This episode of Voices from the Field was produced in partnership with ATTRA and the Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education program. To learn more about SARE’s library of practical information and available grants to fund projects that advance sustainable agriculture, visit sare.org.

In this episode, NCAT Horticulture Specialist Guy Ames talks with Matthew Lebon, owner of Custom Foodscaping in St. Louis, Missouri.  

Guy and Matthew talk about “edible landscaping” – which includes plants that produce food in residential, business, and community landscapes. They also discuss the value of “uncommon” crops such as gooseberries, currants, and paw-paws that grow well in the region.

Related ATTRA Resources:

·        Local Food Systems

·        How to Start Community Agroforesty Projects: Advice from 11 Forest Gardens

Other Resources:

·        Developing a Market for Locally Adapted Organic Fruiting Plants in St. Louis

·        Custom Foodscaping 

Please complete a brief survey to let us know your thoughts about the content of this podcast.

You can get in touch with NCAT/ATTRA specialists and find access to our trusted, practical sustainable-agriculture publications, webinars, videos, and other resources at ATTRA.NCAT.ORG.

This episode of Voices from the Field is an inspiring conversation with a trailblazer in ecological agriculture. In it, Gabriella Soto-Velez, an NCAT Sustainable Agriculture Specialist  in the Gulf States Region, sits down with Christopher Sacco, who needs no introduction for those familiar with sustainable agriculture practices. In 2009, Christopher laid the foundation for Groundswell International, a groundbreaking organization dedicated to empowering small-scale farmers and championing sustainable agriculture methods worldwide.

Fast forward to 2024, and Christopher has stepped away from the helm of Groundswell, but his support and passion for the organization’s mission remains steadfast. Christopher’s journey post-Groundswell led him to establish Aegis Conservation Ecology and Regenerative Development, a consulting firm at the forefront of promoting ecological agriculture and regenerative development.

Christopher and Gabriella delve deep into the heart of ecological agriculture, exploring its transformative potential, evolution, challenges, and pivotal role in shaping sustainable farming practices through the invaluable insights Christopher’s journey has allowed him to bring to the field.

 Related ATTRA Resources:
·        Agroforestry
·        Quick Tips for Agroforestry
·        Agroforestry: An Overview

 Other Resources:
·        Groundswell International
·        Enabling Farmer-led Ecosystem Restoration

Contact Gabriella Soto-Velez at [email protected].  

Please complete a brief survey to let us know your thoughts about the content of this podcast.  

You can get in touch with NCAT/ATTRA specialists and find access to our trusted, practical sustainable-agriculture publications, webinars, videos, and other resources at ATTRA.NCAT.ORG.

In this episode of Voices from the Field, NCAT Sustainable Agriculture Specialist Felicia Bell talks with beginning farmer Violet Keys about the journey that took her from a career in the military to beginning Synergy in the Garden, a 6-acre urban agriculture operation in Jackson, Mississippi.

Violet discusses overcoming her nervousness as she begins her farm – where she plans to grow medicinal herbs, cut flowers, and other crops. She and Felicia also talk about creating a business plan and utilizing USDA financial and planning assistance. Violet shares her dream of creating a “healing space” for veterans that is also an asset to her community.

Related ATTRA Resources:

·        Financing Your Farm: Guidance for Beginning Farmers

·        Selling to Local and Regional Markets: Barriers and Opportunities for Beginning Farmers

·        Veteran Resources

·        Farm Start-Up

·        Farmer Well-Being

Contact Felicia Bell at [email protected].  

Please complete a brief survey to let us know your thoughts about the content of this podcast.  

You can get in touch with NCAT/ATTRA specialists and find access to our trusted, practical sustainable-agriculture publications, webinars, videos, and other resources at ATTRA.NCAT.ORG.  

This episode of Voices from the Field was produced in partnership with ATTRA and the Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education program. To learn more about SARE’s library of practical information and available grants to fund projects that advance sustainable agriculture, visit SARE.ORG.

 In this episode, Maura Henn, an NCAT Local Food Systems Specialist, talks with Michal DeChellis of the Alternative Energy Resources Organization (AERO) in Montana. Michal is AERO’s Program Manager for the Montana Food Economy Initiative (MFEI), a project that has been funded through a Western SARE Grant.

Maura and Michal talk about the process of conducting Community Food Assessments around Montana and the importance of bringing together multiple stakeholders from different parts of community food systems when building a coalition for food systems work. Maura and Michal also talk about some of the first projects, which were launched in 2020, and adaptations and improvements made to the 2023-2024 round of community assessments.  

Related ATTRA Resources:

·       Farmers Markets

·       Local Food Systems

Other Resources:

·       Montana Food Economy Initiative

·       AERO

·       Montana Food System Resource Library

·       Butte Community Food Assessment Video Story 

·       Butte Winter Farmers Market

·       MSU Food Product Development Lab 

·       Montana Harvest of the Month 

·       Iowa State Food Assessment Training Certificate Program 

·       Double SNAP Dollars - Montana 

·        Northern Plains Resource Council

Contact Maura Henn at [email protected].  

Please complete a brief survey to let us know your thoughts about the content of this podcast.  

You can get in touch with NCAT/ATTRA specialists and find access to our trusted, practical sustainable-agriculture publications, webinars, videos, and other resources at ATTRA.NCAT.ORG.  

In this episode of Voices from the Field, urban farmer Pasha Angelle of Healing Den Farms in Houston, Texas, discusses how farming realities led her to shift gears and produce microgreens literally in-house rather than crops out in the field in the brutal Texas climate. This risk-management decision has expanded her experience and led her to a new customer base.  

This podcast is produced by the National Center for Appropriate Technology through the ATTRA Sustainable Agriculture program, under a cooperative agreement with USDA Rural Development.

This podcast was also made possible in part by funding from the Southern Risk
Management Education Center, USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture,
through the University of Arkansas.  

Related ATTRA Resources: 

·        Urban Agriculture 

·        Local Food Systems 

Other Resources: 

·        Healing Den 

Contact Justin Duncan at [email protected].  

Please complete a brief survey to let us know your thoughts about the content of
this podcast.  

You can get in touch with NCAT/ATTRA specialists and find access to our trusted, practical sustainable-agriculture publications, webinars, videos, and other resources at ATTRA.NCAT.ORG.  

Sheri Langford is a straight-talking Texas shepherd, dog trainer, and retired crime- scene investigator.  

 In this episode of Voices from the Field, Sheri talks with NCAT Sustainable Agriculture Specialist Linda Poole about raising Navajo-Churro sheep – which she calls “the mustangs of the sheep world”– with the help of her border collie, Anatolian, and Great Pyrenees guardian dogs. On her Red Feather Ranch, Sheri says, predators are like pilots: there are old predators, and there are bold predators, but, thanks to her dogs, there are no old, bold predators.  

 Sheri also talks about her journey from crime scene investigator to shepherd, how to prepare a flock for wildfire, training sheep to avoid “rope and hoist” milking, and other tales of life with small ruminants. 

 This Voices from the Field episode is part of NCAT’s “She’s Raising Sheep” podcast series. 

 Related ATTRA Resources:  
·        She’s Raising Sheep Series  

·        Tips for Marketing Sheep and Goat Products: Dairy  

·        Tips for Marketing Sheep and Goat Products: Fiber  

 Other Resources:
·        The Red Feather Ranch 

·        Navajo-Churro Sheep Association

·        Farm Fresh Forensics: Life Between the Barnyard and the Body Farm

 Contact Linda Poole at [email protected]. 

Please complete a brief survey to let us know your thoughts about the content of
this podcast. 

You can get in touch with NCAT/ATTRA specialists and find
access to our trusted, practical sustainable-agriculture publications,
webinars, videos, and other resources at ATTRA.NCAT.ORG. 

In this episode of Voices from the Field, NCAT Sustainable Agriculture Specialist Tracy Mumma talks with Jim Gronau, who uses oxen as draft animals on his farm in Ontario, Canada. Jim describes some of the environmental, economic, and marketing benefits of using oxen, and he provides pointers for getting started as a teamster and for starting a young team of oxen. Jim also explains what an ox is and talks about how versatile oxen can be on a farm. Finally, Jim reflects on the magic moment when everything comes together and the animals and driver become a team.

Related ATTRA Resources:

·        Episode 333. Draft Animals 101
·        Draft Animal Power for Farming

Other Resources:

·        Draft Animal Power Network
·        Oxen: A Teamster’s Guide to Raising, Training, Driving & Showing
·        Oxen: Their Care, Training, and Use
·        Live Power in Agriculture: Working Equines and Bovines Class
·        Midwest Ox Drovers Association
·        All Things Oxen
·        Oxen in Canada
·        Small Farmer’s Journal
·        Rural Heritage
·        World Draft Cattle Symposium

 Contact Tracy Mumma at [email protected].

Please complete a brief survey to let us know your thoughts about the content of this podcast.  

You can get in touch with NCAT/ATTRA specialists and find access to our trusted, practical sustainable-agriculture publications, webinars, videos, and other resources at ATTRA.NCAT.ORG.  

For centuries, draft animals were the premier power source for agriculture.  Although tractors eventually usurped draft animals on most farms, ranches, and forests, some teamsters have kept the traditions alive. With the upswing of modern homesteading and people striving for ecologically beneficial agricultural practices, it looks like draft power is making a comeback. 

 In this episode of Voices from the Field, NCAT Sustainable Agriculture Specialist and
wanna-be teamster Linda Poole quizzes seasoned experts Tracy Mumma (also an NCAT staff member), Tracy’s husband David Sturman, and Jim Gronau – an oxen teamster from Canada –on the what, why, and how of getting started with draft animals.  

If you want to learn more, be sure to come back for the next episode– an in-depth conversation between Tracy and Jim about using draft animals in farming. 

Related ATTRA Resources: 

·        Draft Animal Power for Farming: 

Other Related Resources: 

·        Oxen: A Teamster’s Guide to Raising, Training, Driving & Showing 

·        Oxen: Their Care, Training, and Use  

·        Small Farmer’s Journal  

·        Rural Heritage 

·        Draft Animal-Power Network 

·        Live Power in Agriculture: Working Equines and Bovines Class 

·        Midwest Ox Drovers Association 

·        All Things Oxen 

·        Oxen in Canada 

Contact Linda Poole and Tracy Mumma at [email protected] and [email protected]. 

Please complete a brief survey to let us know your thoughts about the content of
this podcast.  

You can get in touch with NCAT/ATTRA specialists and find access to our trusted, practical sustainable-agriculture publications, webinars, videos, and other resources at ATTRA.NCAT.ORG.  

This episode of Voices from the Field was produced in partnership with ATTRA and the Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education program. To learn more about SARE’s library of practical information and available grants to fund projects that advance sustainable agriculture, visit sare.org.

In this episode, NCAT Sustainable Agriculture Specialist Justin Duncan talks with Edmund Frost at the Twin Oaks Intentional Community in Virginia. Edmund is the managing director of Common Wealth Seed Growers, a cooperative of seed growers producing farmer-grown, regionally trialed seeds in the Southeast.

Since 2013, he has received funding from Southern Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education for research and breeding work with butternut squash. Justin and Edmund talk about breeding strategies to produce butternut squash that is resistant to downy mildew while still maintaining its eating quality. They also discuss how Edmund conducts taste tests of the squash and how he gathers the data from his research.

Related ATTRA Resources:

Adventures in Mirliton

Squash Bug and Squash Vine Borer: Organic Controls

Organic Pumpkin and Winter Squash Marketing and Production

Related SARE Resources:

Breeding a Better Butternut

Breeding and Evaluation of Butternut Varieties for Southeast Organic Farms

Winter Squash Evaluation and Improvement for Downy Mildew Resistance and Fruit Quality

Identifying and Marketing Open-Pollinated and Organic Cucurbit Seedstocks for Virginia

Other SARE/NCAT Podcasts:

Episode 327. ATTRA and SARE: The Commercial Potential of Mulberries in the Midwest.

Other Resources

Twin Oaks Intentional Community

Common Wealth Seed Growers

 Contact Justin Duncan at [email protected].

Please complete a brief survey to let us know your thoughts about the content of this podcast.

You can get in touch with NCAT/ATTRA specialists and find access to our trusted, practical sustainable-agriculture publications, webinars, videos, and other resources at ATTRA.NCAT.ORG.

This episode of Voices from the Field introduces one of NCAT’s newest staff members. Danielle Duni recently joined NCAT as a Carbon Farm Planner who will aid Wyoming shepherds as they build profitable businesses and healthy landscapes.  

 Danielle shares her winding career path working with livestock across the western U.S. and her vision for ranchers “finding that interface where we can all work together to build resilient communities.” 

Also, Danielle and NCAT Grazing Specialist Linda Poole sketch the shape of the Climate Beneficial Fiber Partnership, a five-year program to provide technical assistance and cost-sharing to ranchers and farmers growing wool or cotton using climate-beneficial practices. With support from USDA’s Partnership for Climate-Smart Commodities, Danielle will lead NCAT’s work to build a better future for Wyoming woolgrowers and working lands. 

Related ATTRA Resources: 

·        Climate Beneficial Practices 

·        Growing Hope: Practical Tools for Changing Climate and Soils 

·        Episode330. Meet NCAT: Carbon Farm Planner Allison Cooley-Agee of Montana 

Other Resources: 

·        Foraging Behavior of Raramuri Criollo vs. Angus Cattle Grazing California Chaparral and Colorado Plateau Shrublands 

·        Collegiate Woolgrowers at Montana State University 

·        International Society for Range Management, Young Professionals Conclave 

 Contact Linda Poole and Danielle Duni at [email protected]and [email protected].

Please complete a brief survey to let us know your thoughts about the content of this podcast.  

You can get in touch with NCAT/ATTRA specialists and find access to our trusted, practical sustainable-agriculture publications, webinars, videos, and other resources at ATTRA.NCAT.ORG.