Podcast

Walk Like an Agrarian

October 3, 2020November 2, 2020 Mike Nowak Center for Agrarian Learning, eco-influencer, fall gardening, Forefront Speaker Series, Lisa Kivirist, local food, McHenry County College, Melinda Myers, Peggy Malecki, planting spring bulbs, Sheri Doyel, Soil Sisters, The Mike Nowak Show

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(October 4, 2020) In our second interview today, we’ll teach you how to walk like an agrarian. However, I must take a moment to reflect on the adventure that Peggy and I are embarking on. Last week, we live streamed our first show since leaving terrestrial radio. If you listen to the podcast, the sound is great. But if you watch the video on Facebook or YouTube, the sound doesn’t match the visuals. Oops.

Skip to a specific segment in this podcast

12:47 Garden Expert Melinda Myers
1:03:57 Sheri Doyel from McHenry County College and Lisa Kivirist of Soil Sisters
1:36:31 Meteorologist Rick DiMaio

Never fear. In the intervening week, we have upgraded our hardware, and we are giving it another go today. We think you’ll like what you see and hear. Meanwhile, Peggy and I are so very grateful to our listeners, who are continuing to follow the show and sign up for the newsletter. You can do that on the right side of this page.

So let’s get to our first guest, the wonderful Melinda Myers, who has already visited with us twice during a year that none of us will ever forget. Here’s what I wrote when she was on the show in July of this year.

She last joined us on March 29 of this year, when we were all freaking out about COVID-19. I had just spent my first 17 days locked away in my own home.

Four months later, we’re still pretty much freaking out. Except that we’ve chosen how, individually, we deal with the pandemic. Me? You pretty much cannot get me into a public place. I have spend most of the time since March in my own garden, which is a good thing. It has never–and I mean never–looked better. And now that we’re into the heat of summer, it’s good to get advice from a pro like Melinda.

Speaking of freaking out, how’s everybody doing now that it seems half of Washington is infected with COVID-19? Hey, my garden still looks good–and we’re in October!

Anyway, here’s what you need to know about Melinda.

Nationally known gardening expert, TV/radio host, author & columnist Melinda Myers has over 30 years of horticulture experience and has written over 20 gardening books, including Can’t Miss Small Space Gardening, the Midwest Gardener’s Handbook, and Jackson and Perkins’ Beautiful Roses Made Easy. She hosts the nationally-syndicated “Melinda’s Garden Moment” program which airs on over 115 TV and radio stations throughout the U.S. Melinda also hosts the internationally distributed Great Courses “How to Grow Anything” DVD series, including the latest Food Gardening for Everyone DVD set. She is a columnist and contributing editor for Birds & Blooms magazine, regular columnist for The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and writes a nationally distributed newspaper column.

I’ve already had a request from a listener to have Melinda talk about putting your garden to bed for the winter. However, Melinda says she also wants to talk about extending the season. She reports that she’s already busy protecting plants following a cold snap, as there always seems to be a warm spell for a few weeks after the first freeze.

Fall is time to compost and plant bulbs as well as prepare for the winter ahead. Of course, we’ll take your questions on Facebook and even email.

Forefront: Walk like an agrarian

I told you we’d get to teaching you how to walk like an agrarian. That’s courtesy of McHenry County College (MCC).

For the past several years, Peggy and I have journeyed out to MCC in Crystal Lake on the first Saturday of November for the annual Green Living Expo, a wonderful community event that draws hundreds of visitors. We were saddened this year to learn that due to the pandemic, this year’s event is postponed until 2021. Then we got the good news that the school will be offering a fall speaker series on local agriculture.

Peggy picks up the story from here.

Sheri Doyel was a guest on The Mike Nowak Show back in 2010 and 2011, when she served as Program Director of the Farmer Training Initiative at Angelic Organics Learning Center. Today, Sheri is the director of MCC’s brand spanking new Center for Agrarian Learning (CAL), a program at the school offering a speaker series, noncredit courses such as beekeeping, and entrepreneurial agriculture degrees and certificates. The center’s mission is to

teach, engage, and inspire our community to seek new solutions in all aspects of the food economy— bringing people together around growing and selling locally, helping you build more rewarding professional lives, and improving our stewardship of the planet…CAL is a community resource for all growers, sharing the latest growing and business practices to keep your farms sustainable, productive—and, above all, profitable.

Sheri returns to the show us today to give us a preview of their Forefront Speaker Series, which has free online events planned the second Sunday of each month between now and December.

MCC’s new Center for Agrarian Learning is bringing you innovative thinkers (and doers!) in the food and farm economy. With Forefront: Ideas in Food and Farming, we’re showcasing entrepreneurs who are solving problems with their passion and skills. Ideas abound and strategies are tried and tested as all are motivated to experiment and think outside the box. This speaker series is intended for farmers, landowners, chefs, local food enthusiasts, and anyone interested in the food economy.

The series starts next Sunday, October 11 at 1:00pm with Soil Sisters: How Women are Changing the Food System, which will be led by Lisa Kivirist. Lisa is a national advocate for women in sustainable agriculture, the author of Soil Sisters: A Toolkit for Women Farmers, and she leads the annual award-winning Soil Sisters farm tour in southern Wisconsin (due to COVID-19, this year’s August evet was postponed until 2021). She founded and coordinates the “In Her Boots” women farmer training initiative for the Midwest Organic and Sustainable Education Service (MOSES). Lisa is co-author with her husband, John Ivanko, of Homemade for Sale, a guide for launching a food business under cottage food law, and several other farm and food-related books. Lisa and her family run Inn Serendipity Farm and bed and breakfast located near Monroe, Wisconsin. Lisa last joined us in 2017, and we’re thrilled that she’ll be back today.

In May, Lisa wrote about alternative ways to build community in rural farm areas during COVID-19, when the phrase “Please come and bring a dish to pass” no longer applies.

We women in agriculture share those words of welcoming hospitality frequently, especially during the social summer months. We know first-hand the power of the potluck and that much more takes place beyond what’s on the plate. People connect, stories are shared and communities strengthen, all thanks to a layered casserole dish in a 9×13 pan if you live here in the Midwest. But the COVID-19 pandemic has put the kibosh on this summer’s typical potluck scene. While we’re all hopeful to see the potluck return in the future, for the time being we need to reinvent. Good news: creative reinvention is something we women thrive in. We have a knack for seeing new solutions and options, from ways to attract pollinators to how to occupy the kids when you have a farm job to do. Now is the moment to embrace the pivot and draw inspiration from our community of women for tangible ideas and inspiration for new ways to keep the collaborative spirit of the potluck, just creating it in new ways. Seize the spring and all her vernal energy to stretch yourself to try something new, act on a passion and together build community and renew our countryside.

Lisa brings her community building spirit to the October 11 Forefront presentation when she’ll focus on the role of women farmers in building a healthy local food economy:

What’s the key ingredient to healthy communities? Women leading food system change. Women make up one of the fastest-growing segments of new farmers today, and they come from a long and deep history and tradition of cultivating the soil. This fresh crop of women farmers is finding innovative ways to champion local agriculture and foster greater collaboration and cooperation. Collectively, they improve the health of our environment, stimulate the economy, build a greater sense of community, and nurture a more vibrant food system. What does our future hold and how can we support more women taking on leadership roles to change what’s on our plate? Come celebrate the historic roots and inspiring stories of women farmers today — and in the future.

Joining Lisa in for the CAL presentation will be women farmers Dulce Morales of Cedillo’s Fresh Produce in the Englewood neighborhood of Chicago; FL Morris, president and co-founder of South Central Wisconsin Hemp Cooperative and owner/operator of Grassroots Farm LLC in Monroe, WI; and friend of the show Beth Vercolio-Osmund, co-owner and farmer at Cedar Valley Sustainable Farm in Ottawa, IL. They will be discussing “the challenges and successes linked to their location, product mix, experience level, identity, and pathway into farming. They’ll also share details of their COVID-pivot, as relevant to their businesses.”

The CAL 2020 Forefront lecture series continues on Sunday, November 15 with Whole Grain Supply Chain and concludes Sunday, December 13 with Regenerative Agriculture: Details of a Profitable Journey. The film, Seasons of Change on Henry’s Farm (which we discussed on this show in September) will be presented in a free virtual screening and post-film conversation on November 12. Several online events and workshops are already in the works for 2021 with speakers like previous show guests Atina Diffey and Rachel Berry, and we’re looking forward to learning more about them as well.

Like most events these days, the series is virtual, so you can join from the comfort and safety of your home on Zoom. More information and links to pre-register for each of the events is on the CAL Forefront website at https://www.mchenry.edu/forefront/. Are you ready to walk like an agrarian?