Empowering the community by growing food together.
In This Podcast: It was his father’s inspiration and legacy that prompted Daniel Oladokun-Dybowski to start a community garden from scratch in a suburb of Phoenix. The work on the soil has already started after several huge donated loads of wood chips. And with the help of others in the community, he’s going to build a food forest that truly will benefit all that participate. It is not a simple task, but he’s up to the task of building a solution.
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Daniel is an urban gardener with big hopes of solving major world problems by focusing on his local community. He is an anthropologist and social worker aiming to lift marginalized people up and establish a source of free, healthy food alternatives through the community garden being built in Casa Grande, Arizona.
Daniel seeks to effectively empower disenfranchised and marginalized people in the community, by teaching those who come to the garden to grow their own food and use the resources around them. He wants to help a target population of children from broken homes, homeless, those suffering from serious mental illness, post-traumatic stress, and the public.
Go to www.urbanfarm.org/casagrande for more information and links on this podcast, and to find our other great guests.
387: Daniel Oladokun-Dybowski on A Community Garden in Casa Grande
Appreciating the histories of flowers.
In This Podcast: A delightful interview with a Chris McLaughlin as she helps us understand more about flowers and what they offer to us as gardeners and more. She even shares some tips on some of her favorites to grow.
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Chris is a Northern California writer and author who has had her hands in the soil for nearly 40 years. She's the author of seven books including, Growing Heirloom Flowers from our friends at Cool Springs Press, A Garden to Dye For and Vertical Vegetable Gardening.
Chris' work can also be found in several magazines including Urban Farm Magazine, and The Heirloom Gardener Magazine. Online, she's written for a variety of gardening sites including Vegetable Gardener.com, Fine Gardening.com, and About.com. Chris and her family live on a flower and fiber farm in the Northern California foothills, where they grow flowers, fruit, vegetables and Angora goats.
Go to www.urbanfarm.org/flowersink for more information and links on this podcast, and to find our other great guests.
Bonus Episode 20: Seed Saving Class August 2018.
A chat with a seed expert about
Sourcing Seeds
In This Bonus Podcast: Finding good sources for seeds can be challenging especially if you are particular about their story or their genetics. This is the August 2018 episode of a Seed Saving Class - Bill McDorman discusses the process of sourcing seeds and selecting seeds that can help you feel confident in your selections, 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/bonus20 for more information and links on this bonus podcast, and to find our other great guests.
Assisting our food-growing veterans who feed their communities.
In This Podcast:
Rachel Petitt is part of a group that has the mission to help veterans who want to be farmers. This has translated into several grant and resource projects that are empowering veterans to build their farms. She tells about how she started and what the organization is offering veterans all across the country.
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Rachel worked on small-scale farms for six years after earning a degree from UC Santa Cruz in community studies with a focus on food systems. During her time in the field, she learned the intricacies of harvesting okra without getting itchy, collecting 600 eggs without cracking any, and bunching kale with one hand. Rachel currently manages the Fellowship Program at the Farmer Veteran Coalition.
The Fellowship Program enables veterans to invest in the infrastructure and tools they need to feed their community. Here, Rachel administers grants that support veteran farmers in their new careers.
Go to www.urbanfarm.org/veteranfarmers for more information and links on this podcast, and to find our other great guests.
Reducing food waste and feeding plants at the same time.
In This Podcast: He grew up on a farm, and as a teenager he thought he needed to do something more than just take care of the cows. Josh Krenz went to college, found his way into marketing, and was learning the business end of farming and multi-national distribution. Eventually he decided to refocus his priorities a little closer to home that also made a difference. He tells us about creating an organic fertilizer using grocery store waste and optimized with a specialized metrics system.
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Josh is the CEO and founder of Vivid Life Sciences, a plant physiology company offering LIFEFORCE as one of their brand products. He knows the business of farming from both sides — from large-scale sophistication and multi-national distribution with companies like Land O’ Lakes, to boot-strapping startups.
Farmer Josh follows his heart when tending to his Highland cattle, organizing trips to the farm for local schools and charity events, or helping with his wife’s veterinary clinic. At the same time, he calculates his path forward with a head for business and a vision to bring more sustainability and performance to plant nutrition. He has worked in the fertilizer business a long time and is focusing on trying to reduce food waste by re-purposing it into fertilizer.
Go to www.urbanfarm.org/lifeforce for more information and links on this podcast, and to find our other great guests.
Building history with six generations on the same homestead.
In This Podcast:
She and her husband bought his parents’ home and she thought it was just going to be temporary until she could get a place out in the country. Now Lynn McMahon is able to share her gratitude to her grandchildren and with us for the special connection to family and history on this homestead. Even the plants and trees help connect multiple generations together in this EPIC story of multiple generations on the same homestead.
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Lynn lives with her husband Mike and their Walker Coonhound on their family's 128-year-old urban farm homestead bought by her husband’s great grandfather in 1890 on the outskirts of town. They are the 4th generation living in the house and growing food on a small city lot. They’ve raised 4 children there and now with 8 grandchildren visiting, the 6th generation is connected to the very same land.
Go to www.urbanfarm.org/groverfamilyhomestead for more information and links on this podcast, and to find our other great guests.
Witnessing the power of growing food for a community.
In This Podcast:
It was both a desire to share the gardening experience his grandfather gave him, and the lack of space in his home for anything that could produce enough food for his family that prompted Elias Martinez to start dreaming of a way to provide fresh greens to those who did not have easy access to garden space. His natural inclination to innovate solutions has helped him create a plan for an EPIC style of community garden – indoors! He shares that and more with us.
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Elias grew up around urban farming & gardening in a rough part Miami called Opa-Lock-a. He is the son of immigrant parents who left Cuba & the Dominican Republic for political and opportunity reasons. As a child and teenager, he was introduced to urban farming and gardening by his grandfather, who fled Cuba during the Castro regime.
Elias witnessed the power that growing food for the community can have after his mother presented neighbors with fresh fruits and vegetables grown in their garden. He started Kubed Root to create an ecosystem in which people can grow their own food and make money from it with little to no barriers to entry.
Go to www.urbanfarm.org/kubedroot for more information and links on this podcast, and to find our other great guests.
Studying microbiology in soil and its relationship to plant life.
In This Podcast:
There was no one person who set Derex Zellars on a path towards being a microbiologist, but through observing his environment that he developed his enthusiasm. He shares why soil microbiology is so fascinating to him, and why the expectations we have about using fertilizers are leading us away from the truth.
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Derex holds a Bachelor of Science in Environmental Sciences from The University of Texas at San Antonio. He has over 13 years of combined experience in the fields of Environmental Microbiology, chemistry and bioremediation. He holds two patents related to these fields and one of his published a journal articles is on the studies of microalgae after herbicide treatments.
Go to www.urbanfarm.org/hykreations2 for more information and links on this podcast, and to find our other great guests.