The Beet: A Podcast For Plant Lovers

Ever wondered how a commercial soil company creates a mix? Wonder no more, as Paul from Aliki Gardens outlines how he came up with his most popular blend, Freyja’s Mix. Connect With Paul Filomena: Paul is the owner of Aliki Gardens, a local San Diego soil company with a focus on creating high-quality soils to support a regenerative agriculture approach. He’s also been involved in cannabis cultivation for 10+ years. Aliki Gardens Buy Birdies Garden Beds Use code EPICPODCAST for 10% off your first order of Birdies metal raised garden beds, the best metal raised beds in the world. They last 5-10x longer than wooden beds, come in multiple heights and dimensions, and look absolutely amazing. Click here to shop Birdies Garden Beds Buy My Book My book, Field Guide to Urban Gardening, is a beginners guide to growing food in small spaces, covering 6 different methods and offering rock-solid fundamental gardening knowledge: Order on Amazon Order a signed copy Follow Epic Gardening YouTube Instagram Pinterest Facebook Facebook Group Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

I grew cabbages this past fall that absolutely blew up, thanks in part to some soil that I was testing from a local San Diego company, Aliki Gardens. I got Paul from Aliki on the show to talk about what happened. Connect With Paul Filomena: Paul is the owner of Aliki Gardens, a local San Diego soil company with a focus on creating high-quality soils to support a regenerative agriculture approach. He’s also been involved in cannabis cultivation for 10+ years. Aliki Gardens Buy Birdies Garden Beds Use code EPICPODCAST for 10% off your first order of Birdies metal raised garden beds, the best metal raised beds in the world. They last 5-10x longer than wooden beds, come in multiple heights and dimensions, and look absolutely amazing. Click here to shop Birdies Garden Beds Buy My Book My book, Field Guide to Urban Gardening, is a beginners guide to growing food in small spaces, covering 6 different methods and offering rock-solid fundamental gardening knowledge: Order on Amazon Order a signed copy Follow Epic Gardening YouTube Instagram Pinterest Facebook Facebook Group Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Let’s think beyond basic garden salads in the kitchen, and who better to tell us than Chris Starkus, who has been a professional chef for over 25 years. He shares a few of his favorite creative ways to use your garden produce in the kitchen. Connect With Chris Starkus: After being a professional chef for 25 years, Chris Starkus pivoted his career and became an eco-entrepreneur, partner and CSO of Boss Defrost.  He is also a Journeyman beekeeper, Organic Farmer, committed to 360-degree sustainability and transparency. Boss Defrost (Instagram) Chris Starkus' Instagram | Twitter Lost Creek Microfarm | Instagram |Twitter Buy Birdies Garden Beds Use code EPICPODCAST for 10% off your first order of Birdies metal raised garden beds, the best metal raised beds in the world. They last 5-10x longer than wooden beds, come in multiple heights and dimensions, and look absolutely amazing. Click here to shop Birdies Garden Beds Buy My Book My book, Field Guide to Urban Gardening, is a beginners guide to growing food in small spaces, covering 6 different methods and offering rock-solid fundamental gardening knowledge: Order on Amazon Order a signed copy Follow Epic Gardening YouTube Instagram Pinterest Facebook Facebook Group Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Food preservation is key if you’re a gardener. Even if you’re planning your garden well, you’ll end up with extra produce - and that’s fantastic...as long as you know how to preserve it. Chris Starkus joins us to share a few of his favorite ways to preserve food. Connect With Chris Starkus: After being a professional chef for 25 years, Chris Starkus pivoted his career and became an eco-entrepreneur, partner and CSO of Boss Defrost.  He is also a Journeyman beekeeper, Organic Farmer, committed to 360-degree sustainability and transparency. Boss Defrost (Instagram) Chris Starkus' Instagram | Twitter Lost Creek Microfarm | Instagram |Twitter Buy Birdies Garden Beds Use code EPICPODCAST for 10% off your first order of Birdies metal raised garden beds, the best metal raised beds in the world. They last 5-10x longer than wooden beds, come in multiple heights and dimensions, and look absolutely amazing. Click here to shop Birdies Garden Beds Buy My Book My book, Field Guide to Urban Gardening, is a beginners guide to growing food in small spaces, covering 6 different methods and offering rock-solid fundamental gardening knowledge: Order on Amazon Order a signed copy Follow Epic Gardening YouTube Instagram Pinterest Facebook Facebook Group Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Did you know a common defrosting method in commercial kitchens uses 125 gallons of water per pound frozen food? That’s appalling, and Chris Starkus quite literally changed his career to become the Chief Sales Officer of Boss Defrost, an innovative way to defrost food using 98.5% less water. Connect With Chris Starkus: After being a professional chef for 25 years, Chris Starkus pivoted his career and became an eco-entrepreneur, partner and CSO of Boss Defrost.  He is also a Journeyman beekeeper, Organic Farmer, committed to 360-degree sustainability and transparency. Boss Defrost (Instagram) Chris Starkus' Instagram | Twitter Lost Creek Microfarm | Instagram |Twitter Buy Birdies Garden Beds Use code EPICPODCAST for 10% off your first order of Birdies metal raised garden beds, the best metal raised beds in the world. They last 5-10x longer than wooden beds, come in multiple heights and dimensions, and look absolutely amazing. Click here to shop Birdies Garden Beds Buy My Book My book, Field Guide to Urban Gardening, is a beginners guide to growing food in small spaces, covering 6 different methods and offering rock-solid fundamental gardening knowledge: Order on Amazon Order a signed copy Follow Epic Gardening YouTube Instagram Pinterest Facebook Facebook Group Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

It’s always a good idea to use as much of your own produce in your kitchen. After all, that’s why we grow it, right? But what about other ways we can use the plants that we grow in the garden? Chris Starkus joins us to discuss some of his favorite ways. Connect With Chris Starkus: After being a professional chef for 25 years, Chris Starkus pivoted his career and became an eco-entrepreneur, partner and CSO of Boss Defrost.  He is also a Journeyman beekeeper, Organic Farmer, committed to 360-degree sustainability and transparency. Boss Defrost (Instagram) Chris Starkus' Instagram | Twitter Lost Creek Microfarm | Instagram |Twitter Buy Birdies Garden Beds Use code EPICPODCAST for 10% off your first order of Birdies metal raised garden beds, the best metal raised beds in the world. They last 5-10x longer than wooden beds, come in multiple heights and dimensions, and look absolutely amazing. Click here to shop Birdies Garden Beds Buy My Book My book, Field Guide to Urban Gardening, is a beginners guide to growing food in small spaces, covering 6 different methods and offering rock-solid fundamental gardening knowledge: Order on Amazon Order a signed copy Follow Epic Gardening YouTube Instagram Pinterest Facebook Facebook Group Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Today we zoom out and talk about larger issues than our veggie gardens: urban popular growth and how that impacts food security and sourcing in urban centers. Of course, one good solution is to grow more of your own...but is that enough? Connect With Chris Starkus: After being a professional chef for 25 years, Chris Starkus pivoted his career and became an eco-entrepreneur, partner and CSO of Boss Defrost.  He is also a Journeyman beekeeper, Organic Farmer, committed to 360-degree sustainability and transparency. Boss Defrost (Instagram) Chris Starkus' Instagram | Twitter Lost Creek Microfarm | Instagram |Twitter Buy Birdies Garden Beds Use code EPICPODCAST for 10% off your first order of Birdies metal raised garden beds, the best metal raised beds in the world. They last 5-10x longer than wooden beds, come in multiple heights and dimensions, and look absolutely amazing. Click here to shop Birdies Garden Beds Buy My Book My book, Field Guide to Urban Gardening, is a beginners guide to growing food in small spaces, covering 6 different methods and offering rock-solid fundamental gardening knowledge: Order on Amazon Order a signed copy Follow Epic Gardening YouTube Instagram Pinterest Facebook Facebook Group Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

We’re living in interesting, volatile times in terms of our global climate, and water sourcing and scarcity is a major part of that. Learn what dry farming is, and how Chris Starkus approaches water security on his farm, Lost Creek Micro Farm. Connect With Chris Starkus: After being a professional chef for 25 years, Chris Starkus pivoted his career and became an eco-entrepreneur, partner and CSO of Boss Defrost.  He is also a Journeyman beekeeper, Organic Farmer, committed to 360-degree sustainability and transparency. Boss Defrost (Instagram) Chris Starkus' Instagram | Twitter Lost Creek Microfarm | Instagram |Twitter Buy Birdies Garden Beds Use code EPICPODCAST for 10% off your first order of Birdies metal raised garden beds, the best metal raised beds in the world. They last 5-10x longer than wooden beds, come in multiple heights and dimensions, and look absolutely amazing. Click here to shop Birdies Garden Beds Buy My Book My book, Field Guide to Urban Gardening, is a beginners guide to growing food in small spaces, covering 6 different methods and offering rock-solid fundamental gardening knowledge: Order on Amazon Order a signed copy Follow Epic Gardening YouTube Instagram Pinterest Facebook Facebook Group Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Chef Chris Starkus is back on the podcast to talk about his new career change as well as some thoughts on his farm, Lost Creek Micro Farm. Today’s episode features an update about the farm as well as his plans for the future. Connect With Chris Starkus: After being a professional chef for 25 years, Chris Starkus pivoted his career and became an eco-entrepreneur, partner and CSO of Boss Defrost.  He is also a Journeyman beekeeper, Organic Farmer, committed to 360-degree sustainability and transparency. Boss Defrost (Instagram) Chris Starkus' Instagram | Twitter Lost Creek Microfarm | Instagram |Twitter Buy Birdies Garden Beds Use code EPICPODCAST for 10% off your first order of Birdies metal raised garden beds, the best metal raised beds in the world. They last 5-10x longer than wooden beds, come in multiple heights and dimensions, and look absolutely amazing. Click here to shop Birdies Garden Beds Buy My Book My book, Field Guide to Urban Gardening, is a beginners guide to growing food in small spaces, covering 6 different methods and offering rock-solid fundamental gardening knowledge: Order on Amazon Order a signed copy Follow Epic Gardening YouTube Instagram Pinterest Facebook Facebook Group Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

I recently traveled to the UK to visit Charles Dowding, the godfather of the no-dig movement. Here is what I learned. Learn More: Watch the full tour of Charles Dowding's garden Buy Birdies Garden Beds Use code EPICPODCAST for 10% off your first order of Birdies metal raised garden beds, the best metal raised beds in the world. They last 5-10x longer than wooden beds, come in multiple heights and dimensions, and look absolutely amazing. Click here to shop Birdies Garden Beds Buy My Book My book, Field Guide to Urban Gardening, is a beginners guide to growing food in small spaces, covering 6 different methods and offering rock-solid fundamental gardening knowledge: Order on Amazon Order a signed copy Follow Epic Gardening YouTube Instagram Pinterest Facebook Facebook Group Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices