Michelle Lesher's guest appearances

Michelle Lesher

GREEN Organic Garden Podcast

Food and Faith Podcast

Craig LeHoullier

Lisa Ziegler

Julio Freitas

Ryan Agrey

Jesse Frost

Jennifer Smith

Brooklyn Grange

MICHAEL FRANTI

Lee Camp

Jon Moore

Bill Sadler

Jennifer Brown

Jenny Jackson

Bok Choy

Chris West

OwlTail

Alice Varon

Farmer to Farmer - Introducing "Certified Naturally Grown" with Alice Varon and Larry and Michelle Lesher With Anna Woofenden and Sam Chamelin www.foodandfaithpodcast.org   Alice Varon is Executive Director of Certified Naturally Grown, a national non-profit organization offering peer-review certification for farmers and beekeepers who produce food for their local communities without the use of synthetic chemicals or GMOs. Alice is an active member of IFOAMOrganics International, working to support the development of grassroots certification programs that are built on trust, social networks, and knowledge exchange. When not working, Alice enjoys exploring the woods and riding bikes with her son.  Web addresses for show notes: Certified Naturally Grown Website: CNGfarming.org Sign up for updates from CNG: CNGfarming.org/email_preferences Register to observe a CNG inspection: cngfarming.org/observer   Contact info: Suzannah Schneider, Communications Manager and Certification Coordinator  suzannah@naturallygrown.org 845-687-2058  Larry and Michelle Lesher are the stewards of Eastward Gardens, a small scale high diversity garden located in Hardinsburg Indiana. We are serving our community from Bloomington Indiana to Louisville Kentucky by providing over 150 varieties of fresh vegetables, fruit, flowers and culinary herbs. We are Certified Naturally Grown, and garden with a strict rule of no: synthetic pesticides, herbicides, fungicides, or fertilizers. We do use natural solutions like seawater minerals, rock minerals, microbes, seaweeds, cover crops, crop rotation, and floating row cover. At Eastward Gardens we are in the business of growing living soil to provide you and your family with nutrient dense safe food.  https://eastwardgardens.com/  https://www.instagram.com/eastwardgardens/

Farmer to Farmer - Introducing "Certified Naturally Grown" with Alice Varon and Larry and Michelle Lesher With Anna Woofenden and Sam Chamelin <a href="http://www.foodandfaithpodcast.org" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">www.foodandfaithpodcast.org</a>   Alice Varon is Executive Director of Certified Naturally Grown, a national non-profit organization offering peer-review certification for farmers and beekeepers who produce food for their local communities without the use of synthetic chemicals or GMOs. Alice is an active member of IFOAMOrganics International, working to support the development of grassroots certification programs that are built on trust, social networks, and knowledge exchange. When not working, Alice enjoys exploring the woods and riding bikes with her son. Web addresses for show notes: Certified Naturally Grown Website: <a href="https://www.cngfarming.org/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">CNGfarming.org</a> Sign up for updates from CNG: <a href="http://cngfarming.org/email_preferences" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">CNGfarming.org/email_preferences</a> Register to observe a CNG inspection: <a href="http://cngfarming.org/observer" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">cngfarming.org/observer</a>   Contact info: Suzannah Schneider, Communications Manager and Certification Coordinator <a href="mailto:suzannah@naturallygrown.org">suzannah@naturallygrown.org</a> 845-687-2058 Larry and Michelle Lesher are the stewards of Eastward Gardens, a small scale high diversity garden located in Hardinsburg Indiana. We are serving our community from Bloomington Indiana to Louisville Kentucky by providing over 150 varieties of fresh vegetables, fruit, flowers and culinary herbs. We are <a href="http://www.naturallygrown.org/farms/3876" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Certified Naturally Grown</a>, and garden with a strict rule of no: synthetic pesticides, herbicides, fungicides, or fertilizers. We do use natural solutions like seawater minerals, rock minerals, microbes, seaweeds, cover crops, crop rotation, and floating row cover. At Eastward Gardens we are in the business of growing living soil to provide you and your family with nutrient dense safe food.  <a href="https://eastwardgardens.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://eastwardgardens.com/</a> <a href="https://www.instagram.com/eastwardgardens/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://www.instagram.com/eastwardgardens/</a>

Farmer to Farmer - Introducing "Certified Naturally Grown" with Alice Varon and Larry and Michelle Lesher

Full show notes coming soon! How do we connect with you? eastwardgardens on Instagram We were city kids, he was a professional skateboarder and neither of us had a background in farming. There’s just the two of us but we do it for a living. I think I found you on Floret. How big is your place? I’m going into my 3rd season growing flowers. We’re going on selling vegetables etc on 3 years. I was a nurse with the dream I could leave my job. took us a while try to make it quick We moved from Seattle to louisville so I could go to grad school that’s when Larry started interning on a farm. He’s been farming ever since then. I just joined full time in  June I quit my job. That’s when I bumped up the flower production.  I can do more with it a lot of flowers we grow on 2 acres our farm is 16 1/2 acres We crop rotate we only have, theres about 6 acres of workable we rotate it and do about 2 at a time. We sell  Vegetables fruit culinary herbs micro greens    We sell a lot of micro greens through the winter, we sell a lot of microgreens through the winter months. Culinary herbs who do you sell those to and do you want to tell listeners the diffeence between culinary and medicinal? we just specific culinary herbs people cook with  rosemary thyme  sage sorrel parsley  basil  Who do you sell to? A CSA?  20 week CSA 2 famers markets a week local health food store  small scale because there’s just the two of us have  health food store we consistently  20 week CSA program 2 farmers market May or June – Oct  radishes  turnips arugula  flower share this year for the first time flower bouquets in with vegetables  ranunculus anemones  Start April 4-6 weeks once they start more veggies I can say definitely   salad mix spinach first boxes  unique about our CSA Organic Farm dietician newsletters in each box recipes items in the box recipes are all plant based recipes nutritional value how to store the crops processing and preserving website under the CSA tab 6 years worth of newsletters there that have recipes work really hard on the newsletter cook sharing recipes good cooked simply  lentils and rice beans and rice dishes white bean dish good to add in pesto  plant based pesto doesn’t have cheese in it have to add cheese this  when you’re a farmer I don’t like to see anything go to waste Pesto is a great one you can process and freeze arugula have to blanch it boil for 30 seconds stop cooking process  arugula basil and cilantro kale brocoli parsley  all those options are really taste 5 cloves of garlic walnuts ~ healthy for your brain  pesto is a great way to do in the store with parchment paper ring and the lid store in the freezer easy  great way to use up the foods best on homemade bread so the flowers are a total labor of love for me I’ve wanted to grow flowers my whole life, never really have year before I quit my job he was hesitant at first can’t really eat a flower for one he didn’t see that we would have much of a market for them if anything it will attract bees, be pretty  happiness to the farm wanted to get bees plan to do in the future plotted out the field wasn’t the best spot drainage space come to find out the flowers are easier to grow then food  zinnias sunflowers   our first go at it we actually did really well Mennonite neighbors who do dahlias  gave us our first dahlia tubers  sunflowers zinnias cosmos  sun friendly started bringing bouquets to market give one bouquet away at market to be thankful when we started to do that, it was amazing the reaction people started crying I’ve given a lot of tomatoes, but there’s something special about these flowers he was really sold the produce is nurturing and feeding our bodies and our health nutritious flowers are feeding people’s hearts impact on him and I both 3rd flower season tripped the amount of flowers we added   1000 ranunculus 1000 amenones  we’re doing heirloom mums for fall planting extensive season out on the back end of it brings a lot of life beautiful attract a lot of people to the table found customers  with the produce come for the flowers buy the produce incorporate for us with the flowers personally  struggled with depression when I’m out there harvesting  it’s interesting  one of the things that spoke to me with flower farming as christians we’re all individually made very individual god is life giving to us I would go out  Sunday morning pick em heavy I think I’m not gonna have any flowers for Tuesday I won’t have enough harvest aggressively zinnias pick lower you harvest the stem lower you do it pick a lot more they grow sunflowers celosia is not that way zinnias cosmos  more aggressive you harvest more they grow all these new flowers the next day! That would be one of my biggest pointers pick them low there will be some branching flowers don’t pick it low cut off those buds that are branching stem for the bouquet more aggressive you are with the depth of cutting first buds bushed out a lot more  other little tip I would say old videos  this year to last year only going into my third year did in mason jars cumbersome getting to  predominately f now I need to add  where are they  45 min drive right outside Louisville KY have a CSA pickup  Jasper ID drop spots what I have discovered wrapping bouquets in paper I think they look better sticker with our logo on it we just get  what’s the paper called forget the name of it something you can buy at Lowes you can fit a lot more bouquets in a van jars are cumbersome masking paper tan paper you can pick up at lows wrap the bouquets rubberband customers like it better to farmer’s market  where are they going to put  he’s the backbone he’s been farming for 12 years when we met he was a professional skate Tell us a little about yourself. We, Larry &amp; Michelle Lesher, are going into our 13th season farming. Larry was a professional skateboarder before farming and Michelle was a student. Both of us grew up in Louisville KY as city kids…never really planted any food of our own to grow. Michelle pursued a nursing degree at University of Louisville and realized she did not want to become a medicine dispensary and decided to get her masters degree in nutrition to empower people to heal themselves and prevent disease with diet and lifestyle. She was accepted into Basty Universities Masters in Science and Nutrition program and that was when we made the move to Seattle area in 2006. Larry decided before moving there that he wanted to learn more about growing food and had already been avoiding GMOs and eating organically for years. He understood the importance of knowing what happens to your food from the beginning to the end of the growth process. And this is how it all began.  Tell me about your first gardening experience? Yeah, probably I grew up in the city we really  when I went and interned in Seattle one experience owned a body piercing shop in Reno Nevada total mess planted sunflowers at home  I saw the packet that would be neat to see what they do see them sprouting they’re actually growing always been into nature and hiking and being in the woods sort of marvelous thing totally unprepared for this experience planting these 400 foot rows planting everything! broccoli head lettuce chicories transplanting this is like I had no idea what I was doing 3 of us 2 planting by the end of the day I thought I was gonna day, Michelle’s like what happened I worked all day about to die are you gonna be able to do this I’m the chattily strong person the first week $25/day got those muscles into shape ever since then first time I went to farmer’s market this was the moment I knew there was nothing else I could do anymore lettuce literally got goosebumps ever since then this is all  hard worker  couldn’t find  that thing that was his purpose  In 2006 Larry interned on a farm in Carnation WA outside of Seattle. It was here that he realized the impact and responsibility that growing food for people really has. The concept of stewardship and the exchange of service between plants, farmers and the community.  never understood the bible eastward and eden the first gardener was god a lot of people don’t think about this adam who’s job was to tend to the garden

Full show notes coming soon! <h3>How do we connect with you?</h3> <a href="https://eastwardgardens.com" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">eastwardgardens</a> <a href="https://www.instagram.com/eastwardgardens/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">on Instagram</a> We were city kids, he was a professional skateboarder and neither of us had a background in farming. There’s just the two of us but we do it for a living. I think I found you on Floret. How big is your place? I’m going into my 3rd season growing flowers. We’re going on selling vegetables etc on 3 years. I was a nurse with the dream I could leave my job. took us a while try to make it quick We moved from Seattle to louisville so I could go to grad school that’s when Larry started interning on a farm. He’s been farming ever since then. I just joined full time in  June I quit my job. That’s when I bumped up the flower production.  I can do more with it a lot of flowers we grow on 2 acres our farm is 16 1/2 acres We crop rotate we only have, theres about 6 acres of workable we rotate it and do about 2 at a time. We sell <ul> <li>Vegetables</li> <li>fruit</li> <li>culinary herbs</li> <li>micro greens</li> </ul> We sell a lot of micro greens through the winter, we sell a lot of microgreens through the winter months. Culinary herbs who do you sell those to and do you want to tell listeners the diffeence between culinary and medicinal? we just specific culinary <h3>herbs people cook with</h3> <ul> <li>rosemary</li> <li>thyme </li> <li>sage</li> <li>sorrel</li> <li>parsley</li> <li> basil</li> </ul> Who do you sell to? A CSA? <ul> <li>20 week CSA</li> <li>2 famers markets a week</li> <li>local health food store</li> </ul> small scale because there’s just the two of us have health food store we consistently 20 week CSA program 2 farmers market May or June – Oct <ul> <li>radishes </li> <li>turnips</li> <li>arugula</li> </ul> flower share this year for the first time <h2>flower bouquets</h2> in with vegetables <ul> <li>ranunculus</li> <li>anemones</li> </ul> Start April 4-6 weeks once they start more veggies I can say definitely <ul> <li>salad mix</li> <li>spinach</li> <li>first boxes</li> </ul> unique about our CSA <h2>Organic Farm</h2> dietician newsletters in each box recipes items in the box recipes are all plant based recipes nutritional value how to store the crops processing and preserving website under the CSA tab 6 years worth of newsletters there that have recipes work really hard on the newsletter cook sharing recipes good cooked simply lentils and rice beans and rice dishes white bean dish good to add in pesto plant based pesto doesn’t have cheese in it have to add cheese this when you’re a farmer I don’t like to see anything go to waste <h2>Pesto is a great one you can process and freeze</h2> arugula have to blanch it boil for 30 seconds stop cooking process <ul> <li>arugula</li> <li>basil and cilantro</li> <li>kale</li> <li>brocoli</li> <li>parsley</li> </ul> all those options are really taste 5 cloves of garlic walnuts ~ healthy for your brain pesto is a great way to do in the store with parchment paper ring and the lid store in the freezer easy great way to use up the foods best on homemade bread so the flowers are a total labor of love for me I’ve wanted to grow flowers my whole life, never really have year before I quit my job he was hesitant at first can’t really eat a flower for one he didn’t see that we would have much of a market for them if anything it will attract bees, be pretty happiness to the farm wanted to get bees plan to do in the future plotted out the field wasn’t the best spot drainage space come to find out the flowers are easier to grow then food <ul> <li>zinnias</li> <li>sunflowers</li> </ul> our first go at it we actually did really well Mennonite neighbors who do dahlias gave us our first dahlia tubers <ul> <li>sunflowers</li> <li>zinnias</li> <li>cosmos</li> </ul> sun friendly started bringing bouquets to market give one bouquet away at market to be thankful when we started to do that, it was amazing the reaction people started crying I’ve given a lot of tomatoes, but there’s something special about these flowers he was really sold the produce is nurturing and feeding our bodies and our health nutritious flowers are feeding people’s hearts impact on him and I both <h2>3rd flower season</h2> tripped the amount of flowers we added <ul> <li>1000 ranunculus</li> <li>1000 amenones</li> </ul> we’re doing heirloom mums for fall planting extensive season out on the back end of it brings a lot of life beautiful attract a lot of people to the table found customers with the produce come for the flowers buy the produce incorporate for us with the flowers personally struggled with depression when I’m out there harvesting it’s interesting one of the things that spoke to me with flower farming as christians we’re all individually made very individual god is life giving to us I would go out Sunday morning pick em heavy I think I’m not gonna have any flowers for Tuesday I won’t have enough harvest aggressively zinnias pick lower you harvest the stem lower you do it pick a lot more they grow sunflowers celosia is not that way zinnias cosmos more aggressive you harvest more they grow all these new flowers the next day! That would be one of my biggest pointers pick them low there will be some branching flowers don’t pick it low cut off those buds that are branching stem for the bouquet more aggressive you are with the depth of cutting first buds bushed out a lot more other little tip I would say old videos this year to last year only going into my third year did in mason jars cumbersome getting to predominately f now I need to add where are they 45 min drive right outside Louisville KY <h3>have a CSA pickup </h3> Jasper ID drop spots what I have discovered <h2>wrapping bouquets in paper</h2> I think they look better sticker with our logo on it we just get what’s the paper called forget the name of it something you can buy at Lowes you can fit a lot more bouquets in a van jars are cumbersome masking paper tan paper you can pick up at lows wrap the bouquets rubberband customers like it better to farmer’s market where are they going to put he’s the backbone he’s been farming for 12 years when we met he was a professional skate Tell us a little about yourself. We, Larry &amp; Michelle Lesher, are going into our 13th season farming. Larry was a professional skateboarder before farming and Michelle was a student. Both of us grew up in Louisville KY as city kids…never really planted any food of our own to grow. Michelle pursued a nursing degree at University of Louisville and realized she did not want to become a medicine dispensary and decided to get her masters degree in nutrition to empower people to heal themselves and prevent disease with diet and lifestyle. She was accepted into Basty Universities Masters in Science and Nutrition program and that was when we made the move to Seattle area in 2006. Larry decided before moving there that he wanted to learn more about growing food and had already been avoiding GMOs and eating organically for years. He understood the importance of knowing what happens to your food from the beginning to the end of the growth process. And this is how it all began. Tell me about your first gardening experience? Yeah, probably I grew up in the city we really when I went and interned in Seattle one experience owned a body piercing shop in Reno Nevada total mess planted sunflowers at home I saw the packet that would be neat to see what they do see them sprouting they’re actually growing always been into nature and hiking and being in the woods sort of marvelous thing totally unprepared for this experience planting these 400 foot rows planting everything! broccoli head lettuce chicories transplanting this is like I had no idea what I was doing 3 of us 2 planting by the end of the day I thought I was gonna day, Michelle’s like what happened I worked all day about to die are you gonna be able to do this I’m the chattily strong person the first week $25/day got those muscles into shape ever since then first time I went to farmer’s market this was the moment I knew there was nothing else I could do anymore lettuce literally got goosebumps ever since then this is all hard worker couldn’t find that thing that was his purpose In 2006 Larry interned on a farm in Carnation WA outside of Seattle. It was here that he realized the impact and responsibility that growing food for people really has. The concept of stewardship and the exchange of service between plants, farmers and the community. never understood the bible eastward and eden the first gardener was god a lot of people don’t think about this adam who’s job was to tend to the garden

275. Flower and Vegetable CSA | Eastward Gardens | Larry and Michelle Lesher | Hardinsburg, Indiana