The Urban Farm Podcast with Greg Peterson

195: Cricket Aldridge on Suburban Homesteading.Finding personal euphoria in your own backyard.Cricket is natural homesteader. Growing up in rural Idaho with a garden, a horse, and lots of home canned food, she brings those sensibilities to her suburban home in Phoenix. Add a little dose of cottage garden flavor and permaculture tendencies, and you’ll see why her blog, GardenVariety.Life is a reflection of everything she does.  Cricket enjoys sharing skills that promote a meaningful and practical connection to our gardens and environment. Because so many residents of the metro Phoenix area are transplants like her, she finds that the area’s unique desert climate is often misunderstood and underestimated in terms of what is possible. That’s where the fun begins. Arizona is a burgeoning permaculture haven with homesteading written all over it, and there is nothing Cricket enjoys more than encouraging others to jump in and give it a try.In this podcast: Fellow permaculturist and gardener Cricket Aldridge joins Greg in the studio to talk about her urban farm and how much she loves everything about it. She tells about some of her favorite aspects and what she’s able to grow or make from her harvests, from canning to mead making and many other things besides.Go to https://www.urbanfarm.org/2017/02/11/cricket-aldridge/ for more information, photos and links on this podcast and our other great guests.

194: Kate Miller on Bioregional Herbal Medicine.Sourcing herbs and plants in the local ecosystems for health.Kate is a bioregional community herbalist, medicinal herb grower, & Permaculture Design Teacher.  She is both formally trained and self-taught in the field of Permaculture Design, with focus on Dry-land Herb Farming, Herbal Medicine, Mountain Ecology, & Ethical Wildcrafting Practices.  And she is a Certified Herbalist from the Colorado School of Clinical Herbalism in Boulder. Kate became interested in herbal medicine through years of dealing with chronic illness, including Lyme Disease, food allergies, & autoimmune issues.   Together with her partners Dawne and Stephanie, she runs the bioregional & biodynamic focused herbal product company, Dynamic Roots High Altitude Herbals. Kate is also a co-facilitator for the new Boulder Permaculture Design Course, Across the Divide, running one weekend a month from April through October all around the Front Range of Colorado.  In the next year, Kate is opening Alpine Botanicals, an herbal apothecary, community herbal kitchen, & clinic in downtown Nederland, Colorado.In this podcast: Greg interviews Kate Miller, an herbalist with a focus on healing her community.  She tells how she found her calling in herbalism and becoming a partner in an herbal product company and she explains why ethical harvesting of herbs is so important.Go to https://www.urbanfarm.org/2017/02/09/kate-miller/ for more information, photos and links on this podcast and to hear from our other great guests.

193: Chat With An Expert - Bill McDormanBill 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.   He authored the book, Basic Seed Saving, in 1994.  In 2010, he and his wife Belle Starr created Seed School, a nationally recognized week-long training. He served as Executive Director of Native Seeds Search from 2011 to 2014.  Bill is a passionate and knowledgeable presenter who inspires his audiences to learn to save their own seeds.This is the first in a handful of special interviews in our chat with an interview series.  Bill joins us to share what is happening right now in the Southwest region with seed saving, including the upcoming Seed Summit and other seed events in the region.  Bill shares a few insights and a couple interesting stories about some unique and really cool seeds. Visit https://www.urbanfarm.org/2017/02/07/chat-with-an-expert-bill-mcdorman/ for links and show notes 

192: Gene Baur on Protecting Farm Animals.Making choices to help defend animals in industrial agriculture.Gene is co‑founder and president of Farm Sanctuary, a national non-profit organization working to end cruelty to farm animals and change the way society views and treats farm animals.  Hailed as “the conscience of the food movement” by TIME magazine and recently selected by Oprah Winfrey to join her Super Soul 100 dream team of “100 awakened leaders who are using their voices and talent to elevate humanity,” he was a pioneer in undercover investigations and instrumental in passing the first U.S. laws to ban inhumane factory farming practices.He has traveled extensively, campaigning to raise awareness about the abuses of animal agriculture and our cheap food system.  Gene is the author of two national bestselling books: Farm Sanctuary: Changing Hearts and Minds about Animals and Food, and Living the Farm Sanctuary Life: The Ultimate Guide to Eating Mindfully, Living Longer, and Feeling Better Every Day.Gene has a master’s degree in agricultural economics from Cornell University, and is a faculty member at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.  Vegan since 1985, he’s recently started competing in marathons and triathlons, including an Ironman, to demonstrate the benefits of plant-based eating.In this podcast:  The co-founder of Farm Sanctuary, Gene Baur, tells Greg about his life as a vegan and triathlete as well as what prompted him to create a safe facility for rescued farm animals.  He has many helpful tips for those who are wanting to try the meatless lifestyle and diet, and he shares some insight on how to work with those you disagree with.Go to https://www.urbanfarm.org/2017/02/04/gene-baur/y for more information, photos and links on this podcast and to hear our other great guests.

191: Petra Page-Mann on Certified Organic Seeds.Selecting bio-regionally adapted seeds and pursuing seed transparency.Raised in the Finger Lakes of New York, Petra spent over a decade traveling the world studying agriculture before returning to her hometown to start her own farm, Fruition Seeds, in 2012.  She has worked for one of the smallest seed companies in the world & also one of the largest.  She passionately grows, breeds, saves, shares & eats the seeds of certified organic, regionally adapted vegetables, flowers & herbs.  If she’s not farming she is singing, on her bike, hunting mushrooms or sharing a feast with a friend.  IN THIS PODCAST: Organic seed seller Petra Page-Mann chats with Greg about bio-regional adaptations in seeds, genetic purity in seeds, a special heatless habanero, and her seed company which is focused on organic seeds with genetic purity and transparency. Visit https://www.urbanfarm.org/2017/02/02/petra-page-mann/ for show notes and links.

190: Grace Gershuny on The Organic Revolution.Recollecting early food system activism.Grace is widely known as an author, educator and organic consultant. In the 1990's she served on the staff of the USDA’s National Organic Program, where she helped write the regulations. She learned much of what she knows through her longtime involvement with the grassroots organic movement, where she organized conferences and educational events and developed an early organic certification program for the Northeast Organic Farming Association (NOFA).She currently teaches in the Green Mountain College online Masters in Sustainable Food Systems program and serves on the Board of the Institute for Social Ecology. She has a Masters in Extension Education from the University of Vermont, with a self-designed concentration in Ecological Agriculture.Doing business as GAIA Service she works as an independent organic inspector.  She also does consulting for private and non-profit clients on all aspects of organic certification, developing related standards and certification systems, and training programs.  A reformed market gardener, Grace still grows her own veggies and chicken in Barnet, Vermont.In this podcast: Greg is impressed when he gets a chance to talk with Grace who tells about being part of the early organic food movement and her part in writing the first standards for organic food regulation. Her story is important for anyone who is interested in being active in writing food policy for our legislators.Visit https://www.urbanfarm.org/2017/01/30/grace-gershuny/ for show notes and links.

189: Manuel Gonzalez on Innovation in Food and Ag.Pitching food and agriculture related business ideas to potential investors.Manuel is the North America Head of StartUp Innovation at Rabobank, where he leads the growth of their start-up platform build through FoodBytes! and new Accelerator, Terra. At the same time, he focuses on developing plans around how relationships with startup firms can benefit corporate clients. Manuel has been Head of the San Francisco Office of StartUp Innovation since 2012, where he led a process that greatly strengthened relationships with corporate clients in the Western Region of the US.He joined Rabobank in 1996 as a project manager. In 2003, he was named Head of Credit, and a year later became Head of Credit and Legal. Manuel was appointed Deputy General Manager in 2007, and just a year later promoted to General Manager in 2008. Under his leadership, the Mexico franchise significantly strengthened business performance, achieving considerable increases in revenue, cross-sell and net income. Manuel was instrumental in building a strong local investment banking team, and in fostering a high-performance culture focused on enhancing client relationships.In this podcast: Manuel is someone who works to help people with food-and-ag related business ideas connect with investors and start the process towards funding those ideas. He tells Greg about the FoodBytes business pitch event that is focused on food and ag, as well as Terra and Rabobank with their focus on innovation in this business field. His take on how to deal with failure is something every person who runs or hopes to run their own business should hear.Visit https://www.urbanfarm.org/2017/01/28/manuel-gonzalez/ for show notes and links.

188: Megan Whatton on The Urban Habitat Network.Mapping the habitats of wildlife around the world a section at a time.Megan is the Urban Habitat Network Manager for The Nature Conservancy. She works with scientists, partners, private landowners, citizen scientists and volunteers to re-imagine their properties as habitat for the benefit of wildlife and people. Most recently she was the volunteer coordinator for the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute on the eMammal project to monitor mammal populations in the mid-Atlantic region. Megan has a M.S. Degree in Environmental Science and Policy from George Mason University and B.S. Degree from Ball State University.In this podcast: Megan introduces Greg and his listeners to the Nature Conservancy and the Habitat Network Project. This project creates citizen scientists around the globe and is working to map the globe with their data to paint a picture of the wildlife in every part of the world. Megan explains how this project got started and how easy, fun and rewarding being a member of the network can be.Visit https://www.urbanfarm.org/2017/01/26/megan-whatton/ for show notes and links.

187: Sherrie Pelsma on Macro Photography in the Garden.Looking at garden wildlife from a whole new perspective.Sherrie grew up on the rural Oregon Coast before moving to Portland to finish her degree. She has spent the last 10 years in Community Education, and runs a program where participants learn Do-It-Yourself skills to make homes safer and more energy efficient. As an environmentalist who loves macro photography, she took a special interest in pollinators and other insects which quickly blossomed into the love that drove the founding of the project Pollinator Parkways. In this podcast: Greg gets a chance to talk with Sherrie about her garden photography. Sheri has been developing her skills with macro photography and loves to share the results with her projects and her community. Here she helps explains the basics of garden photography, and tells how looking through the camera lens has given her a whole new perspective on the tiny lifeforms around her.Visit https://www.urbanfarm.org/2017/01/24/sherrie-pelsma-2/ for show notes and links.

186: Robin Kelson on Seed Saving-Resiliency.Keeping the strength of genetic traits through community sharing of seeds.Robin is the owner of the Good Seed Company  - “heirloom seeds for common use,”  a small heirloom vegetable, flower and herb seed company based in Whitefish, MT and dedicated to helping re-establish the community practice of selecting, saving and sharing seeds for common use.The Good Seed Company envisions becoming a model for cultivating community-grown resilient seeds, seed savers and gardeners, and offers “workshops from soil to seed” under the trade name: “DIY:GROW”, including a one-year “seed steward” internship. DIY:GROW seeks to reduce the barrier to entry for anyone wanting to take control of their food. A biochemist and attorney by training, Robin has spent over 30 years exploring human vitality, resiliency, and patterns in the natural world. In support of cultivating a sustainability perspective for our common future, she also offers "The Resiliency Dialogues", presentations for all audiences that introduce simple tools from nature for practicing resiliency in any context and to invite dialogue on this subject.In this podcast: Greg talks to a former lawyer Robin Kelson who now runs The Good Seed Company. She shares her story about the unexpected transition in her life leading her to her work around seeds.  One of the big events in her new life is an epic community event focused on seed saving and sharing.  She also explains why the company is using seeds from backyard growers.Visit https://www.urbanfarm.org/2017/01/21/robin-kelson/ for show notes and links.