The Urban Farm Podcast with Greg Peterson

Building an urban farm dream.In This Podcast: We are joined by Chad Chase, co-owner of Arrandale Farm and Urban Grounds Coffee Company. Chad has built his 2.5-acre farm from scratch, and now farms fruit trees, field crops, alpacas, and chickens. Listen in to hear how he's building his urban farm dream and how he hopes to impact his community in the future!Chad Chase is the co-owner of Urban Grounds Coffee Company, a full-service coffee shop on wheels sourcing ethical, natural, local and wholesome products and ingredients. He is also a co-owner operator of Arrandale Farms, a two-acre farm in NW Phoenix that focuses on various fruit trees, field crops and chicken eggs. They currently sell farm fresh eggs at the Phoenix Public Market and the Ahwatukee Farmers Market, and in the coming months will be adding fresh fruit and vegetables as well.Chad has a Certificate of Entrepreneurship from Kirkwood Community College in Iowa, an Advanced Diploma in Mortuary Science from Des Moines Community College, and a bachelor's degree in Public Administration from Northern Arizona University. Go to https://www.urbanfarm.org/2019/03/05/428_chad_chase/ for more information and links on this podcast, and to find our other great guests.428: Chad Chase on Urban Farming as a Business 

 Savoring the delicious tastes of thorny cacti.In This Podcast: Zachery Berry from the Homestead Cactus Sanctuary teaches us about the edible cacti that grow naturally in Arizona. Listen in to learn about growing cacti at home and when and how to harvest them. Zach also shares tips on pollinating cacti, edible varieties of cactus, and glochids! Zachary Berry is a graduate student at Arizona State University studying urban ecology, botany, and animal behavior. He serves on the board of Homestead Cactus Sanctuary, a local nonprofit that teaches people how to grow and use cacti as food.Go to https://www.urbanfarm.org/2019/03/02/427_zachery_berry/ for more information and links on this podcast, and to find our other great guests.427: Zach Berry on Edible Cacti

Living off grid on a remote section of a Pacific island.In This Podcast: Join us for our conversation with Camille James and learn how she went from working in the tech industry, to owning a juice bar, to living off the grid in Hawaii. Camille shared what it’s like living communally on an off-the-grid farm and all the different foods they grow. Tune in to hear what her day to day life looks like, why she loves it, and how her successes and failures brought her to Hawaii.Camille is a certified Clinical Nutritionist & public speaker living in Kauai, Hawaii.  She has sixteen years’ experience in web design, e-commerce development, and social media marketing. And prior to moving to the island, she was the owner of a juice bar and Volunteer Coordinator for a CSA in Bellevue, Nebraska.She currently lives off-grid on a 35-acre organic farm in Kauai, where her duties include design/planning, planting, harvesting, composting, grounds maintenance, landscaping, working in the nursery, and being a chicken whisperer.Go to https://www.urbanfarm.org/2019/02/26/426-camille-james/ for more information and links on this podcast, and to find our other great guests.426: Camille James on Organic Farming in Hawaii

Building a living green mulch.In This Podcast: After a long career in retail, Katie Fiore knew it was time for a change. Part of her future vision was a backyard full of fruits and vegetables. The other part was a flexible, fulfilling lifestyle educating others. Katie discusses changing her life direction at 37 years old, how and why she is growing sweet potatoes, how her travels inspire her garden, and her advice to other novice gardeners wanting to start their own.Don’t miss an episode! Click here to sign up for podcast updatesor visit www.urbanfarm.org/podcastKatie is an Arizona native who spent most of her life thinking she had a brown thumb. Five years ago, her first successful attempt at growing food was herbs grown in wine barrels. Since then she has become an Urban Farm junkie. In Spring 2018 she planted 15 fruit trees and bushes in the backyard and has started adding a few raised beds to her garden. A career change this past year has given her the time to pursue a healthier, lower stress life with her new husband Mark, follow her dreams of blogging about all her adventures, and nurturing her backyard food forest. After the Great American Seed Up, she is not only growing squash, herbs, and peas from seed, but she’s also harvesting seeds and building her personal seed library.Go to www.urbanfarm.org/sweetpotatoes for more information and links on this podcast, and to find our other great guests.425: Katie Fiore on Sweet Potatoes and Fruit Trees

Empowering people globally to build food security while using very little land.In This Podcast: Today on the podcast, we continue our visit with John Jeavons. Part one of this two-part podcast discussed John’s journey into Biologically Intensive Gardening, crop planning strategies, and watering strategies. Today in Part Two we delve into his successes, failures, advice for future farmers, plant personalities, and some of the crops he believes everyone should grow for a nutritionally balanced diet.John has been the Director of the Ecology Action Mini-Farming Program since 1972 and is the author of How to Grow More Vegetables a book on BIOINTENSIVE Sustainable Mini-Farming in use in over 150 countries in virtually all climates and soils. John advises on projects in countries such as Mexico, Kenya, Russia and India, as well as all corners of the United States.Ecology Action has been a non-profit since 1971 and currently has two research and demonstration sites in California. Their mission to teach people worldwide to better feed themselves while building and preserving the soil and conserving resources through the GROW BIOINTENSIVE closed-loop small scale agricultural system.Go to https://www.urbanfarm.org/2019/02/19/424-john-jeavons/ for more information and links on this podcast, and to find our other great guests.423: John Jeavons on Biologically Intensive Gardening & Farming (Part 2)

Empowering people globally to build food security while using very little land.In This Podcast: Biologically Intensive Gardening allows farmers to grow more food, with less water, in a sustainable way. In this podcast, we speak with John Jeavons who has been a Bio Intensive pioneer for over 50 years. An Arizona native, his books have made an impact on our own Greg Peterson. He enthusiastically shares his journey, discoveries, and tools to create your own Bio Intensive Garden.John has been the Director of the Ecology Action Mini-Farming Program since 1972 and is the author of How to Grow More Vegetables a book on BIOINTENSIVE Sustainable Mini-Farming in use in over 150 countries in virtually all climates and soils. John advises on projects in countries such as Mexico, Kenya, Russia and India, as well as all corners of the United States.Ecology Action has been a non-profit since 1971 and currently has two research and demonstration sites in California. Their mission to teach people worldwide to better feed themselves while building and preserving the soil and conserving resources through the GROW BIOINTENSIVE closed-loop small scale agricultural system.Go to https://www.urbanfarm.org/2019/02/16/423-john-jeavons/ for more information and links on this podcast, and to find our other great guests.423: John Jeavons on Biologically Intensive Gardening & Farming (Part 1)

Gathering gurus to help gardens grow.In This Podcast: Growing up gardening side-by-side with her parents helped Stacey Murphy have a solid connection with food. She lost this connection when she went to college and began working as an engineer and architect. Whe she was living in a studio apartment in Brooklyn this disconnection was healed as she realized how little fresh food was in her diet and neighborhood so she started growing food in her tiny apartment and began working with a network of urban farmers. Fast forward to now as Stacey works online with gardeners in her Garden Freedom series and with people from 169 countries who all share the same concerns about their food.Stacey is a garden geek, growing food since 1979, and her superpower is packing, literally, tons of food into tight spaces. She has helped thousands of new gardeners from six continents grow vegetables and herbs in small spaces, enjoy fresh, affordable vegetables, and live a healthy, happy life.She does this by walking eager growers through her holistic garden system, showing what to grow, when and where Stacey offers an online education series with experts talking about different elements of growing food. This year she has organized the Garden Freedom Series with 13 days of jam-packed gardening know-how to help get herb and vegetable gardens started.Go to https://www.urbanfarm.org/2019/02/12/422_stacey_murphy/ for more information and links on this podcast, and to find our other great guests.422: Stacey Murphy on Setting Goals for Growing

Making good use of rain water in the community.In This Podcast: As Ricardo Aguirre was about to become a father, he took stock of his life. Would he continue to work as a civil engineer as he had for 15 years or would he do something that would have a positive effect on the earth? Which one would he be proud to tell his son about? The answer was to bring about more creative and natural approaches to improve conventional engineering. He tells us more about water management and holistic planned grazing to help avoid negative land management issues.Ricardo is the founding member of Holistic Engineering and Land Management, Inc. (HELM) and is focused on creating innovative approaches to improve conventional engineering. He works to integrate natural processes into large scale engineering projects with his primary professional focus to implement functional design strategies to achieve multiple synergistic objectives. Ricardo has a profound interest in reversing desertification through water harvesting and increasing soil organic matter. This can have a measurable benefit to reduce flooding, improve both storm-water and soil quality, conserve water, provide passive irrigation for vegetation, and reduce the heat island effect. Ricardo’s project experience includes infrastructure improvements for communities that have been adversely impacted by storm-water.  Visit https://www.urbanfarm.org/2019/02/09/421_ricardo_aguirre/ for show notes and links.Ricardo Aguirre on Water Harvesting & Land Management

Changing the way we eat one month at a time.In This Podcast: Food revolutionary and visionary Ocean Robbins shares a healthy eating program that can work for anyone in just 31 days.  Breaking down his plan into four sections, he helps simplify the process.  He also discusses some of the major factors that lead to unhealthy eating, and offers some ideas on how to get people you care about engaged in a healthy eating discussion.Ocean is the CEO, Co-founder and Co-host of the Food Revolution Network, and the co-host of the annual Food Revolution Summit.  He has facilitated more than 50 week-long gatherings and 100 day-long workshops for leaders worldwide on a variety of health related topics, Plus he is already prepping for the next Food Revolution Summit taking place in April 2019.Ocean is the co-author of Choices for Our Future and Voices of the Food Revolution, and the author of The Power of Partnership. His next book coming out this month is titled 31-Day Food Revolution: Heal Your Body, Feel Great, and Transform Your World.Visit https://www.urbanfarm.org/2019/02/05/420-ocean-robbins/ for show notes and links.This contest period has expired.Ocean Robbins on The 31 Day Food Revolution

Bonus Episode 24: Seed Saving Class January, 2019. A chat with a seed expert on wild crop relatives, biodiversity and moreIn This Bonus Podcast:  There is always a bounty of information available in conversations with Bill McDorman. This is the January 2019 episode of a Seed Saving Class - Listen and learn about the importance of wild crop relatives and biodiversity, the February 2019 Seed Summit, and so much more. 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/2019/02/02/bonus24/ for more information and links on this bonus podcast, and to find our other great guests.