Ep 130 Harvest and Mill: Walking in Tall Cotton

In this week's episode we sit down with Becky Serres, a retired employee of Ft. Robinson State Park in Crawford, Nebraska. We were at Ft. Robinson to film the Longhorn roundup and ran into Becky as she volunteered to saddle up her horse and help herd these 125 head of cattle to their winter pasture. The Ft. Robinson herd is one of the last few publicly-owned herds of the original style of longhorns remaining in the U.S., what we might call CTLR cattle. Besides the longhorn herd, there ...

17 Nov 202136min

Some of us associate Cornell University with the famous birding department and nest cams (that’s you, Elara). Some might think of Cornell as the home of the Cornell Small Farms Program newsletter (also Elara). And some might think of Cornell as the school with the neat restaurant program (El…wait - what?!?). No matter what you associate with this prestigious Ivy-League school, it’s probably good. Way back in 1868 Ezra Cornell said “I would found an institution where an...

11 Nov 202141min

Kristy Meyer, FFA media and communications spokesperson extraordinaire, is today’s podcast guest. She welcomed us graciously at the 2021 FFA convention in Indianapolis, Indiana (once we could find a place to stand behind the 55,000 teenagers and a gargantuan harvester, that is). But we have other stars of the show as well – The Interns. Backyard Green Films enlisted (drafted, coerced…) the help of two young people who we hope will make future appearances in the agri-Culture...

4 Nov 202123min

Wait – I thought knitting was relaxing. Now we have to do math?!? Well, that’s especially true if you knit for a living, which is hard to do if you want to survive. Because if beautiful handwork becomes something that’s just a pastime, then “past” will become the key word. Then the cost will be immeasurable. It is a skill we cannot lose, so Elara is doing her part, and faithfully buying a hand-knit sweater. And a hat. And shawl. And fingerless m...

27 Okt 202125min

Before heading to the New York State Sheep and Wool Festival 2021, we did a farm visit to speak with one of the participants of that grand event. Siri Swanson (sheep shearer, farmer, butcher, educator and overachiever, among other things) gave us a tour of Yankee Rock Farm. When she and her partner Colin are not running around the country shearing sheep, she plies her farming trades on three or four different sites near the Green Mountains of Vermont. She has to do multiples...

20 Okt 202150min

Tammy White, of and at Wing and a Prayer Farm. Custodian of one of the “finalist” places Elara wants to have her Elara’s ashes spread when the time comes. (Or maybe we’ll just hope that in the next life we come back as a Shetland Sheep in Vermont.) Links: https://www.wingandaprayerfarm.com/ https://www.virtual.sheepandwool.com/41 Support the show

13 Okt 202128min

From Sustainable Solano’s website… “We are a grassroots, countywide movement uniting people through work that aims to serve the future of Solano County, to promote ecologically regenerative, economically and socially just communities in a world that works for everyone. Sustainable Solano has grown out of decades of dedicated community work that started with community gardens and has grown to include an emphasis on creating sustainable, regenerative environments, community capacity building, s...

6 Okt 202136min

It’s Donkey Season again! If you don’t know why it’s Donkey Season, you’ll have to listen to the podcast intro to find out. But not only do you get your curiosity satisfied on that count, you get to hear one of our favorite interviews in its entirety. Dr. Amy McClean (B.S., M.S., Ph.D., thank you very much) gives us a quick lesson on the joys of the donkey universe – and we didn’t even have to pay tuition at UC Davis to hear it (Although we have to say we are tempted to go...

29 Sep 202130min