The Ruminant aims to share good ideas for farmers and gardeners via a podcast & photo based blog. Each week small-scale farmers, food experts, and innovative thinkers weigh in on a range of topics relating to your garden.
Submissions welcome!
Two farmy gents with insights about setting up a solid farm lease and managing the landlord/tenant relationship
A conversation on antibiotic use in the livestock industry and the antibiotic resistance that has resulted. Tom Philpott is my guest.
To accompany the conversation with Hermann in podcast episode 85
This one is all about pigs and weddings.
Listen to this and your media savvy will blossom.
Roll out/Roll up in a hurry, on your own, without damaging the material.
Handy for areas where permanent irrigation is unfeasible
Susan Kerr on non-chemical forms of parasite control in small ruminants.
A conversation with anthropologist Stephen Le
Bob Siegfried of MidAtlantic Farm Sensors on wiring up your farm for better management, plus John McCauley of Chicken People returns to recommend the best bird to start with if you're new to pasturing livestock.
Adam Montri on the finer points of incorporating high tunnels into your market gardening.
So far, so good.
In which we learn more about Winter bale-grazing livestock, the perils of biodegradable plastic mulches, and the merits of regular soil tests.
The sustainability of organic versus conventional systems, compared and discussed
This week: over-wintered crops like green garlic, some easy-peasy cut flowers to try out, and a tip for keeping pastured poultry dry and warm when it's wet and cold.
Microbes are way more crucial to plant and human health than we've traditionally given them credit for
A review of Verge Permaculture's The Salatin Semester, and a conversation about vacuum seeders and soil blocks.
Four listeners share some great tips for farming and parenting at the same time
Incubator farms are helping new farmers get started without betting the farm to do it
This time we focus on tomato variety selection: how tomato colours are classified, best heirlooms for commercial gardeners to grow, etc.
Craig LeHoullier on growing epic heirloom tomatoes
Rochelle Eisen on common misconceptions about organic certification
Some apprenticeship alumni on why, and how, the apprenticeship model needs to be tweaked
Jay McCaman wants you to pay more attention to your weeds, because what you've got is likely influenced by what's going on in your soil
It turns out that the flavour and nutrition of food are intimately linked, and that when we figured out how to divorce the two, the consequences were, and continue to be, pretty negative. An interview with Mark Schatzker.
I asked you what you do all Winter. You replied.
A group at Ryerson University in Toronto suped up a greenroof by turning it into a functioning market garden. Scott Humphries interviews the farm's coordinator.
Take better care of your flower garden through the season with these tips. Then learn about an upcoming workshop on the state of farming internships.