👉 Check out the Ridge for events and weddings

In this episode of the Sovereign Kitchen Society, host Molly Bravo speaks with David Payne, an entrepreneur who transitioned from running a successful events agency to creating a serene venue in the Santa Cruz mountains. They discuss the importance of designing a life that aligns with personal values, the challenges of entrepreneurship, navigating partnerships, and the lessons learned throughout David's journey. The conversation emphasizes the significance of creativity, resilience, and the pursuit of sovereignty in both life and work.

Takeaways

Entrepreneurship is about agency and shaping your work around who you are.

It's essential to acknowledge your strengths and weaknesses when starting a business.

Building relationships and networking are crucial for long-term success.

Don't be afraid to fail; it's part of the learning process.

Communication is key in business, especially in partnerships.

Cash flow management is a common challenge for entrepreneurs.

Surround yourself with talented individuals to complement your skills.

Having a clear exit strategy is important as you grow your business.

Creativity is vital in problem-solving and business development.

Always be open to new opportunities and ideas.

Titles

Designing Your Life: A Journey with David Payne

From Events to Serenity: David Payne's Entrepreneurial Shift

Sound bites

"Don't be afraid to fail."

"Surround yourself with talent."

"You can create a path."

Chapters

00:00 Introduction to Sovereign Kitchen Society

00:42 David Payne's Entrepreneurial Journey

05:53 Navigating Business Partnerships

11:53 Challenges of Entrepreneurship

17:49 The Art of Exiting a Business

23:51 Creating Sovereignty in Life and Work

29:57 Lessons Learned and Advice for New Entrepreneurs

Want to deeper your journey into food sovereignty?

www.wylderspace.com/education

The Essential Canning Cookbook

https://www.amazon.com/Essential-Canning-Cookbook-Pressure-Recipes/dp/1400352010

Keywords

entrepreneurship, business, partnerships, challenges, sovereignty, life design, creativity, exit strategy, mentorship, personal growth

In today’s episode of The Sovereign Kitchen Society, I sit down with Adam Wilson, the steward of Sand River Community Farm and the writer behind Peasantry School, a Substack that feels like a beacon in the night.

Adam’s work is hard to describe in a single sentence. It can be described as deep philosophical work, expressed through farming and feeding others. It’s a lived experiment in rebuilding the human commons (food, land, labor, and care) without the weight of transactional systems.

At Sand River Community Farm, nothing is ever sold.
No CSA shares. No produce stand. No price list taped to a barn door.

Everything grown on that land is given as a gift and an extension of relationship with others, with the land and with nature.

This conversation moves through big terrain:
• What happens when a farmer finally says how he really feels?
• How does a community farm survive when nothing is monetized?
• What does “radical neighboring” look like in modern life?
• How do we unlearn scarcity and rebuild trust?
• And how can all of this shape our home economies, our businesses, and the sovereign kitchens we’re trying to grow?

If you’ve ever felt exhausted by the grind, overwhelmed by the cost of food, or disconnected from the people who feed us, this episode will ground you.

This is a conversation about land, belonging, and the courage to live differently.
A conversation about remembering who we are to each other.

Peasantry School Substack:
https://peasantryschool.substack.com

Sand River Community Farm:
https://sandrivercommunityfarm.org

Please leave a review or hit the like button.
It helps more people find this work (people who are craving a more sovereign, rooted, nourishing life).

Subscribe for more conversations at the intersection of food, freedom, and ancestral wisdom.

Welcome to The Sovereign Kitchen Society.

Food is and always will be our medium for connection.

Grab your copy of the Essential Canning Cookbook, by Molly Bravo, to learn old world skills that will support your modern kitchen

There’s a moment every mom hits—usually somewhere between the third load of laundry and the cold cup of coffee—when she thinks, “There has to be a better way to live than this.”

This episode is for that mom.

In this conversation, I sit down with Hilda Labrada Gore (Holistic Hilda)—host of the Wise Traditions Podcast and global traveler who has spent years visiting indigenous communities to see how they really eat, live, raise kids, and stay well without the modern chaos.

We talk about:

• Why our kids are “always hungry” even in a house full of snacks
• What traditional cultures feed their families that we’ve almost completely forgotten
• How to start shifting your pantry toward real, nutrient-dense food on a tight budget
• Simple habits (sunlight, rhythm, broth, quality food) that support a mom’s energy and mood
• What “health sovereignty” actually looks like for a busy, modern family

If you’re new to real food, slow living, or Wise Traditions, this episode will meet you right where you are—no shame, no perfection, just a path forward.

The Mother Code: 6 Habits for Endless Energy (Holistic Hilda’s course)
https://www.holistichilda.com/course

BIRTHRIGHT Supplements – Animal-based + herbs for fertility, pregnancy & hormone health
Purchase here and enjoy 15% off with code Hilda15
https://www.birthright.co/collections/all

The Pantry of Plenty (Molly’s ancestral cooking & sovereignty course)
https://wylder-space.thinkific.com/bundles/Pantry-of-plenty
Use code PANTRY for 30% off

The Essential Canning Cookbook (Molly Bravo)
https://www.amazon.com/Essential-Canning-Cookbook-Pressure-Recipes/dp/1400352010

In this episode, we return to the roots of real nourishment. I’m diving deep into CSA’s, the 11 Wise Traditions principles, and the old-world kitchen skills that rebuild a strong home economy (skills our grandparents lived by without thinking).

If you’ve been craving a slower, simpler way, seasonality, and a deeper connection to your food, this conversation will meet you where you are and show you exactly where to begin.

We’ll talk about how to join a CSA, why it’s the simplest path into sovereignty, and how traditional foods can transform the way you feed your family.

This is the first step toward a life built on intention, capability, and connection to the land.

Want to practice old world skills and learn the art of cooking from a professional chef?
Keywords

CSA, local farming, seasonal cooking, food sovereignty, wise traditions, community, sustainable living, cooking skills, fresh produce, food connection

Takeaways

Every Thursday, I would get a mystery box of produce.

Food has a source, a story, and a face.

Joining a CSA is about locality and community.

Expect imperfection in your produce; it's real farming.

A CSA teaches you to live in rhythm with the seasons.

Nose to tail eating is essential for nourishment.

Fermented foods are a key part of traditional diets.

Community is everything in a CSA experience.

Start small and take actionable steps towards change.

Your sovereignty begins when you return to the root.

Chapters

00:00 The Mystery Box of Fresh Produce

01:19 Reconnecting with Food Sources

02:15 Joining a CSA: Practical Steps

05:56 Learning to Cook Seasonally

10:46 The 11 Pillars of Wise Traditions

15:22 Taking Action: Your First Steps

18:22 Embracing Old World Skills

Join our FREE cooking class by signing up here

To learn these skills and join a community of people walking a similar path, check out our holiday gift bundle (community, classes and our cookbook, rolled in one)
The Essential Canning Cookbook

Starving in a Full Fridge
Why your body, your home, and your nervous system are begging for real food—and how a sovereign kitchen changes everything.

If you’ve ever stood in front of a fridge packed with groceries and still felt overwhelmed, underfed, or unsure where to begin… this episode is your invitation home. We dig into what “real food” truly means, why traditional wisdom is the antidote to modern burnout, and how building a real pantry rooted in broth, ferments, raw dairy, and seasonal abundance transforms your health, your energy, and your family’s stability.

You’ll hear the story that sparked my own return to ancestral foodways, the deeper reasons we’re so depleted in the first place, and the pathway back to a kitchen that feeds you on every level. This isn’t about trends or complicated diets. This is about sovereignty. Rhythm. Nourishment that lasts. A life that finally feels like yours again.

If this conversation awakens something in you, if you feel that pull toward confidence, and real nourishment, take the next step with us.

Pantry of Plenty
My 8-week, step-by-step pathway into a traditional foods kitchen.
Raw dairy, ferments, broths, organ meats, healthy fats, canning, raising kids on ancestral foods, building community, meeting your farmers, and creating a home economy rooted in old-world skills.
This is the transformation you’ve been craving.
👉 Join here: The Pantry of Plenty

The Essential Canning Cookbook
Your kitchen companion for building a pantry that supports your health and sovereignty all year long.
Tested recipes, seasonal guides, safety steps, and the confidence you need to start preserving your own food.
👉 Grab your copy: The Essential Canning Cookbook

Your pantry is the beginning.
Your sovereignty grows from there.

In this episode of The Sovereign Kitchen Society, we explore what financial sovereignty really means—and how entrepreneurship can be the most powerful act of freedom you’ll ever make.

Shawn Finnegan, co-founder of Tax Hive and business partner to Kevin O’Leary (“Mr. Wonderful”), joins Molly Bravo to unpack the systems that separate small business owners from the financial strategies big corporations use every day. His mission is to close that gap—to help self-employed entrepreneurs keep more of what they earn, structure their businesses smartly, and thrive in today’s economy.

This conversation goes deeper than tax codes and write-offs—it’s about independence. It’s about building something that belongs to you. Because when you start your own business, you reclaim your time, your choices, and your creative power. You stop being beholden to anyone else’s paycheck or permission slip.

Shawn and Molly explore the intersection of entrepreneurship and sovereignty—how financial literacy is the backbone of freedom, how discipline leads to expansion, and how the same mindset that built empires can empower the modern maker, chef, and dreamer to build a life on purpose.

If you’ve ever wondered how to turn your passion into profit without losing your soul—or how to make your money work for you—this episode is your blueprint.

Featuring:
Shawn Finnegan — Entrepreneur, Tax Strategist, and Co-Founder of Tax Hive, empowering small business owners with the same tax-saving structures used by Fortune 500 companies.

Hosted by:
Molly Bravo — Founder of Wylder Space and The Sovereign Kitchen Society, where food, business, and freedom meet.

JOIN:
Join The Sovereign Kitchen Society community to learn more about building true sovereignty—financially, nutritionally, and creatively. Because the kitchen might just be the first—and best—place to start your revolution.
Grab your copy of The Essential Canning Cookbook

What if food could heal what politics has divided?

In this episode of The Sovereign Kitchen Society, Molly Bravo sits down with sociologist and founder of AuthenticFood.com, Dr. Janna Tamargo, to explore how ancient Turkish taverns—known as meyhanes—hold the secret to reconnection in a fractured world. Rooted in centuries of gathering, music, and unhurried meals, the meyhane reminds us what it means to sit down, disagree with grace, and rediscover common ground over good food and conversation.

From Istanbul to Santa Cruz, this conversation dives deep into authenticity, belonging, and how real food can bring us back to center - one shared table at a time.

Support Janna’s work at AuthenticFood.com

Learn the lost art of home preservation with The Essential Canning Cookbook—Take control of your food and build the pantry your family will love—healthy, homemade, and ready for every season.

A locked cabinet. 212 vintage cookbooks. And a woman history forgot.

In this episode, writer and researcher Julie Dove takes us inside the mystery that changed her life: moving into an abandoned house in eastern Washington (2006) and discovering a hidden trove of cookbooks that belonged to Estella—a hostess with no children, no memoir, no obvious trail. Julie has spent years reconstructing Estella’s life from recipes, newspaper clippings, and the rhythms of gatherings she once hosted. Through her Substack, A Sense of Occasion, she cooks the dishes, follows the breadcrumbs, and shows how food can stitch people together across decades.

We talk about:

• How to “read” a life through recipe cards, marginalia, and menu planning notes
• Hospitality as historical record
• Why vintage cookbooks are time capsules of women’s work, culture, and courage
• The art (and ethics) of researching someone who didn’t leave a public narrative
• What happens when you bake from a century-old recipe—and invite your community into the experiment

Connect with Julie: A Sense of Occasion on Substack → https://julieannedove.substack.com
Enjoyed the episode? Follow the show and leave a review to help more listeners find these sovereignty-through-food stories.

This week on The Sovereign Kitchen Society, I’m joined by Jenny McGruther—author, teacher, and founder of Nourished Kitchen—a voice that’s helped shape the Real Food movement for nearly two decades.

Jenny and I dive deep into the art of traditional foodways—fermentation, broth-making, and cooking from scratch. We talk about what it really means to unlearn the industrial food system and return to the living foods that once defined our culture.

You’ll hear Jenny’s story of starting from scratch—literally—learning the alchemy of her kitchen and discovering that real nourishment is found in community and connection.

In this episode, we explore:

• How cooking from scratch is resistance
• Why fermentation reconnects us to nature, community, and our ancestors
• Simple, practical steps to begin living the Nourished Kitchen lifestyle today

This is a conversation about food, yes—but more than that, it’s about sovereignty, intuition, and the healing that happens when we slow down long enough to connect to the ingredients we prepare.

Explore Jenny’s work:
NourishedKitchen.com
Jenny’s Books

Listen now, share with a friend, and leave a review if this conversation lights you up. Food is, and always will be, our medium for connection.

In this episode, we sit down with Shelby Lancaster — homesteader, real-food advocate, writer, and community-builder — to explore what it really means to eat well, while taking care of our homes, relationships, and sovereignty in uncertain times.

Shelby’s story weaves together three threads:

• Food as resistance — teaching that eating real food is a way to push back against monocultures, corporate capture, and the broken systems shaping our supply chains.
• Homemaking as stewardship — showing how to build resilient households by managing food, cultivating skills, and anchoring family life in rhythms that last.
• Faith, culture critique, and sovereignty — challenging cultural norms while highlighting the spiritual dimensions of daily living and the power of reclaiming agency.
  

  You can support Shelby's work by subscribing to:
  Revive The Table (her newest analog publication, printed monthly)
  IG: @nourishwithshelby
  Substack: @nourishwithshelby
  Substack: @backtohomemakingcollective
  
  Want to join a community of likeminded people learning old world skills?
  Check out the Sovereign Kitchen Society
  Interested in home canning? The Essential Canning Cookbook is your soup to nuts approach to waterbath and pressure canning