The Good Dirt: Sustainability Explained

Our guest today is Christa Norman, a fine artist whose photographic medium is cyanotype. Her work reflects seasons and explores seasons of the human experience. Christa creates floral artwork with flowers grown in her own garden and conceptual collections inspired by her personal life seasons.  We covered a number of topics in this interview, including the dilemma that comes up so often in our con...

Our discussion today is with Mary Ellen Dowd , a Communications Associate at TerraCycle, Inc . TerraCycle is an international leader in innovative sustainability solutions, creating and operating first-of-their-kind platforms in recycling, recycled materials, and reuse. Across 21 countries, TerraCycle is on a mission to rethink waste and develop practical solutions for today’s complex waste challe...

Our guest today is Jeremy Lang of Pela , the company that started with a product that you hold every day - the world’s first compostable phone case. Jeremy had the courage to spend years experimenting with new materials to try and find an alternative to plastic that could be used in everyday products. Pela’s mission is to make sustainable products the new normal and they recently launched another...

Our guest today is Laurell Sims, Co-Founder & CEO of Urban Growers Collective in Chicago, here to talk about food accessibility and the development of community-based food systems. Urban Growers Collective (UGC) is a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization that was co-founded by Laurell Sims and Erika Allen in the fall of 2017. Working closely with community partners, their approach is to demonstrat...

In celebration of the holiday this week, and upcoming "Black Friday", we're re-airing our favorite slow-living take on the matter...Slow Friday! RE-AIR FROM 11/26/21 You're in for something a little different this Friday...it's a solo show with Mary and Emma! At Lady Farmer, we're always thinking about ways to shift our thinking to live into a more slow and sustainable lifestyle, and today is a gr...

Today we're talking to Brandi Stanley, host of the podcast This Plus That . Brandi makes a living out of making connections. If creativity is the ability to connect the seemingly un-connectable, that’s the art she practices. In love with the space between things—the intersections and the paradoxes—she's constantly looking for what insights can be gained when we mash the unexpected together and the...

Today our guest is Jenni Harris, daughter of Will Harris and 5th generation Harris family member at White Oak Pastures. In the mid-90s, her father Will Harris recognized the problems in late 20th-century agriculture and decided to take his whole operation back to the days of his great-grandfather. He gave up chemical inputs and animal confinement farming and began implementing regenerative farming...

Today's guest is Claire Dunn, here with us to dive deeply into the mysteries of nature and psyche through the pathways of deep nature connection. Speaking to us from Melbourne, Australia, Claire is a writer, speaker, barefoot explorer, rewilding facilitator, and founder of Nature’s Apprentice, a platform for education and guidance in rewilding our souls and the planet. For the last 15 years, Clair...

Our guest today is Tom Harries, co-founder and CEO of Earth™, a sustainable funeral brand specializing in soil transformation. So what is soil transformation, and what does it have to do with death care and burial? What does it share in common with the green burial movement —and how is it different?  Tom has been innovating in the funeral industry for almost a decade, and in this conversation he t...

Join Mary and Emma as they discuss a slow living Halloween, the second largest consumer season in the US. From the ancient traditions of the Celtic Samhain celebrations, to the modern day spook fest that dominates this time of year, you'll hear how you can embrace the special beauty and magic of nature during this time, letting go of much of the waste and frenzy but keeping all of the fun! Things...

Today’s guest is Monique Allen, CEO and Creative Director of The Garden Continuum, a landscaping design company that brings the principles of regenerative agriculture to ornamental gardening. The central work of The Garden Continuum is to create outdoor living spaces, both public and private, that draw people out into those spaces and begin to build that reconnection with nature.  In this episode,...

Today’s guest is Jessie Stokes , founder and owner of The Tiny Yellow Bungalow Shop. What started as an experimental blog in sustainability in the Spring of 2015 has become an online, eco-conscious one-stop source for natural and sustainably produced items for your daily needs. Jessie puts a lot of work and research into providing products that are free of plastics, pollutants, toxins, and wastefu...

Today we're talking to Becky Cole, regenerative farmer, gardener, folk herbalist, forager and mother. Becky runs Broughgammon Farm with her husband Charlie in Northern Ireland. She became interested in natural living when she became burnt out from city life and went on a journey to discover slow living and nature connections. In this conversation, we talk about the health crises which lead Becky t...

Today we are talking to Aaron Deacon , creator of BIOS Nutrients, a natural plant fertilizer that provides natural alternatives to chemical fertilizers & pesticides for indoor plants, gardens, and farms. Aaron’s story is truly one of curiosity, passion, and drive to find a solution for something he cares very much about, which is soil health and thriving plants. His fertilizers and pesticides...

Our guest today is Stephanie O’Dea , a New York Times best-selling author, a certified life coach, and the host of  The Slow Living Podcast . Stephanie specializes in  l ong-term goal planning for her   clients to live out the life they’ve always wanted — the one they’ve always dreamt about. She asks, what if you could truly “have it all?” What if you could design the life of your dreams and then...

Our guests today are Janessa Leone , founder of the sustainable luxury brand Janessa Leoné , and Rachel Cantu , supply chain and sustainability advisor, and founder of Simplify and Grow Business Consulting. The Janessa Leone brand is bringing the healing potential of regenerative agriculture and rethinking our global textile supply chain.  Janessa Leoné makes beautiful, thoughtful products with im...

Our guest today is April Jones, founder of the Pinehurst farmer's market in Columbia, South Carolina and an advocate for the food justice and food sovereignty movement.  April is a writer, a public speaker, a blogger, a recipe developer book reviewer, and is passionate about community gardens and farmer's markets. She contributes content to her blog, Frolicking Americana, and to numerous publicati...

In this episode, we talk about growing food in small spaces and food preservation, regional foods, and the benefits of a front yard garden. Our guest for this episode is Kris Bordessa, a long-time gardener, certified Master Food Preserver, and award-winning book author. Kris lives in Hawaii, and is learning to grow food in a climate that’s vastly different from where she grew up. She loves helping...

Learn how a region's foodways can be one of the most fascinating tell the history and culture of a specific time and place. If you're interested in food, development and land use planning, and stories, this episode is for you! Claudia Kousoulas and Ellen Letourneau are the co-authors of A Culinary History of Montgomery County, Maryland. This is the second book in which they have explored the food...

What aspects of the back-to-school season are tapping into core memory making, and how much is just consumer hype? Listen in as Mary & Emma peel away the marketing from the emotion, and discuss ideas for reframing this season in a more sustainable way for kids AND parents. Things Mentioned: Michael Pollan, author of In Defense of Food - An Eater's Manifesto Lady Farmer Marketplace Wool Lunchbo...

Sara Buscaglia is the creator of Farm and Folk, which is a fusion of her work as both sustainable organic farmer and folk textile artist. Sara believes that the magic and alchemy of farming and art are one and the same, and her passion for transferring natural color to natural fibers is a fascination that only grows stronger as the years roll by. In this conversation we talk about how Sara came to...

Today’s guests are Heidi Barr of Kitchen Garden Textiles and Emma de Long of Knee High Farm, who have joined forces in the Pennsylvania Flax Project , aiming to revitalize the flax for linen industry in their region for the benefit of both urban and rural communities. Their goals are to create an industry built on the principles of radical inclusion, environmental stewardship and social justice, a...

In this episode, Mary and Emma are talking to Julia Skinner of Root: Historic Food for the Modern World. Root was born from Julia's deep love for community and a belief in the power of food to tell stories, connect us to place and to each other, and to build a bridge to the past. Julia's work is all about food, history, food stories, where it comes from and the people behind it. She loves fosterin...

Edzard van der Wyck is the co-founder of Sheep Inc., a sustainable apparel company that creates carbon negative knitwear made from merino wool. Sheep Inc's revolutionary approach starts at the source - the farm! Their partnership with regenerative farms in New Zealand and innovative manufacturing processes allow them to maintain a carbon negative status from sheep to sweater. In this episode, we t...

What does it mean for humans to live sustainably on the earth? Andrew Schwartz, Co-Founder and Executive Vice President of The Institute for Ecological Civilization, a non-profit promoting long-term solutions for the wellbeing of people and the planet, helps us pull apart that question. Andrew is also the Executive Director of the Center for Process Studies and Assistant Professor of Process and C...