The Urban Farm Podcast Private feed for Members

188: Megan Whatton on The Urban Habitat Network. Mapping the habitats of wildlife around the world a section at a time. Megan is the Urban Habitat Network Manager for The Nature Conservancy. She works with scientists, partners, private landowners, citizen scientists and volunteers to re-imagine their properties as habitat for the benefit of wildlife and people. Most recently she was the volunteer...

187: Sherrie Pelsma on Macro Photography in the Garden. Looking at garden wildlife from a whole new perspective. Sherrie grew up on the rural Oregon Coast before moving to Portland to finish her degree. She has spent the last 10 years in Community Education, and runs a program where participants learn Do-It-Yourself skills to make homes safer and more energy efficient. As an environmentalist who l...

186: Robin Kelson on Seed Saving-Resiliency. Keeping the strength of genetic traits through community sharing of seeds. Robin is the owner of the Good Seed Company  - “heirloom seeds for common use,”   a small heirloom vegetable, flower and herb seed company based in Whitefish, MT and dedicated to helping re-establish the community practice of selecting, saving and sharing seeds for comm...

185: Elaine Ingham on Life in the Soil. Examining the biology of healthy soil to improve plant growth. Dr. Elaine Ingham is the Founder, President and Director of Research  for  Soil Foodweb Inc.,  a business that grew out of her  Oregon State University  research program.  Behind her user-friendly approach to soil lies a wealth of knowledge gained from years of resea...

184: Michael Phillips on Holistic Orcharding. Growing fruit trees by creating a healthy ecosystem. Michael is known across the country for helping people grow healthy apples and understand the healing virtues of plant medicines. The “community orchard movement” he helped institute can be found at GrowOrganicApples.com and provides a full immersion into the holistic approach to orcharding. &nb...

183: Shawn Jadrnicek on The Bio-Integrated Farm. Maximizing functions from landscape elements to save time, energy and money. Shawn has nourished his interest in sustainability through work as an organic farmer, nursery grower, extension agent, arborist, and landscaper, and now as the manager of Clemson University’s Student Organic Farm. From his earliest permaculture experiments with no-till...

182: Matthew Shepherd on Planting to Feed Bees. Expanding the habitat of an essential pollinator through our garden choices. Matthew’s career began in England where he established a successful community-based conservation program in Essex and helped to create Samfire Hoe, an award-winning nature park. He has also worked with local communities and government agencies in Kenya to improve the managem...

181: Quita Jackson on Thrifty Self Sufficiency. Taking small steps to being green and making a difference. Quita is one of the founders of GreenDesert.org.   And while some would call her an urban farmer or a gardener, she prefers to consider herself spiritually connected to mother earth and her environment.  She loves everything about nature! GreenDesert.org is all about showing pe...

180: Brian Smith on Biochar. Enhancing your soils through an ancient, carbon-sequestering, process. Brian is a systems engineer and project manager living in north Phoenix.  For the past 30 years, he has worked for GE, Boeing, Lockheed Martin and Honeywell on software for flight control systems in commercial and military aircraft.  Recently, he became an entrepreneur and started a small...

179: Penn Parmenter on Passive Solar Greenhouses. Designing greenhouses using the natural laws of nature as allies and resources. Since 1992 Penn and her husband Cord have been growing food just above the 8,000 feet level in the Wet Mountains of South Central Colorado. With many years of research and development, they founded Smart Greenhouses LLC and Miss Penn’s Mountain Seeds in 2013, Toget...

178: Jayson Matthews on Solutions to Hunger. Discussing food insecurity in urban communities and how to improve resilience against hunger. Jayson is currently the Director of Ending Hunger for the Valley of the Sun United Way and has been with the organization since September 2014. Before joining the United Way, Jayson served as Executive Assistant to former Tempe Mayor Neil Guiliano, as the Assis...

177: Drew Taddia on Reducing Stress and Detoxing Smartly. Making long lasting changes a little at a time and using a plant-based diet to avoid toxins. Drew has traveled the world as a professional athlete coming from Canada, working through the US, and overseas into Australia and Germany following his dreams and passion of baseball.  He quickly became the ‘go to’ guy regarding fitness and nut...

176: Cory Williams on Tropical Fruit Trees. Growing a tropical fruit forest paradise in spite of a harsh climate. Cory lives in Chandler, Arizona and owns a video production company called Studio 9 Production. Prior to that, he spent 5 years in radio in Flagstaff, AZ, and 12 years on TV in Phoenix, as a Sports Anchor / Reporter for the local news channels. Cory got into farming and gardening...

175: Kaye Kittrell on Urban Gardening. Discovering organic gardening alongside a determined learner. In the fall of 2011, Kaye converted the front yard and parkway of her home in Pacific Palisades, CA, into an edible garden. She removed all non-edible grass, small trees and bushes that occupied approximately 300 square feet of valuable sunny area, and planted citrus trees and herbs. In April 2012,...

174: Shaun Keesee on Biointensive Farming A beginner's experience converting to larger scale organic farming. Shaun has an upstart one-acre mini-farm called BioManna Farms in Warrenton, NC. On his farm he grows using a combination of conventional and bio-intensive techniques, slowly moving towards a completely organic set up and is growing in all four seasons, with majority of production coming du...

173: Brendan Gaughran on Liver and Gut Health Understanding the sequence of food drive  n diseases Brendan holds a degree in Molecular Biology from the University of Connecticut and his MBA from Bentley University. He has spent 15 years in the Healthcare field and was an executive for a major nutraceutical manufacturer before starting multiple companies of his own, the latest being Liver Medic. H...

172: Ocean Robbins on Changing our Food Future Finding the motivation to make changes in our diets  At 15, Ocean was a co-founder of the Creating Our Future environmental speaking tour, on which he and three other participants spoke in person to more than 30,000 students, presented for 2,000 people at the United Nations, and opened for the Jerry Garcia band in San Francisco. In 1990 at age 16...

171: Robbie Shell on Honeybees and Colony Collapse Disorder. A researcher's perspective on the marvelous efficiency of honeybees. Robbie was a business journalist and co-author of a book on leadership, who turned her attention to honeybees when her brother, a beekeeper, brought her jars of honey harvested from his backyard hives. Inspired by the teamwork and efficiency displayed by these tiny poll...

170: Don Tipping on Seeds and Plant Breeding Cultivating the future through seed saving and education Don has been offering hands-on, practical workshops at Seven Seeds Farm since 1997.  His farm is a small, organic family farm in the Siskiyou Mountains of SW Oregon; situated at 2,000 feet elevation on a 7,000-foot-tall-forested mountain with rushing spring fed creeks flowing through the land...

169: Sarah Highlen on Farm Marketing Offering cost-effective marketing for small farms and food producers Sarah spent 17 years in the marketing industry, working with clients across diverse industries. As her values evolved, her career in marketing became dispiriting — until she realized she could use her marketing skills for something she felt really good about: good food.  Sarah founded Gra...

168: Kerry Audisho on Locally Grown Foods Connecting a community to a healthier diet and access to locally grown foods. Kerry is a wife, mother, certified Dr. Sears health coach, local food advocate, and lover of food growing. She spends her time visiting various farms and gardens in and around Phoenix, and connecting consumers directly to local growers. She organizes three Meetup groups, Your Far...

Kristin Nikodemski on the Grow it Yourself Revolution Encouraging growth in the community of organic gardeners As the Product Marketing Manager for Arborjet and The Dirt on Dirt , Kristin divides her time between marketing, supporting, and developing products for the horticulture industry. From her early days helping her father in the yard, working for garden centers, and professionally manag...

166: Susan Poizner on Fruit Tree Care Nurturing relationships with community and nature through orchards and fruit trees. Susan is an urban orchardist in Toronto, Canada. She is the author of the award-winning fruit tree care book “Growing Urban Orchards” and the creator of an award-winning online fruit tree care training course. In her in-person and online workshops Susan has trained hundreds of...

165: Penn Parmenter on High Altitude Tomatoes Growing and saving seeds for extreme or challenging climates Since 1992 Penn and her husband Cord have been growing food just above the 8,000 feet level in the Wet Mountains of South Central Colorado.  With many years of research and development, they founded Smart Greenhouses LLC and Miss Penn’s Mountain Seeds in 2013, Miss Penn’s Mountain Seeds...

164: Jeff Moyer on Organic Farmers Association Giving a larger voice to organic farmers in national policy discussions. Jeff is a world-renowned authority in organic agriculture. His expertise includes organic crop production systems with a focus on weed management, cover crops, crop rotations, equipment modification and use, and facilities design. Jeff is perhaps most well-known for conceptualizi...