Podcast – Page 2 – Regenerative Skills

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The essential skills and knowledge to become a regenerative water worker, with Zach Weiss and Nick Steiner

Follow these links to start your journey as a professional in water restoration:JOIN THE ADVANCED COURSETAKE AN IN-PERSON WORKSHOPJOIN THE COMMUNITY FOR FREE For those of you following along from the last three episodes of this season so far, I’ve been sharing the intimate details of my own journey along with my good friend Nick Steiner as we’ve gone around to visit a number of out client’s projects in the south of Portugal and both gather essential data to inform our process and actually put that process into action implementing water retention features. We’ve seen examples of farms facing droughts […]

Community building

Nature based solutions for the worst drought on record, with Aline Van Moerbeke

This interview is a first step towards two things that I am trying to do more of in this season. The first is to highlight the incredible work that is being done by so many local people in my area, partly to build closer relationships with them myself, partly to demonstrate that most of the really effective people in this space are not the big name famous people from your documentaries and social media threads, and partly to show what it could look like for some of you listeners to explore your own local scene of regenerative workers and advocates […]

Podcast

Installing water retention and fire mitigation features on the ground

Continuing on the journey we started in the last episode, Nick and I went to the next project where we got to install the types of water retention features that we had designed for the previous clients. Together we talk about the joys and the challenges of site where we were creating these earthworks. Over the previous summer the whole landscape had burned in a wildfire and the clients there are especially motivated to mitigate the risks moving into the future. We also got to work with a team with a variety of experiences and talents which contributed to the creativity […]

Earthworks

Reading the landscape and gathering essential data for a water restoration design

Welcome to the first episode of season 8 of the Regenerative Skills podcast. We’re starting in a big way with a special episode in which me and my good friend and collaborator Nick Steiner will be taking you along with us on a client visit in the south of Portugal in the very first steps of a water retention landscape project. We’ll be giving you a behind the scenes look at what we do on these jobs, the landscape indicators that we’re observing to inform our concept plans, and all of the essential data we collect while out in the field […]

Community building

Regenerative farming on the edge of the desert, with Yanniek Schoonhoven

There are a few farms and organizations here in Spain that have been gaining international attention for their work and initiatives in the past few years. Partly through reaching out directly and partly through the Climate Farmers network I’ve been connecting with them to bring their inspiring stories and innovative knowledge to the farmers community that I help to manage. One of the most established and accomplished of these farms is La Junquera, an 1100 hectare farm in one of the most environmentally challenging regions of Spain in the south eastern province of Murcia in the altiplano region.Now some of […]

Farming

Making soil health approachable and practical, with Ian Robertson

By now I’m sure many of you have heard the few episodes on soil health that I’ve recorded with people like Harriet Mela, Matt Powers, James White, and others. I know that the subject of soil has become really popular with growers and it’s always talked about as being central to the success of regenerative agriculture and broader environmental health, and I don’t disagree. Yet I’m often worried that the discourse around soil science is reminiscent of other scientific studies in which there’s a never ending search for more granular details. Breaking components of the whole overview down into chemistry, […]

perennial plants

Adapting syntropic agroforestry to temperate climates, with Renke De Vries

Syntropic Agroforestry has exploded in popularity and interest in the last few years. I’ve explored this agroforestry design and management system a little in some previous episodes with my friend Jacob Evans, but there’s so much more to explore. First pioneered by renowned farmer Ernst Gostch in Brazil, his integrated approach of dense planting and timed pruning and intervention to accelerate natural succession and replace outside inputs for both ecosystem regeneration and nutrient dense food production has sparked an interest in many people to adapt the concepts to their own climates and contexts. From what I’ve heard however, adapting syntropic […]

Gardening

Growing fresh produce through the coldest winters, with Catherine Sylvestre

I’ve been so happy to see how popular the concept of growing one’s own food has become in recent years. Especially since the pandemic, a lot of us have connected deeply with the need to build food resilience by cultivating our own gardens, and quite a few have even gone further and started to grow at a market scale. It’s a beautiful thing to be able to eat fresh healthy produce from your own land, but I’ve often wondered as well, how we can cross the long dark and cold period of winter, when fresh local veggies are tough to […]

market gardening

Making micro farms work through lean planning, with Ben Hartman

I’ve been observing an interesting trend in the regen ag space. The concept and awareness of regen ag has been growing exponentially with many people exploring ways to start their own farms and to participate in and support those who are already involved. At the same time the current economic situation and the complexity of regulations, paired with skill worker shortages, and other challenges are leading people to burn out or quit altogether. It’s no joke how complex and difficult it can be to run a lean and profitable farm in modern times. Luckily there are some successful and experienced […]

Interviews

Low tech solutions for erosion and water management, with Neil Bertrando and Jeff Adams

We live in a time when everyone seems to be looking for high tech solutions for every problem. Maybe it’s due to all of the new tech that has come out in recent decades with lofty promises of new frontiers, or the fact that so many of us are removed from regular interaction with the natural world, but I genuinely believe that technology is more over-applied and responsible for more problems than it usually solves.For that reason I always like to see when professionals advocate for low tech solutions and a return to basics and analog methods, especially when working […]