This week I have Matt from FarmHopLife and Joseph the Homestead Padre with me. And we're going to talk about Orthodoxy.

So why this topic? Because it seems like online, all you see from Orthodox are all these new converts and they are all arguing with evangelicals and Catholics. And there are not like regular conversations going on like Perpend (now the monk Brother David) and I used to have. And this would be the kind of conversation that we would have if he were here.

We are on an Orthodox journey. I've been Orthodox for a couple of years, and I'd like to hear some more about Matt and Joseph’s Orthodox journeys. So that's what we'll do, we'll do the anti-Orthobro thing and explore your Orthodox journeys.

We focus on 3 main questions:

* Why Orthodoxy?

* What is the most surprising thing you have found on your Orthodox journey?

* What is your biggest challenge?

Listen in as we share our journeys and tell our stories.

Seeds and trees have a “memory”. They thrived and reproduced in a certain climate. Often when you buy chestnut trees or even hazelnut trees or plants online, you have to buy from nurseries in the Northeast or the Pacific Northwest. Take it from us: Trees and plants grown in those climates do not do well in Kansas or, in most cases, in the midsection of the country and Midwest.

That's where Grow Nut Trees comes in. You buy nut trees from our Kansas homestead: chestnut, hazelnut, and I still have some pecans left, elderberry and comfrey. All grown and adapted to the Midwest, which will make them much more likely to be successful on your homestead or in your yard.

This year I have more named chestnuts sprouted from seed by me:

* Dunstan-like American hybrids

* Empire Elite, which is the chestnut that is used most often for turning corn and soy fields into chestnut farms

* I have Revival which has a nut that's almost as big as my palm.

* Chinese chestnuts.

That’s at GrowNutTrees.com and BuyNutTrees.com.

GrowNutTrees.com

Raised beds that I built to test Perennial Kitchen Garden layouts:

Vego Garden Modular Metal Raised Bed (which I will make 5' x 3.5', 17" tall).

I use this for a perennial kitchen garden - growing herbs to use daily in the kitchen. Just come along and pick what you need for tonight's dinner.

Travis from Backyard Berry on Substack shares about his series "Building a Sustainable Nursery".

His favorite trees: Pawpaws, Persimmons, and Pin Cherries (for the birds).

What is it like to be so near the central area where Pawpaws are grown, attending the festival. He is even drinking pawpaw ginger ale!

We also talk about his series on "Homegrown National Park". Everyone was talking about national parks being affected by Federal land sales a few weeks ago. Travis posted that "What if the largest national park in America wasn’t a remote wilderness, but your own backyard?"

The idea: "transforming America’s private land into vibrant habitat corridors that restore biodiversity and ecological health."

Travis also shares about what it is like to work on an organic vegetable farm.

Times are tough. You want to be more self sufficient and grow more food, with enough to share with family and friends or even sell some of that surplus.

You’ve heard of this “food forest” thing, but it’s so overwhelming to get started. I can help.

My Thriving Food Forest Design can help you realize your dreams of an edible foodscape or perennial paradise that will come back every year so you can grow more food and be more self sufficient. Schedule your FREE Discovery call with me at:

Buy my chestnuts, hazelnuts, elderberry, and comfrey that are adapted to the Midwest.

GrowNutTrees.com

Raised beds that I am building to test Perennial Kitchen Garden layouts:

Vego Garden Modular Metal Raised Bed (which I will make 5' x 3.5', 17" tall).

I use this for a perennial kitchen garden - growing herbs to use daily in the kitchen. Just come along and pick what you need for tonight's dinner.

Travis from Backyard Berry on Substack shares about his series "Building a Sustainable Nursery".

His favorite trees: Pawpaws, Persimmons, and Pin Cherries (for the birds).

We also talk about his series on "Homegrown National Park". Everyone was talking about national parks being affected by Federal land sales a few weeks ago. Travis posted that "What if the largest national park in America wasn’t a remote wilderness, but your own backyard?"

The idea: "transforming America’s private land into vibrant habitat corridors that restore biodiversity and ecological health."

Travis also shares about what it is like to work on an organic vegetable farm.

Episode show notes: Ep. 164 - Building a Sustainable Nursery with Backyard Berry

Times are tough. You want to be more self sufficient and grow more food, with enough to share with family and friends or even sell some of that surplus.

You've heard of this "food forest" thing, but it's so overwhelming to get started. I can help.

My Thriving Food Forest Design can help you realize your dreams of an food forest that will come back every year so you can grow more food and be more self sufficient. Schedule your FREE Discovery call with me at Thriving Food Forest.

Grow Nut Trees/Buy Nut Trees has special chestnut bundles - now available for shipping in Sept at:

GrowNutTrees.com

BuyNutTrees.com

What can you grow in July?

The seed displays are gone from the store. You can outdo the normies by planting a great Fall garden - even in the heat of July.

I'm back! Where have I been all this time? I've planted a lot of things this Spring and for a while there I was watering day and night and working in the garden and turning over soil and one of the things that really was a problem was my garden got out of hand. It got really weedy because I don't go back there all that much. It's in Zone 2, borderline zone 3. My garden in Zone 2 is being taken over by bindweed, a really big hassle that is going to require some significant work during the down season

I started building garden beds and raised beds closer to the house. That way I have more eyeballs on them and I can intervene without it being taken over by weeds.

In addition to that, I've been spending a lot of time on having local conversations or just personal off-the-record conversations. There's no need to turn on the microphone and record everything all the time! Live in the moment!

I've had great conversations with friends, folks that have been on the podcast before, and I have also been developing local community.

Everything needs to go hyper-local and I'll talk more about that on a future episode.

It's July in Kansas, and next week we are going to break 100 for the first time this Summer. We have had a lot of rain.

None of the stores have any plants left. Around here, all the seed displays disappear around 4th of July and everything goes on clearance. This year I got a ton of stuff. I followed Grant Payne’s model and I went around and just cleaned out the clearance items. I got fig trees at Lowe’s, blackberries from Ace Hardware, and lots and lots of echinacea. I've got all kinds of different colors of echinacea that I planted pretty much everywhere.

The normies aren't growing anything in July. Every time I have tried to grow or start something in July from seed, it usually fails just because of the heat. But as I'm looking at Clyde's Garden Planner, I put it at my last frost date, which is October 20th, and I've got a lot of options for things that can still be planted and can still be harvested by the time the frost comes, which is almost three months away. I can plant cabbage. Of course, cabbage can go past the first frost. I can plant cucumbers, okra. Pumpkins (if they're not 120-day pumpkins). You can plant winter squash, carrots, of course, and a lot of greens. Now the carrots and the greens will not germinate because of the sun and the heat and the soil temperature, but I have a couple of garden beds that are in the partial shade and I've been able to plant Black Seeded Simpson lettuce, which is my favorite kind of lettuce. It is the cut-and-come-again lettuce. I've been able to plant it in the raised beds and get it to germinate.

You could use shade cloth to shelter it enough to maybe get it to germinate in the full garden.

Another benefit is if you plant squash this late, then you can sometimes avoid the squash bugs because the squash bug wave has passed by the time the squash is getting ready to bear. That's happened to me a couple of times. I have been able to get Winter Squash. It gets kind of squirrely because it gets a bit close to that first Frost date. But last year we had this kind of weather pattern where we had rain into July. And then it turned hot and dry with drought, and it stayed hot all the way through the Fall. We didn't have a normal Fall at all, and the first major frost was not until Thanksgiving (instead of October 20th). It made for some miserable deer hunting. It made it difficult to dig up some trees and replant them somewhere else, because they weren't fully dormant yet. But one of the side benefits was that if I planted trees in September that gave me a little bit more time for root growth. I planted 2 apple trees in September and they had great root growth, and came back super strong this Spring.

I also have sweet potatoes that are growing really well. In previous years I have had sweet potatoes that were as big as footballs.

So give it a try. Don't give up on your garden and you'll have a great harvest this Fall.

Times are tough. You want to be more self sufficient and grow more food, with enough to share with family and friends or even sell some of that surplus.

You’ve heard of this “food forest” thing, but it’s so overwhelming to get started. I can help.

My Thriving Food Forest Design can help you realize your dreams of an edible foodscape or perennial paradise that will come back every year so you can grow more food and be more self sufficient. Schedule your FREE Discovery call with me at:

Buy my chestnuts, hazelnuts, elderberry, and comfrey that are adapted to the Midwest.

GrowNutTrees.com

Raised beds that I am building to test Perennial Kitchen Garden layouts:

Vego Garden Modular Metal Raised Bed (which I will make 5' x 3.5', 17" tall).

I use this for a perennial kitchen garden - growing herbs to use daily in the kitchen. Just come along and pick what you need for tonight's dinner.

We are facing a crisis. One right after another.

This is an episode from April 2023 with Cyprian (formerly Vin Armani). It includes the never-before-published bonus content where Cyprian talks about Bitcoin maximism, and the Cargo Cult.

Cyprian tweeted in 2023: “‘Crisis’ means ‘decision’. Just knowing that fact changes your understanding of reality forever.”

Crisis is a decision point. And “never let a good crisis go to waste.” – Rahm Emmanuel.

* Are you prepared – mentally and spiritually – for what is coming?

* As Cyprian said in March 2020, “the world as you know it has ended. You need to get to acceptance.”

* The larger game at play – It’s all spiritual warfare. Ephesians 6:12.

* #BuildTheArk – what does that mean?

* Orthodoxy

Spiritual Warfare – Ephesians 6:12

With all this happening you need to get more self sufficient. Grow you own food. WE can help.

Grow Nut Trees is now taking chestnuts, hazelnuts, elderberry, and comfrey orders for Fall. The trees are adapted to the Midwest. Check it out at:

GrowNutTrees.com

Thriving Food Forest Design: If you like this, let us create an edible foodscape, perennial paradise for you so you can grow more food and be more self sufficient. Schedule a free consult session with me at:

How I turned my pasture of thorny Callery pears into an Asian pear orchard by bark grafting and cleft grating.

Do a Google search on Callery pears and feel the hatred.

Bradford pears, planted nearly everywhere, are usually grafted onto Callery pear rootstock. Callery pears are thorny pears that I have never seen growing any fruit. On my land they spread by suckers - literally everwhere.

In this episode I share about How I turned my pasture of thorny Callery pears into an Asian pear orchard by bark grafting and cleft grating.

Check out the show notes for the pictures of how I did this.

Times are tough. You want to be more self sufficient and grow more food, with enough to share with family and friends or even sell some of that surplus.

You've heard of this "food forest" thing, but it's so overwhelming to get started. I can help.

My Thriving Food Forest Design can help you realize your dreams of an edible foodscape or perennial paradise that will come back every year so you can grow more food and be more self sufficient. Schedule your FREE Discovery call with me at Thriving Food Forest.

Grow Nut Trees still has chestnuts, hazelnuts, comfrey. Get them planted before Summer!

GrowNutTrees.com

Sam Baker from Wrigglebrew and I talk about soil health, and what does nitrogen poisoning look like?

• My leaves turned brown, despite enough watering. Maybe I gave them too much nitrogen?
• Overuse of phosphorus causes plants to not be able to uptake zinc, magnesium, calcium. That's another reason why our food is mineral deficient.
• Wrigglebrew is even used by soy farmers to reduce their nitrogen load and move a little more toward regenerative farming methods.
• Compost tea only has a shelf life of 24-48 hours. How does Wrigglebrew maintain the flora and be shelf stable?
• Sam also shares about Wrigglebrew's research - a scientific gov't grant to use worms to digest plastic.

Wrigglebrew is a fertilizer made from worm castings, but it goes farther by adding helpful soil bacteria, mycorrhizae, and mycelium. The mycelium is a species that will not grow into mushrooms, if that is a concern. You can use it as soil fertilizer or foliar feed spray. Wrigglebrew started as a project at the University of Central Florida (UCF) to offer a solution to combat the nitrogen runoff that causes red tide - algae bloom in the Gulf (of America).

Episode show notes: Ep. 162 - Talking Soil Health with Sam Baker from Wrigglebrew

Times are tough. You want to be more self sufficient and grow more food, with enough to share with family and friends or even sell some of that surplus.

You've heard of this "food forest" thing, but it's so overwhelming to get started. I can help.

My Thriving Food Forest Design can help you realize your dreams of an edible foodscape or perennial paradise that will come back every year so you can grow more food and be more self sufficient. Schedule your FREE Discovery call with me at Thriving Food Forest.

Grow Nut Trees still has chestnuts, hazelnuts, comfrey. Get them planted before Summer!

GrowNutTrees.com

Jamon Mysliwiec (@theindependentamericangardener) joins me to share about TIAG - The Independent American Gardener, an online to in-real-life community, teaching permaculture and self-sufficiency through regenerative community.

The goal is to move to a closed-loop economy, with communities producing surplus, leveraging home based small businesses, and creating a barter and trade network for the surplus.

Jamon started Lulu's Garden, the first Demonstration Hub in Trenton, MO, and has bought a commercial property which will have a rooftop garden, greenhouse, a food forest, and to trade surplus through a farmers market type model.

He also shares about his new off grid property and soon-to-be-Demonstration Hub in SW Missouri.

Thriving Food Forest Design: Let us create an edible foodscape, perennial paradise for you so you can grow more food and be more self sufficient. Schedule a free consult session with me at:

Buy my chestnuts, hazelnuts, elderberry, and comfrey that are adapted to the Midwest.

GrowNutTrees.com

Raised beds that I am building to test Perennial Kitchen Garden layouts:

Vego Garden Modular Metal Raised Bed (which I will make 5' x 3.5', 17" tall).

I use this for a perennial kitchen garden - growing herbs to use daily in the kitchen. Just come along and pick what you need for tonight's dinner.

Meadow Creature Broadfork is my favorite tool for starting new garden beds. I turn over the sod, add a layer of compost, then Milpa, and cover with woodchips.

As I get older, perennials have become more important in my garden.

It is the first week of May, and this Spring I have not planted any new annuals, besides potatoes. But that doesn't mean that I do not have anything to eat. A couple of years ago I focused more and more corners of my garden and raised beds on perennials. I have bloody dock and other sorrel to add to salads. Bloody dock has a lemony taste, and it's blood red veins add an intriguing conversation piece when added to a guest's salad.

The Milpa bed has 2nd year cabbage, arugula, and mustard greens that can be foraged and added to salads and smoothies. The arugula and mustard greens need to gathered early before they go to seed.

Narrow leaf plantain is also added to smoothies.

I have oregano in a raised bed kitchen garden that is far better than any store bought oregano (and I will never go back!).

I have walking onions that are so numerous that I have many to thin and add to other beds and into the food forest. As well as gift to friends, for I have more onions than I can eat.

Jerusalem artichoke (sunchoke) tubers are mostly sprouting new plants, but some can still be harvested. I planted a variety a few years ago that is white, more circular and less lobulated than most sunchokes.

I have added raised bed kitchen gardens in Zone 1 near the house, using two Vego Garden Modular Metal Raised Beds, and I want to increase my perennial options.

Skirret

This year I will add Skirret, which is a perennial that looks like a carrot and is described as "the sweetest carrot you've ever eaten." Skirret is a European perennial, popular in medieval times. Instead of one tap root, the skirret has multiple tubers off of a plant. I got the seed from Perma Gardens at plantonce.com

Yacon

Yacon is a plant that has a deep tubers that look like a small sweet potato, and smaller tubers near the surface that look like sunchokes. Above ground it will look like a sunflower. It reportedly has a juicy fruity flavor like celery or fruit. I bought my Yacon at Raintree Nursery, and they also have a purple variety.

Mashua

Mashua is a plant in the Nasturtium family. It is a vining and flowering plant, but also forms tubers. The leaves and flower are edible. And it repels some insects and nematodes, so you can plant it between other plants. The tubers can also come in different colors. I bought my Mashua at Raintree Nursery.

Sea Beet

Sea beet is an ancestor of our beets and chard. It will have large edible leaves. It seeds in Year 2 and then, in midsection of country it would likely go perennial in Year 3.

It is not a red beet, and I expect it to be more like a chard taste or closer to a sugar beet. I bought mine at Experimental Farm Network, which has unique things you may not find in your regular store or the usual online seed places.

Perennial Kale

I frequently can get kale to come back in the next year, especially if it is a thicker leafed kale like Scotch Kale. You can also get some ornamental kale that comes back every year. Those may not be great in salad, but you could eat the tender new "baby kale" or blend it into smoothies. Experimental Farm Network has been experimenting with choosing kale varieties that would be more likely to go perennial. They call it the 'Homesteader's Kaleidoscopic Perennial' Kale Grex. "Grex" is a horticulture term meaning a hybrid. I have tried this (and will continue to try it) to discover the elusive perennial kale.

Chicory

And I go back to my tried and true chicory, which also comes back. I plant this along borders in the garden and in ground beds. I also have it growing wild up and down the driveway. You can roast chicory root as a coffee substitute (although I don't care for it). My chickens love the greens and I add it to smoothies.

Try some of these plants, especially the tubers, and increase your self sufficiency by experimenting to see if you can get some of them to turn perennial.

Buy my chestnuts, hazelnuts, elderberry, and comfrey that are adapted to the Midwest.

Use “thriving” at checkout for 10% (through May-10).

GrowNutTrees.com

Matt from FarmHopLife, Joseph the Homestead Padre from Smith Homestead, and Grant Payne from Christine Acres Farm join me on a community call to share our Spring plans.

Matt is growing mini cactus

Homestead Padre is growing Ayote squash which tastes like chocolate. He also shares his farmers market success with selling freeze dried herbs, teas, and candy.

I am growing new types of chestnuts, and grafting Asian pears onto invasive Callery pears.

And Grant is doing everything. Greenhouses, IBC totes with comfrey as far as the eye can see, ducks, chickens, trees, and hundred of flowers.

Come and join in our success!

Thriving Food Forest Design: Let us create an edible foodscape, perennial paradise for you so you can grow more food and be more self sufficient. Schedule a free consult session with me at:

Buy my chestnuts, hazelnuts, elderberry, and comfrey that are adapted to the Midwest.

GrowNutTrees.com

Raised beds that I am building to test Perennial Kitchen Garden layouts:

Vego Garden Modular Metal Raised Bed (which I will make 5' x 3.5', 17" tall).

I use this for a perennial kitchen garden - growing herbs to use daily in the kitchen. Just come along and pick what you need for tonight's dinner.

Meadow Creature Broadfork is my favorite tool for starting new garden beds. I turn over the sod, add a layer of compost, then Milpa, and cover with woodchips.