Shifting a food-growing landscape into a more natural system

In This Podcast: Learning about many different methods to garden, Kateen Fitzgerald kept going and learning until she found the program that put everything into place for her.  Now she teaches others about permaculture, dynamic designing, and working with nature to cultivate a landscape to a beautiful and productive result.  She talks about what can be gained from the many concepts of landscape design that has become her passion.  

Kateen is a tree of many branches; she’s a design consultant, mentor, teacher, farmer, gardener, and mom. After 20 years of teaching and mentoring, she decided to create something more. In 2007, she purchased 40 acres of land near Port Townsend, WA and built Compass Rose Farms, a bio-intensive family farm and homestead.

Two years later she began an internship program to teach modern homesteading, holistic animal wifery, and regenerative food systems. Effectively, converting the farm into a permaculture demonstration site, she then founded The Dirt Rich School, a nonprofit education program dedicated to “Empowering people to live in abundance and thrive in a changing world.”

Go to https://www.urbanfarm.org/2017/07/25/265-kateen-fitzgerald/ for more information and links on this podcast, and to find our other great guests.

Bonus Episode 3: Brendan Gaughran on Liver Health.

Chat with an expert on Gut Health. 

In This BONUS Podcast: Brendan Gaughran was a podcast guest not too long before this interview which took place one evening as Greg invited him back to discuss gut health further and specifically focus on liver health. This is a variety of health and nutrition issues brought into an easy to understand perspective.

Brendan holds a degree in Molecular Biology from the University of Connecticut and his MBA from Bentley University. He has spent 15 years in the Healthcare field and was an executive for a major nutraceutical manufacturer before starting multiple companies of his own, the latest being Liver Medic. He conducts health lectures to both physicians and the public. His research focuses primarily on gut health, liver health, endocrine system, adrenal fatigue and optimum diets.

Go to https://www.urbanfarm.org/2017/07/24/bonus-3-brendan-gaughran/ for more information and links on this bonus podcast, and to find our other great guests.

264: Anne Biklé on Microbial Roots of Life and Health

Mapping the nutritional highway that connects healthy soil to healthy plants

In This Podcast: The microscopic world of fungi and other soil organisms is crucial to the health of soil, plants and any being that lives off those plants. Biologist Anne Biklé understands the relationship between the lifeforms which create the microbiome that starts the food chains, and helps explain the basics in this conversation. 

Anne is a biologist and avid gardener whose wide-ranging interests have led her into watershed restoration, environmental planning, and public health.  She uses her broad background and endless fascination with the natural world to investigate and write about people and their environments. 

Anne is also a rampant plant whisperer, coaxing plants into rambunctious growth or nursing them back from the edge of death.  She uses her garden, a nearby traffic circle and sidewalk planting strip as places to watch plants, people, and their interactions.

She co-wrote The Hidden Half of Nature: The Microbial Roots of Life and Health with her husband David Montgomery who was our guest on episode 259.

Go to https://www.urbanfarm.org/2017/07/22/264-anne-bikle/ for more information and links on this podcast, and to find our other great guests.

263: Deanna Cook on Kids and Farmers Markets

Creating an early love of healthy foods and cooking through fun activities.

In This Podcast: Encouraging kids to enjoy healthy cooking and eating is an investment in their future, and Deanna Cook has some activities to help make that a little easier and a lot more fun.  Working with kids, learning how they enjoy cooking, and helping them have fun in the kitchen has been a focus of hers since just after high school. She has used this experience to create several fun books to help parents teach healthy lifestyles early.

Deanna graduated from college and received a Watson Fellowship to travel around the world and collect recipes from kids. This led her to write her first book The Kids' Multicultural Cookbook.

Keeping her focus on kids and cooking, she has been the creative development director at FamilyFun, an editor at both Scholastic and Disney, and is currently the content director at Kidstir.com, and kids’ book and cookbook acquisitions editor at Storey Publishing.

Deanna, has written dozens of award-winning books for kids including Baking Class, the best-selling Cooking Class, and Farmers Market Create-and-Play Activity Book.

Go to https://www.urbanfarm.org/2017/07/20/263-deanna-cook/ for more information and links on this podcast, and to find our other great guests.

262: Bill Sadler on Nutrition to the Soil and Plants

Developing solutions for our growing mediums

In This Podcast: Soil nutrition is not just a simple matter to Dr. Bill Sadler; it is so significant that feeding the life in the soil is central to the whole life cycle.  He explains the importance of healthy nutrition for the multiple families of organisms in the soil, as well as why different groups need different foods.  He also shares why noticing which weeds are growing can help you understand what is happening in your soil.

Bill began farming at the age of eight, when under the watchful eye of his father, he both successfully managed his own tomato & vegetable stand selling his own harvests, and helped raise Nubian dairy goats on the family farm.

When his family purchased a large farm in rural Missouri, he and his father developed a cattle operation and planted their own vineyard. His father’s pioneering influence and background in agriculture and sustainable farming led Bill to appreciate these methods long before they were considered “cool.”

Bill earned his PhD in Biochemistry, and with skills as a proven problem solver, focuses on developing green and sustainable solutions for a wide range of products and services.

Go to https://www.urbanfarm.org/2017/07/18/262-bill-sadler/ for more information and links on this podcast, and to find our other great guests.

261: Brigitte Mars on Natural First Aid

Preparing a resource for quick response to emergency incidents with simple and natural ingredients.

In This Podcast: She knew that she wanted to avoid needing doctors ever since she was very young. So, Brigitte Mars has spent her entire life learning about and using natural herbs, plants, and oils for health and the prevention and treatment of minor ails. She shares with us the essentials of a good first aid kit and several examples of first aid remedies.

Brigitte is an herbalist and nutritional consultant of Natural Health with almost fifty years of experience. She teaches Herbal Medicine at Naropa University, and The School of Health Mastery in Iceland and has taught at Esalen, Kripalu, the Arise Festival and Mayo Clinic.

Brigitte is the author of more than a dozen books and DVDs, including - The Home Reference to Holistic Health and Healing, The Country Almanac of Home Remedies, and her most recent book through Storey Publishing called Natural First Aid. She also created a wild plant reference app called iPlant

Go to https://www.urbanfarm.org/2017/07/15/261-brigitte-mars/ for more information and links on this podcast, and to find our other great guests.

260: Amanda Jordan-Starks on Vacant Land into Urban Gardens

Nourishing a community and its youth through transformative garden programs on vacant properties.

In This Podcast: Vacant lands can become whatever you see in them, and for Amanda Jordan Starks she sees potential. Potential for her community, and especially the youth that can grow and blossom by working the land and growing the food that nourishes the people that make up the community.  She tells us more about the programs that are working to make this happen in her area.

Amanda is third generation Californian, raised in a small coastal town near the Oregon border. She went to the University of California, San Diego to pursue a degree in International Studies-Political Science, and obtained her Master's degree in Social Justice.  

Amanda currently works with UrbanLife Ministries, and directs its youth outreach and community development activities.  Her love for growing food and serving youth came together when she began directing the UrbanLife Farms program which uses vacant land to grow local, healthy produce and provide job skills training to teenagers. Her favorite veggies are radishes and artichokes!

Go to https://www.urbanfarm.org/2017/07/13/260-amanda-jordan-starks/ for more information and links on this podcast, and to find our other great guests.

259: David Montgomery on Bringing Our Soil Back to Life.

Using a geology background to understand regenerative soil processes.

In This Podcast: Studying the surface formation of the earth usually means looking at geological processes taking place over long periods of time.  Geologist David Montgomery, however, became interested in studying more than just rocks and focused on something a bit more connected to life on earth and in the soil. As a non-farmer, his outsider’s perspective might help others understand the crucial processes taking place in regenerating this very necessary material for food production.

David is a MacArthur Fellow and professor of geomorphology at the University of Washington. He is an internationally recognized geologist who studies landscape evolution and the effects of geological processes on ecological systems and human societies.

An author of award-winning popular-science books, he has been featured in documentary films, network and cable news, and on a wide variety of TV and radio programs, including NOVA, PBS NewsHour, Fox and Friends, and All Things Considered.

David has written two books on soil: Growing A Revolution: Bringing Our Soil Back to Life, and The Hidden Half of Nature: The Microbial Roots of Life and Health which he co-wrote with his wife Anne Biklé.

Go to https://www.urbanfarm.org/2017/07/11/259-david-montgomery/ for more information and links on this podcast, and to find our other great guests.

Bonus Episode 2: Seed Chat June 2017

A chat with an expert on Seeds, Bill McDorman

In This BONUS Podcast:

There is always a bounty of information available in conversations with Bill McDorman. This is the June 2017 episode with a Seed School Chat Class covering Seed School Online, de-hybridization, seed patents, and so much more.

Bill McDorman is Executive Director of Rocky Mountain Seed Alliance, Ketchum, Idaho. He got his start in the bio-regional seed movement while in college in 1979 when he helped start Garden City Seeds. In 1984, Bill started Seeds Trust/High Altitude Gardens, a mail order seed company he ran successfully until it sold in 2013.

He authored the book, Basic Seed Saving, in 1994. In 2010, he and his wife Belle Starr created Seed School, a nationally recognized week-long training. He served as Executive Director of Native Seeds/SEARCH from 2011 to 2014. Bill is a passionate and knowledgeable presenter who inspires his audiences to learn to save their own seeds.

Visit https://www.urbanfarm.org/2017/07/10/bonus-episode-2-bill-mcdorman/ for show notes

258: Deb Burns on How to Get a Farming Book Published.

Writing and publishing books for urban farmers, homesteaders and nature lovers.

In This Podcast. Helping authors get published is what Deb Burns has done for more than two decades.  She explains a lot about the process and helps break it down and make it easier to understand for aspiring authors. If you have considered writing a book, this might help you get past some of those hurdles you’ve built.

Storey Publishing is a prolific publisher of farming and gardening books.  Having roots going back to the 1970’s, their in-house editors and designers embrace the challenge of complementing each author’s work with book design, editing, and original illustration or photography to enhance the book’s distinctiveness and make it accessible as well as practical. We have had many Storey authors on our show and thought it might be great to get useful information on how to get your book published.

Deb has been an Acquiring Editor at Storey Publishing for 23 years, where she oversees books on farming, animals, and nature.  She attended Bard College and UC Berkeley and currently lives in the beautiful Berkshires of Massachusetts. She loves making music and traveling the world and has authored books on history and travel. 

Go to https://www.urbanfarm.org/2017/07/08/258-deb-burns/ for more information and links on this podcast, and to find our other great guests.