Bytable Podcast - Know Better Live Best Bytable Foods

Listen as Conor Crickmore tells us about his journey from IT to farming, tips for those who want to grow their own food, and the importance of being connected with your food system.

Bio:

Conor left the city, moved to the country and started what would later become a world class farm from nothing and with no experience. He left a IT job in a cubicle to create a homestead on a river where he could catch and grow his dinner. It did not happen quickly as it was very hard those first couple of years for Conor and his wife Kate. Conor and Kate were driven by finding a connection to nature and their food and to make a better life for themselves and their two kids born on the farm. What they ultimately created was one of the most successful small scale vegetable farms in the world.

After a decade of building their farmstead, they now teach others their high production, low till farming methods. Conor found that the current landscape of tools did not work well within his style of farming and thus he became a designer and manufacturer of farm tools. Other farmers agreed, and the tool company, Neversink Farm Tools, was born.

Conor and his family now wish to share their farm with the community through dinners in their newly renovated barn and through videos of farm life they create. They hope to inspire others to either make the leap themselves to a country life or at least to eat great food in a beautiful location with family and friends.

Websites:
www.neversinkfarm.com
www.neversinktools.com

Social Media:
Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/neversinkfarm/
Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/NeversinkFarm/
Youtube - https://www.youtube.com/neversinkfarm

When you buy seeds to plant in your backyard garden, do you wonder where they came from? Brijette Peña, owner of San Diego Seed Company, joined us to share with our listeners the importance of knowing where your seeds come from. The idea is simple: If good seed that is adapted to our climate is produced locally, then we can add one more layer of support to our regional food systems!

Brijette Peña, Owner of San Diego Seed Company:
In 2010, Brijette Peña came to the stark conclusion that few companies were producing regionally adapted seeds for Southern California climates, she took an oath. An oath to produce organic, regionally adapted seeds that gardeners, farmers and market growers could depend on. This lofty goal has led to the amazing development of San Diego Seed Company.  Through her seed company, she not only produces organic heirloom varieties well adapted for the Southern California growers but she also facilitates and promotes ethical seed production aimed at providing growers the best varieties for their success.

In the end, for San Diego Seed Company it’s about supporting those that support us by growing nutritious local, food.

Website: https://www.sandiegoseedcompany.com/

In part two of our conversation with award-winning author and journalist Charles Fishman, we discuss how we can all do our part to help conserve water and inspire change in our communities and government.

Bio:
In the last four years, Charles Fishman has become one of the most forceful, challenging and inspiring public voices on water issues, speaking everywhere from MIT and UCLA, to Hershey chocolate and the US State Department.

Fishman’s book, “The Big Thirst: The secret life & turbulent future of water,” has become the best-selling water book in a generation, and is changing how people think about water, and how they confront the challenges of climate change. “The Big Thirst” does something few water books do — it restores a sense of wonder about water, along with a sense of urgency.

Fishman’s message is both blunt and optimistic. Everywhere in the world, climate change will make water problems that already exist worst. And many places that don’t think about water will suddenly have too much or too little. At the same time, the next decade will see a revolution in water akin to the revolution we’ve seen in computing, in medicine, in communication, in the last 10 years. Around the world, how people use water, how they get it, what they pay for it, and how they think about it — all will change. Because it must change.

Fishman is a former reporter for the Washington Post, and was a reporter and editor at the Orlando Sentinel and the News & Observer in Raleigh, NC. Since 1996, he has worked for the innovative business magazine Fast Company. Fishman’s work has won numerous awards, including three times receiving UCLA’s Gerald Loeb Award, the most prestigious award in business journalism.

He is the author, most recently, of “One Giant Leap: The impossible mission that flew us to the Moon” — a groundbreaking history of the race to the Moon in the 1960s that was an instant New York Times bestseller.

Fishman is the author of two other New York Times bestsellers, “The Wal-Mart Effect,” about Wal-Mart’s impact on how we live; and the #1 NYT bestseller, “A Curious Mind,” about the power of curiosity, with Hollywood producer Brian Grazer.

Fishman grew up in Miami, Florida, and graduated from Harvard. After a stint in Mexico City, he now lives in Washington, DC, with his wife, also a journalist, their two children, and their two Labradors. A two-foot wide creek runs through his backyard.

Books:
The Big Thirst: The Secret Life and Turbulent Future of Water

The Wal-Mart Effect: How the World's Most Powerful Company Really Works--and HowIt's Transforming the American Economy

One Giant Leap: The Impossible Mission That Flew Us to the Moon

When you turn on the tap or buy a bottle of water, do you ever wonder about where that water comes from and all the work and energy that is required to bring that water to you?  Are you curious to know what you can do individually to help conserve the world’s water supply and what you can do to help your community avoid a water crisis?

Listen as award-winning author and journalist Charles Fishman teaches us about our strange and complex relationship to one of the earth’s most vital resources, water.

Bio:
In the last four years, Charles Fishman has become one of the most forceful, challenging and inspiring public voices on water issues, speaking everywhere from MIT and UCLA, to Hershey chocolate and the US State Department.

Fishman’s book, “The Big Thirst: The secret life & turbulent future of water,” has become the best-selling water book in a generation, and is changing how people think about water, and how they confront the challenges of climate change. “The Big Thirst” does something few water books do — it restores a sense of wonder about water, along with a sense of urgency.

Fishman’s message is both blunt and optimistic. Everywhere in the world, climate change will make water problems that already exist worst. And many places that don’t think about water will suddenly have too much or too little. At the same time, the next decade will see a revolution in water akin to the revolution we’ve seen in computing, in medicine, in communication, in the last 10 years. Around the world, how people use water, how they get it, what they pay for it, and how they think about it — all will change. Because it must change.

Fishman is a former reporter for the Washington Post, and was a reporter and editor at the Orlando Sentinel and the News & Observer in Raleigh, NC. Since 1996, he has worked for the innovative business magazine Fast Company. Fishman’s work has won numerous awards, including three times receiving UCLA’s Gerald Loeb Award, the most prestigious award in business journalism.

He is the author, most recently, of “One Giant Leap: The impossible mission that flew us to the Moon” — a groundbreaking history of the race to the Moon in the 1960s that was an instant New York Times bestseller.

Fishman is the author of two other New York Times bestsellers, “The Wal-Mart Effect,” about Wal-Mart’s impact on how we live; and the #1 NYT bestseller, “A Curious Mind,” about the power of curiosity, with Hollywood producer Brian Grazer.

Fishman grew up in Miami, Florida, and graduated from Harvard. After a stint in Mexico City, he now lives in Washington, DC, with his wife, also a journalist, their two children, and their two Labradors. A two-foot wide creek runs through his backyard.

Books:
The Big Thirst: The Secret Life and Turbulent Future of Water

The Wal-Mart Effect: How the World's Most Powerful Company Really Works--and HowIt's Transforming the American Economy

One Giant Leap: The Impossible Mission That Flew Us to the Moon

Listen as we discuss Mushroom Mountain, which Tradd Cotter owns and operates with his wife Olga, to explore applications in various industries including food production, mycoremediation of environmental pollutants, and natural alternatives to chemical pesticides.

About Tradd:
Tradd Cotter is a microbiologist, professional mycologist, and organic gardener, who has been tissue culturing, collecting native fungi in the Southeast, and cultivating both commercially and experimentally for more than twenty-two years. In 1996 he founded Mushroom Mountain, which he owns and operates with his wife, Olga, to explore applications for mushrooms in various industries and currently maintains over 200 species of fungi for food production, mycoremediation of environmental pollutants, and natural alternatives to chemical pesticides.

In 2014 Tradd published the best-selling book Organic Mushroom Farming and Mycoremediation (2014), that is still one of the top ten releases with the publisher, Chelsea Green. Tradd has won numerous awards for his work including the prestigious Clemson University Entrepreneur of the Year Award (2013), the EPA GRO-U Fellowship Award (2011), and an expert lecturer on all topics related to fungi in agriculture and medicine.

His primary interest is in low-tech and no-tech cultivation strategies so that anyone can grow mushrooms on just about anything, anywhere in the world. Mushroom Mountain is currently expanding to 42,000 square feet of laboratory and research space near Greenville, South Carolina, to accommodate commercial production, as well as mycoremediation projects. In 2018 Mushroom Mountain started a daughter company, MYCOMATRIX, that develops novel medicinal extracts for consumers and cobranding into consumer products. Currently the Cotters have opened Blue Portal, a psilocybin research and mediated session center, that is available in Jamaica and soon Costa Rica. Tradd, Olga, and their daughter, Heidi, live in Liberty, South Carolina.

Links:
Website: https://mushroommountain.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MushroomMountainFarm/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sporeprints/

Listen as Shawna teaches us about her Anti-Inflammatory lifestyle and how she has found pain relief from severe spinal osteoarthritis through diet and an active garden lifestyle.

About Shawna:
Shawna Coronado is an author, photographer, and media host focused on antiinflammatory lifestyle, organic gardening, and whole food cooking. She has written 7 books and her photographs and personal story have been seen in many international women’s magazines and home & garden magazines. Shawna’s garden, food, and ecoadventures have been featured in many media venues including television news programming, radio broadcasting, and PBS television.

Shawna was diagnosed with severe spinal osteoarthritis in 2015 and has found pain relief through diet and an active garden lifestyle. Telling her dramatic story and experience, Shawna inspires and educates audiences to make smart anti-inflammatory diet, food, and health choices. Her goal is to help people stick with a positive lifestyle plan in order to relieve and overcome chronic inflammatory pain and conditions. Shawna dreams of inspiring more people to be active and pain-free so they can discover a healthier and more fulfilled lifestyle.

Website: https://shawnacoronado.com/