026 – Putting Your Yard to Bed

026 – Putting Your Yard to Bed

with host Linda Borghi

Farm-A-Yard Podcast logo: orange sun with sunbeams rising over a mound of black dirt with 2 sprouts and a microphone in green coming up out of the soil.
Farm-A-Yard Podcast — It’s a movement… have ya heard?

How do you put a yard farm to bed for the winter?  Linda shares about her passion to take care of the soil. The earth likes to be covered all the time. Learn some ways to keep the soil covered.  Why? Because we are growing more than plants, we are actually growing soil the year round. What we do in this season will make a big difference when it’s time to plant again in the spring!

This podcast is made possible by funding by our Patreon supporters.  

For extra free content or to become a patron please see us at https://www.patreon.com/FarmAYard

Links:

Music credit: “Insomnia” by John Sheehan.  Used with permission.

017 – Preparing for the Fall Season on a Biodynamic Farm

017 – Preparing for the Fall Season on a Biodynamic Farm

with host Linda Borghi and guest Stewart Lundy

Farm-A-Yard Podcast logo: orange sun with sunbeams rising over a mound of black dirt with 2 sprouts and a microphone in green coming up out of the soil.
Farm-A-Yard Podcast — It’s a movement… have ya heard?

What an exciting interview! Stewart and Linda discuss what preparing for fall looks like when using biodynamic methods. The shift in the fall, is about reaping the harvest but also about the importance of opening the earth to breathe. You can learn the techniques, but more importantly, learn why it is SO valuable to build the health of your soil.  Vital practices like these grow plant relationships for producing nutrient dense food.  You can do the same even with a 3×3 plot!  Experience what “life force” in food tastes like when you grow your own veggies! There will be no turning back!  You’re invited to the Perennial Roots Farm Workshop in Virginia, Friday October 20th!  Save the Date, details below.

This podcast is made possible by funding by our Patreon supporters.  

For extra free content or to become a patron please see us at https://www.patreon.com/FarmAYard

Links:

Music credit: “Insomnia” by John Sheehan.  Used with permission.

016 – Canning and Preserving: Capturing the August Sky

016 – Canning and Preserving: Capturing the August Sky

with Linda Borghi

Farm-A-Yard Podcast logo: orange sun with sunbeams rising over a mound of black dirt with 2 sprouts and a microphone in green coming up out of the soil.
Farm-A-Yard Podcast — It’s a movement… have ya heard?

“Fresh, summer tomatoes, fruit, green beans…I wanted to have that taste in February. I also wanted the taste of love in a jar”, says Linda who has been canning to capturing the August sky for many years.  Learn the details of Linda’s efficient one step process and how to have an outdoor canning station to capture your own unique taste of summer!

This podcast is made possible by funding by our Patreon supporters.

For extra free content or to become a patron please see us at https://www.patreon.com/FarmAYard

Links:

Music credit: “Insomnia” by John Sheehan.  Used with permission.

What Really Matters in 2017?

What Really Matters in 2017?

 I’m glad you asked…

For me it’s food freedom….and having fun with food makes that happen!

My urban farm handle is Freedom Farms.  My farm is indeed a bit different than most. I farm here in North Carolina in several small plots around the city. Some are in public places, some at businesses, some in pots, some in other people’s yards.  I have found out how easy it is to grow food anywhere.

I specialize in keeping it simple, working with the resources at hand and adapting my plans to nature’s ways.

Why?

Because it means less work!

I’m a permaculture practitioner…that means I am practicing…

yes, practicing and learning how nature does things and then working to copy that.

What’s Permaculture? It’s amazing how many different answers you can get when you ask that question.  Permaculture for me is all about relationships and observing the dance of nature and learning to dance with her!!

Permaculture involves a lot of observation in order to design permanent foodscapes that mimic nature’s synergistic relationships, which will, over time, nearly take care of itself.  Also, BioEnergetics has made my efforts much more productive because the more you feed the soil, the more the soil will feed you!!

This week I went on a foraging treasure hunt, while walking my neighborhood for the free pecans that litter the lawns and streets.  I was dancing with the squirrels!  I got all I needed for the winter!

I also got a bag full of Muscadine grapes and Kiwi from a huge vine at the local college, where earlier, I also harvested blueberries in the spring! (I also met a new permaculture friend!) I even got to sample a burst of flavor from some fall strawberries in one of my public gardens.

Life is good.

Then, was I surprised, at one of the businesses I grow at, to find a delicious sweet, 2-3 inch in diameter, guava type fruit that I had never tasted before and I harvested a whole grocery size bag from 2 small bushes!

Why are we not all growing this plant??!!

(I am in the process of identifying the plant and will keep you posted!)

All you have to do is wash them and throw them whole, skin, seeds and all (no peeling necessary) into the blender and make a smoothie, or cook them down into a wonderful stewed fruit compote to top yogurt, hot oat bran cereal or use as a filling for a Thanksgiving cobbler! (can you guess what I’m going to do?!)

And guess what?  This summer, the palm trees in front of one of my business locations had incredibly sweet palm fruits!

Awe…the simple pleasures.

Food Freedom means a lot of things to me and as a Food Freedom writer, I hope to inspire you to action to grow some of your own food.

Maybe even YOU might decide to establish a rouge perennial plant that can surprise someone and offer them an experience of exquisite delight!

For me, that’s…  “What Really Matters in 2017”  🙂

Tell us in the comments below, “What Really Matters” to YOU in 2017?