The Good Dirt: Sustainability Explained

Mary and Emma have returned from Emma's wedding!  After months planning the weekend-long event, doing all they could to reduce waste and be as sustainable as possible, they can now sit down to reflect on the celebration. They share tips on practical ways to cut down on waste, how to communicate your goals with your vendors, the challenges of  trying to do things differently and some surprising examples of things actually being easier than anticipated. In the end, Mary and Emma were both delighted with how everything turned out. Whether you have a wedding coming up or are curious about ideas for planning an event with sustainability in mind, come join us for this post wedding wrap-up!Topics Discussed• Post-Wedding Reflections• Emma's Mini-Honeymoon• Cultural Expectations Around Weddings & Honeymoons• Composting During a Wedding• Reducing Waste in Wedding Party Favors• Gift Boxes• Communicating with Your Caterers• Choosing Sustainable Vendors• Ethical Wedding Dress & Bridal Party Attire• Why Have a Wedding?• Staying On Budget During a  DIY WeddingEpisode Resources: Listen to The Good Dirt: "Bonus Episode: Planning a "Sustainable" Wedding: A Peek Into Our Process {PART 1}" Listen to The Good Dirt: "Bonus Episode: Planning a "Sustainable" Wedding: A Peek Into Our Process {PART 2}" Black Bear Composting Still White ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━🌻 About Lady Farmer: Our Website Follow @weareladyfarmer on Instagram Join The Lady Farmer ALMANAC Email us at thegooddirtpodcast@gmail.com or leave us a voicemail! Call 443-459-1950 and ask a question or share what the good dirt means to you! Original music by John Kingsley. Editing and podcast production by Fast Forward Production.13:39

Did you know that in this country, we have an area totaling the size of Washington State that is mowed lawns? Our guest is Owen Wormser, author of Lawns Into Meadows, who helps to weave people and the natural world back together through his work building regenerative landscapes. In this conversation, we discuss how meadows offer a compelling solution in a world where lawns have an enormous detrimental impact on our ecology and have wreaked havoc on our natural ecosystems. Owen was born and raised off the grid in rural Maine, surrounded by the natural world, with nature being his greatest teacher. Influenced by his study of horticulture, permaculture, organic agriculture, and ecology, Lawns Into Meadows is a how-to guide on growing your own wildflowers and native grasses. Owen offers approachable, simple steps for anyone and everyone to create sustainable and regenerative landscapes, starting with even a few square feet of land. Topics Discussed• Connection to the Natural World• Building Low-Maintenance Ecologically Focused Landscapes• How Lawns Are Damaging the Planet• Growing Up in Rural Maine & Off the Grid• Living a Simple Life in a World We've Made Difficult• Convenience & Its Impact on Lifestyle• What Counts Toward a Life Full of Satisfaction, Abundance, and Fulfillment?• Applying Academic Knowledge to Real World Practice• Why We Want to Turn Laws into Meadows• What Makes a Meadow a Meadow• Dealing with Home Owner Associations• Humans are Traditionalist• Lawns & Status• Steps to Start & Maintain a Meadow• What to Plant in a Meadow• The Lifelong Learning Process of Healing the Earth• How Stillness Sustains Us• Plants as Our BirthrightEpisode Resources:•If You Stop Mowing This May, Will Your Lawn Become a Meadow?•Owen Wormser Massachusetts Department of Higher Education•Lawns Into Meadows: Growing a Regenerative Landscape by Owen Wormser •Lawns Into Meadows, 2nd Edition: Growing a Regenerative Landscape by Owen Wormser•The Road Washes Out in Spring: A Poet's Memoir of Living Off the Grid by Baron Wormser•The Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art Bobbie's Meadow Museum•Listen to The Good Dirt "The Urgent Need for Restorative Gardening with Mary Reynolds"•Listen to The Good Dirt "Seeking the Wisdom of the Earth with Maria Rodale, author of Love, Nature, Magic: Shamanic Journeys into the Heart of My Garden"Connect with Owen Wormser:• Website: Abound Design https://abounddesign.com/• Instagram: @lawns_into_meadows━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━🌻 About Lady Farmer:•Our Website•Follow @weareladyfarmer on Instagram•Join The Lady Farmer ALMANAC•Email us at thegooddirtpodcast@gmail.com or leave us a voicemail! Call 443-459-1950 and ask a question or share what the good dirt means to you!Original music by John Kingsley. Editing and podcast production by Fast Forward Production.

Welcome to Slow Living Through the Seasons!This is a new monthly podcast hosted by Mary Kingsley of The Good Dirt.Come join us for a monthly overview of how to embrace a slower, more sustainable lifestyle, tuning in to our connection with nature as we navigate our way through the year. Each month we'll be talking about gardening by the moon phases, what's up in the seasonal kitchen as it pertains to our food, whether its growing it, sourcing it, preserving or preparing it. We'll also be talking about how to navigate our cultural holidays and celebrations, and the nature celebrations that we want to integrate into our lives. We’ll be touching on topics that come up in our weekly interviews, and how to approach sustainability and low waste in a world that is very much the opposite of those things. We'll have lots to say about conscious consumerism, how to recognize greenwashing, adopting more regenerative lifestyle practices, how to demonstrate to family and friends that yes, you CAN do lots and lots of things without plastic and be the better for it, how to recharge your mind, body and spirit through more nature connection and SO MANY other things.The more we can bring our awareness to the energy shifts and gifts of each season, the more we can bring our daily lives more into sync with the rhythms of the earth. And in doing that we find ourselves making decisions and adapting our behavior in ways that foster more care for the earth—all with the intention of helping all of us cultivate more slow and intentional living.🌻 About Lady Farmer: Our Website Follow @weareladyfarmer on Instagram Join The Lady Farmer ALMANAC Email Mary at production@lady-farmer.com or leave us a voicemail! Call 443-459-1950 and ask a question or share a story about slow living through the seasons!

Jamila Edwards, a long-time listener and fan of The Good Dirt podcast, joins Mary and Emma to talk about how slow living has transformed her life. After sending an email about convenience and sustainable living to the show, Jamila was invited onto the podcast to share her 15-year journey from working in the coffee industry to creating her own family-owned business, the Life's Flowers Coffeehouse & Marketplace, with her husband Eric and their blended family. Having observed massive amounts of waste in the food industry over the years, Jamila aimed to create a package-free, convenient, nature-conscious business to offer everyone the opportunity to transition to a low-waste household. She focuses on creating a positive environmental footprint while providing food justice to all at an affordable price point. In this episode, Mary, Emma, and Jamila discuss motherhood, minimalism, zero waste, and how small businesses can help us reconnect with nature.Topics Discussed• No Waste During the Season of Picnics• What Does "Convenience" Actually Mean?• Survival or Choice• Waste in the Food Industry• Zero Waste Living• Motherhood, Moving, and Feeling that Sustainability was Impossible• Minimalism• Reconnecting with Our Place in Nature• The African Diaspora & The Connection to the Earth• Figuring Out a Meal Plan for the Family• How Small Businesses Can Help Cut Down On Waste• The Cost of Providing Zero Waste Packaging• Taking Inventory of Household Items• The Problem with the Term "Throw Away"• What We're Leaving Behind for Future Generations• Passing Down Sustainable Thinking to Jamila's Kids• Keeping Food in Temp• Working with the Health Department & Satisfying Regulations• Finding Investors & Customers Who Believe in a Sustainable Start-Up• Food Justice & Food Deserts• Farmer's Market AccessibilityEpisode Resources:•Listen to The Good Dirt "Attainable Sustainability with Stephanie Miller, Author of Zero Waste Living the 80/20 Way"•Listen to The Good Dirt "Smart Aravind on the Story of Stuff, The Plastic Revolution, and Systemic Policy Change"•Listen to The Good Dirt "Growing Access: Modeling a Community Based Food system with Laurell Simms of Urban Growers Collective"•Zero Waste Living, the 80/20 Way: The Busy Person's Guide to a Lighter Footprint by Stephanie J. Miller•The Good Ancestor: A Radical Prescription for Long-Term Thinking by Roman Krznaric•The Modern MilkmanConnect with Jamila Edwards:• Life's Flower Market Website: https://www.lifesflowermarket.com/about• Life's Flower Farm Blog: https://www.lifesflowermarket.com/blog• Instagram: Follow Life's Flower Farm on IG @lifesflowerfarm & Life's Flower Coffeehouse & Marketplace on IG @lifesflowermarket• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lifesflowerfarm━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━🌻 About Lady Farmer:•Our Website•Follow @weareladyfarmer on Instagram•Join The Lady Farmer ALMANAC•Email us at thegooddirtpodcast@gmail.com or leave us a voicemail! Call 443-459-1950 and ask a question or share what the good dirt means to you!Original music by John Kingsley. Editing and podcast production by Fast Forward Production.35:45

In this episode, Emma and Mary sit down to talk to Smruti Aravind, who oversees fundraising, donor communications, and grants at the Story of Stuff Project. Smruti brings over a decade of experience in the nonprofit sector, with an emphasis on digital storytelling and network-building to drive systemic change. Prior to joining the Story of Stuff, she led communications at Faith in Action East Bay, a federation of the largest faith-based organizing network in the U.S. Smruti shares about her work and her perspective on creating meaningful social impact, as well as the campaign work that Story of Stuff is doing in order to create policy change. She introduces the Bottle Bill project as well as the Reuse Revolution, and why burning plastic is not the solution that you may believe it to be. Smruti also touches on what other countries are doing to deal with their waste, the impact on The Global South, and how we can all flex our citizen muscles and advocate for plastic reduction laws to be codified.Topics Discussed•Smruti's Work in the Nonprofit Sector•How the Story of Stuff Came to Be•Using the Power of Media to Influence Policy Change•Content Creation & Advocacy•The Story of Microbeads & The Story of Plastic•Founder Annie Leonard's Inspiration for the Documentary•Increasing BIPOC Voices in the Search of a Solution•Systems Thinking for the General Public•The Break Free From Plastic Movement Treaty•How Millennials and Gender Z Approach Environmental Activism•Shifting From Individual Responsibility to Systemic Change•Real Solutions vs. False Solutions•The Great Pacific Plastic Patch •Why Burning Plastic & Buying Plastic Clothes Doesn't Work•Stopping the Tap with Campaign Work: The Bottle Bill & The Reuse Revolution•What Other Countries Are Doing•The Impact of Waste on the Global South•Flexing Our Citizen Muscles•What Corporations are Able to Change•Moving to Florida & the Way that Different States Handle Plastic Waste•Cloth Diapers•Slow Living in a Big City•The Impact of the IndividualEpisode Resources:•Watch The Story of Stuff Documentary•The California Plastic IncineratorConnect with Smruti Aravind:•Website: https://www.storyofstuff.org/blog/people/smruti-aravind/•YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/storyofstuffproject•Instagram: @storyofstuff https://instagram.com/storyofstuff/•Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/storyofstuff•Links: https://linktr.ee/storyofstuff━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━🌻 About Lady Farmer:•Our Website•Follow @weareladyfarmer on Instagram•Join The Lady Farmer ALMANAC•Email us at thegooddirtpodcast@gmail.com or leave us a voicemail! Call 443-459-1950 and ask a question or share what the good dirt means to you!Original music by John Kingsley. Editing and podcast production by Fast Forward Production.

To celebrate Plastic Free July, Mary and Emma are bringing back one of their favorite episodes on sustainable living: episode 86 with Danielle Alvarado which first aired on April 8th, 2022.  Learn to make space for what truly makes you happy using the power of refusal and conscious choice, with Danielle Alvarado of Sustainably Kind Living. Danielle’s educational online collective for the conscious consumer provides alternative resources to the harmful fast fashion, home, and beauty industries. Moved by the horrific stories she heard first hand from garment workers in Southeast Asia, Danielle found her calling by advocating for sustainable fashion and for a rejection of harmful and toxic industrial systems. After making the move to Italy to begin her family, Danielle found herself in a small Italian village where sustainable slow-living was simply the norm. Amazed by this new way of life and inspired by her experience in Asia, she began a blog to educate and advocate for a paradigm shift towards simple living. She now preaches about the power to bypass consumerism by asking, “What truly makes us happy?” and “What defines actual need?” Danielle knows that beneath all of the things we think we want, we are really longing for acceptance and connection back to each other and the Earth. She also knows that if we have the privilege to consider sustainable options, then we have the responsibility to select those options. Ultimately, she argues that slow living is, at its core, a call to show ourselves and the world greater empathy.  Please be advised, this episode contains mention of sexual assault and sexual violence. Topics Discussed• Sustainable Fashion • Consumer Culture • Fast Fashion • Child Labor • Social Inequality • Minimalism• Conscious Consumerism• Slow Fashion• Slow LivingEpisode Resources:•Elizabeth Kline Good Dirt Episode •Fashion Revolution •The True Cost Documentary •Wildling Shoes •Plastic Free July•Follow Plastic Free July on Instagram @plasticfreejulyConnect with Danielle Alvarado:• Website: www.sustainablykindliving.com• Instagram @sustainablykindliving and @sustykindliving • Facebook, Sustainably Kind Living• Facebook, Danielle Alvarado • Pinterest, Sustainably Kind Living━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━🌻 About Lady Farmer:•Our Website•Follow @weareladyfarmer on Instagram•Join The Lady Farmer ALMANAC•Email us at thegooddirtpodcast@gmail.com or leave us a voicemail! Call 443-459-1950 and ask a question or share what the good dirt means to you!Original music by John Kingsley. Editing and podcast production by Fast Forward Production.

Meet Maria Rodale, an author and advocate for organic regenerative farming. An explorer in search of the mysteries of the universe, Maria is the author of "Love Nature Magic: Shamanic Journeys into the Heart of My Garden", "Organic Manifesto", "Scratch", and is the author of a children's book series called written by the under the pen name "Mrs. Peanuckle". Her book "Love Nature Magic" was featured as a part of the a recent selection for the Lady Farmer book club, so it was truly an honor to get to talk with her on The Good Dirt. Together, Mary, Emma, and Maria discuss her new book, her family legacy in the world of regenerative agriculture, as well as her evolution from a CEO to (in her own words) a “crazy gardener.” Maria is truly a voice for the power and magic of nature and a guide for all of us seeking to rekindle a meaningful connection to the earth.Maria is the former CEO and Chairman of Rodale Inc, and has served on multiple nonprofit boards including the Rodale Institute, Bette Midler’s New York Restoration Project, and the Pennsylvania Federal Reserve Advisory council. She has received awards for her lifetime of service and activism, including the National Audubon Rachel Carson Award and the United Nations Population Fund’s Award for the Health and Dignity of Woman Everywhere.Topics Discussed• Growing up on as 3rd Generation Farmer at the Rodale Institute• The Farming Systems Trial• Moving Out at 18 to Becoming CEO: Family Loss & Legacy• The Implosion of the Publishing Industry• Following Her Nose: How Maria Found Writing• The Making of "Love Nature Magic"• What is a Shamanic Journey? • Dealing with Mugwort in Gardens• Decolonizing Our Relationship with Nature• A Garden's Desire to be Wild• Why the Biggest Changes Come from a Change in Behavior• Being Open to Hearing Nature's Message• Changing the Future by Modeling What Could Be Over What Is• Recovering from a Stroke•"Regenerative" over "Sustainability"Episode Resources:•The Rodale Institute: 75 Years of Organic Agriculture Leadership•"Love, Nature, Magic: Shamanic Journeys into the Heart of My Garden"•"Organic Manifesto: How Organic Food Can Heal Our Planet, Feed the World, and Keep Us Safe"•"Scratch: Home Cooking for Everyone Made Simple, Fun, and Totally Delicious: A Cookbook"•Mrs. Peanuckle's Books•Mindful Bear•The Good Dirt: "The Urgent Need for Restorative Gardens with Mary Reynolds"•Fried Dandelion TikTokConnect with Maria Rodale:• Website: https://www.mariarodale.com/• Mrs. Peanuckle Website: https://www.mrspeanuckle.com/• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mariarodale/ ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━🌻 About Lady Farmer:•Our Website•Follow @weareladyfarmer on Instagram•JSign up to join The Lady Farmer ALMANAC•Email us at thegooddirtpodcast@gmail.com or leave us a voicemail! Call 443-459-1950 and ask a question or share what the good dirt means to you!Original music by John Kingsley. Editing and podcast production by Fast Forward Production.

Bailey Van Tassel is an entrepreneur and mother of three, who created both the Kitchen Garden Society and the Garden Culture Podcast. She grew up on a hobby farm in Sebastopol, California, but didn't fully appreciate her cowboy parents until she moved away and missed the huge garden, chickens, and pigs that she grew up around. Settling into the suburbs of Southern California meant she couldn't have the same amount of space, but after a challenge from her husband Joe, Bailey went to Home Depot, bought some plants, got her HOA's permission after vowing to share her vegetables, and the rest was history. Bailey's life changed even more once she started to share her journey online, where her passion shifted from hobby to profession. In this episode, Emma and Mary sit down with Bailey to discuss her journey, the evolution of her gardening practices, and techniques such as planting by the moon and vermicomposting. After years of searching for the perfect land to have her farm and garden, Bailey realized that right where she was, was good enough. She wants you to know that you can grow the garden of your dreams in any amount of space – you just need the right info. And that's what she's here to teach you!🎉 SPECIAL OFFER: Get one month free in Bailey's Kitchen Garden Society Membership (AND one month free in The ALMANAC!) when you use the code "DIRT" at checkout for TKGS! Topics Discussed• The Summer Solstice• Social Media & Running an Online Business• Deciding How to Raise Kids• Lessons Learned from Moving from a Small City to a Big City• Creating a Connection to Nature for the Next Generation• Sharing the Journey to Gardening Online• The Feeling of Yearning• Our Innate Connectedness to Nature• Living a Garden Inspired Life• How to Garden in a Small Space• High Density Planting• Kids & Vegetables• The Deal with Snap Peas• Regenerative Gardening Practices• Planting by the Moon• What Is VermicompostingEpisode Resources: The Good Dirt: "Seeking Solutions to Waste in the School Supply Industry with Wisdom Supply Co." The Good Dirt: "The Urgent Need for Restorative Gardening with Mary Reynolds" The Good Dirt: “Homeschooling In The New Normal: Ideas And Options with Rebecca Gallop of A Daily Something” Connect with Bailey Van Tassel:• Website: https://baileyvantassel.com/• Instagram: @baileyvantassel • The Kitchen Garden Society's IG: @thekitchengardensociety• The Garden Culture Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/an-intro-to-the-garden-culture-podcast-and-bailey-van-tassel/id1643017748?i=1000578082770━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━🌻 About Lady Farmer: Our Website Follow @weareladyfarmer on Instagram Join The Lady Farmer ALMANAC Email us at thegooddirtpodcast@gmail.com or leave us a voicemail! Call 443-459-1950 and ask a question or share what the good dirt means to you! Original music by John Kingsley. Editing and podcast production by Fast Forward Production.

As Mary and Emma prepare for Emma's wedding, they are looking back at some of their favorite episodes on The Good Dirt. Today, it is a replay of episode 40, which first aired on April 30th, 2021. Liz Kimball (MFA, CPC) is a creativity catalyst, writer, coach, speaker, and founder of The Collective, a network of women creators and thought leaders dedicated to fostering cultural change through creativity. Her work has been featured at TEDx, Oprah.com, the NBA, The Guggenheim, NYU, and at universities and institutions throughout the country. In today's episode, we talk about the creative process from many angles, how pursuing our dreams might not be the straight path we imagine, how to foster our creative selves in a world that demands much from us, and how some of these things might be shifting from the pandemic year. Liz talks about the importance of detaching yourself from labels that you’ve placed on yourself since adolescence. Your work in the world is much more important than a title. We discuss how the ideas of slow living and "good dirt" are essential to cultivating the creative life, and building a future we can’t wait to wake up to!Topics Discussed• Mary & Emma catch up and chat about plants!• Liz introduces herself• Rewriting the rules • The Collective• Discussion around time• The creative process• Mary recalls her own journey with her creative processEpisode Resources: Liz's Website - The Collective Liz's TED Talk Howard Thurman - The Sound of The Genuine Big Magic - Elizabeth Gilbert The ALMANAC - Sharon Bailey's Workshop (available to members only)  Lynn Felton - @bonzart  Connect with Liz Kimball::• Website: https://lizkimball.com/ • Instagram: @lizkimball━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━🌻 About Lady Farmer: Our Website Follow @weareladyfarmer on Instagram Join The Lady Farmer ALMANAC Email us at thegooddirtpodcast@gmail.com or leave us a voicemail! Call 443-459-1950 and ask a question or share what the good dirt means to you! Original music by John Kingsley. Editing and podcast production by Fast Forward Production.

As Mary and Emma prepare for Emma's wedding, they are looking back at some of their favorite episodes on The Good Dirt. Today, it is a replay of episode 37, which first aired on April 9th, 2021.In this episode, Mary and Emma have a wonderful conversation with Eliza Blue, a singer/songwriter who lives and works on a regeneratively-managed ranch raising grass-fed cattle and fiber sheep with her husband and two children. Eliza discusses her transition from the life of a touring musician to a teaching job in South Dakota, and the pivotal moment when she walked into a friend's lambing barn during lambing season and realized she had found her calling.Eliza's connection to the land is evident in her stories of life on the ranch and her daily involvement with the animals and natural environment. She has written a book called "Accidental Rancher," which was released last spring. Additionally, she writes and produces audio "postcards" about ranch life for the North and South Dakota NPR affiliates. She has also just finished filming for a new series that celebrates rural life through stories and songs called "Wish You Were Here.Topics Discussed• The Lady Farmer Guide to Slow Living• Eliza introduces herself• Eliza’s creative endeavor • Eliza’s shares a story from the ranch• How the pandemic has affected Eliza’s life• What inspires Eliza’s music and songwriting?• Regenerative Agriculture in the grasslands• What does The Good Dirt mean to Eliza?Episode Resources: The Lady Farmer Guide to Slow Living Book Accidental Rancher by Eliza Blue Postcards from the Prairie Wish You Were Here Dirt to Soil by Gabe Brown Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan The History and Folklore of Brigid: Saint, Legend and Lady Farmer with Kathy Spaar Eliza's Spotify Connect with Eliza Blue:• Website: https://elizablue.net/• Instagram: @elizabluesings━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━🌻 About Lady Farmer: Our Website Follow @weareladyfarmer on Instagram Join The Lady Farmer ALMANAC Email us at thegooddirtpodcast@gmail.com or leave us a voicemail! Call 443-459-1950 and ask a question or share what the good dirt means to you! Original music by John Kingsley. Editing and podcast production by Fast Forward Production.