Living With The Land

For over 20 years, Meadow Shere has been the proprietor of Long Valley Feed and Supply and a highly respected member of the farming community in Mendocino County.  Along with the essential goods that the store carries, it has long served as a gathering place where folks come to discuss all aspects of caring for livestock and crops.  Recently the store has added a farmstand that has been a boon to the Laytonville community by provid...

Mean Gene is a Mendocino county local who has been living closely with the cannabis plant his whole life.  He has a deep and distinctive understanding of all aspects of cannabis that the O'Neill brothers, along with many other folks, hold in high esteem. This episode is from a fun, fascinating conversation between Gene, Lito, and Casey as the three of them sat at Lito's kitchen table and talked about cannabis, soil, farmi...

Marguerite Maguire is a beloved elder of the mountain community of Bell Springs California.  Lito and Casey O'Neill have known Marguerite their whole lives, grew up around her children, and have a deep respect for the many ways she's shaped and strengthened the community.  This episode is based on a wonderful conversation when Lito, Casey, and Marguerite sat down at Lito's kitchen table to talk about the early days o...

In May 1982, Mark O'Neill and his wife Anne moved from Southern California to the hills of Northern California to build a life that was self-sustaining and more closely connected to the natural world.  The moved into a tiny cabin without heat on raw land.  Now, 40 years later, that land is a thriving family farm that provides livelihood and sustenance for multiple generations of O'Neills and provides healthy food for thei...

Green Uprising is a multi-generational, extended family farm in Willits California that has been working more than a decade to rebuild and develop a beautiful old farm, with apple, pear, plum, and walnut orchards, a couple of small vineyards, lots of wild blackberries, a small goat herd, several vegetable gardens, hoophouses, the beginnings of a food forest and a medicinal herb garden.  In this episode, the O'Neill brothers si...

Erin Kelly is a professor in the department of Forestry & Wildland Resources at Cal Poly Humboldt. 

Her research interests center around the ways that humans interact with forest and she is actively engaged with restoration work in Northern California. 

The O'Neill brothers have a fun and lively discussion with Erin about the timber wars, the cannabis green rush, restoration economies and the role of nonp...

Joey Burger  is a Permaculture Educator and a Regenerative Cannabis Consultant.  He was born and raised in a Healing Arts Intentional Community deep in the hills of Northern California that grew its own food and medicine.  Joey was gardening from a very young age, and as an adult became a community organizer and an educator who brought the cannabis community together for events to share information and genetics.   The O'Neill ...

Adina Merenlender  is the author of author of Climate Stewardship: Taking Collective Action to Protect California. She is a well respected conservation biologist with decades of research experience and a deep understanding of Californian ecosystems.  In this episode, Lito and Casey talk with Adina about the book and go into some specifics about water deficit, community clean energy, and the advantages of using homemade natural inpu...

Taylor and Daniel Stein are homesteaders whose family farm in Northern California produces organic vegetables and cannabis.  The Stein family and the O'Neill family are guided by similar principles and philosophies when it comes to farming and living in connection to the natural world. These overlapping values formed the basis of their close friendship, the warmth of which comes through when listening to their conversation in ...

Tony Alvarez is a professional forager and plant medicine guide in Northern California.  Through his forays, Shroomy Walkabouts, he has introduced hundreds of people to the joy of foraging for wild food and medicine.  He also works with individuals, families, and other groups to access the healing and growth potential of sacred plant medicines.  In this episode Tony,  Lito, and Casey share some of their personal foraging experience...

Folks who know and love Marbry Sipila often refer to her as an Elemental - that's a biodynamic term that means a spiritual being who has a deep communion with the flow of the seasons and the natural world in general.  Marbry has been an active and engaged member of the homesteading communities of Northern California since moving to Mendocino county from Santa Cruz in the 1970s.  In the over 4 decades she and her husband J...