Tapping into the many benefits of backyard botanicals. — In This Podcast: While becoming a licensed acupuncturist and doctor, Nicole Finklestein felt the carbon footprint of the medicinals and botanicals in her practice was extensive. She drew on her family farming background to start growing herbs and flowers. She discusses holistic practices used on her farm, as well as…
Keeping people at the core of small business success. — In This Podcast: When an entrepreneurial opportunity came his way, Carl Atwell jumped on board with a passion. He is now president of Gempler’s and is building it again with a commitment towards his customers and employees. He shares the story of how Gempler’s was created with a focus on good values and how he connected with that. He also explains…
Turning garden pests into edible treats. — In This Podcast: Her 9-year-old son wanted to eat snails while in France, and once home he wanted to eat the garden snails too – so food writer Molly Watson did the research and figured out how to harvest and cook the snails they collected. Her down to earth descriptions can help any gardener who wondered if the pests had an edible purpose. She also shares…
Investing in small agriculture businesses. — In This Podcast: Production farming in America is not an easy business path to start on without some help or connections. Appreciating the value of farming after his travels in the US Navy, Chris Rawley realized these challenges farmers face when trying start or expand small-to-midsize farms and decided…
Making the hatching of backyard chickens easy and fun. – In this podcast: If you are not careful, you might find that hatching eggs can quite easily develop into a passion, just ask Pascale Pearce! She took a job that needed her to hatch eggs at least once, so she knew what she was talking about – and now…
Expecting that ruralization is the next evolution. – In this podcast: Studying the changes in where our populations are shifting, Jason Bradford is predicting the trend for moving to the urban cities is going to reverse. He breaks down why our energy dependency is indicating a reversal, why technology…
Bringing concentrated, jam-packed garden education to life. — In This Podcast: Her passion for bringing people together in educational garden summits is quite evident when you listen to Stacey Murphy tell us what she has planned this year. She explains why she started presenting her summits and…
The Future of Food – Native Bees by Guest Blogger: Dave Hunter of Crown Bees: We know there are huge differences in how pollen is carried by the European honey bee and our native bees. Relatively unknown, people are surprised to learn that hole-nesting native bees like our mason and leafcutter bees are actually much better pollinators than honey bees.
Research shows that mason bees can significantly increase the yield of…
Developing a relationship between primary pollinators and growers. — In This Podcast: Realizing that his apple trees were barely producing compared to his neighbors, Dave Hunter found the answer was mason bees. His hobby increased his harvest, and eventually his new passion developed into…
Bringing a whole system approach of design and nature to the farm. — In This Podcast:Taking a permaculture course as a young adult gave Raven Venturelli the confidence and inspiration to start her own farm. However, finding land in California to develop her nature-based farming concepts was difficult…
