Greg chats with an organic seed farmer and educator Don Tipping who shares his story about how he started growing seeds. Don also explains how and why a couple cooperatives got started including the Open Source Seed Initiative. He has been able to open his farm to host intensive seed academy classes and he guides Greg through the topics that are covered.
I live in Columbus, Ohio on a .28-acre plot. I have a corner lot and it is mostly flat but I do have a slight slope at the East side of my yard. My front yard is larger than my back yard; therefore, I planted a vegetable and rain garden in my front yard.
Greg finds many connections with Vanessa as she shares why she started juicing and why she runs her own business helping others learn about juicing. Vanessa tells about how she got started with her blog and her recipe book. She also tells about her love for mixing juices blends, and how she can serve up delicious drink combinations even from some normally challenging ingredient flavors.
Greg talks to a doctor that he met a few months back. Dr. Jim is fabulous at bringing the complexities of healthy eating to simple and memorable analogies. Transitioning from a standard American diet to a plant based one to improve health and vitality is something that Dr. Jim can talk about because he did just that.
Greg meets another kindred spirit in Storm Kirk with her connection to gardening, making a difference in the community, trusting in nature, and making a choice to be happy every day. Storm shares her story of how she started gardening with no skills or experience and is now the founder of a very special place for healing and learning.
Marianne shares her story and motivations that have moved her to transform her 1/3 acre into a food forest. She shares her passion for permaculture with Greg and tells him how she has really put to use the water harvesting techniques she has learned.
We venture back in time with Cara Dafforn to learn how the women homesteaders of the mid 1800’s cooked, gardened, nurtured, and survived during the trials of the Civil War. She explains to Greg that as a history buff she was intrigued enough to try to replicate many of the processes in use during the time period
Greg chats with Craig, a landscaping artist who bring his dedication for a job well done to ensure his customers get long lasting value. With Craig’s natural understanding of basic permaculture techniques, he shares how he has developed a process for his employees to observe and adjust based on those observations.
Sherrie shares her passion for the bees, butterflies, hummingbirds and other animals that serve such a vital purpose in the life-cycles of plants including the food we rely on every day. Greg gets a chance to talk to her about how a simple interest grew into a passion and how she has turned that into a project that is truly making a difference in her community.
Greg is excited and a bit envious of the kids who have participated in the natural world learning experiences explained by the Whitney in this podcast. She paints a beautiful picture of the resources of Life Lab’s gardens and how the programs offer many unique and awesome natural world laboratories for kids to learn.
