The Urban Farm Podcast With Greg Peterson

Michelle’s love for gardening most likely was imprinted during her childhood in Switzerland where she grew up surrounded by green and lush vegetation. She spent most of her childhood in her parents’ garden, connecting on a deep level with nature.  In her mid-twenties, she moved to Phoenix for a 6-month adventure. And now, after 19 years, she calls Phoenix her home.  Michelle is a trained graphic designer who received her Masters exploring biomimetic and sustainable graphic design. She is full-time faculty at the Design School at ASU. These days, her garden provides her with much needed time for restorative energy while she is working on her second Master’s through the newly established Biomimicry Program at ASU as well as on the Biomimicry Professional certification through Biomimicry 3.8.  Listen in and learn about: Her path from Switzerland to Phoenix and how a six month visit became a life long stay How a career in graphic design made her feel that she was helping to add to the problems When that lightbu

Darren is a community pro-activist who has committed his life to helping people.  He is Founder and CEO of TigerMountain Foundation (a.k.a. TMF), which has implemented Empowerment Initiatives to uplift communities and eliminate blight. Tiger Mountain’s initiatives are community garden / landscaping development, audio, visual and performance art, community service and volunteerism. The gardens promote healthy living by growing lush-gardens and feeding the community.  TigerMountain Foundation’s Asset Based Community Development model was developed with the thought of urban renewal and restoration of communities. Participants who stay engaged are motivated to keep positive and will develop their individual very important assets. Darren’s motto is to change one mind and attitude at a time, encouraging all who have been touched to pay it forward, which will undoubtedly make the immediate community and the world a better place to live. Darren currently resides and works in the Phoenix Metropolitan area. Listen in a

Kerry is the founder and visionary of Zendoway and hopes to share with you from all her life experiences. Kerry serves as the Director of Human Resources and Operations for Actualize Consulting in which she spearheaded and runs a successful wellness program. In addition to wellness and leadership articles, Kerry has authored “Audrey’s Journey” a children’s book series focused on living with compassion and joy.  She also wrote the "Pile of Smile Activity Book" to give away free to children undergoing cancer treatments and If It Does Not Grow Say No” to teach kids about having fun with nutrition. Listen in and Learn about: Growing up on a 100-acre farm and how that set a foundation for her life How her children motivate her to teach yoga, nutrition and write books The story behind each of her books, including the book that educates kids about nutrition and inspire them to try vegetables Some of the activities in the interactive book that helps parents and teachers make eating vegetables fun How her family help

Jessica is a home canning expert and has worked for Jarden Home Brands for over 11.5 years. She currently is an Analytics Specialist (or Home Canning Expert) in Consumer Affairs and a certified process engineer through the USDA.  Being a life-long resident in Muncie, Indiana, Jessica has a strong affinity toward the Ball brand & its heritage in her community. Now in its 6th year, Can-It-Forward Day has a “Facebook Live! Event” taking place on Friday, July 22nd from 10AM – 3:30PM ET.  Jarden Home Brands, will host a series of live, unique recipe demos taking place in kitchens across the country. Listen in and learn about: How she came to have the career she never expected What a Home Canning Expert is and how to reach them The history and purpose of the Can-It-Forward Day program What to expect this year with the program How to get your canning questions answered live What resources you need to have for successful canning An important note for you if you have a glass top stove! The difference between the

Stacey has taught hundreds of teens and adults how to grow, harvest and prepare fresh foods. She is a recovering engineer and architect turned garden geek and farm nerd. Stacey founded BK Farmyards, a cooperative of urban farmers in Brooklyn dedicated to social justice through urban agriculture, and helped create over an acre of new farmyards in Brooklyn. She's been featured on Martha Stewart Radio, PBS online and once appeared on the David Letterman show with a giant radish. She envisions a world where everyone is nourished by the magic of fresh, affordable and culturally exciting food…extra points if it’s homegrown. Listen in and learn about: How a day at the Farmer’s Market changed her life Borrowing a neighbor’s yard to start her garden What Urban Farming means to her David Letterman and her Giant Radish and how she was disappointed How Buckminster Fuller had such a great impact on her life How she thinks the government can start to see farmers as a resource How farming in Brooklyn is different from othe

Jerome Osentowski has spent the last 30 years developing indoor and outdoor forest farming technology at his location in Basalt, Colorado. He is the founder and director of the Central Rocky Mountain Permaculture Institute dedicated to education, research, and demonstration. Listen in and learn about: Creating an Indoor Food Forest and why he started with that Permaculture – what it is to Jerome Perennial Polyculture Carbon Farming Climate Battery Agroforestry and all different variations of that which are connected Starting an International Agroforestry school As well as: His biggest failure and what he learned from it What drives him And his one piece of advice for Urban Farmers

Gardening has been DeBorah Prince’s passion and therapy for over 20 years. She grows a huge range of fruits and veggies from asparagus to zucchini, makes her own compost and vermicompost, and her latest project is building a chicken coop. She lives in New Jersey and has been married for 23 years with a big family of 8 children and 15 grandchildren. Come listen to the delightfully upbeat gardener tell us how she decided to just start gardening and learned how from the internet and books.  She explains how the food available today is not real food, and why that matters to her family.  You can't help but laugh with her as she tells us why she named her urban farm and why everyone should name theirs.

After learning about the devastating effects of plastic pollution on the environment and human health, Oakland accountant Beth began an experiment to see if she could live without buying any new plastic. Since then, she has reduced her plastic waste to less than 2% of the national average. That experiment turned into the popular blog MyPlasticFreeLife.com and new book Plastic-Free: How I Kicked the Plastic Habit and How You Can Too. Her work and life have been profiled in the award-winning film Bag It, as well as Susan Freinkel’s book, Plastic: A Toxic Love Story and Captain Charles Moore’s Plastic Ocean. Listen in and learn: What motivated her to make such a drastic change in her life How long she has been able to maintain her life without plastic How her career as an accountant helped her in this path Some tips on how to adjust to a life without plastic Taking it step by step Storing items in the fridge and freezer Buying cheese without the plastic wraps How she removed all plastic packaging from her garde

Toby is the author of a new book on urban and suburban permaculture, The Permaculture City, as well as Gaia’s Garden, the best-selling permaculture book in the world, which won the 2011 Nautilus award and was named one of the ten best gardening books of 2010 by The Washington Post. He has been an adjunct professor at Portland State University and Scholar-in-Residence at Pacific University. Toby is a well-known permaculture teacher and has taught over 70 Permaculture Design Courses. He and his wife, Key el, live in Sebastopol, California. Listen in to our 100th episode and hear Greg and Toby chat about one of their favorite topics: Permaculture.    Go to our Podcast page at www.urbanfarm.org/blog/podcast/ to find photos, links, and more information on this podcast, as well as for each of our other great guest interviews.  You can also sign up for weekly email summaries of the interviews.

Paris Masek is the Managing Director for Green on Purpose and the Director of Agriculture Programs for Quincea Social Enterprises. He is also a PhD candidate at ASU in English Literature working with Indigenous American Literature and Cultures. He is an active member of the Maricopa County Food System Coalition as well as an urban gardener who uses raised beds, edible landscaping, and a flock of chickens in his downtown residence to keep fresh produce and eggs on his family’s dinner table.  Come listen as Paris talks about His path from heading towards a career in medicine then to marine biology to fish farming. Following in the footsteps of his father, and learning the craft of farming on summer breaks. Studying the fish in the SRP canals: grass carp, fingerlings, and big head carp How the organization Quincea works with people with disabilities and American veterans using agricultural jobs as vocational training. What a food hub is and how it connects with local small farms How food hubs can help solve foo

Dr. George Brooks Jr. is the Founder and President of the NxT Horizon Group. Dr. Brooks holds an earned Ph.D., in Wildlife and Fisheries from the School of Renewable Natural Resources at the University of Arizona and is an established social, environmental, economic and political leader and business consultant. With the motto of “AgTech for the Real World” NxT Horizon focuses on bioenergy development in Africa, and the development and application of new urban farming technologies (aquaponics) to solve real world social, environmental and economic problems. Come listen to Dr. Brooks as he helps us understand more about aquaponics and our opportunities with it.  He talks about... How he got started working with aquaponics at a very young age His path to become a marine biologist Aquaponics in a drought prone areas like Phoenix Why fish farms did not work in Arizona in the 1980’s Why fish farms really can work in urban areas The “Diffusion of Innovation Curve” How Aquaponics is like the Solar Market What is nex

Michael Judd has worked with agro-ecological and whole system designs throughout the Americas for the last 20 years focusing on applying permaculture and ecological design to increase local food security and community health in both tropical and temperate growing regions. The founder of both Ecologia, LLC, Edible & Ecological Landscape Design and Project Bona Fide, an international non-profit supporting agro-ecology research. Come listen and learn about Michael's adventure in rural latin america and what he learned from some Mayan tribes.  He tells us how he learned they managed to meet all of their needs without help from the outside.  Here is a bit of what we can learn in this podcast: What the word Regenerative means How design can take natural healthy ecosystems and design for human needs as well as life around us. Agro-ecology and what that means What is “alley-cropping” Stacking functions and “how you can get the most bang for your buck” and what it might look like. Herb Spirals description and why

Jodi Torpey on Blue Ribbon Vegetables Growing vegetables worthy of entering competitions. Jodi is an award-winning vegetable gardener, craftsy gardening instructor, and the founder and editor-in-chief of WesternGardeners.com. In addition to the two books she authored, her garden writing also appears in digital and print media. Since 2010 she’s organized the annual Plant a Row for the Hungry campaign in Denver, Colorado. Jodi has a lot of great advice on how and why to start growing vegetables for competition purposes.  Listen in to our "biggest" podcast ever and find out why we say that.  For more links, photos and resources for this podcast go to http://www.urbanfarm.org/blog/2016/06/28/jodi-torpey/

Molly comes from a long line of farmers in Washington state. She grew up on a farm with chickens, cows, pigs and the occasional turkey. She has two boys and her own acre in Spokane where they raise chickens, honey bees and of course, fruits and veggies.  She’s just getting started and hope to transform her property into a working, thriving, educational farm where she can teach her family and others how to grow their own food. Molly did not want to be a farmer when she went to college so she pursued other interests.  Eventually she bought a house with an acre of land and a bee hive. Listen to her story of how she is returning to farming to give her children better food options, and using her education background to help teach others about beekeeping and basic farming. https://www.urbanfarm.org/blog/podcast/

Larry has been a teacher and practitioner of Permaculture Design for the last 28 years. After a career in law enforcement, Santoyo went onto land use planning and was mentored by Permaculture’s founding father, Bill Mollison. Santoyo went on to teach Permaculture with Mollison around the US and Australia. He has taught environmental design at colleges and universities nationwide, including UC Berkeley, UC Santa Cruz, Evergreen College, CSU Northridge, and Cal Poly San Luis Obispo.  He is also the Senior Designer at Earthflow Designs of Los Angeles, one of the largest Permaculture companies in the world. The firm specializes in planning and design that integrates economic development strategies with ecological systems management in residential, commercial and municipal projects. Listen here and learn about: His interesting and circuitous path to permaculture design Trying to define permaculture Why he thinks no one actually DOES permaculture What he thinks is the most important thing to learn about permacult

Tristram Stuart, founder of the charity Feedback, is an international award-winning author (The Bloodless Revolution and Waste: Uncovering the Global Food Scandal), speaker, campaigner and expert on the environmental and social impacts of food production. The environmental campaigning organization he founded, Feedback, has spread its work into dozens of countries worldwide, working with governments, international institutions, businesses, non-governmental organizations, grassroots organizations and the public to change society’s attitude toward wasting food.     https://www.urbanfarm.org/blog/podcast/

Diana is a Registered Dietitian Nutritionist living on a working organic farm outside of Boston, Massachusetts. She is the author of The Homegrown Paleo Cookbook: Over 100 Gluten Free, Seasonal Recipes and a Complete Guide to Growing Your Own Healthy Food. Diana speaks internationally about nutrition and sustainability issues in our food system, runs the popular podcast, Sustainable Dish, and works with people one on one to help them recover their health through real food. Come join us as we hear Diana tells us how she and her husband created the sustainable farm and education center they now run. Her passion to help others is obvious as it weaves through her story. Some highlights of the podcast: Her amazing organic farm and how it makes a difference in her community What questions to ask at farmers’ markets Why we should plant in rows in our gardens Why she does not believe some nutrition studies How she managed to make a huge change in her celiac disease with her diet changes How we can reset our own bod

Casey is a director and producer of independent documentary films, highlighting untold stories. She premiered “The Organic Life” to sold-out crowds at the 36th Mill Valley Film Festival in 2013. The film won Best Documentary Feature at the Santa Cruz Film Festival, and national online and broadcast distribution was rolled out in 2014, including on iTunes, FoodMattersTV, and PivotTV among others. Casey is currently directing a feature documentary “This Just In” as well a digital short documentary series telling immigration stories through food, called “Table."  Austin has been farming for seven years. He got his start through the apprentice program at Soil Born Farms in Sacramento, California in 2009. Soon after, he co-founded Lunita Farm in Sonoma Valley, a hand-scale mixed vegetable operation. In 2010, Austin began to work full time at Paul's Produce, a mainstay in the Sonoma farming community for nearly 30 years. At home, he raises chickens and is launching a hot sauce label. 

Kamea is the content curator of Kamea World and the author of Thrive, an evidence-based guide to healthy living. She is a graduate of Washington University in St. Louis, and she is currently the Marketing Manager of Ethical Writers Co.  Through her multi-disciplinary studies and her multicultural background, Kamea developed a particular interest in the relationship between human health and world sustainability—an interest that eventually led her to write her debut nonfiction book Thrive. By proposing a broadened perspective on health—one that encompasses the health of the mind, body, and our collective environment—Kamea hopes to empower her readers to cultivate meaning and create sustainability in all areas of life.

Diana is a horticulturist, garden columnist and author of 3 books: Water-Smart Gardening; Rocky Mountain Fruit & Vegetable Gardening; and Southwest Gardener’s Guide,  published by Cool Springs Press. She lives and gardens in southern Utah with her husband, Steve. Combining her professional background in education with the continuous learning experiences her gardens provide, she strives to encourage, to teach and inspire others to garden sustainably.