The Urban Farm Podcast with Greg Peterson

Latest Episodes:

277: Joseph Martinez on Microgreens Aug 22, 2017

Show notes

Building a business on the tiniest greens.

In This Podcast: As a young adult with an unfocused passion, Joseph Martinez was looking for something that he could feel good doing. His travels gave him little nudges in the right direction, but things did not really come clear until he decided to start a business with his brother and got some unexpected advice from a client. Just a few years later, they have a thriving business growing microgreens and he’s loving the difference he is making and the meaningfulness that exists in his life.

Joseph is a co-founder of Arizona Microgreens, an urban farm in Phoenix which produces microgreens for restaurants, schools, and individuals throughout the state of Arizona.

Using a DIY approach of starting small and growing incrementally, Joseph and his brother built their start-up from a 200-square-foot self-built greenhouse, to a social enterprise model operating out of a 13,000-square-foot greenhouse today.

Initially focused on the fine-dining market, Arizona Microgreens is now producing microgreens for farm-to-school programs, naturopathic clinics, and a much broader range of diverse customers.

Go to https://www.urbanfarm.org/2017/08/22/277-joseph-martinez/ for more information and links on this podcast, and to find our other great guests.

Bonus Episode 5: Seed Chat July 2017 (276.5) Aug 21, 2017

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Bonus Episode 5: Seed Chat July 2017

A chat with experts on Seeds, Bill McDorman and Julia Coffey.

In This BONUS Podcast:Bill McDorman brings a friend and fellow seed enthusiast Julia Coffey to the chat to help explain about running a seed business. Together they talk to Greg about being a seed grower, germination testing, maintaining seed projects, running a seed business and much more in this the July 2017 episode of Seed School Chat.

Julia Coffey is the president of Seeds Trust: an incredible company dedicated to encouraging customers to save seeds and reverse the loss of biodiversity not only in our backyards but around the world.

She is from Denver, Colorado and when not measuring out seeds, printing packets, growing tomatoes, hunting down the most resilient and special seed varieties, she likes to take full advantage of the magnificent swath of Rocky Mountains by hiking, backpacking, climbing, and breathing fresh air. She likes to sing and is a member of the Colorado choir, an 80s a cappella group, a hip hop a cappella group, and a rock and roll/blues band.

She graduated from the University of Colorado, Boulder with degrees in Linguistics and French and lived in France teaching English and learning about local food market economies vs. the global industrialized food model.

She met Bill McDorman while visiting a permaculture farm in Lyons, CO. He was giving a lecture on seeds and seed diversity and it genuinely changed her life. She immediately found him after the lecture and told him she wanted to be involved in whatever way she could. She ended up attending one of Bill and Belle's first Seed School workshops and continued to apprentice with him in Cornville, Arizona. Julia helped Bill and Belle run Seeds Trust until she bought the business from him in 2011. She then returned to Denver to provide high altitude adapted seed to mountain growers.

Go to https://www.urbanfarm.org/2017/08/21/bonus-episode-5/ for more information, photos and links on this podcast and to find our other great guests.

276 Andy Schneider on Living the Chicken Dream Aug 19, 2017

Show notes

Meeting the first 'Poultry Personality' of Backyard Poultry.

In This Podcast: His hobby of raising chickens developed into helping others succeed in raising their own. This led Andy Schneider into becoming the first well known "poultry personality" in the world of backyard poultry and eventually running a business that he loves. He uses this notoriety to help correct misinformation through science and fact.

Better known as The Chicken Whisperer, Andy has become the go-to guy for anything chicken related. He has helped countless people start their own backyard flocks and has assisted in changing more laws around the country to allow backyard chickens than anyone else.

He is a well-known radio personality as the host of the Backyard Poultry with The Chicken Whisperer radio show, as well as the Editor-in-Chief of Chicken Whisperer Magazine, the National Spokesperson for the USDA-APHIS Biosecurity for Birds Program, and author of The Chicken Whisperer’s Guide to Keeping Chickens.

Andy travels around the U.S. educating people through science-based, fact-based, and study-based information about the many benefits of keeping backyard chickens and how to ensure they stay healthy and free from disease.

Go to https://www.urbanfarm.org/2017/08/19/276-andy-schneider/ for more information and links on this podcast, and to find our other great guests.

275: Gianaclis Caldwell on Cheesemaking Basics. Aug 17, 2017

Show notes

Covering some basic questions about making cheese at home

In This Podcast: Having a small dairy farm is very helpful if you are going to make cheese at home, and Gianaclis Caldwell shares some of the truths she collected as she learned to make her own cheeses. She helps explain some of the differences between common cheeses as well as how slight changes in the process can change the resulting cheese.

Gianaclis is the main cheese-maker, milker and owner of Pholia Farm, a licensed dairy located on 24 acres in southern Oregon. Her farm is well known for its artisan, aged raw milk cheeses; as well as classes on small-dairy, goat husbandry, and cheese-making at all levels.

Her book, Mastering Artisan Cheesemaking by Chelsea Green Publishing, has received praise and awards from all levels of the cheese world for her writing and photography.

Go to https://www.urbanfarm.org/2017/08/17/275-gianaclis-caldwell/ for more information and links on this podcast, and to find our other great guests.

274: Deb Kolaras on Small Farming and Local Economies Aug 15, 2017

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Working together with other small farms to provide farm goods to a local economy.

In This Podcast: Not having enough eggs to keep her farm stand stocked, Deb Kolaras reached out to a couple neighboring small farms to add their products to hers. What has developed is a successful honor based farm stand that neighbors shop to find their fresh produce, eggs and cheeses. Using her marketing background she is focusing a local economy to support small farmers.

Trading her digital marketing agency in Boulder, Colorado, for a small farm in rural Virginia, Deb and her husband set out to expand their backyard hobby farming into a slightly larger and more sustainable homestead. While restoring a 1907 farmhouse, they’re raising chickens & goats, and selling the food products at their roadside honor farm-stand.

Other local micro farms also sell produce and goods in Deb’s farm stand as she is working to help improve her local microeconomy by networking and supporting small farmers and producers in her county.

Her background is in business, but she’s always had a passion for making, building, re-purposing, and then harvesting the goods from those labors.

Go to https://www.urbanfarm.org/2017/08/15/274-deb-kolaras/ for more information and links on this podcast, and to find our other great guests.

273: Hilary Kearney on Beekeeping Aug 12, 2017

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Buzzing through some basics on bees, hives and honey.

In This Podcast: Starting from a bucket list item on her boyfriend's wall, Hilary Kearney jumped into the world of beekeeping and found her passion. She teaches us some basics about bees, beekeeping, and the honey that they produce. She also shares some tips for new beekeepers including some highlights of introducing new queens to a hive. If you've had an interest in beekeeping, this might just help you jump in too!

Hilary owns and operates Girl Next Door Honey, and is a full-time beekeeper in her home town of San Diego, California where she provides educational opportunities for hundreds of new beekeepers each year. She is the author of the blog Beekeeping Like A Girl and maintains a popular Instagram account with over 42,000 followers around the world who are inspired by her beekeeping exploits and unique business model. When she’s not rescuing bee hives, teaching classes, photographing bees or managing one of her sixty colonies… she’s sleeping and dreaming of bees.

Go to https://www.urbanfarm.org/2017/08/12/273-hilary-kearney/ for more information and links on this podcast, and to find our other great guests.

272: Lori Rose on School Garden Programs Aug 10, 2017

Show notes

Motivating the necessary people to create and maintain a lasting grade school garden program.

In This Podcast: A class project for her community college biology students to create a school garden at an elementary school challenged Lori Rose to move from the theoretical world to the epic one she has created for the local grade schools in her community. The tricky part was that she did not know how to garden at the time. She did not let that stop her, and it built into an amazing and EPIC new program at her college. Her lessons learned on how to make a school garden project that lasts are valuable indeed.

Lori is a college instructor for biology, nutrition, herbal and wellness classes, as well as a board-certified nutrition professional & holistic nutrition consultant, registered herbalist, and holistic health coach. She also created, developed, and instructs in, the Hill College Holistic Wellness Pathway program in Cleburne, Texas.

Lori is a wife & mother, city class teacher, and passionate Zumba dancer! She loves spreading love & light, and helping others feel great on the inside & out so they can live their dreams! When not doing all that, she is an organic gardener of vegetables, fruits, & medicinal herbs, at home and at the Hill College school garden.

Go to https://www.urbanfarm.org/2017/08/10/272-lori-rose/ for more information and links on this podcast, and to find our other great guests.

271: Brigitte Mars on Identifying Wild Plants Aug 08, 2017

Show notes

Learning the identity and uses for common plants growing wild in North America.

In This Podcast: Sharing her knowledge about wild herbs and plants is exactly what Brigitte Mars wants to do and she used modern technology to reach this goal. After an inspiring walk with a couple of Navy Seals, she focused on making a new mobile app specifically to help identify wild plants and educate on their uses and dangers if any. She shares with us some common plant and what they are useful for along with a few suggestions on how to protect plants in your areas.

Brigitte is an herbalist and nutritional consultant of Natural Health with almost fifty years of experience. She is also the author of more than a dozen books and DVDs. However, today we are most interested in her mobile app for wild plant reference called iPlant.

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.

Go to https://www.urbanfarm.org/2017/08/08/271-brigitte-mars/ for more information and links on this podcast, and to find our other great guests.

Bonus Episode 4: Ask Jake and Greg - July 2017 (270.1) Aug 07, 2017

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Bonus Episode 4: Ask Jake and Greg.

A July 2017 Q&A session with two experts on Gardening and Fruit Trees.

In This BONUS Podcast: Jake Mace the Vegan Athlete and Greg Peterson of The Urban Farm are both gardening educators offering classes, podcasts, and videos on a large variety of gardening topics. Every month they get together for a monthly gardening chat to discuss what is going on in their gardens and answer your questions. This is the JULY 2017 Q&A episode with a variety of questions addressed from planning for planting, building healthy soil, and much more.

Go to https://www.urbanfarm.org/2017/08/07/bonus-episode-4-ask-jake-and-greg/ for more information and links on this bonus podcast, and to find our other great guests.

270: Colin McCrate on High Yield Vegetables Aug 05, 2017

Show notes

Improving results in your garden through planning and record keeping.

In This Podcast: Putting a brand new edible landscape together for homeowners and even apartment communities in the Seattle area is just another work day for Colin McCrate, and he loves it. So, after several years and many gardens built & maintained, he has learned a thing or two about how to improve the production of vegetables. He helps explain some of that here and shares a few of his tips and techniques.

Colin has been growing food organically for the past 15 years. He worked on a variety of small farms in the Midwest before moving to the west coast in 2003 to teach garden-based environmental education. He quickly realized that Washington is the most beautiful state in the Union, and has been farming, teaching and designing landscapes there ever since. He founded the Seattle Urban Farm Company in January of 2007 and still looks forward to planting potatoes every spring.

Colin is the author of two books High-Yield Vegetable Gardening published by Storey Publishing and Food Grown Right, In Your Backyard.

Go to https://www.urbanfarm.org/2017/08/05/270-colin-mccrate/ for more information and links on this podcast, and to find our other great guests.

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