In this episode of ATTRA’s Voices from the Field Podcast, NCAT Senior Manager Tammy Howard visits with Elliot Smith, co-founder of Kitchen Sync Strategies (KSS). KSS started in 2019 to help connect more people to nourishing, impactful food and connect more big buyers with local producers. KSS has been an important partner in NCAT’s Bringing the Farm to School through New Connections project, which Tammy manages. Elliot shares how KSS supports the farm to school and institution supply chain, the role of brokers in the producer/buyer business relationship, and some exciting success stories around the development of food hub networks.

This podcast is produced by the National Center for Appropriate Technology through the ATTRA Sustainable Agriculture program under a cooperative agreement with USDA Rural Development.

In this episode of ATTRA's Voices from the Field, NCAT Sustainable Agriculture Specialist Rex Dufour leads a lively discussion with Helen Atthowe, a long-time organic farmer who has farmed in Montana, California, and Oregon. Helen and her late husband, Carl Rosato, co-owned and operated a certified organic orchard in California where they pioneered methods for raising tree fruits without the use of pesticides. In this conversation, Helen shares her life-long passion for on-farm research, which includes ecological weed and insect management and managing living mulches for improving and maintaining healthy soil. Helen is the author of "The Ecological Farm: A Minimalist No-Till, No-Spray, Selective-Weeding, Grow-Your-Own-Fertilizer System for Organic Agriculture," available through Chelsea Green Publishing.

Resources:

The Ecological Farm

This podcast is produced by the National Center for Appropriate Technology through the ATTRA Sustainable Agriculture program under a cooperative agreement with USDA Rural Development.

In this episode of ATTRA’s Voice from the Field, NCAT Sustainable Agriculture Specialist Darron Gaus interviews Dr. Dirk Philipp, an associate professor at the University of Arkansas. Dirk’s expertise in agronomy and tropical agriculture shapes his understanding of why restoring native prairies matters to agricultural producers.

Darron and Dirk discuss how producers can seed prairie grasses for successful restoration as well as discuss common issues producers can expect such as weed pressure, seedbed preparation, and weather.

Dirk offers practical advice on what separates successful restorations from unsuccessful ones and what producers should consider before they plant their first acre of native grass species.

Learn More: https://www.ncat.org/?post_type=podcast&p=17371&preview=true