May 24, 2020
Blog and Newsletter Writer, Instructor for Nutrition, Gardening, and Wildcrafting
Tell us a little about yourself.
Wild Abundance is more then a website it's a school, I live here and the school is here in the Southern Appalachian mountains just outside of Asheville, North Carolina
- corn
- winter squash
- sweet potatoes
- micro dairy, one Jersey cow and mostly Alpine dairy goats
- flock of ducks
- beekeeper
medicinal and edible mushroom cultivation
medicinal plants
the school that i work for is located just down the road
campus is run by my dear friend, Natalie dog walker
together
this year
we are walking on an online gardening school
teaching people all over the world
pretty much because
we love it an are passionate
afraid of breakdown of supply chains
surge and your listeners have noticed
interested in gardening
when you first start out gardening it can be
steering them in the right direction
folks who have that inspiration can have that success and keep going
I always think it's interesting, I always dreamed of going to Montana, I knew a girl who always wanted to go to Maryland. She's like doesn't that just sound beautiful?
can really
20 acres
we have 23 acres
bigger farms in this state
piedmont
east
up in the mountains
Appalachian mountain chain in the southern part of that mountain chain. It's one of the oldest mountain formations in the world
Lots of endemic species that live here
It's a beautiful verdant jungle in the spring and summer
- temperate rainforest
- lots of rain
- gets chilly changing with climate change
A big chunk of that is wooded hillside
farm per se flatland 3-4 acres
where we have the animals
harvest timber obviously for wood heat cooking and mushroom cultivation My partner is just dedicated at working away at developing a silvapasture and nut orchard up on the slope.
I'm sure your listeners know 23 acres can mean a lot of different things if you have top soil and if it's hilly land
so we are somewhere in between
- flat for the mountains
- do grow our vegetables
- steep land marshy boggy land
That's similar where we are surrounded by doug fir forest and you can see before and after pics on our website. where he has cut the forest to build the minifarm.
Tell me about your first gardening experience?
well, I didn’t grow up gardeningI grew up in the suburbs in the bay area in Northern, CA
small rural western part of the county
alternative school that happened to be a public school, was really a blessing for me and my family getting to go to a private school that was public and free
alternative
project based
interdisciplinary
open classroom
in marin
more rural part
- best friend mom had dairy goats
- made her own beer
- apple sauce
My other friends mom
- grew beautiful roses
- berries and fruits
I did have early exposure
we had a garden at my school
early childhood exposure I was drawn to plants and animals
I didn't tend my own garden till I was in college
I knew I wanted to study
- agri-cology
- environmental studies
- sustainable food systems
avid cook
vegetarain
love vegetables and cook lots
Anyone who cooks a lot has a visceral understanding of the difference of quality
