The Urban Farm Podcast with Greg Peterson

Latest Episodes:

422: Stacey Murphy on Setting Goals for Growing. Feb 12, 2019

Show notes

Gathering gurus to help gardens grow.

In This Podcast: Growing up gardening side-by-side with her parents helped Stacey Murphy have a solid connection with food. She lost this connection when she went to college and began working as an engineer and architect. Whe she was living in a studio apartment in Brooklyn this disconnection was healed as she realized how little fresh food was in her diet and neighborhood so she started growing food in her tiny apartment and began working with a network of urban farmers. Fast forward to now as Stacey works online with gardeners in her Garden Freedom series and with people from 169 countries who all share the same concerns about their food.

Stacey is a garden geek, growing food since 1979, and her superpower is packing, literally, tons of food into tight spaces. She has helped thousands of new gardeners from six continents grow vegetables and herbs in small spaces, enjoy fresh, affordable vegetables, and live a healthy, happy life.

She does this by walking eager growers through her holistic garden system, showing what to grow, when and where Stacey offers an online education series with experts talking about different elements of growing food. This year she has organized the Garden Freedom Series with 13 days of jam-packed gardening know-how to help get herb and vegetable gardens started.

Go to https://www.urbanfarm.org/2019/02/12/422_stacey_murphy/ for more information and links on this podcast, and to find our other great guests.

422: Stacey Murphy on Setting Goals for Growing

421: Ricardo Aguirre on Water Harvesting & Land Management Feb 09, 2019

Show notes

Making good use of rain water in the community.

In This Podcast:

As Ricardo Aguirre was about to become a father, he took stock of his life. Would he continue to work as a civil engineer as he had for 15 years or would he do something that would have a positive effect on the earth? Which one would he be proud to tell his son about? The answer was to bring about more creative and natural approaches to improve conventional engineering. He tells us more about water management and holistic planned grazing to help avoid negative land management issues.

Ricardo is the founding member of Holistic Engineering and Land Management, Inc. (HELM) and is focused on creating innovative approaches to improve conventional engineering. He works to integrate natural processes into large scale engineering projects with his primary professional focus to implement functional design strategies to achieve multiple synergistic objectives.

Ricardo has a profound interest in reversing desertification through water harvesting and increasing soil organic matter. This can have a measurable benefit to reduce flooding, improve both storm-water and soil quality, conserve water, provide passive irrigation for vegetation, and reduce the heat island effect. Ricardo’s project experience includes infrastructure improvements for communities that have been adversely impacted by storm-water.

Visit https://www.urbanfarm.org/2019/02/09/421_ricardo_aguirre/ for show notes and links.

Ricardo Aguirre on Water Harvesting & Land Management

420: Ocean Robbins on The 31 Day Food Revolution Feb 05, 2019

Show notes

Changing the way we eat one month at a time.

In This Podcast:

Food revolutionary and visionary Ocean Robbins shares a healthy eating program that can work for anyone in just 31 days. Breaking down his plan into four sections, he helps simplify the process. He also discusses some of the major factors that lead to unhealthy eating, and offers some ideas on how to get people you care about engaged in a healthy eating discussion.

Ocean is the CEO, Co-founder and Co-host of the Food Revolution Network, and the co-host of the annual Food Revolution Summit. He has facilitated more than 50 week-long gatherings and 100 day-long workshops for leaders worldwide on a variety of health related topics, Plus he is already prepping for the next Food Revolution Summit taking place in April 2019.

Ocean is the co-author of Choices for Our Future and Voices of the Food Revolution, and the author of The Power of Partnership. His next book coming out this month is titled 31-Day Food Revolution: Heal Your Body, Feel Great, and Transform Your World.

Visit https://www.urbanfarm.org/2019/02/05/420-ocean-robbins/ for show notes and links.

This contest period has expired.

Ocean Robbins on The 31 Day Food Revolution

Bonus Episode 24: Seed Saving Class January 2019 (419.5) Feb 02, 2019

Show notes

Bonus Episode 24: Seed Saving Class January, 2019.

A chat with a seed expert on wild crop relatives, biodiversity and more

In This Bonus Podcast:

There is always a bounty of information available in conversations with Bill McDorman. This is the January 2019 episode of a Seed Saving Class - Listen and learn about the importance of wild crop relatives and biodiversity, the February 2019 Seed Summit, and so much more.

Join the class! Register anytime for the next event. Register Here for the Seed Saving Class with Live Q&A

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.

Go to https://www.urbanfarm.org/2019/02/02/bonus24/ for more information and links on this bonus podcast, and to find our other great guests.

419: Nicky Schauder on Growing Food in Small Spaces Jan 29, 2019

Show notes

Teaching how to garden with limited space.

In This Podcast:

Struggling with their children’s multiple food allergies convinced Nicky Schauder and her husband Dave to go organic. Dealing with the expense of all this organic food impelled them to start growing it themselves. Thus began their adventure with permaculture and gardening in small spaces. They’ve incorporated many techniques, which they call multipliers, to increase their yield, from 3-dimensional gardening to low tunnel gardening. Among the many bonuses of this lifestyle is the improved health of their children. Nicky and Dave now offer classes to help families just like theirs reap the same benefits.

Nicky and her husband Dave are passionate about helping suburban families grow their own food. Together, they run Permaculture Gardens a web portal to help you grow abundantly!

In 2017, Permaculture Gardens won the grand prize at the Green Festivals in Washington DC for “Most Innovative Sustainable Brand.” Their work has been featured in the Huffington Post, Permaculture Research Institute - Australia and Green America.org. They also volunteer at their local Title 1 school and started a permaculture garden after-school program for the elementary kids there.

Visit https://www.urbanfarm.org/2019/01/29/419_nicky-schauder/ for show notes and links.

Nicky Schauder on Growing Food in Small Spaces

418: Kat Granger on Starting a Small Seed Business Jan 26, 2019

Show notes

Promoting ecological diversity and preserving the health of our planet.

In This Podcast:

With a passion for growing in her genes, Kat Granger joined a horticulture group, became a Master Gardener, and went to seed school to learn all she could about her subject. Speaking to groups about her vegetables led to selling those vegetable seeds to her interested audience members. This eventually led to her seed business, Seeds of IMBOLC. Kat sees how a disconnection with the earth has led to so many problems with people’s health and well-being and works tirelessly to help reconnect people with nature with her authentically organic seeds.

Kat is a Master Gardener and creator of Seeds of IMBOLC, in Fergus, Ontario, Canada where she grows heirloom organic seeds and plants and is a grower for a larger organic seed group.

She has been featured on the TV show “Let’s Get Growing”, and in OMAFRA produce videos, spoken at Canada Blooms, the Pollination Guelph Symposium, and at Seedy Saturdays. She is an instructor with the Upper Grand District School District, hosts a monthly newsletter “Home on the Grange”, and enjoys sparking gardening addictions.

Kat is a member of Seeds of Diversity, Seed Savers Exchange, and the Ontario Biodynamic Society – plus a graduate of Seed School Online.

Go to https://www.urbanfarm.org/2019/01/26/418-kat-granger/ for more information and links on this podcast, and to find our other great guests.

Kat Granger on Starting a Small Seed Business.

417: Michael Foley on Building a Viable Small Farm Economy Jan 22, 2019

Show notes

Farming with an eye on the future.

In This Podcast:

As a child Michael Foley visited a Montana ranch and dreamed of being a gentleman farmer one day. His path however, took him into academia. After being estranged from the land for several years he eventually found his way back to farming. Today Michael, along with his wife and daughter, farm on their micro-farm, often trading goods with neighbors. He believes that farmers need to think of more than profitability when analyzing the bottom line. Providing for themselves and their neighbors and building networks among themselves in order to help one another should also be priorities. Michael is very proud of his work with the School of Adaptive Agriculture and delights in helping to populate the farm scene in his area with young people from this farm training program.

After twenty years in academia, Michael became a farmer. He started in southern Maryland, then moved to Willits, California, where he, his wife, and oldest daughter operate Green Uprising Farm. He is a co-founder, board member, and teacher at the School of Adaptive Agriculture (formerly known as the Grange Farm School), a farmer training and education program.

Michael has helped create and manage a community kitchen and small farmers group, manage the local farmers market, and has served as both vice president of the Mendocino County Farmers Market Association & president of Little Lake Grange. And with all that, he found time to write Farming for the Long Haul Published by our friends at Chelsea Green.

Go to https://www.urbanfarm.org/2019/01/22/417-michael-foley/ for more information and links on this podcast, and to find our other great guests.

The contest period of this episode has expired.

Michael Foley on Building a Viable Small Farm Economy

Bonus Episode 23: Seed Saving Class November 2018 (416.5) Jan 19, 2019

Show notes

Bonus Episode 23: Seed Saving Class November 2018.

A chat with an expert on Seeds.

In This Bonus Podcast: There is always a bounty of information available in conversations with Bill McDorman. This is the November 2018 episode of a Seed Saving Class - learn about the seed paradigm and seed history. Listen as the ethics of owning and naming seeds, and other interesting topics are discussed.

Join the class! Register anytime for the next class.Register Here for the Seed Saving Class with Live Q&A

Go to https://www.urbanfarm.org/2019/01/19/bonus23/ for more information and links on this bonus podcast, and to find our other great guests.

416: Sarah Boltwala-Mesina Jan 15, 2019

Show notes

Transforming waste into soil, jobs, and community.

In This Podcast:

Sarah Boltwala-Mesina, along with other parents, hoped to start a recycling program at their children’s school. This was the first step on her journey to creating Food2Soil, a business that collects food scraps from people and businesses in San Diego and turns those scraps into rich compost. Her company provides services helping homeowners become successful composting in their own backyard, provides hubs around the city for people to drop scraps off, and offers scrap pickup service to restaurants. There is even a wait-list of businesses and breweries hoping to participate.

Sarah is the executive director of  Inika Small Earth, a nonprofit that started Food2Soil where they train interns in good composting techniques. Food2Soil collects vegetative food scraps from local restaurants then composts the scraps at two urban farms in San Diego, selling the finished product to local gardeners looking for high-nutrient soil.

Inika Small Earth is a charitable organization working to enhance the network of community composting hubs across San Diego. Their aim is to build the collective capacity to transform food scraps into soil and jobs for the community.

Go to https://www.urbanfarm.org/2019/01/15/416-sarah-boltwala-mesina/ for more information and to find our other great guests.

Sarah Boltwala-Mesina on Community Composting

415: John Brubaker on Micro Urban farming Jan 12, 2019

Show notes

From green lawns to green vegetables.

In This Podcast:

As his wife and youngest daughter began struggling with celiac disease, John Brubaker believed that the pesticides used on vegetables were perhaps weakening their immune systems. This was his entry into organic urban farming. He began small with 20 beds and has been expanding ever since. John is growing numerous crops in his small space, including artichokes and cantaloupe for home, and kale, spinach, beets, radishes and glass gem corn for the Farmers Market. He is finding great success with his natural farming.

John has been working on golf courses for over 35 since the age of 16. He planted thousands of trees and just for fun, would typically have an organic vegetable garden on the golf course for the enjoyment of customers and staff. Along the way he earned a Bachelor of Science degree from Utah State University in Horticulture.

In 2013 his wife and daughters developed digestive issues. Because of this he started growing his own vegetables, built a compost pile, implemented no dig methods, planted for pollinators, introduced beneficial predator insects, and so on.

Soon he was giving vegetables to his neighbors and he had become an urban farmer. In 2018 he named his micro farm ‘Straw Hat’, rented a booth at a Farmers Market and started selling organic produce. The success was beyond his expectations, incredibly rewarding and now he is planning on retiring from the golf course and going into urban farming full time.

Go to https://www.urbanfarm.org/2019/01/12/415-john-brubaker/ for more information and links on this podcast, and to find our other great guests.

John Brubaker on Micro Urban Farming.

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