323: Kari Spencer on Farming in the City.
Growing crops and raising livestock in urban spaces.
Kari is a popular local gardening & homesteading speaker. As a Master Gardener and a Master Farmer, she enjoys sharing her passion for growing and raising food with others. In addition to teaching classes all over the city of Phoenix, she is the creator of Urban Farm U’s Growing Food the Basics & Backyard Livestock courses.
She and her family operate The Micro Farm Project, a small farm in North Phoenix, where gardens and livestock animals provide her family with fun and food. Her new book City Farming: How-To Guide to Growing Crops & Raising Livestock in Urban Spaces, by 5MPublishing has just been released.Don’t miss an episode! Click here to sign up for podcast updates
In This Podcast:
Returning guest Kari Spencer talks about her first book City Farming, and shares about some of the key aspects of farming in a city space. She visited several farms to research other perspectives and methods and gathered all the data into this book. She also tells about how it is so jam packed with information that part of the book had to go digital. There are several great ideas to help urban farmers gain confidence and overcome some challenges.
Listen in and learn about:
- What prompted her to write her first book
- Finding that many new gardeners and urban farmers get excited, grow a bunch and have a large harvest that goes to waste
- Teaching people how to plan ahead and fill their pantry
- The convenience that preserving food can provide
- An a-ha moment with her kids at a convenience store
- An EPIC farm visit in Hell’s Kitchen while researching for her book
- Her goals to help people be inspired by multiple different ideas for farming and gardening
- Learning about sustainability and regeneration
- The realizations she had about the green cost of her urban farm
- Ecological functions that can be added to any urban farm
- A farm she visited in Cottonwod, Arizona
- Recognizing microclimates in your space
- Starting over at the new property and designing a farm from scratch – again
- Implementing chickens into a space
Advice from Kari
- Checking a few pages of the book on Amazon
- Pick a few things to learn to grow before going crazy
Books written by Kari:
City Farming: How-To Guide to Growing Crops & Raising Livestock in Urban Spaces
How to reach Kari:
Websites: CityFarmingBook.com and TheMicroFarmProject.com
UrbanFarm.org/CityFarming
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