#64: Mary Morgaine Plantwalker of Herb Mountain Farm on care-taking a botanical sanctuary in Appalachia
Release Date: 12/01/2021
#87: Samuel Bautista Lazo and Mandalin Sattler on becoming good food for rock woman in Oaxaca, Mexico
The Ground Shots Podcast
Episode #89 of the Ground Shots Podcast was recorded in the gallery at Dixza Farm and Rugs in Teotitlan de Valle, Oaxaca Mexico, in early February. It was recorded with Samuel Bautista Lazo, past podcast guest, and Mandalin Sattler, whose music has been featured on the podcast in the past. Samuel is Benizaa (Zapotec) and lives Xiguie'a (Teotitlán del Valle), located in the Central Valley of Oaxaca, Mexico. Samuel, his family and community come from a long line of weavers and farmers who have been tending the same land for thousands of years. This region is considered one of the cradles of...
info_outline
Episode #86: Wild Tending Series/ Samuel Bautista Lazo & Damián Jiménez Martínez on Tseé Xigie radio - ecology, wild tending, land politics (Español/English)
The Ground Shots Podcast
In this episode of the podcast, we talk about: the biodiversity of agaves, some of the issues with cultivation under pressure of capitalism, and private land ownership complexity of the commons in Oaxaca under pressure of modernity agave use for textiles, wild and rare species, and benefit of planting in polycultures we speak to ideas about wild tending in Oaxaca and the issues that come up when trying to reintegrate old ways of tending land in modern times the fact that oaks are not wild tending here or eaten but used to be long ago, what could people here learn from indigenous peoples to the...
info_outline
#85: Dr. Cara Judea Alhadeff: Viscous Expectations: Justice, Vulnerability, The Ob-scene
The Ground Shots Podcast
This episode of the Ground Shots Podcast is with Dr. Cara Judea Alhadeff. We did this interview in person this past summer in Paonia, Colorado. I have been sharing studio space with her partner Wild, a woodworker. This summer I was working on some carpentry in my trailer in the yard of the shop, and we retreated here for this conversation out of the heat and the hubub of the wood studio. Cara is a Mother, Artist, Author, Professor, Action-Philosopher, Environmental-Justice Organizer with writings, photography projects, performance art work with old and new...
info_outline
We all eat the Colorado River: this watershed is a microcosm of our society with Jeff Wagner
The Ground Shots Podcast
full shownotes and maps to reference in this episode: Episode #84 of the Ground Shots Podcast is a conversation with Jeff Wagner out of Paonia, Colorado, director of Groundwork, a regional nonprofit educating about food systems in a changing world and more. Groundwork is a place-based education program working to deepen our society’s relationships with land, food, and water and to cultivate generative and regenerative ways of living and relating. Our mission is to inspire the cultural shifts needed for a sustainable future. Rising to meet the challenges posed by climate change, ecological...
info_outline
Callie Russell on tending ecosystems with goats
The Ground Shots Podcast
for full shownotes to this episode, go to Episode #83 of the Ground Shots Podcast is a conversation with Callie Russell, an interview recorded in the field on a goat walk in New Mexico this past March. You may know Callie from the Alone show, though I have never watched it. We have known each other for many years and this past Spring we camped together for a few weeks by a river, with friends and her goats. We took time to record a conversation together for the podcast. The episode starts with us at camp with Rain, an old friend, and our banter getting ready to leave for a walk. If you want...
info_outline
Jason Hone on biblical ethnobotany and ecology of the holy lands
The Ground Shots Podcast
Episode # 82 of the Ground Shots Podcast is a conversation with Jason Hone on medicinal herbs of biblical times and the historical ecological transformation of the holy lands. Jason Hone practices as a holistic provider for patients of all walks of life. He has worked in various disciplines of healthcare since 1996. His experience includes emergency and sports medicine, wilderness medicine, home health and hospice, and specialized pediatric care for children with medical frailties. Prior to becoming a nurse practitioner, Jason earned his Bachelor’s of Science in nursing (BSN) at...
info_outline
81: Ethan Bonnin on Ecological Degradation at the Borderlands
The Ground Shots Podcast
Ethan graduated from Humboldt State University with a degree in Wildlife Biology and Conservation. Currently, he works in the advocacy world for habitat protection and restoration on public lands that face various resource extraction industries. He homesteads on a piece of desertified land In southern Arizona and is attempting to reverse desertification processes to help build food/habitat. Beyond his focus in biology, over the last 12 years he has been involved with local organic agriculture systems in the places he has lived. Ethan has worked at many different organic produce farms/apiaries...
info_outline
Elizabeth Yaari on regenerating desert land at the Night Owl Food Forest in Paonia, Colorado
The Ground Shots Podcast
Together with the insects, animals, plants and elements Elizabeth Yaari is transforming a dry patch of semi arid desert into a thriving regenerative seven layered food forest. “Anything is possible”, she says “even when you have 6 1/2 inches of rain a year.” To spend time with Elizabeth is to enter a realm where depth matters and play reigns. Her descriptions of life at Night Owl food Forest will take you on a journey you were glad you took. As an enthusiastic member of the Design School for Regenerating Earth, Elizabeth learns to create earthworks and microclimates which benefit not...
info_outline
Samantha Zipporah on radical fertility & the politics of birth
The Ground Shots Podcast
Samantha Zipporah is a midwife, author & educator in service to healing & liberation. Sam’s path rises from an ancient lineage of midwives, witches, & wise women with expertise spanning the continuum of birth, sex, & death. She is devoted to breaking the spells of oppression in reproductive & sexual health by connecting people with the innate pleasure, power, & wisdom of the body. Her praxis weaves scientific & soulful inquiry that integrate modern medicine & data with ancestral practices & epistemologies. Sam's most recent publications & offerings...
info_outline
Jacquie Hill on the medicine of Ponderosa Pine and botanical research ethics
The Ground Shots Podcast
Family loving, community enthusiast Jacquie Hill is a plant person doing planty things on the Western Slope of Colorado. After practicing her blend of story-rich, folk herbal medicine for 10+ years, she took her studies to academia, earning a bachelor’s degree in botanical sciences from Bastyr University in 2019. While there she made the most of the opportunities and gleaned from teachers, mentors, and nature taking, every field class offered and immersing herself in the wonders of western Washington. With a deep love of opposing forces, Jacquie keeps one foot in the scientific as well as...
info_outlineEpisode #64 is a conversation with Mary Morgaine Plantwalker of Herb Mountain Farm in Weaverville, NC.
This episode was recorded in person in the gardens of Herb Mountain Farm August 2021.
Mary Morgaine Plantwalker is one of the main caretakers of Herb Mountain Farm alongside her partner, Hart Squire.
Located in the oldest mountains on earth, Herb Mountain Farm was established in 1970, originally as an organic vegetable and flower farm, by Hart Squire and his family, in Weaverville, North Carolina.
Herb Mountain Farm was a piece of land that had been overgrazed, logged and farmed unsustainably for over a century and needed a lot of conscious stewarding to build up the soil that had been washed away to the Mississippi Delta. Hart, with the help of many hands over the decades, brought in organic matter and plant diversity.
For decades, Hart sold vegetable and flowers from the farm to local markets, restaurants and grocers, then built an earth-bermed warehouse on the property for the organic farmers in the area, called Hart Distributing, which eventually grew into a distribution center for organic ale and wine – long before Asheville was beer city! Hart spent several years in California, opening one of the first farm to table restaurants called ‘The Seasons’ in the 1970’s.
In 2005, Mary Morgaine (aka Mary Plantwalker) came to work on Herb Mountain Farm’s garlic production crew and first met Hart. She worked there for a few years before starting her own business, Earth Dancers, where she taught an array of “Plants as Allies” classes and workshops. In 2010, Buchi Kombucha took over the warehouse and began what grew into a very successful fermented health drink business. Buchi remained on the farm until they outgrew the space in 2016.
In 2011, Hart and Mary Morgaine reconnected and fell in love. They married in 2012, and their union birthed the vision to transition the farm into a Learning Center and Botanical Sanctuary. In 2013, their daughter, Nadia, was born and has been absorbing the gardening and plant knowledge of her parents since day one and gives Hart and Mary Morgaine the inspiration to keep sailing on for the future generations.
Herb Mountain Farm’s website
Herb Mountain Farm on Instagram
United Plant Savers
Support the podcast on Patreon to contribute monthly to our grassroots self-funding of this project