Organic Gardener Podcast

  Olivia Shangrow is an Awesome Rockstar Millennial and the biologist and operations specialist for Rent Mason Bees. She completed her bachelor of science degree in biology from the University of Washington. She’s passionate about teaching the public about wild bees and her research focuses on increasing the value of rural and urban habitats for native insects. I can share information on the mason bee lifecycle, what to grow in your garden to support them, and the best ways to care for/host them in your backyard We’re up north of Seattle in Bothel, we do some propagation in Oregon too! We travel a lot but when we’re actually hands on in Washington Tell us a little about yourself. I’ve always been interested in bees my whole life, myself have been hearing the bees are struggling and our bee populations are down.  I just decided when I was finishing school I wanted to do more to help bees and that’s how I ended up running a program where I rent bees. I have to back up a little what made y

So, I heard Thom Hartmann read the actual wording from HR109 about the Green New Deal and thought that’s what I want but it’s taken me over 20 minutes to find the actual text so I’m going to share it with you and you can decide if you want to support it and the Sunrise Movement or not.  So I didn’t really mean to read it all but it was so good I couldn’t help myself and it only took 10 minutes.  Let me see if I can grab the highlights here especially as they apply to farmers and gardeners but the whole thing really applies to any environmentalist and if you listen to my show you probably are an environmentalist.  Based on: the October 2018 report entitled “Special Report on Global Warming of 1.5 ºC” by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and the November 2018 Fourth National Climate Assessment report HR109 Recognizes the duty of the Federal Government to create a Green New Deal Goals: (1) it is the duty of the Federal Government to create a Green New Deal— (A) to achiev

So this is our Organic Gardener Podcast Challenge for 2019: Complete Free Organic Garden Course in 6 weeks. Starting March 11, 2019 and ending on Earth Day April 22, 2019 Join the Private Secret Facebook Group of Green Future Growers and post all assignments each week by midnight Sunday. Complete all lessons, quizzes and bonus assignments. Submit midterm and finals for credit. Receive your certificate on Earth Day Monday, April 22, 2019 to celebrate! Do you want to learn how to improve your soil health? Do you want to know how we built our organic oasis over the years? Would you like extra help finishing Free Organic Garden Course? We know it’s a lot of material because we created it, but we’re here to help you finish and come out with a plan to create and most of all be able to enjoy your own organic oasis in 2019! 2019 Organic Gardener Podcast Challenge Tentative Schedule pdf Watch the video to see the tentative schedule Don’t forget the bonuses as a founding member of the first 2019

I know you are going to love her because she was our Crossfit gardener of the year in 2015! And you have taught me so much! I love all that you do and your delicious food and what you do! And she’s gonna share their new LVFarm Academy Tell us a little about yourself. I am Mandy Gerth! Farmer and co-owner of Lower Valley Farm in Kalispell, MT my husband Jay and I are are going in our 7th year of full time farming. We run, I think we’re at about  4 acres of production all organic primarily sell through a CSA 2 acres of that is using the intensive model that was kind of  pioneered by JM Fortier! I know you had him on your show!  community supported ag winter squash sweet corn potatoes separate rotation then intensive I think that is new since I last talked to you. We go really hard may through oct we run a 20 week vegetable CSA Kalispell Farmer’s Market do a tiny sizable amount of wholesale food aggregate directly to small grocery store chains overview of the farm! We also have 3 school-age

Hey everyone! So watching the news this morning, 1 year anniversary of the Parkland Florida massacre at Marjorie Stoneman Douglas High. The interesting fact about Marjorie Stoneman Douglas for me is that she was a passionate environmentalist! She basically created the Everglades. I never heard of her till last fall, when we read about her in the incredible Wonders curriculum. So, IDK for me I have more of a connection there then to the other shootings in our schools. I wish I had some words of wisdom for you today. All I can say, is I feel like what we need more then anything is to teach kids proper use of social media. It should be our tool to teach them how to connect with like minded friends. I am not a fan of violent war games and I do think video games and television has a huge roll to play. Why we glorify violence? Sex and violence. Anyway off-topic. My mom actually told me about this, but my favorite musician Michael Franti wrote a new song and he was promoting it on the Morning Joe. It’s called

OK, for starters MY BAD! So, Steve Szudera who was my guest in episode 253 talked about nutrient rich soil is going to teach a much more in depth class on building your soil health.  He’s going to give a webinar on the 5 Principles of Soil Health I made the webinar post the other day, sent it out, sent the link to Steve and he said, but hey Jackie I told you it’s on Go-To-Webinar not Facebook. And I was like oh YEAH! So easier for you. You can register here if you haven’t registered yet! Click here to register for the ONLINE Soil Health Webinar Just enter your email and you’ll get an invite with all the info! I also mentioned a couple of things in the news. Alexandria Ocasio Cortez’s green new deal and the Sunrise Movement. I hope you’ll support and tell your Senators and Congressmen this week and be part of the OPERATION GREEN NEW DEAL BLITZ I also mentioned Comedian Lee Camp who talked with Ellen Brown about how Europe is leading the world in renewables because they have these

I’m just thrilled to be back behind the mic it’s January 7th. I have a great guest that was recommended by Lem Tingley from Growing Spaces in episode 256 and here from the Whole Kids Foundation is Nona Evans! Whole Kids Foundation Facebook Page It’s always so much fun to see how seeds that you sprinkled about germinate. It’s so fun to know how we connected! Thank you so much! I reached out to you and you said you checked out the podcast and thought it’d be a perfect fit. Tell listeners about the Whole Kids Foundation  because I had never heard of it! We are on the order of things, a pretty moderate size non-profit organization. We are Whole Kids Foundation  and our mission to improve kids nutrition because we know when kids are well nourished they learn better have the opportunity to reach their full potential. we found 3 ways we are capable of reaching children. 1. salad bar equipment for schools Because the moment you put a salad bar in kids have the power of choice and kid

So, Steve Szudera who was my guest in episode 253 talked about nutrient rich soil is going to teach a much more in depth class on building your soil health.  He’s going to give a webinar on the 5 Principles of Soil Health By the time he’s finished you’ll not just know the difference between dirt and soil but how to make your garden feel like an enjoyable place not a second job! Many of my listeners have shared with me that time is the number one barrier they have to living in their ideal organic oasis.  Steve has secrets that you can learn to do in your garden that will reduce the amount of labor and energy you have to spend because he reduces the need to till the soil and do a lot of that back breaking labor that makes gardening difficult. He also helps you reduce the weeds in your garden which was another question I get a lot so I wanted to make sure if you want to learn more about soil health you knew about his webinar. Mike and I got a little preview yesterday and we were able to really

Snake River Seed Coop and Earthly Delights Farm Internship Program Monday, Martin Luther King Day, January 21, 2019 You are going to love her blog Earthly Delights Farm, at but I invited her here because she runs the Snake River Seed Coop  so here’s Casey O’Leary. Tell us a little about yourself. I’m in Boise, ID I don’t own my own land but I farm on a  3 acre in the city. I farm on about acre and half and share with the landowner who runs a nursery and other farm projects. On our farm we grow about 100 varieties of seed crops for the Snake River Seed Coop   We also have a CSA program I have been doing for the last 15 years, spring and summer 18 week CSA 45 members going a different route, we’re just gonna do a fall CSA pickup. Just one big pickup in the fall of storage crops and instructions on how to store them. Also, spring garden box shares for people who have small urban gardens, we’re making  4×4 garden boxes of seeds and starts I just want to make sure I am understa

Free the Seeds! provides community-powered opportunities to build a sustainable and resilient future through real seeds, real food, and real skills. We look forward to you joining us for our 4th annual Free the Seeds! on March 2, 2019. This year’s fair will be held again in Kalispell at Flathead Valley Community College in the Arts & Technology Building. The fair will open with the seed swap and vendor booths at 9 am. The seed swap will run 9 am–noon. Workshops, booths, and kids’ activities will be held 10 am–3:30 pm, with a 45-minute break for lunch at 12:15 pm. Food will be available for purchase at the event all day. Ready for some inspiration? Check out our workshop videos from the 2017 fair. We look forward to seeing you in March 2019! Free the Seeds! is a program of Farm Hands – Nourish the Flathead, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, whose mission is to reconnect people to the sources of their food and those who produce it through education, outreach, and market support. 2018 Free the Seeds! Las

Happy Anniversary to you Green Future Growers. Thank you for letting me be your host of the I hope to finish up the updates to Free Garden Course and the workbook for you this day or this week at the latest! Free Garden Course.com  Free Organic Garden Course  Let’s get growing! This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis: Spotify Ad Analytics - https://www.spotify.com/us/legal/ad-analytics-privacy-policy/

Andrea Catherine introduced me to Lindsay Jean Hard who wrote Cooking with Scraps: Turn Your Peels, Cores, Rinds, and Stems into Delicious Meals something I’m super passionate about and learning about. She blogs at this place called Food52, which I love reading and I get their emails it’s always exciting! I was just reading somewhere about broccoli stems were even more nutritious then the florets maybe we’re gonna learn more about nutrition too! Well, i don’t necessarily have a nutrition background but there is a lot to be said as far as nutrients and great things in the peels and things that we tend to discard a lot! There’s benefits to not throwing our scraps away!  Oh year I was loving he sugar peels looked awesome because I’m always trying to get more fruit and fiber in my diet and I think there’s a lot of fiber in the peel right? Tell us a little about yourself. My path to where I am now has been an interesting one Like you said I got my masters in Urban Planning

  Today, I’m excited to introduce my guest from Tara Austen Weaver who’s written a book about growing   Growing Berries and Fruit Trees in the Pacific Northwest: How to Grow Abundant, Organic Fruit in Your Backyard I know that you are going to love this because it’s got lots of great tips for anyone living anywhere not just in the Northwest and I’m super excited because last summer I was visiting Nola’s yard last summer because her blueberries were amazing and I am bound and determined to grow some this year! And there’s just so much to learn so welcome to the show! Tell us a little about yourself. My mom had a giant organic garden! I guess I’m sort of a second generation gardener I actually grew up not really liking to garden I liked playing and running around but weeding seemed like drudgery to me! I have all these very visceral memories of just being out in the garden and sunshine, my mom would pop cherry tomatoes into our mouths when we were kids, because we

Today, I’m excited to introduce my guest from Tara Austen Weaver who’s written a book about growing   Growing Berries and Fruit Trees in the Pacific Northwest: How to Grow Abundant, Organic Fruit in Your Backyard I know that you are going to love this because it’s got lots of great tips for anyone living anywhere not just in the Northwest and I’m super excited because last summer I was visiting Nola’s yard last summer because her blueberries were amazing and I am bound and determined to grow some this year! And there’s just so much to learn so welcome to the show! To read the full shownotes click here. Tell us a little about yourself. My mom had a giant organic garden! It wasn’t till I moved to Seattle about 10 years ago that everything fell into place, Seattle has such a giant gardening community!  Everyone here it seems even if they just grow beautiful yards edible ones and everyone is out working and tending vegetables I got bitten by the gardening bug quickly use

I just want you to get  a copy of Orchard House: How a Neglected Garden Taught One Family to Grow I interviewed Tara Austin Weaver and hope to release the full version of my interview today, but in the mean time, I think you should go to your library or local book store and pick up a copy of her inspiring and delightful memoire. You can order her amazing book Growing Berries and Fruit Trees in the Pacific Northwest: How to Grow Abundant, Organic Fruit in Your Backyard   on amazon in advance and while you’re waiting for it to come I recommend you read Orchard House: I guarantee it will inspire you to grow some food, grow some berries, and love your family! It brought back so many memories for me of growing up with mother (and then marrying a man) who never stood still out in the garden. Something always needed (needs) pruned, pulled, weeded or tendered. Her dedication to creating an oasis for her nieces to enjoy and her relationship with her family will probably bring back memories of growing up and s

I’m so excited because is gonna energize us and it’s Sunday January 6th and I just talked with Lindsey Jean Hard yesterday who wrote the book Cooking With Scraps! Cooking with Scraps: Turn Your Peels, Cores, Rinds, and Stems into Delicious Meals Hi everyone! I’m glad you got a chance to talk to Lindsay Jean and I interviewed her and it was really valuable. I have the cookbook in hand! Today, I want to share what I am up to in this transition the holidays I’ve been making things like polenta And craving cooling herbs mint cilantro coconut! Shredded coconut and coconut milk recognizing my body’s wanting to cool off from the inflammatory foods of the holidays! IDK if anyone is experiencing that. I can totally relate except in a different sense. I was really good during the holidays, it’s more of an after the holidays problem. I went home, had a great  holiday with my family! I hadn’t been the four of us, my parents and my brother and I, and especially with my brother

I’m so excited I have a listener on the line who is going to share a ton of golden seeds! I talked to her before from Florida and she is going to share with us about her Sustainability Project! 1. Tell us a little about yourself. By day, I’m a REALTOR® and beekeeper. I’m also a 3rd generation farmer.  My grandparents owned a 100 acre wheat farm on the prairie in rural Dufresne, Manitoba. My family lived off the land, they grew their food seasonally in a 1 acre vegetable garden. After the local community collectively brought in the fall harvest, they would busily preserve and can their produce for storage in their root cellar. These people were a hardy bunch, they managed to survive the brutually harsh winters with minimal resources using a wood burning stove for heat, crude electric and no running water or indoor plumbing. They kept and cared for livestock and only took what they needed to survive, my ancestors practiced “The Tragedy of the Commons” method.  That’s how they managed to r

I’m so close to wrapping up Free Garden Course.com and I know you are going to love the new one that will take place in a real google classroom! When it’s ready, we’ll have a new 2019 Garden Goals challenge and full color workbook I think you will love! Go ahead and listen to last year’s challenge. There’s a facebook group you can join and even access the google classroom with access code 75yju4. Do you want to save time in your garden? Do you want to grow a garden full of healthy vegetables but feel you don’t have time? Do you struggle to get all the weeds pulled and watering done in the heat of summer when your friends are all headed to the lake? Are you tired of paying the high cost of organic vegetables in the store but struggle to grow your own? Well, our 2018 Garden Goals Challenge will help you find success in your garden journey! Free Garden Course.com So, if you follow me you probably know that I created a Free Garden Course also known as Free Organic Garden Course

Thursday, Dec 27, 2018. I have an old friend from HS on the line, who is a little bit new to gardening, but has had some early success as a neighborhood gardener and a teacher as well! Tell us a little about yourself. I’m an elementary school teacher for 21 years on Long Island. I’ve always been a renter, love to rent!  I always say, I’m the best renter you could ever have! Then at 47 bought a house with my husband and my daughter. When we bought the house in our price range, we had to look really hard to make sure there were no structural problems. We wanted unusual things workshop shed shop skimming things in our price range. We weren’t looking, I thought funny in an ad, landscaping old growth plants I thought that was a funny thing to put in. Bought our house dec 31st never looked outside until the spring when my daughter went to kick a ball, and it landed in some kind of thorn bush and that’s how I got into gardening because we had to do land clearing first! I never expected to be doing land clearin

Jim Swanson shares his journey of raising llamas at the Fantasy Land Ranch in Bigfork, MT and raising vegetables in a Montana rain forest climate. Living near the famous Flathead Cherry Orchards on the East Side of Flathead Lake, Jim turns hard work and initiative into a successful life living in Montana’s beautiful outdoors. Tell us a little about yourself. Bigfork (elevation 2900’) is like a rain forrest. We get double the rainfall in Kalispell, same with snowfall, they’ll get a couple of inches in town and we’ll end up with a foot out of the deal. The confluence of the Columbia range runs up there behind me and then there’s the beginning of the Swan Range and where those two ranges meet, is what makes it’s own little weather system there. The lake has a lot to do with it, the extra moisture in the air helps with the greenery and ability to grow fruit. Born in Whitefish grew up in Eureka. Tell me about your first gardening experience? My memory with my first gardening experiences was with Mom, always had a