeper, beekeeper, and gardener who writes the award-winning blog Tilly’s Nest. She writes for HGTV, DIY Network, and the magazines Grit, Chickens, Community Chickens, and Country Living. She also gives presentations on chicken keeping at events across the country. She lives on Cape Cod, Massachusetts.
Go to www.urbanfarm.org/speakchicken for more information and links on this podcast, and to find our other great guests.
Recognizing the connections between insects and plant life.
In This Podcast:
Several years into running a landscaping company, a few key employees opened Jessica Walliser's eyes to the importance of avoiding pesticides. Taking the time to educate herself, she converted to a whole new mindset and is now an avid teacher about natural pest control. She tells us about the predator-prey cycle and why we need to stay out of the process as much as possible, and shares a few tips on how to help the population of beneficial bugs grow in your space. We hear descriptions of several types of insects and bugs that are part of healthy ecosystems in gardens and farms.
Don’t miss an episode!
Click here to sign up for weekly podcast updates
or visit www.urbanfarm.org/podcast
Jessica earned her degree in Horticulturist from Penn State University and co-hosts “The Organic Gardeners”, an award-winning program on KDKA Radio in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and serves on the Editorial Advisory Board of The American Horticultural Society. She is a regular contributor to Fine Gardening, Urban Farm, and Hobby Farms magazines, and her two weekly gardening columns for the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review have been enjoyed by readers for over ten years. Jessica also blogs weekly for both SavvyGardening.com and HobbyFarms.com.
She is also the author of several gardening books including the Amazon best-seller Good Bug, Bad Bug: Who’s Who, What They Do, and How to Manage Them Organically (St Lins Press), and Attracting Beneficial Bugs to the Garden: A Natural Approach to Pest Control (Timber Press), which was awarded the American Horticultural Society's 2014 Book Award.
Go to www.urbanfarm.org/goodbugs for more information and links on this podcast, and to find our other great guests.
Breaking down some factors in the science of studying soil.
In This Podcast: It was not her first thought when she went college, but after an inspiring study abroad trip, Mary found her passion in the science of studying soil. She tells us how this life path change occurred, and how she not only found a topic she could literally dig into, but also a society that she would enjoy and now represents through her blog articles. She also tells us more about the factors involved in the formation of soil and how to keep it healthy in our raised bed gardens.
Don’t miss an episode!
Click here to sign up for weekly podcast updates
or visit www.urbanfarm.org/podcast
Mary is a soil scientist and Agro-ecology PhD student at Florida International University in Miami. Originally from Iowa, she received her B.S. and M.S. degrees in Environmental Science and Agronomy at Iowa State University. Her master’s research was on ants and the ways they influence prairie soil formation.
Her passion for soils has taken her across the globe, from the Alaskan to, tropical rainforests –and many places in between - all in hopes to better understand soil functioning in different ecosystems. When not chipping away at her dissertation, Mary is a volunteer blogger for Soils Matter, a blog run by the Soil Science Society of America which is working to share soils information with broad audiences.
Go to www.urbanfarm.org/soilmatters for more information and links on this podcast, and to find our other great guests.
Stacking beekeeping businesses with alternative energy for everyone's benefit.
In This Podcast: Chiara and Travis Bolton are not just any regular beekeepers, they are also changemakers in that they have devised an innovative way to help several aspects of their local community in environmentally friendly and the area of sustainable energy. They realized they could stack the functions of beekeeping with the land intensive areas of solar panels for mutual benefit and provide a product that was healthy, local, and in demand. Then they decided to expand this concept to help others do the same thing and have set up a business just to help in this process.
Don’t miss an episode!
Click here to sign up for weekly podcast updates
or visit www.urbanfarm.org/podcast
Chiara and Travis are beekeepers in Minnesota. In their business, Bolton Bees they sell Minnesota-Hardy bees adapted to survive Minnesota's harsh northern climate and distinct location specific honey.
They have been featured in National Geographic, Martha Stewart, Smithsonian Magazine, and Modern Farmer for their innovative partnerships with solar developers. They formed a public benefit corporation called “The Solar Honey Company” and have trademarked the term. They are a mission-based company promoting the stacking of multiple benefits to farmland including clean solar energy, pollinator-friendly habitat, and local beekeeping.
Go to www.urbanfarm.org/solarhoney for more information and links on this podcast, and to find our other great guests.
Embracing simplicity and starting a new life.
In This Podcast: After spending some time completing an earthen building project and maintaining two mortgages and many of the standard life trappings, Leanne Phillips realized this was not the lifestyle she was looking for and decided to simplify. She moved to a remote property off a 10-mile dirt road and started over without the infrastructure many people take for granted. She tells how she got solar power set up, established a new well, and even planted 100 new fruit trees before those were done. Her experiences are fortifying her classes that she teaches and her story telling helps to make it all really interesting!
Don’t miss an episode!
Click here to sign up for weekly podcast updates
or visit www.urbanfarm.org/podcast
Leanne, creator of Wisdom ooh Zivaat, is an organic lifestyle and holistic health Educator, and an inspired advocate for creating clean, deeply nourishing foods. She extends this into a full organic lifestyle and teaches classes in Living foods, Gardening, Essential oils and more.
Wisdom ooh Zivaat is an off grid 34-acre Food forest/Full spectrum natural living demonstration that was born in January of 2017. Leanne feels that humanity is in an unnecessary place of stress and decay and that we are being called to embrace that aspect of ourselves that is simplicity and wisdom.
Go to www.urbanfarm.org/wisdomculturelife for more information and links on this podcast, and to find our other great guests.
Finding amazing seeds and becoming a seed storyteller.
In This Podcast: Her young life was spent on a small island near a 300-year-old farm, with a family that loved to share history through storytelling. Then Shannon McCabe got a chance to work for Baker Creek Seeds and now she documents the stories of seeds from around the world. She explains just what an heirloom seed is, and why they are special. She also shares a couple seed stories, including one for garden berries in Peru, and another about an ancient, crooknecked watermelon from a cave in Arizona. We cannot spoil this, you must listen for yourself!
Don’t miss an episode!
Click here to sign up for weekly podcast updates
or visit www.urbanfarm.org/podcast
Shannon is a writer, seed explorer and horticulturist for Baker Creek Heirloom Seed Company. After earning a degree in Environmental Horticulture from the University of Rhode Island, she worked on mixed-vegetable farms and a fruit orchard before starting her own small-scale farm on historic farmland.
She combined her life-long love of writing with her passion for farming when she began working as the farm manager and catalog writer for Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds.
Through co-writing the award winning Whole Seed Catalog, hosting instructional videos and dreaming up the Baker Creek children’s gardening book, she has enjoyed bringing the arcane heirloom vegetables of our past back to the foreground of the gardening discussion.
Go to www.urbanfarm.org/shannon for more information and links on this podcast, and to find our other great guests.
Getting to know more about the popular culinary fungi.
In This Podcast: His space was limited and he wanted to start a small food growing business, then Kevin Fitzgerald found his perfect match in growing mushrooms and selling them at the farmers market. He talks with us today about the mycelium that is a favorite of many foodies, and has such potential to nourish while also helping the environment. He has even started selling mushroom kits that can help the home grower start off on their own mushroom adventure.
Don’t miss an episode!
Click here to sign up for weekly podcast updates
or visit www.urbanfarm.org/podcast
After spending years in communications contracting and feeling unfulfilled Kevin decided to start farming and settled on mushrooms as something that fit his interests and could be profitable on small scale. Starting on a hobby scale he has grown from mini green house and small humidifier to full size room fully climate controlled. He grows mushrooms for both culinary and medicinal uses.
Go to www.urbanfarm.org/sunvalleyharvest for more information and links on this podcast, and to find our other great guests.
Bringing exotic flavor to local food systems.
In This Podcast: Starting off at age 18, Joshua Burman Thayer was headed in the direction of working with plants and nature. He took his time before getting his permaculture certificate, but he packed a lot of learning and hands-on experience in during that period. Now, he is sharing that training, knowledge, and passion as he builds food forests, educates his clients, and writing articles about permaculture and food forest design.
Don’t miss an episode!
Click here to sign up for weekly podcast updates
or visit www.urbanfarm.org/podcast
Joshua has a degree in Community Engineering from Humboldt State University. He proudly admits he has always had his hands in the Earth, especially through his extensive travels throughout the Americas working with communities around plants and food. He worked as a WWOOF volunteer on organic farms throughout Latin America, and as a laborer on organic CSA farms in California. He gained even more experience while apprenticing and working in ecological landscape design, as well as doing native plant field research with renowned mentors.
Joshua has become a lead designer and advocate for uniting ecology with aesthetic, creating beautiful, productive, natural systems that work with nature to foster bounty.
Go to www.urbanfarm.org/nativesungardens for more information and links on this podcast, and to find our other great guests.
Chatting with a Sustainable Farming giant.
In This Podcast: Having three generations of regenerative and sustainable farmers to learn from, Joel Salatin was very immersed in the philosophies of farming that rejected the use of chemicals. Their efforts over the years on the virtually barren land his father purchased in the early 60’s has resulted in a vibrant, and productive farm that Joel now runs. He shares several key lessons he learned about farming and soil generation, and throws out some gems worth quoting!
Don’t miss an episode!
Click here to sign up for weekly podcast updates
or visit www.urbanfarm.org/podcast
Joel and his family own Polyface Farm in Virginia's Shenandoah Valley. Featured in the iconic foodie book Omnivore's Dilemma and award-winning film FOOD INC., the farm's moniker is "healing the land one bite at a time." A prolific author (12 books to date) and speaker, he promotes local food systems, freedom of food choice, and farming systems that build the commons.
Go to www.urbanfarm.org/polyface for more information and links on this podcast, and to find our other great guests.
Getting ready to raise chickens from eggs with your kids.
In This Podcast:
Raising chickens for eggs has been a joy of Fresh Eggs Daily author Lisa Steele’s for quite some time, so it was natural for her to write a book about raising chickens from eggs too. She tells us how she decided to write a book for kids and why it is so special. She also shares some tips and techniques for making the transition to raising the chicks from eggs and how to introduce new chicks to your flock.
Don’t miss an episode!
Click here to sign up for weekly podcast updates
or visit www.urbanfarm.org/podcast
Lisa is a 5th-generation chicken keeper, top-selling author and the creative mind behind the Better Homes & Gardens award-winning blog Fresh Eggs Daily® (www.fresheggsdaily.com). Lisa inspires both the newcomer as well as the seasoned chicken keeper and engages fans worldwide on her Facebook page of the same name with her easy, fun and accessible approach to raising backyard flocks naturally. She is the author of several books and has a new one for kids coming out 1st Quarter 2018 called Let’s Hatch Chicks by Voyager Press.
Go to www.urbanfarm.org/letshatchchicks for more information and links on this podcast, and to find our other great guests.
Recognizing the seasonal commonalities in different areas.
In This Podcast: It was the timing of it all that needed to be addressed, so author and farmer Ann Larkin Hansen realized she needed to write a book about how to recognize the right time to do things on the farm no matter where you lived. She took the time to identify the seasons in ways that would make sense in every area because it compiled the common factors that affected when to plant which type of crops. Her interest in writing and farming also helped with a few other books that she wrote and she shares a few more useful tips. Go to urbanfarm.org/annlarkinhansen
Don’t miss an episode!
Click here to sign up for weekly podcast updates
or visit www.urbanfarm.org/podcast
Ann is a homesteader and small-scale organic farmer, as well as a farm journalist specializing in sustainable farming and forestry. After she retired from farm reporting, she authored a number of books. Her latest book The Backyard Homestead Seasonal Planner – what to do and when to do it by Storey Press is in bookstores now. She lives with her family on a farm in northern Wisconsin.
Go to www.urbanfarm.org/annlarkinhansen for more information and links on this podcast, and to find our other great guests.
Tackling local food waste and hunger through team effort.
In This Podcast: Retirement does not mean you no longer contribute to your community, in fact retired teacher Steve Knight has taken advantage of his free time to do the make a huge difference for local food charities, and create a new club in his area. When he realized local farms had leftover produce after the harvest, he organized volunteers to go through the fields and orchards to gather the remnants for local food pantries. His volunteers are truly making a difference on two fronts!
Don’t miss an episode!
Click here to sign up for weekly podcast updates
or visit www.urbanfarm.org/podcast
Steve taught high school science for 40 years and then retired. He spent the past few summers teaching chemistry for Upward Bound at the University of Maine at Farmington. But what he is excited about is after he retired, he started a volunteer organization called Central Maine Gleaners Group. In the first 3 years, Steve and 15 volunteers have gleaned over 21,000 pounds of food from 7 local farms and back yards and he then gives this food to various food pantries in his area.
Go to www.urbanfarm.org/mainegleaners for more information and links on this podcast, and to find our other great guests.
Harvesting sustainable and nourishing foods found growing in the wild.
In This Podcast: Taking the skills handed down for generations, Mark Lewis is very comfortable eating foods he finds in the wild. He teaches about these foods and their history to the next generation as well as to the people he meets while working at local farmers markets. He is also starting a private farm hoping to save and expand on some of the wild plants that were once a primary source of food for local cultures.
Don’t miss an episode!
Click here to sign up for weekly podcast updates
or visit www.urbanfarm.org/podcast
Mark is a Wildcrafter extraordinaire. Wildcraft harvesting provides ¾ of his family’s food supply on a daily basis, additionally Mark demonstrates sustainable foraging of 200 indigenous plants and 50 mushrooms at Phoenix area farmers markets, universities, schools, and regional conferences.
Mark is now embarking on a new endeavor The Farm – growing 100 of the plants that he wildcrafts, introducing them and their culinary potential to area chefs, and sharing them and a library of First Nations’ language ethnobotanical materials with the native American Communities.
Go to www.urbanfarm.org/foragersclub for more information and links on this podcast, and to find our other great guests.
Finding healing in gardening and peace in helping others grow healthy foods.
In This Podcast: Uprooted as a very young child with her widowed mother from a familiar routine to a chaotic new and foreign world across an ocean, Lee Stewart eventually found healing and health through her gardening hobbies. It made sense that she eventually focused on a career of health and wellness, and it was even more natural for her to find ways to help others start gardening at home so they can find the same healing she did.
Don’t miss an episode!
Click here to sign up for weekly podcast updates
or visit www.urbanfarm.org/podcast
Lee, the owner of Veg Up Get Dirty was only 4 years old when she made the 2-year journey from Vietnam to the United States. She has been gardening since she came to the US, and believes in the health benefits that come from clean eating.
She is a certified personal trainer, corporate wellness coach, and has over 15 years’ experience in nutrition and the health and wellness fields. She knows the importance of gardening, clean eating, and is passionate about educating others about the many health benefits of gardening.
Go to www.urbanfarm.org/vegupgetdirty for more information and links on this podcast, and to find our other great guests.
Recognizing the feminine nature within all and how this benefits farming.
In This Podcast: Seeking out the things that felt the most important and right to her sent Karen Lanier on a journey through several states and quite a few learning adventures. Earning a degree in Environmental Documentation kept her circling around natural surroundings and she found herself with the opportunity to interview women farmers about their experiences and insights. Her reflections and awareness that are worthwhile to any farmer regardless of gender is shared in her new book The Woman Hobby Farmer.
Don’t miss an episode!
Click here to sign up for weekly podcast updates
or visit www.urbanfarm.org/podcast
Karen is a naturalist, documentarian, teacher, artist, and gardener who explores the interconnections of nature and culture. She holds degrees in photography, foreign language, conservation studies, and documentary studies as well as a professional environmental educator certificate. She worked as a seasonal park ranger in state and national parks across the US before settling in Kentucky and her Americore volunteer experience with Seedleaf, a community gardening nonprofit. This experience helped her shift her migratory perspective on life toward putting down roots.
Karen writes a regular column for Hobby Farms online magazine. She edited and co-authored the book, Wildlife in Your Garden (Lumina, 2016), and authored the book, The Woman Hobby Farmer (Fox Chapel, 2017).
Go to www.urbanfarm.org/kalacreative for more information and links on this podcast, and to find our other great guests.
Learning about how food gets to our tables and where it comes from.
In This Podcast:
Serendipity was in play when Greg waived a stranger to his table during a conference and met another farming related podcaster named Rodger Wasson. Rodger has spent the last several decades gaining experience and contacts in a variety of farming areas, from the fields to the markets, the advertising offices to policy making ones, and many versions of radio and television as well. The theme in his life appears to be him making a difference in this community of growing food.
Don’t miss an episode!
Click here to sign up for weekly podcast updates
or visit www.urbanfarm.org/podcast
Rodger is a graduate of Illinois State University and a food and agriculture veteran. He comes from a family with five generations of American farming in their blood. And although he was the first to leave their Central Illinois grain and livestock farm, he’s continually works for and with farmers though-out America and around the world. He has managed State, National and International Councils and Boards for agricultural industries covering over a dozen commodities.
Rodger is presently building a consulting firm Idea Farming Inc., and his ‘Farm to Table Talk’ podcasts have been created for anyone interested in their individual journey within the food movement, the modern food system, and the stories behind our every bite.
Go to www.urbanfarm.org/farmtotabletalk for more information
Tailoring a green build project to address food insecurity, nutrition, and other community needs.
In This Podcast: Diana Cuy-Castellanos and Stephen Mackell share the story of Lincoln Hill Garden, a 5-acre community green space that was built on the site of a demolished public school. This property is serving the community with gardens, an urban farm, and a natural playground. They share the background of how three organizations came together and listened to the community to build a project to fit the community as well as provide much needed assistance with healthy local produce.
Don’t miss an episode!
Click here to sign up for weekly podcast updates
or visit www.urbanfarm.org/podcast
Diana holds a Ph.D in nutrition and food systems and is a registered dietitian teaching courses in community nutrition and food justice at the University of Dayton. Her research interests include community-based participatory research, food insecurity and food environments.
Stephen started volunteering for Mission of Mary Cooperative as an undergraduate at the University of Dayton and joined the staff full-time as the production and operations manager after completing his bachelor's degree in economics and philosophy. He is also the founder of Compost Dayton, a company working to expand food scrap composting efforts by city of Dayton residents.
Together they have been working on Lincoln Hill Garden, a sustainable, multipurpose urban agriculture and community green space within Dayton’s Twin Towers Neighborhood. This five-acre site, located among the residents it will serve, is being transformed with educational and recreational elements that increase neighborhood access to fresh, healthy foods and offers open green space for community gatherings and nature play.
Go to www.urbanfarm.org/daytongardens for more information and links on this podcast, and to find our other great guests.
Building and blending the communities of sustainability and social justice in one event.
In This Podcast: Sean-Paul tells us how he found his purpose with the community of sustainability and traveling the world learning and understanding from movements and people all over. He landed at Arcosanti just north of Phoenix and is now working to help merge the communities of sustainability and social justice. He shares Arcosanti with us and then introduces the Convergence event happening over the second weekend in November. There is so much happening you need to hear him explain it to even get a taste of it all.
Don’t miss an episode!
Click here to sign up for weekly podcast updates
or visit www.urbanfarm.org/podcast
Sean-Paul is an urbanist and community developer with a degree in planning & sustainability from the University of New Mexico. He is concerned with growing resilient food systems, and advancing ideas of good urban design. As an event producer and community organizer, his work facilitates civic engagement, conflict resolution, and social justice. Contemporary social, environmental, and economic injustice inspire Sean-Paul to join arms with activists and cultural catalysts of all varieties and from all backgrounds. His goal is to bend and blend movements together to embody and expound a new urban/social paradigm.
Go to www.urbanfarm.org/arcosanti for more information and links on this podcast, and to find our other great guests.
A chat with a farmer about her transition from the city girl.
In This Bonus Podcast: Returning guest Scottie Jones is back to talk about her new book and making a transition back to the simple life. She shares a bit about how the inspiration came to write the story of this adventure to start farming. She also tells why she opened her farm up to vacationers looking for a taste of the country life, and how that has helped her farm. And, we get an excerpt reading from her new book!
Don’t miss an episode!
Click here to sign up for weekly podcast updates
Scottie lived in Arizona for a while where she worked at Arizona State University for over a decade. Then she and her husband gave up the busy urban life by moving to Oregon, starting Leaping Lamb Farm and becoming sheep farmers. She loved this lifestyle very much and has opened her home to visiting families through her other passion of Farm Stays. This journey and the transition to a farming lifestyle became the basis for her new book Country Grit, A Farmoir of Finding Purpose and Love through Skyhorse Publishing. It describes their first years on the farm: the mistakes, the drama, the community, and what it’s like to adopt the farming lifestyle if that’s not where you’re from.
Go to www.urbanfarm.org/countrygrit for more information and links on this bonus podcast, and to find our other great guests.
Digging into the invisible structure behind
The Urban Farm.
In This Podcast: Running any successful business or project requires some good help behind the scenes. This is true for The Urban Farm as well, and Janis Norton is one of the people who help Greg Peterson manage his dreams to change the local food system, create 10,000 seed banks in the local area, plant 100,000 fruit trees, and empower others to grow their own food. She shares about the surprise of finding her place in this non-stem field, the rewarding role of helping her community build its resilience, and opens up about some challenges of starting her own urban farm.
Don’t miss an episode!
Click here to sign up for weekly podcast updates
or visit www.urbanfarm.org/podcast
Janis earned her degree in Sustainability from Arizona State University. Her previous experience in working classrooms, running youth programs, and Boy Scout Council Training and Camp leadership were all community and education focused. However, she did not realize how much she could do with the local food system until her Sustainable Food and Farms class. A class she took as a lark, since she had no interest in growing food. Soon after that class she became motivated to learn all she could about gardening and urban farming while using her organization and project management skills to help facilitate a couple of the Urban Farm’s larger events.
From that point on, she has been an active part of the Urban Farm core team as the Program Manager as well as the Podcast Producer. She is bringing her enthusiasm and cheerful attitude to her projects at the Farm especially the Urban Farm Nursery’s Fruit Tree Program and the Urban Farm Podcast, as well as partner projects like the Great American Seed-Up and the Permaculture Design Course in Phoenix.
Go to www.urbanfarm.org/jarvis for more information and links on this podcast, and to find our other great guests.
Identifying the nutrients that your body needs.
In This Podcast: A pre-med organic chemistry class showed Joy Stephenson-Laws that she was not on the right path. She did not waste that pre-med education as she now fights for patients’ rights as a health care attorney. She also tells us why she started the non-profit health information company Proactive Health Labs to help people understand what is happening in their bodies with their nutrition. An often-overlooked aspect of nutrition is the minerals in the foods and she explains why this is an important part of getting and staying healthy.
Don’t miss an episode!
Click here to sign up for weekly podcast updates
or visit www.urbanfarm.org/podcast
In both her personal and professional life, Joy is dedicated to enhancing consumer health and positively impacting the health care industry in the United States. She is the founding and managing partner of Stephenson, Acquisto & Colman, the health care industry’s premier litigation law firm. She is also the founder of Proactive Health Labs (www.phlabs.org), a national non-profit health information company that provides education and tools needed to achieve optimal health.
Joy just published her first book Minerals - The Forgotten Nutrient: Your Secret Weapon for Getting and Staying Healthy. Her passion for motivating people to proactively protect their health comes from her personal experience of losing loved ones, colleagues and friends to diseases which, had they been diagnosed early enough and treated more effectively, could either have been controlled or cured.
Go to www.urbanfarm.org/phlabs for more information and links on this podcast, and to find our other great
Keeping backyard chickens healthy through simple steps.
In This Podcast: Sometimes helping a neighbor out can truly change your life in ways you never expected. Kathy Shea-Mormino changed her path from attorney to now running a successful business sharing advice through her Facebook page and blog about raising chickens. She says keeping backyard chickens should not be over-complicated and shares her simple steps to keeping the hens happy and healthy.
Don’t miss an episode!
Click here to sign up for weekly podcast updates
or visit www.urbanfarm.org/podcast
Known as The Chicken Chick, Kathy brings an informative style and fresh perspective on raising backyard chickens to millions of fans around the world. An attorney by profession, Kathy is the founder and one-woman creative force behind her wildly popular and award-winning Facebook page and blog, The-Chicken-Chick.com.
Her practical approach and sense of humor allows her to connect, educate and share an appreciation for keeping chickens as family pets as well as for their eggs. With a following of over 700,000 Facebook fans, she has become the person folks interested in keeping chickens, go to for information, advice and fun! She is also the author of the bestselling book The Chicken Chicks Guide to Backyard Chickens, Simple steps for healthy Happy Hens by Voyager Press.
Go to www.urbanfarm.org/thechickenchick for more information and links on this podcast, and to find our other great guests.
Enriching the community, becoming the next generation of hope.
In This Podcast: We meet the well-spoken farm manager Casey Holland who explains why she cares so much about her community and providing healthy food to her customers. She also introduces us to the National Young Farmers Coalition and tells us what they have been doing in her area. She has gained a lot of wisdom in a short amount of time as a farmer, and her vision and drive gives us a lot of hope for the future.
Don’t miss an episode!
Click here to sign up for podcast updates
or visit www.urbanfarm.org/podcast
Casey is a native New Mexican and young farmer committed to affecting positive social change around small-scale sustainable agriculture in the Rio Grande Valley. She graduated in 2012 from the University of New Mexico with dual degrees in Psychology / Peace Studies, and Sociology. As a requirement for her minor she did an internship with the SouthWest Organizing Project's: Project Feed the Hood. There, she found her calling when she realized the importance of the way in which our food is produced in addressing many of the issues we face locally, nationally, and globally.
In 2015, she started organizing with the local chapter of the National Young Farmers Coalition, which provided her numerous opportunities to speak with government officials and learn about policies that impact her community. Since then she strives to make access to nutritious, enriching food more affordable for underprivileged families and helping her community reconnect to its agricultural roots & culture.
Go to www.urbanfarm.org/casey for more information and links on this podcast, and to find our other great guests.
Growing quality grapes and wines in the Grand Canyon State.
In This Podcast: At a point in their lives where they were ready for something new, Peggy Fiandaca and her husband decided to take their interest in wines to the next level. They decided to become vintners to make high quality wine and got serious about it. Now they have a 40 acres winery and a wine tasting gallery. She explains some of the wine growing history for the state and even some of the processes that vintners use to make wines. Like everything they do, they do it with style!
Don’t miss an episode!
Click here to sign up for weekly podcast updates
or visit www.urbanfarm.org/podcast
After a slight detour through urban planning, Peggy found her true calling in growing and producing wines. With her Italian family heritage and a grandfather that produced alcohols during prohibition, this path was in her ‘vines’ so-to-speak.
She and her husband Curt Dunham own a vineyard in south eastern Arizona and the LDV Wine Gallery in Scottsdale, Arizona. Here she enjoys watching someone taste wine and identify the flavor characteristics for the first time, or examine a vine closely with a new appreciation for its role in producing that wine. Peggy has served two terms as the President of the Arizona Wine Growers Association, which represents wineries and vineyards statewide, and she cares deeply about all the vineyards in the state.
Go to www.urbanfarm.org/ldvwines for more information and links on this podcast, and to find our other great guests.
Bringing healthy food and education to urban tables through community engagement.
In This Podcast: Creating a successful community health hub is no small feat, and Emily Mickley-Doyle has been part of doing just that in her part of New Orleans using an empty grocery store building, a desire to teach others how to grow food, and some fabulous ideas. The space now has several programs including a community garden, a teaching kitchen for doctors, a farmers market, and programs for the community youth to learn gardening and cooking skills. SPROUT NOLA is amazing, inspiring, and basically EPIC!
Don’t miss an episode!
Click here to sign up for weekly podcast updates
or visit www.urbanfarm.org/podcast
Emily earned her degree in Sociology from Loyola University New Orleans in 2008. In 2011, she cofounded SPROUT NOLA, an urban farming organization that spreads the love of growing fresh, healthy food through community engagement and outreach, partnerships with local food vendors and food justice organizations, hands-on training programs, and advocacy.
SPROUT NOLA grows market gardens throughout New Orleans, publicly advocates for sustainable agriculture, and coordinates the ReFresh Community Farm and market, a teaching garden that is located at the ReFresh Project. The garden offers educational resources to community members about home gardening and facilitates an on-site community garden where neighbors can grow and harvest food for themselves.
Go to www.urbanfarm.org/sproutnola for more information and links on this podcast, and to find our other great guests.