Here's a replay of my very first interview with the amazing Patti Armbrister! Get ready to join the Patti Armbrister Fan Club coming soon!

What's your preference?Do you like long show notes that transcribe the full episode or do you like shorter versions? I made 2 copies of Golden Seeds From Melissa K. Norris. One I actually took notes by hand, 13 pages worth and then I typed them off. The other I just transcribed while listening. Which is your preference or do you just like to read it on the  (https://organicgardenerpodcast.com/podcast-2/pioneering-today-podcast/) ? Would you like a printed copy delivered to your home each month?

(https://mikesgreengarden.files.wordpress.com/2019/12/gsi16melissanorrishandwritten.pdf)

(https://mikesgreengarden.files.wordpress.com/2019/11/gsi16melissanorrispioneeringtodaypodcast-1.pdf)

I'd love to know which you like better if you cold just hit reply and say long, short or website I'd really appreciate it!

Don't forget to sign up to (https://mailchi.mp/9fc2f7aa40ff/familygardenplan) and leave her a 5-star review when you're done reading it! Happy New Year!

Melissa Kagiyama from (https://www.keytothemountain.com/) I buy all my food from local farmers and then cook it.How do we connect with you?I love sharing with everyone

so grateful you are all listening

again, my name is Melissa Kagiyama

(http://keytothemountain.com)

want to share

just hit the contact us

I respond to all emails!

I love getting requests for new food and flavors

have an (https://www.instagram.com/key_to_the_mountain/?hl=en)

On Facebook at Key to the Mountain (https://www.facebook.com/keytothemountain/) Are you a millennial born between 1980-1995?

Yeah Millennial!

Awesome!

Today is Friday August 2, 2019!

So I am so excited to introduce my guest today who I met at the Farmer's Market when I was in Missoula for the 1/2 Marathon in June. And she gave me Key to the Mountain (https://www.keytothemountain.com/) in Missoula Montana here's rockstar millennial Melissa Kagiyama!

(https://www.keytothemountain.com/)

I have had guest come on and talk about food they cooked from the farmer's market. You said when you first moved to Missoula, you were blown away by the quality of food available at the farmer's market and then you started cooking with it. People often wonder about those things. I am more the organic eater at my house and I feel like you as we were saying the pre-chat that you struggle with water. 

Tell us a little about yourself.I really appreciate all our local farmers that are doing all that work. We cook it so we can preserve that amazing food that we grow for all year.

Tell me about your first gardening experience?A brief background, grew up not cooking, eating everything from a can, not cooking dinner, which is a way a lot of millennials grew up, with both parents working, it takes a lot of time to cook fresh food so we didn’t eat a lot of fresh food. 

When I got into college, I got really exhausted all the time, I felt like something wasn't right, like I was sick, I went to the doctor. 

I was sleeping like 16 hours a day because I was so tired. Going to the doctors telling me I’m fine and it was all in my head, was very discouraging and disempowering. I said, I’m gonna find something out and I'm gonna do something about it.

After much searching I found indian holistic medicine called Ayurveda what that is in a nutshell is directions on how to live and eat on a balanced life

Tells you how much to 

eat

exercise

sleep

Ayurveda: It's really about entire lifestyle

Really for me, what shocked me so much was about the food I was eating, I thought for me if I was eating canned green beans, I was getting my vegetables, but that is not necessarily true sometimes its true it depends

I felt completely healed, I learned all this knowledge about how to eat. I finished my degree really great! I started teaching, so at this point I was 

cooking all my food

basically really simple recipes

salad

spaghetti

But I was actually cooking my food. A book I really love is Mark Bittmans’

(https://amzn.to/2QAFJ4C)

How to Cook Everything―Completely Revised Twentieth Anniversary Edition: Simple Recipes for Great Food (https://amzn.to/2QAFJ4C) That’s where I learned how to cook

I really recommended that book

I started teaching and I taught musicI had all sorts of kids

young

old

poor

rich

whatever background

I noticed after lunch I couldn’t teach the kids, they weren't focused. They were acting crazy bouncing off the walls. For me I personally decided it was because of what they were eating. 

I felt the same thing happening to me in my childhood, eating food that wasn’t actually supporting me was happening to my students.

Then I moved to Montana, when I got to the farmer’s market I was like imagined! I was like:

This is what food is supposed to be! When you get something...

When (https://organicgardenerpodcast.com/podcast-2/pioneering-today-podcast/) was on the GREEN Organic Gardener Podcast recently we talked about the amazing tip I got from my interview with Sally Fallon about needing to eat a healthy fat with beets etc to get the full mineral and nutritional value from root vegetables.

Check out the replay and see if you don't learn a ton. (https://organicgardenerpodcast.com/podcast-2/119-crossfit-gardener-2015/) Also great interviews.

Jeff Lowenfels author of the Teaming With Microbes Soil Trilogy shares his system for creating healthy organic ecosystems and how we can all work to save the world if we just answer the question What would Greta think?

If you wondered why we changed the name to the GREEN Organic Gardener Podcast there will be no doubt when you finish with this amazing episode. Get ready for Jeff to drop Golden Seeds Galore!

JEFF LOWENFELS "LORD OF THE ROOTS" AUTHOR OF THE SOIL TRIOLOGY: (https://amzn.to/2NBxLIa)

Teaming with Microbes: The Organic Gardener's Guide to the Soil Food Web (https://amzn.to/2IRsoiY)

(https://amzn.to/2NBxLIa) and

(https://amzn.to/33G6QAA)

(https://amzn.to/2rtq7Xv)

Tell us a little about yourself.

I was a lawyer, I worked for a fortune 500 company

always been a gardener

Tell me about your first gardening experience?

my father had to take over a family

8 acres

frustrated farmers

all the magazines

JI Rodale

came over to the house for dinner

I must have been about 10-11

How did you learn how to garden organically?My first memories are being pushed around in a wheel barrow by my father in the garden

The first thing I planted was a wedding cake strawberry planter

Im in Anchorage Alaska, the longest running garden columnist

My new book is on a brand new kind of cannabis

It will be the next tomato plant

remember when the snap peas came out

everybody had to grow them

still growing them today

has no photo period

same size as a tomato

produces from seed to harvest

just like a tomato plant

small plant

one of the things I love about the books is the diagram in the back with the plant diagram, leaves

plant leaves

nitrogen deficiency

if you don’t know what the photoperiod thing is

cannabis has to have 12 hours day 12 hours night

they require

12 hours + one minute

poinsettias

cactus

triggered by length of light

If you take a christmas cactus and leave it in a situation where it gets more daylight then darkness it won’t bloom no matter what.

A Russian guy was wondering around in 1923.

vo

area

Says he what is that? looks down and sees this little plant

cannabis plant must have escaped from a hemp plantation growing for rope or something of that it thought. oh my gosh it’s gonna get cold here and I haven’t started to flower

photoperiod

In 1973 a bunch of hippie

they came out with a commercial but the size of the whole plant was the size of a thermos bottle the whole plant

it wasn’t very good the cannabis wasn’t very strong

people lost interest continued to breed them in the background

5 years ago

3 years ago started to get great

2 years ago they were phenomenal

And now if you go to a commercial dispensary in lots of places they are actually selling auto flower cannabis. When you use cbd products a lot of that comes from auto flower cbd plants. So if you are a home grower and you want to grow your own cbd auto flower. you could do that.

I’m getting a little a little bit a head of myself. A lot of listeners are thinking,

It’s all over Canada now, if you are not in a state where cannabis is legal, but it will be no question about it. It’s coming!

(https://amzn.to/2rtq7Xv)

As gardeners exciting event to wait for!

these plants are spectacular.

different colors

different chemical extenuates

It’s a whole new aspect of gardening!

you can bread your own

just like a tomato plant!

so there you go, now I have 4 book

I am looking for a 4th book for the series

tell us little more about eh teaming series in general

the teaming with microbes was a different type of book, when it came out so Timber Press my publisher, the publisher scratched their head

they weren’t sure any of this was true!

What I was talking about was how plants feed themselves!

in a

Are you wondering why we are rebranding ourselves as the GREEN Organic Gardener Podcast?

Listen here to learn what's new!

Get ready for our first episode as the (https://organicgardenerpodcast.com/podcast-2/304-the-organic-gardener-soil-food-web-expert-jeff-lowenfels/) and his new book on DIY Cannabis, from Anchorage Alaska prepare to be dazzled! Afterall what would Greta think?

Love all of you green future growers out there!

Do you have your climate story ready?

(https://mailchi.mp/9fc2f7aa40ff/familygardenplan)

And don't forget to enter to win a copy of Melissa K. Norris' new book The Family Garden Plan sign up here (https://mailchi.mp/9fc2f7aa40ff/familygardenplan)

Don't forget to enter the Melissa K. Norris Giveaway to win a copy of her new awesome book! (https://mailchi.mp/9fc2f7aa40ff/familygardenplan)  

(https://mikesgreengarden.files.wordpress.com/2019/07/clickherebutton.jpghttps://mailchi.mp/9fc2f7aa40ff/familygardenplan)

So, if you listened to the Get Pregnant Naturally Podcast (https://fabfertile.com/project/podcast/) who challenged me to try an Elimination Diet where I gave up the top 5 allergens for 10 days. And I did it. And I wanted to share my results.

It's EasyI mention the (https://www.mealtrain.com/trains/k2g1ev/donate/) . Kate Erikson has a great saying 

"Gratitude is the First Seed of Abundance"And I tried it, I thought what am I going to eat if I can't eat:

soy

corn

gluten

dairy

eggs

peanuts

So I thought what could I eat? I can eat salad, fish, garbanzo beans (hummus)!

I was like I can do that. I love salad! I love fish! I love garbanzo beans!

And so it turned out it was easy!It was a little weird, I searched some vegan sites for recipes. I didn't really make any, other then the lentil burgers, which asked for eggs but I din't seem to have a problem. They also asked for bread crumbs, I was gonna make from some gluten free bread I did buy some gluten free bread boy was that expensive! 

I looked at gluten free brownie recipes but they called for eggs, again. I bought some gluten free flour which was super expensive! I made a gluten free vegan pizza, it was not very good, I had a problem getting the bread to rise because I think my yeast wasn't any good. It really made some good habits.

I also put some ketchup in some Making Thyme For Health (https://www.facebook.com/makingthymeforhealthblog) that called for tomato paste. And it had cornstarch or corn syrup or something in it. So there's that I did on like day 4. And lentils were a great thing I ate. 

I don't think I have food allergies. I didn't really seem to feel any different. I am an Italian and I feel like my stomach can handle just about anything. I thought it would get rid of the sniffling sound in my nose but it didn't seem to do anything about that.

I could eat chocolate, there are gluten free vegan chocolate bars from Endangered Species (https://www.chocolatebar.com)  and they taste delicious and are frequently on sale! Just be advised they recently changed their labels, I stood staring at the chocolate display before I found them!

(https://www.chocolatebar.com/products/)

I'm used to eating ice cream every night. I bought some almond milk, after I found out I could eat nuts just not peanuts, but I never had it. I drank rice milk, with granola a lot. 

So if you want to try the elimination diet think about what can you eat?It was definitely fun to say hey this is easy! and Hey I'm doing this!

On day 6 I was ready to quit, on day 8 I really wanted to quit. Especially I mistakenly ate some edamame at school they gave the kids for snack and I was like oops I blew it. But I ended up sticking it out. It was odd I felt kind of depressed that day.

But it could have been something else. We had an incident at our school. If you are not on Facebook you might not know but a little girl from my school was hit getting off the bus by a car and she's in a coma. It's so sad, if you want to donate to her fundraiser (https://www.mealtrain.com/trains/k2g1ev/donate/) .

Montana law requires drivers to come to a halt no less than 30 feet away from a school bus with its red, flashing lights on, and to only proceed once children have reached the side of the road and the school bus has turned off said lights.Did you know that 6 to 9 people pass a school bus with it's flashers on illegally while it’s stopped during student pick up or drop off, each month?  Check out this article in the Big Fork Eagle!...

Jackie,

Great! Then I feel I may have something of value for your audience. We have a flock of Gotland sheep, and that is our main focus along with offering Farmstead vacations to people. Oh now that may be an angle you would like to explore, adding agritourism to your farm business! I can talk about that for days on end. We also raise pigs and use them to reclaim pasture and to add nutrients to the soil. We do have a small garden and hoop house, but I only grow for our own needs and do not sell produce. We do however, sell our pork. We, at some point, may offer lamb, as in to eat, however, right now we are growing our flock and concentrating on selling breeding stock. I am not a vegan, so if that would be offensive to your audience, then warning should be given.

 We are NOT certified organic, but 99% of what we do is organic. 

Ha! I graduated from high school in 1980. I think what may be inspiring for those listening is that our homestead grew out of a desire to teach our children about life and death and the value of working the soil with your hands and about having a strong work ethic and being self sufficient. I homeschooled my children from birth till they went off to college and much of what we do now was out of a desire for them to experience life fully. Life and death tend to be taboos in our society, lock people up to die and lock women up to give birth...well ok, that sounds a bit dramatic, but my point is that birth and dying are not talked about in general. I wanted my children to see that it is a natural process and it is to be celebrated and treated with great reverence. So, at age 40, we added sheep to our family homestead. We began knowing nothing and as a family learned together. 

There is so much value in the words from those who are older. My website is  http://www.livingwithgotlands.com/ (http://www.livingwithgotlands.com/) .

And from this email we would share this awesome interview!

FULL SHOW NOTES COMING SOON! 

(https://mailchi.mp/16e5aaeec9e9/goldenseeds)

(https://mailchi.mp/9fc2f7aa40ff/familygardenplan)

And to enter to win a copy of Melissa K. Norris’ new book The Family Garden Plan sign up here (https://mailchi.mp/9fc2f7aa40ff/familygardenplan)

Read my this issue of the Golden Seeds Newsletter here. (https://coconutatsea.com/) .Friday, November 22, 2019

I’m super excited and (https://coconutatsea.com/) .

We grew up in North County San Diego. We spent our childhood lives loving the ocean and surfing.

We moved to Montana when we were 22 and spent the second half of our lives farming, fishing, and raising a family.

Now we're (https://coconutatsea.com/) .A family business committed to giving our all in everything we do. We make soap because we want to save the planet

We love the ocean. We love the mountains.

Seeing plastic clogging up our reefs and blowing across farm fields broke our hearts.

So we decided to reduce single-use plastics. Bar soap and shampoo bars are an easy switch toward our goal of plastic-free showers.

And we know gardeners are always getting dirty! Welcome Sarah McPhearson, Sarah Harding?

McPhearson is my maiden name.

You're in Whitefish where I got a job this year and I feel so excited about this because this week we are talking about saving the animals in Wonders McGraw-Hill we’re reading Kids to the Rescue about saving turtles and manatees. And we did a puppet show called the Turtle Mishap about a turtle who get’s stuck in a plastic six pack holder.

Tell us a little about yourself.It’s kind of a long story. When I last talked to you, we were farming full mite growing asparagus, microgreens, cut flowers, it just got the word I think of most is relentless

RelentlessElizabeth Gilbert when she talks about jobs, that every job has a poop sandwich and you have to be willing to eat the poop sandwich that comes along with that job. And we just we got tired of the poop sandwich that came with farming. The relentless with it, we were growing microgreens year round, and how we never got a break and how we never got to spend quality chunks of time with our kids

sold our micrograms

leased the asparagus field out

I still do cut flowers, because after all they’re beautiful!

And then I kind of flopped around for a few years. And we were on a family vacation, with my husband and his two brothers, and we were on vacation in Indonesia and we would pull up to this amazing island!

on a boat

dreamy

white sand

little spit in the middle of the indian ocean

with coconut palms

just heaven!

And we would get off the boat and swim into the shore and it was covered in plastic! Plastic of every thing you can imagine! and it was heartbreaking I mean it just broke my heart and I got back on the boat and I was talking to my sister-in-law and she was like but

what can we do?I said

We can do better

We can use less plastic!We might not be able to save Indonesia because we’re not Indonesian

and soap making this was a skill I already had so I said

I’ll make shampoo barsFor some reason shampoo bottles on the forefront of my mind, I think maybe I saw one in Indonesia. So I did, I came home and John suggested I make some soaps that visitors to Montana would like.

We came up with

black bar

grizzly bar

shampoo bar, just for myself and maybe some of my crunchy friends.

I called it Mother’s Nature’s Shampoo BarI made it sort of as a joke because that’s what my mother calls me sometimes, Mother Nature

I put one of those jokey things on the label but then people got excited about it!

The shampoo bar, I’m actually trying to make other scents and then really trying to figure out how to make an all natural conditioner without using basically chemicals because the shampoo bar we make is all natural

oils

essential oils

rosemary extract

and then it’s saponified into this beautiful lathery hard bar that lasts a long time, but works really well.

So where does the coconut come in? Is it made of coconut butter? Or is it because your story was inspired by the coconut palm trees?

Kind of all 3.

it does have coconut oil in it

Melissa K. Norris from Modern Homesteading the Pioneering Today Podcast where everything is homegrown and homemade shares her homesteading journey in the Pacific Northwest.