The Urban Farm Podcast With Greg Peterson

An August 2017 Q&A session with two experts on Gardening and Fruit TreesJake 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. This is the August 2017 Q&A episode with a variety of questions addressed from planning for planting, building healthy soil, and much more.Go to https://www.urbanfarm.org/2017/09/11/bonus-episode-6/ 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   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 F

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.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 t

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. 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 sustainabl

            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!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 Co

Making gardening easier through a series of simple shortcuts, and changing your life through gardening.In This Podcast: Initially we thought this might be an episode that focused on gardening hacks, and Shawna Coronado has over 100 hacks to share, so we did get to hear some cool ideas. Yet there was so much more to the conversation as important mindsets to help make gardening and life in general less stressful and more enjoyable became a topic that stole the show.  Her infectious attitude is sure to help put you at ease and might help you focus on the things you love too!Shawna is an author, columnist, blogger, photographer, and spokesperson for organic gardening, green lifestyle living, and culinary preparation, as wells as and avid campaigner for social good. Her goal in authoring gardening and green lifestyle books is to promote a world initiative to encourage healthy and sustainable living. Shawna was featured as a Chicago Tribune "Remarkable Woman" and speaks internationally on building communi

Using native plants to creatively interact with wildlife and avoid landscaping conflicts.In This Podcast: If you are a person who really cares about all wildlife and creatures great and small then it probably bothers you a lot if an animal is killed through human carelessness.  This is the podcast for you.  Nancy Lawson writes about smart gardening choices that can reduce the problems of invasive animals and insects, thereby reducing the need to cull or harm bothersome animals.  Even if you are not particularly protective of animals, she has ideas that can help reduce problematic visits and save your garden plants and veggies.Nancy is a columnist for All Animals magazine, as well as the founder of Humane Gardener - an outreach initiative dedicated to cultivating compassion for all creatures great and small through animal-friendly, environmentally-sensitive landscaping methods.She speaks frequently to local & national audiences, and volunteers as both a master naturalist and master gardener

Helping one city understand the realities of food insecurity.In This Podcast: Finishing her master’s degree required a semester project and Cindy Tran’s had fallen through since the city food policy she was going to evaluate had not been passed yet. Realizing the city leaders either did not fully understand what food security was or how significant the issue of food insecurity was for their own citizens, she developed a new project to fix this.  Cindy spent her semester gathering all the evidence, including what city already commissioned, and helped frame it in a report that convinced them there was an issue and that it could be tackled. This helped the city take action and the resulting food system strategy is one worth emulating in many other cities.Cindy completed a Bachelor of Biomedicine degree at the University of Melbourne with a major in Pathology and matured her quantitative research skills at the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute as a research student. She subsequently completed her Masters

Inspiring creativity in communities everywhere.In This Podcast: It was a lucky find that inspired Margret Aldrich to change her direction and motivated her to write a book about how the finding or creating that same thing has affected many others. The Little Free Library project is going worldwide and with each little one there is more community building, inspiration ignited, and enlightenment coming to pass. Learn how you can partake of this through the Little Free Library Movement!Margret is the author of The Little Free Library Book through Coffee House Press, and has published her work with The Atlantic, The Huffington Post, Experience Life, and beyond.  From Little Free Libraries to tiny houses, integrative medicine to introverted kids, digital detoxing to co-op bookstores, her writing hunts for happiness, community, and what makes humans thrive.A former editor at Utne Reader, longtime book editor, and seasoned news producer, Margret is now the

Building a business on the tiniest greens.In This Podcast: As a young adult with an unfocused passion, Joseph Martinez was looking for something that he could feel good doing.  His travels gave him little nudges in the right direction, but things did not really come clear until he decided to start a business with his brother and got some unexpected advice from a client. Just a few years later, they have a thriving business growing microgreens and he’s loving the difference he is making and the meaningfulness that exists in his life.Joseph is a co-founder of Arizona Microgreens, an urban farm in Phoenix which produces microgreens for restaurants, schools, and individuals throughout the state of Arizona. Using a DIY approach of starting small and growing incrementally, Joseph and his brother built their start-up from a 200-square-foot self-built greenhouse, to a social enterprise model operating out of a 13,000-square-foot greenhouse today.Initially focused on the fine-dining market, Arizona Microgree

Bonus Episode 5: Seed Chat July 2017A chat with experts on Seeds, Bill McDorman and Julia Coffey. In This BONUS Podcast:Bill McDorman brings a friend and fellow seed enthusiast Julia Coffey to the chat to help explain about running a seed business.  Together they talk to Greg about being a seed grower, germination testing, maintaining seed projects,  running a seed business and much more in this the July 2017 episode of Seed School Chat. Julia Coffey is the president of Seeds Trust: an incredible company dedicated to encouraging customers to save seeds and reverse the loss of biodiversity not only in our backyards but around the world. She is from Denver, Colorado and when not measuring out seeds, printing packets, growing tomatoes, hunting down the most resilient and special seed varieties, she likes to take full advantage of the magnificent swath of Rocky Mountains by hiking, backpacking, climbing, and breathing fresh air. She likes to sing and is a member of the Colorado choir, an 80s a cap

Meeting the first 'Poultry Personality' of Backyard Poultry.In This Podcast: His hobby of raising chickens developed into helping others succeed in raising their own. This led Andy Schneider into becoming the first well known "poultry personality" in the world of backyard poultry and eventually running a business that he loves.  He uses this notoriety to help correct misinformation through science and fact.Better known as The Chicken Whisperer, Andy has become the go-to guy for anything chicken related. He has helped countless people start their own backyard flocks and has assisted in changing more laws around the country to allow backyard chickens than anyone else.  He is a well-known radio personality as the host of the Backyard Poultry with The Chicken Whisperer radio show, as well as the Editor-in-Chief of Chicken Whisperer Magazine, the&

Covering some basic questions about making cheese at homeIn This Podcast: Having a small dairy farm is very helpful if you are going to make cheese at home, and Gianaclis Caldwell shares some of the truths she collected as she learned to make her own cheeses.  She helps explain some of the differences between common cheeses as well as how slight changes in the process can change the resulting cheese.  Gianaclis is the main cheese-maker, milker and owner of Pholia Farm, a licensed dairy located on 24 acres in southern Oregon.  Her farm is well known for its artisan, aged raw milk cheeses; as well as classes on small-dairy, goat husbandry, and cheese-making at all levels.Her book, Mastering Artisan Cheesemaking by Chelsea Green Publishing, has received praise and awards from all levels of the cheese world for her writing and photography. Go to https://www.urbanfarm.org/2017/08/17/275-gianaclis-caldwell/ for more information and links on this podcast, and to find our

Working together with other small farms to provide farm goods to a local economy.In This Podcast: Not having enough eggs to keep her farm stand stocked, Deb Kolaras reached out to a couple neighboring small farms to add their products to hers. What has developed is a successful honor based farm stand that neighbors shop to find their fresh produce, eggs and cheeses. Using her marketing background she is focusing a local economy to support small farmers.  Trading her digital marketing agency in Boulder, Colorado, for a small farm in rural Virginia, Deb and her husband set out to expand their backyard hobby farming into a slightly larger and more sustainable homestead.  While restoring a 1907 farmhouse, they’re raising chickens & goats, and selling the food products at their roadside honor farm-stand.Other local micro farms also sell produce and goods in Deb’s farm stand as she is working to help improve her local microeconomy by networki

Buzzing through some basics on bees, hives and honey.In This Podcast:  Starting from a bucket list item on her boyfriend's wall, Hilary Kearney jumped into the world of beekeeping and found her passion.  She teaches us some basics about bees, beekeeping, and the honey that they produce.  She also shares some tips for new beekeepers including some highlights of introducing new queens to a hive.  If you've had an interest in beekeeping, this might just help you jump in too!Hilary owns and operates Girl Next Door Honey, and is a full-time beekeeper in her home town of San Diego, California where she provides educational opportunities for hundreds of new beekeepers each year. She is the author of the blog Beekeeping Like A Girl and maintains a popular Instagram account with over 42,000 followers around the world who are inspired by her beekeeping exploits and unique business model.  When she’s not rescuing bee hives, teaching classes, photographing bees or managing one of her sixty c

Motivating the necessary people to create and maintain a lasting grade school garden program.In This Podcast:  A class project for her community college biology students to create a school garden at an elementary school challenged Lori Rose to move from the theoretical world to the epic one she has created for the local grade schools in her community. The tricky part was that she did not know how to garden at the time. She did not let that stop her, and it built into an amazing and EPIC new program at her college. Her lessons learned on how to make a school garden project that lasts are valuable indeed. Lori is a college instructor for biology, nutrition, herbal and wellness classes, as well as a board-certified nutrition professional & holistic nutrition consultant, registered herbalist, and holistic health coach.  She also created, developed, and instructs in, the Hill College Holistic Wellness Pathway program in Cleburne, Texas. Lori is a wife & mot

Learning the identity and uses for common plants growing wild in North America.In This Podcast: Sharing her knowledge about wild herbs and plants is exactly what Brigitte Mars wants to do and she used modern technology to reach this goal. After an inspiring walk with a couple of Navy Seals, she focused on making a new mobile app specifically to help identify wild plants and educate on their uses and dangers if any.  She shares with us some common plant and what they are useful for along with a few suggestions on how to protect plants in your areas. Brigitte is an herbalist and nutritional consultant of Natural Health with almost fifty years of experience.  She is also the author of more than a dozen books and DVDs. However, today we are most interested in her mobile app for wild plant reference called iPlant.She teaches Herbal Medicine at Naropa University, and The School of Health Mastery in Iceland and has taught at Esalen, Kripalu, the Arise Festival and Mayo Clinic.Brigitte is the auth

Bonus Episode 4: Ask Jake and Greg. A July 2017 Q&A session with two experts on Gardening and Fruit Trees.In This BONUS Podcast: 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.  This is the JULY 2017 Q&A episode with a variety of questions addressed from planning for planting, building healthy soil, and much more. Go to https://www.urbanfarm.org/2017/08/07/bonus-episode-4-ask-jake-and-greg/ for more information and links on this bonus podcast, and to find our other great guests.

Improving results in your garden through planning and record keeping.In This Podcast: Putting a brand new edible landscape together for homeowners and even apartment communities in the Seattle area is just another work day for Colin McCrate, and he loves it.  So, after several years and many gardens built & maintained, he has learned a thing or two about how to improve the production of vegetables.  He helps explain some of that here and shares a few of his tips and techniques. Colin has been growing food organically for the past 15 years.  He worked on a variety of small farms in the Midwest before moving to the west coast in 2003 to teach garden-based environmental education.  He quickly realized that Washington is the most beautiful state in the Union, and has been farming, teaching and designing landscapes there ever since.  He founded the Seattle Urban Farm Company in January of 2007 and still looks forward to planting potatoes every spring.  Colin is the author of

Spreading Education and support about an oft dismissed, yet devastating disease.In This Podcast: There is a disease spreading across the United States and other countries, unchecked and in many cases dismissed or ignored, at great physical, emotional and financial cost.  Sarah Schlichte Sanchez was infected in a state that supposedly did not have Lyme disease, so getting answers and help was almost impossible.  Now she spends much of her time helping others who need support and information about this ruthless illness. She shares her story here.Sarah contracted Lyme Disease as a teenager, however it took 17 years of pain and suffering before she received an accurate diagnosis.  Since starting treatment at the age of 37, she has devoted her time to help others cope with the daily struggles of living with a chronic illness.  She is an author, speaker, and entrepreneur, and together with her husband Aaron, produces a regular podcast called LymeVoice. Go to https://www.urbanfarm.org/2017/0