In so many previous episodes I’ve spoken with people who’ve explained many nuances and facts about plants and how to incorporate different species of trees, shrubs, grasses, and forbes into your ecosystem. How to manage them in different stages of growth either through active cultivation and soil condition improvement or secondarily through the management of animals or other elements of the human built world, but in this interview we’re going to take a different approach to the vegetal world and consider a beautiful and often overlooked aspect of our connection with plants, and that’s the possibility of creating relationships with them.

In this episode I spoke with Ryan Blosser, the co-author along with Trevor Piersol of the new book Mulberries in the Rain: Growing Permaculture Plants for Food and Friendship. The book goes beyond the sphere of most permaculture books that are heavy on design theory and techniques, and speaks about the process of investigation and time investment to build lasting and mutually beneficial relationships with the plants that you cultivate, forage or otherwise cohabitate with.

Today we’ll continue the miniseries I’m building on regenerative tourism. This time we’ll take a close look at the specific context of the country where I live, here in Spain.

Yet in recent years there has been a major backlash from the local population protesting irresponsible development, skyrocketing prices, and exemptions from water restrictions directly related to the way tourism is managed.

Welcome back to another interview from the skill exchange calls that I’ve been running with Climate Farmers for our regenerative farming network in Europe. 

In this session I had the good fortune of introducing Stefan Sobkowiak to our group. Many of you who’ve been listening to this show for a while will remember the last interview I did with Stefan in the last season during the series on agroforestry. Stefan is one of my favorite sources for practical and honest techniques for managing the whole ecology of an orchard from propagating new tree species through maintenance, pest management, harvesting and even processing and marketing your products. His film, the Permaculture Orchard has help people around the world to transition towards diversified, resilient, and more profitable models of running their tree crop businesses. His YouTube channel goes even more in depth as he’s always creating videos about the innovations and even struggles that are going on at his orchard Miracle Farm in Canada.  

In this session we cover a lot of ground in a short time.

There’s a whole Q&A session that happens after the half hour interview on these skill exchange calls which are exclusive to the Climate Farming network here in Europe. So if you’re interested in attending these calls in person to have your own questions answered by the experts and tap into the growing community of farmers, consultants, and educators around Europe, you can register right now at ClimateFarmers.org

At this point I’ve taken a lot of courses and trainings around water management and earthworks, but I’m still always curious to stay up to date on new takes and styles of working with water and shaping the landscape to optimize water capture on the terrain.

Part of the Climate Farmers Academy series, dedicated to facilitating peer-to-peer learning among farmers transitioning toward regenerative management across Europe. In this episode, experienced practitioners from various European regions share their insights and practical advice on integrating agroforestry into diverse farming contexts. The panel includes Lorenz from Germany, Dmitri based in Portugal, and Joshua from England, who discuss topics such as soil health, plant diversity, tree nursery setups, and the financial aspects of regenerative farming. This episode is a must-watch for anyone interested in enhancing farm resilience and implementing regenerative practices with perennial crop systems.

Today I’ll be kicking off another little series on a topic that’s new to this show, which is regenerative tourism. Both, I and a number of other friends have been noticing a growing animosity and backlash towards tourism in our communities over the last couple of years. It seems that since the rise of short term rentals, and the post COVID surge of travel, we’re hitting a tipping point in what local communities are willing to put up with as more of their culture and ways of life are over run by outside visitors and the industries that cater to them. Now obviously I’m a foreigner to the place where I live, as are many of my friends in different place around the world, so I want to understand this cultural moment from a number of perspectives. One being how people like myself can go beyond the empty promises of sustainable tourism, and visit new places in a way that actually enriches the culture and identity of those locations, and also the other side, where as host communities we can cultivate a relationship and cater to visitors in a way that incentivises this kind of interaction, and goes beyond the extractive tendencies from both sides. Now I’m very new to the nuisances of this topic, but thankfully my friend Charles Van de Kerkhof who has made this topic his specialty for a number of years has been kind enough to connect me to his contacts and guide the questions and concepts in the interviews of this growing series, and you’ll hear from him directly soon enough.

Michelle is an author, facilitator, consultant & researcher, who For the past 2 decades, has supported pioneering clients across a range of sectors, including tourism & agriculture, to enable the transition to more regenerative systems and structures. Michelle’s research & experience are brought together in her book, The Age of Thrivability: Vital Perspectives & Practices for a Better World, as well as more than 100 articles on themes of thrivability & regeneration.

By the end you’ll hear about ideas and advice on how you, either as a visitor or a host, can break free of the common narrative of extractive tourism and begin to cultivate a relationship with the other that can enrich everyone involved, including the local environment.

Of all the projects that I've watched develop from the beginning, Jane is the example I most enjoy pointing to when people ask for advice on how to get their projects started with limited resources. Her determination, creativitiy, tenacity, and focus on community are blossoming into a real catalyst for change in her region of western Kenya. 

I’m really excited to share this conversation with all of you today, because Joshua Sparkes not only has a unique perspective on gardening and food production, he also speaks about these topics from a lot of experience and infectious passion.

Welcome to another panel session. I love this format in general, but this panel in particular was a whole lot of fun, because not only did I have my close friends Nick Steiner and Megan Neary on, but I also joined in as a speaker to explore the topic of water management for farmers in a changing climate. 

The guiding question we explored was, How can farmers prepare for a changing climate and ensure long-term water resilience? We explored water retention, flood management, and drought resilience—breaking down strategies that help farms thrive despite increasing climate uncertainty.

We started by talking about the key changes farmers should expect in the coming decades and how to assess hydrological health on your farm. 

From there we went into practical steps to build a holistic water management strategy, and how to navigate the many options available for water retention. 

If you’ve been listening for any amount of time, you’ll know me and my friend Nick as we work closely together and have talked about water cycle restoration and our contracting jobs in creating water retention landscapes in many past episodes. Our good friend Megan Neary is new to this show though. She works with Elemental Ecosystems and the Water Stories team as a project technician. With a background in geology and conservation, Megan specializes in reshaping landscapes to improve soil health, enhance biodiversity, and create decentralized water systems.

Today I want to start a fun new series on a topic that I’ve wanted to explore for quite a while, which is the concept of regenerative education.