Hobby Farms Presents: Growing Good
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Hobby Farms Presents: Growing Good is a podcast with and about hobby farmers, small-scale farmers and sustainable farmers. More than that, it’s about the important work these folks are doing for themselves, their families and their communities on and off the farm. Each episode, host Lisa Munniksma sits down to chat with someone doing the good work to discuss how they started, what they're doing now, and what drives them to keep growing. (A presentation of Hobby Farms® magazine, an EG Media company.)
Available episodes
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May 24, 2023
Episode 54: Rachael Harrop talks agriculture in Isle of Man, the Manx Wildlife Trust, rare British sheep and more.
Rachael Harrop talks about agriculture in Isle of Man, the Manx Wildlife Trust, rare British sheep and more.
Get to know the Isle of Man, a Crown Dependency island in the Irish Sea, which is the only UNESCO Biosphere Nation in the world (but is more famous for its TT motorcycle road races). Hear about how Rachael started raising rare British Teeswater sheep, which she grazes in a community orchard in Patrick and keeps for their wool. Learn about her breeding program, how to select sheep for their fiber, and the challenges of maintaining a flock on a small island. Rachael also talks about her family’s fiber arts, Willing Heart Wool, their wood processing and natural dying.
Hear about the Manx Wildlife Trust and its partnership with the Isle of Man government to manage the Agri-Environment Scheme, enabling farmers to work better with wildlife. After just two years, 69 percent of farmland on the island is enrolled in the program—which is 49 percent of all land on the island! Forty-three initiatives put forth by the program, plus those suggested by farmers for their own land, offer farmers payments for farm-management projects that benefit conservation on the island. Rachael talks about some of the farm-management projects and some of the wildlife—including fungi!—being protected through the Agri-Environment Scheme.
Listen to the end to hear about Rachael’s hopes for the future of farming in Isle of Man and her favorite all-Manx—meaning from the Isle of Man—meal.
LINKS
* Manx Wildlife Trust website
* Manx Wildlife Trust on Facebook
* Manx Wildlife Trust on Instagram
* Manx Wildlife Trust on Twitter
* Willing Heart Wool on Facebook
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May 10, 2023
Episode 53: Helga Garcia-Garza talks crippling drought, cooperative organic farming and more!
Helga Garcia-Garza talks about the farmer opportunities offered by Agri-Cultura Network and La Cosecha CSA, dealing with crippling drought in the Southwest US, and cooperative organic farming.
Hear about how the community-led Agri-Cultura Network began in 2009 with just three small-scale farmers who wanted to build capacity, aggregate products for larger markets and work cooperatively. Helga talks about how the organization has grown into a coalition of 57 farms—the majority less than 3 acres in size—using a shared food-entrepreneur kitchen and other infrastructure, hosting a CSA with a food-access mission, selling to public schools and other institutions, participating in farmer training, partnering on nutrition-education programs, saving seeds, developing food policy and more.
Learn how acequia water rights govern what and how farmers can grow in New Mexico and what the critical drought looked like in 2022. Related to this, Helga talks about how the Agri-Cultura Network farmers realized they needed to be more serious about saving their own seeds and what exportation of agricultural products means for the land.
Listen through to the end for Helga’s breakdown of the financial value of each market for the Agri-Cultura Network and some of the wins the New Mexico Food and Ag Policy Council have recently seen.
Follow online:
* Agri-Cultura Network website
* La Cosecha CSA website
* Agri-Cultura Network on Instagram
* Agri-Cultura Network on Facebook
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Apr 19, 2023
Episode 52: Nathan Harkleroad talks discovering farming, cover cropping, peppers and more!
On this episode of Hobby Farms Presents: Growing Good, Nathan Harkleroad, Program Director at Agriculture and Land Based Training Association, talks with us about his path to farming, the value of agricultural work, helping people get their own farms going and more.
A San Diego kid and product of Southern California's surfing scene, Harkleroad had no plans for a career in farming growing up. (He didn't even have 4-H in his urban community.) But opportunities to work on farms abroad in Panama and Scotland planted the seeds for agricultural work in his life. He found work on a university farm upon his return to California, learning the full gamut of farming knowledge to pursue a career in agriculture. Working alongside other farm workers, he heard the hopes and dreams of fellow farm workers to start their own farms. Today, he works as an educator and program director with Agriculture and Land Based Training Association, a role that involves, in part, helping aspiring farmers learn the skills to own and operate their own farms.
Hear Nathan discuss the importance of training and empowering populations that want to do the hard work of farming. Listen in as he talks about cover cropping, which he describes as his favorite type of farming for the value it brings to soil. Learn his favorite farm meal, which he, as a food lover, describes as "ironic," and hear his recommendation for a hearty farm-fresh meal option. Also, peppers!
* Agriculture and Land Based Training Association (ALBA)
* ALBA Facebook
* ALBA Instagram
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Apr 5, 2023
Episode 51: Maya Marie talks land, education, irrigation and more!
New York urban farmer Maya Marie talks about building your relationship to land, her Deep Routes educational project, irrigation and more.
Hear about how various family members, educational settings and even Sesame Street have contributed to Maya’s life path. She talks about farming Afro-Indigenous crops at East New York Farms, including trying her hand at growing rice and keeping the pollinators in mind. Maya gets into what she sees as the current challenges of growing food for urban and rural farmers and how to be flexible, and then she gives her best advice for finding places to garden when you don’t own your own space.
Learn about Maya’s Deep Routes educational project to connect people with Afro-Indigenous agricultural and culinary traditions and uplift these stories and foodways. She also covers her work in teaching with Farm School NYC. Keep listening to hear about Maya talk about her favorite topic to teach and one that most of us could learn more about: irrigation.
* Deep Routes website
* Deep Routes on Instagram
* Deep Routes on TikTok
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Mar 22, 2023
Episode 50: Pantaleon Florez returns to talk about the Farm2School program, seed breeding, the "death of farming" and more!
In our 50th episode of Hobby Farms Presents, Maseualkualli Farms' Pantaleon Florez pays the podcast another visit to update listeners on what he's been up to since episode 16. Listen as the Lawrence, Kansas, farmer and food-systems thinker shares changes to the priorities he's working toward and much more.
Listen in as Panta discusses the important work he's doing with the local Farm2School and Work-based Learning programs as an experiential learning specialist with Lawrence County Schools. In addition to bringing locally grown food into school cafeterias, the Farm2School program seeks to make garden education systemic within the education system and already has 22 school gardens up and going in the Kansas county.
Hear what Panta means when he talks about "the death of the farm" (spoiler alert: He's not quitting farming) and how traditional beliefs led him to pivot his approach to agriculture. And as a new father, Panta talks about how the arrival of a child into his busy life prompted him to move toward a seed breeding program and other initiatives.
Panta shares his struggles with permanency, experience with no-till techniques, his favorite fruits to grow and much more.
* Maseualkualli Farms website
* Maseualkualli Farms Instagram
* Lawrence USD497 Farm 2 School Program
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Mar 8, 2023
Episode 49: Angela Kingsawan talks gardening, health care and all things herbs!
Indigenous urban farmer and herbalist Angela Kingsawan talks about gardening in Milwaukee, translating ancient knowledge into modern reality, connecting health care with healthy foods, and more.
Learn about Angela’s early introduction to land stewardship and multicultural approach to herbalism and food production. She tells us about her long-term plan for Yenepa Herbals as a local tea company using vacant lots around her house. Also hear about all of the plants—wild and cultivated—that thrive in Milwaukee’s zone 5 growing climate.
Hear about Angela’s work as artist in residence at Lynden Sculpture Garden and her plant walks and education programs. Angela offers some tips for how to use the plants she finds on those walks, following her belief that a plant “is only invasive if you don’t know what to do with it.” She talks about her line of wearable art using natural dyeing and fabrics. You will want to hear Angela’s funny story about how she grew saffron kind of by accident!
Get excited about the work that Angela is doing with Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield to contract Hmong farmers to grow culturally significant produce for their clients who use Medicaid for their healthcare. Listen until the end to hear what Angela is most excited about related to food and farming in her area.
* Yenepa Herbals on Instagram
* Lynden Sculpture Garden
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Feb 22, 2023
Esisode 48: Denzel Mitchell talks urban farming in Baltimore, heirloom Baltimore Fish peppers and more!
Denzel Mitchell talks about urban farming in Baltimore, bringing up new farmers, the heirloom Baltimore Fish pepper and more.
Hear about how food and farming have been part of Denzel’s whole life, from his extended family’s 600-acre homestead in Oklahoma to his college English professor’s homestead. His experience running farms in Baltimore—the city and the county—helped to prepare him for his current role of co-executive director of Farm Alliance of Baltimore.
You’ll learn about Farm Alliance of Baltimore’s many programs, including a cooperative farmers market, food assistance doubling, mobile cooking demonstrations, technical assistance, soil testing and nutrient management research, compost coaching, and—the newest and largest program—the Black Butterfly Urban Farm Academy. Two years in, 20 farmers have trained in a 9-month intensive with mentorship, coursework, field days at urban and peri-urban farms, and work days at the teaching and demonstration farm with the intention of getting into their own farming business. Hear about an exciting, brand-new aspect of this program, a 7-acre teaching and demonstration farm that will allow the organization to offer farm-business incubator space for academy graduates.
Have you heard of the Baltimore Fish pepper? Listen to Denzel’s history of this heirloom, how he started growing it, and how you can grow it, too.
Denzel talks about his natural inclination toward being a connector and educator and how this has helped him in his farming journey and has served his vision of seeing more people farming.
Follow along with Denzel as he talks about what it looks like for small-scale farmers to truly have support from their customers and communities, and how farmers can come out and ask for that support.
* Farm Alliance of Baltimore website
* Farm Alliance of Baltimore monthly newsletter
* Farm Alliance of Baltimore on Instagram
* Farm Alliance of Baltimore on Facebook
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Feb 10, 2023
Episode 47: Christina Joy Neumann talks beekeeping, honey sustainability and more
Pittsburgh apiarist Christina Joy Neumann talks with Hobby Farms Presents: Growing Good host Lisa Munniksma about beekeeping, sustainability in the honey industry, and more.
Learn about the evolution of Christina’s Apoidea Apiary and how she sees her career in architecture and her work with bees as intrinsically related. (Think about bees as natural architects!) She shares her fascination with bees as eusocial creatures and with their ability to efficiently make their own food and homes.
Hear about the 70 to 110 hives that Christina manages and the seasonality of beekeeping in urban Pittsburgh, both from the perspective of the bees and the beekeeper. Christina talks about the high-level craft of creating honey and how she encourages consumers to appreciate her Certified Naturally Grown honey as an artisan farm product.
Dive into what takes place behind the scenes of commercial-scale beekeeping, including the industrialized system of migratory beekeeping, commodified honey processing and labeling, and bee welfare. You’ll hear about the study Christina is participating in with a researcher at Chatham University about the question of what truly sustainable honey production would look like.
Get to know Burgh Bees, a beekeeper education group in Pittsburgh, and Co-Nectar, the honey tasting room, cafe, and art space that Christina and family members are opening in 2023. At the end, Christina touches on the terroir and different flavor profiles of honey.
Apoidia Apiary website
Sign up for Christina’s newsletter
Christina Joy Neumann on Instagram
Co-Nectar on Instagram
Burgh Bees website
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Jan 25, 2023
Episode 46: Roy Kady talks traditions, sheep flocks, fiber arts and more
In this episode, shepherd and Diné fiber artist Roy Kady talks about the importance and traditions of the Navajo-Churro sheep breed, flock management, fiber arts, and more.
Recorded on Winter Solstice (in the Northern hemisphere), Roy explains the importance of solstice in Diné lifeways. Learn about the Slow Food USA Navajo-Churro Sheep Presidium, a group created to support and promote endangered foodways—in this case, this rare breed of sheep. Roy tells us what it means to have just 5,000 registered Navajo-Churro sheep and the breed’s their meat, fiber, and hardiness characteristics that make them great sheep for a small farm. (Did you know that when managed on range, these sheep can seek out and forage the plants with the properties they need to keep them healthy?)
Hear about Roy’s own flock; what he means when he says, “they manage us”; and the seasonal and rotational grazing methods used in his community. Roy explains how responsible grazing improves the soil. He also offers his advice for breeding and culling sheep to maintain and improve a healthy flock.
Roy tells a story about his family’s history in fiber arts and his own work with wool, from weaving to felting to dying with natural dyes, as well as incorporating nontraditional fibers. Listen until the end to hear about Diné creation stories of the Navajo-Churro sheep and a quick excerpt from a Diné sheep song.
Slow Food USA Navajo-Churro Sheep Presidium
About Navajo-Churro Sheep on The Livestock Conservancy
The Navajo Lifeway (Diné Bé’Iiná)
Navajo-Churro Sheep Association
Navajo Sheep Project
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Jan 11, 2023
Episode 45: Celina Ngozi talks food-sovereignty work, earth-based practices, fam meals and more!
Celina Ngozi is a Black/Igbo agrarian and the founder of Ala Soul Earthworks/Dry Bones Heal Bottomland, joining Hobby Farms Presents: Growing Good today to talk about her food-sovereignty work and earth-based practices.
Hear about the Central Texas land that has been in Celina’s family since 1876 and how she, her mother and other members of their family are coming together there. Learn about heirs property and the complexities of owning, enjoying and improving the land, particularly for Black land stewards in the South. Celina talks about her work as a Land Advocacy Fellow with National Young Farmers Coalition, land access issues in the Farm Bill and why that is so important to the future of small-scale farming.
Get some advice on starting a garden from scratch with no motorized equipment, as Celina has done on land that hasn’t been farmed in a few generations. Celina talks about adapting her farming practices from Colorado—where she learned about growing—to this new land, climate and community. She also talks about growing culturally relevant crops on subsistence farming and market gardening scales.
Stay tuned until the end to hear about community building in rural areas and—something a lot of listeners can identify with—Celina’s favorite farm meal.
More about Celina Ngozi Esakawu:
Celina’s work with Ala Soul Earthworks/Dry Bones Heal Bottomland promotes connection to the earth through Afro-Indigenous practices, creativity and nurturing community.
For a decade, Celina has grown food and worked with frontline communities to develop creative solutions to inequities in the food system. Her work includes food distribution, coordinating community agriculture programs, living on farms, promoting SNAP at farmers markets, advocating for land access, teaching African Diasporic nutrition courses and supporting local food economies across Texas.
Her multi-ethnic background informs her earth-based practices. She focuses on growing culturally relevant foods of the Global South on land that has been in her family for 150 years. She is currently developing a program for people of color that promotes (re)membering ancestral knowledge in order to support future generations of agrarians. Celina is a 2022-2023 Land Advocacy Fellow with the National Young Farmers Coalition.
Links:
Ala Soul Earthworks/Dry Bones Heal Bottomland
One Million Acres Campaign
Federation of Southern Cooperatives land retention resources
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Dec 21, 2022
Episode 44: Dr. Mehmet Öztan of Two Seeds in a Pod
In this episode of Hobby Farms Presents: Growing Good, Dr. Mehmet Öztan talks seed justice, selecting seeds for saving, the Seedy Talks speaker series, and more about his work as an underrepresented minoritized farmer in West Virginia.
Hear about how Dr. Öztan went from receiving a PhD in civil engineering to starting Two Seeds in a Pod heirloom seed company with his wife, Dr. Amy Thompson, all because he wanted to recreate the flavors he remembered from his childhood in Turkey. He shares the challenges of tracking down seeds and histories of vegetable and herb varieties whose stories are largely passed down by oral tradition.
Listen—with horror—to Dr. Öztan’s story about that time he got a call that a cow was loose in his garden on leased land and appreciate other complexities of growing and maintaining rare and culturally significant seeds. Get Dr. Öztan’s advice for selecting the plants from which you want to save seeds and understand what it takes to get a variety rea…
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Dec 7, 2022
Episode 43: Reingard Rieger talks all things compost!
Master Composter Reingard Rieger, Ph.D., breaks down composting, urban gardening and Seattle’s Master Composter Sustainability Steward program in this episode of Hobby Farms Presents: Growing Good.
Learn about Tilth Alliance’s Master Composter Sustainability Steward program, which trains 30 to 35 volunteers each year to go into the community and educate others about composting, soil health, recycling, stormwater management and more. From mandatory food-waste composting to mandatory recycling, Seattle’s sustainability programs have had a big payoff: From 2004-2019, the tonnage of compostable material going to the landfill was reduced by 40 percent, even while the city’s population grew by 30 percent.
Get Reingard’s professional advice to start or improve your own composting or, as she says, “farming the microbes.” Hear about vermiculture (worm composting) basics, worms’ preferred vegan diet and the science behind how we get worm castings. And learn about food-digester…
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Nov 23, 2022
Episode 42: Jeff Tober talks ecology, pastured pigs, farm planning and more!
New Jersey farmer Jeff Tober talks farming for ecological and community health, pasture-raised pigs, farm planning, and more with host Lisa Munniksma in this episode of Hobby Farms Presents: Growing Good.
Hear about how a potato growing in a compost pile in the Philadelphia suburbs sparked a curiosity in Jeff as a young person that put him on a winding path to farming and eventually to the Pinelands Preservation Alliance’s Rancocas Creek Farm. Learn about the Pinelands Preservation Alliance’s work to preserve the 1.1-million-acre, ecologically important Pinelands National Reserve, including how they came into the 72 acres that is now their Rancocas Creek Farm.
Jeff talks about developing this farm from essentially a blank slate into a thriving natural space in a way that is chemical-free, involves diverse communities, restores soil health, mitigates stormwater flow, supports pollinators and wildlife, is economically sustainable, and brings in constituents new to PPA. Learn about…
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Nov 9, 2022
Episode 41: Tiffany Bellfield on family land and legacies, pollinator habitats and more!
Kentucky farmer and community organizer Tiffany Bellfield covers family land and legacies, pollinator habitats, Community Farm Alliance, and more on this episode of Hobby Farms Presents: Growing Good.
Hear about the deep history of Ballew Estates, the land that Tiffany’s great-grandfather, Atrus Ballew, who was born an enslaved person, eventually bought and Tiffany now stewards with her cousin, Jim Embry. Learn about how you can build up a natural pollinator habitat on your own farm.
Tiffany talks about being an herbalist and a doula and how opening her farm to women in the community is an act of holistic care. For anyone who’s visited the iconic Alfalfa Restaurant in Lexington, Kentucky, Tiffany gets personal about what the restaurant’s transition into catering and food truck has looked like and how that ties in with her struggle with heir’s property rights.
Get to know the work of Community Farm Alliance in Kentucky, including the equity work this organization has committe…
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Oct 26, 2022
Episode 40: Arwen Donahue Talks Balancing Creativity With Farming & More!
This episode features Arwen Donahue, her life on a Kentucky farm and her new book, Landings: A Crooked Creek Farm Year.
Arwen tells us about her and her husband, David Wagoner’s, Three Springs Farm. You’ll hear about how they searched for their niche and revived themselves from burnout in small-scale farming, from 18 years of having a vegetable CSA to growing food for a local restaurant group. Learn about some of the foragable goodies on Arwen’s farm and how you can incorporate foraged items into a CSA.
Arwen discloses the struggles of writing and illustrating a book while farming and also the beauty in combining a farming life and a creative life. Listen to her read a page from Landings and explain how this book depicting drawings and daily journal entries of the farm came into being.
Arwen Donahue’s website
Find Landings at Hub City Press and on Bookshop.org
Holly Hill & Co.
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Oct 12, 2022
Episode 39: Lilian Hill discusses dryland farming, traditional foodways & farming systems
Listen in on this conversation with land steward, Native American Food Sovereignty Alliance Executive Director and Hopi Tribe member Lilian Hill as she talks about dryland farming, traditional foodways, farming systems and more.
Hear about Lilian’s family and community heritage and how she connects with traditional agriculture methods, foodways and food sovereignty work. She tells us about her and her husband’s founding of the Hopi Tutskwa Permaculture Institute—which provides outlets to explore areas of food production, energy, water and small-scale food cooperatives—plus the 15-acre area of farmland her grandparents once farmed and another 2-acre permaculture demonstration site that she and her family continue to steward. Learn, too, about the Native American Food Sovereignty Alliance’s work in restoring food systems that support tribal self-determination and community wellness.
Lilian shares an indigenous point of view—and is real about the difficulty of accessing and…
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Sep 28, 2022
Episode 38: Pete Charlerie talks free farming equipment, USDA incentives, financial stability and more!
In this episode of Hobby Farms Presents: Growing Good, Pete Charlerie dives into financial sustainability for small farms, free equipment and information resources, USDA incentives and more.
Pete tells us about his journey from his family’s citrus grove in Trinidad to the University of Maryland, where he earned a degree in ag economics, setting the stage for his farm consultancy work today. Hear about the value of niche farm products, from cut flowers to sweet potato greens to value-added products. When you need a market for your products, sometimes you need to start your own, and Pete talks about his role in starting the Hollywood Farmers Market in Maryland.
Learn about Pete’s work as a farm consultant, as he tells us how to get better prices on materials, find USDA and NRCS resources and financial incentives, and use shared equipment. FARMS (the Family Agriculture Resource Management Service) is another resource for legal, marketing and production help for small-scale farmers i…
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Sep 14, 2022
Episode 37: Kirstin Bailey talks intergenerational farming, farm transitions and much more!
Nebraska farmer Kirstin Bailey talks intergenerational farming, farm transitions, and the free support for farmers offered by the Center for Rural Affairs.
Hear about the four generations of Kirstin’s family living on Fox Run Farms, where they grow fruits and vegetables and keep bees. Kirstin talks about planning a farm business in a rural area, accessing nearby urban markets and bringing the community to the farm. Learn about what it’s like to farm in a place that swings from 100-degree-F-plus temperatures in the summer to -16-degree-F temperatures in the winter.
With a farm that’s been in her family for 123 years, Kirstin talks about how her family has made intentional decisions about succession planning and farm transitions, including the importance of having support to create new farm enterprises to keep the farm viable through the years. Learn about the free support that the Center for Rural Affairs offers to beginning farmers, from business planning to crop- and livestock…
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Aug 24, 2022
Episode 36: Demetra Markis talks medicinal herbs, community sheep grazing and more!
Farmer Demetra Markis joins Hobby Farms Presents: Growing Good for a chat about her farm, Milleflora Farm, where she and her partner grow medicinal herbs for natural medicine clients and a small vegetable harvest to share with neighbors. Demetra talks about this farming endeavor, as well as sharing about her community grazing efforts, where she and neighbors graze sheep to reduce tall, dry grass that can contribute to wildfires in her home state of California.
Demetra digs into participating in community-level farming, as well as discussing tried-and-true flock protection against predators—all the predators, actually, including mountain lions. And as an experienced community acupuncturist and licensed herbalist, she discusses some of her experience growing medicinal herbs. Plus, she shares the pleasure of enjoying olive oil made from homegrown olives.
Plus, we cover biointensive growing, a particularly helpful technique for areas like California with constraints on land and resourc…
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Aug 10, 2022
Episode 35: Emily Trabolsi talks cooperative farming, connecting growers and more!
Filipino-Hawaiian farmer Emily Trabolsi joins Hobby Farms Presents: Growing Good to talk about what farming in the Pacific Northwest looks like from a cooperative perspective. Learn about growing upland rice just outside Seattle. Hear about the Agrarian Trust organization and their concept of land and resource sharing, and then Emily shares examples of successful cooperatives from around the world.
Washington Farmland Trust expanded to have a statewide presence in fall 2021, and that’s where Emily’s work with them comes in. She explains how she helps to connect farmers with land and resources and to facilitate equitable, long-term lease arrangements through the Farm to Farmer program. Emily enthusiastically talks about ideas to bring people together and support new farmers.
Emily brings us into the concept of “putting the culture back in agriculture,” becoming connected to our food system, and why that $6 bag of salad mix is worth every bit of $6.
Finally, she shares her two…
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Jul 27, 2022
Episode 34: Meighen Lovelace is back to talk community food, the Farm Bill and more
Hobby Farms Presents: Growing Good brings you part two of the conversation with Colorado farmer Meighen Lovelace. In this episode, Meighen talks about the Colorado Blueprint to End Hunger and John Ikerd’s work in bringing to life a community food utility—like a rural electric cooperative, but for regionally produced food. Learn about zoning, what you need to know about these rules that dictate how you are allowed to use your property, and who you need to know to change the law, whether you farm in the city, suburbs or country.
Then, get a Farm Bill primer! The Farm Bill is that massive piece of national legislation that is renewed every five years and affects pretty much everything that touches your life, from energy to conservation to nutrition to beginning-farmer programs and more. Meighen breaks down the parts of the Farm Bill and flags areas that you as a small-scale farmer should pay attention to. And Meighen and Lisa offer a little pep talk for you to call your legislators a…
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Jul 13, 2022
Episode 33: Meighen Lovelace talks water issues, permaculture, food systems and more!
On this episode of Hobby Farms Presents: Growing Good, Colorado farmer Meighen Lovelace talks water issues in the West, empowering people to grow food in community, and your chance to speak truth to power with the White House Conference on Hunger, Nutrition and Health. This is episode one of two with Meighen. Check back in for the rest of the conversation in two weeks!
Listen in for Meighen’s take on how to work with your land, including the hard decision she’s made to put her San Luis Valley farmland in cover crops for a couple of seasons, and the challenges of working with water rights of farmers and communities throughout the Western US. Meighen tells us about a gardening project she helped start at the Salvation Army when she was a client there herself and how it’s grown into a year-round urban farm with a four-season greenhouse and a training and job placement program. Then, Meighen talks about her Central Rocky Mountain Permaculture Institute training and the permaculture…
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Jun 22, 2022
Episode 32: Felicia Bell talks traditional agriculture, family business, farmers helping farmers and more!
In this episode, fourth-generation Mississippi farmer Felicia Bell talks about traditional agriculture, family business, farmers helping farmers, and more.
Find out how you can get free sustainable farming advice and technical assistance from the National Center for Appropriate Technology (NCAT) from a specialist like Felicia.
Felicia explains what she means by “traditional agriculture” and why she prefers this phrase to describe popular agricultural methods instead of saying “sustainable agriculture” or “regenerative agriculture.” Hear about Felicia’s self-sufficient homestead upbringing on what she now calls RD & S Farm and how the farm has changed since her grandparents were teaching her their farming ways.
Listen until the end for Felicia’s advice for maintaining healthy pasture for grazing animals and to learn the most inexpensive way to keep deer out of your garden!
National Center for Appropriate Technology (NCAT)
RD & S Farm on Facebook
RD & S Farm on Inst…
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Jun 8, 2022
Episode 31: Aaron De La Cerda on becoming a "plant person," urban farming, natural-systems growing and more!
Aaron De La Cerda is on this episode of Hobby Farms Presents: Growing Good to talk about the Acta Non Verba Youth Urban Farm Project, fruit gleaning, growing cannabis as a teenager, and why he prefers to be a “lazy” farmer.
You’ll learn about how a life decision he was asked to make in third grade led to him being known as “the plant person” among his family and friends and shaped his career and life trajectory. Aaron talks about growing up with a family full of educators and how this, plus his green thumb and an interest in social justice eventually brought him to nonprofit urban farming work. Hear about his work with unhoused folks, helping the shelter with a garden, and plotting out fruit gleaning opportunities in Merced, Cali.
Then, get up to speed with the work of Acta Non Verba Youth Urban Farm Project and its kids and family programs. Hear about the community farm at the Oakland A’s baseball stadium, as well as two other urban farms, and the wild growth of ANV’s…
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May 25, 2022
Episode 30: Chereen Leong Schwarz talks local food, from raising to serving and more
Chef and farmer Chereen Leong Schwarz is on this podcast episode to talk about “local” food from all perspectives. Hear about why Chereen has never eaten a McDonald’s hamburger and how that ties in to her from-scratch, locally sourced food philosophy and her love of cooking and eating country-style food. Chereen tells us about farming in Steamboat Springs, Colorado, where they have just 59 frost- free days in the growing season. Listen in on the intimate details of what it’s like for Chereen to help raise animals from birth to harvest and then, as a local-foods chef, to carefully prepare the meat and to be sure the people enjoying the meal understand the value of what they are eating.
Use this farm-kitchen hack: Chereen offers her best tips for using all parts of the food you’re growing, including cabbage cores, carrot tops, and random vegetable scraps.
Also hear about her Emerging Leader in Food & Ag Award, the community being built by young farmers, and what’s giving he…
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May 11, 2022
Episode 29: Fatuma Emmad talks farming, foodways, food system politics and more!
Farming, political science and the food system intersect for Colorado farmer, organizer and professor Fatuma Emmad, the guest on this episode of Hobby Farms Presents: Growing Good. Hear about how her family’s immigration and emigration shaped her understanding of the food system and how that led her to become a farmer herself, now at FrontLine Farming in Denver, Colorado.
You’ll learn how Mile High Farmers, a coalition of 60-plus farmers and supporters, connects eaters and farmers with events and education in health and wellness, racial equity, marketing, land and policy. (Fatuma is president of this nonprofit.) Fatuma also talks about the farming work and food justice work being done at multiple farm sites for FrontLineFarming, including food access initiatives, a paid apprenticeship program and their own search for farmland.
Also learn about the ways farm workers are being supported with Project Protect Food Systems Workers, and take some advice on keeping foodways alive throug…
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Apr 27, 2022
Episode 28: Cheryl Browne on permaculture, herbal wellness, urban sustainability and more
On this episode of "Hobby Farms Presents: Growing Good," host Lisa Munniksma talks with permaculturalist, urban farming educator and New York City garden designer, Cheryl Browne. A co-founder of the Black Permaculture Network, Browne helps people bring the outdoors in through her business, Urban Permie, connecting them with opportunities to experience nature and connect with more natural living.
Learn about what herbs you can grow indoors to enhance wellness in your life, how an effective permaculture lifestyle requires a generational mindset and what you can do to build a food forest of your own. Plus, hear about Cheryl's tropical property in Costa Rica and her longterm goal of building a tropical fruit forest and much more!
Urban Permie
Cheryl Browne on Instagram
Black Permaculture Network
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Apr 6, 2022
Episode 27: Mariel Gardner on urban farms, pollinator gardening and the “economy of decency”
Urban farmer Mariel Gardner talks about 5th Element Farms (aka Apocalyptic Acres), where Dope Beets, Dope Rhymes is the motto for the vacant city lot they reclaimed as a space to grow food for their community. Their food access model is to feed the people as best they can with the hope that others will want to support them in this “economy of decency.”
Listen in for tips for finding and reusing discarded items for your farm and for starting your own pollinator garden, in the city or the country. Mariel also tells us about the West Louisville Women’s Collaborative, where they believe “wellness lies at the juncture of art and nature.”
With more than 300 vacant and abandoned properties listed with the Louisville Landbank Authority, you’ll hear about the challenges of accessing this and other land for urban farming. You’ll also learn about Mariel’s research into historical Black land dispossession in the state of Kentucky and how this continues in cities and suburbs today…
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Mar 23, 2022
Episode 26: Zoe Fuller chats about Alaskan farming, root cellars, indigenous foodways and more
Young farmer Zoe Fuller talks about the growing agriculture scene in Alaska, where US farming statistics are being turned on their heads. You’ll hear about small-scale farmers coming together in the Matanuska Valley and creating a community-based economy in Alaska. Hear also about indigenous foodways and salmon-safe farming practices to protect salmon sources and waterways.
Learn about what it’s like to farm at Singing Nettle Farm in Southcentral Alaska’s short but productive growing season. And learn about root cellaring as Zoe shares her root cellar experience and recent experimentation for keeping farm-grown food through the winter.
Listen to the end to hear Zoe’s favorite all-local Alaskan food meal. It’s so simple and perfect for the busy farming season.
* Singing Nettle Farm
* Singing Nettle Farm on Instagram
* Singing Nettle Farm on Facebook
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Mar 9, 2022
Episode 25: Tyler Eshleman talks desert farming, raising goats, regenerative growing and more!
At Virsylvia Farm in the high desert of New Mexico, Tyler Eshleman and his wife raise goats for dairy and fiber; sheep for dairy, meat and fiber; alpacas for fiber; laying hens; and some vegetables. Hear about the realities of regenerative farming at 8,000 feet above sea level, from the challenging growing and land conditions to the cooperative workings of fellow farmers. Learn about Tyler’s innovative marketing means to get more local food into the hands of more people in his area: a year-round pay-what-you-can farmstand for his and other farmers’ products, a multi-farm meat CSA, and a goat- and sheep-dairy herdshare. (Also, when you visit him at the farmers market, you can make your own goats-milk ice cream using a bicycle-powered ice cream churner!)
Listen in for Tyler’s best advice for bringing dairy goats to your farm, from goat breeds to feed sourcing and knowing your state’s raw-milk laws. Tyler also talks about his off-farm work with the Quivira Coalition and New Mexic…
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Feb 16, 2022
Episode 24: Missy Singer DuMars talks egg CSAs, on-farm dinners, fiber production and more!
Missy Singer DuMars tells us about her 13-acre Crown Hill Farm, outside Buffalo, New York, from the Lake Erie sunset views to her sheep and market gardens. Learn about fiber production, the art of scaling up slowly, and how to choose the best varieties to grow and sell.
Missy has been hosting dinners and events for a few years, and she tells us about the evolution of the events and why it’s important to connect people to the source of their food. Find out about Missy’s Women in Food podcast, highlighting women supporting local food cultures everywhere, grew out of her farm events. Missy shares her favorite recipes to come from her podcast guests. (Don’t listen hungry.)
Stay tuned to the end to take Missy’s advice as a business coach for starting your own egg CSA, from “chicken math” to bird health to CSA distribution, because farm-fresh eggs are in demand everywhere.
Crown Hill Farm website
Crown Hill Farm on Instagram
Women in Food podcast
Awarepreneur’s podcast
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Feb 2, 2022
Episode 23: Juliann Salinas on Women, Food & Ag Network, beekeeping, food systems and more
From her .25-acre mini farm in New Mexico, Juliann Salinas talks all about beekeeping, the fragility of the local food system exposed by the pandemic, the Women, Food & Ag Network, and more.
You’ll learn a quick history of WFAN’s 25 years, from environmental justice to racial justice, all focused on co-creating a just, equitable and ecological food and agricultural system that includes a place for strong women and nonbinary leadership. See where you fit in to the Growing Community Resilience program for support and connection, Harvesting Our Potential mentorship program, Women Caring for the Land education program, and Plate to Politics program to raise up women’s leadership in food and ag policies.
Jules delves into the impact of the inflexibility and vulnerability of our food system, particularly on the Native communities in her area. Hear about the solutions that the community developed and how far it is that we have to go to achieve truly resilient local food networks.
Lea…
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Jan 19, 2022
Episode 22: Bevin Cohen on home-pressed oils, intentional simplicity and small farming
On this episode of "Hobby Farms Presents: Growing Good," host Lisa Munniksma talks with herbalist, seed enthusiast and Hobby Farms contributor Bevin Cohen. Cohen and his family left city life some years ago to pursue simple living at their 3-acre Small House Farm—only to find his farming whims pulled him right back to the kind of profit-driven lifestyle he was trying to escape.
Hear how Cohen left a marketing career for simpler endeavors in rural central Michigan. Learn about pressing your own cooking oils from nuts and seeds—a fresh, homegrown alternative to grocery-store options. Bevin also tells us about seed libraries—how they work and what they can do for our modern world. And listen in as he recounts some lessons he's learned while trying to keep things simple (sometimes despite his own homesteading passions).
* Bevin Cohen on HobbyFarms.com
* Small House Farm
* The Complete Guide to Seed and Nut Oils: Growing, Foraging, and Pressing (available for pre-order)
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Jan 5, 2022
Episode 21: Sharon Stone on urban farming, gardening education and feeding the community
Listen in as Sharon Stone—an urban farmer at Two Sons Farm in Lexington, Kentucky, and coordinator of the Woodhill International Market—tells us about serving the community through gardening education and increasing access to farm-fresh food. Sharon is a retired teacher and has the most incredible community of people working alongside her to bring fresh food to the Woodhill neighborhood—with something like 32 countries represented in the local school—in a sliding-scale market. She also tells us how she got her start growing food as part of a farmer mentorship program with the Seedleaf urban farming program.
Two Suns Farm
Woodhill International Market
Seedleaf
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Dec 22, 2021
Episode 20: Rasheed Hislop talks vermicomposting, cooperative farming and more
Listen as Rasheed Hislop, a Master Composter, offers you his best tips for small-scale vermicomposting. Get your worm bins ready!
Hear about how this Brooklyn-raised farmer’s grandparents, in the Hudson Valley and in Trinidad and Tobago, instilled in him an interest in food production by way of gardening, fishing and cooking from scratch.
Rasheed talks about his work supporting farmers, first with urban farmers and community gardeners through NYC Parks GreenThumb and now with farmers in California’s Central Valley, particularly Black, indigenous and farmers of color, through Community Alliance with Family Farmers and African American Farmers of California. He also gets into the racial equity and planning work being done behind the scenes at nonprofits like CAFF. (Plus, this is your chance to make plans to attend, virtually or in person, the CAFF conference, coming up Feb. 27 to March 3, 2022!)
Learn about the Black Zocalo cooperative’s efforts to teach about growing food, plan…
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Dec 8, 2021
Episode 19: shiny Flanary on growing healing herbs, market farming and farmer training programs
Alinee “shiny” Flanary shares with you her top three tips to improve your farmers market sales in this episode.
She talks about what it was like to go from “zero to farmer” when she jumped into a farmer incubator program a few years ago. She now manages her own Scrapberry Farm as part of the Raceme Farm Collective, growing primarily herbs for medicine making. Hear about the microfarms and the individuals—including the strengths, skills and challenges they bring with them—comprising the collective.
You’ll also learn about shiny’s Come Thru Market, a BIPOC farmers market in Portland that has grown by leaps and bounds since its launch in 2019. She tells us about how it’s changed and now serves a whole community of farmers and shoppers, plus the market’s exciting plans for expanding its farmer training program, in cooperation with Zenger Farm, thanks to a big grant. (You’ll also learn how to ask for—and get—$50,000 when you really need it.)
Scrapberry Farm webs…
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Nov 24, 2021
Episode 18: Michelle Howell
Four-season farmer Michelle Howell works at the intersection of farming, health, art and equity. In this podcast episode, hear about how Michelle has woven these aspects together at her family’s diversified Need More Acres Farm in Scottsville, Kentucky.
Michelle walks us through what a week looks like on the farm, beginning with their harvest day, working with 20 to 30 different produce items, year-round. Learn from their creative, community-centric marketing approach (some customers get 80% or more of their food from the farm!) and the ways they’ve created new opportunities to put their food into the hands of more people, including through the HOTEL, INC food pantry, Community Farmers Market and a brand new meal-kit service.
She tells us how she and her husband, Nathan, have encouraged all five of their children to be involved in the farm—the oldest having just decided he wants to farm full-time—and how that’s benefited not just the kids but the whole community.
Finally,…
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Nov 10, 2021
Episode 17: Celize Christy
Celize Christy talks poultry keeping with Hobby Farms Presents: Growing Good host Lisa Munniksma. Listen in for her tips for homeopathic care for our home flocks and the secret to the brightest egg yolks. Hear about her work with poultry farmers in Uganda and Rwanda and her thinking on the intersection of livestock and livelihoods.
Through her work with Practical Farmers of Iowa, Celize organizes farmer-mentorship, land-link and Spanish-language farmer education projects, and she tells us how you can take advantage of these innovative programs.
As a people person who grew up without a farm background and felt the isolation of being unlike others in her early farming education, Celize has taken on the role of supporting folks not always represented in food and farming systems in her community work. She shares with us some success stories coming from small-scale farmers, women farmers and farmers of color in Iowa.
Email Celize Christy
Follow Celize on Twitter
Visit the Practical Far…
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Oct 22, 2021
Episode 16: Pantaleon Florez Talks Incubator Farming, Food Systems Equity & Researching Corn
Through his Maseualkualli Farms in Lawrence, Kansas, Pantaleon Florez has big ideas for farming and food systems equity. Starting out at Common Ground Incubator Farm just before the COVID-19 pandemic began required Panta to be creative in his marketing outlets, shifting away from farmers markets and toward value-added items, restaurant sales and mutual aid food support. Learn about his research in growing corn using traditional Mexica indigenous methods from the 1500s (spoiler alert: it yielded higher than current no-till methods), what it’s like to farm as part of an incubator farm, and the difference between farming in California and farming in Kansas. Panta also lets us in on his innovative $1 million food security and farming plan that could change the way $5.9 million worth of food is produced, processed and distributed around his city. He calls it The People’s Century Farm, and you’re going to want to hear about it!
Ancestral Mexica farming research
Maseualkualli Farms we…
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Oct 8, 2021
Episode 15: Tara Rodríguez Besosa
How does a farming community recover after a disaster? By coming together. Tara Rodríguez Besosa talks about Puerto Rico’s agricultural and economic situation, including the role that the U.S. plays and, more importantly, the neighbors providing for one another in Puerto Rico’s food system.
Hear how they started their own food journey when their mother left the city to become a farmer, then sold sprouts they grew in their city apartment at the farmers market, and then started big-picture thinking about how to support farmers on the island with the business that they cofounded, El Departamento de la Comida. In its earliest iteration, El Depa aggregated local produce for a multi-farm CSA, then became the only restaurant in Puerto Rico serving all Puerto Rican-produced foods. El Depa’s transition, after the 2017 hurricanes, into a nonprofit collective has allowed the entity to support farmers and food projects with the facilitation of work brigades, the sharing of tools and knowle…
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Sep 24, 2021
Episode 14: Nathan Harben
Nathan Harben is a farmer at Local Forage Farm in Glenora, British Columbia, a 2-acre homestead that grows ethically raised livestock, fruits and vegetables. He also works with the food recovery team of Cowichan Green Community, a non-profit organization that has focused on environmental sustainability in Vancouver Island's Cowichan Region since March 2004.
Listen in as he talks about farming in extreme heat and meeting water needs during times of drought. Learn about local food security measures and how COVID impacted food access for many (and measures to feed people during troubling times). Hear about methods farmers in areas with short growing seasons do to extend their seasons and grow food year-round. And share in some of his small-farm antics, from chickens laying eggs on the bed to falling in love with fresh asparagus.
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Sep 10, 2021
Episode 13: Anita Ashok Adalja
Listen as farmer Anita Ashok Adalja lets us in on what it’s like to grow okra in the Southwest, including how to “convince” neighbors to try a new-to-them vegetable.
Learn about the Not Our Farm farmworker visibility project, telling the story of and celebrating folks who are non-farm-owning and working on others’ farms. Find out how to have your own story told and hear about the farmworkers guide that’s about to be released.
Dig in to food safety for your small farm with advice from Anita’s place as a farmer as well as a food safety educator. Spoiler alert: If you think about food safety from the perspective of healthy community care, it’s a much less intimidating concept—and you’re likely already doing it.
Tune in to Anita’s hope for the concept of revisioning how sustainable farming fits into our lives.
Stay tuned to the end to learn Anita’s trick for cooking okra so it’s not slimy! And add her favorite okra recipe to your upcoming meal plan.
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Aug 20, 2021
Episode 12: Sinéad Fortune
Listen in as Sinéad Fortune, living in Scotland, explains how Brexit—Great Britain’s exit from the European Union—has left farmers in the United Kingdom in a precarious place. Imagine not being able to purchase French cheese and Spanish olives … and the seeds and supplies you need to keep farming … because of this shift in political borders. Sinéad, the seed sovereignty program manager in the UK and Ireland for The Gaia Foundation, talks about her work in training farmers and community gardeners to produce and save their own seeds, reviving and spreading traditional seed knowledge held by community elders, and network building among groups doing seed sovereignty work. You’ll also learn what, exactly, is meant by “seed sovereignty” and how that differs in the UK and Ireland from efforts in the US, including the painful and healing conversations this work involves. Hear, too, about what it’s like to live and farm 16 miles from the North Sea, and get advice for growing…
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Aug 6, 2021
Episode 11: Ariana Taylor-Stanley
You asked, and we found your answer! Everyone is looking for funding for farm projects, and this episode’s guest explains the ins and outs of popular and less-known USDA and NRCS grant programs. Ariana Taylor-Stanley talks about her work with the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition and why that matters to each of us farming. Learn about “organizing”—but not the kind of organizing that your tool shed desperately needs—and about how you as an individual can help to shape farm policy and shift systems to benefit small-scale agriculture.
Ariana also tells us about her Here We Are Farm in Trumansburg, New York, raising vegetables and dairy sheep, and running a CSA plus having a farmers market presence. She gets real about the complicated relationship she has with owning and farming on the stolen land of the Gayogo̱hó꞉nǫʼ people and how she’s examining the ways in which her farm fits into oppressive social systems. Learn, too, about how she’s able to accept SNAP/E…
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Jul 23, 2021
Episode 10: Garth Kahl
What’s it like to go from knowing nothing about farming to traveling around the world as a consultant to farmers? In this episode, organic farmer and farm consultant Garth Kahl tells us how that path unfolded in his life, how he came to love working with livestock and why he still believes the USDA organic label is the best baseline standard for responsible farm production. Learn how to help get your organic inspection and other vital farm projects paid for with FSA and NRCS funds! Get Garth’s best advice for bringing cattle to your farm or homestead—hint: they’re easier than goats. And hear about why intensive rotational grazing is vital to the health of his Western Oregon farm, in ways that you may not have previously considered.
Garth and show host Lisa Munniksma also talk about water rights in the western US; Garth’s favorite farm meal, which involves growing hundreds of row feet of basil; and how to balance the demands of farming with an off-farm job that involves trave…
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Jul 9, 2021
Episode 9: Nate Kleinman
Farmer, seed developer and activist Nate Kleinman talks with Growing Good host Lisa Munniksma about his work in the food system and advice for growing some unusual perennial crops. Hear about Experimental Farm Network’s development of perennial staple crops to adapt to various growing conditions—and about how you as a citizen scientist farmer can take part in developing these seeds. Learn about seed rematriation and the work of relationship building behind that effort. And find out how the Cooperative Gardens Commission started, including a small history lesson on the phrase victory gardens, and how this organization grew by leaps and bounds in the early days of the pandemic.
Be sure to listen to the end for advice on how to grow passionfruit, or maypop, even if you don’t live in a subtropical environment. Nate also tells us his favorite crop to grow. (Hint: It’s the fourth most widely grown grain in the US, yet most of us have never planted it.)
Experimental Farm Network
EF…
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Jun 18, 2021
Episode 8: Bonnetta Adeeb
This episode’s guest, Bonnetta Adeeb, calls herself “an extended mom” as the advisor for youth programs and farmer support programs. As the director of Steam Onward and the Ujamaa Cooperative Farming Alliance, she fosters the idea that anything you want to do in life, you can do through agriculture. Hear about how the youth in these programs are empowered to brainstorm (that’s “brain barf”) and put into practice solutions to real-world problems and how one particular brain-barf session led to the gardening and food sovereignty programs central to their work today. Bonnetta also talks about the organizations’ role in supporting hundreds of farmers and gardeners as a seed hub since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, why they’re focusing on seed saving, and how they developed their catalog of heritage and heirloom seeds. Perhaps most importantly, you’ll hear about how to learn your own seed story and the imperative to understand your family’s culturally appropriate se…
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Jun 4, 2021
Episode 7: Monica Clark
Hear from Dig This! radio show host and book author Monica Clark about her work to dispel the myths surrounding food access. Monica speaks honestly about her experience of job loss and homelessness in Seattle and how growing her own food in a community garden sustained her during this time. Listen to an excerpt from Monica’s book, “Mentor the Garden Mentor: A 12-Month Gardening Curriculum for Low-Income/Ethnic/Marginalized Communities and the Organizations the Serve Them.”
Monica also tells us about using her own experience of shopping for food with SNAP/EBT (formerly known as food stamps) to help farmers accept SNAP dollars, the same as they would a credit card or debit card. Hear about the nonprofit Cooperative Gardens Commission’s founding during the pandemic and the work they’ve done to help people get started gardening, including establishing and supporting more than 250 seed hubs!
Be sure to listen to the end of the podcast for the No. 1, most important, gardening adv…
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May 21, 2021
Episode 6: Amy Dawson and Mike Costello
Listen in as farmer-chef-storytellers Amy Dawson and Mike Costello talk with host Lisa Munniksma about using food and farming to reverse the narratives we’ve all learned about stereotypes of Appalachia. Hear about Amy’s realization that she should look at the ham her family kept in her childhood home (on top of their laundry dryer) with the same pride afforded to world-renowned Iberico hams hanging in homes, restaurants and storefronts across Spain. Amy and Mike talk about elevating Appalachian food traditions, which were born from a time of poverty and necessity, through the Farm & Forage Supper Club at their Lost Creek Farm and the traveling kitchen food and education events. You’ll also learn the devastating story of how the salt trout tradition and culture disappeared in West Virginia. And if you don’t know about salt-rising bread, listen to the end to hear Amy’s own story of a delicious bread with a stinky distinction.
Links:
Lost Creek Farm website
Lost Creek Farm on…
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May 7, 2021
Episode 5: Kenya Abraham
Show host Lisa Munniksma talks with SLAK Market Farm’s Kenya Abraham, who just happens to be Lisa’s raw milk herdshare owner in Lexington, Kentucky. Listen in to hear about the journey that took Kenya from urban entrepreneur in Ohio to farmer in Kentucky. Hear about her creative land lease and land sharing arrangements, the ins and outs of a raw milk and halal meat herdshare, how everyone in the family plays a role on the farm, and the community at the heart of the work Kenya does. Kenya also talks about how she connects kids with the land through her Stack a Story Bookshop storybook writing and farmstay nonprofit. Be sure to listen to the end to hear about how Kenya looks to her animals to destress and why she gets up at 4 or 5 am. (Spoiler alert: It isn’t to milk the cows.)
SLAK Market Farm
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Apr 16, 2021
Episode 4: Olga Tzogas
Show host Lisa Munniksma talks with Olga Tzogas, a forager, mushroom grower and educator in Rochester, New York. Olga’s Smugtown Mushrooms has provided mushroom-cultivation supplies and education since 2014. Hear about the foraging trips Olga leads in her family’s home country of Greece, learn of the downside to the current foraging craze, and get excited about the return of Olga’s passion projects, the New Moon Mycology Summit and The Mycelium Underground. And near the end of the podcast, hear Olga’s recommendations for must-have (and money-saving) mushroom-cultivation info sources!
Smugtown Mushrooms
https://www.instagram.com/smugtownmushrooms/
https://www.facebook.com/smugtownmushrooms
https://www.instagram.com/newmoonmycologysummit/
https://www.facebook.com/newmoonmycologysummit
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Apr 2, 2021
Episode 3: Maria Elena Rodriguez
Lisa Munniksma sits down with Maria Elena Rodriguez of Puerto Rico's Cosecha Caribe to talk about growing food in Puerto Rico, her craft Caribbean-inspired artisanal food products, and the community-based food work she does with El Departamento de la Comida and DAISA Enterprises. And make sure you stick around to hear her secret for harvesting coconuts!
Cosecha Caribe
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Mar 19, 2021
Episode 2: Jessica Walliser
Lisa Munniksma sits down with horticulturalist Jessica Walliser to talk about growing plants, appreciating bugs, writing (and editing) about gardening and more. As a writer, editor and co-founder of Savvy Gardening, Walliser is a leading voice in modern gardening, and she shares with us the chilling tale that led her to organic-only growing methods in this episode of "Hobby Farms Presents: Growing Good." Make sure you stick around to hear her favorite from-the-garden meal!
JessicaWalliser.com
Savvy Gardening
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Mar 4, 2021
Episode 1: Angela Wartes-Kahl
In our premiere episode of Hobby Farms Presents: Growing Good, host Lisa Munniksma sits down for a chat with Angela Wartes-Kahl of Oregon's Common Treasury Farm. As the co-founder of Fibrevolution, Wartes-Kahl has plenty of insight into growing fiber crops on the farm, as well as plant fiber uses (did you know you carry around linen in your wallet?). And as an inspector member of the International Organic Inspectors Association, she sheds some light on what, exactly, is going on with organic certification of fiber these days (and how you can get involved).
HobbyFarms.com
Common Treasury Farm
Fibrevolution
International Organic Inspectors Association
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