In preparation and celebration of World Soil Day on December 5, 2021, 4 The Soil and the Virginia Soil Health Coalition offer a special episode to hear and learn from the wisdom and insights of Ira Wallace of Southern Exposure Seed Exchange. In this episode, Ira shares about the importance of soil health to vegetable and food production, but specifically how soil health is relevant to seed saving, heirloom varieties, and land ownership. Mary Sketch and Jeff Ishee share their own excitement about different seed and heirloom varieties ranging from peanuts to kale. You can also learn how Ira and her colleagues at Southern Exposure Seed Exposure started to build soil health and renovate the soils early on in the history of their farming operation, which included multi-year cover cropping rotations and never leaving the soil bare during a fallow between crops.

Ira's one resource she would share with 4 The Soil: A Conversation podcast listeners is Margaret Roach's podcast A Way to Garden at https://awaytogarden.com/

4 the Soil: A Conversation is made possible with funding support from the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation and The Agua Fund. Other partners include the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service; Virginia Cooperative Extension; Virginia State University; Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation; and partners of the Virginia Soil Health Coalition.

Disclaimer: Views expressed on this podcast are those of each individual guest.

To download a copy of this, or any other show, visit the website 4thesoil.org. Music used during today’s program is courtesy of the Flip Charts. All rights reserved. 4 the Soil: A Conversation is produced by On the Farm Radio in collaboration with Virginia Tech. The host and co-hosts are Jeff Ishee, Mary Sketch Bryant, and Eric Bendfeldt.