303. Listener • Chef • Cover Crop Expert | Nick Schneider | Thrive Chef Works | Twin Cities, Minnesota

Tell us a little about yourself.

• I'm from Minnesota originally
• family typical upbringing in the suburbs
• career as being a chef

my extensive hobby as being a gardener

market gardening

growing up in the 80s food was sort of an after

reddish

so I got a degree in psychology

needed to do something a little more inspiring

lived in Europe for a semester in college

traveled around Europe and really saw food in a different light

experienced it really differently from what I had

Then I decided to go to culinary school, I ended up in Vancouver BC

relatives out there as well so I came back to the twin cities

Italian kitchens

owners

kind of moved around bit as chefs do is quite normal

I also started gardening at a fairly young age

early twenties

I ended up dating a woman from the Ukraine, she had a strong gardening interest

I had always been interested in nature as a young kid

gardening with my parents

but very simple, chard and green beans and that kind of thing

I started working at a natural foods coop right next to a really old and thriving community garden

in St Paul and that’s where I met some really great gardeners who I would call mentors

One particular gardener there was a soil scientist at the university of MN, she took me under her wing learned some incredible techniques

• raised bed
• no till garden
• cover crops
• rotation

One thing that really inspired me from a young age to kind of continue this and do a lot more was just witnessing the differences in her garden and other community gardens

She made her community garden plot not tilled in the back row and the rest of the 90 plots were tilled once a year. In the other plots, the soil was still quite good but it was obvious she had the

• best looking vegetables
• earliest
• largest vegetables in that garden

It was no mystery she was doing something different and right. It was from her I learned about

Mycorrhizal fungi and the relationship to the plants and how important that was

using those techniques

I was able to follow in her footsteps in a way when she got done, working at an urban agriculture non profit in st paul, centered at gardens all over st Paul

• children
• form a market garden essentially

I was able to take over that job when she was finished, working on her phd

I got to be a market gardener for 3 years, all the while I was cooking at night, I couldn't do that these days, way too intense, way too much

So wait, are you a rockstar millennial?

I'm 42 so I'm more of an xer

yeah for me

For many years, I've been involved in both the culinary world and the growing world

I see that they are so intermittently intertwined, and kind of dependent on each other, the communities overlap so much. I find that really inspiring, such that I was able to go to the MOSES

MIDWEST Organic Conference for Organic Farming and meet a lot of great farmers and gardeners

move to the country and start a land based business

Alas I stayed in the city and am still working as a chef

After working at some great restaurants and for some people who are superstars

for natural foods

local alice waters

worked for this woman for 7 years, after that ended

I started my own business as a personal chef, working in people’s homes

cooking Monday - Friday, everyday meals, it's different from catering

Gives me a lot more time on weekends and evenings

being a chef is pretty awesome but the restaurant life can...