By Anne-Marie Miller. About twice a year I make a trip to my favorite horse barn to pick up a load of well-composted horse manure for my garden. When I say “pick up” that makes it sound so easy.
Manuel is someone who works to help people with food-and-ag related business ideas connect with investors and start the process towards funding those ideas. He tells Greg about the FoodBytes business pitch event that is focused on food and ag, as well as Terra and Rabobank with their focus on innovation in this business field. His take on how to deal with failure is something every person who runs or hopes to run their own business should hear.
Greg talks to a former lawyer Robin Kelson who now runs The Good Seed Company. She shares her story about the unexpected transition in her life leading her to her work around seeds. One of the big events in her new life is an epic community event focused on seed saving and sharing. She also explains why the company is using seeds from backyard growers.
Greg talks with one of the foremost experts on soil health Dr. Elaine Ingham and learns a lot about the world of microbiological life in the soil. Her studies have been amazing and it is easy to see how being a student in one of her classes can be quite informative. She tells about how she became so focused on the microbiological life in the soil and educates us on the importance of those first few dozen inches of earth our food is grown in. This is a mini course of science in just one podcast.
Maximizing functions from landscape elements to save time, energy and money. Greg meets Shawn who explains a key permaculture concept of having multiple functions from one element. Shawn tells how he has designed many projects focusing on elements that have at least seven functions each. With his experience, he has brought together several examples in his new book and so he shares some ideas in this interview.
Being green is all about having less of a negative impact on the planet and here Greg chats with Quita who has fully adopted a new lifestyle and loves helping others find their way into it as well. Quita tells how she got the courage to start gardening, and how that gave her confidence to try new ways to become self-sufficient even while living in a major city. Her encouraging attitude and caring nature helps as she spreads the word about little steps people can take in their own lives.
Greg talks to Brian Smith, a transplant to Arizona who needed to improve his gardening results and found out about biochar. Brian explains the process that was used over 2000 years ago, to transform burned wood into a long lasting organic super buffet with nutrients galore. He tells how he was so interested in the results that he took his research to the point that he can now make his own biochar in his backyard.
Greg reconnects with Penn to talk about the greenhouse designs she and her husband create, sell and teach about. Penn tells how her husband Cord took passive solar concepts and implemented them into the first greenhouse they built from reclaimed and scrap materials, and how they have made many improvements over time.
Greg meets Cory, a man who could not take ‘You can’t do that’ for an answer. Cory has transformed his home just outside of Phoenix to his own tropical fruit forest paradise using micro-climates, observation, experimentation, and frankly ignoring naysayers. His interest started with a few wine grapes and he got bit by the growing bug as he now has over 150 trees on his urban property and is not done trying new things.
Greg talks to a newer farmer, Shaun Keesee, who is having some success using biointensive farming techniques. Shaun shares how he reclaimed the land his family was leasing out to a hay farmer and starting growing crops to sell to markets and restaurants. He is applying the skills he has learned through his reading, internet and agriculture courses at his local college.
