The No-Till Flowers Podcast Jennie Love

Welcome to the first in a short summer series of episodes dedicated to farmer well-being.  This is my 14th season flower farming and running a small business centered around such a stunning and stressful product.  Every season brings its own set of challenges, most entirely out of my control.   This year I broke a bone and strained a tendon in my left foot in late February that has impacted my physical and mental health immensely.  I entered the intensity of spring planting season feeling hugely ineffective and burnt out. I’m used to those feelings in August each year, but never before had I felt that way in March.
Acknowledging burn-out and its source and making space for it is the first step to recovery.  So I started talking about it with close farmer friends at first and then more publicly.  As I did, I heard echoed back to me all the same feelings of exhaustion, anxiety and physical pain.  I am definitely not alone. Nor are you. 
My guest in this episode, Amelia Ihlo, is also a friend, which made this would-be heavy conversation flow easily. It’s proof that talking to a friend can be a huge step forward when you feel burnt out.  We both share our stories of and strategies for farmer fatigue.  Amelia, the founder of Rooted Farmers, brings a uniquely powerful tactic to the table: collective selling.  She talks about how flower collectives – or co-ops or hubs or whatever you want to call them -- have the capacity to snuff out burn-out.  Maybe you’re like me and had never thought about collective selling as a defense against burn-out, but it really makes sense once you start thinking about it in that way. 
On the Rooted Farmers blog, Amelia and her team have put together a couple great post on farmer burn-out and health.  Check those out here. 
Two other resources are: 
Young Farmers Coalition 
Rural Health Information Hub
Neither I nor Amelia are mental health professionals.  Rather we are two experienced flower farmers and business women having a candid conversation.  If you need support for a well-being crisis or are worried about someone else who does, please call or text 1 800 273 8255 to connect with a trained crisis counselor. 
If this episode makes you feel seen and you want to join a deeper conversation on farmer well-being, consider joining the Regenerative Flower Farmers Network, or RFFN for short. Over the past year, RFFN has developed into a safe harbor away from social media where all questions and scenarios are welcome, connections are made between farmers and experts, and experiences are shared so all members contribute to growing the knowledge of the group.  Within that framework, we have a special space dedicated to discussing and supporting farmer well-being.  Please join us there!

In this episode, host Jennie Love is joined by Dr. Tom Dykstra, an entomologist with over 25 years of experience in academic and field research. Predominantly, he has studied insect olfaction (how insects smell) from the standpoint of bioelectromagnetics and has proven a new theory based on the fusion of biophysics and neurophysiology.  Dr. Dykstra has long been involved in the field of agriculture and pest control.  He brings a unique perspective to the table that flies in the face of conventional agriculture's penchant for liberally applying pesticides.  Turns out pesticides kill far more than the pests -- but we regenerative farmers already knew that, right?  Still, it's great to hear a lauded scientist explain why pesticides are the undoing of healthy plants.  
In this episode, we go into more detail about BRIX and how this easy measurement can be so meaningful to pest management.  Through all his years of research with myriad crops and pests, Dr. Dykstra has found a magical BRIX number where, once that threshold has been reached, pests will not be a problem anymore!  Listen in to learn what that number is!
In this episode, a few links are mention.  Here they are for easy reference: 
- Previous interview with Dr. Dykstra on the Regenerative Agriculture Podcast wtih John Kempf
- The refactometer model Jennie uses at her farm to take BRIX readings. 
- The Wikipedia article on bioelectromagnetics for those who are curious to have a brief intro to the idea. 
A SPECIAL NOTE ABOUT THE EDITING OF THIS EPISODE: 
We're so grateful to Dr. Dykstra for sharing all his nerdy knowledge.  That being said, he did get super nerdy for a bit early on in this interview.  Like super duper nerdy!  We thought we'd loose a lot of you in the weeds if we started the episode with that.  So you'll be jumping into the middle of the interview when you start listening to this episode.  Keep listening alllll the way to the end to hear a lot of detail about how Dr. Dykstra has determined insects "smell".  
Dr. Dykstra currently works as a consultant for Advancing Eco Ag if you'd like to pick his brain more.  
This show is brought to you by the Regenerative Flower Farmers Network (RFFN).  Your membership in RFFN will go to support the making of more podcasts here on No-Till Flowers. Join RFFN today to read dozens of great articles on regenerative practices as they specifically relate to flower farming.   On RFFN, you'll find a more information about regenerative practices for pest control and a nerdy community to talk more about BRIX.  
 
PLEASE RATE AND REVIEW this show wherever you are getting it.  It really helps us grow! 
Sign up for our newsletter so you'll be the first to know about special events and opportunities.  
Follow @notillflowers on Instagram for more content. 
Thanks for tuning in!  

Host Jennie Love is joined again Dave Dowling of Ball Colorlink. Dave was on Season 1 of the podcast to discuss tulips in detail.  Check out that episode if you haven't already. 
This time we're talking for an hour about ranunculus cultivation. Because, you know, that's probably what you're doing right now! We cover a lot of ground in this episode, from considerations when ordering corms to pre-sprouting, variety selection, growing in crates(!!), harvesting, storing, and considerations for profitability. 
In this show, we mention culture sheets for ranunculus that can help give some guidance for growers trying to dial in their ranunculus program.  Here are three for your review: 
https://www.unicornblooms.com/_files/ugd/73dfff_99320cb9eef54d1ba16fdd290cd9375f.pdf
http://64.41.82.172/pdfs/Ranunculus-Brochure-2017.pdf
https://www.green-works.nl/site/assets/files/10803/cult__info__ranunculus_butterfly_for_cut_green_works-1.pdf
Also mentioned in the intro of this show is our upcoming No-Till Flowers FIELD DAY!  Join Jennie at her farm in Philadelphia on April 16th for a hands-on invigorating learning experience where you'll connect with many other flower farmers passionate about regenerative growing practices.  Below is the link to purchase your ticket.  If you can't make it to this event, stay tuned for another in July.  
https://www.shoplovenfreshflowers.com/product/no-till-flowers-field-day
 
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This show is brought to you by the Regenerative Flower Farmers Network (RFFN).  Your membership in RFFN will go to support the making of more podcasts here on No-Till Flowers. Join RFFN today to read dozens of great articles on regenerative practices as they specifically relate to flower farming.   On RFFN, you'll find a more information about regeneratively growing specific flower crops like ranunculus. 
 
PLEASE RATE AND REVIEW this show wherever you are getting it.  It really helps us grow!  
Sign up for our newsletter so you'll be the first to know about special events and opportunities.  
Follow @notillflowers on Instagram for more content. 
Thanks for tuning in!  
  

Host Jennie Love sits down with Dr. Catherine Brewer of New Mexico State University.  Dr. Brewer (Catie) is a chemical and materials engineer who has devoted a good portion of her professional scientific career to studying biochar, particularly as it relates to processing agricultural waste to create a valuable farm input. 
Biochar is a "fine-grained charcoal high in organic carbon and largely resistant to decomposition...produced from pyrolysis (burning) of plant and waste feedstocks" (Source IBI Website).  It's been used for centuries as a soil amendment, particularly in the Amazon and when other indigenous peoples around the world had prescribed burns to areas they wished to farm. 
Biochar resists further decomposition for hundreds or even thousands of years, making it a superb vehicle for sequestering carbon in our soils.  It also provides excellent "housing" for soil microbial populations.  Perhaps most importantly for growers, biochar is a great tool for helping even out water cycles in farm soils.  Catie has great information about why that is exactly.  
In this conversation, we learn how biochar can be used at a farm to "close the loop" and make better soils for future generations.  This is a long game strategy, one that will be vital to the regeneration of our earth over more lifetimes than our own.  Our flower farms can do so much more than just grow flowers and biochar is an example of that. 
Mentioned in this show is the trench method for burning debris to make biochar.  Here is a video by Bare Mountain Farm about how to dig a good trench and how to manage a burn.  
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This show is brought to you by the Regenerative Flower Farmers Network (RFFN).  Your membership in RFFN will go to support the making of more podcasts here on No-Till Flowers. Join RFFN today to read dozens of great articles on regenerative practices as they specifically relate to flower farming.   On RFFN, you'll find a more information about making biochar as well as a live video Q&A session with Catie. 
PLEASE RATE AND REVIEW this show wherever you are getting it.  It really helps us grow!  
Sign up for our newsletter so you'll be the first to know about special events and opportunities.  
Follow @notillflowers on Instagram for more content. 
Thanks for tuning in!  

Joining host Jennie Love on today's show is Denise Richter from Pistil & Stamen in New Orleans.  On her small urban flower farm, Denise has had to get very clever over the years with intercropping to maximize the number of harvestable stems.  In this conversation, we dive deep into intercropping as well as urban farming, managing super wet soils, and being a farmer florist.
Intercropping is the practice of planting two or more crops at the same time or in quick succession in the same bed space so they are growing together for at least part of their life cycles. This diversifies the types of roots down in the soil and maximizes space and photosynthesis above ground. Intercropping is a key practice to regenerative farming.  It’s talked about a lot in the grazing and vegetable farming communities.  But it really hasn’t caught on much yet in flower farming.  Hopefully today's show will help change that!
Some of the intercropping pairings mentioned in this episode include: 
- sunflowers + dahlias
- stock + flowering cabbage + candy tuft
- calendula + snapdragons
- cardoons + iris
- edible peas + dormant perennials
- lisianthus + radishes 
- celosia + dormant ranunculus/anemones
Some seed sources mentioned were Baker Creek Seeds for purple-pod peas and Johnny's Selected Seeds for cover crop peas. 
Denise also mentioned Floral Genius pin cups as her favorite design mechanic. 
This show is brought to you by the Regenerative Flower Farmers Network (RFFN).  Your membership in RFFN will go to support the making of more podcasts here on No-Till Flowers. Join RFFN today to read dozens of great articles on regenerative practices as they specifically relate to flower farming.   On RFFN, you'll find more conversations about intercropping. 
Please rate and leave a review for this show wherever you are getting it.  
Sign up for our newsletter so you'll be the first to know about special events and opportunities.  
Follow @notillflowers on Instagram for more content. 
Thanks for tuning in!  

Host Jennie Love sits down with former aerospace engineer turned author, Nigel Palmer, to discuss his outstanding book The Regenerative Grower's Guide to Garden Amendments.  Nigel has done a superb job of putting the science behind homebrewed natural inputs like those touted in Korean Natural Farming and JADAM practices.  Nigel tells us how we can conduct our own citizen science to be better regenerative farmers.  
The process for testing your own liquid mineral amendments can be found here on Nigel's website.  
Nigel's upcoming workshops can be found here.  
Nigel's YouTube channel has a growing collection of informative videos on how to make your own natural regenerative inputs.  
This show is brought to you by the Regenerative Flower Farmers Network (RFFN).  Your membership in RFFN will go to support the making of more podcasts here on No-Till Flowers. Join RFFN today to read dozens of great articles on regenerative practices as they specifically relate to flower farming.   On RFFN, you'll find written recipes for making several of the natural inputs Nigel and Jennie talk about during this show as well as view a listener Q&A video with Nigel. 
Please rate and leave a review for this show wherever you are getting it.  
Sign up for our newsletter so you'll be the first to know about special events and opportunities.  
Follow @notillflowers on Instagram for more content. 
Thanks for tuning in!