The Ruminant: Audio Candy for Farmers, Gardeners and Food Lovers

This ep: Jean-Martin Fortier returns for a quickie. We talk about fame, semi-fortune, cocaine, compost tea, the tool he's most obsessed with at the moment, and a few other tidbits. 

One of JM's recent projects is an online course. He's pretty amped about it. It's called The Market Gardener's Master Class. We discuss that too.

Linda Chalker-Scott is an extension specialist at WSU with a penchant for horticultural myth-busting. 

One of her targets has been the use of compost tea as a disease-preventer/pest-abater/all-around garden panacea. Seeing as your podcast host is about to start a compost tea regimen on his own farm, this seemed like a good topic to ask her about.

Episode 92, about farmer mental health, really resonated with lots of listeners. This episode features a follow-up conversation with Javan Bernakevitch, a farmer and permaculturalist who emerged from his own depression with insights that he now shares with others. 

Learn more about Javan at http://allpointsdesign.ca

Also this episode: I talk about The Ruminant's brand new gift registry. 

This ep: First I speak with Andew Mefferd, author of The Greenhouse and Hoophouse Grower's Handbook (superb!), about making the most out of caterpillar tunnels. After that, Cornell Extension Specialist Judson Reid joins me to talk about avoiding and managing toxic levels of soil nutrients in greenhouses.

Coming Friday, March 2: the first episode of the next season of The Ruminant Podcast. To tide you over, I've produced a microsode. I hope you enjoy it!

The microbes that colonize us when we're in the womb and as infants have lasting impacts on our health later on. My conversation with Claire Arrieta, author of Let Them Eat Dirt.

Marie-Claire is the co-author with B. Brett Finlay of Let Them Eat Dirt: Saving Your Child from an Oversanitized World. 

After that, I talk about lego for farmers.

Farming is tough work. The unpredictability of the job and the pressure to present a curated, bucolic version of the work can easily lead to various kinds of mental health problems: despair, feeling overwhelmed or like a failure, or even depression. In this episode, co-produced with Jessica Gale of Sweet Gale Gardens, we discuss the prevalence of mental health problems among farmers, and how to address them. 

Mentioned: Professor Andria Jones-Bitton's work The Market Gardener (JM Fortier) The Urban Farmer (Curtis Stone) Sustainable Market Farming (Pam Dawling)

Patric Kuh, James Beard award winner, Food Critic for LA Magazine, and author of Finding the Flavours We Lost: From Bread to Bourbon, How Artisans Reclaimed American Food, joins me to talk about his book. 

I ask Patric about the cynicism surrounding bearded Brooklyn craft pickle-makers, whether it's okay for food artisans to sacrifice a little bit of quality for efficiency, and how small-batch producers can remain competitive against their large-scale industrial competitors. 

First, my conversation with Simran Sethi on her book Bread Wine Chocolate: The Slow Loss of Foods We Love, which describes the increasing threat to the biodiversity within our food system, and how a better appreciation for the diversity of flavour that's all around us could help reverse the problem. 

Then: I review two great tools for market gardeners made by Two Bad Cats

This ep: a conversation with Sophie Egan, author of Devoured: From Chicken Wings to Kale Smoothies--How What We Eat Defines Who We Are 

Then, Robin Turner of Roots & Shoots Farm provides tips for setting up a good pick-up point for your CSA.

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