A Love for All Plants and All-Purpose Sheep With Annie Hasz
FarmHouse
This week on the FarmHouse, a podcast by Lancaster Farming, we spoke with Annie Hasz of Broadwing Farm. The Berks County, Pennsylvania, farm started in vegetable production but now focuses on grass-fed lamb for meat and pelts. Hasz also co-runs Rooted Home Herbalism, an annual eight-month course that teaches growing and using herbs. “We achieved our original dream and we grew loads of produce. We sold at farmers markets and through CSA and then more and more to restaurants,” Hasz said. “But I had other interests developing in herbalism. So, as time moved on, things shifted.” Hasz...
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Merging Farm Life and City Life With Lindsay Eshelman
FarmHouse
This week on the FarmHouse, a podcast by Lancaster Farming, we spoke with Lindsay Eshelman of Plow Farms. Eshelman grew up on the Plowville, Pennsylvania, farm that specializes in Christmas trees, and while she still does work with the farm today, she spends much of her time living in New York City. “I’m kind of the leading voice in PR and marketing, and more importantly experience,” Eshelman said. “My role is to bring the experience to the farm and to create this capsule of joy and Christmas that we have.” One of the biggest ways Eshelman creates joy on the farm is its annual ....
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It's Time to Get Excited About Sheep's Milk Cheese With Julia Inslee
FarmHouse
This week on the FarmHouse, a podcast by Lancaster Farming, we’re talking to Julia Inslee, owner of Locust Hollow Farm in Coatesville, Pennsylvania. Inslee has lived on the farm since her parents purchased the property in the late 1970s. At the time, it was home to a farmhouse, a few rundown barns and several acres of untended land. Over the next few decades, Inslee’s family transformed the property. In 2010, Inslee started a dairy sheep operation and now raises East Friesians for milk and fiber. “One of the major misconceptions about sheep is that they’re all the same,” Inslee said....
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Farming Fish Sustainably and Ethically With Brittany Peachey
FarmHouse
This week on the FarmHouse, a podcast by Lancaster Farming, we’re talking to Brittany Peachey, the aquaculture operations manager at in Hudson, New York. Peachey’s interest in aquaculture was born from an aquatic biology class in college. After earning her master’s degree in aquaculture nutrition, she came to work at Hudson Valley Fisheries, a fish farm that specializes in sustainably raised steelhead trout. Peachey was recently awarded the New York State Fair Golden Hoof Award, which is given in recognition of outstanding animal care and husbandry. She acknowledges it’s...
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Celebrating Christmas Trees and Cookies in the Festive FarmHouse
FarmHouse
This week on the FarmHouse, a podcast by Lancaster Farming, we’re ushering in the holiday season with a special seasonal episode featuring an interview with Kelly Piccioni, Penn State’s Christmas tree-focused Extension educator. Piccioni comes from a family with roots in selling Christmas trees. Her great-grandfather began selling trees he bought off the Orange Car—a railway-side produce stand that opened in Reading, Pennsylvania, in the 1930s. Her grandparents continued the tradition when they bought what is now the family’s Christmas tree farm, Geissler Tree Farms. “Christmas trees...
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Building Community Through Education With Denise Bosworth
FarmHouse
This week on the FarmHouse, a podcast by Lancaster Farming, we’re speaking with Denise Bosworth of Rohrbach’s Farm. Bosworth is part of the farm’s fourth generation and runs the farm market in Columbia County, Pennsylvania. Bosworth and her husband, Dan, returned to the farm in 2013 to begin a new culinary venture, Big Dan’s BBQ. In 2015, Bosworth officially took over the farm market portion of the business and her brother, Mark Rohrbach, took over the farming operation. “I like to say my brother grows the food, Dan cooks the food and I throw the party,” Bosworth said. “We all...
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Award-Winning Sustainable Farming With Casey Wisch
FarmHouse
This week on the FarmHouse, a podcast by Lancaster Farming, we’re talking to Casey Wisch, co-owner of in Lovettsville, Virginia. Wisch’s interest in farming began in college. After graduating, she spent time in New Zealand and Australia where she first encountered permaculture and experienced being part of an agricultural community. When she returned to the U.S., she and her now husband began working toward founding Long Stone Farm. “We wanted to start this grazing operation and we wanted to produce good clean meat for our community, and we wanted to pursue a better path...
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For the Love of Farming: A 70th Anniversary Special
FarmHouse
This week on the FarmHouse, a podcast by Lancaster Farming, we’re honoring the voices of farmers as we celebrate our 70th anniversary. This special podcast episode will feature a variety of voices from farmers and ag industry members who stopped by our pop-up recording studio at this year’s . You’ll hear voices of all ages — from a recent college graduate working her first job in the ag industry to a 92-year-old retired farmer who recalls exactly how his farm community came to his aid when he lost a leg in a farm accident. You’ll even hear from Pennsylvania Ag Secretary Russell...
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Dare to Return to the Haunted FarmHouse
FarmHouse
This week on the FarmHouse, a podcast by Lancaster Farming, we’re returning to the haunted farmhouse for some seasonal fun and spine-tingling tales from the farm. In this episode, we’ll be sharing four spooky stories that take place on farms or in rural communities because, let’s face it, scary stories from the city just don’t have quite the same chilling effect as those set out in the country. For our first tale, we’ll travel to Robertson County, Tennessee, where the Bell family came to farm in the early 1800s. Unfortunately for the Bells, a spirit that would become known as the...
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Blending Herbs and Making Tea With Katelyn Melvin
FarmHouse
This week on the FarmHouse, a podcast by Lancaster Farming, we’re talking to Katelyn Melvin, owner of . Melvin grows herbs and makes her own herbal tea blends in Sinking Spring, Pennsylvania. Her journey into herb farming started by growing herbs in high school. She later worked on a few vegetable farms and decided to take on farming full time. The farm grows multiple acres of herbs including chamomile, peppermint, lemon balm, anise hyssop and more. The teas are made only with herbs grown on the farm. “All the tea blends come from my love of the fresh herbs,” Melvin said. She has three...
info_outlineThis week on the FarmHouse, a podcast by Lancaster Farming, we’re talking with Yemi Amu, the founder and director of Oko Farms, an outdoor aquaponics farm and education center in Brooklyn, New York.
Amu is originally from Nigeria and belongs to the Yoruba ethnic group. Her Yoruba roots have influenced much of her work in the U.S., from the name of her operation to the style of farming. Oko is a Yoruba word that loosely translates to farm, but in fact has a deeper tie to agriculture.
“The true meaning is a place where agriculture is the center of life and activity,” Amu said. “And that’s sort of what we’re trying to to build at Oko Farms.”
Amu was drawn to aquaponics in part because water conservation, which is a pressing issue in Nigeria, is inherently integrated into its farming methods.
“I was born and raised in Lagos, Nigeria, and water conservation was huge for us,” Amu said. “So type of aquaculture that centered as a type of agriculture, food production that centered water conservation, was a big deal for me.”
Oko Farms grows a variety of vegetables, fruits and herbs, which are sold at farmers markets. It also grows fiber-producing plants like flax, which, along with indigo and dye plants, has drawn people interested in textile and fiber arts to the farm.
The other side of the aquaponics operation is the fish. Oko Farms features a variety, including carp, catfish and tilapia. Some of the fish are used solely for farming while other are used for food, sometimes at farm-to-table meals or given away to community fridges.
Community is at the heart of Oko Farms, which strives in its mission to educate the public. The farm offers classes on wellness, culinary education, textile arts and, of course, aquaponics.
Amu and her team welcome visitors to the farm for tours and classes on how they can use aquaponics to grow food for themselves — even if it’s on their windowsills or countertops. It’s all about sustainability and addressing food justice.
“Anyone, anywhere in the world should be able to grow food for themselves if they choose to,” said Amu.