Greenhorns Radio

Greg Hart farms 1500 acres in Hawkes Bay, New Zealand. He works on the property with his wife and 3 young children, as well as 3 other workers and various WWOOFers from all around the world. The Harts practise regenerative agriculture and try to raise awareness about the urgent need to transition to a food production system based on nature that heals the earth and society.

Erika Rumbley is the Co-Founder and Director of The New Garden Society (TNGS). Each year The New Garden Society trains 100+ incarcerated students in the art and science of plants, building a bridge from Greater-Boston prisons and youth detention facilities to local careers in organic land care. Erika is also the Greenhouse Manager at Langwater Farm, a 50-acre, certified organic vegetable, fruit, flower and herb farm south of Boston. Her most formative experiences as an adult educator include her time with Southside Community Land Trust, The Trustees of Reservations, and growing food and flowers alongside students in prison gardens outside of Boston. A North Carolina native, Erika has farmed and found her home in southern New England for over a decade.

Ildi Carlisle-Cummins is Director of the Cal Ag Roots Project at the California Institute for Rural Studies. Cal Ag Roots puts historical roots under current California food and farming change movements by telling the story of California agricultural development in innovative, useful, and relevant ways. There is deep knowledge about the structures, driving forces, and key moments that have shaped California's food system among recognized experts; and those who have participated in the creation of CA farming, but this knowledge doesn't always inform food movement work. Cal Ag Roots shares stories from this wide range of people, opening new lines of communication among them.

Robert Olivier, founder of GrubTubs, Inc. invents and develops all aspects of insect based technologies, from conceptual design work to prototyping and final fabrication. Currently he is engineering a bioconversion facility in Austin, TX, to transform food waste into animal feed. Olivier holds a bachelor's degree in environmental sciences and business administration from Southern Methodist University. He received the Departmental Academic Excellence Award in Geological Sciences upon graduation.

Marie Hoff founded Capella Grazing Project in 2013. Using rare, heritage breed Ouessant sheep, she grazes in such unlikely spots as vineyards, orchards, on cover crop at local farms, and for landowners seeking holistic lawn-mowing services. In this unconventional manner of ranching, she blends ancient shepherding with modern day integrated agricultural and economic systems, stewarding both landscape and livestock genetics.

Locky Catron graduated from Iowa State University with an Agricultural Business degree and joined the three-person Cleber, LLC, team in Alabama. Her experiences working both in Big Ag and on organic farms led her to have a passion for regional food systems and a more diversified agriculture. Cleber's business model is one that encourages local/regional manufacturing by using an open system design approach. Their first piece of equipment is the Oggun Tractor - a simple, versatile tractor inspired by the Allis Chalmers G and made using off-the-shelf components. The focus is appropriateness of scale and affordability.

Tom Baldwin is the Farm Director of Ulua Palms Farm and Nursery in Makawo, HI. A permaculture designer and nurseryman, he is currently engaged in the development of a 5-acre homestead property on Maui in addition to maintaining an 18-acre farm on Big Island. This includes the current planting of a collection of roughly 50 avocado varieties, and an extensive renovation of an old family homestead built in 1906. Tom stewards an extensive collection of plants, including a repository of rare fruit and nuts. He also has a special interest in cacti.

Based in Kentucky and North Carolina, Sara Day Evans works through Accelerating Appalachia to advance the regenerative economy for North America's most diverse foodshed: the Appalachian region. She's a program developer, social entrepreneur, and living bridge who for over 20 years has delivered powerful impact through strong leadership, creativity, and collaboration. Launching Accelerating Appalachia was borne out of a variety of circumstances: a natural evolution of her ongoing commitment to people, place and prosperity in Appalachia; conversations with leaders in social enterprise and impact investing, the natural abundance and beauty of Appalachia; her connection to place as a 6th generation Kentuckian; her service to distressed communities in Appalachia to help rebuild the loss of their furniture, textile, and farming economies while with the NC Department of Commerce; her impactful work with Kentucky's Environmental Protection Cabinet; and the deep influence of her longtime Kentucky friends, bell hooks and Wendell Berry, and her activist, physicist parents and inspiring children. A hydrogeologist, community planner, entrepreneur, former truck driver, waitress, maid, and woodworker, Sara Day is also an accomplished musician, writer and poet.

Miles Teitge took his first steps in the old growth forests of Vashon Island, WA, and was transplanted to the Idaho high mountain desert in 1983. Graduating from the Community School, he took up surfing in Kauai, trekked India, and biked across the U.S. to study Anthroposophy for a year at Camphill Village in Copake, NY. This Rudolph Steiner inspired community serves those with special needs, and is also the home of Turtle Tree Seed, a producer of biodynamic seeds. He earned a Bachelor's degree in education at Antioch University, while volunteering at the Seattle Tilth Children's Garden. Miles interned at the Herb Pharm in Williams, OR, and continued his education at Seed School (with local legend Bill McDorman), and the Fungi Perfecti mushroom cultivation course (with visionary Paul Stamets). He joined The Mountain School shortly after it opened, inspired to learn and teach principles of permaculture and the gardening arts; be it cultivating vegetables, gathering medicinal herbs, grafting trees, laying out hugelkultur beds, bee-tending, greenhouse design, poultry care, humane composting, worm wrangling or the like, there is a lifetime of learning on this path! He and Sweet Clover teacher, Jessica Banks, are the proud parents of SMS student Edyn Crow Teitge. Miles is delighted to continue with the Syringa Mountain School's Sustainability Arts program and plans to share his deep reverence for the natural world, plant fruit for future generations, and grow the largest watermelon the Wood River Valley has ever seen in 2017!

Mike Bologna, CEO of Green Lion Partners, is a decisive and personable leader with a comprehensive background in supply chain technology consulting, process analysis, and operational strategy. Using this experience, Mike focuses on ensuring organizational success by improving efficiencies, minimizing waste, and bringing socially conscious processes to the forefront. Green Lion Partners is a Denver, CO based business strategy firm focused on early stage development in the regulated cannabis industry.

Jeff Conant directs Friends of the Earth's international forests program, which campaigns to protect forests and the rights of forest-dependent peoples by addressing the economic and political drivers of forest destruction. Prior to joining Friends of the Earth, Jeff ran communications and popular education efforts around climate and development justice with Global Justice Ecology Project, International Accountability Project, and other advocacy organizations, and co-authored A Community Guide to Environmental Health (Hesperian Health Guides, 2008), a comprehensive community education manual that covers issues from basic sanitation to big dams and from forestry to food sovereignty. The Community Guide has been translated into over a dozen languages.

Berkshire native Maddie Elling and her partner Abe Hunrichs run Hosta Hill, a Berkshire-based business growing and making lacto-fermented vegetables. A lover of the outdoors, food, and dynamic work, Maddie spent four years after high school WWOOFing and wandering. After meeting Abe, they both settled in the Berkshires: dabbling in odd jobs and raising various animals and crops. Inspired by the Berkshire landscape and food scene they were eager to create a business of their own. They settled on growing vegetables and making fermented vegetables and tempeh. Maddie and Abe are in their 5th year of running Hosta Hill, distributing their products from the Berkshires to Boston and beyond. When not fermenting or doing office work, you can find Maddie staying busy outside, walking in the woods with her dog Oso, swimming, and scribbling on paper.

Ben Dobson grew up in Hillsdale, New York, on a small organic farm and started his first agricultural business in 2001. After two years on his own, he joined forces with his father Ted Dobson and managed the fields at his salad and tomato farm in Sheffield, MA, from 2003 through 2006. Since then Ben has started, managed, and overseen the sale of two agricultural businesses: One of which, Atlantic Organics, founded in 2007, was the largest organic vegetable farm in the state of Maine. The other, a company called Locally Known LLC, founded in 2008, was a salad processing company that sold pre-packaged ready to eat salads to Whole Foods Market, Hannaford Bros. and Trader Joe's supermarkets in the Northeast and Mid Atlantic regions. In 2013, Ben joined Stone House Farm as the Organic Transition Manager, and in 2016 he became their Farm Manager. He planned and oversaw the implementation of an organic transition on the 2,200-acre Stone House Farm property, and developed a non-GMO feed and grain business to sell their grain. The farm is now expanding its grain operation to include organic grain from other farms in the region. Ben also heads Hudson Carbon: a research project conducting long term research across several sites on Stone House Farm and two neighboring farms. Hudson Carbon monitors the economic impacts and ecological effects of organic farming systems regarding carbon sequestration. Collaborators in this project include the Rodale Institute, The Woods Hole Marine Biological Laboratory, and Scenic Hudson. This winter Hudson Carbon will be launching a website with sections dedicated to farmers, science, and the public.

Dorn Cox, PhD, is an agriculturist, and farmer working his 250-acre diversified organic family farm in Lee, New Hampshire. He is a co-founder of the FarmOS software platform, a founding member of the Farm Hack community, and is active in the national soil health movement to develop systems that improve global agricultural knowledge exchange and local regenerative production capacity. He has a PhD from the University of New Hampshire.

Erica Frenay manages 35 acres of sheep, cattle, ducks, orchard, apiary, and high tunnels at Shelterbelt Farm near Ithaca, NY, with her husband and two young kids. She has also worked for the Cornell Small Farms Program for 11 years, co-founding the Northeast Beginning Farmer Project in 2006. She is a certified educator of Holistic Management and has completed permaculture design training, both of which have informed the design and management of her farm. She is passionate about connecting people to soil. And about playing the upright bass.

Amanda Swinimer completed her BSc+ at Dalhousie University with an advanced major in Marine Biology and a minor in Oceanography. Amanda furthered her education by apprenticing for two years with a wise herbal teacher, Bernice Woolham, and studying with the ‘Kelp Doctor’, Dr. Louis Druehl. Her deep love of the ocean and the rainforest brought her to the west coast of Vancouver Island where she started her own business, Dakini Tidal Wilds, in 2003. For 15 years, Amanda has been sustainably harvesting, by hand, edible seaweeds, wild herbs and crafting products from these wild gifts. For most of these years, she has been sharing her passion for the wild gifts of our coastline with many people through a variety of hands-on teaching methods and with a focus of sustainability and respect for our rare coast. She has taught at the University of Victoria, Bamfield Marine Science Center, Royal Roads University, public schools and through private venues.

Graison S. Gill is the owner of Bellegarde, a commercial bakery and stone mill in New Orleans bound to local ingredients, heritage, and flavor. He has been baking professionally for eight years and was trained at the San Francisco Baking Institute under Michel Suas, Mac McConnell, Mike Zakowski, and Frank Sally.

Alexandra Hudson is a holistic chef, clinical herbalist, and regenerative food system advocate. In 2013 Alexandra founded Kaleidoscope Foods, a California Bay Area-based producer of bone broth infused kale chips, to provide deep on-the-go high integrity nutrition to her community. Alexandra is committed to weaving a food system that regenerates at every step of the process, from the vibrancy of the soil to the health of her customers.

Jonny leads Kiva's work to reach financially excluded and socially impactful small business owners, artisans and farmers in the United States with 0% interest loans. He first came to Kiva in 2009 as a volunteer, and joined full-time in 2011 to lead the Kiva U.S. team. Jonny graduated with a degree in History from the University of Cambridge. He is married to Ali, who he met at Kiva, and a few weeks ago he became the proud father of Felicity Grace Price!

Becky Brand, of Brandmoore Farm, joins today's episode of Greenhorns Radio. Becky grew up in Portsmouth, Rhode Island, and later attended University of New Hampshire– landing her on the New Hampshire Seacoast. After studying Environmental Horticulture at UNH, she worked in Massachusetts at Appleton Farms and New Hampshire at Meadow’s Mirth where she continued to learn about organic and sustainable farming practices. Becky and her husband Phil Brand started Brandmoore Farm in 2012. Brandmoore Farm is a diverse, organic farm with a focus on cow dairy and vegetables. Becky and Phil have a nearly one-year-old baby named Thomas, a dog called Ernie, and a cat named Mimi.

Tristan Gooley is a natural navigator and award-winning author of three of the world's only books covering natural navigation. The best selling books are: The Natural Navigator (2010), The Lost Art of Reading Nature's Signs (2014) and How to Read Water (2016).

Born and raised in Chicago, Alex Pino moved to New Mexico at age 20. After years working unfulfilling jobs and seeking solutions for the industrialized food system he began farming on a rocky Piñon & juniper covered hillside near Santa Fe. Pino now farms four properties from Pecos along the river to La Cienega, growing heirloom garlic on rented, drip-irrigated land. Pino sells at Santa Fe area Farmers' Markets year round. He organizes farmers through the National Young Farmers Coalition's local chapter, the Northern NM Young Farmers Alliance, and holds workshops and trainings to help educate next generation farmers.

Theo Wadman grew up on a small farm raising livestock and worked in conventional agricultural and food industry jobs operating equipment for local farmers, seed cleaning plants, and frozen food companies. Theo received a bachelor's degree in Engineering Physics from Oregon State University, built a small publishing company, a technical writing company, and then a successful translation and software localization company, which is now part of translations.com. Along the way, two of Theo’s sons and his wife, Kira, had serious health issues that stemmed from misinformation about diet, agriculture, and health. Theo and Kira were inspired to return to their agricultural roots four years ago, creating Helios Farms as an active response to misinformation campaigns about food, diet, agriculture, and health.

Together with his partner Johanna Davis, Adam Nordell runs Songbird Farm, an organic vegetable and grain farm in Unity, ME. The farm is built around wholesale vegetable sales to organic distributors and food cooperatives in Maine, and both wholesale and CSA marketing of heritage flint cornmeal, wheat and rye flour. Adam and Johanna also tour in the off-season as the folk music duo Sassafras Stomp, and perform high energy traditional fiddle music and original songs reflecting on farming and connection to place.

Brianna Bowman lives and works in Massachusetts, where she manages the National Incubator Farm Training Initiative, which supports the development and strengthening of programs that train new farmers. She is interested in how to promote an ecosystem of success for beginning farmers which extends well beyond their time in training and touches upon how we value, access, and enjoy food. Brianna studied Peace Studies and holds a Masters in International Development and Sustainable Agriculture. She is an aspiring herbalist and active fiber artist.

This week on Greenhorns Radio, Severine welcomes musician Robin Grey. Inspired by the timeless work of Bob Dylan, Leonard Cohen and Joanna Newsom amongst many others, Robin colours in his songs about love and life with guitar, banjo, ukulele, mandolin, piano, double bass, organ, percussion toys and any other instruments he can afford and fit into his little east London studio. Robin devised and performs a show called Three Acres And A Cow, A History Of Land Rights And Protest In Folk Song And Story, has been undertaking musical cycling pilgrimages under the rubric of ‘Pedal Folk‘ and is starting to take a little interest in politics.

Nels Veliquette lives in Victoria, British Columbia with his wife Michelle and son Axel. Raised in Michigan in the tart cherry business, one generation removed from the dairy, he is active in business planning, policy development and education. Nels has direct experience in production, logistics, agri-tourism development, land preservation and finance. He has a Masters Degree in Administration and is a writer, educator and business consultant who does not fear the future.

This week on Greenhorns Radio, Severine is joined by JennaDee Detro, Co-Founder and Head of Production of Cat Spring Tea. JennaDee has 3 years of yaupon harvesting experience and has developed the production practices. Previously, she was a professional photographer and graphic designer. She loves that Cat Spring Yaupon Tea is a return to family values and pure American goodness.

Andre Entermann grew up in Southern California surfing, skateboarding, sailing and spearfishing. After a stint in the U.S. Coast Guard as a Helicopter Rescue Swimmer, he turned to food and farming and worked on many farms abroad. Andre landed his dream of running a goat dairy here on Lopez Island with his wife Elizabeth.

This week on Greenhorns Radio, Severine is joined by Dan Kittredge. Dan is the Founder and Executive Director of the Bionutrient Food Association. Raised by parents who are prominent leaders in the organic food movement, Dan has been an organic farmer since childhood. His experience managing organic farms and developing sustainable agriculture techniques has connected him to farmers in Central America, Russia, India and the U.S. Dan lives in Central Massachusetts with his wife and three children on their 40 acre farm.

Jessika is a small business owner and food systems aficionado. As co-founder and CEO of Starvation Alley Social Purpose Corporation, a cranberry company located in Southwest Washington, Jessika spends much of her time building a new business that supports regional cranberry farmers through the organic certification process. Though she is passionate about farmers, her favorite part about her job is getting to partner with many other inspiring Pacific Northwest food producers to create collaborative value-added products. In 2012, Jessika aided in the design of Seattle's Bainbridge Graduate Institute's first Certificate program in Sustainable Food and Agriculture. Jessika's other experiences include a receiving her Master's in Business Administration, working as an urban community garden coordinator and consulting for outdoor trails expansion in her region. She lives in Ilwaco, Washington near Starvation Alley Farms with her partner Jared Oakes and two dogs.

Brendon Rockey is a third generation farmer from Center, CO. He is currently managing the farm that his Grandpa started in 1938, and he is returning to the same fundamentals that the farm was founded on. His Grandpa Floyd use to preach that you must take care of the soil before the soil can take care of you. Rockey Farms has eliminated their dependency on toxic chemicals and synthetic fertilizers by managing the farm as a complete system. Rockey Farms raises high quality specialty potatoes for fresh market sales and for certified seed by investing in their soil with carbon based fertility, reduced tillage, companion crops in the potatoes, flowering border crops, and rotational cover crops. They are also bringing livestock back in to the operation to enhance to impact of the cover crops even further. This Biotic approach has allowed Rockey Farms to maintain production wile improving the quality of their potatoes, all while reducing input costs and optimizing water use efficiency.

Natalie Kilmer lives in Oakland, California where she owns and is the lead gardener for a socially minded, mini-farming and consulting business called, The Little Acre. Natalie also works with Bay Area pioneer, Greywater Action giving lectures and leading hands on workshops across Northern California. Natalie graduated from UC Berkeley with a BA in Religious Studies. She continued her ongoing studies through Permaculture Design at Esalen Institute, a gardening internship at Occidental Arts and Ecology Center, Ayurveda at the dhyana Center and a Chinese Herbal Farming Internship at the Chinese Medicinal Herb Farm.

Jack Motter and Jeff Kramer, owners of Ellwood Canyon Farms, are life-long friends who grew up in fourth generation farming families in the small town of Brawley, located in the Imperial Valley in the desert of Southeastern California. They each attended college in Santa Barbara and have lived there for the last fifteen years. Jack established Ellwood Canyon Farms in 2009, and Jeff has been on board since 2010. They currently grow mixed organic produce on 50 acres, focusing on organic methods of farming, building healthy soil and growing healthy crops.

Until his retirement last summer, Russ Cohen’s “day job” was serving as the Rivers Advocate for the Massachusetts Department of Fish and Game’s Division of Ecological Restoration, where he had worked since 1988, and where one of his areas of expertise was riparian vegetation. Now Russ has more time to pursue his passionate avocation, which is connecting to nature via his taste buds. He is an expert forager and the author of Wild Plants I Have Known…and Eaten, published in 2004 by the Essex County Greenbelt Association and now in its sixth printing. Mr. Cohen has been teaching foraging since 1974 and conducts over three dozen foraging walks and talks each year at a wide variety of venues throughout the Northeast. In addition, since his retirement, Russ is aspiring to become a “Johnny Appleseed” of sorts for native edible plants: collecting wild edible seeds and nuts for propagating and planting, and assisting and partnering with others in this endeavor.

Robert Bauer joined Southwest Badger Resource Conservation and Development Council, Inc as the Grazing Broker on October 12, 2015. As Grazing Broker, Robert connects landowners of grasslands with livestock producers to increase acreage of well-managed grazing. He also assists in determining the fair market value of grasslands, writes grazing plans, and provides technical assistance to both producers and landowners. Robert works closely with a multi-agency team to coordinate educational events and network with landowners and grazing organizations to promote grazing and grass-based agriculture in Southwest Wisconsin. Jacob James Marty is a young farmer from southern Wisconsin. Farming by the side of his father, Jim, he is continuing the farm's legacy into its sixth generation with Green Fire Farm. Historically, a dairy farm, Jacob is transitioning the farm into regenerative practices including grass-fed beef, pasture-raised pork and poultry, and establishing silvopasture, pollinator habitat, and wildlife habitat. The mission of Green Fire Farm is to focus on direct marketing and instill a strong sense of connection, community development, and stewardship with all partners to the farm.

Learner Limbach a committed leader in the local food and agriculture movement. He has been a farmer, an educator, a community organizer, a business professional and a consultant. Through this work Learner has grown increasingly passionate about eliminating the barriers that make it difficult for farmers to be successful. In 2013 Learner spearheaded the creation of the Orcas Food Co-op, a consumer-owned co-op that he now manages as his full-time job. With a central goal of creating a sustainable local food system with strong regional connections, the Co-op has quickly grown to over 1000 members and $2.3 million in sales in 2015. In addition to running the Co-op, Learner also serves actively on numerous agriculturally focused boards and committees, with a strong focus on increasing inter-organizational collaboration and capacity building.

Born in the Central Valley of California, Nikiko Masumoto spent her childhood slurping over-ripe peaches on the Masumoto Family Farm (an 80-acre organic farm in Del Rey, CA). She has never missed a summer harvest. In 2007 she graduated from UC Berkeley with a B.A. in Gender and Women’s Studies. It was there that she realized she wanted to return to the Valley to farm. But first she completed a M.A. in Performance as Public Practice from UT Austin. Her research focused on the performance of memory and Japanese American history. Daily, she apprentices with her father on the family’s small organic farm whilst continuing work in arts and community. In 2013, she published her first book, co-authored with parents Mas and Marcy, a cookbook The Perfect Peach. She participated in the Catalyst Initiative, a civic practice cohort program of the Center for Performance & Civic Practice, Emerging Leaders of Color in the Arts program of WESTAF, and is currently a Creative Community Fellow with National Arts Strategies. She has served on various volunteer and nonprofit boards in the Central Valley (Central California Asian Pacific Women, Central Valley Community Foundation, Valley Public Radio, California State University Fresno’s College of Arts & Humanities). She currently serves on the board of the Alliance for California Traditional Arts and Western States Arts Federation. On most days you can find her on a tractor, dreaming of projects yet to be born and justice yet to be won. The Masumoto Family Farm is also the subject of the documentary film Changing Season: On the Masumoto Family Farm.

Allie grew up in Ohio on her parents' farm shoveling poop, climbing trees, and playing in the dirt. These formative years were not easy to wash off and stuck with her. She ended up studying sustainable agriculture, herbal medicine, alternative energy and sustainable architecture at The Evergreen State College. Most of Allie’s life has been spent in the out-of-doors, mountain guiding and growing food. She naturally migrated to Chickaloon, Alaska, in the heart of the Matanuska Valley at the age of 21. Striving to have more time than money, Allie focuses on off-grid living, chainsaw milling, and a "hunt-fish-gather- grow" lifestyle, where she wildcrafts plants into medicine, harvests berries, catches salmon, and hunts moose. Allie, her husband Jed, and dog Dylan, run Chugach Farm. Chugach Farm is a modern day homestead farm that focuses on growing nutrient dense, human powered, beyond organic, and off grid vegetables. Chugach Farm grows enough food to feed the family year round, sells at the farmers market and to local restaurants, runs CSA and CSF (Community Supported Ferments) programs, and sells a variety of value added products.

Cory grew up ranching on her family’s fourth-generation ranch in rural Oregon. After graduating from Stanford University and working on Capitol Hill and in Los Angeles, she returned to the ranch to try a different production model and transitioned Carman Ranch to grassfed beef production. After a decade of successfully raising and selling grassfed beef, she joined the the Pasture One team to help create a national presence. In her role as the Director of Production, she leads the growing collective of pioneering grassfed ranchers. She is passionate about the ecological and human health potential of a robust grassfed beef industry as well as the potential to create economic opportunities for ranchers, more efficiently meet a consumer demand for healthy, humane beef, and put more carbon in the soil. She lives on Carman Ranch with her husband and three children.

Marc Millitzer is the owner and farmer of Tree of Life Gardens in Cuba City, Wisconsin. Marc grew up in the city moving around a lot with his family until the age of ten when his family settled in eastern Iowa. Marc grew up helping on other farms. His farming experience came mostly from his extended family and neighbors. After a small career in glassblowing Marc pursued healthy living in the country and discovered organic gardening was a passion. He then traveled to Belize receiving education from a permaculture design course at Mayan Mountain Research farm. After a few years of practice in small scale gardening Marc took a course in market gardening at U.W. Madison. This spawned his current farm Tree of Life Gardens. With the help of his retired parents and his Partner Jessica Paarmann, Marc farms over ten acres of vegetables a year. He also grows many different kinds of mushrooms. He has marketed his produce in diverse ways including CSA, large wholesale accounts, local groceries, restaurants, and farmers markets. Currently Marc specializes in salad greens and mushrooms. He plans to expand his farm in the next few years and wants to explore small grain, bean, and cover crop seed production.

On this week's episode of Greenhorns Radio, Severine speaks with Dave Oien, a third generation farmer who continues to work his family’s land in Montana. Dave transitioned the land to organics back in the 80’s and started an organic seed and edible legumes business in 1987, along with three business partners. Dave, as well as Timeless Seeds and its other Montana-based legume growers, recently became publicly visible after being the focus of Liz Carlisle’s recent book, The Lentil Underground.

Today’s guests on Greenhorns Radio, Jason Angell and Jocelyn Apicello, came to farming later in life, transitioning from white collar jobs in NYC.  They learned most of their methods on a small farm in Patagonia, Argentina and moved back to family land to start Longhaul Farm in 2011. They are a micro-farm (with one acre in vegetables, three in livestock, and a CSA of fifty families) — a model that they believe is accessible to those who want to grow their own food and live more sustainably. They believe the current food movement is incredibly hopeful; the start of a rising ecological consciousness that can be a springboard for a movement to promote progress across many sectors of our society – and this is what the Ecological Citizens Project is all about.  

This week on Greenhorns Radio, our guests are Effie Rawlings and Todd Darling. Todd and Effie were both involved in the Gill Tract protest, and the film that came out of this conflict, “Occupy The Farm.”  They are excited to talk about the Gill Tract, food justice and organization tactics, as well how they captured this work on film. OCCUPY THE FARM tells the story of 200 urban farmers who walk onto a publicly-owned research farm and plant two acres of crops in order to save the land from becoming a real-estate development. This direct action set up a vibrant tent village on land destined to become condos, while their crops blocked the development plans of a cash-starved public institution, the University of California, Berkeley. Their confrontational, yet hopeful tactic raises important questions: What are the most effective ways to bring healthy food to hungry, urban neighborhoods? And, who should control research and education at the world’s most important public university: private interests or the public good?  

Sage Dilts owns and operates Barn Owl Bakery alongside her husband, Nathan Hodges. After earning a B.A. in Community Planning and Development, Sage spent time in politics and the non-profit sector working on food and nutrition issues. Then, looking for a more direct way to manifest her ideals about functional food systems, she began her baking in the Headland Center for the Arts in the Marin Headlands, working with Eduardo Morel of Morel’s Bread. The focus on small scale wood fired naturally leavened whole grain bread was the inspiration for her own baking when she moved to Lopez Island in the summer of 2011. After baking out of a small apartment in a 100 year old barn she moved to a wood fired oven at Captain Kenny’s house. Then, in the summer of 2012, Nathan built the bakery and wood fired oven and Barn Owl Bakery was born. Nathan Hodges is the baker and all-around business helper for Barn Owl Bakery. After earning a B.S. in Environmental Science and a M.L.A. in Landscape Architecture, Nathan got charmed into managing the oven, chopping all the fire wood and baking the bread when Sage was pregnant with Eden and hasn’t looked back ever since. Nathan heads the grain trials and works with farmers on Lopez to grow more and more of the bakery’s grain. He is also a land artist and environmental consultant, look for his work at  nathanrhodges.tumblr.com and nathanhodges.net. “It’s physically demanding work, and there’s a lot of variables that we deal with bake to bake…that makes it hard to scale up to a point of kind of an anonymous wholesale product.” [10:55] – Sage Dilts  

On today’s episode of Greenhorns Radio, Megan Talley is coming to us from Spring Creek Farm in Alaska. Spring Creek Farm is a project of Alaska Pacific University, “which cultivates sustainable produce for a local market, and trains new growers.” Megan is excited to chat about what it means to farm in Alaska, and the food and agricultural context unique to the state. Megan also comes from a creative arts background, and has much to say on the role of farming and art in the community. “Alaska needs farmers. Alaska is calling you if you’re feeling the pull.” – Megan Talley

This week’s featured farmer on _ Greenhorns Radio _ is Rianne de Beer. When Rianne de Beer was asked to come work as a ships cook for -what was supposed to be only- a month on sailing cargo vessel Tres Hombres ‘because they really needed one at the time’, little did she know she was going to sail the world for the following two years. This dynamic and organic way of evolving is distinctive for the expanding fleet of Fair Transport. The three bro’s, Andreas, Arjen and Jorne, started the whole project with such power full vision and energy, it is hard not to get swept and sailed away by the ‘Tres Hombres’. Even though the hundred feet long wooden Schoonerbrik Tres Hombres has more soul and sailing spirit then any other ship out there, it is also a vessel to carry the message of Fair Transport: Emission Free Cargo Sailing. During the transatlantic crossing of 2014/2015 Rianne was cooking three deserving meals for the fifteen hungry sailors in any kind of weather condition. With only a humble gas stove, no electricity or running water and a limited budget, it was a challenging task to endure. Not only at sea but also at port where provisions had to be purchased. Sailing to remote area’s madeRianne realize that at some places you can’t always get what you want, but more suprisingly at other places where you least expected it, you could. The huge pressure the consumers demand were painfully visible in the strain put upon the local eco system of the visited islands. Rianne de Beer is currently continuing to raise awareness of the importance and effects of consuming behavior in her hometown of Rotterdam. Graduated a BSc in Art Therapy in Leiden and a BSc in Cultural Studies at the University of Amsterdam, Rianne makes use of art and cultural platforms to spread the message of Fair Transport.

Tune in for this week’s episode of Greenhorns Radio with guest Evan Marks. With his formal education and background in permaculture and agroecology, and, having worked extensively in domestic and international domains, Evan knows that people have the ability to directly impact the environment through individual change.  As the founder and Executive Director of The Ecology Center in San Juan Capistrano, Evan and his team focus on activating change through individual and collaborative effort to improve our cultural and ecological environments. As a leader of regional hub, focused on building ecological environments within our household, schools, and workplaces, Evan has the tools to transform just about any space, small and large. His work often focuses on the intersection between individuals, communities and their basic needs; food, water, waste, energy, and shelter, designing solutions to our current environmental and cultural challenges.

_ Greenhorns Radio _‘s featured guest this week is John Chester. While elbow deep in a cow assisting a difficult birth, you’d never guess that John spent the first 20 years of his career making documentary films. As the director of such critically-acclaimed films as Lost in Woonsocket (OWN) & Rock Prophecies (PBS), as well as the star and show runner of Random 1 (A&E) has built many teams in his career, which certainly helps to develop the amazing group of people at Apricot Lane Farms.  John and his wife Molly run the elaborate and integrated operation. John focuses on the 213 acres of orchard floor (grass) and the Integrated Holistic Livestock Program. He also built their unique and active WWOOF program. Molly focuses on the fruit selection flavor and the culinary program that turns the fruit into product lines.

Today’s featured guest is Ryan Power. Ryan Power farms where he grew up in Sebastopol, CA.  He attended the apprenticeship in ecological horticulture at the Center For Agroecology and Sustainable Food Systems in Santa Cruz, CA. He spent time on a small farm in New Mexico learning to use draft horses, which he then used for the first four years farming in Sebastopol. Now, as co-owner of New Family Farm, he manages 15 acres of diverse, organic vegetable production, and a side project growing quinoa. 

This week’s featured guest is Sonoko Sakai. Soba noodle maker, advocate, cooking teacher, writer, film industry veteran-the diversely talented Sonoko Sakai has perhaps had an atypical career path, but it’s one that has provided multiple outlets for creativity, seeing the world, and having a voice. Born in New York but raised in many places. For the past 10 years ago, Sakai has focused on culinary arts education, studying soba making in Tokyo, teaching workshops, collaborating with chefs, and fueling her passion for the sustainable production of heirloom grains in Southern California. Sakai’s 2nd cookbook Ricecraft will be published in the Fall 2016 by Chronicle Books.