The Urban Farm Podcast with Greg Peterson

Changing the role of chemicals in our homes.In This Podcast: It was not your typical birthday gift but a small collection of home cleaning products, and they changed Diann Peart’s direction in life.  She found a path that filled her passion and allowed her to truly make a difference. When she realized the products were chemical free, her passion for the environment and her desire to help others took over and she knew these products needed to be brought to market.  She has a special offer for listeners today.Diann has a PhD in Botany-Ecology from Arizona State University.  She lives with her husband, 4 dogs and 8 chickens at their urban farm is nestled in one of the oldest neighborhoods in Tempe, AZ, 4 blocks west of ASU. She is also Principal and Visionary at Truce LLC, a Tempe-based company that manufactures and distributes non-toxic household cleaning, pet, and personal products.Truce’s entire product line uses only 14 simple, safe and effective ingredients.  Truce products offer the ability to clean homes, bodies, and pets while avoiding nasty chemicals.In her spare time, Diann co-founded the community garden across the street from her home where most of the produce harvested is donated to local food banks.Go to https://www.urbanfarm.org/2018/11/13/399-diann-peart/ for more information and links on this podcast, and to find our other great guests.399: Diann Peart on Living in a Chemically Saturated World

Cooking with 8 ingredients or less.In This Podcast: After several years of contradictory and confusing medical advice, Brandi Doming was worn out trying to help her husband escape the pain of gout. As a new mom and a concerned wife, she sought out the next possible answer and found information on a plant-based vegan diet. This was the first one to give her husband some relief.  She started blogging recipes and recently authored a cookbook designed to make vegan meals easy and delicious! Brandi is the creator of the popular blog The Vegan 8. She is also a mom, wife, and designer. Her blog was voted a Top 21 Vegan Blog of 2016 by the hugely popular vegan magazine, VegNews. She’s appeared regularly in Forks Over Knives magazine and was featured in the documentary Eating You Alive. She lives with her husband and daughter in Houston, Texas. Her new cookbook is The Vegan 8: 100 Simple, Delicious Recipes Made with 8 Ingredients or Less.Go to https://www.urbanfarm.org/2018/11/10/398-brandi-doming/ for more information and links on this podcast, and to find our other great guests.This contest period has expired.398: Brandi Doming on Delicious Vegan Meals

Being bit by the urban farming bug and loving it.In This Podcast: He was starting off on a vacant property with lots of Johnson Grass, almost no money, and no way to cut it down and remove it, yet this was not going to stop Michael Bell from building his urban farm. He got creative and found a resource to not only help remove the grass but turn it into an asset and deep rich soil in one season. Relying on his creativity, he now has a half-acre farm and more customers than produce. All this and he only farms part-time!  Michael is a Physical Education teacher and father of four who in April of 2016, bought a half-acre of nonresidential zoned land a mere 6 miles from downtown Dallas.  He started clearing small 1000-foot sections using a weed eater and billboard signs.  That Fall he planted his first 30-inch bed with Sala nova and a few cherry tomatoes and became hooked.He now has 67 twenty-five-foot beds focusing on greens, carrots, beets and a couple of other veggies.  He hopes to transition from full time teacher to full time farmer in a couple of years.Go to https://www.urbanfarm.org/2018/11/06/397-michael-bell/ for more information and links on this podcast, and to find our other great guests.397: Michael Bell on Part Time Urban Farming

Incorporating wild ingredients into every day and special occasion fare.In This Podcast:  Her curiosity, her love of gardening, and her creativity in the kitchen, come together beautifully and for our benefit when Marie Viljoen compiled recipes for her new cookbook.  She shares how she moved from gardening in 66 square feet to foraging all over New York City.  If you are ever in her city, you will want to take a foraging walk with her!Marie is a celebrated New York City forager, gardener, cook and author who has loved edible plants since her childhood in South Africa.  She lives in Brooklyn, NY with her husband and leads acclaimed seasonal wild plant walks through NYC.In Marie’s new book Forage, Harvest, Feast, there is a groundbreaking collection of nearly 500 wild food recipes and features hundreds of color photographs as well as cultivation tips for plants easily grown at home. This cookbook is destined to become a standard reference for any cook wanting to transform wildcrafted and homegrown ingredients into exceptional dishes, spices, and drinks.Go to https://www.urbanfarm.org/2018/11/03/396-marie-viljoen/ for more information and links on this podcast, and to find our other great guests.396: Marie Viljoen on Wild Inspired Cuisine

Weathering the challenges of growing food in South Florida.In This Podcast: Growing up and becoming a ward of the state, then becoming emancipated at 17 left a lifelong mark on Karin Fields, so when she started learning how to grow food in one of the most challenging and unique areas of the country, she wanted to help other young girls like her gain those skills too. For twenty years she has been the Edible Gardening Gal and a valuable resource for education about growing food in South Florida.Karin has over 20 years of vegetable gardening experience in South Florida where she installs backyard edible gardens, gives informative talks on vegetable gardening, and educates people on how to grow their own food. Locally known as the Edible Gardening Gal, she loves giving her gardening talks at libraries all over South Florida.Go to https://www.urbanfarm.org/2018/10/30/395-karin-fields/ for more information and links on this podcast, and to find our other great guests.395: Karin Fields on Growing Food in the Tropics

Harvesting native foods in the Sonoran Desert.In This Podcast: The desert is full of amazing native plants that provide a rich, delicious bounty of food, IF you know what to look for and how to harvest it, and Brad Lancaster wants you know these secrets.  He is excited about a new cookbook that shares delicious and tested recipes for native trees and plants. And these plants are suited to thrive in the hot and dry climates, so they tolerate drought conditions better, while giving other great benefits to all desert residents.Brad runs a successful permaculture consulting, design, and education business. He is focused on integrated and sustainable approaches to landscape design, planning, and living. Growing up in a dryland environment, water harvesting has long been one of his specialties and a true passion.He is the author of a permaculture bible for water harvesting:  Rainwater Harvesting for Drylands and Beyond Volumes I & II and is a contributor to Desert Harvesters’ Eat Mesquite and More cookbook.  This new release centers on the abundant harvest of mesquite and other Sonoran Desert food plants we can plant, steward, and enjoy where we live, work, and play.Go to https://www.urbanfarm.org/2018/10/23/393-brad-lancaster/ for more information and links on this podcast, and to find our other great guests.393: Brad Lancaster on Wild Food Forestry

Knowing the secret to building healthy soil.In This Podcast:Joining farming through his wife’s family, Gabe Brown learned the standard, commercialized, industrialized way of farming. Then when disaster struck four times in a row, he reached out to the past for some inspiration. He learned the value of a healthy soil ecosystem, how it affects many of the issues we are facing today, and the best ways to rebuild the soil. Now he shares what he learned in 5 principles that work anywhere in the world.Gabe is one of the pioneers of the current soil health movement which focuses on the regeneration of our resources.  Along with his wife Shelly, and son Paul, he owns and operates a diversified 5,000-acre farm and ranch near Bismarck, ND.  Their ranch focuses on farming and ranching in nature’s image.The Browns holistically integrate their grazing and no-till cropping systems, which include a wide variety of cash crops, multi-species cover crops along with all-natural grass finished beef and lamb.  They also raise pastured laying hens, broilers and swine.  This diversity and integration have regenerated the natural resources on the ranch without the use of synthetic fertilizers, pesticides or fungicides.  Gabe is the author of Dirt to Soil published by our friends at Chelsea Green.Go to https://www.urbanfarm.org/2018/10/20/392-gabe-brown/ for more information and links on this podcast, and to find our other great guests.392: Gabe Brown on Beneficial Soil Ecosystems

Propelling organic produce from fringe to mainstream.In This Podcast: The story of how organic produce and food became mainstream in our grocery stores is shared by Tonya Antle who was actively driving this change before most of us even knew we needed it.  She found her passion in the early stages of the organic movement and helped propel it across the nation.  Now there is a new focus with the Organic Grower Summit happening in December, and she shares some very useful tips as a highlight of what will be available then.Tonya grew up on her family’s table grape and citrus farm in Delano, California. From being a vice president of organic sales to consulting about organic ag investments, she has been a driving force in organic farming for more than 30 years, and has received several awards recognizing her work in the ag industry.Currently, she is an adjunct professor of Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Marketing at Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo, a guest lecturer at both Hartnell Junior College and California State University Monterey Bay, and she is the Co-founder and Executive Vice President of the Organic Produce Network (OPN), which launched in January 2017. Go to https://www.urbanfarm.org/2018/10/27/394-tonya-antle/ for more information and links on this podcast, and to find our other great guests.

Bonus Episode #21: Seed Saving Class September 2018.A chat with an expert on Seeds. In This Bonus Podcast: We are harvesting even more seed information in this chat with Bill McDorman. This is the September 2018 episode of a Seed Saving Class - seed names, medicinal plants, plant knowledge, landrace, 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/2018/10/16/bonus21/ for more information and links on this bonus podcast, and to find our other great guests.

Building urban food resiliency with more that just vegetables.In This Podcast:A fascination with jungles and forests began at an early age for Catherine Bukowski, and she has studied these ecosystems throughout her education.  Then narrowing her focus just on the food forest aspect, she found similar regenerative patterns that work. She brought this to her new book and shares some of what she discovered with us.Catherine is a researcher, author, educator and consultant. She’s worked internationally and domestically in sustainable land use and natural resource management, agroforestry, permaculture, and project planning to strengthen communities. She pursued her passion for tropical ecosystems by earning a Master of Science in Natural Resource Management. Then she returned to school and earned a PhD in the Human Dimensions of Forest Resources and Environmental Conservation at Virginia Tech.At Tech she was introduced to the topic of community food forests, which ultimately became her dissertation research and focus of her new book The Community Food Forest Handbook: How to Plan, Organize and Nurture Edible Gathering Places published by our friends at Chelsea Green. Go to https://www.urbanfarm.org/2018/10/13/391-catherine-bukowski/ for more information and links on this podcast, and to find our other great guests.391: Catherine Bukowski on Community Food Forests