Hobby Farms Presents: Growing Good

In this episode of Hobby Farms Presents: Growing Good, Pete Charlerie dives into financial sustainability for small farms, free equipment and information resources, USDA incentives and more. Pete tells us about his journey from his family's citrus grove in Trinidad to the University of Maryland, where he earned a degree in ag economics, setting the stage for his farm consultancy work today. Hear a...

Nebraska farmer Kirstin Bailey talks intergenerational farming, farm transitions, and the free support for farmers offered by the Center for Rural Affairs. Hear about the four generations of Kirstin's family living on Fox Run Farms, where they grow fruits and vegetables and keep bees. Kirstin talks about planning a farm business in a rural area, accessing nearby urban markets and bringing the comm...

Farmer Demetra Markis joins Hobby Farms Presents: Growing Good for a chat about her farm, Milleflora Farm, where she and her partner grow medicinal herbs for natural medicine clients and a small vegetable harvest to share with neighbors. Demetra talks about this farming endeavor, as well as sharing about her community grazing efforts, where she and neighbors graze sheep to reduce tall, dry grass t...

Filipino-Hawaiian farmer Emily Trabolsi joins Hobby Farms Presents: Growing Good to talk about what farming in the Pacific Northwest looks like from a cooperative perspective. Learn about growing upland rice just outside Seattle. Hear about the Agrarian Trust organization and their concept of land and resource sharing, and then Emily shares examples of successful cooperatives from around the world...

Hobby Farms Presents: Growing Good brings you part two of the conversation with Colorado farmer Meighen Lovelace. In this episode, Meighen talks about the Colorado Blueprint to End Hunger and John Ikerd's work in bringing to life a community food utility—like a rural electric cooperative, but for regionally produced food. Learn about zoning, what you need to know about these rules that dictate how...

On this episode of Hobby Farms Presents: Growing Good, Colorado farmer Meighen Lovelace talks water issues in the West, empowering people to grow food in community, and your chance to speak truth to power with the White House Conference on Hunger, Nutrition and Health. This is episode one of two with Meighen. Check back in for the rest of the conversation in two weeks! Listen in for Meighen's take...

In this episode, fourth-generation Mississippi farmer Felicia Bell talks about traditional agriculture, family business, farmers helping farmers, and more.  Find out how you can get free sustainable farming advice and technical assistance from the National Center for Appropriate Technology (NCAT) from a specialist like Felicia.  Felicia explains what she means by "traditional agriculture" and why...

Aaron De La Cerda is on this episode of Hobby Farms Presents: Growing Good to talk about the Acta Non Verba Youth Urban Farm Project, fruit gleaning, growing cannabis as a teenager, and why he prefers to be a "lazy" farmer. You'll learn about how a life decision he was asked to make in third grade led to him being known as "the plant person" among his family and friends and shaped his career and l...

Chef and farmer Chereen Leong Schwarz is on this podcast episode to talk about "local" food from all perspectives. Hear about why Chereen has never eaten a McDonald's hamburger and how that ties in to her from-scratch, locally sourced food philosophy and her love of cooking and eating country-style food. Chereen tells us about farming in Steamboat Springs, Colorado, where they have just 59 frost-...

Farming, political science and the food system intersect for Colorado farmer, organizer and professor Fatuma Emmad, the guest on this episode of Hobby Farms Presents: Growing Good . Hear about how her family's immigration and emigration shaped her understanding of the food system and how that led her to become a farmer herself, now at FrontLine Farming in Denver, Colorado. You'll learn how Mile Hi...

On this episode of "Hobby Farms Presents: Growing Good," host Lisa Munniksma talks with permaculturalist, urban farming educator and New York City garden designer, Cheryl Browne. A co-founder of the Black Permaculture Network, Browne helps people bring the outdoors in through her business, Urban Permie, connecting them with opportunities to experience nature and connect with more natural living. L...

Urban farmer Mariel Gardner talks about 5th Element Farms (aka Apocalyptic Acres), where Dope Beets, Dope Rhymes is the motto for the vacant city lot they reclaimed as a space to grow food for their community. Their food access model is to feed the people as best they can with the hope that others will want to support them in this "economy of decency." Listen in for tips for finding and reusing di...

Young farmer Zoe Fuller talks about the growing agriculture scene in Alaska, where US farming statistics are being turned on their heads. You'll hear about small-scale farmers coming together in the Matanuska Valley and creating a community-based economy in Alaska. Hear also about indigenous foodways and salmon-safe farming practices to protect salmon sources and waterways.  Learn about what it's...

At Virsylvia Farm in the high desert of New Mexico, Tyler Eshleman and his wife raise goats for dairy and fiber; sheep for dairy, meat and fiber; alpacas for fiber; laying hens; and some vegetables. Hear about the realities of regenerative farming at 8,000 feet above sea level, from the challenging growing and land conditions to the cooperative workings of fellow farmers. Learn about Tyler's innov...

Missy Singer DuMars tells us about her 13-acre Crown Hill Farm, outside Buffalo, New York, from the Lake Erie sunset views to her sheep and market gardens. Learn about fiber production, the art of scaling up slowly, and how to choose the best varieties to grow and sell.  Missy has been hosting dinners and events for a few years, and she tells us about the evolution of the events and why it's impor...

From her .25-acre mini farm in New Mexico, Juliann Salinas talks all about beekeeping, the fragility of the local food system exposed by the pandemic, the Women, Food & Ag Network, and more. You'll learn a quick history of WFAN's 25 years, from environmental justice to racial justice, all focused on co-creating a just, equitable and ecological food and agricultural system that includes a place for...

On this episode of "Hobby Farms Presents: Growing Good," host Lisa Munniksma talks with herbalist, seed enthusiast and Hobby Farms contributor Bevin Cohen. Cohen and his family left city life some years ago to pursue simple living at their 3-acre Small House Farm—only to find his farming whims pulled him right back to the kind of profit-driven lifestyle he was trying to escape. Hear how Cohen left...

Listen in as Sharon   Stone— an urban farmer at Two Sons Farm in Lexington, Kentucky, and coordinator of the Woodhill International Market—tells us about serving the community through gardening education and increasing access to farm-fresh food. Sharon is a retired teacher and has the most incredible community of people working alongside her to bring fresh food to the Woodhill neighborhood—with so...

Listen as Rasheed Hislop, a Master Composter, offers you his best tips for small-scale vermicomposting. Get your worm bins ready! Hear about how this Brooklyn-raised farmer's grandparents, in the Hudson Valley and in Trinidad and Tobago, instilled in him an interest in food production by way of gardening, fishing and cooking from scratch.  Rasheed talks about his work supporting farmers, first wit...

Alinee "shiny" Flanary shares with you her top three tips to improve your farmers market sales in this episode.  She talks about what it was like to go from "zero to farmer" when she jumped into a farmer incubator program a few years ago. She now manages her own Scrapberry Farm as part of the Raceme Farm Collective, growing primarily herbs for medicine making. Hear about the microfarms and the ind...

Four-season farmer Michelle Howell works at the intersection of farming, health, art and equity. In this podcast episode, hear about how Michelle has woven these aspects together at her family's diversified Need More Acres Farm in Scottsville, Kentucky.  Michelle walks us through what a week looks like on the farm, beginning with their harvest day, working with 20 to 30 different produce items, ye...

Celize Christy talks poultry keeping with Hobby Farms Presents: Growing Good host Lisa Munniksma. Listen in for her tips for homeopathic care for our home flocks and the secret to the brightest egg yolks. Hear about her work with poultry farmers in Uganda and Rwanda and her thinking on the intersection of livestock and livelihoods. Through her work with Practical Farmers of Iowa, Celize organizes...

Through his Maseualkualli Farms in Lawrence, Kansas, Pantaleon Florez has big ideas for farming and food systems equity. Starting out at Common Ground Incubator Farm just before the COVID-19 pandemic began required Panta to be creative in his marketing outlets, shifting away from farmers markets and toward value-added items, restaurant sales and mutual aid food support. Learn about his research in...

How does a farming community recover after a disaster? By coming together. Tara Rodríguez Besosa talks about Puerto Rico's agricultural and economic situation, including the role that the U.S. plays and, more importantly, the neighbors providing for one another in Puerto Rico's food system.  Hear how they started their own food journey when their mother left the city to become a farmer, then sold...

Nathan Harben is a farmer at Local Forage Farm in Glenora, British Columbia, a 2-acre homestead that grows ethically raised livestock, fruits and vegetables. He also works with the food recovery team of Cowichan Green Community, a non-profit organization that has focused on environmental sustainability in Vancouver Island's Cowichan Region since March 2004.   Listen in as he talks about farming in...