Fair Hill Farmstead Life

Philip Hartman, inventor and CEO of InstaFarm, launched the world’s first soil-based fully recyclable and compostable microgreen robotic countertop micro farm in March 2023. He’s in Colorado, where he lives and this cool little machine is manufactured.  It's designed so that fresh, nutrient dense beyond-organic food is as fresh as humanly possible, traveling from harvest to plate as fast as you can snip and serve. Going forward, ex...

Austin Frerick is the author of bestselling book “Barons – Money, Power, and the Corruption of America’s Food Industry.” He is an expert on agricultural and antitrust policy. He worked at the Open Markets Institute, the U.S. Department of Treasury, and the Congressional Research Service before becoming a Fellow at Yale University. He is a 7th generation Iowan and 1st generation college graduate, with degrees from Grinnell College a...

Let’s talk Progress, year-over-year. One of the things that I hear from people new to homesteading or new to farming and their own food production is overwhelm. I feel for them, because when we first moved into our farm, I was in the same space. Between getting my home set up and wanting to do ALL THE THINGS and just being so pumped for owning my first farm, I felt like a spinning top. And not in a good way.  Today I'm sharing my S...

This one is for Farmers AND Consumers both. Community support is critical for the survival of small local farms. CSAs are a POWERFUL option for all parties involved. And you likely have one available to you in your area. My family buys a CSA share every year, even though we grow a LOT of produce, meat, dairy and eggs each year.  So let’s have that conversation because I clearly see both sides. Full of tips and info for producers an...

Jim Gale, entrepreneur and expert permaculturist, man of faith and deep thinker is the founder of Food Forest Abundance. A positive energy dynamo, he talks about the solutions to society's most wicked problems. The solutions are really simple. Just not easy. He’s an educator, expert permaculture designer and advocate for clean, nutrient dense food. He’s also designing a sustainable off-grid living community, innovative home constru...

Joel Salatin, husband, father, world-famous regenerative farmer, speaker, 16-time author,  owner of Polyface Farm and cofounder of the Rogue Food Conference joins to discuss contemporary topics: creating a more resilient food supply chain, regulatory issues, food freedom, raw milk, and going ‘rogue’ with food. He offers specific encouragement for the youth who want to get into agriculture and has an impassioned positive message to ...

Larry Footer founded FOOP Organic Biosciences in 2016 and has been a man on a mission to bring the best possible product to the market for plant growers everywhere. It’s not even fair to call it plant food.  It’s a proprietary blend- a spectrum of beneficial bacteria from fish manure, 11 strains of mycorrhizae, micronutrients and macronutrients from fish manure, fish emulsion, seaweed, volcanic ash and more. The products are for yo...

In 2010, Jeremy Lekich founded Nashville Foodscapes and in 2014, Jeremy co-founded Compost Nashville. As of January 2021, Nashville Foodscapes became a worker-owned cooperative. Jeremy's journey as an entrepreneur has allowed him to witness the value of leveraging our current systems and capital to create new ones that are more equitable and harmonious. Today he is a community resilience enthusiast and believes in the power of a lo...

Farmer Jesse Frost of No-Till Growers talks soil life, growing top notch veggies with no-till methods and  getting started in regenerative agriculture. He shares his journey from cooking in restaurant kitchens in Louisville and New York City, through his awakening during a tour of a French vineyards to becoming a farm intern and finally being a renown market gardener, author of The Living Soil Handbook, and much more. Jesse created...

In today's episode I’m talking to a super entertaining, memorable lady - Amy Dingmann, 11-time published author, from A Farmish Kind of Life website and podcast. She’s also a Facebook blogger, a thinker and serious foodie… We hear how homesteads and little farms are a different kind of wonderful, despite the difference between our early dreams vs final reality, and how it’s OKAY to just enjoy the experience of homesteading. The big...

Joshua is willing to take the punches and get his hands dirty. He cares deeply about protecting life on earth and shares his story of an unsuccessful start to his first homestead in Montana. From what he knew then, to what he learned in the process, what he knows now and where he's going... this is a great story of failing forward and helping others be successful. Joshua and his wife Emily live in Panama, where they're thriving and...

They’re millennials from the world of tech and engineering… and they returned to Kiley’s roots of multigenerational farming. As Kiley put it, “Doors were opened”  during the Covid pandemic and they embraced the opportunity. Today they farm in a different way than prior generations as they’ve embraced rotational grazing and adopted some permaculture concepts on their farm. They’re definitely in growth mode, but they have big dreams ...

Meet Greg Peterson, the man who is doing his part to fix our broken food system... starting in everyone's own home! According to Greg, no matter where you live, if you grow it and share it with others, you're a farmer! Growing food is a basic human right and at www.urbanfarm.org Greg teaches, connects, and grows a burgeoning community of like-minded people. Greg discusses his humble beginnings in aquaculture, early awareness of our...

Millennial couple Bobby and Kerry Sykes and son Malachi dive headfirst into rotational grazing – starting regenerative farming with zero prior experience. Bobby was told he couldn’t produce a tender tasty steak on grass alone, took it as a challenge, and successfully proved the naysayers wrong. Hear about what it takes, working with a rookie butcher, learning how to de-compact soil, angering cows with tall grass, eating carnivore, ...

Meet the FarmHer in the iconic orange visor… she’s Grace, the Shepherdess at Harmony Farms. Raising Dorper Sheep near the Dallas Fort Worth area in Texas, she’s driven, humble, candid, and successful. Grace spills the sheep beans on rotational grazing, talks about the importance of great neighbors, helpful mentors, farming in the USA today, challenges in our food chain today, her thought process behind getting into sheep farming an...

Paul Bradshaw and Greenfire Farms brought the first autosexing breed chickens to America, (outlandishly popular Bielefelder and Cream Legbar), plus 70 other breeds- *doubling* the number of chicken breeds available in the USA through the years. He talks about his mission, the haters, the grueling process, and his passion for stewardship and his appreciation for his top tier staff and scientific minds working with him on his farm. H...

Sandy decided to make a dream come true when she retired. She and her husband bought a farmette and she planted her garden, heck it was her first tomato plant! And she was just getting started. 3 years in, Sandy shares the feeling of discovery and the awakening process- the first wondrous taste of a homegrown potato, learning about canning, and the personal empowerment and happiness from keeping chickens. Today she has egg customer...

Meet cattleman Patrick Bookman, breeder of Wagyu cattle in central Ohio with his family in their business Bookman Brothers Cattle Company in Stoutsville Ohio. In his third year of startup phase, Bookman produces top quality breeding stock. Patrick talks about the high tech world of AI, frozen embryos, and the lucrative value in this burgeoning segment of USA beef and the beef market overall. With peer support, he's learned from the...