The Urban Farm Podcast With Greg Peterson

809: Enoch Graham on His Garden Story.Passionate about encouraging others to Garden.In This Podcast: From houseplants, to a single plant that actually makes a cucumber to growing groceries on your carport roof and having the police come and investigate what you are growing...wink, wink. He wasn't, he was growing groceries and turned his passion into a weekly YouTube show that inspires many people to grow their own. Join Greg and Enoch for his very interesting story!Our Guest: Enoch is an small space gardener who has been growing some of his own food for over 12 years in his limited urban space in southern Oregon. By growing so many different varieties of fruits and vegetables he has taken his skills to a new level. So 7 years ago he started sharing his gardening adventures with his viewers on his Youtube channel "the Urban Gardener”. As his passion for growing his own food and gardening grew over the years he never imagined where it would take him. He is constantly surprised by what he gets back by s

808: How to Help Pollinators A Garden Chat with Charlotte Wiggins.In This Garden Chat:Ever wonder about pollinators and their impact on our environment?  Why are they important and how do they impact the environment around us?  Join us as we chat with Charlotte Wiggins and explore all things pollinator!. Our Special Guest:Charlotte Ekker Wiggins is an award-winning author, lecturer, master beekeeper and master gardener. After careers in journalism, US Forest Service and US Navy, she’s now chairing an 8-state Midwest partnership to grow beekeeping instructors teaching scientifically-based best management practices. Her 42-year old, one-acre garden, where her neighbors said nothing would grow, is a Monarch Way Station, Certified Wildlife Habitat and apiary. She featured how she developed Bluebird Gardens in her April 2019TEDx talk “Why Bugs Matter.” Need a little bit of advice or just a feedback on your design for your yard or garden?The Urban Farm Team is offering consults over the phone or zo

807: Seeds, Are They Dead or Alive?A chat with an expert on seeds.In This Seed Chat:This is the March 2024 Seed Chat - Don’t throw away seeds collected for years. Do a germ test. Germination testing is a vital step to ensure seed viability before planting. We will talk about the process and show you how to determine the ratio of successful germination. Then you can plant the germinated seeds right into the ground. Learning how to germ test empowers growers with crucial insights into seed quality, helping you make informed decisions on seed selection and planting strategies. Visit www.urbanfarm.org/seeds24mar for the show notes on this episode, and access to our full podcast library!What is the Seed Chat?At least ten times a year we have a live Seed Saving Class with Bill McDorman, the former Executive Director of Rocky Mountain Seed Alliance, Ketchum, Idaho. He got his start in the bio-regional seed movement while in college in 1979 when he helped start Garden City Seeds. In 1984, Bill started Seeds Trust/H

806: The Rogue Food Conference with Joel Salatin and John MoodyShowcasing those who are making a difference in our food systems.In This Podcast: The Rogue Food Conference" is an annual gathering of innovative thinkers and passionate advocates who are challenging the status quo of the food industry. Hosted by Joel Salatin and John Moody, this conference showcases individuals and organizations that have found creative solutions to navigate the regulatory hurdles and bring nutrient-dense, local, and authentic food to their communities.Joel Salatin and his family owned Polyface Farm in Virginia's Shenandoah Valley. Featured in the iconic foodie book, Omnivore's Dilemma, An award winning film, Food Inc., the farm's moniker is Healing the Land One Bite at a Time. Joel is a prolific author and speaker. He promotes local food systems, freedom of food choice, and farming systems that build the commons. Joel was a guest on our podcast and appeared in episode 310.John Moody lives in his homestead in the rolling hills

805: Jennifer Jewell on the Personal, Ecological and Cultural Significance of Seeds.Saving an iconic resource almost lost to history.In This Podcast: We chat with Jennifer Jewell on her journey discovering the significance of seeds. She shared "that my tiny life will end and I will have spent a lot of hot air talking to gardeners, but the seeds are gonna survive. Like we've messed up a lot, but the seeds are still there. And the incredible number of seed keeping humans on the ground everywhere, they are doing great work."Our Guest: Jennifer is the host of the national award-winning weekly public radio program and podcast Cultivating Place: Conversations on Natural History and the Human Impulse to Garden. She is an author and her third book is called What We Sow: On the Personal, Ecological, and Cultural Significance of Seeds.Jennifer’s greatest passion is elevating the way we think and talk about gardening, the empowerment of gardeners, and the possibility inherent in the intersection betw

804: Janis and Ray on Journaling a New HabitA Rosie On The House Radio Show ReplayIn This Podcast: Janis Norton and Ray Jess join us for our monthly Rosie on the House Radio hour talking about journaling for gardens and orchards. Our Guests: Janis Norton is the General Manager at The Urban Farm, where she manages several major projects including their Fruit Tree Education Program, The Urban Farm Podcast,  and the Permaculture Design Course, as well as their online educational classes, chats, and summits.  She earned her degree in Sustainability from Arizona State University, became a Master Gardener, and took her PDC training in Phoenix. While Greg is the visionary at The Urban Farm, Janis is the Implementer – using her superpowers as a project manager to keep things organized and growing our community.Ray Jess is the Manager of the General Store at The Urban Farm Nursery,  (worked with Greg to update the Urban Farm Planting Calendar, making adjustments for recent changes in our climate

803: Joe Villines on Reviving a 123-Year Old FarmLiving a Dream.In This Podcast: We speak with Joe Villines about his history as a media person in the Army and how it has impacted the process of rebuilding the 123-year old farm he and his family purchased.Our Guest: Joe is a father, husband, US Army veteran and co-owner of ‘HalfAcre Farms at Armadillo Acres’ with his partner Lydia in Indianola, Iowa. He attended college for commercial horticulture to further a lifelong interest in growing food. Joe was a photojournalist and broadcaster in the Army Reserve where he served tours in Bosnia, Iraq, Kuwait and other assignments all over the world. Exposure to world strife and world agriculture informed his resolve to raise animals and crops using holistic methods for sale locally.Visit www.UrbanFarm.org/HalfAcreFarm for the show notes and links on this episode! Need a little bit of advice or just a feedback on your design for your yard or garden?The Urban Farm Team is offering consults over the phone or zoom. Get

802: All About Chickens, Goats, and SheepA Garden Chat with Judith Horvath.In This Garden Chat:Judith joins our Garden Chat and she shares the ins and outs of getting into raising small backyard animals. This includes goats, sheep, and chickens. In this Chat, we explore the pitfalls associated with having small animals and how to avoid them. Our Special Guest:Judith Horvath has journeyed from a white-collar business executive to hair sheep and dairy goat farmer. When COVID and global events laid bare the fragility of our food supply chain, Judith found a way to leave corporate life to concentrate solely on farming.  Today she’s helping launch a new generation of small farmers with the goal of establishing a resilient local food supply chain based on regenerative agriculture methods, rotationally grazed grass fed meats, and nutrient dense produce.  She’s on a mission to help people get started farming and be immediately successful. Need a little bit of advice or just a feedback on your des

801: Flower Parts for Dummies. A chat with an expert on seeds.In This Seed Chat:This is the February 2024 Seed Chat - Bill McDorman and Greg Peterson simplify the intricate world of flower anatomy into digestible insights for any level of gardener. Emphasizing the relevance of understanding flower parts, the duo investigates flowers, and fruits, highlighting their functions and significance in plant life. Bill and Greg’s informative and fun approach makes plant science accessible and relevant for all..Visit www.urbanfarm.org/seeds24feb for the show notes on this episode, and access to our full podcast library!What is the Seed Chat?At least ten times a year we have a live Seed Saving Class with Bill McDorman, the former Executive Director of Rocky Mountain Seed Alliance, Ketchum, Idaho. He got his start in the bio-regional seed movement while in college in 1979 when he helped start Garden City Seeds. In 1984, Bill started Seeds Trust/High Altitude Gardens, a mail order seed company he ran successfully u

800: Robbie Shaw on American Chestnut Blight and Rescue.Saving an iconic resource almost lost to history.In This Podcast: What if you discovered a long lost tree, one that there used to be billions of two centuries ago, but are now functionally extinct? Today's guest found one and rather than do nothing, she wrote a book about their story. Join Robbie Shaw as she shares the epic adventure of the American Chestnut.Our Guest: Robbie is a naturalist with a deep passion for storytelling that dates back to her childhood. When she stumbled across the New York Times article about an incurable blight that brought about the functional extinction of the American chestnut Forrest, she was moved and shocked. She wondered why generations of her family living in these forests never spoke about this incredible loss and why she had never learned about it in school.It has taken a century, but today’s science and technology exist to address this tragedy and turn back the hands of time.  Restoring a functionally extinc

799: Prepping Soil for New GardensA Rosie On The House Radio Show ReplayIn This Podcast: Soil the most important thing you can be investing in for your garden. Made up of 5 components and if all you have is the dirt component your chances of success are low. Invest the time to learn then invest in soil. This is our Rosie on the House segment with Shota Austin from Tanks green Stuff.Our Guest: Shota Austin has worked in the agricultural industry since 2005 working with livestock (goats, sheep, cattle, chickens), cotton, alfalfa, nursery crops, orchards, and vegetable production. As a former U of A Compost Cat Shota has been working with compost since 2013, and works for Tanks Green Stuff. As the Director of Tanks Green Stuff, he oversees all aspects of the business including production, quality control, product development, sales, marketing, social media, customer service.Visit www.UrbanFarm.org/799Rosie for the show notes and links on this episode!Need a little bit of advice or just a feedback on your de

798: Cami Prada on Being a Beginning FarmerA Journey to a more fulfilling lifestyle.In This Podcast: What if it was time for you to leave your corporate life and jump into a life of farming? Well that is exactly what Cami Prada did. She left her life in Miami to start anew in a small town in North Carolina. Now she works at a farm that has an honor stand and with the bee lady working her booth at the farmers market...and is finding life much more fulfilling.Our Guest: Rooted from the vibrant city of Miami Beach, the concept of farming was a distant echo in Cami’s upbringing. It wasn't until adulthood that the notion of 'sustainability' ignited her passion for Earth stewardship. In May 2022, she made a BIG move to the Small quaint town of Burnsville, NC. After a corporate layoff, she found solace and purpose as a farmer at a local farm that doubles as an Honor Produce Stand. Embracing the rural lifestyle, she also lends a hand to a beekeeper friend, sharing the golden sweetness of local honey at her commu

794: John Collet on Growing From Home Gardener to Market GardenerEncouraging people to grow food and sell their extra produce at a farmers market  In This Podcast: John Collet is a long distance runner that decided after a lifetime of hobby gardening to jump all in to market gardening, without knowing he was doing it. After successfully growing a ton (literally) of food and listening to the Urban Farm Podcast he decided to jump in to his local farmers market and boy was he surprised and pleased.Our Guest: John is a 5 Time NCAA Div 3 All American in Cross Country and Track who has Gardened off and on over the last 30 years. When he turned 50, he got serious about gardening and now has a 50’ x 100’ vegetable garden along with a separate space for apples, peaches, raspberries, black currants and cherries.He and his family grow and eat from his garden year round in Zone 5B where he grows lettuce, kale, collards, spinach, carrots, beets, garlic, onions, leeks, peas, beans, tomatoes, peppers, eggplant,

796: Rebecca Newburn on Documenting Seed LibrariesConnecting Seed Communities Worldwide.In This Podcast: Join Rebecca Newburn as she shares just what a seed library is and her organizations efforts to document where they are. They have had incredible success in first encouraging people to start seed libraries and now to document their world wide spread, in many different countries and languages.Our Guest: Rebecca is the Co-Founder of Richmond Grows Seed Lending Library, a free seed exchange located in the Richmond Public Library in Richmond, California where she lives. The “create a library” template she designed has helped hundreds of seed libraries launch around the world. She is the webmaster for SeedLibraries.net and the editor of Cool Beans! Seed Libraries Newsletter, an international publication supporting local seed projects.Visit www.UrbanFarm.org/seedcensus for the show notes and links on this episode! Need a little bit of advice or just a feedback on your design for your yard or garden?The Urban

795: William Horvath on Permaculture Farming in CroatiaEncouraging and assisting aspiring permaculturistsIn This Podcast: Join William as he shares his story of growing up in war torn Croatia in the early 1990's then exploring Australia and discovering permaculture first hand from David Holmgren. And finally he tells how he returned home to start his own permaculture adventure and educational platform.Our Guest: William Horvath is a geologist turned permaculture farmer and educator. He runs a small experimental permaculture site in Croatia, Southeast Europe, as well as his website Permaculture Apprentice, where he helps aspiring permaculture farmers and homesteads find, design, and develop their properties. Through his consulting and coaching work, William has assisted over 1,000 people in starting their permaculture properties and implementing permaculture systems, from backyard to broad scale.Book Recommendation: Retro Suburbia by David HolmgrenVisit www.UrbanFarm.org/PermacultureApprentice for the show

794: Kristin Parsons on GuildsA Rosie On The House Radio Show ReplayIn This Podcast: Kristin Parsons joined us for our monthly Rosie on the House Radio hour talking about plant guilds. What is a guild you say? It is a beneficial collection of purposely planted plants that self generate in the future. Ya know kinda like nature does. She also share the 7 components of a guild...Enjoy!Our Guest: Kristin is a native Texan, went to college in Kansas, and ended up in Arizona in 2004. She’s been gardening, raising chickens, planting fruit trees, and constructing buildings ever since! She completed her Permaculture Design Course in 2015 and since then has been focusing on local food system development and permaculture.  She lives on an half-acre edible landscape property that has over 75 fruit trees n Scottsdale. She and her business partner Melissa run Cultivated LLC., a company that provides hands-on workshops on freeze dried foods and locally grown flowers.Visit www.urbanfarm.org/794Rosie for the show n

793: Lee Reich on Growing and Pruning Fruit TreesIn This Podcast: Lee Reich joins us to share his multi decade journey from perpetual college student to author and fruit tree grower. Lee shares his incredible journey from a chance meeting with Elliot Coleman to his present tay farmden and beyond.Our Guest: Lee dove into gardening decades ago, initially with one foot in academia, as an agricultural scientist with the USDA and Cornell University, and one foot in the field, the organic field. He eventually expanded his field to a farmden (more than a garden, less than a farm) and left academia to lecture, consult, and write. He has authored nine books and was a syndicated columnist for the Associated Press. Besides providing a year ‘round supply of fruits and vegetables, his farmden provides a testing ground for innovative techniques in soil care, pruning, and growing fruits and vegetables, plus provides an educational site for workshops and trainings. Science and an appreciation of natural systems underpin a

792: Bryce and Brita Lundberg on Growing Organic RiceContinuing a multi-generational practice of regenerative organic farming.In This Podcast: Brita and Bryce Lundberg of Lundberg Family Farms join us to share their four-generation family journey into Regenerative Organic farming. It is an amazing story that started in the great American dust bowl, then created a mantra of leaving the land and environment better than they found it.Our Guests: In 1937, Brita’s great-grandparents left Nebraska in the wake of the Dust Bowl after seeing how farming techniques stripped the land of its topsoil.  When they moved to California, they decided to do things differently by tending to soil, air, water, and wildlife as carefully as their crops so they can deliver on their founding promise to leave the land better than they found it. The Lundberg family began farming organically in the late 1960s and, in 2023, became the first U.S. grown rice brand to launch Regenerative Organic Certified® rice. Brita is a fourth-gen

791: Jeff Robinson on Grow a Lot with Little Space Growing way more food than one could eat by oneself.In This Podcast: Join us in a conversation with Jeff Robinson about how he grew from a environmental science professional into a professional farmer. In a quarter acre of land and with a little planning he is growing and processing strawberries, blueberries, cucumbers, tomatoes and peppers to prepare and sell salsas, pickles, jams and jellies. He is doing incredible work and has gone from a dream to reality in just a few years.Our Guest: Jeff’s background is in Environmental Science, and has spent the last decade working for regulatory agencies doing compliance inspections to help promote a healthy environment.  However, growing plants, vegetables, and flowers has been a passionate hobby of his for close to 15 years and has given him a lot of leftover produce each season. Unwilling to throw it away, he had to think of something to do with all of it and about ten years ago he started canning.  S

790: Tom Spellman on Best Fruit Tree Pruning Practices.Keeping fruit trees manageable for typical backyards.In This Podcast: What are the best practices for growing fruit trees in our front and back yards. It is not the way fruit trees are grown in orchards. So then what? Join Greg, and Janis as we chat with Tom Spellman from Dave Wilson Nursery to discover the best backyard orchard techniques for you.Our Guest: Tom has been involved in the nursery business since 1973. At that time, he was a freshman in high school and rode his skateboard to work. Since then he has worked for several different nurseries including La Verne Nursery where he was general manager for 20 years. And currently he is the southwestern sales manager for Dave Wilson Nursery for the last two decades. Dave Wilson Nursery is the largest grower of fruit, nut and shade trees in the USA. They grow 10 million plus trees per year and ship wholesale worldwide. Over the past 20 years Tom has also done television, video, radio, written, conduc