Bordertown

Jaquelyn Fernandez Rieke has been the owner of Nutty Steph's for the past 14 years. Born and raised in Suburban Chicago, Jaquelyn made her way east after college. Spending a bit of time in Baltimore, she ultimately landed in central Vermont where she's been every since On the Nutty Steph's website you can find their mission - "Nutty Steph's is a small-but-mighty organizati...

Alex Chernomazov and his wife Ella are the co-founders of Greenspark , an Interactive Sustainability Park in development on Route 100 in Waterbury Center, Vermont. Their mission: to inspire local and global communities to adapt current green technologies through interactive hands-on experiences. Alex and Ella’s goal at Greenspark is to make it easy for guests to experience all aspects of sustainab...

John Liu stopped by Vermont on his US tour describing the Ecorestoraion Camps . We organized a conversation about solutions at the University of Vermont, and screened his film Hope in a Changing Climate which focuses on China's Loess Plateau Thanks to Railroad Earth for providing the theme music "Lordy Lordy" The panel discussion also featured Amy Seidl and Jon Erickson . Download m...

During the summer of 2016, Vic Guadagno was the guest host for Carl Etneir’s radio program, Relocalize Vermont, that broadcasts on the Goddard Collage Community Radio Station. For many of these broadcasts, Vic condensed previous Bordertown podcasts. This episode features Andrew Faust ( Episode 16 ) and Mark Krawczyk. ( Episode 11 ). Andrew Faust is one of the premier Permaculture teachers and desi...

Joseph Keifer grew up on a small-diversified family farm in the Hudson Valley of New York State. As the oldest son of six kids his farm chores with cows, pigs, sheep, chickens and a mean old rooster, taught him much about caring for the land and being a farmer. He received his M.A. in Social Ecology from the Institute for Social Ecology in Plainfield Vermont in 1980. In 1982 he was asked to be par...

Soil4Climate , a nonprofit organization, advocates for soil restoration as a climate solution. They promote regenerative land management practices to capture atmospheric carbon and encourage collaboration with the larger body of climate activism. Uniting “drawdown” strategies with emissions reduction, divestment from fossil fuels, a price on carbon, and climate justice advocacy, together creates a...

Sarah Waring is the Executive Director of The Center for an Agricultural Economy , in Hardwick Vermont. Their mission is to engage the public in building a regenerative, locally based, healthy food system through collaboration opportunities, food access and hunger relief, educational outreach and providing infrastructure. It was a pleasure speaking with Sarah and asking direct questions relevant t...

Bo Muller-Moore is the founder and owner of Eat More Kale, . He prints T-shirts, bumper stickers and other items and is most famous for his Eat More Kale T-shirt. Bo is the inspiration for this year's EAT MORE KALE Festival . This first annual event is sure to be a good one. Their goal is to strengthen the arts and agricultural communities here in Vermont, which is at the core of the Designin...

Keith Morris, his partner Kori Gelinas and their two daughters own and operate Willing Crossing Farm in Johnson Vermont, where they maintain one of the most diverse collections of fruit and nut trees in the northeast. They also keep bees and run an apothecary, with an increasing stock of herbs and essential oils. Keith is a former competitive snowboarder and works developing snowboarding gear and...

Andrew Faust is one of the premier Permaculture teachers and designers in North America with nearly two decades of experience. Andrew has extensive experience in a wide range of climates and habitats including desert, forest and mountain – and has been focusing much of his attention over the past decade on urban landscapes. He is the founder of the Center for BioRegional Living , a design, educati...

Geoff Lawton is perhaps the world’s most influential Permaculture teacher. He has created a global network of students, activist and Permaculture demonstration centers and has undertaken thousands of of jobs - teaching, consulting, designing and implementing Permaculture design projects. He is the Managing Director of the Permaculture Research Institute. I met Geoff in 1996 in San Lucas Guatemala,...

Mark is co-founder and lead designer with Roots To Fruits Ecological Design - an ecological design firm committed to the restoration of local food systems, economies, and ecologies. Mark is a student of gardening, botany, ecology, food systems, herbalism, perennial agriculture and agrecology. A true generalized specialist, Mark's work spans from forestry and gardening to craft and woodwork. H...

Trevor Newman is an amateur pomologist, avid gardener, student and teacher of regenerative design and all-around plant geek. He owns and operates TerraNu Nursery , an edible and useful plant company based in Clarkston, Michigan and he owns and operates an edible landscaping firm called Roots To Fruits Ecological Design . In addition, Trevor is the founder and purveyor of The Fruit Nut a media proj...

he Good Foot Project , – “We left everything in Los Angeles and started down the road to sustainability. This is our Story.” On April 28th, 2013 Anastasia King and JC Jarris began a year-long expedition, by RV, across the USA visiting low-impact organic farms and eco-villages to learn best practices in sustainable farming, construction, energy, water and waste management. This trip is to educate a...

Mark is the owner of Keyline Vermont , a permaculture design, consulting and education business. As a student of permaculture design since 2000, Mark Krawczyk has explored tree crop and agroforestry systems, coppice forestry, natural building, traditional woodcrafts, community organizing and both small and broad acre site design. Mark is the co-founder of Burlington Permaculture , where he works a...

James Maroney is an American Art Dealer and former Organic Dairy Farmer. He has a master’s degree in Environmental Law and Policy from the Vermont Law School, and is a passionate advocate for water quality, often focusing his attention on Vermont Dairy. James puts forth a compelling argument to transition the entire Vermont Diary industry to organic. He also gives us a glimpse into his life as an...

Lisa Mase, of Harmonized Cookery is a whole foods cooking educator, food writer, translator, and herbalist, living between Italy, Vermont and New Mexico. As a young girl Leeza relocated from a small village in the Dolomites of northern Italy to the heartland of the US, in Kansas City. Leeza has first hand experience of the role that modern industrial agriculture can play in disrupting our cultures...

Chris Shanks is a Co-Director at Project Bona Fide located on Isla de Ometepe in Nicaragua. He is a multi-talented teacher, organizer, permaculture enthusiast, and design visionary. A graduate of the University of Vermont, Chris is fascinated with living systems and whole systems design. When not working in the non-profit or design world he can be found masquerading as a builder, a mason, as a dec...

Jon Erickson is Professor of Ecological Economics at UVM's Rubenstein School of Environmental and Natural Resources and Fellow at the Gund Institute for Ecological Economics. He teaches both undergraduate and graduate course in Ecological Economics, leads an international service-learning program in the Dominican Republic, and co-supervises a graduate certificate program in Ecological Economi...

Angella Gibbons, Founder and Director of EarthWalk has been connecting groups of children to the Earth for 25 years. She was the founder and director of Lotus Lake Discovery Center in Williamstown, VT. from 1993-2003, creating and leading environmental and adventure based school programs for over 15,000 students, teachers, and community members. Angella led the Lake Champlain Maritime Museum Summe...

As a practiced ecologist, activist and mother of two girls, Amy Seidl writes with a lucid and passionate eye about the state of life itself in the age of global warming. By drawing on her 20 year career studying ecology, evolution, and butterflies across the North American continent, she illuminates the historical significance and the everyday impacts of global warming upon the 21st century landsc...

Elizabeth Courtney began her career as a printmaker and ceramicist. After moving to Vermont in 1974, she developed an interest in land use issues. In 1979, she enrolled in the University of Massachusetts at Amherst and graduated in 1982 with a Master’s Degree in Landscape Architecture, she returned to Vermont to practice land use planning. Madeleine Kunin appointed her to the Vermont Environmental...

Joe Bossen owns Vermont Bean Crafters , a conduit for VT-grown organic grains, beans, and vegetables into institutions across Vermont and New England. Bossen moved his operation to the Mad River Food Hub last November. He has come a long way from the kitchen he was using a couple years ago on a West Rutland farm where pigs snuffled outside the windows hoping for reject test batches and friends hel...

Ben Graham is an architectural designer by trade with a B.Arch from the Rhode Island School of Design. He is also a third generation woodworker and housebuilder, learning homebuilding first-hand from his grandfather. He is a partner in New Frameworks , the Natural Design Build company located in Burlington, Vermont. Ben has been at the front of developing the natural building movement in Vermont a...

Ben developed Whole Systems Design LLC as a land-based response to biological and cultural extinction and the increasing separation between people and elemental things. Life as a designer, builder, ecologist, tree-tender, and backcountry traveler continually informs Ben’s integrative approach to developing landscapes and buildings. His home landscape and the WSD studio site in Vermont's Mad R...