The Ruminant: Audio Candy for Farmers, Gardeners and Food Lovers

This ep: I wanted to learn more about maintaining and increasing bug biodiversity on my farm so I contacted the Xerces Society , a non-profit that protects wildlife through the conservation of invertebrates and their habitats. They connected me with Eric Mader, co-Director of their Pollinator Conservation and Agricultural Biodiversity program. Eric is my guest in this episode. I grabbed this episo...

Steve Solomon is back to talk about what's turning his crank in the garden these days: foliar feeding. Steve is the author of numerous gardening books including one of my faves, The Intelligent Gardener.

My guest today, Pascale Deffieux Pearce, is a vice-president with Brinsea, a producer of egg incubators for the farm and home. She joins me to talk about ins and outs and pros and cons of hatching your own eggs, or those of your hens'. 

This episode: Part 1 of 2 of my conversation with Dan Brisebois, editor of the seed production blog Going to Seed and co-author of Crop Planning for Organic Vegetable Growers. In this part, Dan talks about the basics of vegetable seed production and suggests how to begin incorporating it into a small scale farm business. In part two, Dan discusses marketing strategies once you're ready to sell you...

Have you read  The Third Plate by chef Dan Barber? Great Book. This episode explores one of the legacies of that book: a brand new seed company, representing a collaboration between chefs and plant breeders, that aims to improve the flavour and performance of our plant varieties. My guest is Michael Mazourek, plant breeder at Cornell and a partner in Row 7 Seeds. 

This ep: Jean-Martin Fortier returns for a quickie. We talk about fame, semi-fortune, cocaine, compost tea, the tool he's most obsessed with at the moment, and a few other tidbits.  One of JM's recent projects is an online course. He's pretty amped about it. It's called The Market Gardener's Master Class . We discuss that too.    

Linda Chalker-Scott is an extension specialist at WSU with a penchant for horticultural myth-busting.  One of her targets has been the use of compost tea as a disease-preventer/pest-abater/all-around garden panacea. Seeing as your podcast host is about to start a compost tea regimen on his own farm, this seemed like a good topic to ask her about.

Episode 92, about farmer mental health, really resonated with lots of listeners. This episode features a follow-up conversation with Javan Bernakevitch, a farmer and permaculturalist who emerged from his own depression with insights that he now shares with others.  Learn more about Javan at  http://allpointsdesign.ca Also this episode: I talk about The Ruminant's brand new gift registry . 

This ep: First I speak with Andew Mefferd, author of The Greenhouse and Hoophouse Grower's Handbook (superb!), about making the most out of caterpillar tunnels. After that, Cornell Extension Specialist Judson Reid joins me to talk about avoiding and managing toxic levels of soil nutrients in greenhouses.

Coming Friday, March 2: the first episode of the next season of The Ruminant Podcast. To tide you over, I've produced a microsode. I hope you enjoy it!

The microbes that colonize us when we're in the womb and as infants have lasting impacts on our health later on. My conversation with Claire Arrieta, author of Let Them Eat Dirt. Marie-Claire is the co-author with B. Brett Finlay of Let Them Eat Dirt : Saving Your Child from an Oversanitized World.  After that, I talk about lego for farmers.

Farming is tough work. The unpredictability of the job and the pressure to present a curated, bucolic version of the work can easily lead to various kinds of mental health problems: despair, feeling overwhelmed or like a failure, or even depression. In this episode, co-produced with Jessica Gale of Sweet Gale Gardens , we discuss the prevalence of mental health problems among farmers, and how to a...

Patric Kuh, James Beard award winner, Food Critic for LA Magazine , and author of Finding the Flavours We Lost: From Bread to Bourbon, How Artisans Reclaimed American Food,  joins me to talk about his book.  I ask Patric about the cynicism surrounding bearded Brooklyn craft pickle-makers, whether it's okay for food artisans to sacrifice a little bit of quality for efficiency, and how small-batch p...

First, my conversation with Simran Sethi on her book  Bread Wine Chocolate: The Slow Loss of Foods We Love , which describes the increasing threat to the biodiversity within our food system, and how a better appreciation for the diversity of flavour that's all around us could help reverse the problem.  Then: I review two great tools for market gardeners made by Two Bad Cats

This ep: a conversation with Sophie Egan, author of  Devoured: From Chicken Wings to Kale Smoothies--How What We Eat Defines Who We Are   Then, Robin Turner of Roots & Shoots Farm  provides tips for setting up a good pick-up point for your CSA. Likes or shares from The Ruminant's Facebook Page are most appreciated, as are retweets Have you ever been to The Ruminant website?  

A new season of The Ruminant Podcast begins in January 2017. For now, I hope you enjoy this ode to gettin'er done around the farm.

This ep: Jessica Gale of Sweet Gale Gardens is back with suggestions for taking good care of your cut flowers throughout the season: soil fertility management, pruning tips, deadheading, and harvesting.  After that: Dr. Charles Levkoe joins me to talk about the politics and practice of farm internships as a source of labour on farms. Charles and colleagues are hosting a one day workshop on the top...

This ep: I've spliced together the best clips from a couple of webinars about leasing farmland. One was given by me, your host; the other by Blake Hall of Prairie Gold Pastured Meats. The webinars were produced by Farmstart, and can be found here.  Also: The Canadian Organic Grower Magazine co-Editor Amy Kremen returns to talk about the latest issue .   

My guest today is Tom Philpott, Food and Agriculture Correspondant for Mother Jones. Tom joined me to talk about his recent piece on the use and abuse of antibiotics in US poultry production , and the efforts of one major poultry producer to wean itself from this practice. 

This ep, Susan Kerr of WSU extension returns to talk about the right way to build a healthy herd; Hermann Bruns returns to talk about a 30'x100' mobile hoophouse design that has worked really well for him. See the companion post about his design here.

This ep is a shorty. Matt Coffay returns to talk about setting up standing orders with restaurants. Approximately 1/3 of Matt's sales are to restaurants, and the majority of those sales come from standing orders of just a few products--salad mix, tomatoes, pea shoots, etc. Which means: no fresh sheets! Predictable supply management! And a happier Matt. 

This ep, Lydia Carpenter of Luna Field Farm  on Landscape Scale Hog Management. Then: flower grower Jessica Gale of Sweet Gale Gardens returns, this time to talk about selling flowers to florists and into the wedding industry.  The image featured with this episode was grabbed from this greeting card website.  

This ep: Jennifer Cockrall-King, author of  Food and the City: Urban Ag and the New Food Revolution and the just-released  Food Artisans of the Okanagan,  joins me to talk about how farmers can get the right kind of media attention from journalists like her.  I learned a lot. You will too.

This ep: the Maritime Farm Apprentice and Worker Network is a great example of how to enrich the experiences of farm apprenties, incubator farmers, farm workers, etc. A conversation with Robin Johnston and Bernard Soubry.

This time: Susan Kerr of Washington State University Extension Services joins me to talk about non-chemical forms of parasite control in small ruminants. I learned a lot. You will too.  Also: in which your hosts reads one of his essays. Episode photo care of Lydia Carpenter of Luna Field Farm