From Big Apple subways to Wisconsin cattle to medicinal forests
Tag Archives: Podcast
Deep Roots Radio interviews with ranchers, farmers, policymakers, teachers and scientists, film makers and chefs, authors and home-makers. They all help connect the dots between what we eat and how it’s grown.
Success with Stockdogs Part 2 - Different herding breeds trained for different work
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My Siggy is a Corgi, a herding dog. We practice rotation grazing on our farm because our commitment is to 100% grass-fed beef. Our practice is to move cattle slowly and calmly from pasture to pasture. No loud noises or running allowed! How do I train Siggy to work more gently with my BueLingo cattle?
In this second Deep Roots Radio installment, Denice Rakley, of Clearfield Stockdogs, describes how she trains herding dogs to bring out the special traits of their distinct breeds. She also stresses the importance of knowing the proven behaviors of the dog’s immediate parentage.
Border collie at work!
Corgi herding dog
Old English Sheepdog
Puli stock dog
German Shepherd
Rottweiler
In Part 3, Denice will explain what to look for when acquiring your first stock dog or puppy.
How international trade hits local farms and your grocery bill, with Josh Wise, Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy
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NAFTA, TPP, TTIP – a puzzling alphabet soup of international policies that leave me scratching my head. What do they have to do with my farm – a 72-acre operation with a herd of 40 BueLingo beef cattle? How does international policy affect my very small family farm committed to 100% grass-fed beef, and sustainable practices, such as rotational grazing?
Our BueLingo cattle grazing lush pastures
How do these policies affect the operations and profitability of other small- to medium-scale family farms producing grains, vegetables, fruit or other livestock?
In this Deep Roots Radio interview, Josh Wise, Development and Communications Director for the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy, outlines how international policies, such as the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) affect a family farm’s ability to compete in the local marketplace, and how this shows up in your grocery bill.
Headquartered in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and with offices Washington, D.C., IATP was founded during the farm crises of the mid-1980s. The organization works at the intersection of policy and practice to ensure fair and sustainable food, farm and trade systems. It is committed to advancing policy solutions—locally and globally—to some of the world’s most complex problems in order to promote resilient food, farm and trade systems, and the agriculture and trade policies that benefit farmers, ecosystems, and social justice.
Prior to joining IATP, Josh was the Executive Director of the Minnesota Fair Trade Coalition, and most recently the Executive Director of One Voice Mixed Chorus. While with MNFTC, Josh led the organizing and lobbying effort in the Midwest to oppose the fast track for TPP and the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP).
Success with Stockdogs (herding dogs) Part 1: their value to the farm/ranch, and the unique dog-handler relationship
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Border collie at work!
In this first of three Deep Roots Radio interviews, stock dog trainer and border collie breeder Denice Rakley describes the special human-dog communication needed to bring out the instincts of herding dogs, also known as stock dogs. Owner and operator of Clearfield Stockdogs, Bennington, Indiana. Denice will hold demonstrations on April 26, and a three-day workshop for all levels on April 27, 28, and 29. Another workshop is scheduled for the fall. To learn more, go to Clearfieldstockdogs.com, or Facebook, Success with Stockdogs. I hope you enjoy this interview.
The American Kennel Club recognizes 18 breeds of herding dog. There are dozens more, however, used throughout the world. These dogs help move flocks of sheep, cattle, and even geese. My Siggy, a Welsh Corgi, needs lots of training, but even now, his instincts help by keeping cattle at a distance so that I can move hay or tend to a calf. He’s part of our sustainable farming effort!
Herding dogs are divided up into three general categories, and Siggy is a driver, nipping at heals to get the cattle moving. The border collie is an example of a gatherer, rounding up flocks of sheep and moving them through gates. And still others, like German Shepherds, act like living, moving fences making sure their livestock charges stay within certain pastures and out of crop land. We’ll chat more about the differences among the breeds in Part 2 of this series.
Part 3 will focus on the key attributes to consider when purchasing your first herding dog or puppy.
Border collie pup
Old English Sheepdog
Corgi herding dog
Puli stock dog
German Shepherd
Rottweiler
You can enjoy dozens of Deep Roots Radio podcasts by listening online or downloading from this website or iTunes. Deep Roots Radio is broadcast and streamed live from the studios of WPCA Radio, 93.1FM (in and around Amery, WI) and via the Internet at www.wpcaradio.org.
Amery 3rd-5th graders use scientific research to build art exhibit featuring Wisconsin bugs, bats, bobcats and more
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In this Deep Roots Radio interviewed, Jessica “Turtle” Manderfeld describes the pictures and skills displayed by 3rd, 4th and 5th graders excited by the insects, animals and birds of their native Wisconsin. The exhibit, which runs until the end of April, is sponsored by the Farm Table Foundation in partnership with the Amery School District’s Amery Inquiring Minds program, the Natural Heritage Project, and the local Power Up 4 Kids effort. The young artists used this project to develop their research skills, work in teams to create their art works, and then learn how to describe their work to a small jury, and well as to all the adults who attended the exhibit’s opening night reception at the Farm Table Foundation.
I hope you’ll enjoy the interview, and urge you to visit the exhibit. I’m really glad about this collaboration to connect activities and values that make learning fun.
March 28, 2018 honey pastry chef challenge spotlights threats to bees, impact on ag and food supply, and delicious solutions
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I can’t wait: on March 28th, 2018, I’ll be one of several people confronting a tough assignment. We’ll have the enviable job of judging honey-based pastries created by some of the top women chefs in the Minneapolis/St. Paul, MN metro area and nearby Wisconsin.
You’re invited to savor the dozens of sweet and savory foods featured at the 5th Annual Dandelion Honey Pastry Chef Challenge, and event created to train a spotlight on the critical role bees and other pollinators play in American agriculture. (Details)
Unfortunately, honey bees, along with the more than 400 native Minnesota bee species and many types of flies, are suffering shrinking numbers due to pesticides and herbicides used on farms and gardens, disappearing habitat, and disease. Without them, dozens and dozens of food crops wouldn’t be pollinated, and we couldn’t enjoy almonds and other nuts, apples and pears, watermelon and squash, strawberries, cotton and tomatoes, just to name a few.
I hope you’ll enjoy this Deep Roots Radio conversation with Kristy Allen, founder/CEO of Beez Kneez Delivery LLC, the Minneapolis-based organization that created and runs this event, and offers beekeeping classes, equipment and local honey.
Becca Griffith: Minneapolis/St. Paul Weston A. Price Foundation chapter brings together great food, people, science and practical know-how
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There’s nothing like a gathering of like-minded people – especially when the get-together includes delicious foods created with highly nutritious ingredients. When it’s a meeting of Weston A. Price Foundation chapter members, participants share deep commitment to foods grown to restore the environment, cooked and baked to boost flavor and health.
Cattle grazing lush pastures
These are the hallmarks of the monthly meetings of the Minneapolis/St. Paul chapter of the Weston A. Price Foundation, one of approximately 600 chapters worldwide. Held the second Saturday of each month, the Minneapolis/St. Paul meetings are organized and led by Becca Griffith and Susie Zahratka. Chapter members and guests travel from around the metro area to share a potluck, hear a short program, and purchase locally-produced vegetables, fruit, free-range chicken and eggs, wild-caught salmon, grass-fed beef, and pastured pork and lamb from local farmers.
I trust you’ll enjoy this Deep Roots Radio interview with Becca. And I hope you’ll look for the chapter closest to you.
America’s farmers are getting older. In fact, the average age is about 57 years old. It’s an age at which many American workers look forward to retirement – putting long commutes, desk jobs, office politics, or hard work at a factory behind them.
Retirement, when you’re a farmer, looks significantly different because it is often a 24-hour-a-day preoccupation. It’s not only where you work, it’s where you live all day, every day. It is very much about soil under your nails, wind in your face, animal sounds (and smells) in your head. It’s about decades of caring for land and water, and scheduling your activities and life’s events in accordance to the seasons. How do you shift away from that? Or, how do you try to reduce some of the labor while staying in your home, the farm house?
Given that most health insurance in America is tied to off-farm jobs, how do you, a retiring farmer, afford health care? And what will you do about taxes?
And how do you transfer land to the next generation already struggling with student loans??
These challenges, and opportunities, are the focus of two Deep Roots Radio interviews with Karen Stettler, Farm Beginnings Program Organizer for the Land Stewardship Project (LSP). Founded in 1982, LSP is a private, nonprofit that promotes stewardship for farmland, sustainable agriculture, and sustainable communities.
I hope you enjoy the interviews. Part 1 describes the challenges, and Part 2 describes an upcoming 3-part course to help farmers identify and begin to address key issues for this life – and land – change.
45th Parallel Distillery - WI, award winning, world-class and committed to local
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When you think scotch, whiskey, bourbon, vodka, brandy – what comes to mind? Maybe Makers Mark, Jamison, Wild Turkey, Dewer’s, Korbel? (To name a tiny few.)
And where does your mind go? For me, it’s Scotland, Ireland, Russia and Poland, Kentucky, and California for the brandy.
It was almost two years ago, to the day, that I was visiting organic and sustainable livestock family farms in England, Ireland and Wales, and had the good luck to be treated to a hot glass of slightly sweetened and barely buttered Irish whiskey. My host and I were seated by a small fire after a full day of touring farms and meeting musicians and civic leaders in wet and blustery Wexford.
That experience stayed with me, so it was with great joy that I learned about 45th Parallel Distillery, a craft operation in New Richmond, Wisconsin – just minutes from my farm and a very easy drive from Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minnesota.
I hope you enjoy this Deep Roots Radio interview with 45th Parallel’s founder and CEO, Paul Werni. He brings a passion, commitment to local sourcing and collaboration, and a team to the business that’s proven out in regionally- and nationally-recognized spirits.
The tough challenge of transitioning land from retiring farmers to the next generation - w Land Stewardship Project
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The average age of the American farmer is nearly 60. An entire generation of growers – of commodities, specialty crops, dairy, and livestock – are staring retirement in the face and the transition is often a tough one for many reasons. Not only does the older farmer confront the end of a loved career, but perhaps a dislocation from the land he or she has lived on for decades, or an entire lifetime.
Just as critical is the challenge young people face as they try to acquire land so that they can begin farming.
In this Deep Roots Radio interview, Karen Stettler, the Farm Beginnings Program Organizer for the Land Stewardship Project, probes this sea change in American agricultural.
Who will you be buying food from in the future?
I hope you enjoy this interview.
Sylvia
Weston A. Price Foundation's Sally Fallon Morell: the need to regain childhood and adult health with traditional foods, cooked right
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I usually introduce these Deep Roots Radio podcasts by saying that I hope you enjoy them.
Well, this time I’m taking the extra step to encourage you to listen for the sake of your health, and for the critical dietary needs of every infant and child within your circle of influence.
Over the last few years, news reports have pointed to research debunking long-held food “truisms”: that butter is bad, oils are good, red meat leads to heart failure, cholesterol will kill you, wine is a no-no, children should eat low-at foods, fat is what makes you fat, etc. What we’re learning now is that eggs are good, butter is better, pastured livestock provide critical nutrients, sustainably-produced lard is healthful, we need cholesterol to heal, it’s sugar that leads to obesity, we need to eat some salt, and more.
Bone broth & sourdough bread
In this Deep Roots Radio interview, Sally Fallon Morell, founding President of the Weston A. Price Foundation, explains how her organization taps science and provides cooking instruction to bring traditional foods and their preparation back into households all over the world. Yes, there is lots of scientific research pointing to the life-long benefits of eating like our great-grandparents did.
You can find a wealth of information – documentation and cooking techniques – on the Weston A. Price Foundation website, www.westonaprice.org; in their quarterly journals; Sally Fallon Morell’s books; and at the Foundation’s annual meeting – WISE Traditions – being held in Minneapolis, Minn., November 10-13, 2017.
Sally’s books include:
– Nourishing Traditions: The cookbook that challenges politically-correct nutrition and Diet Dictocrats (2000)
– Eat Fat Lose Fat (2005)
– Nourishing Broth (2014)
– Nourishing Fats: Why we need animals fats for health and happiness (2017)
In 2009, Sally and her husband Geoffrey bought a farm in southern Maryland. P.A. Bowen Farmstead is a mixed-species, pasture-based farm producing award-winning artisan raw cheese, whey-fed woodlands pork, pastured poultry and pastured eggs.
Sally holds a B.A. from Stanford University, and an M.A. from UCLA.
It was a pleasure to converse with Sally, and I look forward to meeting her at the November conference. There’s still time to register.
