367: Amy Stross on Growing Food in the Suburbs.
Bringing permaculture education to city dwellers.
Amy is a permaculture gardener, writer, educator, and author of The Suburban Micro-Farm, with a varied background in home-scale food production. As a permaculture designer, she specializes in ecologically regenerative and productive landscapes. Her own front yard landscape is a thriving example, catching water from the roof and growing a variety of edible crops.
Her current adventure is transforming a 3-acre property into a micro-farm with her husband and mischievous farm cat. She reaches hundreds of thousands of people with her expertise and adventures in small-scale permaculture gardening on her popular website, TenthAcreFarm.com. Her new book The Suburban Micro-Farm: Modern Solutions for Busy People, is published through Twisted Creek Press and Distributed by our friends at Chelsea Green PublishingDon’t miss an episode! Click here to sign up for podcast updates
In This Podcast:
After realizing teaching was not her passion, Amy Stross was looking for something to excite her and fill her need for a purpose. She found both of these when she started growing food and writing about her journey. Embracing permaculture into her gardening and her life, she realized how the techniques could benefit others, so of course she shared! Here is her story and a bonus at the end for Urban Farm Podcast listeners
Listen in and learn about:
- Growing up working to be an athlete with values of hard work and discipline
- Recognizing that she needed to change directions
- Getting food from a CSA and getting inspired
- Getting excited about growing her own food and transforming her yard
- Starting a blog about what she was trying and what she was learning
- Developing an understanding of Permaculture
- The difference between sustainable and regenerative
- Regenerating ecosystems through design
- Joining a land share project
- Finding ways to grow food and enhance the landscape
- The Suburban Microfarm and how the book documents her journey
- Finding a section of her yard was once a pool and was filled with construction debris
- The swales that transformed a relationship with a neighbor
As well as:
- Her failure – wanting to start a community garden and running into multiple roadblocks and getting a space that was atrocious
- Her success – quitting her career as a teacher and following her intuition to start growing food
- Her drive – besides her ‘twinge of perfectionism’? her passion for showing examples of what is possible
- Her advice – Take stock of your accomplishments – and take photos of your garden often
Books written by Amy:
The Suburban Micro-Farm: Modern Solutions for Busy People
Amy’s Book recommendations:
Wherever you go, there you are by Jon Kabat-Zinn
How to reach Amy:
Website: tenthacrefarm.com/urbanfarm
Facebook: @TenthAcreFarm
UrbanFarm.org/tenthacrefarm
Don’t miss an episode! Click here to sign up for podcast updates
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