Regenerative Skills

I’m excited to announce that we've restarted the panel format. Many of you will remember that I used to put together monthly panels with experts on popular topics. The truth is that they can be tough to coordinate and take a lot more planning than regular interview episodes so I let them go while I focused on other projects, but thanks to help from some digital tools and popular requests from listeners, we’re working to bring these episodes back on a monthly basis. So if you haven’t heard previous panel episodes, I’ll give you a quick recap. As part of my role building the Regen ag community in Europe with Climate Farmers, I’m always trying to facilitate access to good information from experienced practitioners in regenerative agriculture. Oftentimes I look to organize these panels around the common questions that come up in our community chats. In other cases I see a lack of clear and concise information around a topic of interest. Other times I hear people referencing the work of other practitioners around the world for opportunities and inspiration and I try to connect them with each other in the Q&A sessions. Another motivation for organizing these is to increase awareness of the practicalities that are behind the aspiration to great achievements in land management. I hope that all of you out there listening to these episodes leave after having heard these episodes feeling that the incredible accomplishments and projects of the people we highlight are achievable and replicable and that you can do things like this too. You may not personally identify with their particular contexts or want to mimic them or their work exactly, but I hope you might find a point of connection in their stories and their journeys. Every project starts as an idea or a dream or a feeling that is nurtured into its potential by the people and communities that have skin in the game and dedicate their time and efforts to co-create that potential. With that said I want to introduce the panel and our speakers for this episode. So today we’ll be exploring the challenges and opportunities in mixed enterprise farming. By that I mean farms that sell and range of products, especially of different food categories such as cereals and cattle, or market garden and laying hens and agrotourism and farm tours. I was really lucky to get three farmers together from very different regions who are pioneering diverse enterprise farming on their land. Now it’s not usually the case that the farmers I get to speak with are people I’ve met in person or farms that I’ve physically visited, but in this case I’ve been to and even ran some events and projects with each of the farmers who I’m speaking with. Maria Gimenez comes to us from Wilmers Gaerten just south of Berlin Germany. Francisco Alves comes from Herdade de Sao Luis, Porcus Natura in Alentejo Portugal, and Ariane Lotti joins us from Tenuta San Carlo near the Tuscan coast in Italy. They each give much better intros of themselves and their farms than I can so I’ll let them do that, but before we jump into the panel, you should know that there’s a video version of this panel that includes the Q&A session in this last half hour which I am clipping off here for the podcast version. You can find that on the Climate Farmers YT chanel and if you happen to be an active farmer anywhere in Europe, you can also join the Climate Farmers community for free and participate in the farmer to farmers learning platform that we’ve built by going to Climate Farmers.org The community is part of a non-profit dedicated to assisting farmers at all levels of their transition to regenerative management.

Long time listeners to this show will know that soil health and deep soil science are not my specialty. I’ve done quite a few interviews on soil over the years, but I’ve usually looked for broader patterns and simple concepts around health soil function, and left the lab work and understanding all the microbes and fungi to others. A few weeks ago however I was invited by my friend Isa to a soil food web alumni gathering. There I met so many fascinating people who spoke about their projects and initiatives with farmers and other organizations which ranged from production and crop health goals, to AI learning and even national security collaborations. One of the many wonderful people I met was Tanja Dekker who is a soil life consultant and educator specializing in adaptive land management, with extensive expertise in regenerative agriculture, sustainable food forest design, and eco-conscious entrepreneurship. She leads her organization, Festina Lente, inspired by the alchemical concept meaning “make haste slowly.” Tanja is passionate about implementing regenerative practices that prioritize environmental health and community resilience. In this episode we cover a wide range of topics from the family tragedy that led her to shift careers and work to restore soil, through her unified theory of the trajectory of the natural world and our role in it, to realizing our potential as a keystone species and the practical steps involved with analyzing your soil and broader ecosystem in order to take actions that enhance its health and vital processes. This episode winds through curvy roads of philosophical concepts and down-to-earth steps for taking action in your own context.

This last week has been incredible for me. After almost 5 years of being connected to different aspects of the work at the farm in La Junquera, first through my connection with Silvia Quarta the leader of Camp Altiplano, the first in the global Ecosystem Restoration Communities network back when I worked at the restoration coordinator, then through collaborations with Alfonzo and Yanniek through the Climate farming community, and also with their incredible staff of Clara, Jeronimo, and Jacobo in coordination and organizing, I was finally able to visit them in person. In the first few days we did some course planning and taught a two day intensive on water resource management for farmers. I stayed a few days to talk about their new collective project to restore the watershed of the Quipar river, and then represented Climate Farmers in a Benchmarks soil health program. It has been surreal to meet the heroes who are working tirelessly to pioneer regenerative management in their semi arid location and to build friendships that go far beyond the occasional zoom call. That brings me to our interview today with Silvia Quarta.

Welcome to the final episode in mine and Nick’s 3 part series on drought. In the first episode we talked about how drought was affecting our two homes at the moment. His home on the island of Tenerife, and my own in Northeastern Spain. We went over the definition of drought and some common myths and misconceptions, as well as the major factors that can make drought more common and severe. In the second episode we turned to look at the myriad of options that are available to mitigate and even reverse the effects of drought focusing first on the sequence of design considerations. We looked into stopping points of drainage and damage, minimizing the need for use, and then capture and retention. From there we take a specific look at small scale to medium scale living space. Apartments and condos all the way up to small homes to homesteads of a few acres. In this last episode we’re going to wrap up the layout of different drought mitigation strategies for medium, large and even regional scales. More than home infrastructure, this session focuses on land management with interventions like earthworks, road and access design, and even restoration of water bodies like rivers and streams. The regional scale is an aspect of drought mitigation that I believe everyone has a responsibility to get involved in, and there is a need for a variety of approaches, from political action and institutional reform, to coalition building, and even direct work on the ground. Hopefully by the end of this series you’ll feel much better informed about what drought really is and some of the many options available to you to create resiliency against this increasingly common and severe occurrence in many parts of the world in order to take action and change the trajectory that your home and your community is currently on.

Continuing with our deep dive into drought, my good friend Nick Steiner and I are going to move now from defining drought and the its myriad of causes and factors that make it worse, to a wide range of solutions and opportunities available to people who are living in different environments and with different access to land and space. You may not be surprised to hear that we ended up running long and so I split the episode into two parts. In this session we cover mostly the order of consideration for a retrofit of a home or even a landscape design geared towards water harvesting and rehydration. Then we look at the options available to people in small living spaces like apartments and condos in urban or peri urban areas. We also start to explore the next size up which would be small to medium sized homes with access to anything from a small garden to a couple acres of land. The great thing about looking at things in this order is that pretty much all the options available to small scale living or land access are also available as you size up. I also think it’s important to explain that there’s no reason you need to own or have access to large amounts of land in order to have a meaningful effect and influence on the water catchment in your local area, or often even more importantly, assist in shifting the culture of water use and abuse that is baked in to many of our modern societies to one of reverence and respect for water and the life it enables. Now, it’s impossible that Nick and I mention and explore all of the options at the various scales of living that we cover in these next two episodes, so please reach out to us if you think there are other possibilities we should be aware of or mention in future talks. We’re always excited to expand our own understanding and have a better grasp of the new and emerging knowledge for working with water.

It’s that time again. In todays’ regenerative round table, my good friend Nick Steiner and I give updates on our respective projects. Him on the Island of Tenerife and myself in the mountains of central Catalunya in Spain. In the update we talk about some of the challenges we’ve been experiencing this year. The big topic at the moment for us, and many other in this area of the world, is drought. Partly because Nick and I live in parts of the world where drought is a common factor we’ve been researching it for some time. In this episode we’ll break down some of the common myths and misconceptions about drought and its causes. We’ll also talk about the link between drought and other common natural disasters such as floods and wildfires and then give concrete examples from our respective home bases. We go into some of the hidden factors that lead to regional droughts and some of the science behind the way water works in the environment to cool the atmosphere and create more moderate conditions in the climate. This chat is the first in a two part look at drought and will set us up for a second episode next week where we’ll break down some of the wide ranges of actions and changes that can make a difference, not only in mitigating the effects of drought but also reversing the trends in the long term and rehydrating your landscape.

Continuing on the journey we started in the last episode, Nick and I went to the next project where we got to install the types of water retention features that we had designed for the previous clients. Together we talk about the joys and the challenges of site where we were creating these earthworks. Over the previous summer the whole landscape had burned in a wildfire and the clients there are especially motivated to mitigate the risks moving into the future. We also got to work with a team with a variety of experiences and talents which contributed to the creativity and the outcome of the project. In just over 3 days of work we were able to build a small infiltration basin in an eroded valley and an infiltration terrace along a fire-prone ridge with many unique features in each. Follow us as we take your through the full process in this episode

We’re starting in a big way with a special episode in which me and my good friend and collaborator Nick Steiner will be taking you along with us on a client visit in the south of Portugal in the very first steps of a water retention landscape project. We’ll be giving you a behind the scenes look at what we do on these jobs, the landscape indicators that we’re observing to inform our concept plans, and all of the essential data we collect while out in the field as we build the initial design for this farm. Southern Portugal is a classic area to illustrate the patterns of drought, flood and fire that are the result of landscape degradation. This mediterranean climate has been getting dryer and hotter in an accelerated way over the last few decades, and the result is failing farms, abandoned villages, and land that is on a downward trajectory. Each day we’ll describe what we’re up to out in the field, offer summaries of the discussions with the clients, describe the landscape features and observations we’re making and even the heavy machinery work that it takes to inform the placement and types of features that can be implemented in order to turn the trajectory of this farm around through watershed restoration. Don’t forget that you can see pictures and videos of our time out in the field on our social media pages and on the Regenerative Skills community on Discord.

Today I want to go back to one of my favorite episodes of the last few years. This was back at the start of the 7th season, so almost two years ago. I was trying out a new format as I headed out on a water retention landscape job, which the episode will explain in a minute. The reason why I’m choosing to re-release this episode now is because I’ve been covering so many aspects around the topic of water over this series, but a lot of it has been pretty theoretical. Honestly, the way that I’ve come to connect with the idea of rehydrating landscapes has mostly been through my work on projects in the field with the farmers and clients that I work for. So for that reason, I’m going to republish two episodes I’ve recorded on jobs in the field. Today’s will be from a ranch project in which I worked on a team from Mark Shepard’s company Restoration Agriculture Design led by Jake Takiff, and next week you’ll come along with me and my good friend and longtime collaborator Nick Stener as we recap some jobs we did out in southern Portugal earlier this year. So let's get started. I was invited to assist on a watershed restoration design and install project with a company that I’ve admired and looked up to my whole career, Restoration Agriculture Development (RAD). RAD is the design and project installation company founded by Mark Shepard, the legendary farmer and author who has helped to define the ambitions through his work and writings such as “Restoration Agriculture” and “Water for Any Farm.” Though Mark wasnt involved with this job directly, I got to work with their team lead, and accomplished farmer in his own right, Jake Takiff from Cedar Springs farm in Hotchkiss, Colorado. In this first episode, I’ll be trying out a new format in which I’ll bring you along for the duration of this project and give detailed updates about how work is moving forward, what we’re learning in the process, and the main takeaways.

In this series on water, the one area that I've left out so far is the urban landscape. In this week’s episode I got to chat with Jerry Yudelson, the author of 13 full-length professional and trade books on green buildings, integrated design, green homes, water conservation, building performance and sustainable development. Dubbed ‘The Godfather of Green’ by Wired Magazine, Jerry’s passion for optimizing the built environment is reflected by his many years of professional experience in the green building and certification fields, serving as an elected LEED Fellow and as president of the Green Building Initiative. He also served on the national board of the USGBC and chaired the Steering Committee for the largest green building show, Greenbuild, from 2004 through 2009. Despite being best known for ecological building design and policy, in this interview we’re going to focus on his book Dry Run, which unpacks some of the best ways to manage scarce water resources and handle upcoming urban water crises. The book explains the most pressing water issues that urban zones face, and examines the vital linkages between water, energy use, urban development and climate change. Dry Run also demonstrates best practices for achieving “net zero” water use in the built environment through, water conservation strategies for buildings, factories, cities and homes, rainwater harvesting, greywater reuse and water reclamation systems, water efficiency retrofits, onsite sewage treatment, and new water reuse and supply technologies. In this interview we specifically address the urgent changes that cities need to make to ensure longer term water security. Jerry explains his classifications of the colors of water that help to categorize the different sources and uses for water in cities that require different management systems, and gives a few case studies of municipalities that have started to make improvements in their aquatic infrastructure.

As the importance of the water cycle to global climate regulation has gained attention in the last few years, I’ve also seen an emergence of voices working to explain the science and the details of the intricate workings and contributors to the nuance of water cycles. One of my favorites and one I’ve come to count on to consistently expand my understanding about working with water is that of Ali Bin Shahid, an engineer turned permaculturalist based in Islamabad Pakistan working to capture the rhythms of nature through quantification. In his substack blog, R3genesis, he writes about topics such as Enhancing bioprecipitation through afforestation, mapping a rain plan for the Valencia region of Spain, how beetles drive ecosystem dynamics, and so much more. His ability to make important connections between small actors in the environment with macro processes in our ecosystem and the ways in which this knowledge can be put to use in our lives. In this conversation Ali and I explore his journey and passion around ecosystem restoration, how his background in engineering is opening new possibilities by modeling landscape hydrology, new technologies that can be used to bridge scientific disciplines for new discoveries, and how these models can inform a new generation of water and climate wise policy and incentive mechanisms.

So much of the conversation around water revolves around its scarcity. Today we’ll get a chance to explore how to manage water regeneratively when the challenge is having too much. As arid zones become drier, the opposite is proving true for humid zones. The North American eastern seaboard is looking like an emblematic case of this. As storms become stronger and charged with massive evaporation from warmer temperatures and a warmer ocean, flooding erosion and saturation are becoming bigger issues. Coastlines as well are struggling with these issues as well as the degradation of their delicate vegetation, and poorly applied gray infrastructure. To get a better understanding of these ecological challenges, I reached out to a good friend Mike Lynn. Michael Lynn is an ecological designer with United Designers International and owner of Eastern Ecosystems. He has worked on numerous projects around the world including large-scale watershed restoration, agricultural and agroforestry production systems, and ecological restoration. Around the Chesapeake Bay in the US, he works with storm water management, ecological restoration, and living shorelines projects. With a passion for education, Mike provides training for a wide array of audiences. Mike has worked in ecological design for more than a decade, starting out with small scale homestead and farm designs to large scale landscape design, watershed management, and ecosystem restoration. Having had a career in public safety, He’s seen first hand the devastating effects of climatic disasters and I recognize that nature based solutions are the way forward. ​ In this episode we’ll not only explore Mike’s fascinating background and path to ecological design, we’ll take the time to focus on the evolving challenges of water management when safe drainage and removal of excess water is the objective over retention and capture.

In this session I hosted a discussion on the importance of restoring proper hydrological function in a landscape and the steps to achieving it with my friends and colleagues at Climate Farmers, a non-profit organisation working to advance regenerative agriculture in Europe. In this panel I got to speak with three of the most experienced and influential educators working on this from a farming perspective. Since landscape hydrology and its proper function is often overlooked in its importance in regulating global temperature, I wanted to focus on this specifically. I was lucky enough to bring together three of the experts that have most guided my learning in this field, Zach Weiss, Nicole Masters, and Mark Shepard. Don’t forget that if you want to see the video of the full event, you can check it out on the Climate Farmer’s Youtube channel through the link in the show notes for this episode. Zach Weiss is the protégé of revolutionary Austrian farmer Sepp Holzer, Zach is the first person to earn Holzer Practitioner certification directly from Sepp. Zach went on to create Elemental Ecosystems to provide an action-oriented process to improve clients’ relationship with their landscape. Elemental Ecosystems is an ecological development, contracting, and consulting firm specializing in watershed restoration and ecosystem regeneration. The firm’s work includes Aquaculture, Agroforestry, Water Retention Landscapes, Terrace Systems, Spring Development, Natural Building, and more. Mark Shepard is the CEO of Forest Agriculture Enterprises LLC, founder of Restoration Agriculture Development LLC and award-winning author of the books, Restoration Agriculture and Water for Any Farm. He is most widely known as the founder of New Forest Farm, the 106-acre perennial agricultural savanna considered by many to be one of the most ambitious sustainable agriculture projects in the United States. Nicole Masters is is an independent agroecologist, systems thinker, storyteller, educator and author of the book “For the Love of Soil.” With over 20 years of practical and theoretical experience in regenerative agriculture, she is also recognised as a knowledgeable and dynamic speaker on the topic of soil health. Her team of soil coaches at Integrity Soils work alongside producers in the U.S., Canada and across Australasia supporting producers and organisations who cover over 24 million acres, to take their landscapes to the next level in nutrient density, profitability and environmental outcomes.

Continuing today with this ongoing series on waterway regeneration and a deep dive into marine ecosystems, I had the pleasure of speaking with Brian Von Herzen. Brian is an ocean scientist, engineer and entrepreneur, though much of his career has been in Silicon Valley where he developed innovative technical solutions for companies like Pixar, Dolby and Microsoft. Brian is also the founder and Executive Director of the non-profit The Climate Foundation, an institute working to regenerate life in the world’s oceans and reverse global warming within our lifetimes. Through Brian’s work with the Climate Foundation, he’s been promoting the concept of marine permaculture through ocean seaweed and kelp farming in a way that could potentially revitalize areas of degraded coastline as well as spark a whole new economy around marine ecosystem stewardship. In this interview, Brian starts by explaining just how immense and important the kelp forests of the world are by describing the impact that they’ve had on the ecology of the west coast of the United States. I think it’s so important to regain reference to what our healthy and intact biosphere used to be, because all of us alive today have almost no reference to what our natural world even looked like before humans started to alter and degrade it so severely. Brian also breaks down what it could mean for the economy and health of the west if these underwater forests could be regenerated and cared for. We also explore some of the challenges in getting sea farming and ocean permaculture projects started and especially funded, since the initial costs are often much higher than land based initiatives. We cover a lot of ground in this talk and even touch on topics like how marine farming fits into a regenerative economy and what those of you listening can do to support and even start your own marine permaculture projects, so be sure to stick around for some great action steps by the end.

Today I want to continue with a deeper dive into the topic of water, literally, by going to the furthest point downstream, where terrestrial water enters the ocean. Marine ecosystems are much less understood by the general public for a variety of reasons, but our actions on land have a direct effect on the health of our oceans too. Luckily there are incredible teams of people looking to address these issues with promising new solutions and over the next couple of episodes I’ll be highlighting a few of them. To get things started I spoke to Joost Wouters, an entrepreneur, speaker, author and the ‘Sea’EO of the Seaweed Company. I got to know Joost first as a co-instructor with me on the Ecosystem restoration design course through Gaia Education. I was fascinated with his presentation and the compelling data on the potential regenerative effects that seaweed and kelp can have in bringing back the health of coastal areas. In his role with the Seaweed Company, he and his team aim to implement CO2-reducing seaweed-based business models at large scale. It turns out that seaweed is the fastest growing biomass in the world. Seaweed farming itself, if done responsibly, has the power to address many of the ecological challenges we face today, without the use of land, fertilizer, or freshwater. It reduces ocean acidification, promotes marine biodiversity, and even absorbs vast quantities of CO2 from the atmosphere. Seaweed can also create highly valuable end products. It is a nutritious food source for both people and animals and can be used as an environmentally friendly alternative to petroleum-based fertilisers and plastics. At the moment it’s a unique untapped resource, and the goal of the Seaweed Company is to unlock the potential of this wondrous resource to benefit both people and the planet. In this episode Joost starts by explaining some of the urgent issues facing marine environments and how seaweed farming can help to address them. We go over the advantages that growing seaweed has over terrestrial agriculture, the high value products that can be made from different types of seaweed, the many pilot projects around the world that his company has helped to start and much more. Towards the end we also examine the roadblocks that are holding this solution back from being more widely adopted and how those of you listening can learn more and get involved. I’ve personally been learning a lot about marine ecosystems through these interviews and truly hope that a greater awareness will begin to be built around just how essential the health of our oceans is to the health of all life, even to ecosystems that are far inland and away from any saltwater. I’m really excited for this and the next few episodes for this reason.

While the climate change narrative has mostly focused on the concentration of CO2 and other greenhouse gasses in the atmosphere since the industrial revolution, we’ve ignored the essential role that the water cycle plays in regulating global temperatures. In this series I’ll be speaking to an incredible list of scientists, farmers, and restorationists who are dedicated to reviving the precious waterways of the world. From the urban environment to the deep seas, our actions will determine whether or not we preserve our aquatic resources and all the life that depends on them for future generations. In this first episode I got to speak with Enric Sala, a renowned ecologist making a clear case for why protecting nature is our best health insurance, and why it makes economic sense. Enric is the director of National Geographic’s Pristine Seas project (which has succeeded in protecting more than 5 million sq km of ocean and created 22 marine reserves). Dr. Sala has received the Young Global Leader Award by the World Economic Forum, a Research Award from the Spanish Geographical Society, the Lowell Thomas Award from the Explorers Club, and a Hero Award from the Environmental Media Association. In his new book “The Nature of Nature: Why We Need the Wild,” he tells the story of his scientific awakening and his transition from academia to activism. More importantly, he shows the economic wisdom of making room for nature, even as the population becomes more urbanized, and how saving nature can save us all, by reversing conditions that led to the coronavirus pandemic and preventing other global catastrophes. In this interview we begin by unpacking the changes that have occurred in our oceans in the last few decades and how this is affecting people all over the world, even if you don’t live anywhere near the sea. Enric also offers a lot of hope that our oceans can recover if we act swiftly and give them the space and protection to regenerate. I learned a lot from this talk and as I begin to learn more about how marine health is closely linked to terrestrial health, I would encourage those of you listening to examine how your own habits and lifestyle choices are connected to ocean health in ways that can be hard to see.

My guest today is here to demystify one of the aspects of permaculture design that I hear the most questions about, but also one of the issues that I see folks most entrenched in their viewpoints about. I’m talking about earthworks; one of the first aspects that people implement and the most permanent change made in a landscape. Today I’ve got Douglas Barnes, author of “permaculture earthworks” and owner director of EcoEdge Design Ltd. to answer our questions and take the guess work out of the subject of terrain changes. In this interview Douglas talks about the best way to map out contours on the land, some of the most effective ways to harvest rainwater on a site, how to link up various earthwork and containment systems to make them work in tandem, and most importantly, he talks in detail about many of the safety concerns that many people have no idea about when it comes to installing swales and dams.

I spoke with David Spicer, affectionately known as Doc Spice, an accomplished permaculture designer who has specialized in earthworks installation. Having taught and worked on various projects extensively within Australia and internationally, in places such as Morocco, Jordan, Palestine and New Caledonia, Doc has worked in a broad array of different soil types, topographies and climatic zones. He’s also a valued member of the Permaculture Sustainable Consulting team headed up by Geoff Lawton and is registered Teacher #5 with the Permaculture Research Institute of Australia. Doc is a master of practical and logical mainframe permaculture design and he’s pioneered the design of water harvesting and storage earthworks which frames all regenerative farming. In this episode we talk about why it’s so important to invest early on in a project to get your earthworks right because of what it can mean for the health of your land. Doc also shares some insights on his personal design process and what he looks for in a landscape to give him clues as to the most effective interventions on the form of the land. We also cover some of the risks of improperly installed features, the need to draw from as many sources of knowledge as possible and he also gives some valuable advice for people who are new to earthworks on how to get started.

In keeping with the theme of water regeneration this month I spoke to Rob Avis, the co-author along with Michelle Avis of their book in the New Society Essentials series called Rain Water Harvesting. Rob and Michelle founded Verge Permaculture, an award-winning design, consulting and education company in Calgary, Alberta after years of international training in renewable energy and regenerative design. Since its founding, Verge has helped more than 1000 students and clients to design and create integrated systems for shelter, energy, water, waste, and food, all while supporting their local economy and regenerating the land. Through their design and consulting they create havens that produce their own energy and food, harvest water, cycle nutrients, and restore the surrounding ecosystems, enabling property owners to thrive no matter what. With such a broad range of knowledge, experience, and expertise, we focused mainly on rain water harvesting techniques and systems in this episode as an entry into the larger concept of watershed regeneration and revival. In this session Rob explains some of the key components of rain water harvesting systems and the ways that you can treat and filter the water for various uses. We talk at length about why expensive filters and disinfectants are often unnecessary, even for most potable water uses, and the different ways you can keep your stored rainwater clean. Rob also speaks about how rainwater harvesting systems fit into a larger system aimed toward water resilience in multiple living contexts from urban to rural applications. I’ve been a big fan of Verge Permaculture and all their great work for some time now and I’m intending to create a larger series of in depth talks with Rob and Michelle in the future

If at any point you’ve been interested in water harvesting in dryland contexts, it’s almost impossible that you’ve missed Brad Lancaster’s work. His pioneering activities and projects in Tucson, AZ have propelled a movement of water wise landscaping, rainwater harvesting, and smart water reuse all around the world. While so many of the examples I’ve highlighted in this series relate to actions and strategies for working with the land, a huge majority of Brad’s work is focused on the urban and suburban context with everything from roof water, to road and storm drain diversion, and greywater and systems. In the last handful of episodes we’ve explored permaculture earthworks for water harvesting landscapes and keyline design on large scales. As a complement to those topics I got in touch with Brad Lancaster, the author Rainwater Harvesting for Drylands and Beyond, volumes one and two which have recently been re-released as expanded new editions. Brad is an expert in the field of rainwater harvesting and water management whose work I’ve been following for a long time. He is also a permaculture teacher, designer, consultant and co-founder of the non-profit Desert Harvesters, which teaches the public how to identify, harvest, and process many of the native-food plants people are propagating in their areas. He’s also been instrumental in helping to change water management policy and government incentives in the City of Tucson to help others implement water wise catchment and reuse features on their properties. In this interview we cover a wide range of topics from the difference between active and passive harvesting technology and reading the landscape to determine how to work with the natural surroundings, to the increasing importance for water stewardship in non-arid climates and why it’s so important to connect and invest in the place you already live rather than thinking that moving to another place will solve your environmental worries. Brad also gives great advice on home scale water harvesting and storage which are all topics that are covered extensively in his books. He’s done an incredible job with the help of many experts and collaborators to compile tons of resources that are available to help you get started on his website

In today’s episode I spoke with Van Clothier about an innovative and subtle water erosion mitigation technique, and how to build a one rock dam. I know this might seem oddly specific, but after an interview with Brad Lancaster last season, he talked about how he’s been learning from people like Van and his mentor Bill Zeedyk about smaller, less intrusive interventions that can have profound effects on the health of a watershed. The truth is that there are so few watersheds and water bodies left around the world that aren’t highly degraded and in need of restoration. Many of the communities most affected by this damage don’t have the resources to hire engineers and professionals to do survey and undertake large expensive restoration projects. A lot of what Van promotes flies in the face of these large professional technical projects and teaches people how to understand their watersheds and identify the small and gradual work that can be done to improve their health. The one rock dam is a great example of this and so today we’ll be exploring what it is, how it can be installed, and most importantly, how to educate yourself on how to interact and intervene in a damaged waterway in an effective way that doesn’t cause further damage in the long run, like many of these big professional projects do. So a little background information. Van Clothier’s firm, Stream Dynamics, Inc., specializes in turning runoff and erosion problems into water harvesting opportunities with water harvesting earthworks, urban stormwater retrofits, and riparian and wetland restoration in both urban and wildland settings. Van has worked extensively in New Mexico and Arizona on a variety of restoration projects with regional drylands stream restoration and water harvesting experts including Bill Zeedyk, and Brad Lancaster. He is the co-author with Bill Zeedyk of the book Let the Water Do the Work: Induced Meandering, an Evolving Method for Restoring Incised Channels, Recent projects include designing water harvesting stormwater retrofits for the City of Santa Fe, and restoring a very large ciénega (desert marsh) in the bootheel of New Mexico.

I had done one other episode in the past on the topic of floating wetlands that I’d like to revisit today as we continue with this series on regenerative water solutions. In today’s episode I got to speak with Bruce Kania of Floating Island International which developed their patented Biohaven floating island technology as a solution to algae-ridden and nutrient impaired waterways since 2005. Since then they´ve launched over 9,000 island systems worldwide as solutions to a variety of problems facing contaminated water. In this interview Bruce breaks down the chemical and biological processes that happen in the water when there’s a heavy nutrient load and how it affects the balance of oxygen and the lifeforms that depend on it. He tells me how the floating islands that he’s helped to develop work to cycle the nutrients of polluted waterways back into the food web that then fosters the beneficial life forms that are emergent elements of healthy water ecosystems and that mature to help the whole system and surrounding ecology to thrive. We also take a look at the case study of Fish Fry Lake in Montana and how it’s gone from a polluted lake with regular algae blooms to become the most productive wild fishery in Montana where people can even swim and snorkel! Be sure to stick around till the end of the interview as Bruce explains just how big the potential of these floating wetland systems is as he’s looking to develop inhabited floating islands that help to filter and clean the great plastic garbage patches in the Pacific ocean and the possibility of creating floating solar farms that function as new real estate as well.

Today we’re going to take a look at fresh water systems and specifically, how to decontaminate them through biological methods. Some of you may remember an interview I did with Tom Duncan about his floating wetlands and how they can be used to clean up excessive nutrients and pollutants back in season 1. Today I’ll be expanding on that technique since it´s gained a lot of traction and floating islands are popping up all over the world to help deal with contaminated rivers, lakes, and ponds. I’ll be sure to put a link to that interview in the show note on the website in case you missed it. For this episode I reached out to Galen Fulford, the managing director at Biomatrix Water, a biological technology company working on solutions for waterway and wastewater treatment based in Moray, Scotland. In this interview, Galen explains the science behind waterway contamination evaluation and the calculations they do to determine the restoration approach and techniques that are appropriate for each site. He also breaks down how their floating wetland systems work and how they compare and differ from traditional wetlands in the way they decontaminate water and provide habitat and sanctuaries for wildlife. We also explore the challenges that installing floating wetlands in urban environments can entail as well as some of the novel solutions in engineering that Biomatrix Water have developed to help their installations withstand events like floods and heavy contamination loads. This is a great episode for people who really want to understand the biology and engineering behind some of the most promising natural waterway remediation techniques being pioneered today. Make sure you listen all the way till the end too when Galen explains how these floating wetland systems are being applied to ecological sewage treatment and municipal water purification.

One of the most crucial natural environments for the health and stability of landscape hydrology are wetlands. They also usually happen to be areas of the highest density of wildlife and biodiversity when they are healthy and functioning well. At the same time wetlands in all their different forms are highly endangered, being the targets for milenia of drainage and infill in order to make use of them for cultivation. Yet recovering and rebuilding wetlands is not only possible, it can be an affordable and context appropriate way of regenerating the health of entire water catchments as well. Here to shed light on the topic of wetland construction and design is Tom Biebighauser, the founder of Wetland Restoration and Training LLC which was was established in 2014 with the mission of encouraging and helping people to build naturally appearing and functioning wetlands. Tom had heard from many landowners and natural resource managers that it was almost impossible for someone to learn how to build a wetland, and that actually building wetlands was extremely expensive. To make matters worse, the few people building wetlands were using techniques with a success rate of less than 50-percent. Tom learned how to build wetlands, streams, ponds, and lakes the hard way through trial and error. Building his first wetlands in Minnesota in 1979 while working for the US Forest Service, he has since built thousands of wetlands. Less than one-half of the early wetlands he built held water as planned. Over time, through much anguish and relentless work, he developed innovative techniques for constructing wetlands that are consistently 100-percent successful and low cost. Tom Biebighauser has been enthusiastically restoring wetlands, lakes, streams, and rivers since 1979. He has designed over 10,000 wetland projects and has successfully supervised the construction of over 3,000 wetlands and streams in 26-states, 3-Canadian provinces, Mexico, New Zealand, Puerto Rico, and Taiwan. Tom enjoys leading workshops where participants can learn about wetland restoration by designing and constructing wetlands from start to finish. Tom has developed highly successful and inexpensive techniques for restoring wetlands and streams that should last forever without maintenance and that provide habitat for endangered and threatened species. In this interview Tom and I go into quite a lot of detail about wetlands, covering the range of configurations and biomes they appear in, and how prominent and integral to landscape health they have been in areas we now consider arid and degraded. We explore the criteria for selecting a wetland construction site, as well as the design criteria and process in order for it to fit well and function in any landscape. Tom also explains the all important maintenance and monitoring process once the wetland is installed and we even explore the unique opportunities that exist to integrate wetlands into farms, schools, communities, and many other managed landscapes that have traditionally drained and dismantled wetlands in the past. This episode is going to kick off a series of water focused episodes, some of which I’m bringing back from the archives because there are many new listeners who haven’t heard them and they’re worth revisiting, and new conversations as well as I look into the specific context of water management challenges and potential here in Spain and the Iberian Peninsula. I also have some exciting announcements that will be rolling out at selected intervals throughout this series. It’s still a little early to say, but I can tell you that if you’re passionate about supporting regional scale water regeneration and the possibility of turning this type of work into a career, then be sure to stay up to date during this run.

Continuing with my series highlighting badass local people around my community here in Spain, I was really pleased to be able to share this conversation that I had with a new close friend of mine and soil health advocate extraordinaire, Isadora Shmidt. I was first passed Isa’s contact by another good friend, Noemi, who is also part of the Soil Food Web graduate network. Isa created Terra Viva, her consulting and soil analytics company operating from her home base of Manresa, a small city about an hour west of me. She has a very diverse background which you’ll hear in a minute but principally she describes herself as a microbe farmer, driven by a deep concern for food security and a love for the natural world. She dedicates her work to regenerate soil health through the power of microbes and ecosystems. With a focus on tailor-made compost and liquid amendments, she partners with farmers and growers to restore soil microbiota and promote sustainable agriculture. Isa is also passionate about fostering connections within the agricultural community and continuously learning about the latest advancements in soil science. I’ve gotten to know her as an incredible connector who has partnered with many of the institutions and leading practitioners in our region while helping to make connections between all of them in order to advance the broader movement of regeneration in our region. This is another special opportunity for me since she came to my farm to take soil samples for me in this year’s round of measurement and monitoring of the health and ecological function of the farm. I already have a lot of data points from ecological monitoring, and so soil microscopy adds an incredible depth and dimension to the larger story of soil health that I’m working to build. In this episode we start with a quick review of the activities of the day and what we learned together from the initial analysis of the soil samples we took and looked at under the microscope. Isa does a wonderful job of explaining in simple terms the incredible range of life and activity that can be seen in this form of analysis as well as what it means in practical terms. She also shares her learnings and impressions from looking at soil samples from farms all over the region and what it means for the work ahead for the farmers who manage the soil.

I have to admit, there is an unsung hero behind many of my favorite interviews of the past couple years. Connections and recommendations to some of the people who I’ve learned the most from in some recent discussions with people like Phyllis Van Ambraugh, Ben Taylor Davies, Ian Robertson, Ed Brown, and others have all come from a good friend of mine Andre Antunes who you’ll finally get to know on this episode. I met Andre first in a car ride with our mutual friend and the co-founder of Climate Farmers, Philippe Birker, on our way to the first ever company team retreat at a little farm near Dijon in France. Andre and I immediately hit it off for our mutual love of learning from cutting edge innovators in the regenerative space, and his personal experience working as a veterinarian and professional market gardener gave him a grounded perspective on farming that a lot of advocates in this movement are lacking. Since that first meeting we’ve been in close contact as we both work closely with farmers in the company network to assist them in their transition to regenerative management of their farms, and Andre has gone on to manage large transition projects with multinational companies which you’ll hear about very soon. He has also traveled all over Europe making connections in the industry, attending events, and visiting renowned farmers around the continent, always facilitating connections and collaborations, many of which have led to partnerships and events with Climate Farmers. At this point he is becoming one of the best known consultants for regenerative farming in Portugal and I finally made the time to catch up with him for today’s episode. In this discussion we cover a lot of ground from the unique journey he’s taken to get to where he is now, all of the influences and mentors that he has learned from and worked alongside to build up his knowledge and skills, stories from the farmers he works with and the projects he’s helping to advance in places like the Azores islands, and much more. Together we look into trends and hurdles in the regen ag movement in Europe as a way of checking in with how far the movement has come in recent years as well as identifying where we still need to focus efforts to continue to make progress. All in all I’m just thrilled to be able to highlight Andre and his work here because he has also been an invaluable mentor and friend to me and is one of those people who I’m never surprised to find working behind the scenes of some of the most inspiring and innovative projects of recent years.

As I continue to make connections and find people in my local area who are working on regenerative projects and supporting progress in Spain and the Iberian Peninsula, I’ve been amazed at the talented, courageous, and inspiring people that I’ve come into contact with. I’ve already interviewed a few in recent episodes such as Sara Garcia, and Aline Moerbeke, and I’m pleased to add another local badass to that list in today’s conversation. For frequent listeners of this show, you’ll remember that I’ve been through the trainings from the Savory Institute and have integrated Holistic Management as a core practice both in the development of my own farm, and the support and services that I offer to clients. I’ve also been working to connect with the larger holistic management network in Spain. There are now two Savory Hubs on the Peninsula. There’s AleJab who operate mostly in the southwest and Portugal, and two years ago, Hub del Norte opened up based at Curly Creek Ranch in Navarra, the home base and farm of its founder Meghan Sapp. Meghan is the co-Hub leader for the Savory Network and an accredited Field Professional serving the northern Iberian Peninsula. She has practiced holistic management, together with her husband Iñigo, for more than six years on their farm, which recently became EOV verified. Meghan is also a founding farmer of the European Alliance for Regenerative Agriculture, a former negotiator for the UN Committee on Food Security and is part of many local farming and food sovereignty organizations. Meghan has spent more than 2 decades dedicated to the energy and food systems transition as a journalist, policy advocate, entrepreneur, community organizer and project developer as well. For this episode, I had the rare pleasure of hosting Meghan at my own farm, even though we’re in the middle of construction and the place is a disaster. She was passing through in between training events in my area of Catalunya, and I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to show her what my partner Alba and I are working on. In this fun and literal fireside chat, Meghan tells her unique story about her journey from running multiple newspapers in California, all the way to farming in the Basque region of northern Spain and teaching holistic land management. We talk about the broad uses and case studies of holistic planning and decision making beyond livestock and farming, the journey of starting Hub del Norte and the work they’ve been doing in the region, the challenges of lobbying for regenerative farm policy at the European Union level, and generally getting an insight into the life and work of someone dedicated to creating a transformation of the agrifood system.

Today we’ll be continuing with the second part of my discussion with Anne Van Leeuwen from Bodemzicht in the Netherlands. In case you missed the first part, I recommend going back for some context where Anne spoke about how she and her partner Ricardo got started in Farming and the evolution of their farm at the original location. In this second half we’ll pick up where Anne begins to talk about their new farm, how they found it, and the vision they have for it’s development. We also talk about the things that they are planning to do differently from the startup of the first farm given the unusual opportunity to start, relatively, from scratch. We explore complementary farm enterprises to ensure regular cash flow, navigating the complexities of human relationships within a multistakeholder business, and by the end we also go over her membership and participation with the European Alliance for Regenerative Agriculture, or EARA, a new lobbying organization working to shape regenerative ag policy at the European Union level.

Today’s conversation is the first of a two part conversation with Anne Va Leeuwen from Bodemzicht in the Netherlands that I’ve been looking forward to for quite a few years. Anne and her husband Ricardo and I met for the first time at the first Climate Farmers conference in Germany 3 years ago. By then they were already building a reputation in the Dutch regen ag scene as leaders and innovators. Since then they’ve continued to take a leading role in bringing visibility to regenerative farming, the challenges that farmers face, and advocate for the creation of a regenerative agrifood system in the Netherlands and beyond. At the core of their advocacy has been the inspiring example of their own farm which not only produces high quality produce and animal products for locals, but has served as a hub for training, presentations and community gatherings since it began. I organized this interview with Anne as she and their organization have just completed a move to a new farm location. Their tenure at their original site was up and we had been in communication throughout their process of looking for new land and all of the planning, preparation, and logistics involved with moving their operation to a new place. Now that they’re getting settled, I was excited to have Anne share her learnings and experience from the process on this show. Beyond the moving experience, Anne and I also cover a lot of other topics which range from the learnings they’ve gathered in the previous years both in pioneering their innovative farm model, regenerating their environment through conscious cultivation and care, navigating the challenges in the current farming system in the Netherlands, new cooperative farming models, lobbying for European Agriculture policy reform, and much more.

A couple weeks ago I was invited to speak on a panel discussion about soil health for the release of a new issue of REVOLVE magazine. Established in 2010, REVOLVE inspires climate action by keeping you informed about the circular economy, ecosystem restoration, the energy transition, sustainable mobility and water resources. Their latest episode focuses on the importance of soil and how to restore the health and function of soil through the perspective of researchers and practitioners. Along with Teresa Gimeno a forestry researcher with the Centro de Investigación de Ecologia y Aplicaciones Forestales or CREAF here in Catalunya, and Carlos Ortiz who works with the department of climate action at the Generalitat de Catalunya where he leads the office of fertilizers and manure treatment, were interviewed by Marta Castillo who is a journalist and communications officer with REVOLVE media. I’ll leave it there since Marta gives a great introduction to the panel and each of us as speakers right at the beginning.

Continuing on the theme of last week’s episode in which I spoke with Jessica Robertson about community food forests, we’re going to go deeper into the practical knowledge and skills that anyone can develop to create their own plant nursery, propagate their favorite varieties, and get their own garden or food forest established quickly and cheaply. Joining me for this dive into DIY plant breeding and propagation is David Goodman, better known to his fans as David the Good. David is a gardening author and teacher, focusing on simple methods to grow the most food for the least amount of work. His blog can be found at thesurvivalgardener.com, and he is on YouTube as @davidthegood. In this discussion we’ll take a look at what concepts and realizations helped David to find success in his early gardening and growing endeavors which he uses to this day. David is a big proponent of setting up your own plant nursery and we go into his advice for getting one set up cheaply so you can save money from the garden centers and maybe even make money with it as a side hustle. We also explore the process of selecting varieties and species that thrive in your area and conditions, and the importance of building community through your planting and breeding efforts. I myself am in the process of setting up my own nursery and agroforestry system and I can vouch for the importance of starting your own plants, not only to save money, but to learn a valuable skill and potentially even increase the quality of plants you have access to.

With the growth in popularity around permaculture and food forests, even people without access to their own land are looking into opportunities to come together and create beautiful edible landscapes that everyone can access on public land. Enter community orchards or food forests. These are increasingly being grown on abandoned lots, local parks, or forgotten strips of land that caring neighbors take interest in and decide to grow perennial food and medicine crops on. Yet as the number of people involved grows, and the need to conform to regulations and permit processes, many people can get lost in the complexities during the attempt. To help me better understand these challenges and opportunities, I reached out to Jessica Robertson in Canada who has helped design and install a number of community food forests and helped to illuminate the process from her experience. Jessica is the Owner, Designer, and Head Grunt at Wild Craft Permaculture and a Lead Designer at United Designers International. Jessica has designed holistic permaculture systems for spaces from 200 sq. ft. to 200-acres and works on residential, commercial, and public projects. She is often involved in the implementation of these designs and loves sharing her knowledge with clients as they work alongside each other. She brings a background in biology, education, silviculture and urban planning to her work. In this episode, Jessica shares insights from decades of experience in the permaculture world, showing how people from all walks of life can reconnect with the earth in deeper and more active ways. We'll also work carefully through the process of designing, setting up, and keeping up with community food forests, including things people often forget about and realistic expectations for maintenance. And to top it off, we'll give you some easy steps to create your own successful community food forest right in your own neighborhood.

So much of what inspires me and that I hope to highlight on this show comes from an ever growing awareness of the incredible superpowers that humans have that emerge from our relationship with the natural world around us. Our senses coupled with adaptability, the skill of collaboration and the inventiveness of our creativity have allowed humans to find a niche in almost every major biome on this planet. Whether it’s forming a symbiotic relationship with the semi-wild reindeer of the arctic circle, or coastal people of the tropics evolving superior vision underwater, or our ability to communicate with wild species to understand imminent dangers or changes in the weather, or polynesian sailors being able to navigate through open ocean by sensing the patterns in the waves. Everywhere that humans have made their home, they’ve developed unique ways of understanding, adapting to, and developing deep relationships with the forms of life around them. One of the most outstanding of our collective abilities is being able to manipulate the genes and evolution of the species around us. We’ve done this with animal and plant domestication, breeding, and propagation, and more recently, with advanced technological tools. In past episodes I’ve explored the topic of landrace gardening, low tech plant breeding, and adaptation to your place and context. This is an idea that has captivated me in the last couple years and is informing a major part of the development of my own farm. Today I want to step out of the details of landrace plant breeding to try and understand the broader potential of what partnering with the evolutionary trajectory of selected species in our sphere of influence could look like and the mind bending possibilities that hide in that way of interacting with the environment around us. Here to explore this concept and give ideas based on his own experiences is Shane Simionsen. Shane is a long-time contributor to this podcast so I’ll keep his introduction short and recommend you go back to some previous episodes to hear more of his back story and work, but briefly, Shane is an Australian experimental farmer developing zero input agricultural systems and writing biological science fiction. In this conversation, we’ll be taking a look at what Shane sees as the essential moment in our developmental journey as a species to make use of the temporary ease and convenience of global trade to do the hard work of accelerating our close partnerships with the plants, animals, bacteria, and fungi around us. We take a look at how people from the dawn of our evolution have been doing this and how modern technology can play a role in bringing these cooperative relationships to new heights. We also go into the steps and actions that anyone can take to help create climate adapted food crops and maybe even tackle the next novel domestication project. Shane gives great examples of how he’s running his own tests and experiments on his farm in Queensland, AU and shares his learnings, failures and successes to help set expectations for what a landrace or breeding project entails. His new book “Taming the Apocalypse” is now available in digital and audiobook formats through subscription to his blog on Substack

I’m really lucky that I have been collaborating with book publishers since the early days of this podcast. It gives me access to all of the books from the authors that I interview and the full catalogs of most of the publishers too. As a result I have a pretty good overview of the new literature that comes out on the topics that I focus on in this podcast. Under these conditions, It’s rare that a single book stands out so much in my mind for the quality and importance of the ideas in it, and for the practical examples that illustrate those concepts in a way that someone can put into action. For me though, that book is “Beyond the War on Invasive Species” by Tao Orion. Perhaps I really connected with it because of my work in the conservation corps and the collaborations with the US forestry service and National Park Service on those jobs. The fight against invasives in those circles was very present and left an impression on me in my early career. The idea of fighting against the propagation and spread of a plant or animal never sat well with me though, but I didn’t have a way of expressing my unease about it until I read this book. The world view and perspective on our role as earth stewards that Tao outlines continues to inform so much of my work and experience on my own land. So let's get into it. Tao Orion is the author of Beyond the War on Invasive Species: A Permaculture Approach to Ecosystem Restoration, and "“People as Purposeful and Conscientious Resource Stewards: Human Agency in a World Gone Wild” and Rethinking Wilderness and the Wild: Conflict, Conservation, and Co-Existence. Tao consults on holistic farm, forest, and restoration planning through her company Resilience Permaculture Design, LLC and works as an instructor in the Oregon State University Permaculture program. She holds a degree in agroecology and sustainable agriculture from UC Santa Cruz, and a MSc degree in Climate Change, Agriculture, and Food Security from the National University of Ireland. She lives with her husband, two children, and an array of fruits, vegetables, seeds, nuts, and animals on her southern Willamette Valley smallholding, Viriditas Farm. In this interview, Tao and I dig through the ideas and examples in her first book from the origins of the concept of invasive species, through to the governmental policies that wage war on them in modern times. We look at how species migration has accelerated with human travel technologies and how their spread has mirrored the spread of global trade. Tao describes the paradoxes of demonizing opportunistic and displaced species and gives examples of how we can begin to look deeper into the reasons, conditions, and needs that bring about their proliferation to gain insight how we might look beyond eradication to collaboration in their management. We also talk about some tangible examples that I’m dealing with right now on my farm and local area in an attempt to uncover the hidden potential in the species that the authorities around me are working to control. I know I recommend a lot of books on this show, and for good reason, I stand by all of those recommendations. But if there’s one volume that you really take the time to understand and internalize in your way of observing and understanding the fast changing natural world around us, it’s this one.

world of insects. Though there are only a handful of bugs and invertebrates that humans consider edible, productive, or beautiful, they are an essential element in any healthy ecosystem. All too often the ones that we don’t derive beauty from or direct use from are considered an annoyance at best or actively destroyed and eradicated in all too many cases. It’s long overdue that I highlight just how valuable insects are to out world and our own wellbeing on this show, and to help me to do that in this episode is Vicki Hird. Vicki Hird is the Strategic Lead on Agriculture for The Wildlife Trusts UK and was until recently Head of the Sustainable Farming Campaign for Sustain: The Alliance for Better Food and Farming. She is also a published author and runs an independent consultancy. As an experienced and award-winning environmental campaigner, researcher, writer and strategist working for the past 30 years mainly on food, farming and environmental issues and solutions, Vicki has worked on government policy for many years authored ‘Perfectly Safe to Eat? The facts on food’ in 2000, and has led teams at FoE, War on Want, WSPA and SAFE Alliance. She has co-founded many organisations including Sustain, Hackney Food Partnership and the Eating Better Alliance - and has written and campaigned extensively at a global, EU and national level. Vicki’s other passion is insects and other invertebrates and she has a Masters in Pest Management and is a Fellow of the Royal Entomological Society (FRES). Her new book – ‘Rebugging the Planet-The Remarkable Things that Insects (and Other Invertebrates) Do – and Why we need to love them more’ will be our focus of today’s conversation. Vicki helps me to understand the significance of invertebrates in ecosystems, exploring their role, challenges, and conservation efforts. Together we go over how promoting biodiversity, sustainable practices, and community engagement is crucial to protect these essential species and support whole ecosystem health. We also cover practical actions that anyone can take to support insect habitats in their area such as adopting habitat-friendly gardening practices, advocating for conservation policies, and understanding the impact of individual actions on invertebrates to maintain the delicate balance of nature.

I’ve had the pleasure over the last few months to interview quite a few people that I admire, who’ve told me about their fascination with beekeeping. Over and over again I’ve heard about the incredible insights into overall ecological health and the amazing reflections of ecosystem function that can be observed through managing bee hives. I got a window into the world of natural beekeeping back in May of 2022 when I co-hosted a Climate Farmer’s community event at Wilmer’s Gaerten, a regenerative farm just south of Berlin. Since then I've been looking for an opportunity to speak with Uli Beckman, the instructor on our course on beekeeping and management who helped me to see a whole new possibility in how to promote healthy colonies that in turn promote health ecosystems and people. This is exactly what today’s episode is all about. Uli’s company, Beckmann Urtracht was founded in 2015 with the aim of consistently working in such a way that the beekeeper takes a back seat to the needs of the bees. Today, their principles and way of working far exceed anything required to be certified as an organic beekeeper. Natural propagation, natural honeycomb, built entirely by the bees, natural nutrition and minimal intervention are their maxims. Because with every jar of honey we hold in our hands, we must not forget that the bees did not produce it for us, but as food for themselves. Beckmann Urtracht is the alternative to maximizing yields and obtaining varietal honeys. The end result is an honest, original honey that can only be harvested in small quantities, but is outstanding in terms of quality and taste as well as its ecological and bee-friendly production. In todays conversation with Uli, we start by comparing and contrasting the conventional practices of industrial beekeeping and how they differ from the principles that guide natural beekeeping. From there we go into the details of not only the life cycle and behavioral patterns of bees and how those inform how to manage them well, but also the practical side of building hives that promote their health and the environmental factors that present a real challenge to the future of the species. In the process we also unpack the history of beekeeping in Europe and the innovators how pioneered new management methods based on relationship over extraction. We cover advice on how to get started with your own hive and expectations of time and equipment for keeping bees too. I’m sure that by the end of this episode you’ll come to understand why many of the most influential and insightful people in the world of regenerative land management have become beekeepers themselves.

Despite the popularity of permaculture, homesteading, regen ag, and all these other buzz terms we hear, many of the people promoting these ideas, including myself, are quite new and inexperienced. It’s still rare to find people who can offer insight and wisdom from decades or a whole lifetime of living with regenerative systems. Sure, you can still find quite a few hardy old timers who know a lot about resilience and self sufficiency, but even though there is a ton of wisdom to be gleaned from those life experiences I’ve found many of them lacking in the whole picture, systems level thinking that informs a regenerative world view. I’ve been lucky enough to interview and highlight some of those voices on this show in the past, and today is another example of a person who’s work and life philosophy has been a big inspiration to me. Many of you may know Ben Falk as the developer of Whole Systems Design, LLC, his company created as a land-based response to biological and cultural extinction and the increasing separation between people and elemental things. Life as a designer, builder, ecologist, tree-tender, and backcountry traveler continually informs Ben’s integrative approach to developing landscapes and buildings. His home landscape and the WSD studio site in Vermont's Mad River Valley serve as a proving ground for the regenerative land developments featured in the projects of Whole Systems Design. Ben studied architecture and landscape architecture at the graduate level and holds a master’s degree in land-use planning and design. He has conducted more than 650 site development and land inspection consultations across the US and abroad, and has facilitated dozens of courses on property selection, permaculture design, and resilient systems. He has given keynote addresses and presented dozens of workshops at venues ranging from Bioneers to the Omega Institute. Ben is the author of the award-winning book The Resilient Farm and Homestead (Chelsea Green, 2013) and serves as an Advisory Council for the international regeneration group Ecosystem Restoration Camps, which is incidentally how I first got in touch with him back when I worked with that organization. Today we’ll be going beyond the typical talking points of regenerative design principles, reading the landscape and life hacks for permaculture enthusiasts, partly because we already went over them in the first interview he and I did together a couple seasons ago. Instead, Ben and I explore the reflections he has on over two decades of living the lifestyle that he designs and promotes for others. We look into the biggest learnings that have come from evolving alongside and in service to perennial food systems as well as what he might do differently if he could go back and redesign things. Ben also explains how his life experience has informed his design work and consultancy for clients, the patterns that have emerged from the endless experiments that he’s run, and where his focus is in this stage of life, both in his family and personal life as well as his work on the land. Since I’m only in the second year of designing and building my own farmstead, I find it invaluable to gain insights into all of these reflections almost as a way to peek into one of a million possible futures in hopes of setting a solid foundation and maybe avoid some pitfalls ahead.

Though I’ve highlighted this before on this show, it bears repeating. So many of the stress factors on farms are caused by money. Either not being able to generate enough, being in debt, not having control over the expenses and cash flows, or another one that I see time and again, not paying yourself a salary and just hoping for a profit at the end of the year. Though this is hardly the most interesting part of the work for anyone I know who farms, it doesn’t change the fact that a farm is a business and in order for it to function well and enable us to do the parts that we love, we need to make sure the financial side is as healthy as the land. Here today to shed light on the unique challenges and opportunities that farmers face on the financial management side of their work is Julia Shanks. Julia works with food and agricultural entrepreneurs and organizations as a business strategist, analyst and educator. She brings a broad range of professional experiences to her clients, with a background that ranges from pilot to chef to serial entrepreneur. She combines the practicality of an accountant with the creativity of a chef. Through her consulting practice, Julia helps food and farm businesses maximize profits and streamline operations through business planning, feasibility studies and operational audits. She provides financial management trainings to farmers and business advisors who work with farmers. Julia shares her tools and knowledge more broadly in her second book, The Farmer’s Office. This book is a practical hands-on guide to help farmers think like entrepreneurs so they can build financially sustainable businesses. In this episode Julia and I dig into the common pitfalls that she has observed from the farmer clients she works with and we try to unpack the myths and misconceptions about accounting and financial terms that are at the root of these mistakes. We take a particular look at the all-to-common debt cycles that many farmers are in as well as what it takes to get out of them. Julia also calls attention to the risks and variables that are inherent to farm enterprises before we get into the tools and resources that she considers to be essential for financial success on a farm. We cover a lot of ground from doing financial assessments of new ventures and investments, to ways of establishing fiscal resilience in these uncertain times.

In the process of researching the area that I now call home, and working to understand the context and history of the land, I’ve uncovered some fascinating information. The Iberian peninsula made up mostly of Spain with Portugal along the Atlanitc coast and Andorra in the Pyrenees mountains has been dramatically transformed through thousands of years of human history, to say nothing of prehistoric and geological times. Caves and monuments point to some of the earliest evidence of human habitation in Europe. Empires from the Romans through the Visigoths and the Umayyad caliphate as well as various ruling families of the peninsula have all left their mark on the culture and of course, the land. The Spanish empire fueled the colonization of the Americas and the immense sequestration of resources and wealth that followed. This involved unprecedented exchange of biological resources too, that have even become associated with the local cuisine with ingredients like tomatoes and potatoes which are of course originally from south america. The civil war in the 1930s eradicated many rural villages and oppressed non Castilian cultures and resulted in a government structure that still only loosely holds together 17 autonomous communities. Modern industrial agriculture continues to shape the land like never before and it’s all just a superficial explanation of what adds up to the landscape and context that I now find myself building a life in. So you can see why I’ve been on a mission since I arrived to find others to help me better understand the complexities and nuances of the never ending journey of finding my place in this place. This episode is my first attempt at bringing you along with me in this research effort and we have the pleasure to speak to a friend of mine who has built an incredible understanding of the Spanish context through the lens of biology and regenerative landscape design. Sara Garcia is the founder of Ecoloniza and lead designer at United Designers International. As a forest engineer and permaculture designer, she concentrates on creating ecological design solutions that integrate hydrological cycle management systems, techniques to enhance soil health, and the restoration of native plant communities and ecosystems. Through her experience, she’s learned that project success depends not only on a well-thought-out design but also on effective management, keen observation, and the ability to adapt. As a result, Sara emphasizes the importance of embracing a role as stewards of the land and actively monitoring the progress of the implemented design. I reached out to Sara originally to help me map out and understand the geology and biome of the unique little pocket of the pre-littoral mountains of Catalunya where I live, but I quickly realized I had so much more to learn from her knowledge and experience. In this episode Sara and I will talk in more detail about the history and influences that have shaped the land and life across the Iberian peninsula, both the good and the catastrophic, as well as the trajectory we find it on in modern times. From there we talk about what is needed to set a new course for ecological prosperity for our region before going into the key awareness and understanding that is needed to act appropriately in any of the immensely diverse bioregions on the peninsula. With that information as a base we also go into the actions and areas of focus that anyone can take to contribute to the regeneration of our incredibly special corner of the earth. Now, some of you might be thinking, well where I live is nothing like Spain, maybe this won’t be interesting or useful to me. My reply to that would be that episodes like this where I take you along on my own journey of research and discovery in an attempt to become an integrated steward of my land and community is meant to act like a case study of the steps that anyone can take to learn more about their own place on this planet and how to actively participate in setting a new trajectory for abundant and resilient life for that space. This is one of many episodes I have planned to give you all a window into what will be a lifelong pursuit of what could be described as my efforts to become a person of place, or re indigenize myself. There are endless ways to approach this vision and so many perspectives to explore, so I’m excited to get this series started with this first conversation with Sara Garcia.

I’ve spent a lot of time through the interviews of this podcast speaking with people around the world who are advancing incredible and ambitious projects that aim to regenerate large land bases like farms, estates, or even whole regions. Last week’s conversation with Weruschca Kirkegaard from United Designers is a perfect example of these kinds of projects and the potential of collaborative large scale design. That being said, it’s such a tiny portion of the population globally that has access or ownership of any land at all, much less many multiple acres or hectares. Despìte that, there are countless examples of inspiring regeneration happening at the small scale as well. In particular the discussion on the Discord community for this show is buzzing with conversations about what members can do and what they’ve achieved on balconies, terraces, strips of land between sidewalks and roads, abandoned lots, small allotments, and little yards. Beyond those who are gardening there are tons of members who are engaged in community work, public service, volunteering and apprenticeships, and other acts of regeneration that have nothing to do with plants or soil. Since the main purpose of this show is to highlight the abilities that any of us can cultivate, regardless of experience, location or access to resources, I wanted to highlight some of the most active and engaged members of our Discord who exemplify the potential of small initiatives that act as the seeds for transformation which blossom into the catalysts for meaningful change in their neighborhoods and local networks. Today we’ll hear from three people from very different corners of Europe. Kathryn in the UK, Bobby in Bulgaria, and Theresa in Estonia. Kathryn describes herself as a stubble-jumpin' Saskatchewan girl transplanted to London. When she isn't composing choral music, helping out at church, or cycling around London, she grows plenty of fruit and veg on allotments, in a churchyard and in her back garden. She likes cats and spaghetti and hates punctures. Bobby was born and raised in a family of generational growers and agrarians. His own family of 5 lives in the western highlands of Bulgaria on a quarter acre plot, extended virtually to all the neighbors' gardens they’ve helped create. A zero input integrated garden is in the heart of their permaculture, degrowth and holistic approach to life. Growing everything from annual and perennial veggies, medicinal herbs, small fruit bushes and larger fruit and nut trees, their main yield is community and resilience via an ever deepening connection to place and people. Therese is an experienced plant enthusiast who has been involved in gardening since childhood. She’s lived and traveled to various places around the world, creating nature-inspired gardens wherever she’s lived. Therese focuses on using local natural materials and practicing holistic cultivation methods, with an emphasis on growing edible plants and at the moment she’s growing in zone 5, in Estonia. Their different stories and efforts are a constant source of inspiration in Discord community and I know many of you will find ideas and relatable circumstances from them that larger regeneration projects are unlikely to offer

Todays episode is going to build on a couple concepts that I’ve been exploring from different perspectives. The first is that of the power of community, and the second is different scales of regeneration. In this episode I’m joined by my good friend and mentor Weruschca Kirkegaard based in the Netherlands, Weruschca the is co-founder of United Designers International and head of their project management. Her combined experience and knowledge of aesthetics, nutrition, health, and communications brings a multidisciplinary expertise to the design table. She is seasoned in large scale project management and brings her skills to the larger ecological canvas with site science based regenerative planning and design from Adaptive Food Production, residential and commercial contexts, to Agroforestry and Municipal green space. The aspect of community that Weruschca and I explore in this episode is focused on the inner workings and collaborations of United Designers International, the regenerative design consortium that she co founded with Dan Halsey. Their organization breaks the mold of most conventional businesses which try to hoard market share, or even freelancers that try to do everything themselves so that they don’t have to divide up the money that is coming in. Instead we explore reasons why bringing in as many people on a project is not only good for the project, but also for the people involved. United Designers is also world renowned for working on high profile and complex projects. Weruschca sheds light on the challenges of working on large initiatives with massive investments and many multiple stakeholders, and the way she has learned to navigate those complexities and broad considerations. If you’ve ever wondered what the inner workings of a proposal to the UN for regional scale regeneration or the process of ecological design for a massive estate looks like, this is the episode for you.

For those of you following along from the last three episodes of this season so far, I’ve been sharing the intimate details of my own journey along with my good friend Nick Steiner as we’ve gone around to visit a number of out client’s projects in the south of Portugal and both gather essential data to inform our process and actually put that process into action implementing water retention features. We’ve seen examples of farms facing droughts and rural communities facing wildfire and working to recover from it. In last week’s episode with Aline from La Casa Integral, I also explored what severe drought in my local community looks like and explored the actions both ecological and community oriented to set ourselves on a new path. Though water cycle restoration will always be a theme on this show, today's episode is going to wrap up this personal deep dive for a little while. I believe that regular reflection on one’s learning process is essential to continued progress and today I’m joined by two people that have been major figures in my learning and growth, Nick Steiner of course, and Zach Weiss. Nick is of course the founder of Permanick water solutions and Zach is the founder of Elemental Ecosystems, project implementation company, and Water Stories his online teaching and community platform focused on building water solution awareness and education. Since both of them have appeared on this show quite a number of times I’ll skip over their introductions and instead have linked to previous episodes with them in which we explore their backstories. We’re having this conversation at an important point for a couple reasons. Nick and I had just submitted out final project report in order to complete the professional certification, the highest tier of completion through the water stories training course, and Zach and the organization have just opened their training once again to new applicants. Together, the three of us reflect on our different learning journeys to get where we currently are. We discuss in depth both the obvious and less apparent skills that we each believe is essential for effective work in this space and in order to develop ourselves as true regenerative actors. Each one of us talks about our personal turning points and “aha moments” as well as mentors, growing pains, and areas in which we still need to improve. We cover different roles and responsibilities in the space of water restoration and how designing and installing ecosystem features is only one which we have a common passion for. We also recognize the need for so many other skill sets, experience bases, and focuses that are required to bring regeneration to the scale that is needed. I also really recommend that you listen to this one all the way till the end when Zach gives us a brutally honest review of our final project submission and critiques our work with no filter.

I’ve talked a lot about drought and water management on this podcast. It’s becoming a bigger and bigger part of my work and specialization, both in the work I do with private clients and through the network of farmers that I work with through Climate Farmers. At the moment, these topics are hitting home for another reason. Catalunya, the region where I live in Northeastern Spain is currently experiencing the most severe drought in its recorded history, and there is little relief in sight. Now obviously I’m not from this area of the world myself and though I’ve built a competent understanding of my local context and the water management history of this region, I’m always looking to better understand the scope and options of what is happening in this time of climate emergency. Another big focus of mine lately has been to reach out and make connections to others in the area who are working on nature based and regenerative solutions to the challenges we face in hopes of supporting existing efforts and making myself useful to the people and organizations who’ve been working in this space for a long time. One source of unification around these efforts in my area and consistent messages of inspiration and hope come from the small company La Casa Integral, and today I had the pleasure of speaking to Aline, one of the co-founders of the company. Aline Van Moerbeke is Flemish Belgian by birth but feels most Mallorquina after spending over 20 years in San Roqueta on the island of Mallorca. She now lives with her partner Juan Pedro in the Maresme region just up the coast from Barcelona in Catalunya where they run their business La Casa Integral, a permaculture and ecological design company focused on the needs of the communities of the Balearic Islands and Northeastern Spain. Aline is also the co founder of Permacultura Mediterranea and is highly active in many networks and initiatives in the region. In this episode, Aline and I begin by talking about the unique journey that she took to begin a career in permaculture education and regenerative design. From there we go into the unique context behind the current drought and how Catalunya is wrestling with this challenge. Since she has made an incredible effort to participate in and lead many discussions at various levels of government, industry, and communities, she gives me an overview of the ideas and solutions that are being proposed and the entrenched ways of thinking that are holding progress back. Through her work at La Casa Integral she and Juan Pedro have advanced many unique water saving and recycling solutions and we explore some of them and even take a closer look at natural blackwater filtration systems that they are known for designing and installing for many different use cases. We also talk about reasons for hope in the policy and institutional structures at our local level and explore the first steps that anyone listening can take to gain a better understanding of their own opportunities to participate in the restoration of their own water systems, at any scale. This interview is a first step towards two things that I am trying to do more of in this season. The first is to highlight the incredible work that is being done by so many local people in my area, partly to build closer relationships with them myself, partly to demonstrate that most of the really effective people in this space are not the big name famous people from your documentaries and social media threads, and partly to show what it could look like for some of you listeners to explore your own local scene of regenerative workers and advocates instead of always looking outside your communities for solutions. Many of the topics that I’m passionate about and like to focus on might not be relevant or interesting to you, but the idea of connecting with and exploring the hyper local community of like-minded people doing good work around you is more important than a couple highly effective but isolated actors. Another theme I’ll be promoting this season is that of inspiring examples of collaboration. People who break the mold of protectionist business practices, ivory tower academics, and competitive paradigms of commerce. Aline and La Casa Integral are a perfect example in my area of folks who are leading through collaboration and by including the voices and expertise of as many people as they can. Their creation and participation in countless committees, online groups, advocacy organizations, and volunteer initiatives show a true commitment to the larger vision of realizing change in our region, and I know this chat will inspire you as it did for me, even if the challenges in your region have more to do with too much water rather than too little.

Continuing on the journey we started in the last episode, Nick and I went to the next project where we got to install the types of water retention features that we had designed for the previous clients. Together we talk about the joys and the challenges of site where we were creating these earthworks. Over the previous summer the whole landscape had burned in a wildfire and the clients there are especially motivated to mitigate the risks moving into the future. We also got to work with a team with a variety of experiences and talents which contributed to the creativity and the outcome of the project. In just over 3 days of work we were able to build a small infiltration basin in an eroded valley and an infiltration terrace along a fire-prone ridge with many unique features in each. Follow us was we take your through the full process in this episode

Welcome to the first episode of season 8 of the Regenerative Skills podcast. We're starting in a big way with a special episode in which me and my good friend and collaborator Nick Steiner will be taking you along with us on a client visit in the south of Portugal in the very first steps of a water retention landscape project. We'll be giving you a behind the scenes look at what we do on these jobs, the landscape indicators that we're observing to inform our concept plans, and all of the essential data we collect while out in the field as we build the initial design for this farm. Southern Portugal is a classic area to illustrate the patterns of drought, flood and fire that are the result of landscape degradation. This mediterranean climate has been getting dryer and hotter in an accelerated way over the last few decades, and the result is failing farms, abandoned villages, and land that is on a downward trajectory. Each day we'll describe what we're up to out in the field, offer summaries of the discussions with the clients, describe the landscape features and observations we're making and even the heavy machinery work that it takes to inform the placement and types of features that can be implemented in order to turn the trajectory of this farm around through watershed restoration. Don't forget that you can see pictures and videos of our time out in the field on our social media pages and on the Regenerative Skills community on Discord.

There are a few farms and organizations here in Spain that have been gaining international attention for their work and initiatives in the past few years. Partly through reaching out directly and partly through the Climate Farmers network I’ve been connecting with them to bring their inspiring stories and innovative knowledge to the farmers community that I help to manage. One of the most established and accomplished of these farms is La Junquera, an 1100 hectare farm in one of the most environmentally challenging regions of Spain in the south eastern province of Murcia in the altiplano region. Now some of you may remember previous interviews I’ve done with Alfonzo Chico de Guzman, the owner of the farm and one of the driving forces of the Alvelal cooperative that he helped to found, but today I’ll be speaking with his wife and co-owner of the farm to get a deeper look at all the projects that she has helped to lead simultaneously. Yanniek Schoonhoven is also the co-founder of the Regeneration Academy, a physical learning hub and model farm in La Junquera, focused on building a space and community to help students become practitioners, entrepreneurs, innovators and leaders in the field of regenerative agriculture and eco-system restoration, specialized in semi-arid climates. Yanniek has built a reputation in the regen ag space as an expert connection builder, weaving partnerships from the local community around them in Spain all the way up to the European Union level along with universities and non-profits. All of these connections are fueling the positive change that The Regeneration Academy and the farm itself are having on the ecology as well as the human communities around them. In this session we explore the journey that led Yanniek to southern Spain and the creation of all the projects that she now helps to coordinate. Yanniek talks about the unique challenges that they face in their remote rural area as well as the climate and ecological challenges of rebuilding the capacity for life on the land there. We also dig into the connections that she’s helped to build and strengthen that have brought visibility, support, and recognition to their efforts on the ground while making it possible to include more people in their training and projects. This is also a great opportunity to announce the collaboration that I’ll be doing with them as I’ll be co-facilitating a course in the upcoming year with them about water resource management. At the end of the episode we give an overview of the curriculum that we’ll be teaching through a highly immersive project of gathering essential data, co creating a design for water retention on a micro watershed on their farm, and actually implementing the design on the site. We’ll be training participants on a wide range of tools for site design and layout as well as building experience with everything from hand tools to guiding heavy machinery in order to install the design. You can find all the details about the course which will be from April 8th-11th in the show notes for this episode on the website,

By now I’m sure many of you have heard the few episodes on soil health that I’ve recorded with people like Harriet Mela, Matt Powers, James White, and others. I know that the subject of soil has become really popular with growers and it’s always talked about as being central to the success of regenerative agriculture and broader environmental health, and I don’t disagree. Yet I’m often worried that the discourse around soil science is reminiscent of other scientific studies in which there’s a never ending search for more granular details. Breaking components of the whole overview down into chemistry, biology, and even down to anatomical structure, all without making the learnings accessible to soil stewards, growers and land managers. Such detailed science shrouded in a veil of technical jargon and research papers makes me feel that the real learnings are inaccessible and overly complicated. For that reason I’ve often held back from really going deeper into soil on this show. Here I hope to find the key concepts and actionable information that anyone can use to get real results, and that’s often been hard to find. Yet that’s exactly what brings me to today's session, where I get to speak to a soil scientist and consultant who believes, as I do, that we need to make soil concepts and principles more accessible and help to guide land managers along the way to learn how to make their own observations and discoveries in order to foster relationships or understanding with the land we take care of. Ian Robertson has a lifelong involvement in all things soil, growing up on an organic farm, and working in various roles helping farmers understand their soils. His present role is General Manager of Sustainable soil Management, a soil testing and consultation company in the UK. Over the last 20 years Ian has developed the most detailed soil test, which is widely used throughout the UK and Europe, allowing farmers a greater understanding of how best to manage their soil. Ian delivers soil presentations that are practical and engaging and he works across all sectors of agriculture to build long term relationships between himself, farmers, and their soil. In this episode we start by exploring what aspects of soil are really essential to understand a holistic picture of the function of the earth you’re working with, as well as the best tests to gain that knowledge. Spoiler alert, many of those tests turn out to be things you can observe with your own senses. From there we dissect the three main conventional agricultural practices of tillage, fertilization, and crop protection chemicals such as herbicides and pesticides for their impact on the soil and what is really happening from a scientific perspective when they are used. We use that part of the discussion as a springboard towards which soil stewardship practices are broadly beneficial and represent the least amount of risk regardless of the soil type and makeup you have. Ian’s learnings from decades and thousands of soil tests make for a very practical and digestible overview of the more detailed science out there and hopefully will act as an antidote to the overwhelming amount of information about soil out there at the moment.

Syntropic Agroforestry has exploded in popularity and interest in the last few years. I’ve explored this agroforestry design and management system a little in some previous episodes with my friend Jacob Evans, but there’s so much more to explore. First pioneered by renowned farmer Ernst Gostch in Brazil, his integrated approach of dense planting and timed pruning and intervention to accelerate natural succession and replace outside inputs for both ecosystem regeneration and nutrient dense food production has sparked an interest in many people to adapt the concepts to their own climates and contexts. From what I’ve heard however, adapting syntropic methods to temperate climates has proven more difficult than many people originally thought. The plants that thrive in these latitudes have different growth cycles with their long dormant period and many compete for light more than their tropical counterparts. Luckily I was able to find someone who has not only studied with Ernst closely in Brazil, but has also been pioneering syntropic systems in Germany who was able to share some key learnings from the first couple years of trial. Renke de Vries studied International Forest Ecosystem Management, and works as an agroforestry designer and consultant and in arboreal maintenance. From 2019 till 2023 he has been responsible for the design, establishment and management of syntropic agroforestry systems especially at Gut and Bosel, the famous farm in Brandenburg outside of Berlin in Germany. In this interview we go into the learnings that he brought from his formal studies in forestry and forest management and how they juxtapose with his learnings from Ernst in Brazil. We also dig into the systems that he has been designing and planting and the crucial learnings in his ongoing attempts to use syntropic principles in temperate climates. Though there is still so much to learn and experiment with, I’ve been very interested to see the different iterations of what I’m convinced are very wise and widely applicable principles of ecological management from the syntropic concept. Hopefully this discussion will spark some interest in some of you to start your own agroforestry experiments.

I’ve been so happy to see how popular the concept of growing one’s own food has become in recent years. Especially since the pandemic, a lot of us have connected deeply with the need to build food resilience by cultivating our own gardens, and quite a few have even gone further and started to grow at a market scale. It’s a beautiful thing to be able to eat fresh healthy produce from your own land, but I’ve often wondered as well, how we can cross the long dark and cold period of winter, when fresh local veggies are tough to come by. Though there are quite a few volumes about season extension in the garden, I had never really come across anyone who was actively planting for deep months of winter, and so I was thrilled when I found that New Society publishers were putting out a whole book on exactly this subject. Building on years of research, experimentation, and collaboration, and co authored by Catherine Sylvestre and Jean Martin Fortier “The Winter Market Gardener” is a beautifully illustrated practical guide to winter vegetable production for small farmers growing in northern climates. I got to speak with Catherine Sylvestre who is a professional agronomist and director of vegetable production and leader of the market garden team at la Ferme des Quatre-Temps (The Fours Seasons Farm) in Quebec, Canada. She develops, implements, and teaches best practices for cold-season growing, specializing in crop protection and greenhouse production for northern climates. In this episode we cover just about every focus in this very complete book, from where the interest and research into winter growing started, sources of knowledge and inspiration for their ongoing experiments into winter growing, strategies and season planning, and even sales and marketing advice for the off-season produce. Catherine also gives crucial advice on the very practical side for things like structures and season extension tools, greenhouse heating devices, disease and pest protection, harvesting and cold storage, and even lists of plants that have grown well for them as well as those which have struggled. This episode could very well be the key to extending your home production of fresh veggies, whether at home or in a market garden, for the entire year, so you may want to have a notebook for this one and follow the link in the show notes to get your own copy.

I’ve been observing an interesting trend in the regen ag space. The concept and awareness of regen ag has been growing exponentially with many people exploring ways to start their own farms and to participate in and support those who are already involved. At the same time the current economic situation and the complexity of regulations, paired with skill worker shortages, and other challenges are leading people to burn out or quit altogether. It’s no joke how complex and difficult it can be to run a lean and profitable farm in modern times. Luckily there are some successful and experienced farmers out there who are helping to train and inform the new generation in order to support them in getting established. One voice in particular who I’ve admired since the release of his first book, The Lean Farm, is Ben Hartman. Though they both have a lot of experience from running their previous large scale operation, Ben along with his wife Rachel started their new venture, Clay Bottom Farm which is an urban farm, set on the north edge of Goshen, IN, in 2006. One of their key features is that all of their food is sold within 1.5 miles of the farm. Ben is best known for bringing the Lean methodology pioneered in factory manufacturing, to the management and process on small farms. He now has a new book out titled The Lean Micro Farm: How to Get Small, Embrace Local, Live Better, and Work Less. In this interview Ben shares his story of his initial passion for farming and the journey to creating a simplified and efficient operation that allowed him to enjoy a life with his family and still have hobbies while running a profitable farm. We discuss the criteria he uses from the Lean system to design workflows, focus energy on the tasks of highest return, and eliminate unnecessary work. We also go into the practical details of this ⅓ of an acre operation such as the tools he uses, his method for bed flipping in the market garden, the marketing and sales system he has, and the infrastructure that makes it all flow smoothly. This episode is packed with advice for growers who are looking to get small by reducing complexity and waste without compromising profitability or losing their customer base.