Archives

Farmer Veteran Coalition – bringing resources to veterans farming and feeding the nation

Leave a reply
Deep Roots Radio
Deep Roots Radio
Farmer Veteran Coalition - bringing resources to veterans farming and feeding the nation
Loading
/

First, they served in posts and on battlefields across the globe. Then, they came home and are now striving to bring their skills and energies to America’s agricultural system. They are veterans working to reshape our food system as they build soil health, grow vegetables and crops, and raise livestock in rural communities in every corner of the nation.

Sarah R Cope

This podcast features our Deep Roots Radio conversation with Sarah R. Cope, retired United State Marine Corp, and President of the Wisconsin Chapter of the Farmer Veteran Coalition. She served 31 years, which included completing three combat deployments to Iraq and one combat deployment to Afghanistan. Fifth-generation military, Cope retired as a Lieutenant Colonel in 2016, but continued serving with several Federal agencies until January 2020.

Today, Cope lives in Wisconsin and farms 40 acres with her wife Heather Schumann and their five children. She brings this experience and perspective to the veteran farmers in Wisconsin.

In this interview, she mentions websites that may be of help, including a Facebook page, https://www.facebook.com/farmerveterancoalition, and a link to the Ag Solidarity Network. You can also link to the national FVC organization here.

I hope you enjoy this interview.

Sylvia

Anne Stobart – designing and using the wealth of medicinal trees and shrubs

Leave a reply
Deep Roots Radio
Deep Roots Radio
Anne Stobart - designing and using the wealth of medicinal trees and shrubs
Loading
/

When we come across someone who is so overwhelmed by a situation’s details that they can’t see the bigger picture, we tend to quip, “they can’t see the forest for the trees.” Just the opposite is true when it comes to viewing nature. When we look over a lawn, row of shrubs or cluster of threes, most of us see globs of green. We appreciate the beauty and the setting, but lots of us don’t see much distinction among the grasses, shrubs or trees. What are they? Weeds? Junk trees? Why care?

Anne Stobart, Devon, England

It turns out most of us have a wealth of helpful plants in our own backyards! And it’s not just the basil and lemon balm that we planted near the kitchen door or on the patio. That white pine could help for your wet cough. The peppermint that comes up year after year packs more than just flavor. And some of those small shrubs? Well, they may be part of your volunteer medicinal garden.

This Deep Roots Radio interview with Anne Stobart is the first of five planned with her. Anne has a PhD from her extensive research into the history of medicine. She is registered clinical herbalist, permaculture designer, forest keeper, educator, author, and blogger. She joined me from her home and garden in Devon, England.

Her most recent book, Trees and Shrubs that Heal was released in the US January 2024. She is also the author of the Medicinal Garden Handbook, and of Household Medicine in Seventeenth-Century England.  She also posts newsletters to her blog, Medicinal Tree Woman.

Her books, and her manner, are so engaging I asked her to join Deep Roots Radio for a 5-part series. I hope you enjoy this first conversation.

 

Sylvia

 

How local beekeepers manage through winter’s cold

Leave a reply
Bees and Pollinators
Bees and Pollinators
How local beekeepers manage through winter's cold
Loading
/

I love walking by the bee hives kept on my farm by Arlen and Mona Ziegler, owners and operators of Plum Branch Honey, Clear Lake, WI.

The hive boxes are stacked on top of one another, their area encircled by electric fence to ward off any curious bear.

During summer, hundreds of bees swirl around the hives and travel to the wild flowers and tree blossoms across the farm, and miles beyond. My husband Dave Toftness and I don’t use pesticides on the farm, so clouds of bees float through the succession of wild flowers and tree blossoms across the pastures. 

In the winter, the hives are wrapped in insulated pads that are silver colored on their outer surface. I caught up with Arlen during a winter-time visit to the bees. He generously opened the lid to show how the bees are kept in a supply of sugar for the cold months.

Dave and I really appreciate the work Arlen and Mona do to keep bees healthy and available despite the challenges of weather and pests. We need bees to pollinate the hundreds of vegetable, fruit and herb plants that feed us.

Co-host Dave Corbett and I enjoyed this in-studio chat, and we hope you’ll enjoy this podcast. You can message Arlen and Mona via Facebook.com/plumbranchhoney

Sylvia

Exec Dir Terry Hauer – Polk Cty Economic Development Corp works in WI farm country

Leave a reply

Deep Roots Radio
Deep Roots Radio
Exec Dir Terry Hauer - Polk Cty Economic Development Corp works in WI farm country



Loading





/

Economic development in rural northwestern Wisconsin isn’t all about “chasing smokestacks” explains Terry Hauer, Executive Director of the Polk County Economic Development Corporation.

In this Deep Roots Radio interview, Hauer describes his organization’s role in a rural county with a large agricultural component, and in a time of post-COVID challenges.

I hope you enjoy this interview. For previous Deep Roots Radio conversations, please visit my archive.

Sylvia Burgos Toftness 

Becca Griffith: Minneapolis/St. Paul Weston A. Price Foundation chapter brings together great food, people, science and practical know-how

Deep Roots Radio
Deep Roots Radio
Becca Griffith: Minneapolis/St. Paul Weston A. Price Foundation chapter brings together great food, people, science and practical know-how



Loading





/

There’s nothing like a gathering of like-minded people – especially when the get-together includes delicious foods created with highly nutritious ingredients. When it’s a meeting of Weston A. Price Foundation chapter members, participants share deep commitment to foods grown to restore the environment, cooked and baked to boost flavor and health.

Cattle grazing lush pastures


These are the hallmarks of the monthly meetings of the Minneapolis/St. Paul chapter of the Weston A. Price Foundation, one of approximately 600 chapters worldwide. Held the second Saturday of each month, the Minneapolis/St. Paul meetings are organized and led by Becca Griffith and Susie Zahratka. Chapter members and guests travel from around the metro area to share a potluck, hear a short program, and purchase locally-produced vegetables, fruit, free-range chicken and eggs, wild-caught salmon, grass-fed beef, and pastured pork and lamb from local farmers.

I trust you’ll enjoy this Deep Roots Radio interview with Becca. And I hope you’ll look for the chapter closest to you.

Sylvia

Three Wisconsin women farmers battle to legalize sale of home-baked goods

Deep Roots Radio
Deep Roots Radio
Three Wisconsin women farmers battle to legalize sale of home-baked goods



Loading





/

In this Deep Roots Radio interview, Lisa Kivirist describes the multi-year battle to legalize the sale of home-baked goods in the state Wisconsin. The Badger state has been one of only two in the entire country that has not permitted the sale of home-baked muffins, cookies and breads.
Lisa is one of three women farmers who sued the state in this effort, and recently won a state Judge’s declaration that the ban against the sale of home-baked goods is unconstitutional.Her sister champions in this effort are Dela Ends (Scotch Hill Farm) and Kriss Marion (Circle M Farm and Bed & Breakfast).
Lisa is an assertive champion of women farmers and their ability to build their farm-based businesses. The author of several books on eco-entrepreneurship, she and her husband run the award-winning Inn Serendipity Farm and Bread and Breakfast in southern Wisconsin.
I hope you enjoy this lively interview.
Sylvia

French sourdough boules

Peace Coffee: serving up great taste, social justice, environmental stewardship cup after cup

Deep Roots Radio
Deep Roots Radio
Peace Coffee: serving up great taste, social justice, environmental stewardship cup after cup



Loading





/

Drink coffee? One, two, three cups a day? Now multiply that simple act by several hundred million people every day. It’s hard to imagine the mountain of coffee beans needed to satisfy that thirst. Now, consider that those beans could work not only to create delicious brews, but also to produce a fair wage for farmers half way around the world.

This is the reality for at least a small percentage of coffee harvested for the American market because of Peace Coffee, a firm headquartered in a city you might now automatically associate with the tropical coffee bean – Minneapolis, Minnesota. In this Deep Roots Radio interview, Peace Coffee CEO (and Queen Bean) Lee Wallace describes the business’s unorthodox beginnings in 1996 and its steady growth since then.

Yes, every cup of coffee you buy could help farmers move from poverty to a living wage.

I hope you enjoy the interview.

Sylvia

One of the varieties of Peace Coffee


Rancher Gabe Brown on regenerative, holistic farming on any scale, and profitability even in transition

Deep Roots Radio
Deep Roots Radio
Rancher Gabe Brown on regenerative, holistic farming on any scale, and profitability even in transition



Loading





/

I hope you enjoy this Deep Roots Radio interview with North Dakota rancher Gabe Brown on the principles of regenerative farming that will yield health and profitability even as you transition your operation – large or small.

Gabe will be in Amery, Wisconsin February 9th for a full day workshop in which he will describe how he, wife and son have worked to transform their 2,000-acre, diversified farm to a healthy, profitable business while improving soil and regenerating the landscape. In addition to raising and direct-marketing grass-fed beef and other livestock, Gabe grows and sells cash crops from his sustainable farm.

Go to hungryturtle.net to register for the workshop. I hope to see you there!

Sylvia

Andrew French-about breeding/raising happy heritage cross pigs on pasture w/o hormones, antibiotics

Deep Roots Radio
Deep Roots Radio
Andrew French-about breeding/raising happy heritage cross pigs on pasture w/o hormones, antibiotics



Loading





/

I hope you’ll enjoy this Deep Roots Radio interview with Andrew French about breeding and raising heritage-cross pigs in the frigid Wisconsin climate. Andrew is owner/farmer of Full Boar Farm13567341_1045922135462087_1991272975066190573_n-2 in Boyceville, Wisconsin, and a frequent contributor about sustainable farming to magazines such as ACRES USA.
His objectives? Happy, healthy pigs; restoring the land; and, producing great-tasting pork.

Sylvia

Ben Hewitt on 21st Century homesteading for a meaningful, healthful life on 40 acres or in a 400-sq ft apartment

Deep Roots Radio
Deep Roots Radio
Ben Hewitt on 21st Century homesteading for a meaningful, healthful life on 40 acres or in a 400-sq ft apartment



Loading





/

Author, homesteader Ben Hewitt

Author, homesteader Ben Hewitt

I hope you enjoy this Deep Roots Radio chat with author and modern-day homesteader Ben Hewitt. An engaging storyteller, Ben pulls you right into his books and their characters. His most recent publication is The Nourishing Homestead: One Back-to-the-land Family’s Plan for Cultivating Soil, Skills and Spirit. Ben, his wife Penny and their two sons grow 90% of their foods and build their lives on 40 acres in Vermont.
What they’ve learned over the years “is readily transferable to any place — whether you live on 4 acres, 40 acres or in a 400-square-foot studio apartment.

On November 10, 2016, Hewitt be in Amery, Wisconsin to share a great meal, and to describe his experiences and ideas about the tie between growing your food and quality of life, environmental consciousness and rebuilding local community.

He’s also written:
– The Town that Food Saved: How One Community Found Vitality in Local Food
– Making Supper Safe: One Man’s Quest to Learn the Truth about Food Safety
– Home Grown: The Adventures in Parenting off the Beaten Path, Unschooling and Reconnecting with the Natural World

Enjoy a local organic dinner, and conversation with Ben Hewitt
Nov. 10, 2015, 6:00-9:00PM
Farm Table Restaurant, Amery, WI
For tickets, www.hungryturtle.net