Blog Posts

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:32:57 — 40.9MB)

Nicole Virgil returns to the show as she continues her fight to grow vegetables in a hoop house in her own, Elmhurst, Illinois backyard. Debbie Trueblood from the Illinois Park and Recreation Association reports on their second annual Unplug Illinois Day. Holly and Joey Baird, The Wisconsin Vegetable Gardener, have advice on mid-season veggie crops. Doug Taron, PhD of the Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum says it’s a great year for fireflies and reports on raising Baltimore Checkerspots on his porch during the pandemic.

Podcast

High Noon in the Straits of Mackinac

June 27, 2020November 2, 2020 Mike Nowak 60-Second Garden Video Challenge, Backyard Bumble Bee Count, eco-influencer, Enbridge Line 5, For Love of Water (FLOW), Garden for Wildlife, National Wildlife Federation, Oil & Water Don’t Mix, Peggy Malecki, Straits of Mackinac, Surfrider Foundation, The Mike Nowak Show, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:35:04 — 43.2MB)

Liz Kirkwood from For Love of Water (FLOW) and Mitch McNeil of Surfrider Chicago talk about shutting down the Enbridge 5 oil pipeline, which runs under the Straits of Mackinac in Michigan. Mary Phillips, Senior Director of Conservation for the National Wildlife Federation Garden for Wildlife program, and Jill Utrup from Region 3 of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in Bloomington, Minnesota talk about how to make your garden pollinator friendly.

Podcast

Tomatomania II with KC and NC!

June 13, 2020November 2, 2020 Mike Nowak Artisan Grain Collaborative, Chicago Region Food Fund, COVID-19 food chain, Craig LeHoullier, Dwarf Tomato Project, eco-influencer, Epic Tomatoes, Karen Lehman from Fresh Taste Chicago, KC Tomato, Peggy Malecki, The Mike Nowak Show, tomato breeding

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:34:32 — 42.8MB)

KC Tomato and Craig LeHoullier return to the show to participate in Tomatomania II. If they can’t answer your tomato questions, nobody can. Karen Lehman from the Chicago Region Food System Fund says they are looking to provide grants to organizations that are responding to the immediate pandemic impacts on communities in Chicago and on food producers, processors, and distributors.

Podcast

Environmental Justice Is Social Justice

June 6, 2020November 2, 2020 Mike Nowak Black Lives Matter, Community Supported Agriculture, Crawford Coal Plant, eco-influencer, environmental justice and social justice, George Floyd, Keep Eating Healthy campaign, Kim Wasserman, local food during pandemic, national protests against racism in America, Peggy Malecki, The Mike Nowak Show

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:32:31 — 41.1MB)

Part of the national conversation about the death of George Floyd involves how social justice is tied to environmental justice. We welcome Veronica Kyle from Faith in Place, scholar and activist Mila K. Marshall and Michael Howard from Eden Place Nature Center to talk about how we move forward. Then, four businesses from our Keep Eating Healthy campaign stop by to talk about what the COVID Spring season has been like.

Information from Past Shows

Mike and Lily Write a Column

June 3, 2020June 3, 2020 Mike Nowak

The following column was written a long, long time ago in a galaxy far away. I was reminded of it because my “co-author” Lily recently graduated from high school and that news was posted on her father’s Facebook page. But nine years ago, I nearly stopped her education in its tracks. I’m surprised that her father still speaks to me at all. Wait…I haven’t heard from him since…well, never mind. Somehow, some way, Lily overcame adolescence, a coronavirus pandemic and her encounter with a rogue columnist for a gardening magazine. This, ladles and genomes, is that story.

Food Scrap Composting Queen

Busting Insulation Myths with Ron Cowgill

Extreme Permaculture Primer

High Noon in the Straits of Mackinac

Insect Apocalypse on Main Street?

Tomatomania II with KC and NC!

Mike and Lily Write a Column

Upcycling Milk Waste into Milk Tees