The Urban Farm Podcast with Greg Peterson

Bringing permaculture education to city dwellers.In This Podcast: After realizing teaching was not her passion, Amy Stross was looking for something to excite her and fill her need for a purpose. She found both of these when she started growing food and writing about her journey. Embracing permaculture into her gardening and her life, she realized how the techniques could benefit others, so of course she shared! Here is her story and a bonus at the end for Urban Farm Podcast listenersAmy is a permaculture gardener, writer, educator, and author of The Suburban Micro-Farm, with a varied background in home-scale food production. As a permaculture designer, she specializes in ecologically regenerative and productive landscapes. Her own front yard landscape is a thriving example, catching water from the roof and growing a variety of edible crops.Her current adventure is transforming a 3-acre property into a micro-farm with her husband and mischievous farm cat. She reaches hundreds of thousands of people with her expertise and adventures in small-scale permaculture gardening on her popular website, TenthAcreFarm.com.Her new book The Suburban Micro-Farm: Modern Solutions for Busy People, is published through Twisted Creek Press and Distributed by our friends at Chelsea Green PublishingGo to https://www.urbanfarm.org/2018/07/14/367-amy-stross/ for more information and links on this podcast, and to find our other great guests.

Bringing gardening experts together in one event.In This Podcast: Sharing is caring, growing, empowering, and a natural part of the food growing community and Stacey Murphy brings several amazing members of the food growing community together in one online summit about Gardening! She explains what the Garden Hack Summit is and why you need to be a part of it this year. Stacey has helped thousands of new gardeners from six continents grow vegetables and herbs in small spaces, so they can enjoy fresh, affordable vegetables and live a healthy, happy life. She walks eager growers through her holistic garden system, showing what to grow, when and where. Stacey is a garden geek, growing food since 1979, and her superpower is packing, literally, tons of food into tight spaces.Dozens of her students who trained at her backyard urban farm in Brooklyn have gone on to start their own homesteads, gardens & farms. Featured on Martha Stewart Radio and PBS’s Growing a Greener World, Stacey believes growing food organically is the best health plan for people, communities, and the earth. You can find her at GrowYourOwnVegetables.org and don't forget to sign up to receive her best gardening tips and strategies.Go to https://www.urbanfarm.org/2018/07/10/366-stacey-murphy/ for more information and links on this podcast, and to find our other great guests.

Finding bounties of flavor hidden in plain sight.In This Podcast:It was more mostly just to keep herself busy that Sar Bir went to culinary school, and afterward she still found herself trying lots of new things. So it is not a surprise to hear that she stumbled upon fruit trees in the wild and learned she had an interest in foraging. She shares some of the important things to think about when foraging, and how foraging and gleaning can help you meet some of your neighbors.Sara is a seasoned chef, gardener, forager, and author.  She graduated from The Culinary Institute of America and prefers to create recipes that draw on her professional skills set yet are realistic for home cooks.Sara’s writing has been featured in Saveur, Edible Ohio Valley, two Full Grown People anthologies, as well as on several websites. Her book The Fruit Forager's Companion is published through our friends at Chelsea Green PublishingGo to https://www.urbanfarm.org/2018/07/07/365-sara-bir/ for more information and links on this podcast, and to find our other great guests.

Enjoying a good meal cooked with great food.In This Podcast:When you are passionate about getting a good meal from locally grown farms into your home, you have some technology experience, and you are community minded, it is likely that you’d create your own app to make this happen for others. After you are done, why not make short films about some of these experiences? Roza Ferdowsmakan has developed an app to create Farm-to-Table experiences for the benefit of foodies, chefs and farmers; then she created a film series allowing others to have a sample taste of what the experience is like.  We learn why this is an ethos driven app, and how this is helping the three key players in a great meal.Roza’s goal is to change the way people connect with food, with their communities, and with the earth. As a tech company founder, she created a community-driven, farm-to-table mobile app called bites which launched officially in February of 2018. She also developed two new, related film projects as well as a mural project promoting farm-to-table experiences.Foodie + chef is an indie film series, where she interviews chefs while they hang out in her kitchen and give her a farm-to-table dining experience.Farm Talk is another indie film series, featuring tours of local farms with conversations about who they are, how they do what they do, and what the farmers grow.Go to https://www.urbanfarm.org/2018/07/03/364-roza-ferdowsmakan/ for more information and links on this podcast, and to find our other great guests.

Finding healing through farming and growing healthy food.In This Podcast: Coming home from deployment is hard enough without adding a significant disease to the mix, yet this is what propelled Stepheni Norton and her husband to make substantial changes in what they ate.  From there, they started growing their own healthier food on a portion of their new property and then started offering it to their community.  This developed into their farming business and CSA and more. It’s almost enough to make you want to move to her town so you can participate! Stepheni is a retired Chief Petty Officer and decorated military Veteran with almost 20 years of hands-on entrepreneurial experience.  She’s the co-owner and founding farmer of National City’s Dickinson Farm & Dickinson Larder. Her journey to heirloom farming began when she purchased the Wallace Dickinson House while she was deployed with the U.S. Coast Guard Port Security Detachment.Stepheni designed the Dickinson Farm, the first licensed farm in National City since the 1900s.  She launched Farmacy, a curated CSA and anti-inflammatory meal prep service designed for caregivers and patients receiving on-going out-patient care as well as for individuals and families on specialty diets.Go to https://www.urbanfarm.org/2018/06/30/363-stepheni-norton/ for more information and links on this podcast, and to find our other great guests.

Bonus Episode 18: Seed Saving Class May 2018. A chat with a seed expert about Why is Our Gut Messed Up.In This Bonus Podcast: Belly hurt? Have gut problems? Bill McDorman and Greg Peterson unpack one of the reasons you could be ailing and share the market explosion of heritage grains that are changing the way we eat and bake. And of course you will find out where to get these precious seeds. This is the May 2018 episode of a Seed Saving Class at Urban Farm U.Join the class! Register anytime for the next event.Register Here for the Seed Saving Class with Live Q&ABill 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 https://www.urbanfarm.org/2018/06/26/bonus18/ for show notes and links on this bonus podcast, and to find our other great guests.

Experimenting with bacteria and beverages.In This Podcast:Having first come across this drink at a cousin’s house and thinking there was something wrong with the odd beverage, it was not until much later - and with an appreciation for fermented foods - that Alex Lewin gave kombucha a real chance.  Now he has a real understanding of the process and teaches others how to make their own. We learn some chemistry, some fun tricks for additional flavor, and even what his new favorite drink as we chat with him.Alex grew up on the East Coast of the US.  In his evolving journey on the earth, he’s discovered that one of his gifts is the ability to co-exist side-by-side with friendly bacteria.  While others struggle with bacteria, Alex embraces them.Alex is the author of "Real Food Fermentation: Preserving Whole Fresh Food with Live Cultures in Your Home Kitchen" through Quarry Publishing, and the co-author of "Kombucha, Kefir, and Beyond" through Fair Winds Publishing.Go to https://www.urbanfarm.org/2018/06/23/362-alex-lewin/ for more information and links on this podcast, and to find our other great guests.

Digging up the story of a slow-food pioneer.In This Podcast: It must have been one well written obituary, because it stuck with Adam Federman and then after he found her book on his parents' shelves he wanted to know more about an almost forgotten culinary star. Ten years later and a treasure trove of writings uncovered, he released his biography of Patience Gray and brings her hidden history to light. Those who loved her book Honey From Weeds will love getting to know her better in his book Fasting and Feasting. He shares his story of finding hers, and leaves us hungry for more.Adam is a reporting fellow with the Investigative Fund at the Nation Institute covering energy and the environment. He has written for several publications including the Nation magazine, the Guardian, and Columbia Journalism Review. He is a former line cook, bread baker, and pastry chef.He has been a Russia Fulbright fellow, a Middlebury fellow in environmental journalism, and the recipient of a Polk grant for investigative reporting. Adam is the author of Fasting and Feasting: The Life of Visionary Food Writer Patience Gray, published through our friends at Chelsea Green.Go to https://www.urbanfarm.org/2018/06/19/361-adam-federman/ for more information and links on this podcast, and to find our other great guests.

Building local food systems through community markets.In This Podcast: She was not planning to be a Farmers Market Manager, but that where Sara Matlin ended up and she is passionate about her community. She tells about the Phoenix Public Market and how it has grown to over 100 vendors.  We also cover how growers can become vendors with their own booths and how they are supported by the market.  There are also opportunities for backyard growers to sell without having their own booth. www.urbanfarm.org/phxpublicmarketA native to the Phoenix Area, Sara is passionate about building community and supporting local businesses. Every Saturday you can find her running the downtown Phoenix Public Market managed through Community Food Connections, a nonprofit organization. This open-air market is open rain or shine, year-round. When she's not busy coordinating vendors or taking farm tours, she's hiking outdoors and exploring the small towns of the Southwest.Go to https://www.urbanfarm.org/2018/06/16/360-sara-matlin/ for more information and links on this podcast, and to find our other great guests.

Composting with nature's own army.In This Podcast:It was a common tilapia being released into the wild that had a profound effect on Keiran Olivares Whitaker. He realization on how ecosystems were being devastated by man’s actions prompted him to try and make a difference.  He’s also highly aware of the cost of food miles so he’s been working on a solution that helps in many ways and a method to help build it close to where it is needed.  All it takes is an army of single focused soldiers… soldier flies, that is.Keiran is the founder and CEO of Entocycle. He has a Masters in Environmental Design and Conservation, and while working as a scuba diving instructor he was fortunate enough to travel and visit some of the most beautiful places on earth. He saw first-hand the environmental damage that human development and current lifestyles are causing to these paradises.Convinced that we are killing our own planet, and that animal farming is the single most destructive activity humans have ever invented, he started Entocycle as an insect farming company using Black Soldier Flies to provide an alternative.Go to https://www.urbanfarm.org/2018/06/12/359-keiran-olivares-whitaker/ for more information and links on this podcast, and to find our other great guests.