The Urban Farm Podcast with Greg Peterson

687: Squashes, Summer & Winter.A Chat with an Expert on Seeds.In This Podcast: This is the June 2022 Seed Saving Class with Bill McDorman discussing squashes.  Help! How can we tell the difference between summer and winter squashes and why is it important? What are the challenges with cross-pollination and why don’t the three different species of squash cross? And what are they? What are the pitfalls of planting and planning for harvest? So many questions and so many answers can be found on Seed Chat with Greg and Bill. At least ten times a year we have a live Seed Saving Class. Join the class! Register anytime for the next event. Register Here for the Seed Saving Class with Live Q&ABill McDorman was 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.Visit https://www.urbanfarm.org/2022/07/15/687-seed-chat/for the show notes on this bonus episode, and access to our full podcast library!

Spending a year eating only what they could catch, grow, harvest, or raise.In This Podcast:Have you ever wondered what would it be like to eat for an entire year without stepping foot in a grocery store? Sure, our ancestors did it, but can we? Chris Hall and Stef Lowi decided to take advantage of the sudden changes in their lives and find out. They had almost no experience, simply learning how as they went along, but they progressed from surviving to thriving. By the end of the year, Chris and Stef found that their relationships with food, themselves and each other had changed in some unexpected ways.When the pandemic first hit, Chris Hall and Stef Lowi found themselves without jobs, living on a small island, while grocery stores were running out of items, and supply chains were breaking down. They asked themselves “What would happen if things got worse? Could we survive without grocery stores?” They decided to take a 365 Day Challenge and find out. Visit https://www.urbanfarm.org/2022/07/08/686-chris-hall/ for show notes and links.Lovin Off the Land.

Extracting Great Resources from Our SeedsIn This Podcast:You plant seeds, save seeds, share seeds, and even eat seeds, but still there is more you can do with those seeds!  In this podcast, Bevin Cohen explains how to press seeds and nuts to make your own oils.  Are you considering the next step on your journey towards self-sufficiency or looking for healthy oils to use in your kitchen?  Maybe you just need a new way to use some of those seeds you have saved?  Bevin provides the information and inspiration you need to get started.  It’s easier than you think!Bevin Cohen is an author, herbalist, seed saver and owner of Small House Farm in Michigan. He offers workshops and lectures across the country on the benefits of living closer to the land through seeds, herbs, and locally grown food. Bevin is a freelance writer whose work has appeared in numerous publications including Mother Earth News, Hobby Farms Magazine, and The Baker Creek Heirloom Seed Company catalog. He is the author of four books, including Saving Our Seeds, The Artisan Herbalist and his highly anticipated new book, The Complete Guide to Seed & Nut Oils.Visit https://www.urbanfarm.org/2022/07/01/685-bevin-cohen/ for show notes and links.Bevin Cohen on Seed & Nut Oils.

A chat with Anthony Dominguez. In This Garden Chat: We are talking with gardener and chemist Anthony Dominguez from HyKreations about foliar feeding our gardens. Besides providing the respiration for our plants, the foliage can be a direct method for getting nutrients into the plant. A virtually immediate foliar feeding of nutrients can give your gardens the boost they need to improve vitality and growth. Yet with limitations of temperatures and avoiding flowers, the biggest gardening question we get asked is how and when do you fertilize vegetable gardens? On the last Tuesday every month we host The Urban Farm Garden Chats where Greg Peterson has a relaxed conversation in a Zoom room with a special guest to cover useful gardening topics, and they answer questions from the live listening audience. To join us for the next event, go to www.GardenChat.org or Click HERE to register for the Monthly Garden Chat with Live Q&AOur Special Guest: Robert "Anthony" Dominguez is the Co-Founder and C.O.O. of HyKreations. He is an Arizona native and holds a B.S. in Microbiology from the University of Arizona. He has always been interested in how and why, especially when in comes to microbes! As a microbiologist, Anthony plans to design and develop microbial products that will become the new standard.Visit https://www.urbanfarm.org/2022/06/24/684-garden-chat/ for show notes and links.

683: Pollinators & Wildflowers. A Chat with an Expert on Seeds.In This Podcast: This is the May 2022 Seed Saving Class with Bill McDorman discussing planting wildflowers.  A diverse and integrated garden requires many different elements. Top on that list are pollinators and wildflowers. If you have a robust flower component to your cultivated gardens, so much of the extra workload is handled by these workhorses as they attract beneficial bugs and increase harvests. Learn how to plant wildflowers and how they impact the beauty and functionality of your garden or farm and create healthy eco-systems that are balanced and regenerative. At least ten times a year we have a live Seed Saving Class. 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.Visit https://www.urbanfarm.org/2022/06/17/683-seed-chat/ for the show notes on this bonus episode, and access to our full podcast library!

Doing the hard work of setting up a strong communityIn This Podcast:Turn your vision for a successful community garden into a reality using the ten-step plan laid out by Christine Lance in this episode.  It is no surprise that gardening skills are a plus, but what about planning, land, and funding?  How do you develop collaborations, build relationships, and get the support that will be required to keep the project going and growing?  Listen as Christine provides the answers to set any community garden on the path to success.Christine Lance started gardening in her 20’s and her knowledge went deeper after completing the Master Gardener class at Colorado State University (CSU). To help complete volunteer time required at CSU, she helped to build the first community garden in Ridgway, CO and then expand it from 7 members to the 137 that are served today. 2022 will be Christine’s 13th year with the Ridgway Community Garden (RCG).    Visit https://www.urbanfarm.org/2022/06/10/682-christine-lance/ for show notes and links.Planning, Building, and Maintaining a Community Garden.

Home gardens are more efficient and effective than the industrial food systemIn This Podcast:David Fisher talks about what he has learned during the recent lockdowns about the productivity of home gardens versus the industrial food system. He studied in depth about the differences between two distinct sources of our food, as well as some of the external costs of the industrial food system.  David is primarily a botanist. He received a B.S. in Biology from North Carolina State University, and an M.S. and Ph.D. in Botany from the University of Wisconsin.  He then served as a research scientist at the USDA Forest Experiment Station in Rhinelander, Wisconsin, and was a Humboldt fellow at the University of Gurtingen, Germany. Prior to joining the faculty of Maharishi International University (MIU), he was a professor and researcher at the University of Hawaii.  Since leaving MIU, he now devotes his time to sustainability research and writing.Visit https://www.urbanfarm.org/2022/06/03/681-david-fisher/ for show notes and links.David Fisher on Growing it Yourself.

Greg interviews Megan Baxter about her new book. Join us as we meet this delightful guest and learn about her journey to write a memoir about growing up on a farm.Megan has won numerous national awards, including a Pushcart Prize. Her work has been listed in The Best American Essays of 2019. She serves as a mentor to young writers and loves developing cross-genre and innovative creative writing pedagogy for her workshops and classes. She lives in New Hampshire where she loves walking her dogs, running and cooking with local foods from her permaculture homestead. She teaches writing at Colby-Sawyer College and Southern New Hampshire University, and is starting her own small farm where she will put to use more than 20 years of organic farming experience. Megan is the author of Farm Girl: A Memoir published by Green Writers PressVisit https://www.urbanfarm.org/2022/05/27/680-megan-baxter/ for show notes and links.Finding Where You Belong.

A chat with Michael Moore.  In This Garden Chat: Instead of starting a new crop in your gardens with tired old soil, consider boosting the potential yield and health of the crops by rejuvenating the soil each season. In this Garden Chat we talk with permaculture gardener and practitioner Michael Victoria Moore about how to boost the health of the ecosystem housing the roots of your plant babies. Michael, Greg and co-host Janis Norton also answer some soil questions sent in during the live chat.On the last Tuesday every month we host The Urban Farm Garden Chats where Greg Peterson has a relaxed conversation in a Zoom room with a special guest to cover useful gardening topics, and they answer questions from the live listening audience. To join us for the next event, go to www.GardenChat.org or Click HERE to register for the Monthly Garden Chat with Live Q&AOur Special Guest: Michael Victoria Moore is a Permaculture Consultant and Practitioner living in Alberta. After watching Geoff Lawton videos on YouTube, she attended workshops, lectures, and films, read all that she could on the internet, and started picking up books on anything permaculture.  The more she read, the more she realized that this was her course in life. Michael signed up to take her Permaculture Design Certification Course and what a game changer that was! Since then, the momentum has never stopped.  She attended the International Permaculture Conference and Convergence in Amman Jordan, with over two hundred delegates from around the world, including the co-founder of Permaculture himself, Bill Mollison. Then she studied with Doug Weatherby, the Soil Doctor with the renowned organization, The Soil Foodweb. Michael’s company, Genesis Permaculture, Regenerative Landscape and Design has been in practice for the past 11 years. As a Practitioner and Designer of regenerative systems, Michael and her company help people grow their own food and create self-sustaining landscapes that are vibrant and full of life.Visit https://www.urbanfarm.org/2022/05/20/679-garden-chat/ for show notes and links.

678: Seed Saving Myths.A Chat with an Expert on Seeds.In This Podcast: This is the April 2022 Seed Saving Class with Bill McDorman discussing seed saving myths.  A myth is an idea or story that is believed by many people but that is not true, according to Webster’s Dictionary. Seed saving myths are plentiful and often are motivated by large corporations to increase seed sales and profits. You can’t save seeds to hybrids. You need lots of chemical inputs to grow successful seed crops. Seed saving is hard and should not be attempted by amateurs. You need a lot of space to save seeds. In this Seed Chat, Bill and guest host Janis Norton debunk these myths and others. They will help you understand the origins of these stories and how they have become part of our general narrative.  At least ten times a year we have a live Seed Saving Class. 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.Visit https://www.urbanfarm.org/2022/05/13/678-seed-chat/ for the show notes on this bonus episode, and access to our full podcast library!