Fresh Growth

Today’s guest is Mike Nolan who, along with Mindy Perkovich, farms in the Mancos Valley in Southwest Colorado. Mountain Roots Produce provides the local and regional community high quality and reasonably priced vegetables. Mike discusses their commitment to building soil health, a strong local food system, and a profitable business, all while facing challenges brought on by COVID and limited water...

Sally Gale, who along with husband Mike, operates Chileno Valley Ranch in Marin County California. She and Mike returned to the family ranch in 1993, restoring buildings, infrastructure, and the land. They planted hundreds of apple and pear trees and started a grass-fed beef business selling directly to the local community. Sally discusses how they learned by reaching out to family ranchers, NRCS,...

Chris Sayer is a successful fifth generation farmer in Ventura County. He grows citrus and avocados, and experiments with other specialty crops such as figs, persimmons, apples, and apricots. Chris returned to the family farm in 2001 and has become passionate about soil health and regenerative agriculture.    “I inherited well-maintained but old trees. So I’ve had to look down the road, replace tr...

In this episode, Emily Cornell and Sarah Bangert discuss prescriptive grazing effects on rangeland.   Emily is a cow-calf rancher with Sol Ranch and Cornell Ranch in Northeastern New Mexico. She markets grass fed beef and also manages an apprenticeship program for beginning ranchers. She talks about the importance of soil health, especially in an area with limited water, as well as impacts on proc...

Today’s guest is Taylor Larson, who along with his two brothers and parents, operates My Brothers’ Farm in the Willamette Valley of Oregon. First generation farmers, they raise bison, pigs, and hazelnuts on the land on which they were raised. Taylor describes creating effective frameworks to determine a vision of regenerative agriculture with multiple partners and the importance of returning to th...

Western SARE completed our first season of Fresh Growth. Thank you for listening! As we are working toward Season 2, we are sharing some special podcasts. These podcasts were created as a senior project in Montana State University's Sustainable Food & Bioenergy Systems class. In this podcast, Jill Falcon Mackin , doctoral candidate at Montana State University, discusses Food Sovereignty f...

Western SARE completed our first season of Fresh Growth. Thank you for listening! As we are working toward Season 2, we are sharing some special podcasts. These podcasts were created as a senior project in Montana State University's Sustainable Food & Bioenergy Systems class. In this episode, student Nathaniel Bowman talks with Rocky Creek Farm's co-founder Matt Rothschiller about sm...

Aaron and Hansel Kern are owners along with Sue and Rebecca Kern, of Kern Family Farm . The multi-generational farm is located in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada Mountains of California. In this episode,you’ll hear about their passion for community and conservation; trials with no-till and cover cropping; and the transition to the next generation. The farm is certified organic and they use rege...

Jessica Gigot and her family own Harmony Fields located in the Skagit Valley, Washington. They make artisan farmstead sheep cheese and also grow organic herbs. Their mission is to produce nutritious, high-quality food using organic and ecological farming techniques.   In this fifth episode, recorded prior to the impacts of COVID-19, Jessica shares important lessons that seem even more critical tod...

In our fourth episode, you'll hear from Kurt Myllymaki, manager and VP of Helmak and owner of Myllymaki Farm. Kurt is a third generation farmer in Stanford Montana. The farms grow a variety of crops, mainly winter wheat. He and his wife operate a cow-calf operation on land leased from the family farm operation.   The family farm has been in operation since the 1930s and Kurt has been an integ...

In our third episode, you’ll listen to the folks at Vilicus Farms , a first-generation organic, dryland crop farm located in Havre, Montana. Anna Jones-Crabtree, Doug Crabtree, and Paul Neubauer discuss honestly their successes and challenges as they built the operation from scratch as young farmers and in the face of climate variability. They hold a vision of bringing in new farmers who see agric...

Greg Giguiere, Matchbook Wines in Yolo County California, discusses farming 2,000 acres of grapes and olives on this multi-generational farm while at the same time preserving wetlands and other natural habitat for wildlife. Greg describes working with IPM methods including using owl boxes and his participation in research on owls as control for rodents. He gives specific examples of sustainable pr...

Brendon Rockey, co-owner of Rockey Farms in San Luis Valley of Colorado, tells us how the multi-generational family farm has experimented and implemented one new farming practice after another, steadily increasing their sustainability, profitability, soil health and crop quality. The family originally identified a desire to eliminate toxic chemicals; and then realized with their poor soil health a...