FarmHouse

This week on the FarmHouse, a podcast by Lancaster Farming, we're talking to Fran Severn, a writer and equestrian whose passion for horses inspired her to write " Riders of a Certain Age: Your Guide for Loving Horses Mid-Life and Beyond. " Severn grew up in downtown Baltimore where horses and barns were scarce, but that didn't stop her from developing an affinity for all things equine. "I think lo...

This week on the FarmHouse, a podcast by Lancaster Farming, we're talking to Michelle Elston, who owns Roots Cut Flower Farm in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. Elston sells most of her flowers wholesale to grocery stores and local shops. She also offers bulk flower buckets and has a bouquet club flower CSA. Her 10-acre farm produces more than 25,000 bouquets for stores and 450 party buckets for events. "I...

This week on the FarmHouse, a podcast by Lancaster Farming, we're joined by Kathy McCaskill, co-owner and operator of  Old McCaskill's Farm  in Rembert, South Carolina. McCaskill originally hails from upstate New York, where she grew up on an out-of-operation dairy farm. After marrying, she and her husband bought their South Carolina property and began slowly but surely setting up a livestock oper...

This week on the FarmHouse, a podcast by Lancaster Farming, we're talking to Linley Dixon, an organic vegetable farmer in southwest Colorado. Dixon co-created the Real Organic Project , which is a label farmers can add onto the USDA's certified organic label. "The Real Organic Project is a very grassroots effort," Dixon said. "Many farmers felt like the USDA organic seal was no longer reflecting t...

This week on the FarmHouse, a podcast by Lancaster Farming, we're talking with Krista Byler, the food service director at Union City Area School District in Pennsylvania whose whole milk study caught the attention of the dairy industry. Byler's district had been offering fat free and 1% milks with student lunches, but thanks to a study conducted by the student council, Byler was aware much of the...

This week on the FarmHouse, a podcast by Lancaster Farming, we're talking to Carolyn Beans, a freelance science reporter with a focus on food and agriculture. Beans is currently an MIT Environmental Solutions Journalism Fellow. Through the fellowship, she is writing a series on climate-smart dairy that is being published in Lancaster Farming. "The fellowship is designed to support journalists who...

This week on the FarmHouse, a podcast by Lancaster Farming, we're talking to Doris Mold, co-CEO of  Annie's Project , a national nonprofit organization dedicated to empowering women in agriculture. Annie's Project was founded in 2003 and named after Annette Kohlhagen Fleck, a woman who married into farming in 1947 and went on to take care of the business side of the farm. Annie's Project honors he...

This week on the FarmHouse, a podcast by Lancaster Farming, we're talking to Rebekah Mindel, a flower farmer and floral designer. Mindel owns Meadow Wilds, a full-circle floral design studio and flower farm in New York's Hudson Valley. For Mindel, full circle means starting the plants from seed, harvesting and conditioning the flowers and using them in the final designs. "Farming and design for me...

This week on the FarmHouse, a podcast by Lancaster Farming, we're talking to Susan Jones, a pollination expert in McCormick, South Carolina. Jones' passion for bees grew from an unlikely source: a farrier and third-generation beekeeper visiting her family's farm began nudging her to give beekeeping a try. He eventually gifted Jones her first two colonies. Those first bees didn't make it through th...

This week on the FarmHouse, a podcast by Lancaster Farming, we're talking to Alyssa Adkins, a produce farmer in Freeport, Maine. Adkins and her partner Nathan Broaddus own Farthest Field Farm where they grow produce and make their own jarred products. The farm specializes in peppers and hot sauces. "My partner and I decided to start with value-added products," Adkins said. "There's so many CSAs to...

This week on the FarmHouse podcast, we're talking to Amy Marciano, founder of  Sugar Mutts Rescue and Skymeadow Farm Sanctuary , a 501(c)(3) non-profit animal rescue in Greentown, Pennsylvania. "I pretty much came out of the womb loving animals. It was just in my DNA," Marciano said. "There's a quote that I pretty much live by, it's basically you can't change the world by rescuing one animal, but...

This week on the FarmHouse, a podcast by Lancaster Farming, we're talking to Jennie Schmidt, a grain and grape farmer on Maryland's Eastern Shore. Prior to farming at Schmidt Farms full time, Schmidt worked as a registered dietitian. "I was able to kind of meld my training," she said. "I always tell people that farming is the front end of nutrition. They're the same continuum." Thanks to her knowl...

This week on the FarmHouse, a podcast by Lancaster Farming, we're talking to Renee Wiatt, a family business management specialist at Purdue University who specializes in farm transitions. Farm succession can be rife with challenges and hard conversations, but according to Wiatt, it's not something farm families should wait to tackle. The process of transitioning the farm isn't a single event, but...

This week on the FarmHouse, a podcast by Lancaster Farming, we're talking to Dr. Nicole Irizarry, a large-animal veterinarian who owns Kissel Hill Veterinary Services in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. Irizarry opened her own mobile vet practice in the fall of 2023 after working in a large-animal group practice for seven years. She currently serves clients in about a 25-mile radius with most of he...

This week on the FarmHouse, a podcast by Lancaster Farming, we're talking with Andrea Davis-Cetina, who owns  Quarter Acre Farm , a certified organic produce farm on Maryland's Eastern Shore. Davis-Cetina grew up in Maryland but moved to California after studying sustainable agriculture at college. After working in landscaping and gardening, she was able to secure a lease on a quarter acre of land...

This week on the FarmHouse, a podcast by Lancaster Farming, we're talking with Christine Leonard, a Minnesota dairy farmer and owner of  The Grater Good , which specializes in cheese plates and cheese classes. Leonard is a sixth-generation farmer whose farm has been passed down through the women's side of her family for the last three generations. Before coming to work on the family farm, Leonard...

This week on the FarmHouse, a podcast by Lancaster Farming, we're talking with Jenny Dittmar, a farmer in Kent County, Delaware. Dittmar and her husband own Dittmar Family Farms, where they grow produce and raise grass-fed livestock. "Growing vegetables and raising meat, they really do go hand in hand in terms of the soil," Dittmar said. "You really have to have livestock in order to grow vegetabl...

This week on the FarmHouse, a podcast by Lancaster Farming, we're talking to Florence Becot, a rural sociologist and the lead for Penn State's Agricultural Safety and Health Program. Becot and her colleagues Shoshanah Inwood and Hannah Bridge recently published  a study  in the Journal of Agromedicine that explored common  domestic stresses  associated with women who live and work on farms. The st...

This week on the FarmHouse, a podcast by Lancaster Farming, we're talking to Vermont farmer Hilary Haigh. Haigh and her husband own Rolling Bale Farm where they raise grass-fed lamb and beef. In 2022, the Haighs bought Animal Farm Creamery, where they raise Jerseys and make their own butter. The creamery was initially opened in 2000 by Diane St. Clair, where she developed her butter into a high-en...

On this week's episode of the FarmHouse, a podcast by Lancaster Farming, we're talking to Lee Rankin, author and owner of Apple Hill Farm in Banner Elk, North Carolina. Rankin's journey into agriculture began with an emotional encounter with an alpaca at the Kentucky State Fair. "It was a moment between the two of us where everything else fell away," she said, describing the moment she looked into...

We recorded this special episode of FarmHouse live from the 2025 Pennsylvania Farm Show , where we had the honor of participating in the Celebrate Women Powering Agriculture event. The event kicked off with a speech from Temple Grandin  and was followed by a series of conversations and presentations from women working in agriculture.  We sat down Dr. Erin Luley and Dr. Hayley Springer to talk abou...

On this week's episode of the FarmHouse, a podcast by Lancaster Farming, we're talking to Hayley Painter, half of the sister duo that created  Painterland Sisters . Painter and her sister, Stephanie, are the co-founders and co-CEOs of the organic skyr yogurt brand. Skyr is an Icelandic style yogurt that the Painter sisters make with milk from their family farm and about 25 other organic dairy farm...

This week on the FarmHouse, a podcast by Lancaster Farming, we're talking to Asia Kalcevic, a fifth-generation farmer at  Kalcevic Farms  in Bennett, Colorado. Kalcevic joined her family's grain operation after studying communications and ag literacy at Colorado State University. Since then, she's grown into her role as the administrator and operations associate on the farm, where she's responsibl...

This week on the FarmHouse, we're talking to Hannah Smith-Brubaker, executive director of Pasa Sustainable Agriculture . Smith-Brubaker also runs Juniata View Farm where she raises pastured Shetland sheep for fiber. Her farm is participating in Pasa's Soil Health Benchmark Study, which includes a variety of farms from conventional row crop operations to pasture-based dairies to organic vegetable p...

This week on the FarmHouse, a podcast by Lancaster Farming, we're talking with Shanelle Lee, co-owner of  Heritage Tree Farm  in Rothsville, Pennsylvania. For the past 15 years, Lee has farmed  four varieties of Christmas trees  with her family: blue spruce, concolor fir, Douglas fir and Fraser fir. She acknowledged that Christmas tree farming comes with unique challenges, starting with the length...