Amelia Kellner's guest appearances

Amelia Kellner

GREEN Organic Garden Podcast

Ellen Polishuk

Mike Lewis

Elizabeth Leonard

Jennifer Smith

David Salman

Infrastructure Banks

Shandy Carroll

Dushan Batrovic

Alethea Vasilas

Jill Blog

Pheobe Lyttle

Susan Harris

Nick Schneider

Lem Tingly

Pamela Lund

OwlTail

Author ofUgly FarmTell us a little about yourself.I am IDK if I am a rockstar but I am tryingNE CT, the poor part of CT, we’re not in HartfordThere’s a lot of farms in general in this part of CTit’s not where I started farmingmy husband and I bought a little piece of propertyit’s sort of an Urban farmwe have neighbors we can see1.2 acresOh, it’s um.My husband and I were Goth kids in schoolI’m really into growing black vegetableslove the black carrotsalways buy those seedswith the black tomatoesIf you forget to trim your tomato bush for a couple of weeks the busy parts are hiding inside are going to have big green splotches on themeither assumethe tomatoes are only going to be blackturn your tomatoes toward the sunby the time that happensbugsslice themthey are blackfrom the toptaste greatmake salsa out ofnot as impressive if the wholeBaker Creek Black Beauty Tomatoesalmost every tomato I have ever hadstill tastes in one shape or formsweeter or nicertomato tastes like at tomatoblack like your soulblack jalapenosI thought they would be super spicypicking them and eating them off the bushthe black nebula carrotsblack all The wayblanch them for a two minutespurple dyeYou are just dropping golden seedsTell me about your first gardening experience?my grandmother on my mother’s sidekind of a homesteadunder an acrebeing a little kidblueberriesfruit treesthey were getting older19101915-16something like thatwhen I was littlemother was used to gardening a vegetablelittle kidmostly you go eat green beans when you are seven years oldcrazy flower plant lady8 gardens at the houseplants on itwith he crazy plant ladydidn’t always like itused to itcan’t remember my first gardening experiencechildhood was surrounded by plants and gardenslife and enjoying thingsI was in Vo-AgWe have poultryhere?we have 2 goats2 big geeselargest possible that’s funnythey imprinted on herthat’s pretty cool2 little boy goatspart of our 1.2 acres1/4 acre is wooded areajust total junkneglected the heck out of itliteral trashtiresout of there every yearpuling things up2 little weathersable to go back there and eat a lot of stufflike having 2 dogsjust lost 2 hens @blacksunfunCTsomewhere else Yeah! I understand the fence dilemmawe ended up having to replace our whole flock last yearslimour rooster was an Egyptian flumethey're flightyhe drastic measureswe got rid of everybody except our favorite couple of hensheavy bird that wasn’t going to fly uptrying to raise partridge super cuteone rooster and one hendoing a big chick order in a couple of weeksI forgot the train of thoughtdon’t get skinnyanother lesson we learned the hard wayany gardenyou buildfence inespecially if you have birdswe battled 3 different families of groundhogsunder the fence into the gardenburry your fencetall fencebirds outrunner ducks won’t eat your produce they will eat the bugsa lot of people chickensthey will also eat half of your vegetablesbushnew geesethey are terriblecompost pileworks out they can eat whatever they wantit’s a good symbiotic relationshipwarm and cookingbugs are going crazyfree bring me save all their leftover scraps and what notbirds get a nice treathelps keep food costs downvegetables geese eattomatoes carrotsapple coresI keep them outpet gooseget your but out of hereyou knowHow did you learn how to garden organically?NO! I learned nothing organically from the family2014my ex husband and I got divorcedthis is the sad storywe were getting divorcedI had never heard of a farm apprenticeshipdiscovered that it was a thingwork on that farmthey give you a place to live for the growing seasonI found a farm that I could move tothey were paying a pretty meager wagehousing foodvegetableseggspretty good dealstay at home mom for 4-5 yearsgoing to live on the farmI only got to see my kids 1-2 daysSunday4 and 1 1/2it’s the hardest thing I had to do in my lifeif anyone can avoidI knew that my ex couldn’t afford to put me in an apartmentI’m gonna get out of the ousegrowing seasonapril - octdo the wholehe had a good jobpaid a baby sitter June he lost his jobhe and I had bought a house togetherno money to pay the mortgageI learned a lot!60 hours a weekI learned a lotloved learningI was the only apprenticethere was a couple of people that worked full time/part timeknew what was going oncustomer saidwhen’ties - Sundayoriginallyfirst got Sundays and Mondays offpoint where I got market in woodbury ct.bosses wifedidn’t want to go any moreoffered to split the profitsif I went to the marketfind a place to live with my kidseven less time to see my kidsmanagedmake some extra moneyit worked out in the endimportant learning experiencebecause of that being an apprenticewhen you specialize in working seasonal positionsdesirable as a winter a it was above their garagecontractor friendssinkhis old refrigeratorcomposting toiletI had to take care ofshower behind the barnmost of the timeyou only had the end of a day to do anythingI was seeing him at the timeanother farm in CThe worked way worse then $200/weekgood deal therehis farm livingliterally a shackrun electricity totoilets out way in the backin a shack by the chicken and pig pens$10012-15 hours a daySundays couple of hours off8 hour a day on SundaysexhaustedI had it better then he didfarming is not easythis was 6 years ago nowI have been still doing ityou get in good shapewhen you are busting your buttdifferent organic farm in MASSworking 

309. Black Sun Farm CT | Rockstar Millennial + Listener Amelia Kellner