The Good Dirt: Sustainability Explained

"What does the good dirt mean to you?" Join Mary and Emma as they celebrate this 100th episode milestone by reflecting on the two and a half years of their podcasting journey and by highlighting several of their past guests answering this question. Things Mentioned: Our Episode with Sherri Powell “4,000 Weeks: Time Management for Mortals” by Oliver Burkeman Mary Oliver Poem - The Summer Day Featur...

Want small, attainable steps you can take to begin your homesteading journey? Melissa K. Norris is a fifth-generation homesteader who believes in keeping the old ways alive and that food shouldn't come from a box. She lives on a 15-acre farm in Washington state with her husband and two children, and together they raise 100% of their own meat and a majority of the fruits and vegetables they consume...

After observing the waste and unsustainable practices while working in the fashion industry, Sarah Arch and Allie Feldman decided to do something about it by starting Rooted Botanics, a fashion brand that gives ethically sourced vintage pieces new life through natural dyes. Both Sarah and Allie are dedicated to thoughtful sourcing, purposeful education about the history of natural dye, and creatin...

Herbalist, artist, and cookbook author Spencre McGowan tells us about her herbal allies and the ways that living in relationship with plants has shaped her slow living journey. After receiving informal training in cooking with herbs in Sweden and attending herb school in California, Spencre began exploring her own personal relationships to herbs through writing and creating zines, one of which bec...

Marti Buckley captivates us as she portrays the rich culinary traditions of the Basque country of Spain, where slow living and seasonal eating are key ingredients to community life. Marti fell in love with Basque culture when she studied abroad in college, and has now lived in San Sebastian, Spain, for over ten years, where she has written two cookbooks about Basque cuisine. She hopes to give visi...

Lizzie Horvitz explores the subtleties and nuances of sustainability as she introduces us to Finch, a browser extension that rates products on their environmental and social impact as you shop online. Lizzie started Finch in order to empower customers to make informed, conscious choices as they consider the impact of what they buy. She is hopeful about the ways data and technology can address gree...

Despite her life being as busy as ever, Bex Partridge tells us about the ways it feels full of better, more fulfilling things since she made the shift from a corporate job to working as a full-time flower farmer and floral designer. Bex is the founder of Botanical Tales, a dried flower installation business based in Devon, England, where she provides beautiful, low-waste floral designs to her comm...

In this bonus episode, Mary and Emma chat about greenwashing in food, fashion and cleaning products. What do we mean by greenwashing, and how does an informed consumer know when a so-called "green" product is really better for the planet, or when they're being pulled in by marketing strategies that don't tell the whole story? Listen in and see what we have to say about it, and let us know what you...

Mairin Wilson talks about the ways that Christy Dawn, a dress company based in Los Angeles, California, is transcending sustainability and seeking to create garments that regenerate land, businesses, and communities from the soil up. Rather than being satisfied with a net-neutral outcome when it comes to their agricultural, manufacturing, and employment practices, Christy Dawn is working towards a...

April Gargiulo, founder of the skin-care company Vintner's Daughter, closes the loop between winemaking, soil health and sustainable skincare, as she tells the story of the slow beauty company she created to reflect her desire for quality, love for the earth, and production with an old-world mindset. April works from the foundation that fewer and better products are the remedy to a market built fo...

Fiber farmer Lisa Mitchell encourages listeners to embrace a beginner’s mindset and connect to the earth through handwork and making as she tells us the story of her major life shift, from striving for success as an art therapist in the suburbs, to slow living on a guanaco farm in the Pacific Northwest. Guanacos, the undomesticated ancestors of the alpaca, produce a unique and high-quality wool, b...

Learn about individual actions you can take to mitigate climate change and make sustainability attainable for everyone, with Stephanie Miller, author of Zero Waste Living the 80/20 Way and founder of Zero Waste in DC. Stephanie left her job as a climate change specialist for the World Bank in order to simplify her own life, confront the disconnect she felt between her life and her work, and to tak...

Join us in this conversation about the ins and outs of sustainable fashion, how it has evolved over the last decade and where it might be headed. In this episode, Shannon Lohr, sustainable fashion expert and founder of Factory 45, discusses her own journey in apparel production and her subsequent launch of Factory 45 as an online business school for entrepreneurs launching ethical, sustainable fas...

Challenge yourself to think a little deeper about what you buy with Rose and Doug Phillips of Conscious Clothing as they talk slow fashion, conscious consumption, staying authentic as business owners, and the “hearts and minds campaign,” encouraging consumers to delve into the impact of their purchasing power. Founded in Michigan in 2006, Conscious Clothing designs and creates beautiful, sustainab...

It’s #fashionrevolutionweek! We have a special bonus episode up for you today where we're chatting about our own personal stories regarding shopping, clothing, and the slow fashion journey. Tune in to listen to us chat about the ongoing fight against fast fashion, the beacon of hope that is slow living, and how to get in on the fashion revolution movement! Never miss an episode of The Good Dirt! O...

What do heritage livestock breeds have to do with sustainable and regenerative farming practices? For Aliza Eliazarov, photography was the discipline that helped her to confront the disconnect she felt with her relationship to her food sources and the land, and opened the door to the importance of preserving heritage breeds and supporting the regenerative farms that are raising them. Join us as we...

Learn to make space for what truly makes you happy using the power of refusal and conscious choice, with Danielle Alvarado of Sustainably Kind Living . Danielle’s educational online collective for the conscious consumer provides alternative resources to the harmful fast fashion, home, and beauty industries. Moved by the horrific stories she heard first hand from garment workers in Southeast Asia,...

Slow sustainable fashion meets yoga in this heart opening episode with our dear Lady Farmer friend, Amanda Agricola. A true renaissance woman, Amanda is the creator of Flowy, a sustainable slow fashion brand providing comfortable, naturally dyed garments for yoga and life, using materials that bring a consciousness to how we cover our bodies. As an artist and entrepreneur, Amanda brings a thoughtf...

Tune in to this weeks bonus episode with Mary & Emma in our discussion of “product fatigue,” that feeling of overwhelm with all the things on our shelves and under our sinks requiring end-of-use decisions about the packaging and containers. Despite our efforts to purchase sustainably and reduce waste, things seem to pile up and we are left wondering what to do with the remains. With “Reduce, R...

Join this "fruitful" and enlightening conversation with tree crops specialist, horticultural historian and agroforestry practitioner Eliza Greenman as she explains the evolution of the apple, horticultural tree crop history and shares her love for fruit exploring. A creator of niche products, Eliza is passionate owner of charcuterie company, HogTree, and is working towards the goal of creating orc...

Step into the world of collaborative art, natural textiles, plants, botanicals and slow fashion with owner entrepreneur and artist Megan Borukhovsky of Sister Nettle. As a mother and artist living in the hills of Tennessee, Megan’s work centers around natural textiles using botanicals, creating slow fashion with a “collaboration over competition” mindset. Sister Nettle strives to offer products th...

Discover the power of the potluck as a community forum for the New Agrarian Revival , a movement based in the Bedford, Va. area that offers inspiration for deeply rooted living, cultivating the local food economy and community connection. Our guest today, Jason Fowler, is founder and organizer of Land and Table, an organization that sponsors a monthly potluck event for farmers and like-minded loca...

Discover author Julia Watkins' light and loving approach to gardening and to slow living as she shares her perspective on parenting, work, and finding joy and compassion in the midst of it all. As an author, photographer, fellow slow living enthusiast, and Lady Farmer friend, Julia has a wealth of knowledge about how to cultivate a slow and beautiful life in a way that is honest and approachable....

This week we spoke with historian, nonprofit founder, and author Tony Cohen, who operates Button Farm,  Maryland’s only living history center depicting 19th-century slave plantation life and the heroic story of the Underground Railroad. Tony has dedicated his studies and work to preserving the Underground Railroad’s history, historic sites and environments. In this episode, he  shares with us stor...

Discover the wonders of forest agriculture and agroecology with our guest Lincoln Smith, founder of Forested, an edible food forest devoted to sharing research and knowledge surrounding forest gardens through tours, classes and forest to table dinners. As a champion of good dirt, Lincoln believes that growing forest gardens as a form of environmentalism can reintegrate our lives with nature, and r...